U.S. Senators Say Saudi Gov't Links to 911 bombers,

[revelarts]

surprise surprise surprise, Say it anit so,

Every nation in every region now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.
George W. Bush (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/g/georgewbu164861.html)





Rym Momtaz and Trevor J. Ladd report on ABC News (http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/senators-saudi-arabia-linked-911/story?id=15827925#.T1AXz8w5ly4)
Two former Senators who led inquiries into the 9/11 attacks have issued sworn statements that they believe the government of Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally in the fight on terrorism, may have played a role in the terror attacks ten years ago.

“I am convinced that there was a direct line between at least some of the terrorists who carried out the September 11th attacks and the government of Saudi Arabia,” said former Senator Bob Graham, a Florida Democrat, in an affidavit filed as part of a lawsuit brought against the Saudi government by families of Sept. 11 victims and others. Graham led a 2002 Congressional probe of the attacks.
Bob Kerrey, a Nebraska Democrat who served on the 9/11 Commission, said in a separate affidavit that “significant questions remain unanswered” about the role of Saudi institutions. “Evidence relating to the plausible involvement of possible Saudi government agents in the September 11th attacks has never been fully pursued.”....


You mean the country where most of the 911 terrorist came from might have some Suadi Gov't concections?? WHO would think such a thing? And the links WEREN"T PURSUED??!!
I'm SHOCKED!!!

When we attacked Iraq I thought we were getting all the gov'ts with hard terrorist links to AlQaeda!!
I guess we'll have to attack Saudi Arabia or Put some sanctions on them. Once a terrorist always a terrorist, CRAZY ARABS Muslims going to start a KALIF in MECCA the holiest of HOLY lands for the Muslims. Lots of BIN LADEN family members left there too. mmm hmmm



....Two former Senators who led inquiries into the 9/11 attacks (http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/ten-years-ago-today-countdown-911/story?id=14191671) have issued sworn statements that they believe the government of Saudi Arabia (http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/saudi-crown-prince-counter-terror-veteran/story?id=14837222), a key U.S. ally in the fight on terrorism, may have played a role in the terror attacks ten years ago. ...

"I am convinced that there was a direct line between at least some of the terrorists who carried out the September 11th attacks and the government of Saudi Arabia," said former Senator Bob Graham, a Florida Democrat, in an affidavit filed as part of a lawsuit brought against the Saudi government by families of Sept. 11 victims and others. Graham led a 2002 Congressional probe of the attacks. .....

Bob Kerrey, a Nebraska Democrat who served on the 9/11 Commission, said in a separate affidavit that "significant questions remain unanswered" about the role of Saudi institutions. "Evidence relating to the plausible involvement of possible Saudi government agents in the September 11th attacks has never been fully pursued." ....

Lawyers for the Saudis have moved to have the affidavits disallowed. They did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News. The Saudi embassy also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Saudis have always denied any connection to the 9/11 attacks. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers who crashed planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania were Saudi. ....

According to Sen. Graham, open questions include possible financial support of al Qaeda by Saudi charities, and the role of a Saudi resident of California who was in contact with both the hijackers and Saudi officials. "There was a direct line," wrote Graham, "between at least some of the terrorists who carried out the September 11th attacks and the government of Saudi Arabia, and [a] Saudi government agent living in the United States, Omar al Bayoumi, provided direct assistance to September 11th hijackers Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Mihdhar."

"Finally someone who knows some of the truth about 9/11 is standing up and saying 'wait a minute, we didn't give those guys the all clear' as Saudi Arabia has been saying for several years," said Sharon Premoli of Vermont, who was in the World Trade Center when it was struck. "Exonerated, I don't think so!"


http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/senators-saudi-arabia-linked-911/story?id=15827925#.T1K3I8yS7qS

Any government that supports, protects or harbours terrorists is complicit in the murder of the innocent and equally guilty of terrorist crimes.
George W. Bush (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/g/georgewbu146548.html)



sooo does Suadi Arabi count, or becuase the Bushes have biz ties with them and we get so much oil from them that weee can't really go there all war like and stuff we can over look it a little bit , just ask them not to do it again, or sumthin? how does that work folks.

the war on terror is not as advertised ladies and gentlemen.

[Wind Song]

Bush was in bed with Saudi's.

[revelarts]

Bush was in bed with Saudi's.

Well they were kissing them every once in a while Obama bows, I'm not sure which is worse.

[Wind Song]

Well they were kissing them every once in a while Obama bows, I'm not sure which is worse.

Maybe Obama is bowing and saying "kiss my ass".:laugh:

[jimnyc]

According to Sen. Graham, open questions include possible financial support of al Qaeda by Saudi charities, and the role of a Saudi resident of California who was in contact with both the hijackers and Saudi officials. "There was a direct line," wrote Graham, "between at least some of the terrorists who carried out the September 11th attacks and the government of Saudi Arabia, and [a] Saudi government agent living in the United States, Omar al Bayoumi, provided direct assistance to September 11th hijackers Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Mihdhar."

So this breaking news story, about a massive Saudi Arabia government involvement in 911, is really one Saudi government agent? And no proof that I read to even make that connection. It wouldn't surprise me to find out some charity or organization had financial ties, they were Saudi terrorists after all. But I see one person mentioned within government with no proof to back anything up. It could have been a rogue government employee as well, making some good money via corruption. I'll wait for something more solid before I consider their official government implicated in 9/11.

[jimnyc]

Maybe Obama is bowing and saying "kiss my ass".:laugh:

Obama has bowed to so many foreign leaders. That's why he's no leader himself. You won't find many leaders, heads of state, bowing to other heads of state. Those people ARE NOT his superiors or his bosses, and appropriate etiquette is not to bow to them.

[Wind Song]

Obama has bowed to so many foreign leaders. That's why he's no leader himself. You won't find many leaders, heads of state, bowing to other heads of state. Those people ARE NOT his superiors or his bosses, and appropriate etiquette is not to bow to them.


I'm a Buddhist. I have no problem with bowing. Americans don't like to bow to anyone. We are incredibly arrogant that way.

[jimnyc]

I'm a Buddhist. I have no problem with bowing. Americans don't like to bow to anyone. We are incredibly arrogant that way.

I'm not talking about all Americans, I was speaking of one man, the leader of the free world, bowing to another foreign leader. We, as in our country, and our leader by extension, shouldn't be bowing to anyone.

[Wind Song]

I'm not talking about all Americans, I was speaking of one man, the leader of the free world, bowing to another foreign leader. We, as in our country, and our leader by extension, shouldn't be bowing to anyone.

That's arrogance. Pure and simple.

[jimnyc]

That's arrogance. Pure and simple.

If that's what you believe. But it's widely accepted around the world and widely recognized by foreign leaders. I guess all countries have a little arrogance in them then.

[Wind Song]

If that's what you believe. But it's widely accepted around the world and widely recognized by foreign leaders. I guess all countries have a little arrogance in them then.


All heads of state have big egos.

[revelarts]

So this breaking news story, about a massive Saudi Arabia government involvement in 911, is really one Saudi government agent? And no proof that I read to even make that connection. It wouldn't surprise me to find out some charity or organization had financial ties, they were Saudi terrorists after all. But I see one person mentioned within government with no proof to back anything up. It could have been a rogue government employee as well, making some good money via corruption. I'll wait for something more solid before I consider their official government implicated in 9/11.

JIM!!!
how naive can you be?!!? ---Cough Sputter---- you KNOW that if there's One MUSLIM in the Gov't in an M.E. country it's in league with the whole, IT"S PART OF THE WORLD WIDE KALIF PLAN!!!! are you BLIND? What come out here is just what they've mentioned PUBLICLY, we KNOW that it's FAR worse than that!!! Becuase , well we just KNOW IT. why can't you see it. 15 Suadis On the Hijacked planes????!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! BIN LADEN a SAUDI!!?!?!??!!?! they are MUSLIM!!!!!!!! they are trying to kill us ALLLLLL. you can cover for them, make excuses for them all you like Jim.


but seriously there's more here than anyone can't point to against Iran.

[jimnyc]

JIM!!!
how naive can you be?!!? ---Cough Sputter---- you KNOW that if there's One MUSLIM in the Gov't in an M.E. country it's in league with the whole, IT"S PART OF THE WORLD WIDE KALIF PLAN!!!! are you BLIND? What come out here is just what they've mentioned PUBLICLY, we KNOW that it's FAR worse than that!!! Becuase , well we just KNOW IT. why can't you see it. 15 Suadis On the Hijacked planes????!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! BIN LADEN a SAUDI!!?!?!??!!?! they are MUSLIM!!!!!!!! they are trying to kill us ALLLLLL. you can cover for them, make excuses for them all you like Jim.


but seriously there's more here than anyone can't point to against Iran.

I can mail you some xanax if you need them. Which it appears you may! LOL

And I'm not even doubting that something is there. Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest, I ain't got no love for those fuckers either. I really wouldn't care if we bombed the shit out of them, just avoid the oil. No war for oil, but no sense in wasting it either, as long as we're there anyway.

[gabosaurus]

DUH!!!! Why is this being pointed out 10 YEARS LATER? It's a confirmed fact that 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were Saudi citizens, traveling on Saudi passports and funded by the Saudi government. Much of our "aid" to the Saudi government went to funding terrorism.
The original 9-11 report fingered the Saudis for their role in the attack. Because of pressure from the Saudi government, the Bush administration excised 200 pages of the report, citing it as "inflammatory to U.S. allies."
The Saudi government was directly involved in the 9-11 attacks. We chose to blame Iraq instead. To keep our national lips on the Saudi gas nozzle (though the picture of Bush kneeling in front of the Saudi king implies something else that has probably happened).

[jimnyc]

DUH!!!! Why is this being pointed out 10 YEARS LATER? It's a confirmed fact that 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were Saudi citizens, traveling on Saudi passports and funded by the Saudi government. Much of our "aid" to the Saudi government went to funding terrorism.
The original 9-11 report fingered the Saudis for their role in the attack. Because of pressure from the Saudi government, the Bush administration excised 200 pages of the report, citing it as "inflammatory to U.S. allies."
The Saudi government was directly involved in the 9-11 attacks. We chose to blame Iraq instead. To keep our national lips on the Saudi gas nozzle (though the picture of Bush kneeling in front of the Saudi king implies something else that has probably happened).

You have proof of this?

Everyone always knew the hijackers were from SA. And I even agree with you that the US probably went out of their way to protect SA as a country, but not the terrorists or their connections. But if you have connections to the Saudi government funding 9/11 and being involved, I'd like to read what you have.

[revelarts]

DUH!!!! Why is this being pointed out 10 YEARS LATER? It's a confirmed fact that 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were Saudi citizens, traveling on Saudi passports and funded by the Saudi government. Much of our "aid" to the Saudi government went to funding terrorism.
The original 9-11 report fingered the Saudis for their role in the attack. Because of pressure from the Saudi government, the Bush administration excised 200 pages of the report, citing it as "inflammatory to U.S. allies."
The Saudi government was directly involved in the 9-11 attacks. We chose to blame Iraq instead. To keep our national lips on the Saudi gas nozzle (though the picture of Bush kneeling in front of the Saudi king implies something else that has probably happened).

wha.. uh wha... What You talkin Bout Gabby?
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pos rep gabby

[revelarts]

The deliberate and deadly attacks which were carried out yesterday against our country were more than acts of terror. They were acts of war.
George W. Bush (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/g/georgewbu131046.html)

The terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States - and war is what they got.
George W. Bush (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/g/georgewbu153045.html)

Well what some of them got, not the Saudis though.



You can fool some of the people all the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on.
George W. Bush (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/g/georgewbu386490.html)


mmm hmmm

[gabosaurus]

You have proof of this?

Everyone always knew the hijackers were from SA. And I even agree with you that the US probably went out of their way to protect SA as a country, but not the terrorists or their connections. But if you have connections to the Saudi government funding 9/11 and being involved, I'd like to read what you have.

It's all in the original 9-11 report. Go read it.

[SassyLady]

I'm a Buddhist. I have no problem with bowing. Americans don't like to bow to anyone. We are incredibly arrogant that way.

And I have no problem not bowing to others, what is the point?

Why is it that liberals always try to shame others into thinking like them .... calling those who do not agree bigots, racists, war mongers, arrogant....it's almost as if you cannot make a coherent argument for your case and fall back on using the SHAME, SHAME ON YOU argument?

[OCA]

Well they were kissing them every once in a while Obama bows, I'm not sure which is worse.

I'd say the Bush boys, they made untold millions of the Saudis all the while turning a blind eye and guiding pro Saudi legislation.

[DragonStryk72]

So this breaking news story, about a massive Saudi Arabia government involvement in 911, is really one Saudi government agent? And no proof that I read to even make that connection. It wouldn't surprise me to find out some charity or organization had financial ties, they were Saudi terrorists after all. But I see one person mentioned within government with no proof to back anything up. It could have been a rogue government employee as well, making some good money via corruption. I'll wait for something more solid before I consider their official government implicated in 9/11.

you mean, aside from 17 of 19 Hijackers having been from there? Plus the agent?

[SassyLady]

Well, wasn't Osama from Saudi Arabia ... so why would anyone say that Saudi Arabia has no ties?

The question is whether Saudi Arabia financed the attack, or trained the terrorists who did the attack, or were aware the attack was going to happen and didn't warn us?

Do we have definitive proof that this is the case, or is just speculation?

[DragonStryk72]

Well, wasn't Osama from Saudi Arabia ... so why would anyone say that Saudi Arabia has no ties?

The question is whether Saudi Arabia financed the attack, or trained the terrorists who did the attack, or were aware the attack was going to happen and didn't warn us?

Do we have definitive proof that this is the case, or is just speculation?

Actually, to be honest, we never really checked into the Sauds in the first place. I mean, AQ had already jumped up to take credit, so that was a pretty solid confession, and off we went to war. We should have done due diligence, but you have to admit, we had some sizable tunnelvision at the time, so it sort of wasn't on the radar. then we had Iraq, and that was a whole new mess to take care of.

I'm not saying it's 100% certain, but we should look into at least, so we know one way or another.

[Dilloduck]

Will someone please define the difference between an official Saudi Govt Act as compared to a few rogues with govt jobs who were trying to keep the peasants happy so they don't overthrow them ?

( are we really STILL whining about Bush ?)

I will now bow to the audience and take me leave. TYVM

:clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:

[logroller]

Will someone please define the difference between an official Saudi Govt Act as compared to a few rogues with govt jobs who were trying to keep the peasants happy so they don't overthrow them ?

( are we really STILL whining about Bush ?)

I will now bow to the audience and take me leave. TYVM

:clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:

a vested and controlling interest in Saudi Aramco.

[revelarts]

NewYork post
http://nypost.com/2013/12/15/inside-the-saudi-911-coverup/
By Paul Sperry (http://nypost.com/author/paul-sperry/)
December 15, 2013 |



After the 9/11 attacks, the public was told al Qaeda acted alone, with no state sponsors.
But the White House never let it see an entire section of Congress’ investigative report on 9/11 dealing with “specific sources of foreign support” for the 19 hijackers, 15 of whom were Saudi nationals.
It was kept secret and remains so today.
President Bush inexplicably censored 28 full pages of the 800-page report. Text isn’t just blacked-out here and there in this critical-yet-missing middle section. The pages are completely blank, except for dotted lines where an estimated 7,200 words once stood (this story by comparison is about 1,000 words).

A pair of lawmakers who recently read the redacted portion say they are “absolutely shocked” at the level of foreign state involvement in the attacks.
Reps. Walter Jones (R-NC) and Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) can’t reveal the nation identified by it without violating federal law. So they’ve proposed Congress pass a resolution asking President Obama to declassify the entire 2002 report, “Joint Inquiry Into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001.”

Some information already has leaked from the classified section, which is based on both CIA and FBI documents, and it points back to Saudi Arabia, a presumed ally.
The Saudis deny any role in 9/11, but the CIA in one memo reportedly found “incontrovertible evidence” that Saudi government officials — not just wealthy Saudi hardliners, but high-level diplomats and intelligence officers employed by the kingdom — helped the hijackers both financially and logistically. The intelligence files cited in the report directly implicate the Saudi embassy in Washington and consulate in Los Angeles in the attacks, making 9/11 not just an act of terrorism, but an act of war....




So Iran is our worse enemy ever ever and must be sanctioned and bomb before they get a chance to attack?
But Saudi Arabia get billion dollar arms deals (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/19/world/middleeast/us-selling-arms-to-israel-saudi-arabia-and-emirates.html?_r=0). Because they are good state sponsors of terror?

...

Excuses about "rouge" Saudi Gov't officials might be backed up if there was evidence of the rouges being tried and executed by the Saudi Gov't. or turn over to Gitmo. Until then I'm not sure why we should assume they were "rouge". Maybe the Iranians who supply Hezbollah are rouge too.
but no we get a cover up and a continued covered up, By the administrations that have to check U.S. citizens underpants before we get on the plane but they can give the Saudis weapons and never put them under ANY sanctions, public scrutiny or condemnation.



what's wrong with this picture?

[revelarts]

“The enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends. It is not our many Arab friends. Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists and every government that supports them.”
— George W. Bush, 9/20/01


“We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.”
— George W. Bush, 9/20/01


“And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation in every region now has a decision to make: Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime.”
— George W. Bush, 9/20/01



In the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks while U.S. airspace was restricted,


planes sanctioned by the Bush administration flew about the country gathering some 140
high-ranking Saudi Arabians – including several relatives of al-Qaida chief Osama bin
Laden – who were then spirited out of the country within a week of the terror, according to
a senior official.
While the Saudis have long denied involvement in the massacre that claimed the
lives of some 3,000 people, 15 of the 19 hijackers came from the kingdom.
Former White House counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke described the Saudi
exodus in an interview for the current issue of Vanity Fair on newsstands today. Clarke,
who left the White House in February, lends confirmation to reports of the evacuation
which first surfaced in September 2001, but have been dispelled as rumor and urban
legend.
Citing Clarke, the magazine reports that within a week of the hijackings private planes
picked up individuals from 10 cities, including Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Houston
and Boston. Aviation officials complained the flights took place before the government had
lifted flight restrictions for the general public.
“We were in the midst of the worst terrorist act in history and here we were seeing an
evacuation of the bin Ladens. … I wanted to go the highest levels in Washington,” Tom
Kinton, director of aviation at Boston’s Logan International Airport, told the magazine.
Kinton said it was clear the operation had the blessings of federal authorities.
Once the flight ban was lifted, two jumbo jets transported the Saudis out of the
country. The Boston Globe reported at the time that two flights bound for Saudi Arabia
with members of the bin Laden clan on board left Logan on Sept. 18 and 19. Other
reports put the departure date at Sept. 14.....

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2003/09/20600/#WQ3hvSrGqbf3xQmb.99

[revelarts]

U.S.-Saudi Arabia Arms Deal Would Be Largest Ever First Posted: 09/13/10 10:33 AM ET Updated: 05/25/11 06:40 PM ET
<big>Wall Street Journal:</big>
The Obama administration is set to notify Congress of plans to offer advanced aircraft to Saudi Arabia worth up to $60 billion, the largest U.S. arms deal ever, and is in talks with the kingdom about potential naval and missile-defense upgrades that could be worth tens of billions of dollars more.
Read the whole story: Wall Street Journal (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704621204575488361149625050.html?m od=WSJ_hps_MIDDLETopStories)


But what they did on 9-11 is illegal for u.s. congress people to speak of?

foreignand domestic terror policy is a smoke screen business and gov't power.

fighting terror around the world is a BS line to get the American's support for wars, foreign business, with corollary natural resource control
and domestically control and monitoring of the population.
just being blunt.

[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

“The enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends. It is not our many Arab friends. Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists and every government that supports them.”
— George W. Bush, 9/20/01


“We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.”
— George W. Bush, 9/20/01


“And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation in every region now has a decision to make: Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime.”
— George W. Bush, 9/20/01
Globalists stick together and that was Globalist power working in tandem with Saudi power. This nation's greatest threat is the alliance of muslim power(Saudi's etc.) and the globalist agenda. -Tyr

[revelarts]

NEW SAUDI KING TIED TO AL QAEDA, BIN LADEN AND ISLAMIC TERRORISM


Published: February 3, 2015
We’ve long noted that Saudi Arabia is a huge supporter of terrorism (http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/02/www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/01/paris-terror-attack-isis-result-911-cover.html#HouseOfSaud).But the new Saudi king is particularly bad.
Investors Business Daily notes (http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/012615-736380-new-saudi-king-named-in-911-suits.htm):

King Salman has a history of funding al-Qaida, and his son has been accused of knowing in advance about the 9/11 attacks.
***
Salman once ran a Saudi charity tied to al-Qaida and has been named a defendant in two lawsuits accusing the Saudi royal family of helping the 9/11 terrorists, one of which the U.S. Supreme Court recently let move forward after years of being blocked by the State Department and the well-funded Saudi lobby.
Plaintiffs have provided an enormous amount of material to source their accusations against Salman. Here’s why his ascension to the throne is not good news, especially as the terrorism threat grows:
• Salman once headed the Saudi High Commission for Relief to Bosnia and Herzegovina, which served as a key charitable front for al-Qaida in the Balkans.
• According to a United Nations-sponsored investigation, Salman in the 1990s transferred more than $120 million from commission accounts under his control — as well as his own personal accounts — to the Third World Relief Agency, another al-Qaida front and the main pipeline for illegal weapons shipments to al-Qaida fighters in the Balkans.
• A U.N. audit found that the money was transferred following meetings with Salman, transfers that had no legitimate “humanitarian” purpose.
• Former CIA officer Robert Baer has reported that an international raid of Saudi High Commission offices found evidence of terrorist plots against America.
• Baer also revealed that Salman “personally approved” distribution of funds from the International Islamic Relief Organization, which also has provided material support to al-Qaida.
• A recent Gulf Institute report says Salman and former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal knowingly aided and abetted al-Qaida in the run-up to 9/11.
• Salman works closely with Saudi clerics Saleh al-Moghamsy, a radical anti-Semite, and Safar Hawali, a one-time mentor of Osama bin Laden, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
• In “Why America Slept,” author Gerald Posner claimed that Salman’s son Ahmed bin Salman also had ties to al-Qaida and even advance knowledge of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

David Andrew Weinberg provides a superb round-up (http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/01/27/king-salmans-shady-history-saudi-arabia-jihadi-ties/?wp_login_redirect=0) of Salman’s ties to terrorism and extremism:

As former CIA official Bruce Riedel astutely pointed out (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/22/the-next-king-of-the-saudis-salman-the-family-sheriff.html), Salman was the regime’s lead fundraiser for mujahideen, or Islamic holy warriors, in Afghanistan in the 1980s, as well as for Bosnian Muslims during the Balkan struggles of the 1990s. In essence, he served as Saudi Arabia’s financial point man for bolstering fundamentalist proxies in war zones abroad.
As longtime governor of Riyadh, Salman was often charged (http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/23/middleeast/who-is-saudi-arabia-king-salman/) with maintaining order and consensus among members of his family. Salman’s half brother King Khalid (who ruled from 1975 to 1982) therefore looked to him early on in the Afghan conflict to use these family contacts for international objectives, appointing (https://books.google.com/books?id=zz9_Ve29eL0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=peter+tomsen+the+wars&hl=en&sa=X&ei=60vEVJjjNveSsQS-zIC4AQ&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=salman&f=false) Salman to run the fundraising committee that gathered support from the royal family and other Saudis to support the mujahideen against the Soviets.
Riedel writes (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/22/the-next-king-of-the-saudis-salman-the-family-sheriff.html) that in this capacity, Salman “work[ed] very closely with the kingdom’s Wahhabi clerical establishment.” Another CIA officer who was stationed in Pakistan in the late 1980s estimates (https://books.google.com/books?id=zz9_Ve29eL0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=peter+tomsen+the+wars&hl=en&sa=X&ei=60vEVJjjNveSsQS-zIC4AQ&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%2420%20%2425&f=false) that private Saudi donations during that period reached between $20 million and $25 million every month. And as Rachel Bronson details (https://books.google.com/books?id=w9u-DSqvzUQC&pg=PA174&lpg=PA174&dq=%22prince+salman%22+and+afghanistan+and+mujahid een&source=bl&ots=LprIkrdtBc&sig=iQBnzE4RyKeEy-tey0pkyTxxMH4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ZD3EVLr9M8ijNrO-guAJ&ved=0CEoQ6AEwCg#v=onepage&q=salman%20baz&f=false) in her book, Thicker Than Oil: America’s Uneasy Partnership With Saudi Arabia, Salman also helped recruit fighters for Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, an Afghan Salafist fighter who served as a mentor to both Osama bin Laden and 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Reprising this role in Bosnia, Salman was appointed (http://embassies.mofa.gov.sa/sites/BosniaandHerzegovina/AR/AboutHostingCountry/SaudiRelations/Pages/default.aspx) by his full brother and close political ally King Fahd to direct the Saudi High Commission for Relief of Bosnia and Herzegovina (SHC) upon its founding (http://www.alarabiya.net/ar/2015/01/25/-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%84%D9%83-%D8%B3%D9%84%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A8%D9%86-%D8%B9%D8%A8%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B2%D9%8A%D8%B2.html) in 1992. Through the SHC, Salman gathered donations from the royal family for Balkan relief, supervising the commission until its until its recent closure (http://www.alriyadh.com/645943)in 2011. By 2001, the organization had collected (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/feb/23/davidpallister) around $600 million — nominally for relief and religious purposes, but money that allegedly (http://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/05/world/muslims-from-afar-joining-holy-war-in-bosnia.html) also went to facilitating arms shipments, despite a U.N. arms embargo (http://books.sipri.org/files/misc/UNAE/SIPRI07UNAEYug.pdf) on Bosnia and other Yugoslav successor states from 1991 to 1996.
And what kind of supervision did Salman exercise over this international commission? In 2001, NATO forces raided (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/feb/23/davidpallister) the SHC’s Sarajevo offices, discovering a treasure trove of terrorist materials: before-and-after photographs of al Qaeda attacks, instructions on how to fake U.S. State Department badges, and maps marked to highlight government buildings across Washington.
The Sarajevo raid was not the first piece of evidence that the SHC’s work went far beyond humanitarian aid. Between 1992 and 1995, European officials tracked roughly$120 million (http://documents.nytimes.com/evidence-of-financial-links-between-saudi-royal-family-and-al-qaeda) in donations from Salman’s personal bank accounts and from the SHC to a Vienna-based Bosnian aid organization named the Third World Relief Agency (TWRA). Although the organization claimed to be focused on providing humanitarian relief, Western intelligence agencies estimated (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/bosvote/front.htm) that the TWRA actually spent a majority of its funds arming fighters aligned with the Bosnian government.
A defector from al Qaeda called to testify (http://articles.philly.com/2008-06-01/news/25250167_1_al-qaeda-charity-offices-islamist-fighters) before the United Nations, and who gave a deposition for lawyers representing the families of 9/11 victims, alleged (http://documents.nytimes.com/evidence-of-financial-links-between-saudi-royal-family-and-al-qaeda) that bothSalman’s SHC and the TWRA provided essential support to al Qaeda in Bosnia, including to his 107-man combat unit. In a deposition related to the 9/11 case, he stated that the SHC “participated extensively in supporting al Qaida operations in Bosnia” and that the TWRA “financed, and otherwise supported” the terrorist group’s fighters.
The SHC’s connection to terrorist groups has long been scrutinized by U.S. intelligence officials as well. The U.S. government’s Joint Task Force Guantanamo once included the Saudi High Commission on its list (http://www.npr.org/2011/04/27/135775793/guantanamo-document-matrix-of-threat-indicators) of suspected “terrorist and terrorist support entities.” The Defense Intelligence Agency also once (http://fas.org/blogs/security/2006/11/arms_to_somalia_dj_vu/) accused (http://fas.org/asmp/resources/FOIA/DIASomaliaApril97AideedReceives.pdf) the Saudi High Commission ofshipping both aid and weapons to Mohamed Farrah Aidid, the al Qaeda-linked Somali warlord depicted as a villain in the movie Black Hawk Down. Somalia was subject to (http://www.sipri.org/databases/embargoes/un_arms_embargoes/somalia) a United Nations arms embargo starting in January 1992.
***
The board of trustees (http://www.psyc.org.sa/wp-content/uploads/low.pdf) for the Prince Salman Youth Center, which Salman himself chairs, today includes Saleh Abdullah Kamel, a Saudi billionaire whose name showed up on a purported list of al Qaeda’s earliest supporters known as the “golden chain (http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB108778058589742584).” (The Wall Street Journal reported that Kamel “denies supporting terror.”) But as the United States sought to shut down Saudi charities with ties to terrorism in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Kamel and Salman both condemned (http://www.theintelligencer.com/archives/article_5ddb69c3-fff1-5807-abbb-f8e3ec65a283.html) the effort as an anti-Islamic witch hunt.
In November 2002, Prince Salman patronized (http://www.arabnews.com/node/225922) a fundraising gala for three Saudi charities under investigation by Washington: the International Islamic Relief Organization, al-Haramain Foundation, and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth. Since 9/11, all three organizations have had branches shuttered or sanctioned over allegations of financially supporting terrorism. That same month, Salman cited his experience on the boards of charitable societies, asserting (http://www.theintelligencer.com/archives/article_5ddb69c3-fff1-5807-abbb-f8e3ec65a283.html) that “it is not the responsibility of the kingdom” if others exploit Saudi donations for terrorism.
***
The new king has also embraced (http://freebeacon.com/national-security/saudi-arabias-new-king-helped-fund-radical-terror-groups/) Saudi cleric Saleh al-Maghamsi, an Islamic supremacist who declared (http://www.memritv.org/clip_transcript/en/3753.htm) in 2012 that Osama bin Laden had more “sanctity and honor in the eyes of Allah,” simply for being a Muslim, than “Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, apostates, and atheists,” whom he described by nature as “infidels.” That didn’t put an end to Salman’s ties to Maghamsi, however. The new Saudi king recently served (http://www.okaz.com.sa/new/Issues/20120603/Con20120603507734.htm) as head of the supervisory board for a Medina research center directed by Maghamsi. A year after Maghamsi’s offensive comments, Salman sponsored (http://archive.aawsat.com/details.asp?section=43&issueno=12523&article=720625#.VMQ0OGTF9LZ) and attended (http://www.aleqt.com/2013/03/13/article_738930.html) a large cultural festival organized by the preacher. Maghamsi also advises two of Salman’s sons ….
History Commons adds (http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=salman_bin_abdul-aziz_1) important details:

By 1994, if not earlier, the NSA is collecting electronic intercepts of conversations between Saudi Arabian royal family members. Journalist Seymour Hersh will later write, “according to an official with knowledge of their contents, the intercepts show that the Saudi government, working through Prince Salman [bin Abdul Aziz], contributed millions to charities that, in turn, relayed the money to fundamentalists. ‘We knew that Salman was supporting all of the causes,’ the official told me.” By July 1996 or soon after, US intelligence “had more than enough raw intelligence to conclude… bin Laden [was] receiving money from prominent Saudis.” <cite style="box-sizing: border-box;">[Hersh, 2004, pp. 324, 329-330 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060955376/centerforcoop-20)]</cite>
One such alleged charity front linked to Salman is the Saudi High Commission in Bosnia (see 1996 and After (http://www.historycommons.org/item.jsp?item=a1996saudihighcommission)). Prince Salman has long been the governor of Riyadh province. At the time, he is considered to be about fourth in line to be king of Saudi Arabia. His son Prince Ahmed bin Salman will later be accused of having connections with al-Qaeda leader Abu Zubaida (see Early April 2002 (http://www.historycommons.org/item.jsp?item=a033102zubaidatrick)). <cite style="box-sizing: border-box;">[PBS, 10/4/2004 (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/shows/saudi/cards5.html)]</cite> It appears this surveillance of Saudi royals will come to an end in early 2001 (see (February-March 2001) (http://www.historycommons.org/item.jsp?item=a0201monarchpassage)).
***


Author Roland Jacquard will later claim that in 1996, al-Qaeda revives its militant network in Bosnia in the wake of the Bosnian war and uses the Saudi High Commission (SHC) as its main charity front to do so. <cite style="box-sizing: border-box;">[Jacquard, 2002, pp. 69 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0756767113/centerforcoop-20)]</cite> This charity was founded in 1993 by Saudi Prince Salman bin Abdul-Aziz and is so closely linked to and funded by the Saudi government that a US judge will later render it immune to a 9/11-related lawsuit after concluding that it is an organ of the Saudi government. <cite style="box-sizing: border-box;">[New York Law Journal, 9/28/2005 (http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1127811912376)]</cite>
http://www.historycommons.org/pics/childbullet.gif In 1994, British aid worker Paul Goodall is killed in Bosnia execution-style by multiple shots to the back of the head. A SHC employee, Abdul Hadi al-Gahtani, is arrested for the murder and admits the gun used was his, but the Bosnian government lets him go without a trial. Al-Gahtani will later be killed fighting with al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. <cite style="box-sizing: border-box;">[Schindler, 2007, pp. 143-144 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0760330034/centerforcoop-20); Schindler is a professor at the U.S. Army War College]</cite>
http://www.historycommons.org/pics/childbullet.gif In 1995, the Bosnian Ministry of Finance raids SHC’s offices and discovers documents that show SHC is “clearly a front for radical and terrorism-related activities.”<cite style="box-sizing: border-box;">[Burr and Collins, 2006, pp. 145 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521857309/centerforcoop-20)]</cite>
http://www.historycommons.org/pics/childbullet.gif In 1995, US aid worker William Jefferson is killed in Bosnia. One of the likely suspects, Ahmed Zuhair Handala, is linked to the SHC. He also is let go, despite evidence linking him to massacres of civilians in Bosnia. <cite style="box-sizing: border-box;">[Schindler, 2007, pp. 263-264 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0760330034/centerforcoop-20)]</cite>
http://www.historycommons.org/pics/childbullet.gif In 1997, a Croatian apartment building is bombed, and Handala and two other SHC employees are suspected of the bombing. They escape, but Handala will be captured after 9/11 and sent to Guantanamo prison. <cite style="box-sizing: border-box;">[Schindler, 2007, pp. 266 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0760330034/centerforcoop-20)]</cite>
http://www.historycommons.org/pics/childbullet.gif In 1997, SHC employee Saber Lahmar is arrested for plotting to blow up the US embassy in Saravejo. He is convicted, but pardoned and released by the Bosnian government two years later. He will be arrested again in 2002 for involvement in an al-Qaeda plot in Bosnia and sent to Guantanamo prison (see January 18, 2002 (http://www.historycommons.org/item.jsp?item=torture,_rendition,_and_other_abuses _against_captives_in_iraq,_afghanistan,_and_elsewh ere_2152)).
http://www.historycommons.org/pics/childbullet.gif By 1996, NSA wiretaps reveal that Prince Salman is funding Islamic militants using charity fronts (Between 1994 and July 1996 (http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=salman_bin_abdul-aziz_1#a94salmanfunding)).
http://www.historycommons.org/pics/childbullet.gif A 1996 CIA report mentions, “We continue to have evidence that even high ranking members of the collecting or monitoring agencies in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Pakistan – such as the Saudi High Commission – are involved in illicit activities, including support for terrorists” (see January 1996 (http://www.historycommons.org/item.jsp?item=a96ciareport)).
http://www.historycommons.org/pics/childbullet.gif Jacquard claims that most of the leadership of the SHC supports bin Laden. The SHC, while participating in some legitimate charitable functions, uses its cover to ship illicit goods, drugs, and weapons in and out of Bosnia. In May 1997, a French military report concludes: ”(T)he Saudi High Commission, under cover of humanitarian aid, is helping to foster the lasting Islamization of Bosnia by acting on the youth of the country. The successful conclusion of this plan would provide Islamic fundamentalism with a perfectly positioned platform in Europe and would provide cover for members of the bin Laden organization.” <cite style="box-sizing: border-box;">[Jacquard, 2002, pp. 69-71 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0756767113/centerforcoop-20)]

However, the US will take no action until shortly after 9/11, when it will lead a raid on the SHC’s Bosnia offices. Incriminating documents will be found, including information on how to counterfeit US State Department ID badges, and handwritten notes about meetings with bin Laden. Evidence of a planned attack using crop duster planes is found as well. <cite style="box-sizing: border-box;">[Schindler, 2007, pp. 129, 284 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0760330034/centerforcoop-20)]</cite> </cite>

[Jeff]

I'm a Buddhist. I have no problem with bowing. Americans don't like to bow to anyone. We are incredibly arrogant that way.


I'm not talking about all Americans, I was speaking of one man, the leader of the free world, bowing to another foreign leader. We, as in our country, and our leader by extension, shouldn't be bowing to anyone.


That's arrogance. Pure and simple.

NO, that shows strength pure and simple, one thing to respect your equal quite another to bow to them. I am the President of a Chapter in a large MC, when I see other presidents whether in my club or from another I show respect not fear.

[revelarts]

NEW SAUDI KING TIED TO AL QAEDA, BIN LADEN AND ISLAMIC TERRORISM




Published: February 3, 2015
We’ve long noted that Saudi Arabia is a huge supporter of terrorism (http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/02/www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/01/paris-terror-attack-isis-result-911-cover.html#HouseOfSaud).But the new Saudi king is particularly bad.
Investors Business Daily notes (http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/012615-736380-new-saudi-king-named-in-911-suits.htm):
King Salman has a history of funding al-Qaida, and his son has been accused of knowing in advance about the 9/11 attacks.
***
Salman once ran a Saudi charity tied to al-Qaida and has been named a defendant in two lawsuits accusing the Saudi royal family of helping the 9/11 terrorists, one of which the U.S. Supreme Court recently let move forward after years of being blocked by the State Department and the well-funded Saudi lobby.
Plaintiffs have provided an enormous amount of material to source their accusations against Salman. Here’s why his ascension to the throne is not good news, especially as the terrorism threat grows:
• Salman once headed the Saudi High Commission for Relief to Bosnia and Herzegovina, which served as a key charitable front for al-Qaida in the Balkans.
• According to a United Nations-sponsored investigation, Salman in the 1990s transferred more than $120 million from commission accounts under his control — as well as his own personal accounts — to the Third World Relief Agency, another al-Qaida front and the main pipeline for illegal weapons shipments to al-Qaida fighters in the Balkans.
• A U.N. audit found that the money was transferred following meetings with Salman, transfers that had no legitimate “humanitarian” purpose.
• Former CIA officer Robert Baer has reported that an international raid of Saudi High Commission offices found evidence of terrorist plots against America.
• Baer also revealed that Salman “personally approved” distribution of funds from the International Islamic Relief Organization, which also has provided material support to al-Qaida.
• A recent Gulf Institute report says Salman and former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal knowingly aided and abetted al-Qaida in the run-up to 9/11.
• Salman works closely with Saudi clerics Saleh al-Moghamsy, a radical anti-Semite, and Safar Hawali, a one-time mentor of Osama bin Laden, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
• In “Why America Slept,” author Gerald Posner claimed that Salman’s son Ahmed bin Salman also had ties to al-Qaida and even advance knowledge of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.


David Andrew Weinberg provides a superb round-up (http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/01/27/king-salmans-shady-history-saudi-arabia-jihadi-ties/?wp_login_redirect=0) of Salman’s ties to terrorism and extremism:
As former CIA official Bruce Riedel astutely pointed out (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/22/the-next-king-of-the-saudis-salman-the-family-sheriff.html), Salman was the regime’s lead fundraiser for mujahideen, or Islamic holy warriors, in Afghanistan in the 1980s, as well as for Bosnian Muslims during the Balkan struggles of the 1990s. In essence, he served as Saudi Arabia’s financial point man for bolstering fundamentalist proxies in war zones abroad.
As longtime governor of Riyadh, Salman was often charged (http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/23/middleeast/who-is-saudi-arabia-king-salman/) with maintaining order and consensus among members of his family. Salman’s half brother King Khalid (who ruled from 1975 to 1982) therefore looked to him early on in the Afghan conflict to use these family contacts for international objectives, appointing (https://books.google.com/books?id=zz9_Ve29eL0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=peter+tomsen+the+wars&hl=en&sa=X&ei=60vEVJjjNveSsQS-zIC4AQ&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=salman&f=false) Salman to run the fundraising committee that gathered support from the royal family and other Saudis to support the mujahideen against the Soviets.
Riedel writes (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/22/the-next-king-of-the-saudis-salman-the-family-sheriff.html) that in this capacity, Salman “work[ed] very closely with the kingdom’s Wahhabi clerical establishment.” Another CIA officer who was stationed in Pakistan in the late 1980s estimates (https://books.google.com/books?id=zz9_Ve29eL0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=peter+tomsen+the+wars&hl=en&sa=X&ei=60vEVJjjNveSsQS-zIC4AQ&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%2420%20%2425&f=false) that private Saudi donations during that period reached between $20 million and $25 million every month. And as Rachel Bronson details (https://books.google.com/books?id=w9u-DSqvzUQC&pg=PA174&lpg=PA174&dq=%22prince+salman%22+and+afghanistan+and+mujahid een&source=bl&ots=LprIkrdtBc&sig=iQBnzE4RyKeEy-tey0pkyTxxMH4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ZD3EVLr9M8ijNrO-guAJ&ved=0CEoQ6AEwCg#v=onepage&q=salman%20baz&f=false) in her book, Thicker Than Oil: America’s Uneasy Partnership With Saudi Arabia, Salman also helped recruit fighters for Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, an Afghan Salafist fighter who served as a mentor to both Osama bin Laden and 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Reprising this role in Bosnia, Salman was appointed (http://embassies.mofa.gov.sa/sites/BosniaandHerzegovina/AR/AboutHostingCountry/SaudiRelations/Pages/default.aspx) by his full brother and close political ally King Fahd to direct the Saudi High Commission for Relief of Bosnia and Herzegovina (SHC) upon its founding (http://www.alarabiya.net/ar/2015/01/25/-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%84%D9%83-%D8%B3%D9%84%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A8%D9%86-%D8%B9%D8%A8%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B2%D9%8A%D8%B2.html) in 1992. Through the SHC, Salman gathered donations from the royal family for Balkan relief, supervising the commission until its until its recent closure (http://www.alriyadh.com/645943)in 2011. By 2001, the organization had collected (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/feb/23/davidpallister) around $600 million — nominally for relief and religious purposes, but money that allegedly (http://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/05/world/muslims-from-afar-joining-holy-war-in-bosnia.html) also went to facilitating arms shipments, despite a U.N. arms embargo (http://books.sipri.org/files/misc/UNAE/SIPRI07UNAEYug.pdf) on Bosnia and other Yugoslav successor states from 1991 to 1996.
And what kind of supervision did Salman exercise over this international commission? In 2001, NATO forces raided (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/feb/23/davidpallister) the SHC’s Sarajevo offices, discovering a treasure trove of terrorist materials: before-and-after photographs of al Qaeda attacks, instructions on how to fake U.S. State Department badges, and maps marked to highlight government buildings across Washington.
The Sarajevo raid was not the first piece of evidence that the SHC’s work went far beyond humanitarian aid. Between 1992 and 1995, European officials tracked roughly$120 million (http://documents.nytimes.com/evidence-of-financial-links-between-saudi-royal-family-and-al-qaeda) in donations from Salman’s personal bank accounts and from the SHC to a Vienna-based Bosnian aid organization named the Third World Relief Agency (TWRA). Although the organization claimed to be focused on providing humanitarian relief, Western intelligence agencies estimated (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/bosvote/front.htm) that the TWRA actually spent a majority of its funds arming fighters aligned with the Bosnian government.
A defector from al Qaeda called to testify (http://articles.philly.com/2008-06-01/news/25250167_1_al-qaeda-charity-offices-islamist-fighters) before the United Nations, and who gave a deposition for lawyers representing the families of 9/11 victims, alleged (http://documents.nytimes.com/evidence-of-financial-links-between-saudi-royal-family-and-al-qaeda) that bothSalman’s SHC and the TWRA provided essential support to al Qaeda in Bosnia, including to his 107-man combat unit. In a deposition related to the 9/11 case, he stated that the SHC “participated extensively in supporting al Qaida operations in Bosnia” and that the TWRA “financed, and otherwise supported” the terrorist group’s fighters.
The SHC’s connection to terrorist groups has long been scrutinized by U.S. intelligence officials as well. The U.S. government’s Joint Task Force Guantanamo once included the Saudi High Commission on its list (http://www.npr.org/2011/04/27/135775793/guantanamo-document-matrix-of-threat-indicators) of suspected “terrorist and terrorist support entities.” The Defense Intelligence Agency also once (http://fas.org/blogs/security/2006/11/arms_to_somalia_dj_vu/) accused (http://fas.org/asmp/resources/FOIA/DIASomaliaApril97AideedReceives.pdf) the Saudi High Commission ofshipping both aid and weapons to Mohamed Farrah Aidid, the al Qaeda-linked Somali warlord depicted as a villain in the movie Black Hawk Down. Somalia was subject to (http://www.sipri.org/databases/embargoes/un_arms_embargoes/somalia) a United Nations arms embargo starting in January 1992.
***
The board of trustees (http://www.psyc.org.sa/wp-content/uploads/low.pdf) for the Prince Salman Youth Center, which Salman himself chairs, today includes Saleh Abdullah Kamel, a Saudi billionaire whose name showed up on a purported list of al Qaeda’s earliest supporters known as the “golden chain (http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB108778058589742584).” (The Wall Street Journal reported that Kamel “denies supporting terror.”) But as the United States sought to shut down Saudi charities with ties to terrorism in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Kamel and Salman both condemned (http://www.theintelligencer.com/archives/article_5ddb69c3-fff1-5807-abbb-f8e3ec65a283.html) the effort as an anti-Islamic witch hunt.
In November 2002, Prince Salman patronized (http://www.arabnews.com/node/225922) a fundraising gala for three Saudi charities under investigation by Washington: the International Islamic Relief Organization, al-Haramain Foundation, and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth. Since 9/11, all three organizations have had branches shuttered or sanctioned over allegations of financially supporting terrorism. That same month, Salman cited his experience on the boards of charitable societies, asserting (http://www.theintelligencer.com/archives/article_5ddb69c3-fff1-5807-abbb-f8e3ec65a283.html) that “it is not the responsibility of the kingdom” if others exploit Saudi donations for terrorism.
***
The new king has also embraced (http://freebeacon.com/national-security/saudi-arabias-new-king-helped-fund-radical-terror-groups/) Saudi cleric Saleh al-Maghamsi, an Islamic supremacist who declared (http://www.memritv.org/clip_transcript/en/3753.htm) in 2012 that Osama bin Laden had more “sanctity and honor in the eyes of Allah,” simply for being a Muslim, than “Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, apostates, and atheists,” whom he described by nature as “infidels.” That didn’t put an end to Salman’s ties to Maghamsi, however. The new Saudi king recently served (http://www.okaz.com.sa/new/Issues/20120603/Con20120603507734.htm) as head of the supervisory board for a Medina research center directed by Maghamsi. A year after Maghamsi’s offensive comments, Salman sponsored (http://archive.aawsat.com/details.asp?section=43&issueno=12523&article=720625#.VMQ0OGTF9LZ) and attended (http://www.aleqt.com/2013/03/13/article_738930.html) a large cultural festival organized by the preacher. Maghamsi also advises two of Salman’s sons ….

History Commons adds (http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=salman_bin_abdul-aziz_1) important details:
By 1994, if not earlier, the NSA is collecting electronic intercepts of conversations between Saudi Arabian royal family members. Journalist Seymour Hersh will later write, “according to an official with knowledge of their contents, the intercepts show that the Saudi government, working through Prince Salman [bin Abdul Aziz], contributed millions to charities that, in turn, relayed the money to fundamentalists. ‘We knew that Salman was supporting all of the causes,’ the official told me.” By July 1996 or soon after, US intelligence “had more than enough raw intelligence to conclude… bin Laden [was] receiving money from prominent Saudis.” <cite style="box-sizing: border-box;">[Hersh, 2004, pp. 324, 329-330 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060955376/centerforcoop-20)]</cite>
One such alleged charity front linked to Salman is the Saudi High Commission in Bosnia (see 1996 and After (http://www.historycommons.org/item.jsp?item=a1996saudihighcommission)). Prince Salman has long been the governor of Riyadh province. At the time, he is considered to be about fourth in line to be king of Saudi Arabia. His son Prince Ahmed bin Salman will later be accused of having connections with al-Qaeda leader Abu Zubaida (see Early April 2002 (http://www.historycommons.org/item.jsp?item=a033102zubaidatrick)). <cite style="box-sizing: border-box;">[PBS, 10/4/2004 (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/shows/saudi/cards5.html)]</cite> It appears this surveillance of Saudi royals will come to an end in early 2001 (see (February-March 2001) (http://www.historycommons.org/item.jsp?item=a0201monarchpassage)).
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Author Roland Jacquard will later claim that in 1996, al-Qaeda revives its militant network in Bosnia in the wake of the Bosnian war and uses the Saudi High Commission (SHC) as its main charity front to do so. <cite style="box-sizing: border-box;">[Jacquard, 2002, pp. 69 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0756767113/centerforcoop-20)]</cite> This charity was founded in 1993 by Saudi Prince Salman bin Abdul-Aziz and is so closely linked to and funded by the Saudi government that a US judge will later render it immune to a 9/11-related lawsuit after concluding that it is an organ of the Saudi government. <cite style="box-sizing: border-box;">[New York Law Journal, 9/28/2005 (http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1127811912376)]</cite>
http://www.historycommons.org/pics/childbullet.gif In 1994, British aid worker Paul Goodall is killed in Bosnia execution-style by multiple shots to the back of the head. A SHC employee, Abdul Hadi al-Gahtani, is arrested for the murder and admits the gun used was his, but the Bosnian government lets him go without a trial. Al-Gahtani will later be killed fighting with al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. <cite style="box-sizing: border-box;">[Schindler, 2007, pp. 143-144 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0760330034/centerforcoop-20); Schindler is a professor at the U.S. Army War College]</cite>
http://www.historycommons.org/pics/childbullet.gif In 1995, the Bosnian Ministry of Finance raids SHC’s offices and discovers documents that show SHC is “clearly a front for radical and terrorism-related activities.”<cite style="box-sizing: border-box;">[Burr and Collins, 2006, pp. 145 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521857309/centerforcoop-20)]</cite>
http://www.historycommons.org/pics/childbullet.gif In 1995, US aid worker William Jefferson is killed in Bosnia. One of the likely suspects, Ahmed Zuhair Handala, is linked to the SHC. He also is let go, despite evidence linking him to massacres of civilians in Bosnia. <cite style="box-sizing: border-box;">[Schindler, 2007, pp. 263-264 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0760330034/centerforcoop-20)]</cite>
http://www.historycommons.org/pics/childbullet.gif In 1997, a Croatian apartment building is bombed, and Handala and two other SHC employees are suspected of the bombing. They escape, but Handala will be captured after 9/11 and sent to Guantanamo prison. <cite style="box-sizing: border-box;">[Schindler, 2007, pp. 266 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0760330034/centerforcoop-20)]</cite>
http://www.historycommons.org/pics/childbullet.gif In 1997, SHC employee Saber Lahmar is arrested for plotting to blow up the US embassy in Saravejo. He is convicted, but pardoned and released by the Bosnian government two years later. He will be arrested again in 2002 for involvement in an al-Qaeda plot in Bosnia and sent to Guantanamo prison (see January 18, 2002 (http://www.historycommons.org/item.jsp?item=torture,_rendition,_and_other_abuses _against_captives_in_iraq,_afghanistan,_and_elsewh ere_2152)).
http://www.historycommons.org/pics/childbullet.gif By 1996, NSA wiretaps reveal that Prince Salman is funding Islamic militants using charity fronts (Between 1994 and July 1996 (http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=salman_bin_abdul-aziz_1#a94salmanfunding)).
http://www.historycommons.org/pics/childbullet.gif A 1996 CIA report mentions, “We continue to have evidence that even high ranking members of the collecting or monitoring agencies in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Pakistan – such as the Saudi High Commission – are involved in illicit activities, including support for terrorists” (see January 1996 (http://www.historycommons.org/item.jsp?item=a96ciareport)).
http://www.historycommons.org/pics/childbullet.gif Jacquard claims that most of the leadership of the SHC supports bin Laden. The SHC, while participating in some legitimate charitable functions, uses its cover to ship illicit goods, drugs, and weapons in and out of Bosnia. In May 1997, a French military report concludes: ”(T)he Saudi High Commission, under cover of humanitarian aid, is helping to foster the lasting Islamization of Bosnia by acting on the youth of the country. The successful conclusion of this plan would provide Islamic fundamentalism with a perfectly positioned platform in Europe and would provide cover for members of the bin Laden organization.” <cite style="box-sizing: border-box;">[Jacquard, 2002, pp. 69-71 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0756767113/centerforcoop-20)]

However, the US will take no action until shortly after 9/11, when it will lead a raid on the SHC’s Bosnia offices. Incriminating documents will be found, including information on how to counterfeit US State Department ID badges, and handwritten notes about meetings with bin Laden. Evidence of a planned attack using crop duster planes is found as well. <cite style="box-sizing: border-box;">[Schindler, 2007, pp. 129, 284 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0760330034/centerforcoop-20)]</cite> </cite>





what's your take on the new Saudi king?