Who would have believed decades ago, that the US would so long tolerate
a country that helped terrorists murder thousands of Americans
and then would bankroll and telethon even more?
Posted on 07/30/2003 6:29:55 PM PDT by blam
Saudis step up pleas for 'acquittal' over September 11 attacks
By David Rennie in Washington
(Filed: 31/07/2003)
Saudi Arabia's campaign to clear itself in the court of American public opinion of involvement with the September 11 attacks was stepped up yesterday with an offer to let the United States interrogate a Saudi official.
Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, in Washington for a hastily arranged meeting with President Goerge W Bush, said he had granted a request from the US national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to question Omar al-Bayoumi.
But the prince declined to say if his government would extradite al-Bayoumi, an aviation specialist, to America, where he faces questions about his extensive ties to two of the September 11 hijackers.
He said only that Riyadh would "look at" a request, and also appeared to rule out any interrogation without Saudi minders present. "We are just as interested as the American officials if Bayoumi has connections," he said. "If there are supporters, wherever they are in Saudi Arabia, for terrorists, we want to catch them. "These people are killing us."
He said the American, British and Saudis had previously questioned al-Bayoumi, who studied at Aston University in Birmingham, and released him for lack of evidence.
The prince failed in his own mission to persuade the White House to unseal key sections of a congressional report on September 11, which detail Saudi involvement. The refusal to declassify 28 pages of the 900-page report deprived his kingdom of the chance to clear its name, Prince Saud said.
He attacked members of Congress familiar with the full report, who have said Saudi Arabian officials were clearly linked to the attacks, accusing them of "casting aspersions" and twisting the truth.
Democratic and Republican members of Congress have called on the White House to make the classified pages available to the public, rejecting arguments from Mr Bush that their release would damage national security.
The congressional report says al-Bayoumi found two of the September 11 hijackers a home in San Diego paid their rent for two months, helped them to open a bank account and enlisting a friend to contact Florida flight schools about flying lessons. He "had access to seemingly unlimited funding from Saudi Arabia", and had multiple contacts with Saudi diplomats, the report found.
At a wide-ranging press conference in the White House Rose Garden, Mr Bush yesterday confirmed intelligence warnings that al-Qa'eda might be planning fresh attacks, possibly involving suicide hijackings of airliners. "The threat is a real threat . . . We don't know when, where, what," he said.
For the first time, Mr Bush also accepted direct responsibility for the now-discredited charge in his State of the Union address, that Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa.
I do too. Screw'em!
Who would have believed decades ago, that the US would so long tolerate
a country that helped terrorists murder thousands of Americans
and then would bankroll and telethon even more?
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