Would-Be 9/11 Hijacker Says Saudi Royals Funded al Qaeda

He is believed to have been the intended 20th hijacker
Zacarias Moussaoui
in the 9/11 attacks had he not been arrested weeks before. He has now testified from his federal "supermax" prison in Colorado that members of the Saudi royal family were contributors to al Qaeda in the 1990s. Zacarias Moussaoui, a French citizen of Moroccan descent, also says that in Afghanistan he once discussed with a member of the Saudi embassy in Washington how the American president's aircraft, Air Force One, might be brought down with a Stinger missile. He said he was supposed to return to Washington with the embassy official to scout for shoot down locations, but his arrest intervened.

In September we reported in this story, "Bush Removed Section from Congressional Probe to Protect Saudis", that the George W Bush administration had removed 28 pages from a joint Congressional investigation of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Moussaoui's testimony, if true, suggests that what is in those classified pages may prove to be far more incendiary than previously imagined. In response to his allegations, the Saudi embassy here called him a "deranged criminal...whose words have no credibility". However, there has long been speculation about Saudi funding of al Qaeda. Moussaoui's testimony moves those claims into the royal family itself.

The case was originally brought in 2002 and has dragged on so long, fought strenuously by the Saudis who have claimed sovereign immunity, that The New York Times likens it to Jarndyce v. Jarndyce of Charles Dicken's "Bleak House".

Asking to testify, Moussaoui had sent a letter to the presiding judge in a lawsuit brought against Saudi Arabia by relatives of those killed in the attacks. Proof enough that he was not prompted to do so is that "lengthy negotiations with Justice Department officials and the federal Bureau of Prisons" preceded his being allowed to come forward, as well as President Obama continuing to quash release of the 28 pages so as to avoid any contretemps with the Saudis.

Justice Department lawyers came away with 100 pages of testimony in which Moussaoui says he had acted as a messenger for Osama bin Laden. That had caused him to come in direct contact with various members of the Saudi royal family. Most notable among them, he says, was Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, who just became king of Saudi Arabia. The purpose was to raise money, first for militants fighting the Russians in Afghanistan and then for what they became: al Qaeda.

Bin Laden had Moussaoui develop a database of donors to al Qaeda. Moussaoui says his list included the Saudi intelligence chief, Saudi clerics who promoted an extreme brand of Islam called Salafism, and Prince Bandar bin Sultan, long the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. and a close friend of the Bush family. According to journalist Craig Unger's book, "House of Bush, House of Saud", business deals were made over decades that gave the U.S. "lucrative oil deals" in exchange for American military protection of Saudi Arabia. Prince Bandar "was so close to George H. W. Bush, that he was considered almost a member of the family".

What followed Moussaoui's arrest in the U.S. became sensational. He was detained in Minneapolis on immigration charges weeks before 9/11. A flight school there alerted the FBI in August 2001 that a student wanted to learn only how to steer an airliner, not how to take off or land. Agents urged superiors in Washington to obtain a warrant to search Moussaoui's belongings, arguing that he appeared to be an Islamic extremist. The warrant was refused. He was later found to have the telephone number in Germany of a ringleader of the terrorist cell that carried out the Sept. 11 attacks.

The FBI’s arrest of Moussaoui on Aug. 17, 2001, was relayed by the FBI-CIA counter-terror center to the highest levels of the CIA, including Director George Tenet, the 9/11 Commission reported, but “the news had no evident effect of warning”. Had Moussaoui's name been run through British intelligence files, the CIA would have discovered he had undergone training with Al Qaeda.

Despite urgings for seven months by chief White House counter-terrorism adviser Richard Clarke in 2001, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice delayed convening what is called a "principals meeting" between the heads of State, Defense, the FBI and the CIA. The only Bush administration pre-9/11 meeting on counter-terrorism was therefore not held until until Sept. 4, 2001. Moussaoui was not mentioned.

At the time of his trial, his defense lawyers had Moussaoui diagnosed as mentally ill, but he was deemed competent enough to stand trial. In the recent testimony "my impression was that he was of completely sound mind — focused and thoughtful", according to Sean Carter, a lawyer for the plaintiffs in the deposition.

The The New York Times gave full-length treatment to the new revelations in these four full-length stories, the first a front page lede. The Wall Street Journal ran only 132 words and in it gave equal weight to the Saudi disclaimer that "his own lawyers presented evidence that he was mentally incompetent".

There seems to be general agreement that the 28 pages should be declassified, and again we'll refer to our original story for the fuller account of the document, the Bush administration facilitating the departure of bin Laden family members immediately after 9/11, and the Obama administration still sitting on an incriminating document that "absolutely shocked" two members of Congress whose committee was allowed to read it.

Both the Bush and Obama administrations run interference for the Saudi regime that has funded a virulent form of Islam throughout the Muslim
Obama with King Salman
world and we now hear has reportedly funded al Qaeda from the highest levels of the royal family. That has metastasized into ISIS which, while Sunni like the Saudis, poses a serious threat to the kingdom by considering itself the new Islamic Caliphate, which by definition means overtaking Islam's two holiest sites, Mecca and Medina, both in Saudi Arabia.

Yet the Saudis do nothing for the coalition; its F-16s sit on the tarmac while they complain, as we previously said, that the U.S. isn't doing enough. So what explains America's deference? Obama even broke off a state visit to India to go running to the funeral of King Abdullah and greet the new King Salman. We all know the answer and so does Deadline Poet Calvin Trillin at The Nation:

        "So why did we remain steadfastly loyal
        To this repressive, autocratic royal
        Whose nation's where jihadist teachers thrive?
        Two hints: It's black. Without it, cars can't drive."