http://www.madcowprod.com/
by Daniel Hopsicker
January
14--Tampa Florida
Tampas kamikaze kid pilot was (pick one): a. A Bin Laden
sympathizer b. An American Patriot. c. A British Citizen.
Answer: All of the above. Puzzled? So is everyone else...
In an exclusive investigation the MadCowMorningNews has discovered
startling and critical discrepancies in key elements in the official
account of the life and death of Charles Bishop, the kamikaze
pilot who
a week ago flew a Cessna into a Tampa skyscraper.
Taken together, these discrepancies seem designed to deflect public
attention away from
the boy's father, a man named Charles J Bisharra.
Charles Bishops wild last ride is the only authenticated episode
of terror associated with a sympathizer of Osama Bin Laden since
the September 11 attack.
So Bishop's case is important. But a week later the word used most often
to describe it in the press is "puzzling."
Why did young Bishop target the Bank of America skyscraper after telling
friends that he abhorred the World Trade Center attacks and wanted
to go
to Afghanistan and "get the SOBs''?
"Pushing the envelope in juvenile delinquency"
Osama Bin Laden had urged his followers to hit banks. Is that why Charles
Bishop went out and hit one? Is he really just a troubled kid? Doesnt
flying a plane into a skyscraper somewhat stretch the definition of adolescent
"acting out?"
Why would an honor student bellowing out patriotic songs near the top
of his lungs and telling teachers he aspires to join the Air Force
leave a suicide note praising Americas Public Enemy No.1, Osama bin
Laden?
Why would he tell his family that he didn't want his ``enemies''
coming to his funeral, a request similar to one made in the last will
and testament of suicide pilot Mohamed Atta?
Last Saturday, Charles Bishop crashed a plane into a building,
leaving behind a suicide note professing admiration
for Osama bin Laden.
Yet by Monday police were saying he
wasnt a terrorist...
On Tuesday, reporters began speculatingin a truly Orwellian
double-speak touch, since anyone flying a plane into a building is the
very picture of sincerityon the sincerity of
his note.
By Friday, he was being remembered in news stories as, of all things,
an American patriot.
At his Saturday funeral, the reputation of this
"polite, brilliant, compassionate kid" had been so redeemed
(or twisted) that someone placed a stripe off one of his father's
Air Force shirts in his casket.
Finally, on Sunday, Charles Bishop's metamorphosis was complete. Now
the terrorist act he carried out was no longer even a specific case
anymore, and Bishop was reduced to an icon, the poster child, one
editorialist imagined, for "what might go down in history as "the
terrorism generation."
Perhaps this week hell be nominated for a Nobel Prize.
With every important question in the case still-unanswered, the
official version of events borders on satire; it is so ridiculous
that it reads like a bad
spy novel by E. Howard Hunt.
The official explanation for why Charles Bishop killed himself in
such spectacular fashion is "suicide by zit."
His actions
werent political.
They were hormonal.
"This particular kid fits an interesting profile that I think
the Secret Service and the FBI have been investigating for some time
now," said one expert trotted out for a quote in a typical
wire story. "Kids who have grown up with an inadequate sense of
empathy," said Michael Peck, a Santa Monica psychologist who has
specialized in suicides of youths.
"But he's only half-Sicilian."
Might there be a better explanation than this? Might this suppressed
explanation offer glimpses of
the real identities of some of the people and organizations
responsible
for murdering 4000 innocent civilians on September 11?
The first hint of trouble came from Katie Hughes, a Tampa police
spokeswoman. She said Bishop's father, who they have been unable to
contact since his sons suicide, is of Syrian and Sicilian descent.
"Another mystery to be unraveled," read the Miami Herald.
"Where is the boy's father?"
The mystery deepened... Reporters could not find the father of
the dead kamikaze kid, but they tracked down his grandfather.
Strangely,
he didn't seem to know much about Bishara either..Never mind that he's
his son. Robert Bishara said, apologetically, "I don't want to say
anything that might be wrong."
Arent Mobsters noted for omerta--not talking to outsiders? Or is
this instead just another example of the breakdown of the nuclear
family?
"Heroin, sure. But nobody said 'trafficking.' Yet."
Press accounts referred to Bishara as a "small time crook"
from Winchester, Massachusetts. They said that he began a string
of mostly petty, occasionally alcohol-fueled crimes that made him familiar
to the police in both
Malden, and nearby Everett, where he lived.
He was cited for running a stop sign and driving without a license in
1985. Two years later, he was convicted of breaking into a restaurant
two blocks from his father's house. The same year, he was convicted of
possession of burglary tools and larceny.
He is currently wanted by authorities on heroin charges.
Bishara's list of encounters with the law must be a long one... We
discovered this particularly colorful opportunity for Charles to
get to
know local law enforcement from 1987, that we haven't seen mentioned
anywhere...
Turns out, Charles gets stabbed a lot.
First in an unsuccessful and by now famous suicide pact with the
woman who is today the grief-stricken Mother, Janis Bishop. A
sensitive
soul she may be today, but sixteen years ago she plunged a 13-inch
knife
into poor Charles' liver.
"Just don't point the knife at my liver, okay?"
Just two years later Charles Bishara gets stabbed again.
Though current press reports haven't mentioned it, he was stabbed in the
leg, arm, back and
shoulder (thank god they missed his probably still-tender liver).
His attacker was simultaneously shouting at his girlfriend, "Do you want to
see me stab someone?"
Sounds like something right out of Raging Bull. How many other "incidents"
like this might there be?
The reason this may be important is that there may be a little problem with
the widely-disseminated police and FBI portrayal of Bishara as a small time
crook running into minor spats with
the law. If the authorities aren't lying to us--and when have we
ever known them to do that?--then being a small-time crook must
be paying
really well in Boston these days.
Charlie's own little place in the sun
Wanted in Massachusetts on heroin charges, Charles Bishara, the
MadCowMorningNews has learned, owns a penthouse
condominium at the new Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort in Naples Florida,
located just
a hundred miles down 1-75 from the family he is reputed to have had no
contact with for 15 years.
Penthouse condominiums sell for about a million dollars each, said
Ritz Carlton sales representative Jeff DeAngelis. He vaguely
remembered
Charles Bishara purchasing a little over a year ago.
Bishara's million dollar get-away is behind the gates of the "Bolero"
neighborhood, which is not as cheesy as it sounds because it sits
on a Greg Norman-designed
golf course.
It looks to be the very lap of luxury. Perhaps more trained observers
in the FBI see something else.
Is half-Syrian and half-Sicilian Charles J Bishara just a small time
crook? Or is he in reality
some kind of Mob Boss? Take a look at his house: What do you think?
Could young Charles Bishop's violent act of terrorism have been an
attempt to impress his absent Mobster Dad with his big cojones?
An even bigger question: why did Charles Bishop praise Osama? No one
knows. Maybe he saw something. Or heard something. In
America's current war, what might this help explain about the
postures of the Sicilian Mafia and the Arab Christian clans of Lebanon from
which Charles Bishara sprang--along with another Bishara, Sirhan Bishara
Sirhan?
No information at press time on any relationship. But Sirhan worked at
race tracks. Is the Mob big on the ponies?
"Only connect."
Could the secretiveness surrounding the entire
Bishop/Bishara family be because Bishara is somehow implicated in the
currently-controversial scandal involving Bishara's fellow Boston
Mobster, Whitey Bulger?
Bulger, it appears, was "whacking" his rivals as well
as various and sundry other citizens of Boston with something like
impunity because of his "relationship" with the Boston FBI.
The case is made even more explosive by the startling action of President Bush
last month. Bush invoked executive privilege. Bush
blocked a congressional subpoena exploring abuses in the Boston FBI
office after a Congressional committee began to investigate.
Reporters in Boston charge cover
up!
Bush's party-mate Dan Burton was so incensed that he lambasted his fellow
Republican in the Oval
Office.
"You tell the president there's going to be war between the
president and this committee," he told a Justice Department
official during what was supposed to be a routine prehearing
handshake.
Observers said Bushs invoking executive privilege was triggering
what one congressman called "the start of a constitutional
confrontation."
"They're all on a motoring safari in Asia."
Could the reason authorities "can't find" Bishara be the
same reason they "can't find" Whitey Bulger? Or Osama bin
Laden?
Could they all be riding motorbikes across South Asia with Mullah
Omar?
These speculations make at least as much sense as the
laughable notion that what the citizens of Tampa were subjected to
last
weekend was acne-medication-induced terror.
Finally we come to the Curiosity of the Week: the case of
Charles Bishop's nationality. According to UPI, Charles
Bishop was "a British citizen, who did not have a license to
fly."
A British citizen? All-American patriot Chuck? (Being
born of at least one British parent inside the U.S. means that until
he reached 18 he had both British and U.S. citizenship.)
"I say old chap, would you mind awfully giving us the money?"
His mothers maiden name is deTore, which doesnt sound
English.
So it must be Charles Bishops father, Charles Bishara, who has
the British passport. How many small-time thugs in Boston carry
British passports?
Probably not too many, right? Does America's Most Wanted Whitey
Bulger have a British passport, too?
Someone familiar with Charlie Bishara's home, Winchester,
Massachusetts, told us of the town's colorful history with the
Mob. And
he also told us
something else about Winchester, which may shed some light on
the Bishop/Bishara business, when we take up the case of Janis Bishop.
And one last item, one we have not even allowed ourselves to
think about yet:
Charles Bishara's home in Naples Florida is just a short
five-minute drive from flight school owner Rudi
Dekkers' headquarters at
the Naples Airport.
Of all places.
Small world.
What are the odds?
It must be admitted that Charles Bisharas many brushes with the
wild side would be consistent withfourteen years agoa
low-level career in the Mob.
From the size of Charlie's little getaway home in Naples, Mr.
Bishara may have been moving upjust a littlesince then.
NEXT: THE CURIOUS CASE OF JANIS BISHOP
Daniel Hopsicker
is the author of
Barry & 'the boys:
The CIA, the Mob
and America's
Secret History.
email the author
