Steven Gaal Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 CLICK ON >> WHO IS RICH BLEE ?? CLICK ON >> WHO IS RICH BLEE ?? VIDEO INTERVIEW OF CLARKE IN LINK BELOW ,Clarke interview starts at 0:47 link http://elohimreigns.blogspot.com/2011/08/richard-clarke-im-sure-theyll-launch.html ###++++++++OOOOOOOO++++++++ooooooo++++++++### Before he was selected to as Ronald Reagan’s 1980 running mate, George H.W. Bush had a short and little-known career as an international banker. That effectively started in 1976, while Bush was still CIA Director, a post he held for part of the Nixon and Ford Administration. In the final months of the Ford presidency, Bush made a deal with the newly-appointed head of Saudi General Intelligence Directorate, Prince Turki al-Faisal. The two spy chiefs agreed the CIA would look the other way while the Saudis ran their own global operations. In exchange, the Saudis financed the sort of black ops that had been banned by the Democratic Congress after Watergate and the Church Committee hearings. The arrangement was called “The Safari Club” , and the funding mechanism for this was the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, “BCCI”. See, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/7/8/146... ; http://www.saudiembassy.net/2006News/State... ---------------------++++++++------------------oooooooo-------------------------------- ======================================================================================= Analyzing the CIA response to Richard Clarke's allegations: Who knew what when? Analysing the CIA Response to Richard Clarke's Allegations: Who Knew What When? August 11, 2011 by Kevin Fenton Published at 911truth.org Following the airing of allegations by former counterterrorism "tsar" Richard Clarke that the CIA deliberately withheld from him information about Pentagon hijackers Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi, former CIA director George Tenet, former CIA Counterterrorist Center chief Cofer Black and Richard Blee, a mid-level agency official who occupied two key counterterrorist positions before 9/11, have responded with a joint statement. Clarke said that information about the two men was deliberately withheld from him in January 2000, at the time of a key al-Qaeda meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which the CIA monitored. Clarke alleged that, based on his knowledge of how the CIA works, Tenet authorised the deliberate withholding. Clarke added that the information was clearly important in the summer of 2001, when the CIA knew that Almihdhar was in the country and, in the words of one of Blee's former deputies, was "very high interest" in connection with the next al-Qaeda attack. However, the CIA continued to withhold some information from both Clarke and the FBI. Mark Rossini, one of Blee's former subordinates at Alec Station, the CIA's bin Laden unit, has previously admitted deliberately withholding the information from the FBI. According to Rossini, in early January 2000 he and a colleague, Doug Miller, knew they should notify the FBI that Almihdhar had a US visa and presumably intended to soon visit the US. Miller even drafted, but did not send, a cable informing the FBI of Almihdhar's visa. However, Rossini says he and Miller were instructed by a female CIA officer known as "Michael" and Blee's deputy, Tom Wilshire, to withhold the information. The joint statement issued by these three men says that neither Tenet nor other senior managers were aware of the visa information at all. Neither of the two reports published after the attack, the heavily redacted 9/11 Congressional Inquiry report and the 9/11 Commission Report--the CIA inspector general's report is still secret, except the executive summary--give the "who knew what when" for Almihdhar's visa information. However, several CIA cables, readily accessible in the agency's database, mentioned the visa. Wilshire knew of the visa information; Blee almost certainly did, too. The 9/11 Commission Report states that Blee briefed his superiors, presumably including Black, about the Malaysia meeting. However, it is unclear from the report or any other source whether Blee mentioned the visa information. Some of the information Blee gave his superiors about the meeting was wildly inaccurate. For example, on January 12 he claimed the surveillance in Kuala Lumpur was still ongoing, whereas in actual fact Alec Station had sent and received several cables stating the attendees began to leave on January 8. The joint statement quotes in support of its contention that senior management did not know of the visa information part of a sentence from the 9/11 Commission Report: The 9/11 Commission quite correctly concluded that "...no one informed higher levels of management in either the FBI or CIA about the case." However, the ellipsis in the quote replaces the words,"It appears that," indicating the commission was not entirely sure. The quote concerns the search for Almihdhar and his companion Nawaf Alhazmi in August and September 2001, not the passage of the visa information in January 2000, and the chapter from which it was taken was first drafted by Barbara Grewe, a Justice Department inspector general and 9/11 Commission staffer who was subsequently hired by a CIA contractor. The statement, "The handling of the information in question was exhaustively looked at by the 9/11 Commission, the Congressional Joint Inquiry, the CIA Inspector General and other groups," is also questionable. The body of the CIA inspector general's report is still secret so its contents are unknown, but the 9/11 Congressional Inquiry did not even find Miller's blocked cable, let alone ask him about it, and the 9/11 Commission Report is silent on the vast majority of specifics in Blee's briefings to his superiors. The CIA's cable database contains records of who accessed what cable when, and a statement on which Malaysia cables Tenet read would go some way toward answering the question of what he knew. Blee's written briefings would also be significant in this respect. The lack of information the CIA leadership allegedly had in 2001's "summer of threat" is even more puzzling. Tenet worked himself up into a near frenzy in the months before 9/11, mostly based on unspecific chatter about a forthcoming major bin Laden operation. For example, when Tenet demanded an immediate meeting with National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice on July 10, 2001, when Clarke, Black and Blee were also present, one of Tenet's best arguments to support the idea that al-Qaeda would soon attack was, according to Tenet's 2007 book, "late June information that cited a 'big event' that was forthcoming." This is not so meaningful compared to the information the CIA had about Almihdhar and Alhazmi and should have presented to Clarke and Rice. By late August 2001 Wilshire, and almost certainly Blee, knew that Almihdhar was in the US and Wilshire notified his CIA superiors that Almihdhar was "very high interest" in connection with the next al-Qaeda attack. If this information did not reach Tenet, as he claims, the appropriate question would again be: who failed to pass it on? ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ANSWER: INSIDE JOB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Gaal Posted August 17, 2011 Author Share Posted August 17, 2011 (edited) from historycommons 911 timeline ------------------------------------- Profile: Safari Club Safari Club was a participant or observer in the following events: 1976: CIA and Other Intelligence Agencies Use BCCI to Control and Manipulate Criminals and Terrorists Worldwide Agha Hasan Abedi. [source: Terry Kirk / Financial Times]Investigative journalist Joseph Trento will later report that in 1976, the Safari Club, a newly formed secret cabal of intelligence agencies (see September 1, 1976-Early 1980s), decides it needs a network of banks to help finance its intelligence operations. Saudi Intelligence Minister Kamal Adham is given the task. “With the official blessing of George H. W. Bush as the head of the CIA, Adham transformed a small Pakistani merchant bank, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), into a world-wide money-laundering machine, buying banks around the world to create the biggest clandestine money network in history.” BCCI was founded in 1972 by a Pakistani named Agha Hasan Abedi, who was an associate of Adham’s. Bush himself has an account at BCCI established while still director of the CIA. French customs will later raid the Paris BCCI branch and discover the account in Bush’s name. [Trento, 2005, pp. 104] Bush, Adham, and other intelligence heads work with Abedi to contrive “a plan that seemed too good to be true. The bank would solicit the business of every major terrorist, rebel, and underground organization in the world. The intelligence thus gained would be shared with ‘friends’ of BCCI.” CIA operative Raymond Close works closely with Adham on this. BCCI taps “into the CIA’s stockpile of misfits and malcontents to help man a 1,500-strong group of assassins and enforcers.” [Trento, 2005, pp. 104] Soon, BCCI becomes the fastest growing bank in the world. Time magazine will later describe BCCI as not just a bank, but also “a global intelligence operation and a Mafia-like enforcement squad. Operating primarily out of the bank’s offices in Karachi, Pakistan, the 1,500-employee black network has used sophisticated spy equipment and techniques, along with bribery, extortion, kidnapping and even, by some accounts, murder. The black network—so named by its own members—stops at almost nothing to further the bank’s aims the world over.” [Time, 7/22/1991] ************************************************ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ September 1, 1976-Early 1980s: Secret Intelligence Cabal Works with Rogue CIA Elements to Influence Middle East and Africa Alexandre de Marenches. [source: Thierry Orban/ Corbis Sygma]Prince Turki al-Faisal, head of Saudi intelligence from 1979, will say in a 2002 speech in the US, “In 1976, after the Watergate matters took place here, your intelligence community was literally tied up by Congress. It could not do anything. It could not send spies, it could not write reports, and it could not pay money. In order to compensate for that, a group of countries got together in the hope of fighting Communism and established what was called the Safari Club. The Safari Club included France, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and Iran.” [scott, 2007, pp. 62] An Egyptian reporter digging through Iranian government archives will later discover that the Safari Club was officially founded on September 1, 1976. Alexandre de Marenches, head of the French external intelligence service SDECE, was the chief instigator of the group. Millions are spent to create staff, offices, communications, and operational capability. Periodic secret conferences are held in Saudi Arabia, France, and Egypt. This group plays a secret role in political intrigues in many countries, mostly in Africa and the Middle East. For instance, a rebellion in Zaire is put down by Moroccan and Egyptian troops, using French air support. It also plays a role in the US-Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty of 1979. [Cooley, 2002, pp. 15-17] Author Joe Trento will later allege that the Safari Club, and especially the Saudi intelligence agency led by Kamal Adham and then his nephew Prince Turki from 1979 onwards, fund off-the-books covert operations for the CIA. But rather than working with the CIA as it is being reformed during the Carter administration, this group prefers to work with a private CIA made up of fired agents close to ex-CIA Director George Bush Sr. and Theodore Shackley, who Trento alleges is at the center of a “private, shadow spy organization within” the CIA until he is fired in 1979. The Safari Club and rogue CIA will play a major role in supporting the mujaheddin in Afghanistan. [scott, 2007, pp. 63-64, 111] It is not clear when the Safari Club disbands, but it existence was exposed not long after the shah was deposed in Iran in 1979, and it seems to have disappeared by the time de Marenches stepped down from being head of French intelligence in 1982. [Cooley, 2002, pp. 15-17] ************************************************ ##################o############################# ================================================ from Andrew Gavin Marshall Globalresearch article -------------------------------------------oo----+ Osama bin Laden was reported to have been personally recruited by the CIA in 1979 in Istanbul. He had the close support of Prince Turki bin Faisal, his friend and head of Saudi intelligence, and also developed ties with Hekmatyar in Afghanistan,[a] both of whom were pivotal figures in the CIA-Safari Club network. General Akhtar Abdul Rahman, the head of the Pakistani ISI from 1980 to 1987, would meet regularly with Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, and they formed a partnership in demanding a tax on the opium trade from warlords so that by 1985, bin Laden and the ISI were splitting the profits of over $100 million per year.[A] In 1985, Osama bin Laden’s brother, Salem, stated that Osama was ‘the liaison between the US, the Saudi government, and the Afghan rebels {a} + Veronique Maurus and Marc Rock, The Most Dreaded Man of the United States, Controlled a Long Time by the CIA. Le Monde Diplomatique: September 14, 2001: http://www.wanttoknow.info/010914lemonde { A] +Gerald Posner, Why America Slept: The Failure to Prevent 9/11. (New York: Random House, 2003), page 29 {B}.+ Steve Coll, The Bin Ladens. (New York: Penguin, 2008), pages 7-9+ Edited August 17, 2011 by Steven Gaal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Gaal Posted August 17, 2011 Author Share Posted August 17, 2011 911 COMMISSION coverup of Turki Al Faisal connection to WTC events. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Len Colby Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 How does any of this tie Turki al-Faisal and Bush Sr. to the CIA's failure to inform other agencies about the presence of the AQ members in the US? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Gaal Posted August 18, 2011 Author Share Posted August 18, 2011 (edited) How does any of this tie Turki al-Faisal and Bush Sr. to the CIA's failure to inform other agencies about the presence of the AQ members in the US? XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX --------------------------------oooooooo------------------------------------- PART ONE PART ONE PART ONE OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Bin Laden's Brother-in-law Had Close Ties to Bush Tom Flocco * AmericanFreePress.net * And Scoop.co.nz August 28, 2002 Saudi Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz, an Osama bin Laden benefactor, has laundered money into tax-exempt U.S. entities for years as a foreign financier of terrorism. But a new 9/11 lawsuit is thrusting Mahfouz's latent past business links to George W. Bush back into the spotlight and raising important questions about links between Saudi finance and terrorism in America. Saudi Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz Bush Financier & Osama Bin Laden's Brother In Law Nine hundred families of September 11 victims recently filed a trillion-dollar lawsuit against members of the royal Saudi family, businessmen worth a combined $5 billion, and banks and charities. The lawsuit accuses them of financing Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda, and the Taliban government. And one of the defendants - Saudi Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz -- will likely draw increasing attention in coming months due to his past business relationships with President George W. Bush - the sweetheart deals he made during the elder Bush's presidency. According to a Saudi government audit acquired by U.S. intelligence officials, five of Saudi Arabia's wealthiest businessmen, including National Commercial Bank (NCB) founder and chairman Khalid bin Mahfouz, transferred personal funds along with $3 million diverted from a Saudi pension fund, to New York and London banks with accounts linked to terrorism. (USA Today, 10-28-99) The money transfers were discovered in April, 1999 after the royal family ordered an audit of both NCB and Sheikh Mahfouz. The plot thickens when we find Mahfouz is also linked by marriage to terrorist Osama bin Laden, as Mahfouz's sister is married to the Al Qaeda leader, according to not only former CIA Director James Woolsey in 1998 Senate testimony, but also Jean-Charles Brisard, lead 9/11 lawsuit attorney Ronald Motley's researcher, and author of the book, The Forbidden Truth. 9/11 attorney Ronald Motley (Photo PBS) Motley's 9/11 lawsuit alleges that Saudi money has "for years been funneled to encourage radical anti-Americanism as well as to fund the Al Qaeda terrorists," a fact not taken lightly by 9/11 family members fighting back tears at the podium during Motley's recent press conference. NCB deposited the money into accounts of such Islamic charities as Islamic Relief -- and Blessed Relief, where Mahfouz's son Abdul Rahman serves on the board in Sudan. Senior U.S. intelligence officials said Mahfouz and others transferred, "tens of millions of dollars to bank accounts linked to indicted terrorist Osama bin Laden." Powerful Washington, D.C. law firm Akin, Gump, Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP has earned hefty fees representing Mahfouz, other billionaire Saudi businessmen and the Texas-based Islamic charity, Holy Land Foundation ( the largest in America -- which FBI officials fingered as a terrorist front organization in America. And two of Bush's closest Texas friends, James C. Langdon and George R. Salem -- chair of Arab-Outreach in his 2000 campaign -- are partners at Akin, Gump. (Boston Herald, 12-11-2001) Five days before September 11, the FBI raided Holy Land's internet firm InfoCom Corporation, indicating pre-attack investigative interest in the charity`s links to terrorism. But no reports indicate whether the FBI has asked the President's friends at Akin, Gump about financial dealings with the U.S. firm's terrorist-connected Saudi clients. Charles Lewis, executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, a political watchdog group, said "Akin, Gump's willingness to represent Saudi power brokers probed for links to terrorism presents a unique ethical concern since partners at the firm are so close to the president." A Bath Always Comes In Handy Does George W. Bush Have Something To Hide? Mahfouz's past also includes business dealings with George W. Bush, having invested $50,000 in the younger Bush's first company, Arbusto Energy, through his U.S. representative James R. Bath, an aircraft broker and friend of Mr. Bush from their days together in the Texas Air National Guard. (Wall Street Journal (WSJ), "Vetting the Frontrunners: From Oil to Baseball to the Governor's Mansion," 9-28-1999) Legal papers regarding Bath's contested divorce listed one of his assets as a $50,000 investment in Arbusto Oil -- Bush's first company. Moreover, Bath's business partner said he had no substantial money of his own at the time he made the Arbusto investment, implying that Bath received the money from someone else: "Most of Bath's investments . . . were really fronts for Mahfouz and other Saudis connected with the Bank of Credit and Commerce (BCCI)." (The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride Into the Secret Heart of BCCI, Random House, Beaty & Gwynne, 1993, page 229.) Award-winning author and journalist at the Houston Chronicle and The Economist, Peter Brewton, consulted James R. Bath's resume and wrote that in early summer 1976 Bath received a huge business break: "Bath was named a trustee for Sheikh Salem bin Laden of Saudi Arabia [half-brother of Osama bin Laden], a member of the family that owns the largest construction company in the Middle East. Bath's job was to handle all of bin Laden's North American investments and operations." (The Mafia, CIA, and George Bush, Shapolsky Book Pub., 1992) [simon & Schuster had first signed Brewton, then decided not to publish his book.] Shortly thereafter, Bath also began working for billionaire Sheikh Mahfouz, NCB banker for Saudi billionaire financier Abdullah Bakhsh. Meanwhile, George Junior's failing Arbusto company was renamed Bush Exploration -- hoping to trade on his father`s increasing importance; however, it was soon merged with Spectrum 7 Energy, as oil prices were collapsing. While hard times continued for Spectrum, in 1988 Harken Energy Corporation absorbed the company, according to WSJ. And in return for adding the famous Bush name as a corporate asset, Texas-based Harken in effect bailed out the future president's failing fortunes with generous stock options, a salaried seat on Harken's board of directors, low-interest loans, and other helpful perks. [Harken Energy: George W.`s Perfect Storm, 7-15-2002 -- http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0207/S00104.htm ] The astute Saudi billionaires sought to develop intimate financial relationships with the upwardly mobile political Bushes, even using their Arkansas connections to pull off some deals. Bakhsh's Saudi banker Khalid bin Mahfouz and Bill Clinton's close Stephens Company friend, David Edwards -- representing Bakhsh's U.S. interests -- arranged for Bakhsh to purchase 17% of Harken Energy in 1987, as Harken also began to struggle with debt, while sorely in need of a cash infusion -- in this case, $25 million from Saudi Arabia. After the Saudi money propped up Harken, reports revealed that Bakhsh's other U.S. associate, Palestinian-born Chicago businessman Talet Othman, was given a seat on Harken's board with George Bush Jr. -- the President`s son -- further linking them both to Saudi interests. But the financial bail-out came with a political quid pro quo: a seat at President George H. W. Bush's White House foreign policy table. The WSJ added that by 1990, Othman began attending White House meetings with the elder Bush to discuss Middle East policy -- begging the question whether 9/11 victim families' future terrorist sponsor Mahfouz and his wealthy Saudi banking client Bakhsh had purchased political, military, and financial influence within the Bush Administration. According to Fortunate Son by James H. Hatfield, after George W's Harken Energy drilling contract with Bahrain was signed, Mahfouz and Bakhsh saw to it that Othman was added to a list of fifteen Arabs who met with President George H. W. Bush, then-White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu [father of New Hampshire's current U.S. Senate candidate John E. Sununu], and National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, three times in 1990 -- once just two days after Iraq invaded Kuwait -- to discuss Middle East policy. White In The Nick Of Time Saudi banker Mahfouz and construction magnate Salem bin Laden's U.S. representative James Bath had a close business associate named Charles W. "Bill" White. Time Magazine reporters Jonathan Beaty and S.C. Gwynne described the former Navy fighter pilot as the All-American Boy -- and Bath's quiet personality required a complement: "After the navy he [White] put away his combat decorations, earned a Harvard Business degree and returned to Texas to become a well-paid investment point man for a lot of heavy-hitting Republicans. . . . He was sponsored by another Harvard MBA, Lloyd Bentsen, Jr., son of the Texas senator. Young Bentsen had discovered White on a Harvard recruiting trip . . . looking for someone who could handle discreet private investments." "As White explained it, Bentsen suggested he should look up a Houston businessman named James Bath, who was in real estate and aircraft sales, and represented some of the richest Arab sheikhs. Bath, also a friend of George Bush, Jr., was looking for a business partner. Bentsen thought that since Bath was also a former fighter pilot, the two men would have a lot in common." (The Outlaw Bank) White and Bath became partners; and predictably, they were successful in a number of land development deals. White was the affable front man, while George Junior's friend James Bath quietly found the investors -- including Saudi billionaires. "Bath told me that he was in the CIA. He told me he was recruited by George H. W. Bush himself in 1976," when the elder Bush was CIA Director, according to Beaty's interview with White. White added further, "That made sense to me, especially in light of what I had seen once we went into business together. He [bath] said that [CIA Director] Bush wanted him involved with the Arabs, and to get into the aviation business." John Mecklin, investigative reporter for the Houston Post, independently verified Jim Bath's CIA connections -- and that he was also future president George Jr.'s Air National Guard friend -- as Beaty had corroborated in the White interview for The Outlaw Bank. Moreover, White said the elder Bush recruited Bath to monitor the activities of his Saudi Arabian investors, as Beaty confirmed the elder's friendship with Bath for himself: "White said that one time in 1982 he and Bath were at the Ramada Club in Houston when Vice-President Bush walked in. Bush waved at Bath and said, `Hi, Jim,' according to White." Texas ties became a habit with Bath's future terrorist financier, author Peter Brewton implied, when in 1979 Mahfouz purchased the Houston River Oaks mansion of Chester Reed, father-in-law of John Ballis, who pled guilty to Savings and Loan fraud. Mahfouz paid $4.23 million through Houston's Baker & Botts -- a law firm traversing many Bush family business deals -- which handled the Saudi Sheikh's Houston land investments through James Bath. Wide reports say Mahfouz still owns the Texas mansion. Time's Beaty and Gwynne chronicled the terrorist financier's alleged 1985 sweetheart purchase of the Texas Commerce Bank Tower for $200 million during the mid-1980s Texas oil-business crash. Bath's partner Bill White said Mahfouz's purchase greatly benefited the fortunes of President Bush 41's confidant and Secretary of State James Baker, Baker & Botts law firm, and Baker's family -- founders and principal holders of Texas Commerce stock. Beaty said the Tower was built for $140 million at the apex of the oil boom; but Mahfouz paid the elder Bush's family friends $200 million at the bottom of the real estate crash, when commercial office space couldn't be given away. And interestingly, Mafouz's partner in that purchase, Saudi-based billionaire Rafik Hariri, also over-paid Florida Senator Bill Nelson $2 million more than the assessed value to buy his McLean, Virginia home in 1989 -- illustrating the penetration of Saudi financial corruption in Congress. Texas Commerce Bank Tower, Dallas, USA Mahfouz also bought into Houston's Main Bank as a partner with Bath and former Texas Governor John Connally in 1976. And in 1981 Mercantile Texas Corporation/Capital Bank -- soon to become MCorp -- bought Main Bank from Sheikh Mahfouz: Strangely, The Outlaw Bank noted that "Houston's Main Bank made news when a bank examiner discovered that the small Texas bank was purchasing $100 million in hundred-dollar bills each month from the Federal Reserve Bank -- an amount that dwarfed its miniscule asset base. That was strange, but there was nothing illegal about it." However, Bill White also told Jonathan Beaty that Bath had been investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) while the two were partners, adding "the DEA suspected Bath was using his planes to fly currency to the Cayman Islands, although they didn't know why, since drugs didn't seem to be involved." Curiously, the probe ended. Media interest may increase now, however, as Federal Reserve financial records are likely to be subpoenaed by Ron Motley and the 9/11victim families, detailing the inordinate amount of currency that passed through Mahfouz's small Houston, Texas bank -- and the curiously indulgent investigation of Bath and the Federal Reserve by the DEA. Even to the uninitiated, the Caymans are synonymous with corruption and circumvention of the law. Thus it will fall to court depositions, subpoenas, and political pressure from 9/11 victim families to question why stacks of U.S. currency from the Federal Reserve Bank were flown into the Caymans by Saudi-backed representatives like James Bath -- friend to the President`s son -- let alone where the cash went, whether is was looted from the U.S. Treasury via Federal Reserve fiscal maneuverings, and to what extent the practice continues -- given current world terrorism. Evidence points toward such "tax havens" as financial conduits for September 11 terrorism -- not just money-laundering refuges for current corporate wrongdoing, drug lords, organized crime, and those seeking to avoid a voracious U.S. tax system. Michigan Senator Carl Levin's February, 2001 Minority Banking Report calls correspondent banking the "gateway to money laundering," a financial technique wherein illicit money is moved from bank to bank with no questions asked, thereby cleansing funds prior to being used for legitimate purposes. Banks in the Caymans which are not licensed, for example, gain access to American financial markets by establishing "correspondent" relationships with U.S. banks that are. Thus, Saudi financial supporters of terrorism such as Khalid bin Mahfouz are able to move millions from one country to another. Strangely, given wide reports that Saudi billionaires are and have been financing terrorism in the United States for years, President Bush has still not issued a freeze on all correspondent transactions linked to banks in Saudi Arabia -- since most of the hijackers were Saudi nationals. [ See Executive Order 3224 Blocking Terrorist Property, The White House, 9-23-2001, http://www.banking.state.ny.us/il01102a.pdf ] A Washington Post report (9-29-20010) also questioned "why [bush's] original Executive Order did not name any banks," as the President has the power to freeze American monetary operations connected to global banks with institutions in countries refusing to cooperate in the terrorist finance probe. Thus Saudi financial scrutiny has been avoided. Three months later, on December 31, 2001, a U.S. State Department memo revealed that the President again declined to deal with middle eastern banks, by announcing that assets of one German and five Irish terrorist-linked organizations had been frozen. Still left off the frozen assets list were all banks linked to the epicenter of terrorist finances in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Bahrain, where Bush 41 campaign contributors and Bush 43 have carried on personal financial business in the past via Harken Energy Corporation. [ 12-31-2001 State Dept. Memo http://usinfo.state.gov/topical/pol/terror/02010202 ] However, given documented monetary ties to U.S. terrorism, exemplified by Mahfouz and other Saudis, cable TV news interviews now reflect a growing victim family outrage regarding secret 9/11 congressional hearings postponed till late September -- and lack of truth and accountability. [see Secret Hearings Conceal 9/11 Terrorist Links to Congress & White House, http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0208/S00045.htm ] Mahfouz's Malfeasance Osama Bin Laden The world's most wanted, has business connections to George Bush Osama bin Laden`s brother-in-law, Sheikh Khalid, "remained at NCB until he was indicted in 1992 on charges that he had schemed to defraud depositors, regulators and auditors of the insolvent BCCI," according to Brewton in The Mafia, CIA, and George Bush. At the same time, the Federal Reserve Board announced that it found Mahfouz and NCB had violated American banking laws in trying to acquire Washington-based First American Bancshares in concert with BCCI. Shortly thereafter, a federal judge signed an order freezing Sheikh Khalid's U.S. assets, including a luxury penthouse apartment on Fifth Avenue in New York and stock in MCorp," according to Brewton. [The value of MCorp stock, however, was next to useless -- Newsweek reported on 2-18-2002 that the company had gone bankrupt in 1989] Conveniently, however, the New York court permitted the Saudi billionaire-turned terrorist sponsor to pay the U.S. a settlement fine of $225 million to let him walk away. In what is probably the most thoroughly-sourced book ever written about George W. Bush [literally thousands of credible newspaper articles, archived document lists, interview sources, and online reports collected may alone be worth the cost of the book], author J. H. Hatfield details George W.`s friend James Bath's incredible saga as the personal representative of terrorist -linked Khalid bin Mahfouz, one of the 9/11 victim family defendants: "A deal broker whose alleged associations run from the CIA to a major shareholder and director of the Bank of Credit and Commerce (BCCI). BCCI was closed down in July 1991 amid charges of multi-billion dollar fraud and worldwide news reports that the institution had been involved in covert intelligence work, drug money laundering, arms brokering, bribery of government officials, and aid to terrorists. An accounting commissioned by the Bank of England finally exposed the extent of BCCI's deficits and criminal offenses, forcing the bank's eventual collapse." (Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President, St. Martin's Press, November, 1999, and Soft Skull Press, 2000, by J. H. Hatfield) Victim family scrutiny of Federal Reserve financial records related to BCCI, Islamic charity documents and bank accounts -- but also political pressure to make public the Saudi audit of Mahfouz will go a long way toward ascertaining just how much money bin Laden's brother-in-law laundered through U.S. and foreign banks to financially support the killers of their loved ones. Moreover, Beaty and Gwynne indicate that Ron Motley and his legal team will not have an easy time of it, as corruption's previous tracks have been well-covered: "Sami Masri began talking again, the hushed words tumbling out painting a detailed, vivid picture of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International's global involvement with drug shipments, smuggled gold, stolen military secrets, assassinations, bribery, extortion, covert intelligence operations, and weapons deals. These were the province of a Karachi-based (Pakistan) cadre of bank operatives, paramilitary units, spies, and enforcers who handled BCCI's darkest operation around the globe and trafficked in bribery and corruption. As the plane began its long descent, both men (Jonathan Beaty) sat silently, lost in their thoughts. (The Outlaw Bank, page 66) Skyways Aircraft Leasing And Other Texas Tales The Cayman Islands Home to sun, surf and dirty money looking for a laundry Perhaps Mahfouz's most interesting Houston investment through his agent, CIA-linked Jim Bath, was Skyways Aircraft Leasing. Skyways began on July 2, 1980 as a company called Cotopax Investments, registered in the Cayman Islands, according to Pete Brewton's The Mafia, CIA & George Bush. In off-shore, money-laundering, "shell-corporation" traditional style, the Skyways Board of Directors met one week before Cotomax notified the Cayman Island authorities that the company name had been changed -- after 29 days. "The directors named Mahfouz's envoy James Bath as president and director, and then resigned. All of the stock was made into bearer stock, which meant that it belonged to whoever possessed it," according to Brewton. And in his sworn lawsuit against Bill White, Bath refused to reveal the owners of Skyways stock. But Brewton's research revealed that documents filed in another lawsuit indicated that Mahfouz owned Skyways. One of the original subscribers to the renamed Cotopax Investments, Cayhaven Corporate Services, Ltd., was also a subscriber to I.C., Inc. -- incorporated in 1985 -- but curiously found in the very center of a chart drawn by Oliver North, found by investigators in North's White House safe. The chart showed the private network that provided support and money to the Iran-Contras -- another story with multiple legs. White told Jonathan Beaty that he believed Bath was using Skyways' money, which may have belonged to the CIA, to speculate in Houston real estate. When the real estate market tanked, Bath turned on White for the money rather than tell Mahfouz and the CIA that he had lost it. Saving A Buck Or Two Air Force One Taxiing At Ellington Field Participated in fuel scam to fund Junior Bush's business partner In 1990, Houston Post's John Mecklin reported that the Bush Administration's Department of Defense (DOD) was paying millions of dollars more than necessary by buying aviation fuel from Mahfouz surrogate Jim Bath's Southwest Airport Services company at Houston's Ellington Field. Southwest was charging government military aircraft anywhere from 22 cents a gallon to over 40 cents more than the price the Air National Guard base at Ellington was paying to buy its jet fuel. Even George the elder's Air Force One regularly participated in the scam each time it pulled into Houston -- consistently using Bath's privately owned Southwest Airport Services instead of Ellington Field's less expensive government fueling station. (Time, "Mysterious Mover of Money and Planes," 10-28-1991) Further illustrating the Saudi corruption of George Sr.'s administration at taxpayer expense, Mecklin reported that DOD paid Mahfouz stand-in, James Bath, more than $12 million in contract overruns for over-priced aviation fuel. Mecklin estimated that between November, 1985 and November, 1989, the DOD paid Bath's Southwest Airport Services more than $16.2 million for fuel under government contracts that should have cost about $3.6 million -- courtesy of American citizens. Southwest even had a City of Houston lease at Ellington for $650 per month, won by Bath in a lottery, making the scheme possible; however, the lease had not been offered to anyone else for years, even though it was supposed to be temporary. Someone else was getting a private cut of the proceeds to pull off that kind of fraud; however, the Houston Post and Time revelations prompted no official investigations, leaving the American taxpayer holding the bag. Truth, Justice And Accountability After a year of grieving, family members of brave firefighters and police, emergency medical service workers, brilliant Wall-Street minds, intrepid airline crews and passengers, and Pentagon military personnel are probably beginning to ask themselves: "What did the government know, and when did they know it?" The unanswered questions linger each day, even as Congress has delayed open hearings and the Senate postpones consideration of an independent 9/11 Investigative Commission with three or four victim family members participating in the process -- perhaps waiting for the Second Gulf War (aka The First World Oil War) to eliminate 9/11 justice and accountability from the table altogether. That Khalid bin Mahfouz and other Saudis have been financially linked to terrorist Osama bin Laden has been verified by U.S. Intelligence; but that notwithstanding, the seriousness of current events compels an additional awareness and understanding of the bin Laden benefactor's strangely extensive financial associations with Houston, Texas entities ( and powerful public persons. For in a cryptic comment, former CIA official Larry Johnson once told the Washington Post: "The Saudis have been complicit. . . . It's one of the dirty secrets." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Supplementary research was contributed by the writer's former assistant, Mario Calabrese, now employed in the research and investigation department at Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman's public interest law firm, Judicial Watch, Inc., in Washington, D.C. Copyright © 2002 by Thomas Flocco. * - Tom Flocco is an independent investigative journalist who has written for Scoop.co.nz, AmericanFreePress.net, WorldNetDaily.com, FromTheWilderness.com, NewsMax.com, NarcoNews.com, and JudicialWatch.org. Contact: TomFlocco@cs.com * - www.americanfreepress.net - The Uncensored National Weekly Newspaper Published On Capitol Hill. 1433 Pennsylvania Avenue SE. Washington D.C.20003. Order Line: 1-888-699-6397 for print subscriptions and more investigative stories. ###############################))))))))00000000))))))))########################################## +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ###############################+++++++++++++++########################################### --------------------PART TWO------------------------------------------------o-----------------------PART TWO ---------------PART TWO------PART TWO---------------------------------------------- link http://www.hermes-press.com/BushSaud.htm XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXooooooooXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo =============================================================================== The Bush-Saudi Connection By Michelle Mairesse Ancestral Voices In 1920, under a League of Nations mandate, officials from France and Great Britain carved up vast tracts of warlord-dominated territories in Arabia into what they imagined would be nation states devoid of the complex historical, cultural, and tribal realities of the Mideast. Instead of establishing European-style nation states, the strongest warlords quickly entrenched themselves with the aid of standing armies and spy networks. In much of the Mideast, fealty is often accorded to tribal overlords and the Islamic sects they favor rather than to the territory and people within the boundaries of the nation state. Jonathan Rabin succinctly defines the reality, past and present, of the desert sheikdoms: "The systems of government that have evolved in Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia are paranoid family dictatorships with ancestral roots in a single city or village." (1) Islamic fundamentalists like Osama bin Laden make their appeals to the nation or community of believers, not to any particular nation state, although the rich and powerful among the Muslims have founded Western-style businesses and formed corporations both inside and outside the boundaries of their native countries. Because Osama himself is a scion of a rich Saudi family with wide-ranging business interests throughout the world, the split Saudi personality is most evident in him and the bin Laden clan. Osama, who calls America "The Great Satan," has done business with the infidel Americans whenever it suited him. Throughout the eighties, when the United States assisted the Saudis in a giant military buildup of airfields, ports, and bases throughout the kingdom, many of the contracts were awarded to the largest construction company in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Binladen Group, founded by Osama bin Laden's father. At the same time, the United States trained and armed troops in Afghanistan to fight the Soviets. The United States and Saudi Arabia spent about $40 billion on the war in Afghanistan, recruiting, supplying, and training nearly 100,000 radical mujahideen from forty Muslim countries, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Algeria, and Afghanistan itself. Among the recruits were Osama bin Laden and his followers. (2) With C.I.A. funding, Osama bin Laden imported engineers and equipment from his father's Saudi construction company to build tunnels for guerrilla training centers and hospitals, and for arms dumps near the Pakistan border. After the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, the C.I.A. and the Pakistani intelligence agency sponsored the Taliban organization, a government composed of the fanatic Wahhabi Islamic sect, the same sect that is the state religion in Saudi Arabia. Although followers of the Wahhabi sect do not refer to themselves as Wahhabis, the label is useful because it applies to a single Muslim group with a set of beliefs peculiar to them alone: Wahhabis maintain that Shi'ites and Sufis are not Muslims, and that Muslims should not visit shrines or celebrate Mohammed's birthday. (3) The Saudi sheiks have been Wahhabis since they intermarried with the family of a puritanical Muslim scholar, Mohammed ibn Abd al-Wahhab, in 1774. Supported first by Britain and later by the United States, the Saudis captured the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina, easily gaining control of the entire Arabian peninsula. Wherever they ruled, the Wahhabis imposed their medieval code on their hapless subjects, making public spectacles of stoning adulterers to death and maiming thieves, destroying decorated mosques and cemeteries, prohibiting music, sequestering women, and promoting war on infidels. The Saudi sheiks have lavished funds on anti-American and anti-Israeli terrorists-in-training while indoctrinating other Muslims through its worldwide network of religious schools, mosques, newspapers, and presses. Jihad The Wahhabi Taliban in Afghanistan had the blessings of the Saudi royal family and of The Big Three--the bin Laden family, the al Ahmoudi family, and the Mahfouz family--the richest clans in that medieval kingdom. (Khalid bin Mahfouz is bin Laden's brother-in-law, according to the C.I.A.). The desert oligarchs profited from world-wide investments as well as sleazy banking schemes such as the infamous Bank of Credit and Commerce International. Salem bin Laden, Osama's brother, has conducted all his American affairs through James Bath, a Houston crony of the Bush family. Bath's former business partner Bill White testified in court that Bath had been a liaison for the C.I.A. In 1979 Bath invested $50,000 in Arbusto, George W. Bush's first business venture. Rumor had it that Bath was acting as Salem bin Laden's representative. "In conflicting statements, Bush at first denied ever knowing Bath, then acknowledged his stake in Arbusto and that he was aware Bath represented Saudi interests." (4) In addition to doing aviation business with Saudi sheiks, Bath was part owner of a Houston bank whose chief stockholder was Ghaith Pharaon, who represented the Bank of Commerce and Credit International (BCCI), a criminal global bank with branches in 73 countries. BCCI proceeded to defraud depositors of $10 billion during the '80s, while providing a money laundry conduit for the Medellin drug cartel, Asia's major heroin cartel, Manuel Noriega, Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and Islamist terrorist organizations worldwide. (5) Big Three wheeler-dealer Khalid bin Mahfouz, one of the largest stockholders in the criminal bank, was indicted when the massive BCCI banking scandal blew apart in the early 1990s. The Saudi royal family placed him under house arrest after discovering that Mahfouz had used the royal bank to channel millions of dollars through fake charities into bin Laden's organizations, but Mahfouz was not so much punished as inconvenienced. (6) Members of the Wahhabist Saudi oligarchy are driven by the sometimes conflicting emotions of power lust and religious fervor. Their support of radical Islamists follows from their ambition to dominate the Muslim world, but their fear that radical Islamists might overthrow the Saudi regime at home motivates them to fund and encourage holy warriors in countries other than their own. As Daniel Pipes points out, jihad (holy war) is a central tenet of Muslim belief . "According to one calculation, Muhammad himself engaged in 78 battles, of which just one (the Battle of the Ditch) was defensive. Within a century after the prophet's death in 632, Muslim armies had reached as far as India in the east and Spain in the west. " (7) Pipes traces the bloody advance of fundamentalist jihadists against their twentieth century co-religionists. "Islamists, besides adhering to the primary conception of jihad as armed warfare against infidels, have also adopted as their own Ibn Taymiya's call to target impious Muslims. This approach acquired increased salience through the 20th century as Islamist thinkers . . . promoted jihad against putatively Muslim rulers who failed to live up to or apply the laws of Islam. The revolutionaries who overthrew the Shah of Iran in 1979 and the assassins who gunned down President Anwar Sadat of Egypt two years later overtly held to this doctrine. So does Osama bin Laden." In 1989, bin Laden established al Qaeda (the Base) in Afghanistan to organize extremist Wahhabis and disperse their networks throughout the country. A year later, he returned to Saudi Arabia and founded a welfare agency for Arab-Afghan veterans. Bin Laden hoped to mobilize the veterans as a kind of religious-military army, but King Faud discouraged the venture. When King Faud invited 540,000 American troops to the kingdom to fight in the Gulf War, bin Laden lambasted the royal family and urged religious authorities to issue fatwahs (religious rulings) condemning the American infidels. In 1991, Osama bin Laden and a band of Afghan veterans agitated in Sudan for a holy war against the enemies of Islam. In 1992, he claimed responsibility for the attack on American soldiers in Yemen, and again for attacks in Somalia in 1993. He was mum about the terrorist truck bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, the explosion that killed six people and injured more than a thousand, but investigators knew bin Laden had donated heavily to the religious "charity" that financed the bombing operation. Spiked Investigations In February 1995, when he was appointed chief of the F.B.I.'s counter-terrorism section in Washington, John O'Neill immediately assembled and coordinated a team to capture Ramzi Yousef, who was en route from Pakistan to Afghanistan. Yousef was strongly suspected of planning and directing the World Trade Center bombing in 1993. In three days, the kingpin of the World Trade Center bombing was in custody, and O'Neill went on to accumulate damning evidence against the 1993 World Trade bombers that led to their conviction in American courts. For the next six years, John O'Neill tirelessly investigated terrorist strikes against Americans and American interests in Saudi Arabia, East Africa, and Yemen, often encountering American officials' roadblocks on the way. Even in 1996, after Jamal Ahmed al-Fadl turned himself in at the American Embassy in Eritrea and divulged details of bin Laden's and al Qaeda's organization and operations, the State Department refused to list al Qaeda as a terrorist organization. In February 1998, bin Laden assembled a number of terrorist groups, including Islamic Jihad, and issued a fierce fatwa calling for the deaths of all Americans. On August 7, 1998, 226 people died in the simultaneous bombing of American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. Investigators blamed bin Laden for the attacks. On August 20, 1998, President Clinton amended Executive Order 12947 to add Osama bin Laden and his key associates to the list of terrorists, thus blocking their US assets--including property and bank accounts--and prohibiting all U.S. financial transactions with them. The United States conducted a missile attack against bin Laden's facilities in Afghanistan. On October 12, 2000, two suicide bombers ignited their boatload of explosives next to the USS Cole, an American destroyer refueling in Aden, off the coast of Yemen. The blast killed seventeen sailors and wounded thirty-nine others. O'Neill and his crack investigating team were dispatched to Yemen and hit a stone wall. He had hoped satellite intercepts of phone calls between an al Qaeda operative in Aden and Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan would lead him to the mastermind of the Cole attack, but the American ambassador and the Yemeni officials blocked the investigation at every turn. O'Neill resigned from the F.B.I. in July 2001 and signed on as security chief for the World Trade Center in September. He died in the WTC attack on September 11, 2001. Oil Diplomacy In Forbidden Truth: U.S.-Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy and the Failed Hunt for bin Laden, two French intelligence analysts, Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie, claim that the Clinton and Bush administrations impeded investigations of bin Laden and his al Qaeda terrorist group in order to maintain good relations with Saudi Arabia and to maintain the stability of the oil market. "As the late John O'Neill told one of the authors [brisard] of this book, 'All of the answers, all of the clues allowing us to dismantle Osama bin Laden's organization, can be found in Saudi Arabia.'" (8) In articles and interviews, Brisard has expanded on this statement, pronouncing the official story about bin Laden's exile from his native Saudi Arabia in 1994 and his frozen assets to be a canard. Not only did O'Neill and the F.B.I. have extensive information concerning the finances of bin Laden and al Qaeda, but the business connections between the bin Ladens, the Mahfouzes, the al Ahmoudis, the Saudi royal family, and the Bush family kept turning up in their investigations. Mahfouz, who owns Nimir Petroleum, has conducted joint ventures with the al Amoudi family, which owns Delta Oil. Delta Oil and Unocal planned to build a pipeline through Afghanistan before the Taliban backed away. These Saudi companies are still partnered with bigger oil companies (such as Texaco and Unocal) in developing Central Asian oil projects. Although Brisard's interpretation of events has been disputed, the documentation of Forbidden Truth is impeccable. Clearly, the finances and fortunes of the Saudi oligarchs and the Bush family have been intertwined for many years, and oil has been the lubricant of choice, even non-existent oil. In The Conspirators, Al Martin describes an instance of the latter. He says that the Gulf Oil Drilling Supply, of New York, Miami, and Bahrain, was Jeb Bush's favorite artifice for oil and gas frauds: "The fraud was rather simple. Richard Secord arranged through then Vice President George Bush Sr.'s old friend, Ghaith Pharaon, the then retired head of Saudi intelligence, for Gulf Oil and Drilling to purchase from the Saudi government oil and gas leases in the Gulf which were effectively worthless." The leases would be embellished to appear extremely valuable and then used as loan collateral. Great American Bank and Trust of West Palm Beach subsequently failed under the weight of unpaid Iran-Contra loans. "Also, in the case of Gulf Oil Drilling Supply, there was some moderately large international lending to that company. As you would suspect, it was principally out of the old George Bush friendly banks--Credit Lyonnais and Banque Paribas, which, combined lent $60 million dollars to Gulf Oil Drilling Supply, which, of course, was defaulted on later." (9) Special Saudis Michael Springmann, formerly chief of the visa section at the US Embassy in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, claims that he rejected hundreds of suspicious visa applications, but the C.I.A. officer overruled him and ordered the visas to be issued. Springmann protested to the State Department, the Office of Diplomatic Security, the F.B.I., the Justice Department and congressional committees, but in vain. (10) Springmann observed that 15 of the 19 people who allegedly flew airplanes into buildings in the United States got their visas from the same CIA-dominated consulate in Jeddah. As a special favor to residents of Saudi Arabia (including non-Saudi citizens), applicants for non-immigrant visas can apply at private travel agencies and receive their visa through the mail. During the months following the 9-11 attack, 102 applicants received their visas by mail, 2 more were interviewed, and none were rejected. The Saudis always got special treatment. In a November 6, 2001 BBC broadcast Greg Palast revealed just how special that treatment was. Even after Pakistan expelled the World Association of Muslim Youth (WAMY) and India claimed that the organization was linked to terrorist bombings in Kashmir and the Philippines military accused WAMY of funding Muslim insurgency, the F.B.I. got orders to leave the "charitable association" alone. After 9/11, investigators of the Islamic charities discovered overwhelming evidence that Saudis at all levels worked in tandem with the terrorists. David Kaplin reports, "At the Saudi High Commission in Bosnia, which coordinated local aid among Saudi charities, police found before-and-after photos of the World Trade Center, files on pesticides and crop dusters, and information on how to counterfeit State Department badges. At Manila's international airport, authorities stopped Agus Dwikarna, an al Haramain representative based in Indonesia. In his suitcase were C4 explosives." The interlocking charities make it difficult to follow the money trail. "Many share directors, office space, and cash flow. For two years, investigators have followed the money to offshore trusts and obscure charities which, according to court records, they believe are tied to Hamas, al Qaeda, and other terrorist groups." (US News and World Report, December 15, 2003). "The White House official line is that the Bin Ladens are above suspicion --apart from Osama, the black sheep, who they say hijacked the family name. That's fortunate for the Bush family and the Saudi royal household, whose links with the Bin Ladens could otherwise prove embarrassing. But Newsnight has obtained evidence that the FBI was on the trail of other members of the Bin Laden family for links to terrorist organisations before and after September 11th." (11) In the Boston Globe, March 11, 20004, Carl Unger, author of House of Bush, House of Saud: The Secret Relationship Between the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties, states that the 9/11 commission should ask who authorized the evacuation of 140 Saudi nationals on at least 8 aircraft making stops in 12 cities immediately following the attacks. "Many of the passengers were high-ranking members of the royal House of Saud. About 24 of them were members of the bin Laden family, which owned the Saudi Binladin Group, a multibillion-dollar construction conglomerate." Unger obtained passenger lists for 4 of the flights, which are posted on his website: www.houseofbush.com and includes the name of Prince Ahmed bin Salman. "As reported last year by Gerald Posner in 'Why America Slept,' Prince Ahmed not only had alleged ties to Al Qaeda, but may also have known in advance that there would be attacks on 9/11. According to Posner, Abu Zubaydah, an Al Qaeda operative who was part of Osama bin Laden's inner circle and was captured in 2002, made these assertions when he was interrogated by the CIA. The commission should ask Mueller about Zubaydah's interrogation. They should also ask whether the FBI interrogated Prince Ahmed before his departure. "But Prince Ahmed will never be able to answer any questions because not long after the CIA interrogation, he died of a heart attack at the age of 43. Yet we do know that he was on one of the flights." Unger believes that this episode "raises particularly sensitive questions for the administration. Never before in history has a president of the United States had such a close relationship with another foreign power as President Bush and his father have had with the Saudi royal family, the House of Saud. I have traced more than $1.4 billion in investments and contracts that went from the House of Saud over the past 20 years to companies in which the Bushes and their allies have had prominent positions -- Harken Energy, Halliburton, and the Carlyle Group among them. Is it possible that President Bush himself played a role in authorizing the evacuation of the Saudis after 9/11? What did he know and when did he know it?" In October 2001, the Treasury Department identified the Muwafaq Foundation, largely endowed by Khalid bin Mahfouz, as an al Qaeda front that had funneled millions of dollars to bin Laden. Some families of the 9/11 victims have named Mahfouz and dozens of prominent Saudis, including members of the royal family, in a lawsuit that accuses the Saudis of funding the 9/11 terrorists. Bush administration officials stated that they would seek to have the suit dismissed or delayed. (12) Senators Bob Graham and Richard C. Shelby, leaders of the congressional panel ending an investigation of the 9/11 attacks, said the administration should declassify information concerning Saudi funding of terrorists. "Citing 'their people and a lot of their leaders and probably even the royal family,' Shelby said: 'I believe [the Saudis] cannot support so-called charities that support terrorism on a big scale, and then pretend that they're our friends or our allies. "'As we get into the money trail, it might be embarrassing, but the American people need to know; the victims and their families need to know,' he added. Shelby and Graham said avoiding embarrassment and maintaining good relations with Saudi Arabia are not legitimate reasons to withhold information from the public. "'The question is,' Graham said after the news conference, 'will we get [the information declassified] in 30 years when the archives are open, or will we get it in time, before the next attack?'" (13) Doubtless one of the connections the senators referred to was the Princess Haifa, the wife of Prince Bandar, Saudi ambassador to the United States for the last twenty years, the longest serving ambassador in Washington. Princess Haifa had been making monthly transfers, $130,000 in all, from her Washington bank account to a needy woman who relayed some of the checks to her husband and another man who assisted and funded the two hijackers who were based in San Diego. (14) "The money moved into the family's bank account beginning in early 2000, just a few months after hijackers Khalid Almidhar and Nawaf Alhazmi arrived in Los Angeles from an Al Qaeda planning summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, according to the sources. Within days of the terrorists' arrival in the United States, Al Bayoumi befriended the two men who would eventually hijack American Flight 77, throwing them a welcoming party in San Diego and guaranteeing their lease on an apartment next door to his own. Al Bayoumi also paid $1,500 to cover the first two months of rent for Al Midhar and Alhazmi, although officials said it is possible that the hijackers later repaid the money." (15) Prince Bandar and Princess Haifa professed their ignorance of the whole affair. Mark Stein speculates about the recent visit Prince Bandar and Princess Haifa paid to George and Laura at the Crawford ranch, where they were received with the accolades usually reserved for heads of state. Bush must have known about the money transfers and Bandar must have known Bush knew, but apparently a good time was had by all. "Meanwhile, Majeda Ibrahin, the woman the princess was sending all that money to, turns out to be married to Osama Basnan, another buddy of the al-Qa'eda duo, and one who subsequently celebrated 11 September as a 'wonderful, glorious day'. But here's an odd little thing: Mr Basnan is known to have been in Texas in April when Crown Prince Abdullah and his entourage flew in to the state to see Bush at the ranch. Just another coincidence? Well, sorta: he's supposed to have had a meeting in Houston with some big-time Saudi prince who deals with 'intelligence matters.' This seems an unusual degree of access for some schlub from San Diego who's in the US illegally, as it transpires. He is variously described as a Saudi government agent and al-Qa'eda sympathiser, as if these positions are mutually exclusive. The Saudi embassy say they've only received queries about this matter from the media, not from the FBI. Odd that. The federal government claims it needs vast new powers to track every single credit-card transaction and every single email of every single American, yet a prima facie link between the terrorists and Prince Bandar's wife isn't worth going over to the embassy to have a little chat about." (16) Apparently it is not only the Saudis' oil riches that insulates them from criticism, but also their calculated distribution of largesse. The Saudis have contributed to every presidential library in recent decades. Not surprisingly, former ambassadors to Saudi Arabia from the United States end up being apologists for the corrupt, despotic Saudi regime. The Saudis have arranged that American ambassadors to their country not speak Arabic. The American embassy in Saudi Arabia gets all its information about the reactionary regime from the rulers. Some of the Washington politicians who found the Saudi connection lucrative include Spiro Agnew, Frank Carlucci, Jimmy Carter, Clark Clifford, John Connally, James Baker, George H. W. Bush, William Simon and Caspar Weinberger. (17) Profits before Patriotism The Bush dynasty has always been comfortable putting profits before patriotism. Prescott Bush, Bush Senior's father, extended credit to Adolph Hitler and supplied him with raw materials during Word War II. The U. S. seized his assets under the Trading with the Enemy Act, but grandfather Bush found other ways to replenish the family coffers. Bush Senior struck it rich in oil and in the defense industry. Mahfouz (yes, that Mahfouz), Prince Bandar and Prince Sultan (Bandar's father) were also heavily invested in the defense industry through their holdings in the Carlyle Group, where Bush Senior served on the board of directors. Founded in 1987 as a private investment group with strong connections to the Republican Party establishment, Carlyle increased its original investment of $130 million to $900 million when it went public in 2001. "In recent years, Carlyle has been successful both at raising and making money. It has raised $14 billion in the last five years or so, and its annual rate of return has been 36 percent. Its 550 investors consist of institutions and wealthy individuals from around the world including, until shortly after September 2001, members of the bin Laden family of Saudi Arabia. The family--which has publicly disavowed links with Osama bin Laden--had been an investor since 1995." (18) "As the eleventh largest US defence contractor, Carlyle is involved in nearly every aspect of military production, including making the big guns used on US naval destroyers, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle used by US forces during the Gulf War and parts used in most commercial and military aircraft. United Defense has joint ventures in Saudi Arabia and Turkey, two of the United States' closest military allies in the Middle East." (19) It's passing strange that even as the hijacked planes smashed into the World Trade Center, the Carlyle Group was holding its annual investor conference. Shafig Bin Laden, brother of Osama Bin Laden, attended. Bush Junior once served as an executive with Caterair, one of hundreds of companies Carlyle has bought and sold over the past 15 years, but he removed the record of this period from his resume. In 1986, Bush Junior, to date a flop as a businessman, joined Harken Energy Corporation as a director and was awarded 212,000 shares of stock and other plums. In 1987, Khalid bin Mahfouz arranged for BCCI investor Abdullah Bakhsh to purchase 17% of Harken. A Harken official acknowledged that Bush's White House connections had everything to do with the appointment. Somehow, the inexperienced, obscure firm was awarded a prime drilling contract by Bahrain, and Harken's stock price soared. In June 1990, Bush Junior sold his Harken stock for a juicy $848,000, enabling him to pay off the loan he had assumed on buying shares in the Texas Rangers. Never mind that the Harken stock promptly tanked when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, for Abdullah Bakhsh, a major Harken shareholder and an investor in BCCI, who had purchased 17% of Harken Energy in 1987, got his money's worth. By 1990, Bakhsh's representative on Harken's board, Talet Othman, began attending Middle East policy discussions with President Bush Senior. Now that Bush Junior occupies the White House, Bush Senior receives frequent CIA briefings (his prerogative as a former president). "In July 2001, Bush personally contacted Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah to 'clarify' his son's Middle East policies. Also during the summer of 2001, Bush forwarded his son a North Korea policy plan penned by 'Asia expert' and former ambassador to Korea, Donald Gregg. Gregg is a 31-year CIA veteran and the elder Bush's former national security adviser whose expertise involved participation in the Vietnam-era Phoenix Program (death squads), Air America heroin smuggling, 'pacification' efforts in El Salvador and Guatemala, the 'October Surprise,' and the Iran-Contra operation (for which Gregg received a Bush pardon in 1992)." (20) Bush Junior has received more than advice from his father. He has taken on the team of hustlers and criminals that worked with George Herbert Walker Bush when he was Vice President and President of the United States of America. Just as his father did, he invokes executive privilege to hide all evidence of collusion with the petroleum pashas who have enriched the Bushes and intimidated the rest of us. Sandy Tolan, an I.F. Stone Fellow at the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley, asserts that what the Bush administration really wants in Iraq is a remapping of the Mideast. "The plan is, in its way, as ambitious as the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement between the empires of Britain and France, which carved up the region at the fall of the Ottoman Empire. The neo-imperial vision, which can be ascertained from the writings of key administration figures and their co-visionaries in influential conservative think tanks, includes not only regime change in Iraq but control of Iraqi oil, a possible end to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and newly compliant governments in Syria and Iran -- either by force or internal rebellion." The Bushes are carriers of the deny-destroy-and-be-damned virus. Prescott Bush never apologized for trading with the Nazis. George Bush Senior professed to know nothing of the drug and arms dealing that funded the bloody, illegal Iran-Contra operations, although it was common knowledge that he directed them. He and his sons enriched themselves through shady real estate deals and financial manipulations that brought down entire banking and savings and loan institutions. They are all consummate inside traders, looting and leaving ruin in their wake. President-Select George Bush is no exception. He has no scruples about exploiting his office for personal and family gain. The Texas governor who could joke about frying prisoners in the electric chair will not, as president, agonize over the decision to send young men and women into battle--or over denying them medical care when they are injured. There is irrefutable evidence that highly-placed Saudis aided and supported the terrorists who murdered over 3000 American citizens on September 11, 2001. Yet George Bush persists in protecting and colluding with those who sponsor terrorists. Is this not an an act of treason? George Bush should be tried and convicted for war crimes. Notes: (1) Jonathan Raban, "Western conceit of nation-building ignores culture and history of Arabia," Seattle Times, November 24, 2002 (2) Michael Parenti, 9-11 Terrorism Trap: September 11 and Beyond (2000) City Lights Books, San Francisco (3) Laura Secor, "Which Islam?," Boston Daily Globe, December 15, 2002 (4) Wayne Madsen, "Questionable Ties: Tracking bin Laden's money flow leads back to Midland, Texas," (5) "The Press on the BCCI-bin Mahfouz-bin Laden Intelligence Nexus, " Boston Herald , December 11, 2001 (6) Jonathan Beaty & S. C. Gwynne, The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride Into the Secret Heart of BCCI, (1993) Random House, New York (7) Daniel Pipes, "Jihad: How Academics Have Camouflaged Its Real Meaning," December 2, 2002 (8) Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie, Forbidden Truth: U.S.-Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy and the Failed Hunt for bin Laden (2002) Thunder's Mouth Press/Nation Books, New York (9) Al Martin, The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran-Contra Insider (2002) National Liberty Press, LLC (10) Center for Cooperative Research, "Hijackers who were under surveillance before 9/11" (11) Greg Palast and David Pallister, "FBI and US Spy Agents Say Bush Spiked Bin Laden Probes Before 11 September," The Guardian, November 7, 2001 (12) Jeff Gerth and Judith Miller, "Saudis Called Slow to Help Stem Terror Finances," New York Times, November 28, 2002 (13) Dana Priest and Susan Schmidt, "9/11 Panel Criticizes Secrecy on Saudi Links," Washington Post, December 12 2002 (14) Greg Miller, Greg Krikorian and H.G. Reza, "FBI Looks at Saudi's Links to 9/11," Los Angeles Times, November 23, 2002 (15) Michael Isikoff, Newsweek, November 22, 2002 (16) Mark Steyn, "Bush and the Saudi Princess" (17) Daniel Golden, James Bandler and Marcus Walker, Wall Street Journal, September 27, 2001 Posted at globalresearch.ca 5 October 2001 (18) James Hatfield, "Why would Osama bin Laden want to kill Dubya, his former business partner?" Online Journal, July 13, 2001 (19) Steve Lohr, "Gerstner to Be Chairman of Carlyle Group," New York Times, November 22, 2002 (20) Tim Shorrock uncovers the Bush connection to US defence giant the Carlyle Group, New Internationalist 347, July 2002 Updates (SEE LINK TO ACTIVATE UPDATES) link http://www.hermes-press.com/BushSaud.htm 6/23/09: Saudis Funded 9/11 7/31/07: Saudis Flew on CIA Planes after 9/11 From the Progressive Populist, February 1, 2003 -- Bush's uncle, Jonathan Bush, is an executive at Riggs Bank, where Saudi Princess Faisal had the checking account through which she made her donations to charities. Saudi Arabia has transferred $500 million to Al Qaida over the past decade, according to a report prepared for the United Nations New Chairman of 9/11 Commission had business ties with Osama's Brother in Law Documentation that Bush Junior and James Bath both served together in the National Guard at Ellington Air Force Base and were suspended for failure "to accomplish annual medical inspection" An investigation of Saudi banks Confirmation that the U.S. has a long-standing agreement with Saudi Arabia to train pilots at U.S. bases Edited August 18, 2011 by Steven Gaal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Gaal Posted August 19, 2011 Author Share Posted August 19, 2011 (edited) PART THREE PART THREE PART THREE this link very, very, very good overview link http://www.fromthewilderness.com/timeline/AAsaudi.html =================================== =================================== ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ By the time George W. Bush was elected, the House of Saud transferred large amounts of money to the House of Bush in deals involving dozens of companies. At least $1.4 billion in investments and contracts went to companies in which the Bushes and their allies held prominent positions. (Craig Unger, House of Bush; House of Saud) link http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/jphuck/Book28.html Edited August 19, 2011 by Steven Gaal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Len Colby Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 (edited) How does any of this tie Turki al-Faisal and Bush Sr. to the CIA's failure to inform other agencies about the presence of the AQ members in the US? XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX --------------------------------oooooooo------------------------------------- PART ONE PART ONE PART ONE OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Bin Laden's Brother-in-law Had Close Ties to Bush Tom Flocco * AmericanFreePress.net * And Scoop.co.nz August 28, 2002 No need to read beyond the byline, among other things Flocco has claimed: - Barbara Oslen was arrested on the non-existent Polish-Austrian border, bearing a Vatican passport and counterfeit securities in the extinct Italian Lira (misspelled Lyra"). - the Bushes (Pappa Doc and Jr.), the Clintons (Bill and Hillary) and "Mike" Harari (a retired Mossad agent) were spotted personally tampering with John-John’s plane the night before it crashed. - “A Chicago grand jury has indicted the President and Vice-President of the United States along with multiple high officials in the Bush administration” - “Florida Rep. Katherine Harris Dead in Plane Crash” - “CIA, French intelligence kill 4, capture 5 Israelis in NY subway attack” - Hunter S. Thompson committed suicide due to his ties to the “White House child sex ring” he and Larry King made a “child murder-sex film” http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=10456&view=findpost&p=109914 The 2nd article does not help Gaal much either. The author seems to fully accept that OBL and AQ carried out the attacks and promots the LIHOP theory. But she did not mention al-Turki and failed to do much to tie either Bush to OBL other than pointing out the families had business dealing which is already known. Her most startling claim was that: “At the same time [the 1980’s], the United States trained and armed troops in Afghanistan to fight the Soviets. The United States and Saudi Arabia spent about $40 billion on the war in Afghanistan, recruiting, supplying, and training nearly 100,000 radical mujahideen from forty Muslim countries, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Algeria, and Afghanistan itself. Among the recruits were Osama bin Laden and his followers” She cited a book by Michael Parenti who in turn cited an essay in the Guardian written by Indian novelist Arundhati Roy. Roy wrote: “Someone recently said that if Osama bin Laden didn't exist, America would have had to invent him. But, in a way, America did invent him. He was among the jihadis who moved to Afghanistan in 1979 when the CIA commenced its operations there. Bin Laden has the distinction of being created by the CIA and wanted by the FBI.” http://books.google.com/books?id=KeIXW5DgYA4C&q=54 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/sep/29/september11.afghanistan Roy never said directly that OBL (let alone his followers) was “trained and armed” by the CIA only that they “created” him but she failed to document or justify that claim. Based on her Wikipedia bio Roy has no expertise in Afghanistan, AQ, OBL, the CIA, intel agencies, Islam, Islamic fundamentalism, terrorist/insurgent groups etc. etc. the overwhelming majority of her writing especially before she wrote that was fiction and social commentary. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arundhati_Roy Several experts far more qualified than Parenti and Roy contradicted them. http://911myths.com/index.php/Bin_Laden_CIA_links It’s quite ironic that Gaal cited Daily Kos after he cited after he started a thread claiming it is a CIA disinfo site. His link did even work because he cut and pasted it from a site where it was dead as well. His extensive research doesn’t even include clicking on the links he cuts and pastes to see if they work, let alone verify their contents. "Part 3" offers nothing new, the Bush and BL family "ties" are old hat. Edited August 19, 2011 by Len Colby Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Gaal Posted August 29, 2011 Author Share Posted August 29, 2011 (edited) How does any of this tie Turki al-Faisal and Bush Sr. to the CIA's failure to inform other agencies about the presence of the AQ members in the US? XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX --------------------------------oooooooo------------------------------------- PART ONE PART ONE PART ONE OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Bin Laden's Brother-in-law Had Close Ties to Bush Tom Flocco * AmericanFreePress.net * And Scoop.co.nz August 28, 2002 No need to read beyond the byline, among other things Flocco has claimed: - Barbara Oslen was arrested on the non-existent Polish-Austrian border, bearing a Vatican passport and counterfeit securities in the extinct Italian Lira (misspelled Lyra"). - the Bushes (Pappa Doc and Jr.), the Clintons (Bill and Hillary) and "Mike" Harari (a retired Mossad agent) were spotted personally tampering with John-John’s plane the night before it crashed. - “A Chicago grand jury has indicted the President and Vice-President of the United States along with multiple high officials in the Bush administration” - “Florida Rep. Katherine Harris Dead in Plane Crash” - “CIA, French intelligence kill 4, capture 5 Israelis in NY subway attack” - Hunter S. Thompson committed suicide due to his ties to the “White House child sex ring” he and Larry King made a “child murder-sex film” http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=10456&view=findpost&p=109914 The 2nd article does not help Gaal much either. The author seems to fully accept that OBL and AQ carried out the attacks and promots the LIHOP theory. But she did not mention al-Turki and failed to do much to tie either Bush to OBL other than pointing out the families had business dealing which is already known. Her most startling claim was that: “At the same time [the 1980’s], the United States trained and armed troops in Afghanistan to fight the Soviets. The United States and Saudi Arabia spent about $40 billion on the war in Afghanistan, recruiting, supplying, and training nearly 100,000 radical mujahideen from forty Muslim countries, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Algeria, and Afghanistan itself. Among the recruits were Osama bin Laden and his followers” She cited a book by Michael Parenti who in turn cited an essay in the Guardian written by Indian novelist Arundhati Roy. Roy wrote: “Someone recently said that if Osama bin Laden didn't exist, America would have had to invent him. But, in a way, America did invent him. He was among the jihadis who moved to Afghanistan in 1979 when the CIA commenced its operations there. Bin Laden has the distinction of being created by the CIA and wanted by the FBI.” http://books.google.com/books?id=KeIXW5DgYA4C&q=54 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/sep/29/september11.afghanistan Roy never said directly that OBL (let alone his followers) was “trained and armed” by the CIA only that they “created” him but she failed to document or justify that claim. Based on her Wikipedia bio Roy has no expertise in Afghanistan, AQ, OBL, the CIA, intel agencies, Islam, Islamic fundamentalism, terrorist/insurgent groups etc. etc. the overwhelming majority of her writing especially before she wrote that was fiction and social commentary. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arundhati_Roy Several experts far more qualified than Parenti and Roy contradicted them. http://911myths.com/index.php/Bin_Laden_CIA_links It’s quite ironic that Gaal cited Daily Kos after he cited after he started a thread claiming it is a CIA disinfo site. His link did even work because he cut and pasted it from a site where it was dead as well. His extensive research doesn’t even include clicking on the links he cuts and pastes to see if they work, let alone verify their contents. "Part 3" offers nothing new, the Bush and BL family "ties" are old hat. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXOOOOOOoooooooo ===============++++++++==============================================o ##################################oooooooo No need to read beyond the byline,among other things Colby claims + no conspiracy JFK assassination. + no conspiracy RFK assassination + no conspiracy MLK assassination + no conspiracy 911 involving government agencies/people ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^oooooooo^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Nothing Flocco stated was refuted by Colby.Colby is just making a debating point. No real search for the truth. ( I will provide information in a post just after this backing up Flocco.) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^oooooooo^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I have called Daily Kos a disinformation site. Disinformation is picturesquely described as false baloney sandwiched between two pieces of truth bread.The Daily Kos does have some truth. Colby again is making a debating point. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^oooooooo^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Colby's ad hominem attack on Roy makes me raise my eyebrows. Colby made a list of things she does not have an, "expertise". One must ask," Does Colby have said expertise on/in Afghanistan,CIA,intell agencies,Islamic fundamentalism" ?? BTW I used her because I liked the way she wrote. We have in this attack on Roy another Colby debating point. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ooooooooo^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Debating point,debating point,debating point. Colby treats the forum as a hobbyist debating society. Colby did not mention the Safari Club. The Sarari Club is what conspiracy researchers call a ,"Secret Team".The Safari Club had no governmental approbation. The Safari Club was outside of the POTUS,Congress, and all but a few members of intell agencies. (the intell people who knew, WERE THE SECRET TEAM) The Safari Club involved GHWB,the Saudi Intell. Chief,assassination,terrorism,and money laundering. Large conspiracy do exist contrary to Mr.Colby.The Saudi Intell Chief stated that he was a thirty year friend of GHWB. Colby purposefully ignored the Safari Club. This non-response to this datum is a debating tactic. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^oooooooo^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Colby states that the Bush/BL family ties are,"old hat". Since Clarke's coming out with new charges that Saudi intell ties to 911 were covered up,the historical context of the head of Saudi intell/GHWB in a SECRET TEAM makes the "old hat" a "new hat". A secret team beyond AQ did 911. Colby's dismissal of the Bush/BL ties as ,"old hat", is a debating tactic. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXooooooooOOOOOOOO+ See a trend ?? Its hard to believe Colby is searching for the truth. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++======OOOOOOOO========++++++++++++++++++++ Please see the next following post. THANKS Steven Gaal Edited September 1, 2011 by Steven Gaal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Gaal Posted August 29, 2011 Author Share Posted August 29, 2011 (edited) See supporting datum below. No matter what Flocco said before. Flocco is right ,Bush was in business with Khalid bin Mahfouz (20 % holder of BCCI) and note Khalid bin Mahfouz connected to OBL. You see just after Secret Team BCCI ends OBL/Zawahiri form a type of new BCCI, called the ,"Botherhood Group." Zawahiri takes BCCI account money to form said "Brotherhood Group" Now 911myth people say the 911 meeting of GHWB and OBL's brother was not really a private meeting. Yes but,it was a Carlyle Group meeting. Carlyle group benefited by 911 see ++++ link http://911review.com/articles/ryan/carlyle_kissinger_saic_halliburton.html So yes GHWB was at a big meeting with brother of OBL,but that viewpoint is a distraction. OBL's brother is meeting with powerful people who benefited from 911, ON 911 !! The 911myth people try to distract from the larger picture. This is a debating tactic. Golly,gee, Colby is a 911myth man. Do you see a trend ???? +++++++++++++++++++++++++oooooooo+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++o --------------------------------------------------------------o ################XXXXXXXX#############################---------o History Commons timeline ***************************************************************oooo*************************************************** 1988: Bin Ladens Bail Out George W. Bush? Prior to this year, President George W. Bush is a failed oilman. Three times, friends and investors have bailed him out to keep his business from going bankrupt. However, in 1988, the same year his father becomes president, some Saudis buy a portion of his small company, Harken, which has never performed work outside of Texas. Later in the year, Harken wins a contract in the Persian Gulf and starts doing well financially. These transactions seem so suspicious that the Wall Street Journal in 1991 states it raises the question of… an effort to cozy up to a presidential son. Two major investors in Bushs company during this time are Salem bin Laden and Khalid bin Mahfouz. Salem bin Laden dies in a plane crash in Texas in 1988. [intelligence Newsletter, 3/2/2000; Salon, 11/19/2001] Salem bin Laden is Osamas oldest brother; Khalid bin Mahfouz is a Saudi banker with a 20 percent stake in BCCI. The bank will be shut down a few years later and bin Mahfouz will have to pay a $225 million fine (while admitting no wrongdoing) (see October 10, 2001)). [Forbes, 3/18/2002] %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% +++++++++++++++++++++++++00000000+++++++++++++++++++++ ===================================================== Early 1990s-Late 1996: Bin Laden Frequently Travels to London, According to Various Sources The 1999 book The New Jackals by journalist Simon Reeve will report that in the early 1990s, bin Laden was flitting between Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, London, and Sudan. Reeve does not say who his sources are for this statement. [Reeve, 1999, pp. 156] Bin Laden had concluded an arms deal to purchase ground-to-air missiles for anti-Soviet fighters at the Dorchester Hotel in Central London in 1986 (see Mid-1986). Bin Laden allegedly visits the London mansion of Saudi billionaire Khalid bin Mahfouz around 1991 (see (1991)). Bin Laden allegedly travels to London and Manchester to meet GIA militants in 1994 (see 1994). One report claims bin Laden briefly lived in London in 1994 (see Early 1994). Similarly, the 1999 book Dollars for Terror by Richard Labeviere will claim, According to several authorized sources, Osama bin Laden traveled many times to the British capital between 1995 and 1996, on his private jet. The book will also point out that in February 1996, bin Laden was interviewed for the Arabic weekly al-Watan al-Arabi and the interview was held in the London house of Khalid al-Fawwaz, bin Ladens de facto press secretary at the time (see Early 1994-September 23, 1998). [Labeviere, 1999, pp. 101] An interview with bin Laden will be published in the Egyptian weekly Rose Al Yusuf on June 17, 1996. The interview is said to have been conducted in London, but the exact date of the interview is not known. [Emerson, 2006, pp. 423] In a book first published in 1999, journalist John Cooley will say that bin Laden seems to have avoided even clandestine trips [to London] from 1995. [Cooley, 2002, pp. 63] Labeviere, however, will claim bin Laden was in London as late as the second half of 1996, and, according to several Arab diplomatic sources, this trip was clearly under the protection of the British authorities. [Labeviere, 1999, pp. 108] After 9/11, some will report that bin Laden never traveled to any Western countries in his life. On the other hand, in 2005 a British cabinet official will state that in late 1995 bin Laden actually considered moving to London (see Late 1995). ******************************************************++++++++*********************************************************************** ====================================================================================== ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++o+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ (1991): Bin Laden Allegedly Stays at London Estate of Saudi Billionaire Shortly after 9/11, the London Times will report that Osama bin Laden stayed at the London estate of Saudi billionaire Khalid bin Mahfouz. Sources close to the bin Mahfouz family say that about 10 years ago, when bin Laden was widely regarded as a religious visionary and defender of the Muslim faith, he visited the property and spent two or three days on the estate, relaxing in its open-air swimming pool, walking in the grounds and talking to bin Mahfouz. What the men discussed remains a mystery. Bin Mahfouz was a major investor in the criminal Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), which is closed down around this time (see July 5, 1991). [London Times, 9/23/2001] Bin Laden was also heavily invested in BCCI at the time (see July 1991). There are other reports of bin Laden visiting London around this time (see Early 1990s-Late 1996), and even briefly living there (see Early 1994). The name bin Mahfouz appears on the Golden Chain, a list of early al-Qaeda financial supporters (see 1988-1989). Bin Mahfouz denies any terrorist link to bin Laden. *************************************************++++++++************************************************ ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo#ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ---------------------------------------------------------------^^^^^^^^^^^^^----------------------------------------------------------- After July 1991: Bin Laden, Al-Zawahiri, and Muslim Brotherhood Benefit from Collapse of BCCI, Form New Financial Network to Replace It In July 1991, the criminal BCCI bank is shut down (see July 5, 1991), and Osama bin Laden apparently loses some of his fortune held in BCCI accounts as a result (see July 1991). But while bin Laden loses money, he and his future second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri gain influence. Other Islamist militants have been heavily relying on BCCI for their finances, and in the wake of BCCIs collapse they are forced to bank elsewhere. Author Roland Jacquard will later claim that following [the banks closure], funds [are] transferred from BCCI to banks in Dubai, Jordan, and Sudan controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood. Some of the money [is] handed back to organizations such as the FIS [a political party in Algeria]. Another portion [is] transferred by Ayman al-Zawahiri to Switzerland, the Netherlands, London, Antwerp, and Malaysia. [Jacquard, 2002, pp. 129] Author Adam Robinson will come to similar conclusions, noting that when BCCI collapses bin Laden has just moved to Sudan, which is ruled by Hassan al-Turabi, who has similar Islamist views to bin Laden. Robinson writes, Without a system by which money could be transferred around the world invisibly, it would be relatively simple for terrorist funds to be traced. Dealing with this crisis fell to al-Turabi. In desperation he turned to Osama.… The future of the struggle could come to rest on Osamas shoulders. Over the next several months, bin Laden and a small team of financial experts work on a plan to replace the functions of BCCI. Bin Laden already knows many of the main Islamist backers from his experience in the Afghan war. During the summer of 2001 he discreetly made contact with many of the wealthiest of these individuals, especially those with an international network of companies.… Within months, Osama unveiled before an astonished al-Turabi what he called the Brotherhood Group. This is apparently a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood. Robinson says this group is made up of 134 Arab businessmen with a collective wealth of many billions of dollars. The network will effectively replace BCCI for Islamist militants. [Robinson, 2001, pp. 138-139] A French report shortly after 9/11 will confirm that bin Ladens network largely replaces BCCI (see October 10, 2001). Right around this time, bin Laden is seen at the London estate of Khalid bin Mahfouz, one of the major investors in BCCI (see (1991)). %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%00000000%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% ====================================================================== oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo+ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo 1995-1998: Alleged Ties Between Al-Qadi Charity and Terrorist Groups Are Uncovered; No Action Taken Beginning in 1995, evidence begins to appear in the media suggesting that a Saudi charity named the Muwafaq Foundation has ties to radical militants. The foundation is run by a Saudi multimillionaire named Yassin al-Qadi. In 1995, media reports claim that Muwafaq is being used to fund mujaheddin fighters in Bosnia (see 1991-1995). Also in 1995, Pakistani police raid the foundations Pakistan branch in the wake of the arrest of WTC bomber Ramzi Yousef (see February 7, 1995). The head of the branch is held for several months, and then the branch is closed down. [Chicago Tribune, 10/29/2001] A secret CIA report in January 1996 says that Muwafaq is has ties to the Al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya militant group and helps fund mujaheddin fighting in Bosnia and at least one training camp in Afghanistan (see January 1996). In February 1996, bin Laden says in an interview that he supports the Muwafaq branch in Zagreb, Croatia (which is close to the fighting in neighboring Bosnia). [Guardian, 10/16/2001] A senior US official will later claim that in 1998, the National Commercial Bank, one of the largest banks in Saudi Arabia, ran an audit and determined that the Muwafaq Foundation gave $3 million to al-Qaeda. Both al-Qadi and the bank later claim that the audit never existed. Al-Qadi asserts he has no ties to any terrorist group. [Chicago Tribune, 10/29/2001] In 2003, former counterterrorism tsar Richard Clarke will elaborate on this allegation, saying to a Senate committee, Al-Qadi was the head of Muwafaq, a Saudi relief organization that reportedly transferred at least $3 million, on behalf of Khalid bin Mahfouz, to Osama bin Laden and assisted al-Qaeda fighters in Bosnia. [uS Congress, 10/22/2003] (Note that bin Mahfouz, a Saudi billionaire, denies that he ever had any sort of tie to bin Laden or al-Qaeda and has not been officially charged of such ties anywhere.) [bin Mahfouz Info, 11/22/2005] Al-Qadi will claim that he shut down Muwafaq in 1996, but it is referred to in UN and German charity documents as doing work in Sudan and Bosnia through 1998. [Guardian, 10/16/2001; BBC, 10/20/2001] Shortly after 9/11, the US Treasury Department will claim that Muwafaq funded Maktab al-Khidamat (MAK)/Al-Kifah (the predecessor of al-Qaeda), al-Qaeda, Hamas, and Abu Sayyaf (a Philippines militant group with ties to al-Qaeda), and other militant Islamic groups. [FrontPage Magazine, 6/17/2005] However, despite all of these alleged connections, and the fact that the US will officially label al-Qadi a terrorism financier shortly after 9/11 (see October 12, 2001), the Muwafaq Foundation has never been officially declared a terrorist supporting entity. An October 2001 New York Times article will say that the reason, administration officials said, was the inability of United States officials to locate the charity or determine whether it is still in operation. But the same article will also quote a news editor, who calls Muwafaqs board of directors the creme de la creme of Saudi society. [New York Times, 10/13/2001] October 10, 2001: Report: Bin Ladens Financial Network Is Successor to the BCCI Bank A 70-page French intelligence report claims: The financial network of [Osama] bin Laden, as well as his network of investments, is similar to the network put in place in the 1980s by BCCI for its fraudulent operations, often with the same people (former directors and cadres of the bank and its affiliates, arms merchants, oil merchants, Saudi investors). The dominant trait of bin Ladens operations is that of a terrorist network backed up by a vast financial structure. The BCCI was the largest Islamic bank in the world before it collapsed in July 1991 (see July 5, 1991). A senior US investigator will later say US agencies are looking into the ties outlined by the French because they just make so much sense, and so few people from BCCI ever went to jail. BCCI was the mother and father of terrorist financing operations. The report identifies dozens of companies and individuals who were involved with BCCI and were found to be dealing with bin Laden after the bank collapsed. Many went on to work in banks and charities identified by the US and others as supporting al-Qaeda. About six ex-BCCI figures are repeatedly named, including Saudi multi-millionaire Ghaith Pharaon (see October 10, 2001). The role of Saudi billionaire Khalid bin Mahfouz in supporting bin Laden is emphasized in the report. In 1995, bin Mahfouz paid a $225 million fine in a settlement with US prosecutors for his role in the BCCI scandal. [Washington Post, 2/17/2002] Bin Laden lost money when BCCI was shut down, but may have benefited in the long term as other militants began relying on his financial network instead of BCCIs (see July 1991 and After July 1991). Representatives of bin Mahfouz will later argue that this report is false and was in fact prepared by Jean-Charles Brisard and not the French intelligence service. Bin Mahfouz has begun libel proceedings against Mr. Brisard, claiming that he has made unfounded and defamatory allegations, and denies that he has ever supported terrorism. [Kendall Freeman, 5/13/2004 ] %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%oooooooo%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% ====================================================================== ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo+ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo August 15, 2002: 9/11 Victims Relatives File Lawsuit Against Alleged Saudi Al-Qaeda Financiers More than 600 relatives of victims of the 9/11 attacks file a 15-count, $1 trillion lawsuit against various parties they accuse of financing al-Qaeda and Afghanistans former Taliban regime. The number of plaintiffs will quickly increase to 2,500 after the suit is widely publicized. Up to 10,000 were eligible to join this suit. The lawsuit does not allege that Saudi defendants directly participated in the 9/11 attacks, or approved them. Instead, it is alleged they helped fund and sustain al-Qaeda, which enabled the attacks to occur. [Washington Post, 8/16/2002; Newsweek, 9/13/2002] Defendants named include: The Saudi Binladin Group, the conglomerate owned by the bin Laden family. [CNN, 8/15/2002] The National Commercial Bank, one of the largest banks in Saudi Arabia. [Associated Press, 8/15/2002] The government of Sudan, for letting bin Laden live in that country until 1996. [Washington Post, 8/16/2002] The World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY). [Washington Post, 8/16/2002] The SAAR Foundation. [Washington Post, 8/16/2002] Al-Rajhi Banking & Investment Corp., which the plaintiffs contend is the primary bank for a number of charities that funnel money to terrorists. (This bank will later be dismissed from the suit (see November 14, 2003-September 28, 2005).) [Washington Post, 8/16/2002] The Benevolence International Foundation. [Washington Post, 8/16/2002] The International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO) and its parent organization, the Muslim World League (MWL). The suit claims that the IIRO gave more than $60 million to the Taliban. [Washington Post, 8/16/2002] Khalid bin Mahfouz, one-time prominent investor in the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) who had to pay a $225 million fine following the collapse of that bank. It is claimed he later operated a bank that funneled millions of dollars to charities controlled by al-Qaeda. (Mahfouz denies supporting terrorism and has filed a motion to dismiss the complaint.) [Washington Post, 8/16/2002 Edited August 29, 2011 by Steven Gaal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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