And now, The San Francisco- Lake Spenard Fighter Jet Squadron Connection

Security Aviation is owned by Mark Avery, former Anchorage prosecutor and son of a well know San Francisco attorney. Avery left SF in the 1990s, but is still paid $400k a year (!) along with the other trustees to manage the May and Stanley Smith Charitable trust ( a story picked up previously in the San Jose Mecury News) which gives money to help

poor women in South Africa "maybe to raise chickens or do some ceramics they can sell as souvenirs, that sort of thing," Matheny (one of the three trustees) said.

Clearly, these trustees are masters of critical details. The UN has long demanded increased funding for ceramics souvenir/ chicken raising in South Africa - and the private sector stepped up. You can't pay enough for that kind of competence. And they assure us the trust funds weren't used for the private Lake Spenard Fighter Jet Squadron.

Early on at least, his work with the Smith Charitable Trust position took 80 percent of his time, he said in a 2003 interview with the San Jose Mercury News, which published a story examining the $400,000 salaries of the trustees. He also was busy with trust clients he inherited from his father, he said.

Because the trust was from a pile of foreign money from a mine in Malaysia, they DON'T have to report who gets the grants. The following is my best estimate of the trust's grant criteria:

The Smith Charitable Trust supports private, 501 (c) 3 or other organizations working towards development of or the creative use of ceramics in production of curios for the third world tourist economy, such as decorative Tiki-themed Mai tai mugs, or adorable pink ceramic kittens, or reproductions of legally distinct Garfield merchandise; it makes multi-million dollar grants for chicken farming on farms where there are in fact chickens, for spreading of feed amongst chickens, and for shooing chickens in from the yard at suppertime; it also makes targeted grants to develop private fighter jet squadrons and arms trading north of the 50th parallel, or other areas which are underserved by traditional fighter jet squadrons and arms trading, like Andora or Burkina Faso, and could sure use some private fighter jet squadrons right fast.