Siegelman Prosecution Has Ties to 9/11 and Ugly Activities at an Alabama Air Force Base

Mohamed Atta

The prosecution of former Alabama governor Don Siegelman was driven in part by a desire to cover up activity related to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, according to a new report from a Washington, D.C.-based investigative journalist.

Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery was a hotbed of 9/11 activity, according to the Wayne Madsen Report (WMR), and forces close to the Bush family were concerned that a Democratic governor might get wind of the misconduct and expose it.

Mohamed Atta, who is believed to have flown American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, was among the Saudi, Egyptian, and Iranian pilots trained at Maxwell. Part of Atta's training came under the auspices of Doss Aviation, a Colorado company that was owned in part by an Alabama lawyer and entrepreneur named Mark Fuller. President George W. Bush appointed Fuller to the federal bench in 2002, and the judge went on to oversee the trial of Siegelman and codefendant Richard Scrushy.

The Bush family has long-standing ties to Montgomery. George W. Bush transferred in 1972 from the Texas National Guard to serve as political director for the U.S. Senate campaign of Montgomery businessman Winton "Red" Blount. According to WMR, Bush allies understood the Alabama political landscape and knew that a Democratic governor might pose a problem:

In 2002, Air Force Lt. Col Steve Butler, vice chancellor for student affairs at the Defense Language Institute (DLI) in Monterey, California, stated in a letter to the Monterey County Herald that "Bush knew about the impending attacks." Butler was disciplined by the Air Force for his remarks. However, the Air Force appears to have had a good reason to silence anyone who was in a position to shine the light on Air Force culpability in 9/11 and Siegelman, a former Alabama Attorney General and later governor during the 9/11 attack was worrisome to the 9/11 plotters.

A source tells Legal Schnauzer that the Alabama flight training came at the direction of Bandar bin Sultan, who was Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States from 1983 to 2005. He is so close to the Bush family that he goes by the nickname "Bandar Bush."

Bowen Ballard

Our source says Maj. Gen. A. Bowen Ballard, who was assistant to the commander of the Air University at Maxwell, assisted in the training of Saudi pilots. As a civilian, Ballard has worked in real estate and banking, and his ties to the Bush family reportedly date to at least 1972.

How deeply was the U.S. Air Force involved in the prosecution of Don Siegelman and codefendant Richard Scrushy? WMR provides details:

The Justice Department case against Siegelman and Scrushy was not staged out of the Federal building in Montgomery but in a 40,000 square foot building at Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base outside of Montgomery. The use of a military base to carry out a civil prosecution, especially against a former governor, was highly unusual and virtually unprecedented and represented an ominous incursion of the military into civilian law enforcement and the justice system. However, when Fuller's links to Doss and that firm's training of at least one of the accused 9/11 hijackers is considered, the use of Maxwell, Atta's one-time duty station, was not unusual and represented an attempt by Fuller and top Justice Department officials to cover-up the Pentagon's role in 9/11.

Fuller is embroiled in an ongoing divorce case that includes allegations of adultery, driving under the influence, domestic abuse, and addiction to prescription painkillers. That case, WMR reports, has caused problems both for the judge and perhaps others connected to 9/11's Alabama roots:

It was only after Fuller's wife, Lisa Boyd Fuller, became aware of an ongoing affair between Fuller and one of his deputy clerks, Kelli Gregg, that the judge's links to Doss became a problem. Some five months before Mrs. Fuller filed divorce papers against Fuller on May 10, 2012, Doss Aviation was sold to J.F. Lehman & Company, which is owned by former Navy Secretary and 9/11 Commission member John Lehman. The law firm that worked out the details of the sale was Jones Day, a firm with close ties to the Republican Party and the Central Intelligence Agency. By divesting himself of Doss's assets, Fuller could escape his wife's claims on Doss profits as shared marriage assets. The sale of Doss to Lehman would also protect the U.S. government's foreknowledge of the events of 9/11.