Saudi's address linked to terror

Washington Times ^ | 11/25/02 | Francis Temman, AFP

[kattracks]

A Washington apartment belonging to the wife of the Saudi ambassador to the United States has been linked to a Saudi citizen who later lived with members of a terrorist cell related to al Qaeda, an attorney for victims of the September 11 attacks said yesterday.

[kcvl]

Saudi officials acknowledged Saturday that Princess Haifa al-Faisal, the wife of Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan, gave money to the family of Osama Bassnan, a Saudi citizen, when they were in the United States.

One of Bassnan's friends, Omar al Bayoumi, helped two of the Sept. 11 hijackers, Khalid Al-Midhar and Nawaf Alhazmi, with introductions to the Muslim community when they arrived in San Diego in 2000. Bayoumi hosted a party and helped Al-Midhar and Alhazmi with rent payments.

But Saudi officials said the money was donated to help defray the cost of medical treatments for the Bassnan family. It was one of many charitable contributions that the princess, daughter of the late Saudi King Faisal, makes regularly to Saudis who need money in the United States, they said.

[kcvl]

A congressional panel investigating the Sept. 11 attacks took note of the payments from the princess in the course of reviewing FBI files, sources said. Panel members were not satisfied the bureau had fully examined the money trail there and asked the bureau for more information.

An official of the Saudi Embassy said Saturday that the princess provided $15,000 in 1998 to Bassnan and followed up with $2,000 monthly stipend checks to Bassnan's wife, Majida Ibrahim Ahmad, while she was living in Falls Church, Va., and Baltimore.

Bassnan was deported to Saudi Arabia Nov. 17, and his wife was deported to her native Jordan the same day, both on visa violations, officials said.

The checks were issued from the princess's account at Riggs bank in Washington. The Saudi Embassy called the president of Riggs on Friday night after learning of the FBI investigation from media inquiries prompted by a report posted on Newsweek magazine's Web site.

[kcvl]

Sources familiar with the evidence say the payments—amounting to about $3,500 a month—came from an account at Washington’s Riggs Bank in the name of Princess Haifa Al-Faisal, the wife of Saudi Ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, and the daughter of the late Saudi King Faisal...

http://www.israelforum.com/board/

[kcvl]

Saudi officials and American friends of the Saudi government said that the payments from Princess Haifa al-Faisal, the wife of Ambassador Bandar bin Sultan, began more than four years ago, and that they were typical of the charitable gifts she provided to Saudis and others in distress, many of them strangers, who wrote her for help.

They said medical records showed that much of the money given to the family of the Saudi man, Osama Bassnan, went for medical care for his ailing Jordanian wife.
The Saudi government said today that the $2,000-a-month payments began after the princess received a letter in 1998 from Mr. Bassnan's wife, pleading for financial help.

But the suggestion today that money from the Saudi royal family may have been used, if only indirectly, to help the hijackers and their friends created alarm in Riyadh and in Washington.

A Saudi government spokesman said today that Princess Haifa, the daughter of the late King Faisal, decided in 1998 to begin donating $2,000 a month to Mr. Bassnan's family after receiving a letter from the Jordanian wife pleading for assistance.

Earlier that year, the government said, Princess Haifi provided the family with $15,000 to cover medical bills for his wife, Magda Ibrahim Ahmed. Details of the payments by the princess were first reported by Newsweek's Internet site.

"Princess Haifa is a very generous lady who goes out of her way to help people, Saudis in particular, although her contributions extend across nationalities and institutions," Adel al-Jubeir, a foreign policy adviser to Crown Prince Abdullah, said in a telephone interview from Saudi Arabia. "The princess responded to an appeal from a woman who said she needed help and couldn't make ends meet."

[lavaroise]

Typical of the Royal family, but the government stays mum

Typical of the Saudi mulsim mentality of involving/submiting women and children in this. Mark my word, THERE ARE NO COALITION CAUSED COLLATERAL DAMAGE IN THE MUSLIM WORLD. They're the ones blowing up their own children and making them "end of war" targets. They simply are on genocide fest, daring us participate in their genocide fest.

This is why it is a bad idea to have women in the military, even if voluntary and democraticaly.

[kcvl]

Wives of Arab diplomats 'Mosaic' society in Washington for defending the Arab image
Regional-USA, Culture, 12/27/2001

There is also princess Haifa al-Faisal, the youngest of the daughters of the late Saudi King Faisal Bin Abdul Aziz and wife of the Saudi ambassador in Washington, and also dean of the Arab diplomatic crop in Washington. Princess Haifa has lived in Washington for 18 years. She has 8 children.


http://216.239.37.100/search?q=cache:lnC3xVCDWSsC:www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/011227/2001122705.html+Princess+Haifa+al-Faisal&hl=en&start=36&ie=UTF-8

[kcvl]

HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS
PRINCE BANDAR BIN SULTAN

BIN ABDUL AZIZ AL SAUD

His Royal Highness Prince Bandar Bin Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz is the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United States of America.

Prince Bandar was born in Saudi Arabia on March 2, 1949, at Taif, the summer capital of the Kingdom, the son of His Royal Highness Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, the Second Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and Aviation, and Inspector-General. He is married to Princess Haifa Bint Faisal. He has four sons and four daughters.

Prince Bandar was appointed Ambassador to the United States by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud on September 27, 1983. He is currently Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in the United States. On August 7, 1995, he was promoted to the rank of Minister.

Press Here...

[kcvl]

"MARHABA" --- WELCOME

[kcvl]

Prince Bandar Bin Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz
Ambassador E. and P. of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the U.S.A.

"Commercial interests survive longer than strategic interests. When countries do business together, they stay together."

[kcvl]

Prince Bandar bin Sultan arrives in Yemen
Sanaa,

4th September 2001

Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, Saudi Ambassador to the United States, arrived here today to convey a message from Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, Deputy Premier and the Commander of the National Guard, to the President of the Republic of Yemen Ali Abdullah Saleh. In a statement on his arrival the Yemeni Press Agency (SABA’), he said the visit came within the framework of continual contacts between the leaderships of the two countries.

Prince Bandar bin Sultan expressed his happiness to visit his second country and praised close and historical relations binding the two brotherly countries of Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

[kcvl]

Saudis To U.S.: Don't Do It

CRAWFORD, Texas, Aug. 28, 2002

(CBS) The Saudis, who strongly backed the United States in the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq, are warning that a U.S. strike against Saddam Hussein could have grave consequences, including the breakup of Iraq with Kurdish and Shiite states emerging.

"There is no country I know of supporting force at this time," Adel el-Jubeir, foreign policy adviser to Crown Prince Abdullah, said in an Associated Press interview. Abdullah is the Saudis' de facto ruler due to King Fahd's chronic illness.

http://216.239.37.100/search?q=cache:mnd5d3VavLAC:www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/08/29/national/main520141.shtml+Prince+Bandar+bin+Sultan&hl=en&start=15&ie=UTF-8

[kcvl]

Saudi Arabia is home to the largest U.S. military base in the Persian Gulf, but the kingdom has asked the U.S. not to use the base for an assault on Iraq.

[truth_seeker]

It is a little bit difficult to determine the point(s) you are seeking, by all of the posts. No offense intended, but are you the PR representative, for the Saudis?

We can all read their many self-serving denials. I'm more interested in what and when we will take actions pertaining to them, insofar as they have links, even potential complicity, in the ongoing support of terrorists, and therefore of terrorism, too.

Any comments and opinions?

[kcvl]

No offense intended, but are you the PR representative, for the Saudis?

How did you come by that opinion? What I posted was information. Whether or not you care to read it is another subject. If my postings bother you I'll get off of this thread. If not, what's your problem?

[FreedomPoster]

Typically, those who have a large amount of supplementary information germane to the thread post links. When you post as many supplementary items as you have here, it starts to look like you're trying to hijack the thread. I'm sure that's not your intention.

[kcvl]

Like I said...I'll stay away from your thread. I wasn't trying to hijack anything. I thought it was interesting and I did post links to most of them. Sorry you both took it that way.

[metesky]

I thought information was what Free Republic was all about.

I enjoy observing the disconnect between the printed word and the reality of our relationship with the odious Saudis. Keep 'em coming.

[kcvl]

Some don't seem to think the same way as you. I also thought that was what we were suppose to do on here is share information. Some people don't like to look things up, follow a link or sometimes the link is bad. Oh, well, if it wasn't for the lectures I wouldn't know that I was on FreeRepublic.

[Einigkeit_Recht_Freiheit]

He has his eye on the big picture. First thing in the new congress will be drilling in Alaska. When we don't need them, it will be a lot easier to deal with them.

This is crap. ANWHR has at most 6 months supply for the United States. It will do us no good unless we use it carefully (and Bush has no plans for that)It is a pittance compared to what the Saudis have which amounts to 25% of world reserves. Iraq has 17%. Plus, the Middle East is the cheapest place in the world to get it out of the ground at about $1 per barrel compared with $12 in Alaska. That alsomeans that if the price of oil falls, ANWR becomes economicall unviable.

If you ask a commodities trader, he/she will tell you that a global product like oil is only affected by global supply. Adding Alaskan oil will add to the supply, but only using less oil will permanently make the US less dependent on foreign oil.

If tainting ANWR is a necessary step to weaning ourselves off of oil, I am all for it(If it isn't it necessary it is a stupid sop to big Oil. - Why crap on your lawn when you have a toilet?). We need to switch to alternatives energies asap. I know oil is the best thing around, but the bad news is that we don't have that much of it (only 4% of world reserves including Alaska). We are smart enough, wealthy and innovative enough to overcome the challenge of declaring our independence from the Middle East and getting ourselves off of oil and on to something else (Nuclear, clean coal, biomass, solar, wind, etc.).

Oil is our Achilles heel and this administration isn't doing anything to change that.

And for you imperialists who just want to take the stuff - if we build an empire, we will destroy everything for which America stands.

[metesky]

We've been here long enough to know that someone's always going to complain.