7. According to press reports, in 1987, Bamieh told the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa the following:
-- In November 1981, prince Fahd, who later became the king, told Bamieh that he was pleased Congress had agreed to sell AWACS surveillance planes to the kingdom. In exchange for AWACS, Fahd said, "We will help you guys fight anti-communist movements," according to Bamieh.
--In 1983 [Prince] Bandar asked Bamieh if he would go into business with Richard V. Secord and Albert Hakim to bid on a security project at a Saudi airport. Secord and Hakim were key figures in the plan to channel money from the sale of US weapons to Iran to the Contra rebels fighting Nicaragua's leftist government. The business relationship was never cemented because the three never got the contract.
-- In 1983, Saudi officials asked Bamieh to funnel money to Morocco for the training of UNITA guerrillas. The Saudis said former CIA Director William Casey was aware of the plan, Bamieh said.
-- In February 1984, Bandar approached Bamieh in Cannes, France, asking him to set up an offshore company that would supply goods and services to anti-communist movements and oil to South Africa. Bandar aid he declined, even though Bandar said, "Don't worry about the legalities" because Casey was discussing the matter with King Fahd.
Another newspaper article reported on Bamieh's statements about the Iran Contra affair:
An American businessman with extensive ties to Saudi Arabia's royal family contends King Fahd was the chief financier of Iran's secret US weapons purchases in 1985 and 1986.
Sam Bamieh, a naturalized American citizen, said in an interview with United Press International Tuesday that Fahd was hoping to gain favor with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to ward off possible threats to Saudi security. Investigators of the Iran-Contra scandal have concluded Iran paid about $30 million for the arms, at prices double or triple the Pentagon's cost, and about $3.5 million of the profits were diverted to the Nicaraguan Contra rebels.
The reason they paid those high prices was because the money wasn't theirs," he said of the Iranians.
Bamieh, of San Mateo, California, said he based his assertion that Fahd paid for the arms on statements made to him by confidants of Fahd and international arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi and on dealings and on dealings made in his presence by Khashoggi.
Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian who investigators have found played a significant role in financing the early US arms shipments to Iran, was serving as Fahd's emissary in the deals, Bamieh said.
Finally, Bamieh is quoted in the press on the CIA's involvement in an assassination attempt of a high ranking Lebanese official: Top secret CIA reports in 1985, conflicting with author Bob Woodward's recent assertions, said Syria masterminded an assassination attempt against a radical Moslem leader without agency cooperation, U.S. intelligence officials say.
But California businessman Sam Bamieh, who describes himself as a former close friend of Saudi King Fahd, said he has evidence of reports of Syria's involvement were part of a Saudi cover story and that Woodward's report in his new book is largely correct.
Woodward, an assistant managing editor at the Washington Post, described the unsuccessful attempt to kill Hezbolah leader Sheik Fadahllah, whose organization bombed several American facilities in Lebanon in his book, "Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA in 1981-1987."
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Talk about 'dazed and confused'. Who IS Sam Bamieh? His son, Ron, says no one works harder than his dad, and that his dad has 'earned' every penny.
Just amazed that someone with a $45 million house on 'the block' doesn't have a 'press' following.