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White House Praises Saudis After Senators Assail Them
NY Times ^ | 11/25/2002 | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Posted on 11/25/2002 6:36:01 PM PST by NewMike39

White House Praises Saudis After Senators Assail Them By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 8:11 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush's spokesman praised Saudi Arabia on Monday as a ``good partner in the war on terrorism,'' despite accusations that the wife of the Saudi U.S. ambassador might have financially supported Sept. 11 terrorists.

``He believes the Saudi government is a good partner,'' White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters. The accusations are complicating White House efforts to win Saudi support for potential war against Iraq.

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Fleischer refused to discuss the merits of an FBI investigation into the financial doings of Princess Haifa al-Faisal, wife of Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Saltan.

In contrast, a parade of senators, including some who doubted the princess meant to help terrorists, upbraided the Saudi government on Sunday's television talk shows for what they saw as years of complicity in anti-American radicalism.

Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., outgoing chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Saudis have a history of ``buying off extremism,'' even if only by averting their gaze from it,

Saudi officials, stung by the criticism, said they are checking records to see how money from the princess might have eventually gone to supporters of the Sept. 11 attacks.

In trying to calm the latest strain in their alliance with the United States, they called ``crazy'' any suggestion she intended to support the hijackers.

Interior Minister Prince Nayef said Monday that charitable giving shouldn't be a crime. He called accusations that Saudis helped finance two Sept. 11 terror suspects ``baseless fabrications.''

Embassy officials spent the weekend having bankers pore over the princess' records to figure out how thousands of dollars in monthly payments from her account apparently ended up in the wrong hands, said Saudi foreign policy adviser Adel al-Jubeir.

Some of the money apparently went into the accounts of two men who U.S. officials think provided financial support to hijackers.

Biden said the situation is ``part of a saga where the Saudis don't know, have not checked, are not nearly conscientious enough in determining whether or not a 'charity' is genuinely a charity or a front for, or a back door for, terrorists or terrorist-sympathizing organizations or individuals.''

Bush's aides did not join in the recriminations.

``The president does believe the Saudis have been a good partner in the war on terrorism,'' Fleischer said. He said Bush is ``constantly pushing nations to do more,'' but the spokesman did not single out the Saudi government as a target of such lobbying.

A senior White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there might be a legitimate explanation for the payments.

The official credited the Saudis with helping in the anti-terror war, in quiet ways that bring them no credit in the West but also do not attract the attention of fundamentalist elements at home.

Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York saw that balancing act differently.

Saudis ``have played a duplicitous game, and that is they say to the terrorists, 'We'll do everything you want, just leave us alone,''' he said on ABC's ``This Week.'' ``That game has got to stop.''

Still, the lawmakers did not know whether the princess had meant for the money to go to Omar al-Bayoumi and Osama Basnan. U.S. officials believe those men provided financial support to two of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers while the terrorists lived in the United States.

Saudi adviser al-Jubeir said the princess sent monthly checks to a Saudi woman living in this country who sought help paying for medical treatment. It came out only now that the woman was Basnan's wife and that some of the money ended up with al-Bayoumi's family as well, he said.

Basnan is believed to be back in Saudi Arabia after his deportation and al-Bayoumi is either there or in Britain, al-Jubeir said. Saudi officials will probably question them, he said, but he noted pointedly that U.S. and British officials already interrogated them months ago.

Al-Jubeir said Saudis had bank officials in Washington, starting at 3 a.m. Saturday, begin going through the princess' electronic transactions, which include hundreds or thousands of payments to expatriate Saudi charities and citizens.

``That's when we discovered that some of the checks were endorsed to third parties,'' he said.

``To think that Princess Haifa, whose father was murdered by a terrorist in 1995, who's a mother, who's a grandmother, would write checks to people who give it to terrorists is crazy,'' he added.

Sens. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and John McCain, R-Ariz., who together set up an independent commission that will investigate the terror attacks, joined Biden in criticizing Saudi conduct.

Saudi leaders ``have to decide which side they're on,'' Lieberman said on CBS' ``Face the Nation.''

``For too many generations they have pacified and accommodated themselves to the most extreme, fanatical, violent elements of Islam, and those elements have now turned on us and the rest of the world.''

Added McCain: ``The Saudi royal family has been engaged in a Faustian bargain for years to keep themselves in power.''

Al-Jubeir said the princess sent the woman $2,000 a month; other accounts have put the figure higher. The FBI is investigating the bank transactions.

U.S. officials suspect al-Bayoumi and Basnan helped Khalif al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi after they came to the United States from a planning conference in Malaysia of the al-Qaida terror network.

Al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi were aboard the plane that crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, killing 189 people.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News
KEYWORDS: bush
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We need Ronald Reagan back ! We need a president with the courage to face our enemies. We need a conservative who will use our power to subdue our enemies rather than submit to the oil power of Saudi Arabia. If I were president the Saudi Royal family would be no longer. Maybe one day George Bush will grow a pair of balls and take some courageous actions. In the meantime I believe Bush the wimp II wasted the greatest national momentum since WWII.
1 posted on 11/25/2002 6:36:01 PM PST by NewMike39
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To: NewMike39
Why has the US systematically ignored the terrorist-spawning, terrorist supporting,
WMD bankrolling, Saudis who have --since their attacks against the US on 911--
used telethons to fund even more murderous attacks on Western democracies.

How do the Saudis continue to get away with this?


2 posted on 11/25/2002 6:39:24 PM PST by Diogenesis
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To: Diogenesis
The Saudis get away with this because our president is not courageous enough to speak or act the truth.
3 posted on 11/25/2002 6:41:33 PM PST by NewMike39
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To: NewMike39
Hydrogen.
4 posted on 11/25/2002 6:41:43 PM PST by PoorMuttly
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To: NewMike39
Your forgot a "Barf Alert"
5 posted on 11/25/2002 6:41:50 PM PST by dagnabbit
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Comment #6 Removed by Moderator

To: NewMike39
I truly hope this is all double-talk by Bush.

Saudi is worse than Iraq, one thousand times over.
7 posted on 11/25/2002 6:47:00 PM PST by Guillermo
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To: Diogenesis
I think it's a brilliant strategy on Bush's part. Think mirror.
8 posted on 11/25/2002 6:48:43 PM PST by John Lenin
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To: Guillermo
It is not double talk. It is self - interested cowardice. Bush is a wimp just like Clinton and just like Bush Sr. He is simply a wimp who is afraid to confront the Saudis. I would also like to know how much money the Saudis have paid to Bush sr in consulting fees since his presidency. I want a courageous president now !
9 posted on 11/25/2002 6:51:16 PM PST by NewMike39
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To: NewMike39
I could sure use that animated "Bomb Mecca" GIF right now.

Anyone have it?
10 posted on 11/25/2002 6:53:58 PM PST by TSgt
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Comment #11 Removed by Moderator

To: NewMike39
Hi comrade, diplomatic chatter shouldn't be confused as cowardice. Dissing the saudis now would be detrimental to ousting sodom. Bush's plans for global realignment have already produced new allies of former soviet block countries, as well as Russia itself.
12 posted on 11/25/2002 6:58:11 PM PST by damncat
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To: Vinnie_Vidi_Vici
Easy! Easy! Easy!

Let's all play nice...
13 posted on 11/25/2002 6:58:45 PM PST by TSgt
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To: NewMike39
The Saudis get away with this because our president is not courageous enough to speak or act the truth.

Actually our President has the sense to realize that the Saudis are our friend in some ways and enemies in others....and until we find a way to become independant of our need for their oil, we cannot afford to declare war on them.
Those who think otherwise should be prepared support $5 a gallon gas and a crippled economy, rather than sitting here hypocritically ripping Bush.

14 posted on 11/25/2002 7:00:33 PM PST by Jorge
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To: John Lenin
I think maybe this is called the "Moronizing" of your enemies....let them THINK you are a Moron....and then brilliantly double talk and double deal them.
15 posted on 11/25/2002 7:02:05 PM PST by goodnesswins
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To: NewMike39
We need Ronald Reagan back ! We need a president with the courage to face our enemies.

Look, I love Reagan, but if you remember, he pulled our marines out of Lebannon rather than fight the terrorists. You seem to have a one sided memory. Bush is doing what's necessary, and you'd better stop to think about who is pushing this Saudis as bad guys stuff. Biden, Lieberman, and Schummer. Think about it.

16 posted on 11/25/2002 7:05:30 PM PST by McGavin999
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To: NewMike39
Freepers should know better than to trust the good intentions of the New York Times, especially under Howell Raines. This headline is deliberately calculated to enrage readers and make trouble for Bush, as is almost everything they print.

Think good cop, bad cop. I don't believe for a minute that the FBI "leaked" all that stuff about Prince Bandar's wife without White House permission.
17 posted on 11/25/2002 7:06:33 PM PST by Cicero
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To: Vinnie_Vidi_Vici
OH! By the way, "BLOW ME"

What is this, Democratic Underground? I thought we used our brains and our respect for rational discourse to reinforce our arguments here at FR.

18 posted on 11/25/2002 7:07:40 PM PST by arm958
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To: NewMike39
Interior Minister Prince Nayef said Monday that charitable giving shouldn't be a crime. He called accusations that Saudis helped finance two Sept. 11 terror suspects "baseless fabrications."

Here's what the same P.O.S.said on Oct 15, 2001:

Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef, who has been acting as a spokesman on developments in the kingdom, told journalists recently that Saudi Arabia had not received convincing evidence of Saudi citizens' participation in the attacks.

"There were 400 people aboard the four planes and we find it strange that the focus is on Arabs, and Saudis in particular,"

19 posted on 11/25/2002 7:10:15 PM PST by dagnabbit
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To: McGavin999
you'd better stop to think about who is pushing this Saudis as bad guys stuff. Biden, Lieberman, and Schummer. Think about it.

How about Vladimir Putin.

20 posted on 11/25/2002 7:10:17 PM PST by arm958
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