[Cachelot]

Great find!

It gets greater. Before Nix went to sleep we looked a little at the Fatemi connection.

Seems there is a whole Fatemi branch of the Byrdies. So this old KKK kingpin has a two-generation Arab side to the family tree :).

Mohammad Fatemi is into oil. His sons seems well connected in the military establishment. Just an example from Fredrik Fatemi's background:

Laser systems : Nd:YAG, excimer, and tunable OPO pulsed laser systems

He seems to have done a stint at Naval Research Laboratory.

Much more here.

[Nix 2]

Thanks for putting this up for me, Cache. I was about to die.
Indeed, the Fatemis are quite well established in the energy field, Ms. Byrd's husband, Mohammad, is now just resigned from Amoco, but previously, he represented the industry at the Argonne Institute annual meetings.
His sons, Fredrik and Darius, (Byrd's grandsons,) are both physicists and very ensconced in our military establishment, including satellite imaging and nuclear research.
There is a whole lot more here than meets the eye, including a program that Byrd attributes to humself of an Appalachian/Turkish business partnership.
Money, oil, and nuclear physics sound like interesting reasons to oppose any grappling with Iraq, but if y'all will recall, Byrd wanted Clinton to lower the EPA standards for West Virginia coal. Clinton promised he would if Byrd would vote against conviction at Clinton's impeachment trial. Byrd did, then Clinton told him to kiss the sky.
It wouldn't surprise me even a little, if he hasn't made that same demand of Bush and got turned down flat.