1) I don't recall the U.S. press mentioning at the time of the U.S.S. Cole bombing that Bin Laden was born in Yemen, or that he was "revered" by many of its citizens.
2) I seem to recall quite a PR campaign after the "aspirin factory bombing" that the Muslim owner had been unfairly maligned, etc. It might be interesting to check the FR archives to look at the specifics.
3)What are we now to make about the "aspirin factory" claims? Maybe it was more of a legitimate target than previously thought. Why the press spin?
4)BCCI again and again and again. I wonder why. (I am having trouble keeping track of all of the names.)
I agree with you that these money trails need to be followed up. And the intelligence implications. What did the Saudis know when they bought this guy out and dumped him?
The intercepts, Hersh writes, "depict a regime increasingly corrupt, alienated from the country's religious rank and file, and so weakened and frightened that it has brokered its future by channelling hundreds of millions of dollars in what amounts to protection money to fundamentalist groups that wish to overthrow it."
By 1996, Hersh reports, Saudi money was supporting Al Qaeda and similar extremist groups in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Yemen, and throughout both Central Asia and the Persian Gulf region.
"Ninety-six is the key year," one American intelligence official tells Hersh in the October 22, 2001 issue of the NEW YORKER . Hersh reports that the intercepts have provided several important insights into political and economic affairs in the kingdom, including the extent of the physical incapacitation of King Fahd, the corruption of specific royal-family members, and the funding of fundamentalist groups through charities. The intelligence official tells Hersh that asfar as bankrolling fundamentalist groups goes, the Saudis had "gone to the dark side."
Current and former intelligence officials suggest, Hersh reports, that the instability of the Saudi regime is "the most immediate threat to American economic and political interests in the Middle East," and that "the Bush Administration, like the Clinton Administration, is refusing to confront this reality." Impacting Monday...
This is no biggy. Until oil, Yemen was the place to be, and the rest of the peninsula was the dumps. Once oil came, you had immigration from Yemen and Iran to the GCC nations, and to this day family ties dating back to the old country play a big role. Saudi Yemenis generally are 2 class citizens, but the Bin Ladins made good.
4)BCCI again and again and again. I wonder why. (I am having trouble keeping track of all of the names.)
IMO BCCI is best understood as a protection money by which the Gulf elite bought favors in DC & elsewhere. Think of it as a laundromat that, with the $$$$ involved, attracted the who's who.