A New American Story
“World events do not occur by accident. They are made to happen, whether it is to do with national issues or commerce; and most of them are staged and managed by those who hold the purse strings”
Denis Healey, former British Defense Minister
On January 3, 2011, Traian Bujduveanu will be released from a federal halfway house to ...

A New American Story
“World events do not occur by accident. They are made to happen, whether it is to do with national issues or commerce; and most of them are staged and managed by those who hold the purse strings”
Denis Healey, former British Defense Minister
On January 3, 2011, Traian Bujduveanu will be released from a federal halfway house to return to his family in Plantation, Florida. And halfway is precisely how it feels to him. He will have his freedom, but not his good name.
The government took that from him in June of 2008 when they used explosives to blast open the doors to his home in order to execute a raid at six o’clock in the morning. They took it when they struck his blind and elderly mother as they marched through his home, eventually dragging Bujduveanu in handcuffs from his bedroom into the backyard.
It was a scene reminiscent of war time videos taken by imbedded photo journalists in Iraq or Afghanistan, but the similarities are not just visual. The details are all too remindful of stories of betrayal at the hands of the American government. The same government that, in times past and present, seeks out the help of Iraqi or Afghanistan, or Vietnamese, citizens to overthrow their government, only to be thrown themselves beneath the wheels of democracy when it suited American interests to do so.
Like his name, Bujduveanu’s story is complex, until you break it down into smaller parts and review it a few times so that it becomes familiar. Traian Bujduveanu, a naturalized citizen of the United States, was recruited by the American government back in the 1980’s to assist in its plans to overthrow the communist regime of his native Romania. Two decades later, that same government accused Bujduveanu of conspiring to export military aircraft parts to Iran. In the process they were sufficiently able to threaten and intimidate him until he plead guilty to a crime he didn’t commit. The question of why – why did the government fabricate this case, is just as complex and, yet, just as simple.
Bujduveanu came to the United States, to New York City, from Romania in 1974 with his family. He was 18 years old and filled with optimism. This was America, land of the free, and a place where anyone could succeed through hard work and determination. After six years in the United States, Bujduveanu applied for and was granted citizenship in his adopted home. His parents and two sisters also became naturalized citizens.
But they were not the first in the Bujduveanu family to take this path. His family and all ancestors were born in Greek-Macedonia, near the ancient city of Pela. By the late 1930’s Greece, through the Greek Secret Services, had begun an aggressive campaign to confiscate territory and property from ancient Macedonia and its people, employing a form of ethnic cleansing in its wake. By 1939 there was a mass exodus from Greek-Macedonia, also known as ancient Macedonia, with half settling in far away Australia, Canada and the United States. While Traian’s grandfather fled to Romania, his grandfather’s brother immigrated to the United States, settling in New York. There Traian’s young uncle, Ionel, enlisted as a pilot in the United States Army during World War II.
Along with thousands of other pilots, Ionel was assigned to Operation Ploiesti, making dangerous daylight bombing raids against petroleum refineries in oil rich Romania. During the latter stages of World II, Romania, in the concert with the German/ Italian axis of power, was supplying as much as a third of petroleum Hitler’s forces needed on the eastern front against Russia. Because of Ionel’s extensive ties in Romania, the U.S. Army agreed to change his legal name to John Nicholas should he be shot down in one of the raids and there be reprisals against the Bujduveanu clan.
It was this story of his uncle that inspired Traian to enter the Spartan College of Aeronautics in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with the goal of getting a pilot’s license. He graduated in 1980 with a degree in Avionics and Instruments.
In 1984 Bujduveanu moved to Florida where he began working for a company called New World Aviation. He quickly found himself in sales, assisting the company as it grew and expanded, selling to foreign governments and their military, throughout Central and South America.
A year later, agents of the United States government approached Bujduveanu to enlist his assistance in its efforts to bring down the dictatorial government of Nicolae Ceausescu. After World War II, Romania had fallen under Russia control and influence, leading to a succession of repressive communist leadership, ultimately culminating with the installment of Ceausescu in 1965. Ceausescu vacillating between support of Russian submission and Romanian independence, but maintained absolute control throughout, never wavering in his fervor for the Marxist concept.
Bujduveanu possessed all the qualities the U.S. government desired. Although born in a small village, his family moved to Bucharest, Romania’s capital, when he was still an infant. He grew up with Romania’s political elite, many of whom attained important government offices themselves when their time came. Some were even placed in highly sensitive security positions. Bujduveanu had been able to maintain friendship and contacts from his childhood as he returned to Romania year after year on holiday, and occasionally business.
He was obviously fluent in the Romanian language, as well as Macedonian. He was additionally fluent in English and had picked up some Spanish-language skills during his travels throughout Latin America. Although a Romanian citizen by birth, Bujduveanu was a proud citizen of the United States and a firm believer in democracy.
“If Greece was the cradle of democracy,” Bujduveanu is fond of saying, “then Macedonia was its birthplace.”
Of course he would help the American government in its opposition to the corrupt communist regime in his home country in the name of democracy. Although he was a willing soldier in the cover war, he was not a spy, not in the Hollywood sense of the word. He was not involved in any kind of assassinations or death squads. His job was to target high level assets and gather information.
He left New World Aviation and began his own business, Orion Aviation Corporation, a modest company which he operated from his home in Florida. But it was more than a front for his clandestine services, it was part of his dream, the same American dream that brought his family here in the first place.
Ultimately, the Ceausescu regime was toppled over the course of a single week, from December 16 through 22 in 1989.
“Minor incidents in the Transylvania city of Timisoara led to violence, which quickly spread to other cities.” – Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th Edition (1995).
Ceausescu was arrested, tied and executed on Christmas Day. Bujduveanu’s picture had been taken shaking the leader’s hand only months before.
“I am familiar with these events and the role of the U.S. government in them,” Bujduveanu admits. “But it’s not important. What is important is that Romania is once again a democracy, and a better democracy than what we have here now. Of course I’m talking about the government, the corruption of the United States government in recent years.”
Bujduveanu is quick to add, “It is the government and not the American people. But if they don’t wake up, if the American public does not begin to hold their government responsible for its actions, they will lose what rights and what democracy they have left.”
After the fall of Ceausescu, all seemed right with the world. Orion Aviation was doing well, following the same line of business as his former employer, but with more of a focus in Eastern Europe and Pacific Rim countries. But the U.S. government and its agents were never far behind, contacting him regularly for input on a variety of issues.
Bujduveanu’s arrest and search warrant were executed on June 21, 2008, and he and his family were not very fortunate.
The sound of the explosion when government agents blew open his front door, combined with the ensuing smoke, prompted a neighbor to jump over his fence to investigate, worried that something was wrong. He was met by half a dozen men dressed in SWAT-style gear who told him to return to his home. When he asked what had happened they told him he could read all about in the tomorrow’s newspapers. But what his neighbor wouldn’t read about was Bujduveanu’s mother, who suffered was later diagnosed as a heart attack. Officials called a fire and rescue ambulance for her, but later sent it away after she was stabilized in an attempt to cover up the incident.
Frustrated in not being able to find what they were looking for, a squad of agents and officers began digging, literally, with shovels found on the property.
Interestingly, the government claims to have “found boxes of military aircraft parts stored on Bujduveanu’s property, including hundreds of parts for the C-130, the F-5, and other military aircrafts.”
The court, in its limited wisdom, has decided not to allow Bujduveanu to present a multitude of proofs on appeal by granting the government’s “Motion in Limine”, filed after it saw the defensive evidence he planned to present on appeal. It is an obscure legal maneuver that “preclude(s) the Defendant from challenging these (parts) classifications in Court or at trial,” or otherwise in public.
The government’s motion goes on: “In the sampling of the Defendant’s filings attached hereto …, the Defendant attempts to explain that the parts at issue are not military or are not suitable for military use because they are used antiqued parts. This “explanation” would be irrelevant to any judiciable issue at trial.
At this Bujduveanu’s demeanor change and he is no longer the stoic protagonist. Struggling to maintain his emotion he asks, “What are they trying to hide? Why don’t they discuss this in the open? In f

On June 21, 2008, the United States by and through the following agencies: Federal Bureau of Investigations, United States Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, National Security Agency, United States Custom Office, United States Immigration Department of Defense Criminal Investigation Service, Department of Treasury - Office of Foreign Assets Control, Plantation ...

On June 21, 2008, the United States by and through the following agencies: Federal Bureau of Investigations, United States Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, National Security Agency, United States Custom Office, United States Immigration Department of Defense Criminal Investigation Service, Department of Treasury - Office of Foreign Assets Control, Plantation Police Department, Broward County Sheriff Department, Plantation Fire and Rescue Service, Department of Commerce, United States Department of State – Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, Department of Justice, United States Marshall, did raid Traian Bujduveanu’s residence.
This raid requiring over 30 agents to overwhelm any resistance which may have been offered by Traian Bujduveanu or his eighty-four year old blind mother, permitted the government to seize extremely valuable assets which according to the lead prosecutors for the United States were claimed in Court to be worth more than “$ 100,000 from the boxes alone”, not including the cash or computers.
Contrary to the representations made by the assistant United States attorney in her place as an attorney before the bar in the open court, during the preconvention motion, the assets seized were less than $ 10,000.00 rather than considerable “ over $ 100,000.00” aircraft parts and consisted of antiqued aircraft parts, this even after an extensive search involving dozens of agents digging holes in the Traian Bujduveanu’s garden.
The patently ridiculous television type drama did not harvest anything more than would have been recovered if the United States had chosen to detain Traian Bujduveanu while at or on the way to Publix the previous day, or had the United States calmly knocked on the door with a search warrant instead of terrorizing an eighty-four year old blind woman and sending her to the hospital by striking her.
According to the witnesses that have been questioned or interrogated, Traian Bujduveanu was under surveillance since 2007, which represents considerable time before the raid, and could have been detained without the need to break in and breakdown doors, causing unneeded damages to the property and by standers.
Apparently, the bureaucratic imperative of needing to justify the expenses of this misadventure create sufficient rationale for the United States Attorney’s Office to behave in a manner more consistent with Romania’s former communism regime than the spirit of the “taking clause” in the United States Constitution.
It is regrettable Bujduveanu’s prior counsels, openly admitted, they were afraid to challenge the United States otherwise this matter could have been more promptly addressed.
A current colleague of Bujduveanu has said it is a shame to hear this type of fear comment from any citizen, let alone attorneys, because when the government’s citizens have become afraid of the government, especially where it involves the citizens willingness to speak the truth, “the government no longer has legitimate authority to govern”.
The government conducted a massive investigation to get a handful of used parts, which if presented to a jury would have resulted not only in acquittal, but made the government a laughing stock.
Bujduveanu regrets buckling into the coercion of the government and his innate fear of government instead of properly presenting the case to court and public and having his day in court.

Nu au mai multe voturi, ci doar culeg mai cu spor din roadele puterii, ca efect al legilor votate si promulgate de de o clasa politica aservita. Ar fi interesant de analizat o statistica care sa reflecte ponderea pe care o au salariile, pe de o parte, si profiturile, pe de alta parte, in structura PIB-lui. Atunci s-ar vedea cu adevarat nedreptatea in toata hidosenia ei. Si, ca un al treilea ...

Nu au mai multe voturi, ci doar culeg mai cu spor din roadele puterii, ca efect al legilor votate si promulgate de de o clasa politica aservita. Ar fi interesant de analizat o statistica care sa reflecte ponderea pe care o au salariile, pe de o parte, si profiturile, pe de alta parte, in structura PIB-lui. Atunci s-ar vedea cu adevarat nedreptatea in toata hidosenia ei. Si, ca un al treilea parametru al distributiei, fiindca omenirea tot are obsesia "troicai", cat din profit se investeste, dand de lucru oamenilor, si cat se trasforma in venit personal al oamenilor de afaceri. Desi constientizati, si chiar recunoasteti, ca lumea de afaceri se comporta ca un rege neincoronat al vietii economice si politice, luandu-si partea ce "i se cuvine", sau cred ca i se cuvine, prin intermediul politicului, captiv al acestora gratie nevoii de resurse financiare pentru campaniile electorale costisitoare, nu oferiti in schimb si-o alternativa de iesire din acest cerc vicios in care a intrat clasa politica. Pe de o parte, clasa politica isi extrage puterea din cumularea voturilor, obtinuta prin manipularea de catre mijloacelor media a electoratului, detinute de acesti flamanzi de bogatie si putere, si, pe de alta parte, este nevoita sa minta opinia publica, alegatoare, cea care reprezinta teoretic izvorul puterii. Clasa politica pretinde ca reprezinta poporul in integralitatea sa, dar, in realitate, este prizoniera oligarhilor; prizonierat amplificat de nevoia de publicitate al produsului politic promovat. Actuala criza economica este rezultatul acestui mod disproportionat de distribuire a produsului muncii oamenilor. Excesiva acumulare de bogatie in conturile magnatilor, determinata de stimularea consumului prin imprumut peste limita prudentiala, a dat nastere, cum era de asteptat - si nu cred ca inteleptii lumii financiare n-au stiut la ce situatie expun economia mondiala - la un deficit financiar in satisfacerea nevoilor salariatilor. Cu cat se stimula mai mult consumul de locuinte, prin imprumuturi, cu atat munca omului se dilua mai mult, ajungandu-se la situatia hilara ca, pentru nevoia de habitat, omul sa fie nevoit sa munceasca 30 de ani si chiar mai mult. Fara sa privesc exclusiv din punct de vedere social situatia, cum am facut-o cu alte ocazii, acum ma voi marginii s-o privesc din punctul de vedere al celor ce-au generat criza prin lacomia cu care s-au "hranit" din produsul social al muncii. Pagubind salariatul, prin diluarea muncii sale, punandu-l sa munceasca dublu sau triplu pentru a-si satisface o nevoie elementara de locuinta, oligarhia si-a dat singura cu stangul in dreptul. Imprumutatorul, prin stagnarea salariala, concomitent cu crestera preturilor generata de activitati speculatorii sau/si ca urmare a cresterii pretului generat de cresterea consumului, a fost pus in situatia imposibila a achitarii creditului. Lasand la o parte faptul ca ponoasele greselilor lor s-au repartizat asupra intregii populatii, desi doar o minoritate se face vinovata de colapsul economic, observam ca pierderile s-au distribuit, ca o dreptate divina, si asupra celor ce le-au provocat. S-au lacomit si acum fluiera a paguba. Intr-un fel criza e benfica, demonstrand acestor hrapareti ca stomacul economiei mondiale nu digera bine dozarea distributiei bogatiei atat de nedrept. Ca si in natura, si in economie actioneaza legi ale echilibrului, iar cand echilibrul distributiei se rupe se prodice efectul de bumerang al crizei sub forma recesiune. Daca am toate motivele sa nu ma astept la o schimbare de mentalitate a lumii financiare si a clasei politice, din umanitate, in schimb, sunt sigur ca sabia pericolului care planeaza asupra lor le va schimba comportamentul. De n-o vor face, isi vor sapa singuri groapa. Niciodata nu mi-am inchipuit, cand visam la mirajul capitalismului pe care-l idolatrizam cu mintea natangului, ca democratia se fundamenatea pe manipulare si usurinta cu care se face acest lucru. In realitate, nu electoratul decide, el doar are iluzia ca decide, ci banul, sub cele mai perverse moduri in care este travestit. Trezirea electoratului din letargie si ignoranta este imposibila la scara mare (cazurile izolate nu conteaza), schimbarea atitudinii conducatorilor de amorul artei nu se va face in vecii-vecilor, asa incat doar legile echilibrului economic imi mai dau garantia unui comportament rezonabil al celor doi poli de putere ai capitalismului: clasa politica si lumea finantelor. Si daca nici astfel nu le vine mintea la cap, n-avem decat sa suportam consecintele propriilor greseli la infinit.