---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jim Lamoreux <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Feb 15, 2006 6:03 PM
Subject: [progressivebooks] A 9/11 Conspirator in King Bush's Court?
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Published on Thursday, February 2, 2006 by CommonDreams.org
A 9/11 Conspirator in King Bush's Court?
Sheehan Wasn't Welcome But a Saudi Accused of Support for al Qaeda Was
by Jeremy Scahill
While Cindy Sheehan was being dragged from the House gallery moments before
President Bush delivered his State of the Union address for wearing a
t-shirt honoring her son and the other 2,244 US soldiers killed in Iraq,
Turki al-Faisal was settling into his seat inside the gallery. Faisal, a
Saudi, is a man who has met Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants on at least
five occasions, describing the al Qaeda leader as "quite a pleasant man." He
met multiple times with Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. Yet, unlike
Sheehan, al-Faisal was a welcomed guest of President Bush on Tuesday night.
He is also a man that the families of more than 600 victims of the 9/11
attacks believe was connected to their loved ones' deaths.
Al-Faisal is actually Prince Turki al-Faisal, a leading member of the Saudi
royal family and the kingdom's current ambassador to the US. But the bulk of
his career was spent at the helm of the feared Saudi intelligence services
from 1977 to 2001. Last year, The New York Times pointed out that "he
personally managed Riyadh's relations with Osama bin Laden and Mullah
Muhammad Omar of the Taliban. Anyone else who had dealings with even a
fraction of the notorious characters the prince has worked with over the
years would never make it past a U.S. immigration counter, let alone to the
most exclusive offices in Washington." Al-Faisal was also named in the $1
trillion lawsuit filed by hundreds of 9/11 victims' families, who accused
him of funding bin Laden's network. Curiously, his tenure as head of Saudi
intelligence came to an abrupt and unexpected end 10 days before the 9/11
attacks.
"Nobody explained the circumstances under which he left," says As'ad
AbuKhalil, author of The Battle for Saudi Arabia: Royalty, Fundamentalism,
and Global Power. "We know for sure that he was tasked by the United States
government back in the late 1970s and on to assemble the kind of Arab Muslim
fanatical volunteers to help the United States and the C.I.A. in the fight
against the Soviet communist regime [in Afghanistan]. In the course of doing
that, this man is single-handedly most responsible for the kind of menace
that these fanatical groups now pose to world peace and security." Yet,
there al-Faisal sat on Tuesday as President Bush spoke of his war on terror
and Cindy Sheehan was being booked. At one point, the cameras even panned
directly on al-Faisal listening intently to Bush.
The 9/11 families' lawsuit charged that al-Faisal secretly traveled to the
southern Afghan city of Kandahar twice in 1998 where he met with bin Laden's
representatives and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. Based on sworn
testimony from Taliban intelligence chief, Mullah Kakshar, the lawsuit
claimed that al-Faisal allegedly received assurances that al Qaeda would not
use "the infrastructure in Afghanistan to subvert the royal families'
control of Saudi government." In return, according to the lawsuit, the
Saudis promised not to seek bin Laden's extradition or the closing of his
training bases. Al-Faisal also allegedly promised Mullah Omar financial
assistance. Shortly after the meetings, the Saudis reportedly shipped the
Taliban 400 new pickup trucks. According to the London Observer, Kakshar
also said that al-Faisal "arranged for donations to be made directly to
al-Qaeda and bin Laden by a group of wealthy Saudi businessmen. 'Mullah
Kakshar's sworn statement implicates Prince Turki as the facilitator of
these money transfers in support of the Taliban, al-Qaeda and international
terrorism,'" according to the lawsuit.
Al-Faisal does not deny he traveled to Afghanistan in 1998 for meetings with
Mullah Omar, but he insists it was to "convey an official Saudi request to
extradite Osama bin Laden." al-Faisal has a long history in Afghanistan. He
worked closely in the 1980s with the both the CIA and the mujahadeen that
would later form both al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Ultimately, a judge dismissed the 9/11 families' lawsuit against al-Faisal
and his cohorts, saying US courts lacked jurisdiction over the matter. But
many of those families believe firmly that al-Faisal was connected to the
attacks that killed their loved ones. The obvious question is: how does the
president justify the ejection of a Gold Star Mother from the State of the
Union, while openly welcoming a man believed by hundreds of victims'
families to be connected to the attack Bush uses to justify every shred of
his violent policies?
During his speech, Bush said, "It is said that prior to the attacks of
September the 11th, our government failed to connect the dots of the
conspiracy." Perhaps he should have just looked over his wife's shoulder up
there in the gallery during the State of the Union.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0202-32.htm
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