Gov't Report Indicts Saudi Royal Family

[Berzerker]

Apparently the Saudi gov't and Royal family had very close ties with Al Qaida. Huh? I thought it was drug users funding the terrorists, now we find out it was our own gov't? You know, all that financial support the Republicrats have been supplying the Saudis, and all that oil we've been buying. So, why do so many Republicrats laugh when SUV owners are blamed when they had no problem blaming "druggies"?

[ixnay]

I would like a link, kind sir. I see nothing on CNN about this.

[Dis]

sickening

If Bush wants my vote he better do something about this.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Dissident
sickening

If Bush wants my vote he better do something about this.

*Bush sits in Oval Office, contemplating*

"Hmmm, Dissident's vote...or millions upon millions of dollars from Saudi-friendly oil companies...decisions, decisions..."

[Dis]

he knows he better side with me

[Berzerker]

No link, saw it on MSNBC as a breaking story

[Giancarlo]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov


*Bush sits in Oval Office, contemplating*

"Hmmm, Dissident's vote...or millions upon millions of dollars from Saudi-friendly oil companies...decisions, decisions..."

Well the US and Russia do have this deal signed.. that could make Russia take up 13% of the oil market for the US.

I think Bush has already done something. That which I mentioned.

[Lord Merciless]

These reports couldn't possibly be leaked to public without the consent of this administration. They are playing a game with Saudis: by releasing these reports, American public is incensed, Saudis are put on pressure, and should the Saudis not cooperate better, our government will have all the support of the population to go after them.

[Vandal-1]

Originally posted by Lord Merciless
These reports couldn't possibly be leaked to public without the consent of this administration. They are playing a game with Saudis: by releasing these reports, American public is incensed, Saudis are put on pressure, and should the Saudis not cooperate better, our government will have all the support of the population to go after them.

It is not if we go after these Suadiis' but how
1)We need to have some pro-western organization that is a political wing of a 'movement'
2)We need to hve the para-military forces that we subsequently and secretly recruit from the above
3)We need to use our covert assets to identify and kill our enemies with 1 and 2. through out the Middle east The Army is not the best bet of prevailing in struggles of sublime violence and we need to do the ground work before using it .

[DinoDoc]

Eh? I was under the impression that Bush refused to declassify that portion of the report even after the Saudis requested he do so. Did he change his mind?

[The Templar]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
Eh? I was under the impression that Bush refused to declassify that portion of the report even after the Saudis requested he do so. Did he change his mind?

Stuff has been leaking. Check out The New Republic for one such official who claims to have seen the report.

All this stuff about the Saudis wanting the report declassified is a dog-and-pony-show to distract from the fact that the Saudis are the world's biggest financiers of religious fanaticism and terrorism.

Bush is nothing but a goddess-damned phony when it comes to homeland security. "All hat and no cattle" so to speak. God forbid we move against the Saudis when that might hurt Halliburton or Exxon.

[The Templar]

Here's the article from the New Republic (emphasis added):

DAILY EXPRESS
28 Pages
by John B. Judis & Spencer Ackerman


Printer friendly
Only at TNR Online | Post date 08.01.03 E-mail this article

Since the joint congressional committee investigating September 11 issued a censored version of its report on July 24, there's been considerable speculation about the 28 pages blanked out from the section entitled "Certain Sensitive National Security Matters." The section cites "specific sources of foreign support for some of the September 11 hijackers," which most commentators have interpreted to mean Saudi contributions to Al Qaeda-linked charities. But an official who has read the report tells The New Republic that the support described in the report goes well beyond that: It involves connections between the hijacking plot and the very top levels of the Saudi royal family. "There's a lot more in the 28 pages than money. Everyone's chasing the charities," says this official. "They should be chasing direct links to high levels of the Saudi government. We're not talking about rogue elements. We're talking about a coordinated network that reaches right from the hijackers to multiple places in the Saudi government."

This week, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al Faisal flew to Washington for a hastily convened meeting with President Bush. Faisal publicly demanded that the 28 pages be declassified, but he had to have known in advance, and welcomed the fact, that his request would be denied--ostensibly friendly nations don't normally send their foreign ministers to meetings halfway around the world to be surprised. For his part, Bush has insisted that revealing the 28 pages would compromise "sources and methods that would make it harder for us to win the war on terror." But the chairman and vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee at the time of the joint inquiry, Florida Democrat Bob Graham and Alabama Republican Richard Shelby, rejected that argument, contending that perhaps only 5 percent of the 28 pages would compromise national security if made public. Graham and Shelby are leading a drive in Congress to force the government to declassify the documents. While the new chairman and vice-chairman of the committee, Kansas Republican and Bush loyalist Pat Roberts and West Virginia Democrat Jay Rockefeller, have yet to endorse Graham and Shelby's request, Kansas Republican Sam Brownback and New York Senator Charles Schumer have begun gathering signatures demanding declassification.

The Bush administration has, of course, good reason for not wanting to ruffle the Saudis by declassifying the 28 pages. Saudi Arabia sits atop 25 percent of the world's proven oil reserves and, through its dominant position in OPEC, essentially controls the global energy market. In addition to stabilizing world oil prices--most recently during the run-up to the war with Iraq--the Saudis also directly subsidize American consumers by offering oil at lower prices to the United States. In a 2002 article for Foreign Affairs, petroleum experts Edward Morse and James Richard estimated the subsidy at $620 million a year. It's probably much larger now, given recent trends in oil prices and the volume of oil imports. A serious conflict with the Saudis could not only disrupt an already turbulent Middle East, but could halt the economic recovery here and perhaps even precipitate a global downturn.

The Bush administration has insisted, again and again, that the war on terror is its first priority. In testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz argued, "The battle to secure the peace in Iraq is now the central battle in the global war on terror." Wolfowitz says this presumably because he still believes that Saddam Hussein's regime had close ties with Al Qaeda. But it's looking more and more like the principal theater in the war on terror lies elsewhere. The official who read the 28 pages tells The New Republic, "If the people in the administration trying to link Iraq to Al Qaeda had one-one-thousandth of the stuff that the 28 pages has linking a foreign government to Al Qaeda, they would have been in good shape." He adds: "If the 28 pages were to be made public, I have no question that the entire relationship with Saudi Arabia would change overnight."

John B. Judis is a senior editor at TNR. Spencer Ackerman is an assistant editor at TNR.

[The Mad Monk]

I suspect that the leak isn't. Things this big don't get released by "accident".

[gopher]

From todays New York Times, quite shocking:
Report on 9/11 Suggests a Role by Saudi Spies
By JAMES RISEN and DAVID JOHNSTON

WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 — The classified part of a Congressional report on the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, says that two Saudi citizens who had at least indirect links with two hijackers were probably Saudi intelligence agents and may have reported to Saudi government officials, according to people who have seen the report.

These findings, according to several people who have read the report, help to explain why the classified part of the report has become so politically charged, causing strains between the United States and Saudi Arabia. Senior Saudi officials have denied any links between their government and the attacks and have asked that the section be declassified, but President Bush has refused.

People familiar with the report and who spoke on condition of not being named said that the two Saudi citizens, Omar al-Bayoumi and Osama Bassnan, operated in a complex web of financial relationships with officials of the Saudi government. The sections that focus on them draw connections between the two men, two hijackers, and Saudi officials.

The report urges further investigation of the two men and their contacts with the hijackers, because of unresolved questions about their relationship and whether they had any involvement in the 9/11 plot.

The edited 28-page section of the report, produced by a joint panel of the House and Senate intelligence committees, also says that a Muslim cleric in San Diego was a central figure in a support network that aided the same two hijackers. Most connections drawn in the report between the men, Saudi intelligence and the attacks are circumstantial, several people who have read the report said.

The unclassified parts of the report also suggest a connection between Mr. al-Bayoumi and Saudi intelligence. The report says that "one of the F.B.I.'s best sources in San Diego informed the F.B.I. that he thought that al-Bayoumi must be an intelligence officer." The report also says that "despite the fact that he was a student, al-Bayoumi had access to seemingly unlimited funding from Saudi Arabia."

The joint inquiry's investigation of Mr. al-Bayoumi and Mr. Bassnan centered on their activities three years ago when they were living in San Diego. The report concluded that the two men were crucial to understanding the events leading up to the plot, largely because of Mr. al-Bayoumi's extensive contacts with two of the 9/11 hijackers, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, after they settled in San Diego in early 2000. There is no definitive evidence that Mr. Bassnan knew the hijackers, but the report describes him as a close associate of Mr. al-Bayoumi.

One unresolved issue in the classified part of the report concerned Mr. Bassnan's visit to Houston after the attacks. While Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah met with President Bush, Mr. Bassnan met with a Saudi in his entourage, according to the report. It is not known what they discussed.

In San Diego, Mr. al-Bayoumi was employed by a contractor to the Saudi civil aviation authority, and received payments authorized by a Saudi official. But Congressional officials believe he was a "ghost employee" of the contractor who did no actual work. The payments authorized by the Saudi official increased significantly after Mr. al-Bayoumi came in contact with the two hijackers in early 2000, the classified part of the report states.

According to the unclassified parts of the report, Mr. al-Bayoumi first befriended Mr. al-Mihdhar and Mr. al-Hazmi in January 2000 when they arrived in Los Angeles from Bangkok, after attending a meeting in Malaysia with other operatives of al Qaeda. The two men stayed in Mr. al-Bayoumi's apartment for several days. He helped them find their own apartment, paid their first month's rent and security deposit, and threw a party to help them get settled in the local Arabic community.

Law enforcement officials have said, though, that Mr. Almidhar repaid Mr. al-Bayoumi and added that there was no evidence Mr. al-Bayoumi or Mr. Bassnan ever provided any other money to Mr. Almidhar or Mr. Hazmi. That point, the officials said, helps to explain why Mr. al-Bayoumi has not been accused of any crime, like providing material support to terrorists.

Law enforcement officials have played down the significance of the connection between Mr. al-Bayoumi and the two hijackers, saying there is no evidence that Mr. al-Bayoumi knew of the 9/11 plot. They dismissed the tone of the report, which they say portrays the possible links between the plot and Saudi Arabian officials as clearer and more direct than is actually known.

F.B.I. and C.I.A. officials have also said that they are not certain why Mr. al-Bayoumi was in San Diego, and that they are not certain of his exact relationship with the Saudi government. Some officials said that even if he was not a professional Saudi intelligence officer, he may have had some informal role. It is possible, they believe, that he was assigned to monitor the activities of Saudi students and other expatriates in the United States.

Investigators said that the role of the Muslim cleric who the report says served as a "spiritual adviser" to the two hijackers is central to an understanding of what happened in San Diego. The cleric is not named in the declassified section of the report, but officials identified him as Anwar Aulaqi. He is said to have held meetings with the two hijackers, and when he moved to Falls Church, Va., in 2001, the two hijackers moved as well and began to attend the mosque with which the cleric was now associated. Officials said that the report made clear that the cleric's role needs to be investigated further.

Today, 46 Democratic senators asked that the deleted material be released, saying the national security issues Mr. Bush cited as the reason the material was classified could be addressed by careful editing. Republicans, including Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, a former Intelligence Committee chairman, have also called for its release.

Several Congressional officials familiar with the report say that only a small part of the classified section dealing with the specifics of F.B.I. counterintelligence and counterterrorism activities should remain classified. Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said, "Keeping this material classified only strengthens the theory that some in the U.S. government are hellbent on covering up for the Saudis."

National Security Council officials are leading an interagency delegation to Saudi Arabia this weekend to discuss with Saudi officials investigations into the financing of terrorism. The Americans may also ask Saudi permission to interview Mr. al-Bayoumi, who is reportedly now in Saudi Arabia, officials said.

After 9/11, Mr. al-Bayoumi was briefly interviewed in Britain, but has never returned to the United States to face in-depth questioning.

Summary: The opening paragraph says it all.

Regime change in Saudi Arabia?
"You're either with us or them, or Haliburton"

[chequita guevara]

Re: Gov't Report Indicts Saudi Royal Family

Originally posted by Berzerker
Apparently the Saudi gov't and Royal family had very close ties with Al Qaida. Huh? I thought it was drug users funding the terrorists, now we find out it was our own gov't? You know, all that financial support the Republicrats have been supplying the Saudis, and all that oil we've been buying. So, why do so many Republicrats laugh when SUV owners are blamed when they had no problem blaming "druggies"?

*chegitz clears his throat

Ahem, memememememememememe!



I TOLD YOU SO!