The Sir Peter Anderson Story

The Missing Box

Part 9

As told to Mark Howell

Last week we chronicled the visit of the FBI to the Conch Republic in those dark days immediately after 9/11. But there is a postscript: “The Missing Box.” Here it is…

Sir Peter Anderson, Secretary General of the Conch Republic, says he got a call approximately two weeks after he had voluntarily “responded positively to a polite request to share our records” and handed over 20,000 applications accumulated in a period of eight years to the FBI. They told him they were missing certain passport applications listed in the ledger books but not complete applications in a banker’s box — in short, a whole missing box of passport applications numbering from where the last box in their possession left off to the next box in their possession. The missing box.

Anderson told them he had no clue unless something was misfiled. They assured him that they had been through everything and it was not a misfiling; it was a whole missing box.

Anderson said that there was an edge to their attitude in this phone call over the missing box. He immediately invited the agents back to the storage locker where the boxes had been stored so that they could search together with complete transparency. They agreed and they rendezvoused immediately. The search turned up no missing box.

Back to the Conch Republic head office together, they searched through every available space for the missing box to no avail. Anderson was baffled and the FBI was getting testy. A testy FBI is never good.

A couple of days later, a Miami Herald reporter was at Anderson’s door wanting to know about a passport they had issued to Mohammad Atta. Anderson says he was floored by this assertion. He had no knowledge of this at all.

The Secretary General asked the reporter, “Where did you get that idea?”

The reporter claimed not to know but quoted “a reliable source.”

When the reporter left, Anderson pondered … Where the heck could such an idea come from?

It dawned on him that this “knowledge” could only have come from a leak within the FBI in Miami. They were the only ones in the world who had access and possession of the relevant documents.

Anderson got on the phone in an emergency call to Tom Fiedler, editor of The Herald.

He urged Fiedler not to run the story, stating that the FBI had had access to Conch Republic passport applications only for two weeks only — not nearly enough time to run down and verify 20,000 applications. He begged Tom not to tell the world that the FBI had all the Conch Republic Passport applications.

“If there are any bad guys in there, you will be letting them know that the FBI has their address and identifying information — and you will drive them underground,” Anderson insisted.

The fact that he was looking out for U.S. security interests even as the FBI was leaking information remains evidence that we live in a strange world. Anderson says he can only surmise that the FBI had its own reasons…

Fiedler said he would query the Miami FBI office and make a decision about publication. Anderson thanked him profusely for taking him seriously.

Two days later, the story broke. The Conch Republic may have issued a passport to Mohammed Atta.

As declared by Anderson at the end of last week’s story: “The persistent rumor that one of the 9/11 hijackers got a Conch Republic Passport is simply not true. We did issue a passport to a person in New York City named Mohammed Atta. This was not the Mohammad Atta. In certain parts of the Arab world this name is as common as ‘John Smith.’”

When queried about all this by the press in this time of national hysteria, he responded that no self-respecting terrorist would ever want a Conch Republic Passport. “Believe me, I have presented mine at any number of borders and all you do is to draw attention to yourself — about the last thing a terrorist wants.” He also challenged the sensationalist press on how a Conch Republic Passport stacked up against FAA licenses to fly airplanes, the use of flight school simulators to learn how to maneuver jetliners, the issuance of Florida driving licenses and a Customs and Immigration that let them come and go as if they owned America…

Meanwhile, FBI agents in Key West were growing increasingly testy. At this point their attitude suggested the Conch Republic was willfully withholding the missing box. But happening mere weeks after 9/11, crazy dark days, Anderson says he finds no blame for them developing an attitude; after all, just one box of otherwise immaculate records was missing…

It was then that it occurred to him that perhaps the application for the “Mohammed Atta” that the Conch Republic had issued was in fact in that missing box! After all, the FBI had the ledger book with the names and passport members of all passport holders as well as the date and city, state and country they’d been sent to.

According to reports, a passport had been sent to a Mohammed Atta in New York City. As no one had reports of the Atta in New York, perhaps the FBI was seriously interested in the details of his application in order to investigate a New York connection or cell of terrorists.

It was the stuff that cold sweats are made of, admits Anderson, and he was starting to develop one over the missing box and the increasingly hostile attitude of the FBI agents. What had once seemed a brilliant cooperation was turning into a nightmare.

Several weeks went by with no improvement. However, it came time to sell a house that Anderson owned at 810 Whitehead St. Cleaning out this house that had been occupied by Conch Republic Army General Geoff Chapman (since deceased), the Secretary General came to the closet. There, underneath a pile of clothes hanging in the closet, was a box of Conch Republic Passport applications —the missing box!

Gen. Geoff had been typing passports to make extra money in the year before he died and he had not turned in this box when he turned in his typewriter and seal and other stuff. There it was.

Anderson dared not move this box or touch it in any way. It was covered in dust bunnies, had thick dust all around it and was otherwise authentically where it was and in the condition it was in. No Hollywood special-effects person could replicate the condition of this box as found.

Anderson called the FBI immediately. They were there in minutes. When they saw the location and condition of the box, they were convinced that this box had been genuinely misplaced and not deliberately withheld by the Conch Republic. Anderson says he thanked all the gods, just in case.

Next week, the Conch Republic gets sued — SUED?! Yes, sued!  

 

 

[livemarket market_name="KONK Life LiveMarket" limit=3 category=“” show_signup=0 show_more=0]