Michael Chertoff, our head of Homeland Security has a name that literally means "of the devil" in Russian. Seldom has real life been more Dickensian.

He also has a cousin who wrote the infamous "Popular Mechanics" 9/11 cover story that attempted to debunk all the 9/11 revisionist theories that run counter to the official consensus reality mythos.

Very interestingly, this cousin pretended not to know if Michael Chertoff was his uncle, but the author's mother, contacted on the phone, said, "Why, of course Michael is his uncle!"

"Benjamin Chertoff, a cousin of the new Dept. of Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff.

AFP's Christopher Bollyn, who dug up the information, also alleges that Ben Chertoff's mother was a Mossad agent.

While there is, as yet, no evidence of any working relationship between the two, it is certainly noteworthy that the cousin of the current Homeland Security Chief, who, in his previous incarnation as head of the Justice Department's criminal division was instrumental in the release of obvious Israeli spies before and after 9/11, happens to be behind a high-profile attempt to debunk 9/11 conspiracy theories."

Michael Chertoff also reportedly holds dual U.S. / Isreaeli citizenship:

"The omission of Chertoff's mother's Zionist past suggests that there is an effort by the media to conceal his ties to Israel and his status as a "de jure" Israeli national, by birth.

Under Israeli law, a child born to an Israeli citizen, including children born outside of Israel as first generation out of Israel, is considered an Israeli citizen. The child remains an Israeli national until he or she formally renounces their Israeli nationality.

Chertoff was born on November 28, 1953 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, to the New York-born Rabbi Gershon Baruch Chertoff and Livia Eisen, the first hostess for El Al, Israel's state-owned airlines, founded in 1948.

Son of a Rabbi

"The son of a rabbi," The Star-Ledger of Newark, New Jersey, reported on February 16, "Chertoff was born in Elizabeth, graduated from Harvard University in 1975, and received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1978."

The Star-Ledger, Chertoff's hometown newspaper, however, seems to have omitted mentioning his mother to avoid discussing that Livia [Eisen] Chertoff lived and worked in Israel and was apparently an Israeli national.

The Star-Ledger is well aware of Livia's Israeli roots. Six years ago, in her obituary of December 21, 1998, the paper reported her role in the founding of Israel. "She [Livia Chertoff] was the first airline hostess for El Al airlines and participated in Operation Magic Carpet, the famous airlift of Yemenite Jews to Israel," it reported.

Even in 1998, however, The Star-Ledger was vague about Livia's nationality. "Born in Poland, Mrs. Chertoff lived in Palestine and Elizabeth before moving to Florida several years ago," it wrote.

Israel's citizenship law of 1952 says: "Any Jew who immigrated to Israel before July 14, 1952, was granted citizenship after declaring a desire to reside permanently in Israel." As El Al's first hostess, Livia probably held Israeli citizenship.

Furthermore, a "child born on or after July 14, 1952," is an Israeli citizen if "at least one of whose parents is a citizen of Israel, regardless of the child's country of birth."

Evasive Answers

Secretary Chertoff was evasive when American Free Press asked about his mother's nationality, which if Israeli, would make him an Israeli national.

A "national" is defined as a citizen of a particular nation, while formal citizenship status confers specific rights, duties, and privileges on the citizen.

Asked about the status of Chertoff's mother's nationality, DHS spokesman Brian Roehrkasse provided an evasive answer: "He does not hold, nor has he ever held, dual citizenship."

"While his mother did reside in Israel, he [Chertoff] does not believe she ever held Israeli citizenship," Roehrkasse said. She resided there during the British mandate period (prior to the creation of the state of Israel), later lived in the UK, and he believes she may have held British citizenship at the time she worked for El Al."

Livia reportedly participated in Operation Magic Carpet, the top-secret airlift of some 45,000 Yemenite Jews to Israel from June 1949 to September 1950. Livia's connection with El Al and the secret airlift operations run by Israeli intelligence, indicate she was involved with Israel's intelligence agency, the Mossad.

Operation Magic Carpet was so secret it wasn't even revealed to the press until months after the last of the 380 flights from Yemen had arrived in Israel in late 1950.

Chertoff's children have attended Jewish private schools, and his wife, Meryl Justin, was a co-chair of the regional Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) civil rights committee.

Chertoff is secretive about his childhood, perhaps to avoid discussing the intense Talmudic and Zionist upbringing he received in a family in which all the men were rabbis and scholars of the Talmud. "My childhood was ... average ... Nothing stands out. It all kind of blends into the murky past," he told The Star Ledger in March 2001. Pressed for more details, Chertoff "reclined in his chair" and said, "I'll take the Fifth."

Michael's father, Gershon, was the first child of Paul Chertoff from Russia, and Esther Barish, from "Roumania," according to the 1930 U.S. Census. Gershon graduated as a teacher of the Talmud at age 20, in May 1935.

In 1930, the immigrant couple lived in a $90 rented apartment in Brooklyn and had three children, Gershon, Naomi, and Mordecai. Imbued in the Talmud, the Chertoff children became ardent Zionists. Chertoff's father, Gershon, was a rabbi and teacher of the Talmud, as was his uncle Mordecai. Their father, Paul, was a "teacher" of the Talmud at the Jewish Institute (yeshiva) in New York. When the elder Chertoff died in 1966, he was described as an "Ex-professor of Talmud" in the New York Times.

Naomi also studied the Talmud and was serving her fourth term as national president of the Young Women's Zionist Organization of America when she married in 1946. Naomi had attended Hebrew University in Palestine before Israel became a state on May 16, 1948. While there are published reports of Chertoff family weddings in New York and London there are no reports in the New York press about the marriage of Chertoff's mother and father.

Because Livia came from Israel and worked for the state owned airlines, it seems probable they were married in Israel.

Given his mother's role in the founding of the Israeli state and the intense Zionist character of his family, it seems likely that Chertoff spent time in Israel as a child. "My religious and spiritual beliefs are pretty much what I want them to be," he said. Given his background, this suggests he is a Talmudic Jew.

The Talmud is the body of rabbinical law that most American and Israeli Jews follow. The Talmud, however, re-interprets and negates much of the Torah and contains some anti-Christian sentiments. [For a better understanding of the anti-Christian aspects of the Talmud, read Israel Shahak's "Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of 3,000 Years"]

No Opposition

Unlike other Bush nominees, there was no opposition in the Senate to Chertoff heading DHS. The Senate voted 98-0 to approve Chertoff on February 15. Chertoff, 51, took the oath of office that night in "a private ceremony at the White House."

DHS has a $32 billion budget, 180,000 employees, and jurisdiction over immigration, customs and transportation security, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The question of Chertoff's dual-nationality doesn't seem to have concerned a single U.S. senator."