Posted on 11/23/2002 4:45:23 PM PST by luv2ndamend
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An aide to Crown Prince Abdullah denied on Saturday that the Saudi government had sent money to two of the hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks and said his country was pursuing al Qaeda mercilessly. Adel al-Jubeir, foreign policy adviser to the kingdom's de facto ruler, told CNN from Riyadh that Saudi officials had worked closely with the FBI in investigating the allegations when they first emerged "seven or eight months ago."
U.S. sources said on Friday that a congressional inquiry into issues related to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks was investigating a possible money trail from the Saudi government to two of the hijackers, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi.
Asked if the Saudi government had sent money to the hijackers, al-Jubeir replied: "There is no evidence to that effect whatsoever."
U.S. National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack cautioned on Saturday that it was too early to jump to conclusions about a money trail.
"While you have an ongoing investigation, it's important not to rush to judgment," he said during a visit by President Bush to Romania.
Newsweek magazine reported that payments of about $3,500 a month reached the hijackers via two Saudi students living in the United States who had in turn received it from an account in the name of Princess Haifa al-Faisal, wife of the Saudi ambassador to Washington.
Al-Jubeir said an investigation by Princess Haifa's office had shown that the money appeared to have reached the students via another person, a woman who was on a list of recipients of charitable and other donations regularly made by the princess.
He said it was not clear who the woman was or how her name had come to be on the list of recipients. Investigations were continuing, he said.
"Princess Haifa is a very generous woman ... she donates large amounts of money to charities," al-Jubeir said.
Saudi-U.S. relations were strained after the Sept. 11 hijacked plane attacks after it was discovered that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis. About 3,000 people died in the attacks.
Al-Jubeir said Saudi Arabia was working closely with the United States in the broader hunt for members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group, accused of carrying out the attacks.
"I don't believe that there are any two governments that are cooperating more closely than your government and my government on this matter," al-Jubeir said.
"Ultimately it is your country and my country that are in the crosshairs of al Qaeda and we have been pursuing them for a number of years and we will continue to pursue them mercilessly because that is the only way we can rid this region of this scourge," the Saudi diplomat said.
White House officials said the FBI was conducting a broad investigation into the attacks and their financing. "They (the FBI) have in fact received some cooperation from the Saudis on this investigation which is ongoing," McCormack said.
"They do no have the luxury of supposition. They have to deal with the facts and they are pursuing them," he said.
Al-Jubeir said the Saudis had thought the money trail issue was closed. "So we find it surprising that now out of the U.S. Congress they repackage this and push it as new evidence, which leads me to believe that the people who are behind this are more interested in scoring political brownie points than they are in arriving at the truth," he said.
Yes or No?
I've noticed in the Arab press in the last few days that Saudi Arabian officials have announced the arrests of a few terrorists here and there as a way of saying, "See, we don't like terrorists, either. We're going after them, too." Their response is way too little and way too late.
And several americans helped them along the way (flight schools, drivers' licenses, etc and so on), not to mention those who went to afghanistan to be with the taliban. Does this make the US government complicit? Not saying the Saudi's didn't have anything to do with it somewhere along the line - but there needs to be a bit stronger of an argument other then nationality.
His eyes were blinking constantly, and stumbling over all of his words. He acted guilty as sin.
The Saudis are at the beginning of all of these radicals. May Hell visit them soon.
How Clintonesque is that.
I did not have monetary relations with that terrorist...Mohamed Atta. Now I need to go back to my palace and be left to do the peoples work.
As much as I loathe the Saudis, $3,500 per month is not exactly a massive Al Queda funding.
If one dollar of that $3500 was spent on a box-cutter, it doesn't have to be massive to be complicity. It would be a damn shame if one of our planes "accidentally" dropped a JDAM on that bitch's house...kinda like the French embassy in Lybia got it back in the 80's.
How Clintonesque is that.
Absolutely 100% straight from the Hitlary book of spin and evasion tactics.
I think it's time to re-puppet. The strings on this bunch are all tangled up.
This boy, looks like a deer caught in automobile headlights if I ever saw one. Yes, I have seen them, they are really stupid and sometimes run into the side of your car as you go by...
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