Daniel Hopsicker, author of BARRY AND THE BOYS, has passed away.

[Anthony Thorne]

Trine Day's Kris Millegan posted on Facebook that Daniel Hopsicker, author of BARRY AND THE BOYS and WELCOME TO TERRORLAND, has passed away.

https://www.madcowprod.com/2023/08/23/a-great-journalist-has-passed-daniel-hopsicker-july-16-1951-august-22-2023-r-i-p/

 

Linda Minor posted an additional article, as she was working with Hopsicker on his final book.

https://www.madcowprod.com/2023/09/02/keeping-mad-cow-alive/

 

BARRY AND THE BOYS tangentially bumps into the JFK assassination, as Barry Seal, Operation 40 and the various participants feature in it. Hopsicker possibly got into more troublesome waters with his later book WELCOME TO TERRORLAND. After the 9/11 attacks, Hopsicker had flown down to Florida and interviewed 9/11 hijacker / ringleader Mohammed Atta's girlfriend, Amanda Keller. Hopsicker's book and articles created ripples for the official story thereafter, as the pious Atta was revealed to be a heavy cocaine user flashing a wad of bills, visiting strip clubs, and boasting about his various connections. In 2006, the Herald Tribune published a 'debunking' piece where Keller retracted her comments, reprinted here. Happily for everyone involved, the US Attorney Office and FBI were content to have a public statement put out by an agent regarding the issue, but were reluctant to name the agent who put the statement out, so good luck following it up.

https://web.archive.org/web/20120203165746/http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060910/NEWS/609100466/1007/BUSINESS

 

Quote

 

For five years, Amanda Keller has been portrayed by conspiracy theorists as Mohamed Atta's lover.

But the former Venice stripper now says her boyfriend was another flight student not connected to 9/11. And, for the first time, federal investigators say she's right.

"There's nothing there to corroborate the relationship between the two," a New York-based FBI counterterrorism agent said recently after reviewing 9/11 case files.

The agent got clearance to talk from the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI, but only agreed if his named was not used.

Among other things, the government checked Atta's phone records and found the two had never called each other.

In 2002, Keller granted an interview with Daniel Hopsicker, a Venice self-published writer who maintains the government has covered up facts about 9/11.

In a taped interview that has circled the Internet, Keller casually discusses intimate details about her relationship with "Mohamed." She claimed it was Atta, but changed her story soon after.

"It was my bad for lying," Keller said. "I really didn't think about it until after I did it."

Keller, 24, is engaged and is studying to become a nurse. She moved to Ohio in early 2002 and said she hoped that by getting married and changing her name, she could finally leave the rumors behind.

 

 

I have a personal anecdote to add without much further additional comment. I was in private correspondence with documentary filmmaker Jonathan Elinoff for a few years, and Jonathan told me he'd approached Hopsicker after the above Herald Tribune article, filmed a long interview with him, and the two of them had returned to Venice, Florida. Keller trusted Hopsicker, and Elinoff eventually got Keller to reconfirm her story on camera for his then-in-preparation documentary CORE OF CORRUPTION-ECHOES OF TREASON. (There were many interviewees for the film - Peter Dale Scott was another). The documentary was completed, but never released, after Elinoff, working on a radio show, became ensnared in the investigation into corrupt Colorado cop Patrick Sullivan. The Sullivan arrest attracted International attention - 'Sheriff goes to prison in facility named after him' - but the nasty story Elinoff helped uncover (he was collaborating at one point with both Homeland Security and Colorado radio personality Tom Martino) caused him a great deal of personal trouble. This is the tip of the tip of the iceberg for that story and anyone who wants to know more about it should dig up the long thread I wrote about it on Deep Politics Forum years ago.

Hopsicker agreed with some of the conspiracy theories surrounding 9/11, and strongly disagreed with others. His investigation into the hijackers is recounted in two Sander Hicks books, THE BIG WEDDING and SLINGSHOT TO THE JUGGERNAUT, the former featuring a moment where Watergate prosecutor / 9/11 Commissioner Richard Ben Veniste reacts badly during an interview after being asked about Hopsicker's revelations on camera. Richard Ben Veniste's earlier client was Barry Seal.

Hopsicker's documentary on the Venice, Florida events is here. He was a smart, tenacious guy and will be missed.

 

Edited September 6, 2023 by Anthony Thorne

[Matthew Koch]

Sorry to hear that. I met him at the Core of Corruption premier.. 

btw, I bought a hard copy off of Amazon and it doesn't have the redactions the paper back has. 

Mohamad Atta and the Venice Flying Circucus was a ground breaking book and imo those networks grew out of the JM/WAVE corporate shell company nexus that were spawned during Moongoose. 

[S.T. Patrick]

I like much of Hopsicker's work. But he went on Opperman and said he thought Q was Dr. Jerome Corsi. He'd do weird things like that every now and then. He also picked a fight with Whitney Webb once, accusing her of all kinds of bizarre stuff - and then had to walk it all back when she responded publicly. Again, I like much of what he wrote in book form. But he seemed like a bit of an A.J. Weberman type in some ways. Sorry to hear that he passed.

 

[Anthony Thorne]

Generally agree, I tended to stay away from his online conversations as he was pretty rambunctious. But being attacked over and over (the main stream article I posted above singled him out for an unwarranted pot shot) can do that to people. The few times I chatted to him online he was friendly enough and civil. And his books and articles are very solid. Quite a funny writer too, with an earthy sense of humour.

[S.T. Patrick]

Agreed, Anthony. If we're just talking about the books, he had some great work.