[endthematrix]

He's 52 yrs old. Do ya think he has been involved in terrorism longer than his sentence?</p>

[Fedora]

I don't know when he became involved in terrorism, but I do know his family--which is a Saudi business dynasty like the Bin Ladens--has been involved in some shady business ventures as well. For instance in 1979-1980 one of his relatives tried to manipulate the world economy by controlling the price of silver:

Silver Finger

[SNIP]

In losing Sunshine, the Hunts lost the great silver mine they had lusted for. But their most sensational silver play was only beginning. In the summer of 1979, just after the dust settled from the shoot­out over Sunshine Mining, Bunker and Herbert completed negotiations for their silver-buying partnership with the Sau­dis. On July first, the partners in­corporated a Bermuda-based trading company called International Metals In­vestment Company, Ltd. The firm’s reg­istration listed four principals: Nelson Bunker Hunt, William Herbert Hunt, Sheik Mohammed Aboud Al-Amoudi and Sheik Ali Bin Mussalem. Interna­tional Metals’ purpose was to invest in gold, platinum and, most of all, silver.

The participation of the two sheiks apparently resulted from Bunker’s Con­nally connection. Like their mutual friend Mahfouz, both Al-Amoudi and Mussalem were nouveau riche Arabs from Jidda. Both men had made their money in real estate when the late King Faisal parceled out some of the land in the kingdom to allow sheiks outside the royal family to share in Saudi Arabia’s prosperity. Sources familiar with the two sheiks indicate that Al-Amoudi was worth about $300,000,000, while Mus­salem was worth about $100,000,000. Although such wealth made them rich men by most standards, it hardly put them in a league with the Hunts. What’s more, by investing in silver, Al-Amoudi and Mussalem were defying conventional Saudi business wisdom, which held that investing in precious metals put petro­dollars back in the hands of the West.

The equalizer, according to several accounts, was the sheiks’ connection to the Saudi royal family. Known by con­servative Arab financial men as high fliers, the two sheiks were not among the king’s top advisors. However, both Al-Amoudi and Mussalem did know fel­low Jidda resident Prince Faisal ben Abdallah al Saoud. Prince Faisal hap­pened to be the son of Prince Abdallah, the commander of the Saudi National Guard and a member of the kingdom’s ruling triumvirate. Like Bunker Hunt, Abdallah was a lover of fine horses and a billionaire many times over. He could definitely afford to play in the same game with the Hunts. But, like other highly placed Saudis, Abdallah did not like having his name openly connected with business ventures, especially con­troversial ones. Although neither Abdal­lah’s nor Faisal’s name at any time appeared on the registry of International Metals, several sources have suggested that they were the real money behind Al-Amoudi and Mussalem.