Saudi Executives give Millions to bin Laden

health and energy dot com ^ | October 29, 1999 | Not Given

[Lexington]

Business executives in Saudi Arabia continue to transfer tens of millions of dollars to bank accounts linked to Osama bin Laden, accused of the U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa.

Senior U.S. intelligence officials say the money transfers began more than seven years ago and have been used to finance several attacks by bin Laden, including an attempted assassination in 1995 of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia.

The United States Thursday said it would continue to meet Afghanistan's Taliban rulers to discuss demands for the expulsion of Saudi-born bin Laden, but officials cautioned that they expected no dramatic moves soon.

The United States accuses bin Laden, who lives in hiding in Afghanistan, of being behind explosions at U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in August 1998 which killed 224 people. Washington also believes bin Laden is implicated in a number of other planned attacks.

Bin Laden has denied the charges.

USA Today said Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was expected to raise the issue with Saudi defense minister Prince Sultan during his visit to Washington next week.

It cited a Saudi government audit acquired by U.S. intelligence which showed that five of Saudi Arabia's top business executives ordered the National Commercial Bank (NCB), the kingdom's largest, to transfer personal funds, along with $3 million diverted from a Saudi pension fund, to New York and London banks.

The money was deposited into the accounts of Islamic charities, including Islamic Relief and Blessed Relief, that serve as fronts for bin Laden, according to the report.

Intelligence sources said the businessmen, who are worth more than $5 billion, were paying bin Laden ``protection money'' to stave off attacks on their businesses in Saudi Arabia, intelligence officials said.

Bin Laden, whose family runs the largest Saudi construction firm, has called for the overthrow of the Saudi government.

USA Today said the money transfers were discovered in April after the royal family ordered an audit of NCB and its founder and former chairman, Khalid bin Mahfouz.

Mahfouz is now under ``house arrest'' at a military hospital in the Saudi city of Taif, intelligence officials said.

His successor, Mohammad Hussein Al-Amoudi, also heads the Capitol Trust Bank in New York and London, which U.S. and British officials are investigating for allegedly transferring money to bin Laden, USA Today reported.

Amoudi's Washington lawyer, Vernon Jordan, could not be reached for comment. Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan declined to comment on the report, USA Original article: http://www.healthandenergy.com/osama_bin_laden.htm

[Lexington]

Here's Saudi Arabia way of thanking us for saving their oil fields from Saddam during the Gulf War.

[Kermit]

These people are like the liberals and the media, they hate us more than the people, who are screwing them.

[ravingnutter]

Hubby and I were talking about this last night, we need to follow the money and end bin Laden's financial backing. Anyone found guilty of supplying him should be prosecuted for mass murder as an accomplice. All accounts found to be linked to him should be seized and that money should go to the families who have lost loved ones in this tragedy. The money is the main reason he is able to move so freely about without being caught.

[Byron_the_Aussie]

...USA Today said the money transfers were discovered in April after the royal family ordered an audit of NCB and its founder and former chairman, Khalid bin Mahfouz.

Mahfouz is now under ``house arrest'' at a military hospital in the Saudi city of Taif, intelligence officials said....

Uh huh.

Have we got an address, in Taif?

[Lexington]

Now there's an appropriate response!

[magoo_70115]

Advise those businessmen to disclose everything to the U.S. government or else they will be assassinated, their families murdered and their businesses destroyed. Make it simple, direct and credible. Then make an example of one or two very quickly.

Businessmen understand and need stability. If they cannot have it or are forced to choose between one devil, Osadam bin Laden, and the might of the U.S., call us another devil, then those businessmen must make a difficult decision as to which one will win. Not a hard call in the long run, especially since Clinton and the Democrat pussies are no longer in charge of the White House and the State Department.

The position of the U.S. must be to feared and respected, not loved. The Democrat pussies have long sought love and understanding and feelings; it has not worked and will not work. Love, if it is ever achieved by a country, flows out of respect which itself may be the bastard child of fear.

[Mr. Lucky]

Sadly, the warship firing the cruise missle in your photograph was deemed no longer necessary to the defense of American interests, was removed from duty, and is being converted to a sort of floating amusement attraction. The US doesn't have a single naval vessel capable of heavy littoral fire support.

The lack of naval vessels capable of standing in harm's way to protect amphibious troops removes the most ferociously violent non-nuclear weapon from our country's arsenal.

[TheRightGuy]

Here's Saudi Arabia way of thanking us for saving their oil fields from Saddam during the Gulf War.

Has anyone heard reports of an "official" response from Saudi or Kuwait since the attack?

[Magician]

The key to the Arab ability to wages war against the West and to hold the West hostage is OIL. Oil money finances their wars. And oil money finances the terrorism. There will be no peace in the Middle East and no respite from Arab terrorists as long as the Arabs control most of the world's oil supplies.

IMHO, the U.S. and other developed nations should give the Gulf Arabs an ultimatum. Turn over the oil fields to a joint commission of the major oil using countries and receive a modest income. Or have them taken by force and receive nothing.

[American in Israel]

The lack of naval vessels capable of standing in harm's way to protect amphibious troops removes the most ferociously violent non-nuclear weapon from our country's arsenal.

Well I guess that does that. Its nukes then. Well we wanted to reduce our nuclear arsenal...

Interesting when we start pulling the strings of terrorism it leads not to countries but to Islam. It is not Arabs that are the problem, it is the scourge of Islam. We see no links to Turkey, or Jordan. Just the Islamic Governments. Pulling on Bin Laudin has been like trying to pluck a spider from a web, the strings go everywhere in Islam and are all interlinked.