By Roger Friedman

Michael Jackson never did give up his ties to the Nation of Islam, even
though he was thought to have done so before his trial began in January
2005.

Jackson’s former Neverland Ranch manager Joe Marcus told quite an
interesting story in a deposition he gave earlier this month in the lawsuit
between Jackson associate Marc Schaffel and the singer.

According to sources, Marcus said in the deposition that when Santa Barbara
authorities raided Neverland for a second time, in December 2004, they left
behind a sealed envelope filled with cash which was in a safe. Marcus said
that Jackson told him to deliver the money to Leonard Searcy, aka Leonard
Muhammad, at a Beverly Hills hotel.

Muhammad, the son-in-law of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, had
taken over Jackson’s business affairs and security in December 2003 at the
request of Jackson’s brother, Jermaine. That was less than a month after
Jackson had been arrested for child molestation.

For months, Jackson’s advisers and many family members and friends were cut
off from the singer by Muhammad.

That triggered a number of things, including the assertion by Jackson’s
ex-wife, Debbie Rowe, that she was concerned about her kids being near
members of the NOI because she had converted to Judaism and considered them
Jewish. That claim contributed to Rowe regaining her parental rights in
family court.

Marcus also confirmed that no one at Neverland had been paid in six weeks
(this was back on Feb. 1) and that he had moved to Arizona — something we’d
reported earlier. The employees to this day have not received paychecks
since Dec. 23, 2005.

That Jackson was still sending money to the NOI in December 2004 comes as a
surprise. On April 27, 2004, I wrote in this space that Jackson had allowed
his brother Randy and sketchy attorney Brian Oxman to remove Leonard
Muhammad and the NOI from Jackson’s world.

But now with Marcus’s revelations, it seems that Michael still trusted or at
least owed money to Leonard Muhammad six months later.

Coincidentally, it was Jermaine Jackson, Michael’s other brother, who
brought the Nation into the pop star’s world. Jermaine spent a lot of his
time in 2004-2005 abroad in Bahrain paving the way for Michael to do
business there once the trial was over.

Jermaine had plans to become partners with Prince Abdullah of Bahrain in a
record label called 2Seas, which would star his brother Michael.

Recently, a Web site for 2Seas Records went “live” at www.2seasrecords.com.
What’s interesting about 2Seas is that the Web site was registered back in
November 2004, well before Jackson’s trial started.

It would seem that Prince Abdullah had been planning it right along. But
why? And how? All we can figure is that Jermaine Jackson’s long stays in
Bahrain around that time, combined with his interest in all things Muslim,
made this possible.

The first record scheduled for 2Seas is Jackson’s B-list charity single, “I
Have This Dream,” which will purportedly benefit survivors of Hurricane
Katrina.

The record, which may now have some kind of work on it by Kanye West, still
hasn’t come out. The 2Seas Web site has no information about the actual
record, but it does promise a lot. “In a time of devastating catastrophe,
music to heal the pain. 2 Seas Records: No challenge is too great. Putting
people first.”

Source: FOX News

Category: Archive