CNN: New Allegations of Saudi Involvement in 9-11

[grahamhgreen]

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/03/politics/9-11-attacks-saudi-arabia-involvement/

Washington (CNN)New allegations have emerged from the man described as the 20th 9/11 hijacker, alleging members of the Saudi royal family supported al Qaeda.

Zacarias Moussaoui, who pleaded guilty in 2005 to six terror-related charges, makes the allegations in a sworn statement contained in a brief submitted Tuesday as part of an ongoing civil case by the families of 9/11 victims.

In the late 1990s, Moussaoui says, he was tasked by Osama bin Laden to create a digital database cataloging al Qaeda's donors. Every day for two or three months, he says, he entered names of the group's donors into a Toshiba computer, along with how much they gave.



Moussaoui, who has been in U.S. custody for more than 13 years, said the list featured high-profile people, including several members of the Saudi Royal family, whom he named in his testimony.

[C_U_L8R]

1. Who's pushing this news and why?

Timing seems quite curious.

[leveymg]

2. Immediate source is an ongoing law suit by 9/11 victims

NYT article has links to 200 pages of newly-taken depositions compiled by plaintiff's legal team, here: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/us/zacarias-moussaoui-calls-saudi-princes-patrons-of-al-qaeda.html?_r=0

Bigger context is the deteriorating relations between the US and KSA over continuing funding of ISIS by Saudi and Qatari elites. The attack in Paris may have finally shifted policy. Seems the Obama Administration is considering release of the 28 pages redacted in the 9/11 Commission Report. http://28pages.org/2015/02/04/saudi-arabia-and-the-u-s-intelligence-community-allies-against-911-transparency/

[libodem]

4. hmmm?

Very interesting.

[grahamhgreen]

32. Why? We've gone to war with an innocent country & spent trillions. Those responsible for 9-11 need

To be brought to justice, no matter how well connected they might be.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

34. It's from a lawsuit by the 9/11 families, for gawd sake! Are they

to be ignored as if they don't have a reason to know the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about the events of the day that took their loved ones?

[mmonk]

3. Old news.

We must not be close allies anymore.

[leveymg]

5. In a sense, yes. Many of the details had come out before, but this a first hand witness account.

Fascinating reading - go to exhibits linked at the NYT article. Start on page 7 of Exhibit 5 where Moussaoi names names and explains his personal role in computerizing AQ funder records, and read for the next five or six pages. Implicates a Who's Who of the Saudi Royal Family.

It's been a strained relationship for a long time. Recent events involving ISIS and terrorist attacks in Europe have finally forced a reassessment.

[johnnyreb]

11. Thanks leveymg.

I have much appreciated your work through the years. I will read the exhibits.

[leveymg]

15. Thanks.

Let us know on this thread or PM if you come across something that's notable in the Exhibits.

[nichomachus]

6. This is par for the course

The Saud Family -- ever since it was installed by the British as the rulers of Arabia back in WW1 -- has been a supporter and enabler of Wahabbist terrorism. The only restriction they put on it was that it not take place in the kingdom. But they would allow it, support it, and even finance it anywhere else. It is the quintessential terrorist state. And our best buddies to boot.

[Fred Sanders]

26. Saudi hates Iran and so are allied with Israel in the area.....Geopolitics is fucked up business.

[Bandit]

7. While I'm sure what he says is the truth, can he be a reliable witness in a court room

He was tortured time and time again and that should place doubt on anything and everything he now has to say..

[leveymg]

8. He was found competent to stand trial.

But, you have a very good point about credibility. I've often wondered whether the purpose of multiple CIA waterboarding of AQ prisoners was to extract information or to diminish recall and value of testimony. As a matter of fact, Moussaoui wasn't waterboarded because he was in DOJ custody.

[CJCRANE]

9. AFAIK he wasn't tortured, he wasn't an "enemy combatant".

Don't forget, he was arrested before 9/11.

[YoungDemCA]

14. How are you sure that he's telling the truth?

He's a terrorist, for the record.

[leveymg]

16. This is consistent with other sources of information.

It has to be assessed on the basis of the totality of the available evidence. He may be a terroristl, but we readily accept the admissions of many criminals if they are found to be credible and consistent.

If there's something in the exhibits that you find to be factually erroneous or incredible, please share that with the rest of us.

[YoungDemCA]

19. What are the other sources of information?

You are accusing Saudi government officials of knowingly sponsoring al-Qaeda-and by extension, the 9/11 attacks-and of US government officiasl deliberately covering up the Saudi government's alleged involvement in the worst terrorist attack on American soil, and your source is an al-Qaeda terrorist whose credibility and consistency has already been subject to criticism?

Pardon me if I don't find that particularly credible.

[johnnyreb]

24. He's reporting, not accusing.

Others with access to more info are accusing!

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/us/zacarias-moussaoui-calls-saudi-princes-patrons-of-al-qaeda.html?_r=2

Also filed on Monday in the survivors’ lawsuit were affidavits from former Senators Bob Graham of Florida and Bob Kerrey of Nebraska and the former Navy secretary John Lehman, arguing that more investigation was needed into Saudi ties to the 9/11 plot. Mr. Graham was co-chairman of the Joint Congressional Inquiry into the attacks, and Mr. Kerrey and Mr. Lehman served on the 9/11 Commission.

“I am convinced that there was a direct line between at least some of the terrorists who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks and the government of Saudi Arabia,” wrote Mr. Graham, who has long demanded the release of 28 pages of the congressional report on the attacks that explore Saudi connections and remain classified.

Mr. Kerrey said in the affidavit that it was “fundamentally inaccurate and misleading” to argue, as lawyers for Saudi Arabia have, that the 9/11 Commission exonerated the Saudi government.

The three former officials’ statements did not address Mr. Moussaoui’s testimony.

[leveymg]

29. The more you study the record, the less credible the official Saudi and Bush Admin statements become

I'm hardly alone in that assessment. But, it does take time and work to develop an informed independent opinion.

Here's a place to start in understanding the context of why some US and Saudi officials would want to withhold and distort the public record:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/12/04/810764/-Erik-Prince-American-Bin-Laden-CIA-Asset-Money-Gunmen#

[spanone]

10. how about '15 of the 19 hijackers were saudis' ????

The hijackers in the September 11 attacks were 19 men affiliated with al-Qaeda, and 15 of the 19 were citizens of Saudi Arabia. The others were from the United Arab Emirates (2), Egypt and Lebanon. The hijackers were organized into four teams, each led by a pilot-trained hijacker with three or four "muscle hijackers" who were trained to help subdue the pilots, passengers, and crew.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijackers_in_the_September_11_attacks

[YoungDemCA]

13. Yes, all Saudis think alike

[spanone]

17. is that what you think?

[YoungDemCA]

21. I dunno, is that what you think?

nt

[valerief]

12. Saudis, Bushes, same thing. nt

[Drunken Irishman]

18. There are 15,000 members of the Saudi Royal Family.

It wouldn't be shocking if there were a few that had connections to bin Laden and al-Qaeda. But that also doesn't mean the King was signing off on the terrorist attacks. A 15,000 person family is big enough to have enough crazies in there.

[YoungDemCA]

20. +1

And Moussaoui isn't exactly known to be credible.

From the same article:

Moussaoui's credibility has been called into question before. And though Saudi Arabia's role in the attacks has long been a topic of suspicion, the 9/11 Commission's report, released in 2004, concluded there was no evidence the Saudi government funded al Qaeda.

"It does not appear that any government other than the Taliban financially supported al Qaeda before 9/11, although some governments may have contained al Qaeda sympathizers who turned a blind eye to al Qaeda's fund-raising activities," the report said. "Saudi Arabia has long been considered the primary source of al Qaeda funding, but we have found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded the organization."

Still, the report noted in parentheses, "This conclusion does not exclude the likelihood that charities with significant Saudi government sponsorship diverted funds to al Qaeda."

[whatchamacallit]

27. A 15,000 Straw Man

How many people are in any potentially culpable person's family?

[Matrosov]

22. No doubt the royal family was involved

Saudi Arabia is the largest exporter of Islamic terror in the world, when you consider how much effort and money they are investing to promote Wahabism outside their borders.

The Saudis are our allies only because of oil. There have been numerous investigations into the royal family's involvement in 9/11 in the years immediately after 2001, and those reports are heavily censored, precisely because they would expose our 'allies' otherwise.

[jalan48]

23. Senator Graham

Senator Bob Graham has said this already. He wants Obama to declassify the part of the 9-11 report that deals with the funding of the attacks. Bush reused to release it in any form, redacted or not. Apparently it points to the Saudis as the financiers of the operation.

[underpants]

25. I see that these are new specific allegations but everyone knows the Saudis paid for it

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

28. The enemy of my enemy is my friend unless he's the enemy of my friend..or something.

In war, truth is the first casualty. Aeschylus

[johnnyreb]

30. Jon Stewart circa July 2003, "28 Pages Later"

http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/4j6gls/28-pages-later

[libodem]

31. .

[Ramses]

33. And any questioning of the official story is forbidden

Cover ups and treachery at the highest levels of government usually require not stop propaganda to support the rotten cover story. Let the light shine in on all of these cockroaches