Report Says U.S. Allies Aided Al Qaeda

[janx]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2001960738&zsection_id=268448413&slug=taliban20&date=20040620

WASHINGTON — The governments of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia helped set the stage for the Sept. 11 attacks by cutting deals with the Taliban and Osama bin Laden that allowed his al-Qaida terror network to flourish, according to several senior members of the Sept. 11 commission and U.S. counter-terrorism officials.

The financial aid to the Taliban and other assistance by two of the most important U.S. allies in the U.S.-declared war on terrorism date at least to 1996 and appear to have helped immunize them from al-Qaida attacks within their own borders until long after the 2001 strikes, those officials said in interviews.

"That does appear to have been the arrangement," said one senior member of the commission staff involved in investigating those relationships.

Said former Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., one of 10 members of the congressionally appointed commission: "There's no question the Taliban was getting money from the Saudis ... and there's no question they got much more than that from the Pakistani government. Their motive is a secondary issue for us."

(much more at link)

[2Design]

1. yes George's buddies helped fund the attack

Taliban was getting money from the Saudis

nice to have it in the report...now if that could make the front page......George and his friends did 911

[pinto]

2. well, the Suadis and Pakistan. What a surprise...glad to see it in print,

though.

Does anyone out there recall any direct questions to our Commandeer in Chief about the Saudi money trail?

(Saddam has been such an effective red herring...)

[MasonJar]

3. George was equally culpable, calling off the FBI, totally dis=

counting the Clinton admin's warnings, negotiating with the Taliban to get access to the Caspian Sea.

[Pastiche423]

4. "Financial aid to the Taliban"

In May 2001, Powell gave Afghanistan (Taliban) $43M.

Wasn't that financial aiding?

[struggle4progress]

5. Yeah. What a surprise.

[T Bone]

6. Read Craig Unger's 'House of Bush, House of Saud'

Unger details ALL KINDS of money, and efforts flowing from the Saudis to Al-Qaeda. It is amazing. One point in the book he says the reason the Saudis never liked Bill Clinton that much is because the Clinton administration was not afraid to ask about things going on INSIDE Saudi Arabia. They knew their friends and business partners the Bushs' would never ask too much about what went on inside Saudi Arabia. In other words the Bush administration would handicap us by putting on blinders to anything that happened or happens INSIDE Saudi Arabia. Add to that the US State Dept just flat out issuing, in effect, free passes into the USA with the 'express visa program' in Riyadh in June of 2001. The express visa program allowed Saudis to get a visa to the US without appearing in person for it !! Several of the final 911 terrorists are known to have slipped in the US using that exact program. The fianl terrorists for the 911 strike didn't have anything to do with Saddam or Iraq, they came in from Rayadh on the express visa program that the Bush State Department started there in June, 2001.