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You are here: Home / Politics / War on Terror / War on Terror aka GSAVE® / But Somehow the Vital Connection is Made

But Somehow the Vital Connection is Made

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Speaking of Kerrey, this is kind of a bombshell report, and I had heard nothing of it until someone emailed it to me:

For more than a decade, questions have lingered about the possible role of the Saudi government in the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, even as the royal kingdom has made itself a crucial counterterrorism partner in the eyes of American diplomats.

Now, in sworn statements that seem likely to reignite the debate, two former senators who were privy to top secret information on the Saudis’ activities say they believe that the Saudi government might have played a direct role in the terrorist attacks.

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

His former Senate colleague, Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, a Democrat who served on the separate 9/11 Commission, said in a sworn affidavit of his own in the case that “significant questions remain unanswered” about the role of Saudi institutions. “Evidence relating to the plausible involvement of possible Saudi government agents in the September 11th attacks has never been fully pursued,” Mr. Kerrey said.

Their affidavits, which were filed on Friday and have not previously been disclosed, are part of a multibillion-dollar lawsuit that has wound its way through federal courts since 2002. An appellate court, reversing an earlier decision, said in November that foreign nations were not immune to lawsuits under certain terrorism claims, clearing the way for parts of the Saudi case to be reheard in United States District Court in Manhattan.

Wow.

Reader Interactions

49Comments

  1. 1.

    Foxhunter

    This has been discussed for years…not really new with the exception of it being outed via an affidavit.

  4. 4.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I thought we more or less knew this, that members of the Saudi royal family, we don’t know who and they probably do and won’t say, funded al Qaeda, and the confusion comes the unclear lines between the royal family, the Saudi government, and what Kerry calls “Saudi institutions”.

  7. 7.

    Bruce S

    It’s a good thing the Bushies toppled Saddam Hussein who was the dictator of Saudi Arabia when this shit was planned.

    Oh…wait a minute!

  9. 9.

    General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)

    It’s always been known there are members of the House of Saud, that are involved funding Wahhabi theology throughout the Muslim world. Pakistan and Afghanistan are but two places. So it’s not that much of a stretch to wonder about 9-11

  10. 10.

    The Moar You Know

    Huh. Wonder why that was kept secret.

    Looks like the Saudis own us and our balls.

  12. 12.

    Russ

    Yeah! Those members of the Saudi Family.
    Wiki:
    The most influential member of the family is the King of Saudi Arabia. The line of succession to the Saudi throne is not father-son but brother-brother of the children of King Abdul-Aziz. The family is estimated to be composed of 15,000 members. Most power and wealth resides amongst the 2000 or so descendants of King Abdul-Aziz

    We’ll find BigFoot first!

  13. 13.

    El Cid

    Well, uh, yeah, that’s why Obama bowed to the Saudi King, because Obama was part of 9/11.

  15. 15.

    geg6

    I’m shocked, shocked, I tell you!

    Jeebus, Cole. Are you really that naive? I know you’ll all think I’m some sort of Truther (which I definitely am not), but I have no doubt that Bushies knew this and didn’t give a shit because they knew Saudi Arabia could now be forced to back up the invasion of Iraq, which was always their real goal. I do not doubt for a minute that this was the deal they made and why the only planes besides Air Force One that took off or landed during those few days afterward were the ones picking up and carrying off members of the Saudi royal family who were here in the States.
    The King knew he had family members involved and W and Company were happy to use that to achieve W’s goal of being bigger and badder than his daddy. Fucking Republicans and their daddy issues will be the ultimate cause of the end of the world.

  19. 19.

    penpen

    @El Cid: With the post title, John is surely himself referencing how just as Elastica shamelessly cribbed Wire to attain mainstream success, Obama’s socialism slavishly copies the Saudi playbook of conspiratorial America-attack to lure the nation into approving the conversion of all senior citizens into biofuel. Back me up here John.

  22. 22.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    Wtf? I thought Saddam Hussein and Bill Clinton were responsible for 9/11.

  23. 23.

    cynn

    Sorry to sound all Zero Hedge, but the Sauds have been yanking our chain forever. Could the current Israel/Iran standoff be a factor here? My tinfoil hat has gone into gyrating triangulation!

  24. 24.

    beergoggles

    On the plus side, Saudi Arabia probably has more oil for us to steal than any of the other countries we’ve invaded so far…

  25. 25.

    eemom

    um…..so now Kerrey’s a truth seeker instead of a war criminal?

    This blog is making me dizzy.

  26. 26.

    runt

    I’m sure there are plenty of Saudis who sympathised or supported Al Qaida at the time, perhaps even high-ranking officials. But I can’t see any good reason why the Saudi government would support an attack on the US. What could they possibly hope to gain? They had an excellent relationship with the Bushies. Remember that romantic hand-in-hand walk with Dubya in the rose garden?

    I think it’s wise to consider the source here. Do you really trust Graham and Kerrey on this subject?

  27. 27.

    PIGL

    but will there be relief at the pumps? That’s all I want, all any red blooded American needs or cares about.

  29. 29.

    Marcellus Shale, Public Dick

    so after they roofied your drink, and raped you, when you woke up they took you to breakfast and acted like your boyfriend?

    really bush era senior national security official kenneth l wainstein? really?

  30. 30.

    SteveinSC

    @eemom: No, maybe his, Kerrey’s, consience is bothering him and he has decided to tell something of what he knows. (He’s not a truth seeker, rather a truth teller since they are providing affidavits.) It can’t hurt to have this stark illustration of Washington duplicity to come out now to help slow the AIPAC jihad/war against Iran. I don’t know what Kerrey was doing in the Senate at the time but Graham knows a lot from the Senate Intelligence Committee, etc., in which he was privy to secrets he is sworn to protect.

  32. 32.

    Villago Delenda Est

    15 of the 19 men accused of being the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi nationals.

    The Wahhabists (think of them as Muslim Jerry Falwells and Pat Robertsons) long financed the Afghan anti-Soviet insurgency. The Wahhabists are the co-rulers, along with the Bandit House of Saud, of Saudi Arabia.

    We invaded the wrong fucking country in 2003 if the goal was to punish those responsible for 9/11. Of course, that wasn’t the point at all, although the big lie continues to this very day.

  33. 33.

    Heliopause

    My first reaction when I read this was why, if these two gentlemen truly feel this way, have they not spent the last several years fixated on this, screaming it from every possible venue, to the point of risking their very careers and lives? And I mean not just saying it once or twice and then returning to a comfortable job “consulting” for the next half dozen years, but risking everything to bring this incredibly consequential piece of information to the widest possible audience? Don’t they love their country and want to see justice done? If any of you knew that a serial murderer was on the loose in your town, strongly suspected who it was, knew that he was a well-connected individual and was tapped to receive $30 billion worth of advanced weaponry courtesy of the Nobel Peace Prize Winner, would you not do everything in your power to spread the news, even if it was at risk to your career? Oh well.

  36. 36.

    eemom

    Anyway, the Saudi involvement isn’t even fucking NEWS, much less a “bombshell.” I’m far from an expert on this stuff and even *I* knew it.

    It’s just that nobody pays attention.

  37. 37.

    priscianusjr

    @SteveinSC:

    I don’t know what Kerrey was doing in the Senate at the time but Graham knows a lot from the Senate Intelligence Committee, etc., in which he was privy to secrets he is sworn to protect.

    At the moment of the 9/11 attack on the WTC, Bob Graham and Rep. Porter Goss were having breakfast on Capitol Hill with Mahmoud Ahmad, director general of Pakistan’s intelligence service. The topic of their meeting was terrorism. — I do not know the precise significance of this fact, but it is interesting.

    Bob Kerrey was on the 9/11 Commission. He later said: “There are ample reasons to suspect that there may be some alternative to what we outlined in our version . . . We didn’t have access . . . .”

  38. 38.

    WyldPirate

    @Heliopause: the front in order to forestallt

    My first reaction when I read this was why, if these two gentlemen truly feel this way, have they not spent the last several years fixated on this, screaming it from every possible venue, to the point of risking their very careers and lives?

    Because their is no viable answer to maintaining the “American way of life” that currently has ~5% of the world’s population using 25% of the energy. These two gentleman are just part of the leadership of America that are keeping up the front in order to forestall the realization that we Americans are facing an inevitable decline in our standard of living.

  39. 39.

    Glidwrith

    Putting on tin foil hat: there is already a warmongering/fearmongering cabal that is trying to push us into war with Iran. If it looks like Obama won’t go there, maybe this is the first push to get us in a war with the Saudis. After all, any war is good, they’re all brown people and dammit, they have OUR oil./end of snark and tin foil.

  40. 40.

    Jimbo316

    For those who focus attention on the Middle East and/or work there, this is actually not news (except some inside sources are now coming out). At the founding of the Saudi Kingdom, the royalty made a deal with the devil to make Wahabism, a fanatical, Salahfist version of Islam to which al Quaeda subscribed, the official religion. Which is why Saudi Arabia is such an oppressive society (at least by Western standards). The radical imams in Saudi have long propagated the most vicious advocacy of jihadism. The majority of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudis. I don’t know whether there was official backing for al Quaeda from some parts of the Saudi royal family at that time but it wouldn’t surprise me at all.

    And as long as the US public remained addicted to cheap gas, we are going to remain Saudi Arabia’s whores.

  41. 41.

    binzinerator

    Just like no one in the Bush administration knew Usama bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan after Tora Bora.

  42. 42.

    portlander

    Yeah I was shocked about this 10 years ago. I guess that has worn off. I don’t even remember the details about the money trail but wasn’t is something like Bandar Bush’s wife funneling money to a couple of the 9/11 hijackers? My take away lesson at the time is once money changes hands 3 times it’s too complicated for US citizens to follow. I’m glad to hear that the lawsuit is still alive.

  43. 43.

    wilfred

    Which answer best explains why nothing will come of this?:

    a) It’s the economy, stupid.
    b) We need to look forward, not backward.
    c) We can’t let the perfect become the enemy of the good.
    d) We have to be pragmatic.
    e) All of the above.

  44. 44.

    Chris

    I think there’s plenty of evidence when you add up all the sourced stories related to this theme. Just one example.

    http://whowhatwhy.com/2011/09/22/saudi-royal-ties-to-911-hijackers-via-florida-saudi-family-0/

    Also note that Richard Clark had some similar comments on this issue recently, suggesting that the FBI could have tried to infiltrate this network and failed.

    I also think enough evidence of an impending incident circulated among the intelligence community that certain Pakistani, German, Israeli people knew something was coming.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks_advance-knowledge_debate

    A good friend of mine managed to use that Israeli intelligence storage front company to store his stuff while he moved from NYC to LA that year, and he was one of the few people to recover his furniture from the FBI after they split town the week of 9/11. So I believe the stories about the Israeli agents in NY tracking the hijackers was accurately reported.

  45. 45.

    jon

    It hasn’t been fully investigated? No freaking way! The truth isn’t out there?

    Can we see the CIA and FBI files of the JFK assassination yet? That’s your answer right there.

  46. 46.

    Paul in KY

    The problem with the House of Saud is that there’s a shitload of them, every fucking one is as rich as sin & they can basically do what they want with their money.

    I see no evidence that the King really polices his relatives (or is even in a position to forcefully do that).

    Plus, the Bin Laden family was very close to the House of Saud & became ultra rich from working with them.

  48. 48.

    Paul in KY

    @Jimbo316: I think the dude who Anthony Quinn played in ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ would be one of those Wahabist chieftans that the House of Saud had to get on their side.

  49. 49.

    Li

    @runt: What could they hope to gain by orchestrating such an attack? Well, the fact is that 9/11 worked out to be a huge gift to the MIC, the intelligence complex, the Bush admin, the PNAC ‘Convenient Pearl Harbor’ neocons, and the oil cartel. The House of Saud knew those groups wouldn’t point the finger. And they managed to accomplish so much with one false flag attack! Just look at what they accomplished by attacking one of their friends:

    1) They got to get rid of or destabilize competing secular powers in the Middle East. Thus, we invaded Iraq (which also undercut the Baathist Syrian government, as we are now seeing) and make such a stink in the area that secular movements in more powerful countries like Turkey are discredited.

    Mission accomplished!

    2) Constrict oil supply by getting oil off the market that is under the control of people who don’t play the game, like Iraq.

    Mission accomplished!

    3) Get rid of, or at least distract, that bothersome Taliban movement before it moves back to Saudi Arabia and starts hanging princes for their insane wealth, decadence, and sexual license.

    Mission accomplished!

    4) Eliminate the beating heart of the Shiite brand of Islam, in Iran, by spreading around a lot of false intelligence about a nuclear weapons program that would put Israel into a corner, prompting an attack that will take out their two main remaining competitors in the region at once.

    Well, they are still working on that one.

    9/11 made a lot of powerful people very happy. The intelligence complex got a big infusion of cash, no questions asked. The PNAC folks got their grand middle eastern war. They managed to destroy all of the evidence of where all those missing trillions went that disappeared from the Pentagon when Building 7 collapsed into a pile. I’m sure that made some sticky fingers high up in the MIC quite happy, happy enough to go along with the plan. The oil companies also got the means to rake in massive profits by being given an endless number of excuses for raising prices. And really, since they knew that their buddy Bush, the Neocons, the oil cartel, the intelligence complex, and the high-ups in the MIC wouldn’t ever point the finger at them, why not attack us?

    What is the downside?

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