More on the mysterious Dr. Fuisz

The internet has yielded up a little more information about Dr. Richard Fuisz. You will recall that accused "spy" Susan Lindauer once named Dr. Fuisz as a CIA agent. Allegedly, he privately informed her that he could prove the responsibility of Syria (not Libya) for the 1988 destruction of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. For more on this matter -- and its relationship to the neoconservative movement -- see the post below.

Before proceeding further, I should stress again that I have no way of knowing at this time whether the Fuisz/Lindauer/Lockerbie business has any linkage to Lindauer's recent arrest. Even if no such linkage turns up, Lockerbie and Iraqgate are both worthy topics of discussion in and of themselves. So is Dr. Fuisz.

Dr. Richard Fuisz became connected to journalist Seymour Hersh in a matter involving the Terex corporation of the U.K. Fuisz' allegations about this company gave rise to a court case, in which Terex successfully sued Fuisz for libel. Fuisz, in turn, brought suit against his insurer, who (he claimed) was required to pay the damages. That suit was judged in Fuisz' favor.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I hear you muttering. "But what was this legal business all about? And what does it have to do with Iraq?"

The best summary available online is found in the documentation arising from the latter case. Terex, a construction and engineering firm (whose website makes no reference to weapons manufacture) claimed:

"[i]n or about 1987, Fuisz and Terex entered into negotiations whereby Fuisz would act as a Terex representative in Saudi Arabia. Fuisz and Terex were unable to reach any agreement, however. Thus, negotiations between the two ceased and, according to the complaint, Fuisz launched a personal "vendetta" in order "to retaliate against[Terex] for the loss of a business opportunity Fuisz believed to be extremely lucrative."

"Terex goes on to state that Fuisz, with the aid of Hersh, in late 1991 and early 1992, published several defamatory statements accusing Terex of violating federal law by supplying military equipment to Sadaam Hussein and the government of Iraq during the recent Persian Gulf War. Accordingly, in its complaint Terex seeks compensatory and punitive damages "under the common law for defamation" against Fuisz and Hersh."

End quote. Fuisz, it seems, alleged that Terex had sold Scud launchers to Iraq. Jonathan Lerner, the attorney for Terex, brought a successful libel suit against Fuisz and Hersh.

Those tempted to dismiss Lindauer as a fantasist may now feel justified in saying something similar about Fuisz. But the man definitely is connected to the American intelligence community. He is a man of means. He has serious Middle Eastern connections -- the Terex suit itself speaks to this fact.

And one small piece of evidence indicates that he still believes in his initial charges against Terex, regardless of the court's ruling. A "newslog" with the absurd title Ming the Mechanic, dated December 23, 2002, listed a number of companies involved with weapons sales to Iraq. (You can find variations of this list on a number of web sites published around this time.) The list includes many familiar faces: Bechtel, Hewlett Packard, Honeywell, etc. The British firm Terex is listed as having sold "rockets."

And just a few days ago -- on March 6, 2004 -- one Richard Fuisz offered this terse comment: "Terex What did they supply? thx."

Terex also showed up in a similar story written by the excellent Neil Mackay of the U.K. Sunday Herald, published on February 23, 2003: "Revealed: 17 British Firms Armed Saddam With His Weapons." To my knowledge, Terex did not bring suit against the Sunday Herald. If Mackay's piece is correct, Terex was indeed involved with Iraq.

Dr. Fuisz is definitely a player. But I don't know what kind of game he has been playing.

Why did he tell Susan Lindauer that unusual story about Lockerbie? Does that story have any truth?

Oh, and before we leave, one final point. Note the hypocrisy.

The right-wingers are now conducting the proverbial high-tech lynching of Susan Lindauer because she allegedly helped Saddam Hussein's regime. But even her attackers admit that her "help," whatever it might have been (the indictment is quite vague), cannot have amounted to very much, even if we presume the worst. Nevertheless, she must be a horrible, horrible person.

Or so we are told.

But look again at the list of major firms which aided Iraq, even after the world learned that Saddam Hussein gassed his own people:

Bechtel...Rockwell...Dupont...Honeywell...Carl Zeiss...Sperry...Matrix Churchill...and the list goes on and on.

Nothing wrong with those guys, according to the right-wingers. They're fine. After all, they're corporations, and corporations are holy entities. They can do no wrong.

Don't blame them. Blame Susan Lindauer!