The candidate who thinks Bush is the Messiah. Literally.

One of the more popular posts ever to appear on this blog was a long-winded overview of various wealthy families of Lebanese origin involved with both right-wing politics and clandestine activity. By "clandestine activity," I mean, for the most part, drugs. I call these folks the "seedy" of Lebanon.

Of all the many fever-dream characters populating that piece, the one who caught the public imagination was William "Bill" Smatt, formerly a bigwig in Jamaica and currently a resident of Florida. What makes Smatt so interesting? Well, lots of reasons, particularly his belief that George W. Bush is the Messiah.

Seriously. He wrote a book to prove it. God told him to do so.

I've long wanted to check out the book for myself, but used copies now fetch quite a few bucks on Amazon. $45 is the low-ball price; if you don't snap up that copy quick, you may have to pay $200. I fear that my post may have contributed to the work's cult status.

Fortunately, this page gives us a glimpse of Smatt's literary stylings:
stylings:

The last page of the book -- shortly after author William Smatt makes a plug for a Florida park -- contains the following:

"This book is of divine inspiration and not for financial gain. I was instructed that someone needed to standup [sic] for the President and inform the public of the good the Messiah has done. .... GET OFF THE MESSIAH'S BACK!"

Perhaps Fred Fielding can include that phrase next time he refuses to comply with one of John Conyers' subpoenas.

So what is "Bill" up to now? (His name should always be sandwiched between quotation marks, like "Bob" of SubGenius fame.)

Turns out he's running for Mayor in Miami Beach. His candidacy attracted some press when he erected a massive banner in front of his home, in order to proclaim his campaign slogan: "God created Adam & Eve, NOT Adam & Steve."

Gosh. Never heard that one before.

Strangely enough, that homophobic sentiment has not gone over well in Miami Beach. Responding to critics of his slogan,

Smatt has said he is simply exercising his right to free speech. That and the fact that “Miami Beach has become communist Russia.”

Every candidate needs a website, and "Bill" Smatt has a beaut. While the site design does not have the tinge of trippy genius which graced his old stomping ground, www.themessengerofgod.org (now just another spam-ad page, so don't bother visiting), the would-be mayor's home on the web teaches us much about the man who thinks that George Bush, Republican, is the Chosen One.

We even get to see what "Bill" looks like.

A side note: As noted in my earlier post, the Smatt family runs a fair chunk of the tourist trade in Jamaica. A friend who has been to Jamaica tells me that you can't walk the beaches near one of the resorts without encountering a shady character who will introduce himself with these words: "I am De Doctor, mon." Anyone who can't immediately deduce De Doctor's area of specialization is too dumb to live.

Smatt conveys such a healthy glow in his pictures that I suspect he made De Doctor's acquaintance early on, and has been a regular patient ever since.

Or...perhaps...he was De Doctor's partner and supplier.

An FBI operative once claimed that the Smatt clan entered De Doctor's line of business with a partner named Bush. More on that after the jump.

(To read the rest, click "Permalink" below)

"Bill"'s site features an autographed picture of Ronald Reagan and the elder Bush, along with a certificate recognizing Smatt's work with the Coalition for Peace Through Strength.

Naturally, the mayoral candidate has a platform. He wants to eliminate local taxes while doubling the salaries of police officers (nice combo!), he wants an end to "indecent exposure" on the beaches, he wants "850 New Safe Parking Spaces on Ocean Drive," and he wants five attorneys to volunteer their time to help him. All of which will happen the day after Dubya walks on water.

We also get a bio, which informs us that "Bill" Smatt became a millionaire by (a-hem!) hand-crafting music boxes. At least, that's how it all started. One thing led to another, y'see.

As Chairman of the Manufacturing Association in Jamaica, he imported many goods from America. Bill also bought and revitalized a Hotel that was not financially productive and developed it into a thriving success for the residents of the Island. He employed hundreds of workers. He was a great asset to Jamaica, the People.

And here, I thought Jamaica was a country.

In past posts, we have discussed the suspicious nature of the "import trade" in Caribbean countries. As noted in my earlier piece on the Smatt clan (whose presence on the island goes well beyond the running of one hotel), an FBI operative named Darlene Novinger once accused the Smatt family of being involved with the "importation" of certain substances which would be quite familiar to De Doctor.

I wish we knew more about Novinger, who died of cancer in 2003. Alas, I must confess that most of the sites referencing her investigations do not convey an aura of absolute reliability. The main source of information seems to be Rodney Stich's Defrauding America, a book I once briefly owned but did not get a chance to read. (Neither a borrower not a lender be, as the saying goes.) Novinger is also cited in John Cummings' Compromised, not my favorite book in the world, and in an article by Mike Ruppert, not my favorite writer in the world.

The following passage (from here) summarizes Novinger's story:

According to Terry Reed, author of Compromised, "the FBI had inserted a female undercover agent into the inner circle of Medellin Cartel founder Pablo Escobar. Her name was Darlene Novinger and she got very close to an Escobar cousin named Steve Plata."

"Thanks to the 'uc', as undercovers are called, Barry Seal and Terry Reed were sent on a drug sting to meet some wealthy Texans," writes Ruppert. "It turns out that the wealthy Texans were George W. and Jeb Bush who flew in on the family owned King Air to pick up the cocaine themselves. Hidden DEA cameras filmed the whole incident, including the tail number of the aircraft and both Bushes participation...

As noted, Compromised was actually written by John Cummings, not by the spooked-up Terry Reed. Reed is the subject of the book -- and I trust him not, not least because his tales about Clinton had a tendency to grow like Pinocchio's nose.

Fortunately, the Novinger tale does not depend on Reed's say-so. To continue (and don't worry; we will soon head back into Smatt-land):

Here's a passage from Rodney Stitch's book Defrauding America:

"Darlene Novinger said to me that she discovered during an FBI investigation that George Bush and two of his sons were using drugs and prostitutes in a Florida hotel while Bush was vice president. She said that when she reported these findings to her FBI supervisors they warned her not to reveal what she had discovered. Novinger had been requested to infiltrate drug trafficking operations in South America and the United States. She was pressured to quit her FBI position; her husband was beaten to death; and four hours after she appeared on a July 1993 talkshow describing her findings (after she was warned not to appear), her father mysteriously died. A dead white canary was left on his grave as a warning to her. After receiving death threats she went into hiding, from where she occasionally appeared as guest on talk shows, and called me from undisclosed locations." - page 469

More details from later in the book:

Novinger had been an investigator with the Federal Crime Task Force, and then was recruited by the FBI to work in an undercover capacity.

She worked on Operation Nimbus, investigating large-scale drug smuggling on the Eastern seaboard. The investigation revealed the narcotic operation of a powerful Lebanese family living in Miami and Jamaica, which was also tied to the Lebanese fascist Phalange. Family's name is Smatt, headed by William Smatt. And Novinger said the Smatt operation implicated VP Bush and son Jeb.

After submitting her report, orders came to cease the investigation and destroy all reports. She says someone in the FBI's Miami office leaked to the Smatt group that she had penetrated the operation.

Before Operation Nimbus was shut down, veteran US Customs investigator Joe Price filed corroborating reports implicating Bush. After he filed in Sept 1983, FBI agents arrested him on a narcotics trafficking charge.

(Emphasis added.) Unfortunately, Stitch harmed his credibility by devoting much of his book to the various yarns told by Gunther Russbacher, a notorious liar. (The Russbacher story is too long to get into here.) Thus, any reader who says "I won't buy all of that until I see more evidence" has my sympathy. Even so, I strongly suspect that the Novinger story has a basis in fact, not least because Smatt has never made any legal noises against either Novinger or Stitch.

Let's put it this way: As incredible as the above tale may seem, I have an even harder time believing that "Bill" Smatt found the business of hand-crafting music boxes so lucrative that he was soon able to buy hotels and other property. Something makes this man feel awfully fond of the Bush family.
Source of article: http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2007/07/candidate-who-thinks-bush-is-messiah.html