Posted on 09/20/2002 12:40:16 AM PDT by HAL9000
WASHINGTON, Sept 19 (AFP) - Preparations for the September 11 attacks were part-funded via a network of fictitious Saudi and Spanish companies controlled by an ex-accountant of the Saudi royal family, a lawyer for the attack victims said Thursday.A former accountant who worked for members of the Saudi royal family, Mohammed Galeb Kalaje Zouaydi, arrested in Spain last April, is considered to be the "big financier" behind terrorist a network al-Qaeda in Europe.
"The money used to prepare the September 11 attacks came from Saudi Arabia, " Jean-Charles Brisard, a lawyer for families of the attack victims, told AFP.
Brisard lodged a civil lawsuit against suspected al-Qaeda financiers in August.
The revelations, due to be published Friday at a press conference in New York, are based on investigation documents from Spanish authorities following the dismantling of a suspected al-Qaeda cell in Spain.
A Spanish national of Syrian origin, Zouaydi was at the center of a moneylaundering ring that funded al-Qaeda in Europe.
"We know, thanks to the Spanish investigation, that Zouaydi lived in Saudi Arabia from 1996 to 2001 where he set up a series of private companies that received donations," said the lawyer.
The source of the funds is not yet known, said Brisard.
Around one million dollars was transferred to companies set up and controlled by Zouaydi in Spain from where it was redistributed to al-Qaeda members in Europe, most notably Hamburg, said the lawyer, a former consultant for the US Senate's intelligence committee.
The Hamburg al-Qaeda cell included the main members of the September 11 commandos, including the attacks' leader Mohammed Atta and coordinator Ramzi bin al-Shaibah who was arrested last week in Pakistan.
The Spanish firms used in the moneylaundering operation were mainly involved in building and real estate, and brought around 2.5 million dollars extra to the operation, without Spanish authorities' knowledge.
One of Zouaydi's employees in Spain, Ghassoub al Abrash Ghalyoun, visited the World Trade Center in 1997 where he extensively videotaped the buildings.
"There are eight video cassettes filmed back then that were seized in Spain, " Brisard said.
In addition, one of Zouaydi's associates had the number of Mohammed Atta's apartment in Hamburg in the memory of his cell phone, the lawyer said.
During Zouaydi's five years in Saudi Arabia, he had professional contact with some members of the Saudi royal family, according to the allegations.
Zouaydi, who was al-Qaeda's main man in Europe, "was an accountant for the al-Faisal branch of the Saudi royal family, including Prince Mohammed al-Faisal al-Saud and Prince Turki al-Faisal al-Saud," according to Brisard.
Prince Mohammed, a director of the Faisal Islamic Bank, and Prince Turki, former Saudi secret service boss, appear, along with Saudi Arabia's Defense Minister Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud, among individuals named in the lawsuit by families of victims of the September 11 attacks in the United States that left around 3,000 people dead.
In the suit, it states that Prince Turki agreed in 1998 not to ask Afghanistan to extradite al-Qaeda boss Osama bin Laden, and gave generous aid to the former Taliban regime in exchange for bin Laden's agreement not to use Afghanistan as an operations base to destabilize Saudi Arabia's wahabite regime.
The lawyer acknowledged that Mohammed Zouaydi could have mounted his terror financing network without the Saudi princes' knowledge. "All the same, it is very worrying," Brisard noted.
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, there is democracy in the Islamic world. Turkey is an example of it, and there are others, as well.
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