Did Osama Bin Laden visit Nevada?

I'm going to regret this post.

For one thing, I have developed an allergic reaction to most mondo weirdo 9/11 theories. And I definitely do not want to spend the rest of my life explaining why I distrust the two "paranoia superstars" who figure in this tale.

But...ah, what the hell. If the words that follow inspire someone out there to do a little further gumshoeing, then I'll consider this post -- and the grief it will surely cause me -- worthwhile.

Afghans in Nevada. While researching a completely separate matter, I stumbled across a fascinating 2005 piece by writer Nick Schou. The article focuses on a mercenary named Scott Weekly -- a.k.a. Dr. Death -- who may have worked for the CIA, the DIA, or the Navy, or all of the above. The CIA has officially denied employing Weekly. Even so, he makes a living billing himself as One Tough Hombre, and he has compiled a very colorful resume -- a resume which is way beyond the scope of this post. For our present purposes, the following must suffice:

A 1998 CIA Inspector General report found "no evidence" linking Weekly, a Vietnam War veteran and right-wing mercenary, to the agency. But in a just-aired Canal Plus documentary on the French television show 90 Minutes, Milton Bearden, who supervised the CIA's covert war in Afghanistan, says otherwise. While not mentioning Weekly by name, Bearden confirmed that the CIA was behind a bizarre training operation for Afghan mujahedin fighters in the Nevada desert in early 1986.

What do these Nevada hijinx have to do with Weekly? I shall explain.

Weekly earned a five-year prison stretch in 1986 for smuggling C4 explosives aboard a civilian airliner. (Ye gods!) He kept his mouth shut, never revealing his motives or accomplices. After 14 months, he was allowed to walk out of prison because the court had received testimony indicating that the C4 was part of that aforementioned Afghan mujahadeen training mission in the Nevada desert. In other words, he did what he did with the covert blessing of Uncle Sam -- or so his witnesses told the court. They must have been persuasive, because Weekly walked.

We shall now take our leave of Scott Weekly and his colorful associates; his is a tale for another time. Right now, I want you to focus on the interview which Milt Bearden gave to French reporters:

"If we did some romantic training in the Nevada desert with a few Afghans . . . I'm aware of that. I know about that. There's something like that. But it doesn't matter."

Enter Osama. Bearden's bean-spillage reminded me of one of the wilder tales which conspiracy buffs like to tell about Osama Bin Laden.

The buffs say that in this very same year -- 1986 -- Osama journeyed to the U.S. under CIA auspices and was given a tour of various "military facilities." He may even have visited the Reagan White House. While in this country, he used the false name "Tim Osman."

That claim first popped up on the internet shortly after 9/11/01 but well before Bearden said what he said to the French.

If you Google "Tim Osman," you will discover that many fringe web sites accept the Osman/Osama identification without question. (Here's an example.) Most of the sites devoted to debunking 9/11 conspiracy lore don't even bother with the Osman allegation. However, this skeptical page confronts the issue head-on, asking some questions which I consider pertinent and sensible.

Where's the evidence? There is a document which allegedly confirms the Osama/Osman identity. I reproduce it here; click to enlarge.

Although certain conspiracists accept the document at face value, its provenance simply cannot be established. We don't know the issuing agency or the purpose of this document. We don't know if it was retrieved under FOIA. We don't know if it was written by a private individual or for an organization. As far as I can tell, we have only this one page -- which is neither the first nor the last. The format of the document makes little sense to me. The text zooms from one topic to another with no rhyme or reason.

In short, this piece of "evidence" proves nothing.

How did this document become known to the public? It comes to us via a couple of notorious figures. I hesitate even to mention their names...

Jailed covert "genius" Michael Riconosciuto and former FBI agent Ted Gunderson.

If those names are already very familiar to you, then you've probably spent an unhealthy amount of time carousing with oddballs. Please, please, please do not presume that you can give me any schooling on these two. I used to live a life very different from the one I have now, and back in the day I knew a lot of strange people. Yes, I know all about PROMIS and Inslaw and the Crisman connection and Hercules and Casolaro and the Cabazons and all of the other exotica in Mikey's background. In fact, although I never met the man, I first heard of him well before you probably did -- long before he was arrested on drug manufacturing charges.

I briefly spoke to Ted Gunderson many years ago, although he would not remember me. More importantly, I've spoken to his ex. Boy, does she have stories. Calling Ted Gunderson an idiot might be actionable, so I won't do that. Suffice it to say that his voice bears some resemblance to that of Leslie Nielsen, star of the Police Squad series -- a resemblance which some might find not inappropriate.

The closest cinematic equivalent to Michael Riconosciuto is probably the smarmy character played by Jack Black in The Jackal. As for Gunderson -- I picture him as a combination of Leslie Nielsen's Frank Drebin, Maxwell Smart, Dale Gribble and Major Frank Burns. And maybe we should throw Professor Harold Hill into the mix.

The Osman/Osama story rests on the word of these two gentlemen. Since I am not inclined to trust that pair, and since I do not want to get into any otiose internet battles with the sort of people who do trust them, I long ago decided never to mention the Osman allegation on this blog.

I am breaking that rule now. The regrets will probably set in within a couple of hours.

The story, for what it is worth: Gunderson and Riconosciuto claim that, in 1986, they met a young-ish Saudi named "Tim Osman" at the Hilton Hotel in Sherman Oaks, in California's San Fernando Valley. "Tim" was really Osama Bin Laden, of the wealthy Bin Laden clan.

(Side note: There is no Hilton in Sherman Oaks at this writing, although I believe one existed at the time. Paris Hilton lives in Sherman Oaks, but I don't think she's involved in this tale.)

"Tim" was accompanied by an American businessman who gave his name as Ralph Olberg. His job was to help the mujahadeen acquire advanced weapons for their fight against the Soviets. Riconosciuto, always the kind-hearted people-pleaser, wanted to provide the Afghans with Stinger-esque shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles manufactured by the Chinese. He had Chinese contacts. At least, that's his story.

"Tim" revealed that he had been to a number of U.S. military bases, where he saw demonstrations of some very advanced weaponry. He even hinted at a possible White House visit.

Unfortunately for him, some within the CIA doubted that "Tim Osman" truly represented the Afghans. (Bin Laden, as you know, was from Saudi Arabia.) The military had brought "Tim" and his posse out here because they wanted the mujahadeen to field test some advanced weaponry, the nature of which remains mysterious.

Riconsciuto and Gunderson are surprisingly vague as to what happened to "Tim" and Mr. Olberg after this meeting in Sherman Oaks. I don't think the Chinese missile sale went through. However, it is no secret that Washington began delivery of American-made Stingers to the Afghan fighters later in 1986. These shoulder-fired missiles turned the tide of the Afghan war.

I have just given you a simplified precis of this piece -- which, like most other examples of conspiracy buff literature, goes off on a zillion tangents and refuses to cohere into a linear narrative. For more details, try this.

A question of credibility. You must be wondering whether I believe this story. Before answering, let me tell you another anecdote -- one which has never before seen print or cyber-ink.

On November 1, 1992, an American intelligence operative named Ian Spiro was found dead, along with his family, in San Diego County. (The case remains mysterious. Alas, this is not the place to go into the Spiro affair.) The next day -- or perhaps on the 3rd; I'm going on memory -- newspapers throughout southern California reported on the tragic murders.

A woman I will here call J.M. -- some of you will need no further information -- read the Los Angeles Times account. Naturally, she was intrigued. J.M. had known Michael Riconosciuto before his arrest, and occasionally spoke to him via telephone after his imprisonment. As it happened, she was able to talk to Riconosciuto by phone later that very day.

"Do you know anything about this Ian Spiro guy?" she asked.

"Ian who?" he answered. When J.M. gave a summary of the LAT account, Riconosciuto admitted that he had never heard of the fellow.

Within a week, Riconosciuto's story had dramatically changed: Now he was saying that he had known Ian Spiro well -- in fact, Spiro and his family were murdered because of Spiro's (alleged) association with Michael Riconosciuto, International Man of Mystery.

For a guy in prison, Michael Riconosciuto managed, in those days, to maintain an impressive network of contacts in the outside world. At the time, a lot of conspiracy buffs considered him to be the magic whistleblower who knew all and would reveal all, just as soon as he got out of prison. (So keep writing those "Free Michael" letters, boys and girls!) He informed these contacts that he was the key to the Spiro mystery.

A reporter covering Spiro for the San Diego Union Tribune got wind of the Riconosciuto angle. I gave her my file on the guy. But I also told her to contact J.M., who relayed the story about Mikey's very different (and very telling) initial reaction to the news of Spiro's death.

That episode was classic Riconosciuto.

Throughout that period, whenever an intriguing tale made the rounds within conspiracy buffdom, he would paint himself into the picture. Over the years, he has inserted himself into a zillion different scenarios, including the JFK assassination, MJ12, alien autopsies, the anthrax attacks, and much more.

Did he have links to the covert world before his arrest? Maybe. Probably. But I also believe that the guy is a born con artist. There is no contradiction here: Grifters and spooks (or wanna-be spook hangers-on) inhabit intersecting worlds and rely on similar skill sets.

The Spiro fable was far from the only outright lie that J.M. caught Riconosciuto telling. Figuring out which of his yarns might have a basis in truth is a task akin to finding a huckleberry in a hill of horseshit.

And that's why I dismissed the "Tim Osman" tale when I first caught wind of it. The claim came out only after 9/11. If Riconosciuto or Gunderson had ever mentioned Osama Bin Laden during (say) the 1987-1997 period, I would have been much more impressed.

Yet now I'm beginning to wonder. Milt Bearden confirmed at least part of the story. Afghans did come to train in the United States -- in the year 1986. The same year figures in Riconosciuto's tale.

Riconosciuto did not mention Nevada (as Bearden did), but he did mention that Osman and his mujahadeen had visited American military bases for training. Moreover, they (supposedly) were trained to use unusual advanced weapons that had never been employed in actual combat conditions. Nevada is, I believe, the likeliest place for that kind of exercise.

Not only that.

At the retrial of Scott Weekly -- remember him? The C4-in-the-luggage-compartment guy? -- his witnesses said that the effort to train the mujahadeen in Nevada was paid for by Stanford Technologies. You might recall that name from Richard Secord's testimony at the Iran-contra hearings. The paymaster was a man named Osman Kalderim, and he seems to have played a role similar to that ascribed to Ralph Olberg. (Whoever he really is.)

"Osman" is an unusual name, at least in America. The overlapping nomenclature does suggest one possible inspiration for the "Tim Osman" pseudonym.

Gunderson said that Olberg ran or worked for a company called Management Science for Health -- MSH. There is a real company by that name. Near as I can tell, it operates in a very above-board and honorable fashion, with no discernible links to world of covert ops. Nobody named Olberg serves on the board of directors or on the management team.

Osman Kalderim -- or Kaldirim -- appears to be a real person. I think it is fair to presume that the man mentioned in this story is same fellow mentioned in the Weekly trial. He is described as a "controversial Turkish businessman," and he seems spookier than the Jersey devil.

Before you say it: There is no need to tell me that this story has problems. I am very aware of the credibility issues surrounding Riconosciuto and Gunderson. I do not trust them. Milt Bearden's blabby interview harmonizes with some of the Riconosciuto/Gunderson information, but not with all of it. Bearden did not address the "Osman" claim.

Still, I would suggest there's just enough intriguing material here to justify further digging, and I write in the hope that someone will feel inspired to do just that. You must admit: The image of Osama having tea with Ronald Reagan at the White House is rather compelling.