Canada Free Press -- ARCHIVES

Because without America, there is no free world.

Return to Canada Free Press

Richard C. Blum, aSTaR airlines, DHL airlines

Senator Dianne Feinstein's link to Cuba

By Judi McLeod & Doug Hagmann

Thursday, September 7, 2006

You'd never know it from the mainstream media, but Califormia Senator Dianne Feinstein has links to Fidel Castro's Cuba.

Feinstein is married to investment banker Richard C. Blum.

aSTaR airlines was fined in 2004 for making payments to a Cuban government entity for DHL airlines, of which Blum is s a 33% owner.

Blum was a board member during the aSTaR payment-to-Cuba time frame.

although this information was revealed in the Washington Tariff & Trade Letter, Vol. 24, No 14, on april 5, 2004, it never made the news.

Indeed, aSTaR air Cargo was fined $28,073 for making payments to a Cuban government entity.

"aSTaR air Cargo is a cargo airline based in Miami, Florida, USa. It operates cargo charter services to over 40 US and international airports from its main hub at Wilmington, OH (IKN), which is owned by DHL." (Wikipedia).

"The airline was established and started operations in 1969. It was formed by DHL Worldwide Express by adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillbloom and Robert Lynn to shuttle bills of lading between Hawaii and San Francisco. It later became DHL airways and grew rapidly, initiating services to the Phillipines, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and australia, creating a new industry of door-to-door express services in the Pacific Basin. With the acquisition of DHL by Deutsche Post WorldNet in 2000, the airline was spun off from DHL and a majority stake sold to a private investor in order to comply with Federal foreign ownership laws. FedEx and UPS challenged the U.S. citizenship of DHL airways, asserting to the Department of Transportation that DPWN exercised effective operational control of the airline. In July 2003, a US investment group headed by John Dasburg (now chairman, Chief Executive and President of the airline), completed the purchase of the airline using financing provided by Boeing Capital and subsequently changed the name to aSTaR air Cargo. as with DHL airways, it will continue to operate primarily for DHL Worldwide Express. Most of its planes are painted in the yellow and red DHL livery. It is owned by Dasburg (37%), Blum (33%) and Michael Klein (30%).

( Blum is also the head of URS Group Inc., a corporation that gets lucrative Homeland Security and Iraq contracts.) * See note below

"URS is one of the largest engineering firms worldwide and a leading U.S. federal government contractor. URS primarily focuses on providing professional and technical services in the engineering, construction services and defense markets." (URS Website).

The army Corp awarded a contract to URS Group Inc., on Sept. 16, 2005, under the advanced Contractor Initiative. The contract was for temporary housing Qa site inspectors, and worth $142,100. Three task orders have been made on the contract in addition to the original award. The first on Sept. 21 for roofing Qas, valued at $2,234,750,77. The second on Sept. 26th, for a/E Services, valued at $61,471. The third on Oct. 14 for temporary housing Qa site inspectors, valued at $423,000. The total award as of Oct. 17 was $2,861,321.77. (Source: USaCE, "Hurricane Katrina Consolidated Contract Listing 10/17/05").

On March 12, 2002, Blum was appointed by former California Governor Gray Davis to a 12-year term as one of the regents at the University of California. Blum is also a Trustee of the Carter Center and is Co-chairman of the World Conference of Religions for Peace.

Finestein's hubby has a strong interest in Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism. In 1981, he attempted to climb Mount Everest from the Tibetan side with Sir Edmund Hillary.

The love affair of the lib-left for Fidel Castro's Cuba continues, even though Cuba remains a threat to national (now called Homeland) security. The best evidence is that the recuperating Castro allowed the USSR to place nuclear missiles on his Island.

*(Note: Blum was a board member of URS Group Inc., but resigned in November of 2005. More significantly he was never URS CEO.)

Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com


Pursuant to Title 17 U.S.C. 107, other copyrighted work is provided for educational purposes, research, critical comment, or debate without profit or payment. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for your own purposes beyond the 'fair use' exception, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Views are those of authors and not necessarily those of Canada Free Press. Content is Copyright 1997-2018 the individual authors. Site Copyright 1997-2018 Canada Free Press.Com Privacy Statement