Firm of federal judge in former Alabama governor's case trained lead 9/11 hijacker

Wayne Madsen Report
August 3, 2012 (update)
Republished with permission.

U.S. Judge for the the Middle District of Alabama Mark Fuller, scheduled to re-sentence former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman on August 3 in Montgomery, was the previous owner of a firm that trained accused 9/11 lead hijacker Mohammed Atta. The information on Fuller's links to the 9/11 attack were uncovered by a former Republican Party campaign aid in Alabama who spoke to WMR on background.

WMR previously reported on Fuller's financial dealings with Doss Aviation, which, among other government business, had the contract to re-fuel Air Force One. Having had trained Atta, as well as Saudi, Iranian, and other Egyptian pilots to fly aircraft, the Colorado Springs, Colorado-based Doss Aviation was in a position to help carry out threats against Air Force One that were received by the presidential airplane's pilot on 9/11, specifically "Angel is next." Angel was the classified code word used at the time to denote Air Force One.

Ironically, as we reported earlier: "It is also noteworthy that the Doss Aviation active contract web page has a photo of the World Trade Center shaded in the colors of the U.S. flag. Fuller's firm has seen a growth in contracts and profits since the 9/11 attacks and U.S. military action in Iraq and Afghanistan."

On July 25, 2007, WMR reported: "Information culled from Internet web archives of previous Doss Aviation web pages indicate that the firm was involved in training Saudi and Iranian pilots. Both Newsweek and Knight Ridder reported that three to five of the 9/11 hijackers had attended military training courses in the United States. They included Mohamed Atta who attended the International Officers' School at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama." WMR can now report that one of the pilots Doss trained was Atta. The Egyptian-born pilot and accused Al Qaeda terrorist cell leader was often seen at the officer's club at Maxwell Air Force Base, where he was known as "Lieutenant Colonel" or merely "Colonel" Mohammed Atta of the Egyptian Air Force.

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.

Saeed Alghamdi, one of the Saudi 9/11 hijackers, had reportedly attended classes at DLI.

On July 27, 2007, WMR reported, "Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Feaga, the lead prosecutor in the [Siegelman/(former HealthSouth CEO Richard) Scrushy] case, is a colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and is an assistant to Staff Judge Advocate Brig. Gen. Richard C. Harding at Langley Air Force Base, the principal legal adviser to the Air Combat Staff. Feaga and his boss Harding have jurisdiction over all legal matters at Langley, including contracts awarded to Doss Aviation.

Federal Judge Mark Fuller, who tried and convicted Siegelman and Scrushy, is a current principal of Doss Aviation, a major conflict of interest for a sitting federal judge."

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.

Supreme Court Associate Justice Elena Kagan, while Solicitor General under Attorney General Eric Holder, did nothing to vacate or alleviate the politically-motivated charges against Siegelman. In Holder and President Obama kept in place as U.S. Attorney in Montgomery Leura Canary, the wife of Alabama GOP grand mufti Bill Canary, a friend of Karl Rove.

It was only after Fuller's wife, Lisa Boyd Fuller, became aware of an on-going 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. Te sale of Doss to Lehman would also protect the U.S. government's foreknowledge of the events of 9/11.

Siegelman and his lawyers will argue for leniency before Fuller in Montgomery. It is a mark of our corrupt judicial system that it is Siegelman who is on trial and Fuller who is the presiding judge. In a more perfect world and in a more perfect union, it would be Judge Siegelman deciding the fate of Mr. Fuller, a corrupt former Republican Party operative and aider and abettor of terrorism.

UPDATE 1X. On August 3, Judge Mark Fuller sentenced Siegelman to 78 months in prison, showing no mercy after pleas for leniency from the widow of a famous African-American civil rights leader and dozens of state Attorneys General, Democrat and Republican. Fuller, perhaps showing that he is more of a sociopath than many of his critics would contemplate, ordered Siegelman to report to federal prison on September 11, 2012. Considering Fuller's former firm trained one of the alleged 9/11 "suicide" pilots, the symbolism stands starkly in a nation where the "rule of law" is an utter joke.