The government of Libya, an enemy of the US government since the 80's, was the first to ask Interpol to seek out Osama bin Laden. Libya wants bin Laden for his involvement in the murder of a pair of German intelligence officers in their country. In 1996 a Libyan al Qaida group, al-Muqatila, tried to kill Libyan leader Colonel Muammar al-Qadafi, killing several other people, with the loss of several al-Muqatila members. A British domestic security (MI5) officer, David Shayler, came forward, with documents, claiming that the external security agency, MI6, gave al Qaida an amount equal to $160,000 dollars for the attempt. The British continued to shield al-Muqatila, allowing it to publish a newspaper in London. Al-Muqatila member Anas al-Liby, thought to be a high official in al Qaida and with bin Laden in Sudan before al Qaida was expelled from the country, was given political asylum in Britain until May 2000. He fled his home in Manchester before a raid, which found an al Qaida terrorism primer. The US is offering $25 million dollars for the capture of al-Liby, who is on the most wanted list for involvement in the east African US embassy bombings. During Shayler's trial in November 2002, Blair issued a D notice, requiring British media to stop their reporting and cover up articles already published.
Since then, relations between Libya, the UK, and the US have warmed. After extensive negotiations with Britain, Libya gave up its small nuclear weapons program. According to Michael C. Ruppert, Libya gave an oil lease to Nelson and Baker Hunt, Texas oilmen, Bush family friends.
Britain was an ally of the US in the war on Yugoslavia, which involved cooperating with Islamists linked to al Qaida (see below).
Indigo, an online French intelligence website (www.indigo-net.com) alleges that bin Laden went to London on the invitation of British intelligence in 1996.
Saudi ties to al Qaida
The Saudi government supports the Sunni fundamentalist Wahhabi interpretation of Islam, and shares this ideology with Osama bin Laden. Besides their shared religious beliefs, many analysts believe the Saudis supported al Qaida in exchange for al Qaida not trying to undermine the rule of the royal House of Saud. The Saudis have allegedly been funding al Qaida and other militant groups, along with Wahhabi clerics, since Crown Prince Abdullah became regent in 1996, according to Martin S. Indyk, a former top State Department official, as part of a royal strategy to stay in power. A high-ranking US intelligence agent told Seymour Hersh that the Saudis have "gone over to the dark side" (from the New Yorker, October 22, 2001).
Supposedly "Osama bin Laden is the arch enemy of the Saudi regime. He was kicked out of the country 10 years ago. His citizenship was revoked," according to Prince Faisal bin Salman (New York Daily News, May 22, 2004, quoted by David Ray Griffin in The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Comissions, O&C). This is probably untrue, or only partly true, given the many reports of Saudi high officials and prominent Saudi subjects who met with bin Laden and apparently knowingly funded al Qaida, even after attacks in Saudi Arabia and the US. Gerald Posner, in Why America Slept, says secret US intelligence believes the Saudis made a deal with bin Laden in 1991 whereby he would leave and be denounced (this happened in April 1994), but his agents would be paid by the Saudis, in return for not acting against Saudi Arabia. French intelligence allegedly eavesdropped on a meeting in Paris' Hotel Royal Monceau including Saudi elite, one of bin Laden's brothers, a representative of the Saudi Defense Ministry, and weapons traffickers in May 1996 that upheld the 1991 agreement to protect the Saudis and support bin Laden's role in spreading Wahhabism (Canadian Broadcasting Corp., 10/29/03, and Greg Palast's book The Best Democracy Money Can Buy). Top Saudi officials, including Prince Turki al Faisal, former King Faisal's son and chief of Saudi intelligence until two weeks before 9/11, went on hunting junkets in Afghanistan, leaving funds and equipment for the Taliban in the 90's. Allegedly he was close to Osama bin Laden. Neo-con Richard Perle's Defense Policy Board wrote a report calling the Saudis "the kernel of evil, the prime mover, the most dangerous opponent" July 10, 2002, though that is a minority view in the Bush Administration.
Reportedly the Saudis were told by the CIA in 1998 that two terrorists were leading an al Qaida cell in their country, according to former CIA Directorate of Operations Case Officer Robert Baer. The Saudis allegedly gave the suspects passports under false names before the FBI could arrest them. Later an aide to the Saudi minister of defense Prince Sultan refused to take a detailed list of about 600 alleged terrorists offered in August 2001, and the CIA's Counter Terrorism Center also refused to take action. The list came from a source in the Saudi military. Baer also alleged that Yemen is hiding information about the USS Cole bombing. According to Guillaume Dasquié, an author of Forbidden Truth, the Saudis beheaded people the FBI wanted to question regarding the embassy bombings, to prevent them from talking.
According to Posner, captured alleged al Qaida official Abu Zubaida revealed the al Qaida connections of three Saudi royals (as well as the head of the Pakistani airforce), who later died in strange circumstances. Zubaida was questioned (under the influence of sodium pentothal), after his March 2002 apprehension, by two Arab-Americans claiming to be Saudis. He told them that he worked for Saudi officials, said to call the King's nephew, Prince Ahmed bin Abdul-Aziz, and gave the Americans the phone numbers of Prince Ahmed bin Salman (a nephew of King Fahd), Prince Sultan bin Faisal, and Prince Fahd bin Turki. Zubaida said that they helped transfer money to al Qaida and he allegedly claimed that Prince Ahmed knew there would be an attack of some kind in the USA on 9/11.
Posner claims that two American officials confirmed this account, a second confirmed the interrogation tactics, and all three implicated Saudis were dead within 8 days in late July, after the Saudis were informed of the allegations in May 2002. The public story is that Prince Ahmed, 41 years old, died of a heart attack in his sleep July 22, Prince Sultan was killed in a car crash on the way to Ahmed's funeral, involving no other cars, and Prince Fahd, 21 years old, died of thirst in the desert. There is evidence the Ahmed might have been in Saudi custody by early June. He very much wanted to win the horse racing Triple Crown, but he missed the final race on June 8th, after one of his horses won the two previous races.
On the other hand, Griffin points out that Posner's account is suspect, because his academic integrity has been questioned in the past, he supports the official 9/11 story in the rest of his book (and he supports the official account of the JFK assassination), and he relied on two unnamed officials, from the CIA and a senior Bush Administration official. Some believe that Posner's role is to prop up a case for future US aggression against Saudi Arabia and that the people named are being blamed to divert attention from real plotters (from Paul Thompson's The Terror Timeline; this very detailed timeline and many others, with links to primary news sources, are online at www.historycommons.org).
Allegedly Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah and ISI Director Mahmoud Ahmed met with Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban, during the summer of 2001 (and September 19, 2001) to get the Taliban to extradite bin Laden to Saudi Arabia where he would be tried and acquitted. In another meeting Saudi and Pakistani intelligence officials reportedly tried to persuade the Taliban to sacrifice bin Laden to save themselves
Intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal was suddenly replaced, after 24 years of service, August 31, 2001. His replacement, Nawaf bin Abdul Aziz, is Turki's nephew and the King's brother, and had no experience in intelligence. Turki was sent to the UK as ambassador in October 2002 and was sued that same year over 9/11. Allegedly he is the person who set up Afghan meetings between bin Laden and his stepmother in the spring of 1998 and he oversaw Saudi efforts in Afghanistan (the New Yorker, 11/5/01).
Allegedly, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the USA, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, and (especially) his wife, Princess Haifa, gave over $100,000 dollars to Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar (the suspected hijackers the US government supposedly lost track of as they traveled to LA) and an alleged Saudi asset who was aiding them, Omar al-Bayoumi. The money was at first given to the wife of Osama Basnan to help treat her thyroid problem. Osama Basnan is a friend of al-Bayoumi, and from 2000 on, the checks went from Mrs Basnan to Mrs al-Bayoumi. Allegedly Osama Basnan told his FBI interrogators that he provided more support for the plot than al-Bayoumi. Prince Bandar has long been a close friend of the Bushes, even being nicknamed "Bandar Bush," and he gave $1 million dollars to the G.W. Bush Presidential Library.
Omar al-Bayoumi, who an FBI asset thought was a Saudi agent, helped Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar by meeting them at an airport in Los Angeles, getting them an apartment near his residence in San Diego, aiding them in getting a bank account, car insurance, and Social Security cards, and helping them inquire about Florida pilot schools. According to Senator Bob Graham, al-Bayoumi met with a man with alleged terrorism ties at the LA Saudi consulate prior to meeting with Alhazmi and Almihdhar. Allegedly, al-Bayoumi also had a job that was in title only, but he got more than $3000 dollars monthly for it from the Saudi government, and $6500 dollars a month while was helping the 9/11 plotters. He made many calls to people in the Saudi government. Two months before 9/11 al-Bayoumi moved to the UK, where he was arrested after the attacks. He had a phone number for a contact in the Saudi embassy when he was arrested. An August 2002 CIA document cited by Graham says al-Bayoumi is a Saudi "agent" and that elements in the Saudi government were definitely aiding "terrorists" al-Bayoumi and Osama Basnan. The FBI concluded that al-Bayoumi only loaned money to the hijackers, out of courtesy, but FBI Director Robert Mueller refused to grant Senator Graham access to the investigating agents (described by Griffin in O&C).
Saud al-Rashid is the son of Hamid al-Rashid, who paid Bayoumi's wages, and Saud al-Rashid's picture was found on a CD with those of four of the alleged hijackers, August 15, 2002 in an al Qaida house in Pakistan. He was in Afghanistan from 2000-2001. He fled from Egypt to Saudi Arabia, where he was shielded from US investigation.
September 10, 2001 the alleged hijackers Hani Hanjour, Khalid Almihdhar, and Nawaf Alhazmi reportedly stayed at the same hotel as Saleh Ibn Abdul Rahman Hussayen, a Saudi official investigated by the FBI but not charged with a crime. Hussayen was director of a Saudi charity, the SAAR Foundation, possibly linked to terrorists, during much of the decade before 9/11, and was made a minister supervising holy sites after the attacks. In late August 2001 he was visiting Saudi funded charities in the USA, many of them suspected of supporting terrorism. During an FBI interrogation after 9/11 Hussayen faked a seizure and left for Saudi Arabia as soon as the commercial flight ban ended. In early 2004 Hussayen's nephew, Sami Omar Hussayen, was charged with doing computer work for terrorist groups and maintaining the website of the pro-terrorism Islamic Assembly of North America charity (sources cited in The Terror Timeline).
The card of the head of Islamic affairs in Saudi Arabia's Berlin embassy, Muhammad J. Fakihi, was found in the apartment of alleged conspirator Mounir Motassedeq. The Saudis say Fakihi and Motassedeq did not meet.
As in Pakistan, elements in the Saudi government, not just prominent individuals, may have directly helped the 9/11 plot. According to an article in the Chicago Tribune (3/31/04), Germany suspects two alleged Saudi General Intelligence Directorate fronts (the Twaik Group and Rawasin Media Productions) of supporting al Qaida. Over $250,000 dollars were transferred by the Twaik Group to Mamoun Darkazanli, who was watched by the CIA for 10 years while in Hamburg, Germany, and could be an al Qaida asset, having had many contacts with European al Qaida leaders. The CIA asked German intelligence starting in 1999 to convince Darkazanli to be an informant, which he repeatedly refused to do, and the CIA refused to provide more information, which the Germans requested. According to Newshour on PBS (online, 10/25/02) the US also broke off contacts with Germany over German's opposition to attacking Iraq, and the Administration did not contact the German government for four or more months after the German elections.
Syrian Spaniard Mohammed Galeb Kalaje Zouyadi was allegedly the financer of the European branches of al Qaida, and an employee of his seemed to have reconnoitered the World Trade Center (WTC) in 1997. Zouyadi was also at one time the accountant of the al-Faisal Saudi royalty.
The head of New York's Capital Trust Bank and the largest Saudi bank, Mohammad Hussein al-Amoudi, chief of the oil magnate al-Amoudi family, is another prominent Saudi capitalist connected to bin Mahfouz, al Qaida, and the American companies wired into the Bush Administration. Al-Amoudi owns Delta Oil, a partner in the Afghan pipeline consortium, and it is in a joint venture with bin-Mahfouz's Nimir Petroleum, and they jointly control The Marei Bin Mahfouz & Ahmed Al Amoudi Group of Companies & Factories. A November 2002 lawsuit in the USA included al-Amoudi as a defendant, charging him with aiding in 9/11 and directing the Kenyan office of the al-Haramain Islamic Foundation. The Foundation was closed by Kenya after the 1998 bombings and the Kenyan and Somali offices were labeled terrorist by the USA. The Bushes aren't the only ones linked to Saudi capitalists and possible al Qaida supporters - al Amoudi's lawyer is Clinton confidant Vernon Jordan.
Suspect Saudis were allowed to leave the US with little scrutiny after 9/11
According to the conservative civil liberties group Judicial Watch, around 300 Saudis (including about 41 bin Ladens) were allowed out of the country between September 14th and 24th with little or no oversight by agencies tasked with discovering the perpetrators. Among those on the flights were the son of former Defense Minister Prince Sultan, his father allegedly having given $6 million dollars or more to four al Qaida connected charities since 1994 and being sued in 2002 for involvement in the conspiracy. Others were Khalil bin Laden, suspected of terrorism ties by Brazil, and Osama bin Laden's cousins Abdullah and Omar. Abdullah bin Laden (not the family spokesperson) directed the US branch of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth charity (WAMY), which India, Pakistan, and the Philippines link to terrorism. For a short time four of the alleged hijackers resided three blocks from the WAMY office in Falls Church, Virginia. Abdullah bin Laden was also an officer of the Talibah International Aid Association in Virginia, an organization suspected of al Qaida ties. The FBI investigated both cousins in 1996 in a case related to espionage, murder, and national security concerns, which was restarted 9/19, after their departure.
September 16th, 46 people left Las Vegas, including Saudi royals. No one was interviewed, and the passengers were not identified until the day before. Twenty-six bin Ladens left on a flight September 20th. It was the most scrutinized flight, but the scrutiny was weak. Twenty-two were questioned, according to the 9/11 Commission "Many [not all] were asked detailed questions." The day before a flight left Boston carrying at least 10 bin Ladens who were not interviewed at all. Various reports say that the passengers were identified, but were not investigated much, and others say that some passengers left without speaking to FBI agents. The bin Ladens were only interviewed by the FBI briefly, at departure. It should be noted that Saudi Arabia has often resisted terrorism investigations of its subjects. The information about the Saudi government and the bin Laden family earlier in this article shows that there is reason to have been careful about letting some of these people leave the country so easily.
Some commercial airlines began operating again on September 13th, and the chartered flights back to Saudi Arabia began immediately, probably in violation of the supposed flight ban. For example, September 13th a private flight flew Saudis from Tampa, Florida to Lexington, Kentucky, and some suspect that it was approved by the White House, because private flights were not allowed until September 14th. It was apparently covered up by Tampa airport officials, the FBI, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) until it was proven to have occurred by the 9/11 Commission, which then sought to cover up the lies and the unusual nature of the flight. The Bush Administration denied the existence of these flights, and is still silent on the issue, but in 2003 Richard Clarke, former National Security Council National Coordinator of Counterterrorism, and later former Secretary of State Colin Powell and the Tampa International Airport (but not until 2004), admitted that these flights were allowed. The 9/11 Commission tried to make Richard Clarke responsible for approving the flights, but they did not prove it and there is reason to think Bush approved it, for example since he met with Saudi ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan in a prearranged meeting September 13th. For more information, see Chapter 7 of Griffin's O&C and journalist Craig Unger's House of Bush, House of Saud).
An article in the Los Angeles Times (LAT) (6/20/04) reported that the 9/11 Commission found that "Saudi Arabia provided funds and equipment to the Taliban and probably directly to Bin Laden," though an interim report allegedly downplayed the findings and the final report said the government of Saudi Arabia was innocent of supporting al Qaida. Twenty-seven pages on Saudi support for the 9/11 plot were classified in the Joint Congressional 9/11 Inquiry's final report.
Osama bin Laden is still a bin Laden
Supposedly the bin Laden family has broken all ties with Osama bin Laden, and he no longer has access to family funds. One of bin Laden's sisters has said that it is unlikely that none of the 54 bin Ladens have contact with him (from French book The Forbidden Truth, quoted by Ruppert), and his sister-in-law told ABC News the same thing. One of Osama bin Laden's half brothers, Yeslam binladin, implied to MSNBC (7/10/2004) that he would not turn in a brother. Reportedly passports belonging to bin Laden family members were found in the house of 5 suspected al Qaida members September 17, 2001 (from CBS News, 9/17/02). Several witnesses reported that bin Laden was treated in July 2001 at the American Hospital in Dubai, where he was visited by many family members, Saudi and Emirati officials, and a CIA official (more about this is below). In the summer of 2001 bin Laden and some of his relatives were at the wedding of his son in Afghanistan (cited in O&C). Osama bin Laden has the advantage of being the only son of Mohammed bin Laden with a Saudi mother, which the authors of The Forbidden Truth argue gives him more standing with the Saudi government than his siblings.
At least some of the other bin Ladens might support al Qaida. Osama's brother, Mahrous bin Laden, is the director of the Medina, Saudi Arabia branch of the Binladin Group, and took part in the 1979 seizure, using Company trucks, of the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Mahrous bin Laden was the only man not beheaded over this incident, allegedly because of his status. A CIA agent told the New Yorker magazine (11/5/01) that a foreign intelligence service thought two of bin Laden's sisters took money to an airport in Abu Dhabi (UAE) to deliver to al Qaida. "The Golden Chain" list of 20 rich sponsors of al Qaida, found at the Benevolence International Foundation's Sarajevo, Bosnia office in March 2002 lists at least one donation to Osama bin Laden by the "bin Laden brothers" (UPI, 2/11/2003).
The other Persian Gulf states
The United Arab Emirates
In the 90's the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Pakistan followed Saudi Arabia's lead (May 26, 1997) and recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. The crown prince of Dubai and minister of defense of the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed ibn Rashid al Maktum, also attended those hunting trips in Afghanistan that delivered supplies to the Taliban. In February 1999 the US cancelled an attempt to kill bin Laden with cruise missiles because a Emirati state plane and royals are there also, and this charge is from the 9/11 Commission!
Allegedly, there was a proposal that Afghanistan extradite bin Laden to the UAE, where he could then be sent to a third country or even the USA. This was an attempt to save the Taliban, who allegedly were having friction with al Qaida.
According to various reports by Le Figaro, Radio France International, and the Guardian (UK), bin Laden was treated for renal failure at the American Hospital in Dubai, UAE July 4-14, 2001, by Dr. Terry Callaway, who has refused to talk about the allegations. Allegedly other bin Ladens and prominent Saudis, including Prince Turki al-Faisal, and reported CIA agent Larry Mitchell, supposedly a consulate employee (on the 12th) and another agent met with bin Laden there. Mitchell was seen going towards bin Laden's alleged room and told others than he met with bin Laden, according to the Le Figaro report (10/31/01). July 15th Mitchell reported to the CIA in person. Bin Laden reportedly left for Quetta, Pakistan on the 14th. According to the Guardian, this information came from French intelligence and was leaked in 2001 to prevent the widening of the "War on Terror." The hospital, the CIA, and bin Laden deny the account. Reportedly Pakistan's ISI also helps bin Laden obtain kidney dialysis treatment (CBS News, 1/28/02) and was treating him the day before 9/11.
The Emirate of Sharjah is reportedly a major link in al Qaida's financial network, as the UAE was a hub for the terrorism-linked BCCI bank. $109, 910 dollars were sent from there to the alleged 9/11 hijackers, mainly to Marwan Alshehhi and Atta, in late summer 2000. The sender used four aliases, including Mustafa Ahmed al-Hiwasi, which some link to Pakistani ISI and al Qaida agent Saeed Sheikh. FBI Director Mueller ties one of the aliases to someone named Ali Abdul Aziz Ali. The NYT (7/10/02) argued that about $325,000 dollars were sent to the hijackers' Florida accounts by the person in Sharjah, which leaves about $200-300,000 dollars unaccounted for (citations in the Terror Timeline). Many of the hijackers set up bank and credit accounts in the UAE (and Saudi Arabia) and received money from this Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi. August 25, 2001 al-Hawsawi received a credit card from an alias allegedly belonging to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, which is why the FBI calls Mohammed the financier of 9/11.
September 8 and 9 this Emirati financier sent more money to Atta from Sharjah's branch of the Al Ansari Exchange. September 9 Atta and two other alleged hijackers returned $15,000 dollars. The UAE asset then put $40,000 dollars on his Visa and left for Karachi, Pakistan on a Saudi passport. In Karachi he got money six times from ATMs and allegedly vanished. In October 2001 he was identified as Saeed Sheikh, and the money transfers to Atta are put forward as proof of al Qaida's role in the 9/11 attacks.
Until November 2002 Sharjah was also home to a Russian former KGB agent, Victor Bout, operating the biggest private weapons trafficking operation in the world. He is the subject of a recent book, Merchant of Death, profiled on National Public Radio's (NPR's) Fresh Air program July 11, 2007. Bout supplied the anti-Taliban forces until 1992, possibly for the CIA, then began supplied the Taliban and al Qaida. In 1996 he transported $50 million dollars, or 40 tons, of Russian equipment to the Taliban and transported 150-200 Ukranian tanks in late 2000. The UAE ignored US requests to stop the operation and allegedly the Bush Administration ignored it until after 9/11. Russia denies that Bout did anything illegal.
Bout was also involved in the drug trade, Sharjah being a center for al Qaida's drug operations. Drugs were brought in on the 3-4 daily flights by the Taliban and al Qaida controlled Afghan Ariana Airlines, and weapons taken back to Afghanistan. Gold paid as a tax on opium were taken to Dubai for laundering (see various newspapers cited by Thompson). The US moved "delicately, not wanting to offend an ally in an already complicated relationship." Allegedly terrorists were identified as Ariana employees by the Taliban so the terrorists could travel freely, and terrorists received flight training from Ariana (LAT, 11/18/01). The UN eventually blocked Ariana from foreign flights in January 2001, but still allowed charter flights. The Ariana trade was then taken over by Victor Bout's Air Cess, and Flying Dolphin, owned by a former UAE ambassador to the US connected to Bout. Briefly, before the 2001 sanctions, the UN let Flying Dolphin handle Ariana's flights, though it had already been alleged that Flying Dolphin was also a weapons trafficker. Bout's company has also been hired to support the US military and contractors such as Halliburton in Iraq, and he flew both UN relief supplies and weapons for all sides in other conflicts.
The UAE owns the company that attempted to buy ports in the US in 2006.
Qatar
Qatari royal and former Interior Minister Abdallah bin Khalid al-Thani has allegedly met with bin Laden after he began attacking Western targets, and al-Thani shielded alleged 9/11 planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others, even after 9/11. According to the New York Times (NYT) (6/8/2002) and ABC News (2/7/2003) bin Laden met with al-Thani between 1996 and 2000 in Qatar, but perhaps it was before bin Laden was indicted. In January 1996 the US found that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was in Qatar and asked to be allowed to arrest him, since he had been indicted for the truck bombing of the WTC and was thought to be building a bomb and planning to bomb US airplanes. Qatar acknowledged Mohammed's presence and his explosives work, but delayed apprehending him. According to the 9/11 Commission al-Thani invited Mohammed to work for the Ministry of Electricity and Water. The US allegedly thought that Qatar would not mind a fait accompli, but decided not to try to capture or kill him without Qatar's permission. That May al-Thani gave al Qaida leaders Mohammed, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Mohammed Atef unused passports and let them escape, according to the above ABC story and one in the LAT (9/1/02). Former CIA agent Robert Baer was told about al-Thani's role by a former Qatari police chief, and tried repeatedly to tell the CIA. Later the former Qatari official was kidnapped, which some speculate was done by the CIA to shield Qatar.
The NYT (2/6/03) reports that al-Thani gave al Qaida passports and over $1 million dollars. Mohammed was allowed to stay in Qatar again for two weeks in late 2001. If this is true, al-Thani is yet another financier of terrorists who has not been acted against by the US government.
Al Adid, a US military base costing a billion dollars is located in Qatar, and was justified for use against Iraq.
Bahrain and Kuwait
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