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Peeling back the layers of Saudi-funded terror net
Two impending lawsuits — one filed in Hillsborough County Court in Florida, the other in Chicago — will introduce enough facts to establish that not America's intelligence community but policies set by the State and Justice departments, the Clinton White House and Clintonista holdovers in the Bush administration were at fault. Yet, to flesh out the details we must delve into history — British history at that — to get the rest of the story.
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Thirty years later when al-Wahhab had problems, he sought refuge in Diriyya, a town ruled by Muhammad ibn-Saud, an ancestor of today's Saudi royal family. There he did a deal with the ruler. His Wahabbis would provide an ideological force attacking corruption, immorality and "heresy." The Saudis, in those days skilled and ruthless warriors, would provide the muscle. The alliance worked.
Over the next two centuries, while integrating themselves with the Saudis, the Wahabbis attacked the Ottomans and other "enemies," sometimes in alliances with the Brits. By the 1930s, the Wahabbis, particularly strong and obstreperous in Arabia, tried to expand to the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. However, their former friends now halted their advances. When the British spotted concentrations of Wahabbi horse or camels, Royal Air Force squadrons stationed in Oman and Yemen attacked. Eventually, the Wahabbis learned not to make themselves so visible.
Shortly, they became the kingmakers in Saudi Arabia and used American oil dollars to stir up trouble for the Hindus in India and secular Muslim rulers who were not Wahabbis — meaning most of them.
Now for the really bad news: The Wahabbis provided money, training and alliances to our very own CIA for the successful guerrilla war against the Soviets in Afghanistan from where the Taliban and al-Qaida emerged.
Today, 99 percent of the Muslim world rejects the extreme tenets of the Wahabbis as utterly alien to the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed. However, King Fahd, now on his deathbed, along with his heir apparent, Crown Prince Abdullah, depend on the southern and eastern clans of their country — the home of the Wahabbis — for the support of their dynasty.
BACK TO THE PRESENT
And how does this history lesson fit into our cause-finding mission? The Hillsborough lawsuit, brought by an American-Irish Catholic attorney, John Loftus, allegedly will show that the Saudi government laundered money through Florida charities run by University of Southern Florida professor Sami al-Arian. Through al-Arian's network, the Saudi government helped fund al-Qaida, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
This and many other factors link the Saudi royal family with the Wahabbis, with the Taliban in Afghanistan and, at the highest levels (through marriage), with the Pakistan government. All this was known in Washington prior to Sept. 11.
Could this knowledge have prevented Osama bin Laden's attack? We may never know. John O'Neill, the FBI's counterterrorism chief, knew some of this story but was ordered, by his bosses, to stop investigations of the Saudis. At that point, he resigned and became chief of security at the World Trade Center. He died on Sept. 11.
It seems the Saudi objective is twofold: the destruction of the State of Israel and the undermining of Yasser Arafat.
King Fahd has said, "Next to the Jews, we hate the Palestinians the most," which underscores his hope to destroy both Israel and the Palestine Authority. Thus, Hamas was used to discredit Arafat. Israel's ruling Likud Party, by ruthlessly fighting Arafat-linked terrorism, has antagonized much of the Western world.
The upshot is that this covert Saudi network in Florida has funded the murders of fellow Muslims for the crime of trying to form the first democratic Arab state.
MONEY AND STRINGS
There is a deafening silence about the Wahabbis in the Muslim world. Few are willing to bite the hand feeding them and the Saudi Wahabbis pour funds into impoverished mosques and Islamic communities — with strings. They have a foothold among young men through organizations such as the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), known to be a conduit for money to al-Qaida and Hamas.
WAMY's offices in the Washington suburb of Herndon, Va., housed Abdullah bin Laden and Omen bin Laden — brothers of Osama. They have not been seen since the branch of the bin Laden family residing in the United States was flown home on a chartered jet by the Saudi government on Sept. 12, 2001.
The lawsuit will bring out some interesting tidbits: Osama bin Laden on videotape, laughing that he was approached prior to the attack on the twin towers by relatives offering him $300 million to cancel the attack. The lawsuit will state that the Saudi government knew of this offer.
The Chicago lawsuit holds more of the same. Robert G. Wright, an FBI Agent for 12 years, has filed a whistle-blower complaint that deals with his insistence on following up leads that led directly to Saudi support for terrorism as well as complaints that he discriminated against Muslim agents.
It is said that Wright had asked a Muslim FBI agent to monitor a suspect's conversation, which was in Arabic. The Muslim agent replied, "Muslims don't listen to other Muslims."
Wright, author of "Fatal Betrayal: Destruction of the Intelligence Mission," is represented by Larry Klayman of Judicial Watch and David Schippers, the House of Representatives' counsel in the impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton.
At a Washington press conference announcing the Wright litigation, information on yet another Saudi financing ring surfaced, this one controlled by one Yassine Koty. The names of other FBI agents supporting Wright in his efforts to make the Saudi terrorist-support group known also were given.
In coming months, Americans will learn why the Saudi-funded terror network remained untouched. This was no intelligence failure. White House policy was to not embarrass the Saudi government. The CIA and FBI merely carried out orders.
Who's to blame? We prefer facts to finger-pointing, historical documents to hysteria, conferring cause to causing confusion. Uncovering truth is not easy, but peeling back the layers, at least, is easy on the fingers.
Dateline D.C. is written by a Washington-based British journalist and political observer.
