Drip, drip. Anyone hear the leak?
Anyone else notice how this explosive report has taken nearly two years to compile, and is being leaked to the public after we no longer need to keep our troops in Saudi Arabia to contain Saddam Hussein? In fact, between our bases in Kuwait and Qattar and our occupation of Iraq, don't need Saudi Arabia militarily at all. The whole relationship is now oil, which they need to sell even more than we need to buy.
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Report on 9/11 Suggests a Role by Saudi Spies
By JAMES RISEN and DAVID JOHNSTON
WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 — The classified part of a Congressional report on the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, says that two Saudi citizens who had at least indirect links with two hijackers were probably Saudi intelligence agents and may have reported to Saudi government officials, according to people who have seen the report.
These findings, according to several people who have read the report, help to explain why the classified part of the report has become so politically charged, causing strains between the United States and Saudi Arabia. Senior Saudi officials have denied any links between their government and the attacks and have asked that the section be declassified, but President Bush has refused.
People familiar with the report and who spoke on condition of not being named said that the two Saudi citizens, Omar al-Bayoumi and Osama Bassnan, operated in a complex web of financial relationships with officials of the Saudi government. The sections that focus on them draw connections between the two men, two hijackers, and Saudi officials.
nytimes.com |
