ditto ditto
WASHINGTON — A briefing given last month to a top Pentagon advisory board described Saudi Arabia as an enemy of the United States and recommended U.S. officials give it an ultimatum to stop backing terrorism or face seizure of its oil fields and financial assets invested in America.
http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=v...2&language_id=1
''Uncertainty in Saudi Arabia''
For the last several months, factions within Washington's intellectual and foreign policy circles have been calling for the reevaluation of the United States' relationship with the desert monarchy. Many opine that the negative aspects of the existing regime (the Kingdom's perceived complicity with terrorists, social repression) now outweigh the positive ones (Saudi Arabia contains the largest quantities of the most crucial resource on the planet).
Usually, most critics begin with the fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers involved in the September 11th attacks were Saudi nationals. They then point to a political system (or lack thereof) and society that most Westerners find a bit repressive if not backward and wholly unacceptable -- one which nurtures and exports terrorism. When combined with the geopolitical significance of Saudi oil reserves, the country becomes one which Washington can't help but exert a certain amount of control over and, if need be, critics maintain, its desires for the Kingdom can legitimately be realized through force or "regime change."
In July 2002, during a briefing given to the Defense Advisory Board, a group that advises the Pentagon, an analyst with the Rand Corporation, Laurent Murawiec, depicted Saudi Arabia as a terrorist state that should be considered an enemy of the United States.
Murawiec said, "The Saudis are active at every level of the terror chain, from planners to financiers, from cadre to foot-soldier, from ideologist to cheerleader. Saudi Arabia supports our enemies and attacks our allies [and is responsible for a] daily outpouring of virulent hatred against the U.S. from Saudi media, 'educational' institutions, clerics, officials -- Saudis tell us one thing in private, do the contrary in reality."
Towards the end of the presentation he added: "There is an 'Arabia,' but it needs not be 'Saudi.'" A brief list is also given, outlining interests Washington could target in order to pressure Riyadh: oil, economic security, The Holy Places.
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/11/23/saudi.fbi.911/
FBI probes possible Saudi, 9/11 money ties
Saturday, November 23, 2002 Posted: 7:37 PM EST (0037 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The FBI is investigating whether the Saudi Arabian government funneled money to associates of two of the September 11 hijackers, a senior White House official told CNN Saturday.
Findings from an inquiry by the House-Senate Joint Intelligence Committee suggest evidence indicates money from the Saudi Arabian government could have made its way to the two hijackers through two Saudi students when they were in California.
There is some evidence that the students received a payment through the wife of the Saudi ambassador to the United States, according to the inquiry.
But sources said there is no conclusive evidence the Saudi government intentionally funded terror activities against the United States. Fifteen of the 19 September 11 hijackers were Saudis. The Saudi government has condemned their actions.
A U.S. government official said it is not unusual for wealthy Saudi families to send money to less affluent Saudi students. In addition, the official said, that money often is sent through the Saudi Embassy.
Adel Al-Jubeir, a foreign policy adviser to Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, told CNN that Princess Haifa Al-Faisal, wife of Saudi Ambassador, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, is "a very generous woman" who supports many charitable causes.
The princess, however, never sent any money directly to the two hijackers, Al-Jubeir said. An investigation by her office has found the princess sent money to a woman on her charity recipient list and that woman then sent the money to the students.
Al-Faisal does not know who the woman is or why she was on her list, Al-Jubeir said.
"The FBI investigated this matter six months ago [and] the embassy cooperated with them fully," Al-Jubeir said.
He compared the embassy's situation to that of any U.S. bank in which the hijackers might have had an account. The bank, he said, would be no more guilty of aiding the hijackers than is the Saudi embassy.
Congress is preparing a report that suggests the FBI did not aggressively pursue leads concerning the Saudi government and terrorism.
Officials have denied the charge but said they will not comment on details of any ongoing investigation. The FBI issued a statement saying the two Saudi students who, according to sources, received money from the princess were charged with visa fraud. Sources said they are both currently in Saudi Arabia.
"Six months later, what we find surprising is that in Congress, these charges come out," said Al-Jubeir. "We read about it in the media, which leads me to believe that there's a lot of political play here that may not be in line with the facts as we know them, as the FBI knows them, or the facts as Princess Haifa's office has determined."
White House officials traveling with President Bush in Europe acknowledged the FBI and CIA were opposed to making public what they consider highly sensitive information in the case. The officials also said that it would be improper to release information now because of the ongoing FBI investigation.
Al-Jubeir stressed that Saudi Arabia continues to "mercilessly" pursue al Qaeda members and other terrorists.
"It shouldn't be surprising that the president and the secretary of state and all of your senior officials consistently, and on the record, have stated that Saudi Arabia has been most cooperative in this effort," he said.
"The last thing we would do is fund people who would murder us."
Report: Hijackers were befriended
A report in Newsweek magazine provides more details.
Michael Isikoff, who wrote the article, said on CNN's "NewsNight" that one of the students helped the hijackers get an apartment, paid their rent and introduced them around the Muslim community in San Diego, California.
Law enforcement sources told Newsweek the FBI has uncovered financial records showing that the family of Omar Al Bayoumi, a student in San Diego, began receiving payments amounting to about $3,500 a month in early 2000.
According to Newsweek's sources, the money came from an account at Riggs Bank in Washington in Princess Haifa Al-Faisal's name. She is the daughter of the late King Faisal.
After Al Bayoumi left the United States in July 2001, similar payments were being made to another San Diego student, Osama Basnan, Newsweek reported.
According to the magazine's report, Al Bayoumi and Basnan befriended two men who hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 and crashed it into the Pentagon -- Khalid Almidhar and Nawaf Alhazmi.
Isikoff said the timing of the Riggs Bank payments, which began just a couple months after they arrived in the United States, has raised questions about whether Saudi government money found its way to the two hijackers.
"There has been no explanation for why such a high-ranking official, or the wife of such a high-ranking official, would route money to a seeming nobody in San Diego," he said.
However, the magazine said it is unclear whether any of the money transferred through the Riggs account ever reached the hijackers.
-- Senior White House Correspondent John King contributed to this report.
http://www.arableaders.net/Arableaders-5/2.htm
Saudi Arabia enemy of America: Report
Part of `terror chain,' says briefing to Pentagon advisers
By Thomas E. Ricks
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
WASHINGTON — A briefing given last month to a top Pentagon advisory board described Saudi Arabia as an enemy of the United States and recommended U.S. officials give it an ultimatum to stop backing terrorism or face seizure of its oil fields and financial assets invested in America.
"The Saudis are active at every level of the terror chain, from planners to financiers, from cadre to foot-soldier, from ideologist to cheerleader," stated the explosive briefing, presented July 10 to the Defence Policy Board, a group of intellectuals and former senior officials who advise the Pentagon on defence policy.
"Saudi Arabia supports our enemies and attacks our allies," said the briefing prepared by Laurent Murawiec, a Rand Corporation analyst. A talking point attached to the last of 24 briefing slides went even further, describing Saudi Arabia as "the kernel of evil, the prime mover, the most dangerous opponent" in the Mideast.
The briefing runs counter to the present U.S. stance that Saudi Arabia is a major U.S. ally in the region, yet represents a point of view that has growing currency within the Bush administration, especially on the staff of Vice-President Dick Cheney, the Pentagon's civilian leadership, and among neo-conservatives allied with administration policymakers.
One administration official said opinion about Saudi Arabia is changing rapidly within government. "People used to rationalize Saudi behaviour," he said. "You don't hear that anymore. There's no doubt people are recognizing reality and recognizing that Saudi Arabia is a problem."
The decision to bring the anti-Saudi analysis before the defence board also appears tied to the growing debate over whether to launch a U.S. military attack to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq. The board chairman is former Pentagon official Richard Perle, one of the most prominent advocates in Washington of just such an invasion. He did not return calls for comment.
Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said in a statement last night: "Neither the presentations nor the Defence Policy Board members' comments reflect the official views of the department of defence." Saudi Arabia, she said, is a longstanding friend and ally and co-operating fully in the global war on terrorism.
Murawiec said in his briefing the U.S. should demand Riyadh stop funding fundamentalist Islamic outlets, stop all anti-U.S. and anti-Israeli statements in the country, and "prosecute or isolate those involved in the terror chain, including in the Saudi intelligence services." If the Saudis refused to comply, the briefing continued, Saudi oil fields and overseas financial assets should be "targeted."
The report concludes by linking regime change in Iraq to altering Saudi behaviour. This view holds that once a U.S. invasion has removed Saddam from power, a friendly successor regime would become a major exporter of oil to the West. That would diminish dependence on Saudi exports, and let the U.S. finally confront the House of Saud for supporting terrorism.
"The road to the entire Middle East goes through Baghdad," said the administration official, who is hawkish on Iraq. "Once you have a democratic regime in Iraq, like the ones we helped establish in Germany and Japan after World War II, there are a lot of possibilities."
