Wednesday, April 09, 2008


Official: 15 of 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were Saudi
2/06/2002
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi Arabia acknowledged for the first time that 15 of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers were Saudi citizens.

















The great escape
Immediately after 9/11, dozens of Saudi royals and members of the bin Laden family fled the U.S. in a secret airlift authorized by the Bush White House. One passenger was an alleged al-Qaida go-between, who may have known about the terror attacks in advance.
Did the Saudis buy a president?
How much money has flowed from the House of Saud to the Bush family and its friends and allies over the years? No one will ever know -- but the number is at least $1.477 billion.
The Bushes and their allies controlled, influenced or possessed substantial positions in a vast array of companies that dominated the energy and defense sectors. Put it all together, and there were myriad ways for the House of Bush to engage in lucrative business deals with the House of Saud and the Saudi merchant elite.

In all, at least $1.476 billion had made its way from the Saudis to the House of Bush and its allied companies and institutions. It could safely be said that never before in history had a presidential candidate -- much less a presidential candidate and his father, a former president -- been so closely tied financially and personally to the ruling family of another foreign power. Never before had a president's personal fortunes and public policies been so deeply entwined with another nation.



Official: $20 billion arms sale to Saudis in the works
July 28, 2007
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States is developing a proposed $20 billion, 10-year arms sales package for Saudi Arabia, a senior administration official confirmed on Saturday.
Posted GMT 4-8-2008 7:27:59

Treasury undersecretary Stuart Levey told a Senate panel that the Saudi government has not taken promised steps to stop wealthy donors from bankrolling al-Qaida and other terrorists through Saudi charities, which are awash in cash thanks to the oil boom.

"Saudi Arabia today remains the location where more money is going to terrorism, to Sunni terror groups and the Taliban than any other place in the world," Levey said.

In fact, the terror-funding pipeline is flowing nearly as strong as it was before 9/11 thanks to the bonanza in Arab petrodollars.

Levey says he and other counterterrorism officials are frustrated with official efforts to persuade the Saudis to crack down. He says there's a reluctance to directly criticize a supposedly close U.S. ally.

Both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue are content to continue playing footsie with these two-faced sheiks under the diplomatic table. The answer seems to be more carrots and no stick at all.

In fact, despite hearing Levey's bombshell testimony, Congress is rubberstamping a proposed White House deal to export $20 billion in arms to the Kingdom and other Arab states, including smartbomb technology that could be used to harm a real ally like Israel.

5 comments:

joy said...

I spent quite a bit of time in Saudi when I was in the Air Force. It's a terrible place. Had to wear the black thing to go to town and wasn't allowed to drive. Lots of rude men. Not to mention the religious police who wander around town with sticks and hit people who are violating one of the 20 million rules of public conduct.

yellowdoggranny said...

you need to read the book house of bush house of saud...it'll scare the crap out of you...that and Bush on the couch...
come on elections..

texlahoma said...

Joy, but they have oil, so anything they do can be overlooked.
YDG, yeah I think I do need to read that, the best part of that post came from that book. I just saw a little part of the book online.
BP, you're so right. I think our representatives are out of touch with the real people, most people couldn't care less what substance a professional athlete takes, as long as the show goes on.

old enough to moan said...

Hi, I came this way via yellowdog Granny site. I like the content on your site, you may wish to read the following, Bush and Blair eh?


UK MPs spoke out following yesterday's high court judgement saying the Serious Fraud Office was wrong to drop its criminal investigation into secret payments by the arms company BAE Systems to Saudi Arabia.

Check this out at http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/apr/11/defence.foreignpolicy

texlahoma said...

Thanks for checking it out, old enough to moan. It's kind of like a box of chocolates.

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