Saudi government "had direct role" in 9/11 attacks?

[Cain]

Bump

http://whowhatwhy.com/2013/06/05/fbi-knew-about-saudi-911-hijacker-ties-but-lied-to-protect-national-security/

The FBI apparently has known for a decade about links between powerful Saudi interests and the alleged 9/11 hijackers, and has been forced to tacitly admit that it lied about it for all of these years.

In case the import is not clear, let us state emphatically: this is a huge development.

***

In court filings seeking to stave off a media Freedom of Information request, the FBI has stated that releasing documents relating to this issue will harm "national security."  As proof of the sensitivity of the matter, the FBI gave the judge a document dated April 4, 2002, in which the FBI states that its own inquiries "revealed many connections" between a well-connected Saudi family with a house in South Florida and "individuals associated with the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001."

And http://whowhatwhy.com/2011/09/22/saudi-royal-ties-to-911-hijackers-via-florida-saudi-family-0/

Building on these revelations, WhoWhatWhy has found documents laying out the Ghazzawis' royal connections through a nest of Saudi corporations that share the name EIRAD. Esam Ghazzawi is director of EIRAD Management Company, the UK division of EIRAD Trading and Contracting Co. Ltd., which among other things holds the Saudi franchise for many multinational brands, including UPS. Esam's brother Mamdouh, whose name shows up on public records associated with family properties in the U.S., is the Executive Managing Director of the parent firm, EIRAD Holding Co. Ltd. EIRAD has connections to the US government via contracts. In 2008, records show, the State Department paid EIRAD $11,733 for rental of facilities, presumably in Saudi Arabia.

There is no indication that the company itself, or any of its officers or employees, have any connection to the 9/11 incident, or knowledge of anything regarding Mr. Ghazzawi's activities in the United States.  Calls for comment to the company's main switchboard went unanswered during normal business hours; its website was not functioning properly and Saudi trade officials in the United States had not furnished alternative contact information at publication time.

But the now-revealed link between the Ghazzawis and the highest ranks of the Saudi establishment reopens questions about the White House's controversial approval for multiple charter flights allowing Saudi nationals to depart the U.S., beginning about 48 hours after the attacks, without the passengers being interviewed by law enforcement—despite the identification of the majority of the hijackers as Saudis.

Phone records showed communication, dating back more than a year, that connected those in the house with the alleged plot leader, Mohammed Atta and his accomplices, including eleven of the other hijackers. Other records, kept by guards at the gated community, documented numerous visits to the house by a vehicle known to have been used by Atta, and indicated the physical presence in the car of Atta's purported accomplice Ziad Jarrah. It appeared as if the Ghazzawi house was some kind of nerve center for the entire operation.

According to the senior counterterrorism officer, both Esam Ghazzawi and his son-in-law al-Hiijjii had been on a watch list at the FBI predating 9/11. An unnamed U.S. agency tracking terror funds had also taken an interest in them. "464 was Ghazzawi's number," the officer said. "I don't remember the other man's number."

Sultan's brother Prince Ahmed was the most westernized of the Saudi set. He raised racehorses in Kentucky and was the owner of the 2001 Kentucky Derby winner, with the perhaps unfortunate name "War Emblem." Allegations concerning Prince Ahmed emerged in the 2003 book, Why America Slept, by the bestselling author Gerald Posner. Posner says that intelligence sources told him how in March, 2002, under interrogation (but before he was waterboarded 83 times in August), Al Qaeda's purported chief of operations, Abu Zubaydah, relaxed and began cooperating. Tricked into thinking he was in Saudi custody, Zubaydah asked his interrogators to call a senior member of the Saudi Royal family, who he said was his contact. He provided, from memory, the man's private home and cell phones. This contact, according to Posner, was Prince Ahmed.

Zubaydah is alleged to have said that Osama bin Laden had cut a deal with a top Pakistani military official, Air Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir, who was close to Islamist elements in Pakistani intelligence. According to this account, the Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Turki, signed off on this, and agreed to provide aid to the Taliban in Afghanistan and not to go after Al Qaeda so long as the terrorist group kept its gun sights trained away from the Saudi royals.

In this version of events, Zubaydah is said to have also implicated Prince Sultan, along with another cousin, Prince Fahd bin Turki bin Saud al-Kabir, as Al Qaeda backers, and to have claimed that the Pakistani Air Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir and Saudi Prince Ahmed knew in advance about the 9/11 attacks.

Though the interrogators were skeptical of these claims, Zubaydah often proved credible. Information he provided led to the capture of a senior al-Qaeda operative in Southeast Asia. Zubaydah would only talk when he thought he was in Saudi hands. When U.S. personnel, no longer posing as Saudis, confronted him, Zubaydah said he had made up his earlier statements. But investigators found no basis for believing the information to be false—and even found material that corroborated his claimed ties to high level Saudis. Not surprisingly, the Saudi and Pakistani governments insisted his claims were false in all respects.

Several of those alleged to have had knowledge of this putative scheme and its enormous implications met with untimely ends shortly after Zubaydah's interrogation. In June, 2002, three months after Zubaydah's capture, the man he identified as his controller, Prince Ahmed, died of what officials said was a heart attack while asleep. Another brother of Ahmed's and Sultan's, Prince Fahd bin Salman bin Abdulazziz, died of a heart attack on July 25, 2001, about six weeks before the 9/11 attacks. The death of Fahd, who preceded his brother as head of EIRAD, is described in a Riyadh-datelined article by Middle East Newsfile, as follows:

Prince Fahd died suddenly. Prince Fahd did not show any symptoms of any ailment. He had, however, made an appointment with a dentist at King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh to check a toothache.

A cousin, Prince Sultan bin Faisal bin Turki al-Saud, died when his car crashed en route to Salman's funeral. Zubaydah had supposedly implicated Prince Sultan bin Faisal, and another royal, Prince Fahd bin Turki bin Saud al-Kabir. as Al-Qaeda supporters. All these men were in their forties. Still another key figure in Zubaydah's monstrous scenario met an untimely death. On February 20, 2003, Mushaf Ali Mir, the Pakistani air force chief, his wife and fifteen others, were killed in a plane crash.

The first sign of the Ghazzawi clan on the east coast of the United States was in 1992, when Esam bought a penthouse apartment in the D.C. suburb of Rosslyn, Virginia. In various accounts, Esam is described as a banker or financier, who also works as an interior designer. He accrued additional property in Arlington, Virginia and Longboat Key, Florida, and his name turns up in connection with a fancy office building in the K Street lobbying corridor.

In this period, Esam's name surfaced when investigators probing the monumentally corrupt Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) sought to recover assets from Saudi Prince Fahd bin Salman—brother of Prince Sultan bin Salman.  The prince argued that his assets were being held in another account under Esam Ghazzawi's name. Only low-level BCCI officials went to jail in the sprawling scandal, which involved banks and governments all over the world. Prince Fahd bin Salman is one of the relatives who died unexpectedly in the year of the 9/11 attacks. (The Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations were repeatedly accused by investigators into the BCCI mess of obstructing their inquiries; it is worth noting that the Treasury Department official responsible for scrutinizing BCCI's affairs in the Reagan-Bush administration was assistant secretary for enforcement John M. Walker Jr.—who happened to be George H.W. Bush's cousin.)

Tellingly, the venerable British insurance company Lloyd's of  London actively investigated Saudi complicity in 9/11. As reported by the U.K. paper The Independent, a Lloyd's unit has launched what is described as "a landmark legal case" against Saudi Arabia, claiming that the kingdom is indirectly responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Lloyd's asserts that Saudi banks and charities acting as surrogates for the royal family gave the terrorist group the sustenance it needed to carry out the 2001 assault. (Lloyd's is seeking to recover sums it paid to firms and individuals affected by the event.)

Bizarrely, several days ago, Lloyd's quietly withdrew its suit, declining to explain why. But the move was conducted in such a way to suggest a possible settlement, thereby raising still more questions for investigation.

Obviously, this all needs to be corroborated.  But if even half of this is accurate...

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I've read some reports of pretty corrupt shit from the Saudis so I don't find it implausible, at all.

[Cain]

Bump

http://www.ibtimes.com/911-link-saudi-arabia-topic-28-redacted-pages-government-report-congressmen-push-release-1501202

It took Jones six weeks and several letters to the House Intelligence Committee before the classified pages from the 9/11 report were made available to him. Jones was so stunned by what he saw that he approached Rep. Lynch, asking him to look at the 28 pages as well. He knew that Lynch would be astonished by the contents of the documents and perhaps would join in a bipartisan effort to declassify the papers.

"I was absolutely shocked by what I read," Jones told International Business Times. "What was so surprising was that those whom we thought we could trust really disappointed me. I cannot go into it any more than that. I had to sign an oath that what I read had to remain confidential. But the information I read disappointed me greatly."

The public may soon also get to see these secret documents. Last week, Jones and Lynch introduced a resolution that urges President Obama to declassify the 28 pages, which were originally classified by President George W. Bush.

And since the USA is no longer so invested in protecting the reputations of ungrateful, spoilt, childish Saudi Princes who played at being terrorist financier to Bin Laden, who knows?  Maybe those pages will finally see the light of day. 

[LMNO]

That would be fairly surprising, considering the lack of transparancy this "transparent" president has shown.

[Cain]

True.  But the Saudis did try to humiliate and bully him into a war with Syria, with Israeli help.

In his place, who would not be inclined to fuck with them?

[Junkenstein]

I can't see them going as far as actually declassyfing papers on this. That's surely just asking Saudi Arabia to take it up a notch and given the apparent access to nuclear weapons, that's a a pretty serious push to tweak a nose.

Or to put it another way, how do you think the state that is fond of using terrorists is likely to respond to these implications?

What I'd say may be more likely, is that the report loses a few sections and it all comes down to one/a few bad apples. Find a scapegoat, remove a problem with a little bad PR and promises of change and reform and everyone can get back on with the plan.

Excellent thread, no idea how I missed this one.

[Cain]

If America is willing to let bloated, drug-addled 7th century theocrats who grease their beards with oil and own dirty bombs intimidate them, they may as well hand in their imperial credentials right now.

[Cain]

Oh, wait.

[Junkenstein]

Good point, well made.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

 

[P3nT4gR4m]

If America is willing to let bloated, drug-addled 7th century theocrats who grease their beards with oil and own dirty bombs intimidate them, they may as well hand in their imperial credentials right now.

[Cain]

More info:

The Saudis deny any role in 9/11, but the CIA in one memo reportedly found "incontrovertible evidence" that Saudi government officials — not just wealthy Saudi hardliners, but high-level diplomats and intelligence officers employed by the kingdom — helped the hijackers both financially and logistically. The intelligence files cited in the report directly implicate the Saudi embassy in Washington and consulate in Los Angeles in the attacks, making 9/11 not just an act of terrorism, but an act of war.

[LMNO]

Whoa.

By why the NY Post, of all publications?  That paper isn't usually listed very high on the "journalistic integrity" charts.

[Cain]

Not sure about that myself.  Paul Sperry is a bit more legitimate...well, as legitimate as anyone who works for the Hoover Institute and is listed as a "conservative pundit" can be.

[LMNO]

Maybe that was the only publication that would give him the space.  I have a feeling most Big Media wouldn't want to have anything to do with this story.