and the 911 Money Trail -- "The probe the Bush administration doesn't want
you to know about..."
---
>From the MSNBC web site,
http://www.msnbc.com/avantgo/839269.htm
The Saudi Money Trail
Rent payments for 9-11 hijackers and mysterious checks from a princess's
account. Is there a Saudi tie to terror? Inside the probe the Bush
administration doesn't want you to know about
Dec. 2 issue
When the two Qaeda operatives arrived at Los Angeles International Airport
around New Year's 2000, they were warmly welcomed. Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid
Almihdhar would help hijack American Airlines Flight 77 and crash it into
the Pentagon a year and a half later, but that January in Los Angeles, they
were just a couple of young Saudi men who barely spoke English and needed a
place to stay.
AT THE AIRPORT, THEY were swept up by a gregarious fellow Saudi, Omar
al-Bayoumi, who had been living in the United States for several years.
Al-Bayoumi drove the two men to San Diego, threw a welcoming party and
arranged for the visitors to get an apartment next to his. He guaranteed the
lease, and plunked down $1,550 in cash to cover the first two months' rent.
His hospitality did not end there.
Al-Bayoumi also aided Alhazmi and Almihdhar as they opened a bank account,
and recruited a friend to help them obtain Social Security cards and call
flight schools in Florida to arrange flying lessons, according to
law-enforcement officials. Two months before 9-11, al-Bayoumi moved to
England; several months later, he disappeared. He is believed to be
somewhere in Saudi Arabia.
MYSTERY MAN
Who is al-Bayoumi? At various times, the affable father of four told people
that he was getting his doctorate at San Diego State, though the school has
no record he ever attended. He told others that he was a pilot for the Saudi
national airline. He apparently did work for Dallah Avco, an
aviation-services company with extensive contracts with the Saudi Ministry
of Defense and Aviation, headed by Prince Sultan, the father of the Saudi
ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar. According to informed
sources, some federal investigators suspect that al-Bayoumi could have been
an advance man for the 9-11 hijackers, sent by Al Qaeda to assist the plot
that ultimately claimed 3,000 lives.
The Feds' interest in al-Bayoumi has been heightened by a money trail that
could be perfectly innocent, but is nonetheless intriguingâand could
ultimately expose the Saudi government to some of the blame for 9-11 and
seriously strain U.S.-Saudi ties. It is too soon to say where the trail will
wind up, but it begins with a very surprising name on a Washington bank
account.
About two months after al-Bayoumi began aiding Alhazmi and Almihdhar,
NEWSWEEK has learned, al-Bayoumi's wife began receiving regular stipends,
often monthly and usually around $2,000, totaling tens of thousands of
dollars. The money came in the form of cashier's checks, purchased from
Washington's Riggs Bank by Princess Haifa bint Faisal, the daughter of the
late King Faisal and wife of Prince Bandar, the Saudi envoy who is a
prominent Washington figure and personal friend of the Bush family. The
checks were sent to a woman named Majeda Ibrahin Dweikat, who in turn signed
over many of them to al-Bayoumi's wife (and her friend), Manal Ahmed
Bagader. The Feds want to know: Was this well-meaning charity gone awry? Or
some elaborate money-laundering scheme? A scam? Or just a coincidence?
A spokesperson for Princess Haifa told NEWSWEEK that she had no idea the
money was going to the al-Bayoumi family or that it might in any way be used
for some nefarious purpose. Saudi officials and members of the royal family
routinely give money to supplicants who need medical or financial help and
write the embassy. Dweikat's husband, Osama Basnan, had first pleaded to the
Saudi Embassy for help in 1998, saying that he needed money to treat his
wife's thyroid condition. At the time, Prince Bandar wrote Basnan a $15,000
check. The monthly payments to his wife, Majeda, began in January 1999 and
ended only last summer. Until she was contacted late last week by NEWSWEEK,
Princess Haifa was unaware that the payments are being investigated by U.S.
authorities, according to the spokesperson.
9-11 FAILURES?
Questions over the money trail have enflamed a fierce, behind-the-scenes
struggle between two congressional committees looking into 9-11 and the Bush
administration. Senate Intelligence Committee co-chairman Robert Graham of
Florida, a Democrat, and Richard Shelby of Alabama, a Republican, believe
that the FBI failed to fully investigate 9-11. The lawmakers suspect that
the administration does not want to look too closely at Saudi connections to
the hijackers. The White House clearly fears jeopardizing U.S.-Saudi
relations. In addition to Saudi oil, the United States needs Saudi bases to
stage a possible invasion of Iraq. Administration officials reluctantly
confirmed to NEWSWEEK that money had moved from Princess Haifa's account to
al-Bayoumi, but they stressed that they do not know the purpose of the
payments or whether any Saudi officials were even aware of them. "The facts
are unclear, and there's no need to rush to judgment," said one
administration official. In meetings with intelligence committee leaders,
Vice President Dick Cheney, Attorney General John Ashcroft and others have
adamantly rejected attempts to declassify the information, citing
national-security concerns.
There have long been persistent suspicions of Saudi financial involvement
with Al Qaeda. Of the 9-11 hijackers themselves, 15 of 19 came from Saudi
Arabia. Some American intelligence officials say the Saudis have been less
than fully cooperative in the war on terror. Some wealthy Saudis have long
been known to fund charities that are used as fronts to support terrorists.
It would be shocking indeed if the Saudi government or members of the royal
family were supporting Al Qaeda. Saudi officials insist that any such
suggestion is preposterous. After all, Osama bin Laden's stated aim is to
overthrow the House of Saud as lackeys for the Americans. But many
investigators suspect that the Saudi royals wish to hold their enemies
close, to learn what they are up to and, possibly, to buy insurance. The
Saudi government, as well as many wealthy Saudi businessmen with close ties
to the government, generously support radical imams who preach Wahhabism, a
very conservative form of Islam, not just in Saudi Arabia but all over the
world, including in the United States. The potential for mischief is great.
Rogue elements could be secretly funding terrorists, perhaps by scamming
unwitting members of the royal family. There is a thin line between militant
Islam and terrorism, and the Saudis have not always been mindful of the
difference. Saudi intelligence officials scoff, however, at the suggestion
that Prince Bandar's wife is being used to provide a slush fund for black
ops. "To think that my government uses the bank account of the ambassadress
to pay informants is both ludicrous and insulting," said Turki Al Faisal,
former chief of Saudi intelligence.
A LOOK UNDER THE FLOORBOARDS
The FBI is still trying to figure out if al-Bayoumi played a role in the
9-11 plot. Within a few days of the attacks last fall, New Scotland Yard,
working with the FBI, had found him enrolled in a business graduate program
at Birmingham, England's Aston University. The British investigators
arrested al-Bayoumi, and tore up the floorboards in his house. They
discovered records of phone calls to two diplomats in the Saudi Embassy in
Washington. The officials, who worked in the Islamic section of the embassy,
which supports mosques and Islamic charities, apparently offered innocent
explanations to FBI investigators. Al-Bayoumi, who adamantly denied any
connection to the attacks or knowledge of the hijackers' links to Al Qaeda,
was released after a week without charge, and is believed to have
disappeared to Saudi Arabia. Now the gumshoes "are desperate to find out
whatever they can about this guy," says Kerry Steigerwalt, a lawyer for a
young Yemeni student recently grilled by the FBI about al-Bayoumi.
Before he vanished, al-Bayoumi offered a benign explanation of how he met
with Almihdhar and Alhazmi. He told investigators that he just happened to
be in a restaurant at the Los Angeles airport and overheard the two men
talking in Arabic. He introduced himself and offered to help the two
newcomers get settled and adjust to life in southern California. It was a
chance meeting, he insisted to the skeptical agents. His offer of help was
nothing more than the usual charity extended by one Muslim "brother" to
another.
Al-Bayoumi was a familiar figure in San Diego's burgeoning Islamic
community. He was often seen at the mosque or at social functions, chatting
amiably, almost always holding a video camera. Al-Bayoumi seemed to pay so
much attention to the comings and goings of young Saudi college students
that some were convinced that he was a Saudi government spy. "He was always
watching them, always checking up on them, literally following them around
and then apparently reporting their activities back to Saudi Arabia," said
Henry Bagadan, a Pakistani businessman who worships at the San Diego Islamic
Center.
A VOCAL QAEDA SYMPATHIZER
After al-Bayoumi left San Diego in July 2001, the cashier's checks purchased
by Princess Haifa continued to flow to Majeda Dweikat, who in turn signed
many of them over to her husband, Osama. Basnan also befriended the two
hijackers, Almihdhar and Alhazmi. After the terrorist attacks, Basnan, who
was known as a vocal Qaeda sympathizer, "celebrated the heroes of September
11" and talked about "what a wonderful, glorious day it had been," according
to a law-enforcement official. Wife Dweikat appears to have been at least a
minor scamster. She was convicted of marriage fraud to obtain immigration
papers and pleaded guiltyâalong with al-Bayoumi's wife, Manalâto shoplifting
in April 2001. The checks from Princess Haifa stopped when Basnan was
arrested for visa fraud last August. (He told a judge, "I love this
country," but was ordered deported to Saudi Arabia.) Interestingly, Osama
Basnan showed up in Houston last April when Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah came
to town with a vast entourage en route to President George W. Bush's ranch.
According to informed sources, Basnan met with a high Saudi prince who has
responsibilities for intelligence matters and is known to bring suitcases
full of cash into the United Statesâa practice not unheard-of among the
Saudi elite. A Houston police report obtained by NEWSWEEK shows that Basnan
complained he had been robbed of his Saudi passport and $400. It is dated
April 25, the same week the crown prince was in town.
The congressional investigators looking into 9-11 argue that the Feds aren't
doing enough to stop another attack. The FBI's failure to thoroughly
investigate the Saudi connection reveals the bureau's inherent weakness as a
counterterror organization, these investigators tell NEWSWEEK. Senator
Graham has been pushing for a new domestic-intelligence service, modeled on
Britain's M.I.5, to track terror cells in this country. Graham says he fears
that a concealed terrorist "infrastructure" set up to support the 19
hijackers is still in placeâwaiting for a new call to action.
The Bush administration has been reluctant to give the congressional
committee investigating 9-11 everything it asks for. Cheney and others
believe that Congress is intruding on the executive branch's
intelligence-gathering and foreign-policy-making powers and that a "witch
hunt" will distract and hobble the CIA and FBI. But the administration may
also worry that if investigators keep digging, the U.S.-Saudi relationship
will wind up in a deep hole.
With Jamie Reno in San Diego, Dan Klaidman and Mark Hosenball in Washington
and Christopher Dickey in Paris
 2002 Newsweek, Inc.
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