Lawsuit to expose federal cover-up of Saudi-funded terrorist network in
Florida
The following is a statement by John Loftus:
For 20 years, I have served without compensation as a lawyer for federal
whistleblowers within the US intelligence community. In the last year, I
have received highly classified information from several of my
confidential
clients concerning a Saudi covert operation. The Saudi relationship is so
sensitive that, for more than a decade, federal prosecutors and
counter-terrorist agents have been ordered to shut down their
investigations
for reasons of foreign policy.
I am filing a lawsuit in Hillsborough County Court to expose the manner in
which Florida charities were used as a money laundry for tax-deductible
terrorism. The complaint cites specific testimony, including highly
classified information which has never been released before.
Simply put, the Saudi Government was laundering money through Florida
charities run by the University of South Florida - Tampa Professor Sami Al
Arian for the support of terrorist groups in the Middle East. Through the
Al
Arian network and others, the Saudi Government secretly funded Al Qaida,
Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
The Saudi purpose was twofold: the destruction of the State of Israel and
the prevention of the formation of an independent Palestinian State.
Two particular terrorist groups, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad,
were specifically chosen and funded by the Saudis for their willingness to
undermine Arafat's Palestinian Authority. The secret Saudi goal was to
create such animosity between Israel and the Palestinian Authority that it
would wreck any chance for the creation of an independent Palestinian
State.
Their tactics specifically called for the intimidation or murder of those
Palestinians who were willing to work with Israel for peace. To put it
bluntly, the covert Saudi network in Florida funded the murders of fellow
Muslims for the crime of wanting to create the first democratic Arab
State.
Whatever harm the Israelis may have done, they did build an excellent
public
education system, including several universities, for the benefit of their
Palestinian neighbors. That was the problem:
* While literacy in the Arab world is below 50%, in Israel it is 97%.
* Israel is the only place in the Middle East where an Arab woman can
vote.
* After 50 years, Israel has created the first Arab class exposed to
democracy, literacy and western values.
To the Saudis, a democratic Palestinian nation would be a cancer in the
Arab
world, a destabilizing example of freedom that would threaten Arab
dictators
everywhere.
As King Fahd said, "Next to the Jews, we hate the Palestinians the most."
The harder the Israelis and Palestinians worked for peace, the more money
King Fahd poured into his murder for hire program.
The Saudi Government has already begun its spin operations, claiming that
this terror network was a rogue operation financed by a radical Saudi
businessman without the support or knowledge of the Saudi Government.
The truth is that many of the Saudi princes, notably Prince Bandahar and
Prince Alwaheed, are good and loyal friends of America who want to lead
Saudi Arabia into the modern world. Unfortunately, they are now in the
minority in their own country. King Fahd is on his death bed, and his
nephew
and heir apparent, Crown Prince Abdullah depends on the most radical
southern and eastern clans for his political base.
The southern faction is the center of popular support for Al Qaida and the
Taliban, because it is the home of the most extreme Muslim sect, the
Wahabbis. Ninety-nine percent of the Muslim world rejects the Wahabbi
religious tenets as utterly repugnant to the teachings and examples of the
Prophet as written down in the Hadith. Since most Wahabbis are
functionally
illiterate, they cannot read about this conflict on their own.
Typically, they memorize a few passages of the Koran taken out of context,
and never read the accompanying Hadith for explanation. For example, the
Wahabbis are taught by rote that Jews are subhuman who should be killed as
a
religious duty. In contrast, the Hadith explains that the prophet Mohammed
honored Jews, married a Jewish wife, forbade forced conversions of Jews,
always bowed in respect when a Jewish funeral passed, and promised that
good
and faithful Jews would go to Paradise just as good Muslims and Christians
would, and that the Jews would have their Holy Place in the West (meaning
Jerusalem) while Muslims would have their Holy Place in the East (meaning
Mecca).
Illiteracy is a weapon of oppression. The Saudis, and their Wahabbis, the
Taliban, have decreed that women cannot work or even sit in the front seat
of a car. In contrast, the Hadith records that the Prophet worked for his
wife, and that she drove her own caravans in international commerce.
The Prophet forbade racism, the Wahabbis practice it, especially against
their non-Arab Shiite minority.
The Wahabbis (both in Saudi Arabia and the Taliban) discriminate viciously
against women. The Prophet, who lovingly raised three daughters, insisted
that women should have substantially equal rights in contract, ownership
and
divorce.
The Muslim faith envisioned by the Prophet in the Koran and recorded by
his
contemporaries in the Hadith is a religion that practices tolerance
towards
all races and religions, stresses the extreme importance of literacy and
education, and elevates the status of women to unprecedented levels in
many
societies. This is the gentle, peaceful Muslim faith practiced everywhere
in
the world, except in Saudi Arabia and the Taliban provinces of Afghanistan
and Pakistan.
Muslim scholars speak derisively about the primitive Wahabbi apostasy, but
rarely in public. The reason for this deafening silence is simple:
Most Mosques in the world are impoverished and depend upon Saudi subsidies
for their operation. In return, however, the Saudis have gained a foothold
for proselytizing and radicalizing the Muslim youth through religious
education in the form of militant Wahabbism. Children learn to hate
because
they are being taught that way.
The Saudis dabbled with funding anti-Semitic hate groups as a means of
breaking down American support for Israel. After the fall of communism,
the
Saudis took over funding the most militant terror organizations for direct
attacks against Jewish and Palestinian supporters of the peace process.
Year
after year, members of the intelligence community warned that a rising
wave
of terror was coming. [TEXT MISSING] something about terrorism, he was
told
to stop because it would embarrass the Saudi Government. John O'Neill quit
his job as head of FBI counter-terrorism for the same reason. Jonathan
Pollard went to jail.
Federal agents in Tampa, who had known about the Saudi-Sami Al Arian
connection since 1990, were ordered to drop the investigation in 1995.
The Saudi influence-buying machine had effectively shut down any threat of
criminal prosecution. Those Americans, including a former President, who
lobbied for the Saudis have a lot to answer for. So do the Saudis.
With the explosive growth of Al Qaida and their Taliban allies, the Saudis
finally recognized that they had gone too far. As Osama Bin Laden
laughingly
related on videotape, he was approached prior to the attack on the twin
Trade Towers by his relatives, who offered him $300,000,000 to cancel the
operation.
Apparently, the Bin Laden family really had not broken off all ties and
knew
exactly what was coming. So, my clients say, did the Saudis.
Six months later, a much-chagrined Prince Abdullah belatedly announced
that
the Saudis would release the names of the terrorists whom their charities
had unwittingly funded, but only in Somalia and Asia. The main Saudi
charities in Herndon, Virginia, and the Al Arian network in Florida are
still untouched.
My clients are betting that the American influence peddlers hired by the
Saudis will succeed once again in derailing a federal investigation.
They came to me for help in exposing the cover-up. That is why I am filing
this lawsuit. In the months to come, the American public may finally begin
to learn why the Saudi-Sami Al Arian terror networks went untouched for so
long. It wasn't an intelligence failure, it was a foreign policy failure.
The orders were not to embarrass the Saudi government. Year after year,
the
cover-up orders came from the State Department and the White House.
The CIA, the FBI, and the Justice Department just did what they were told.
No one intended the harsh consequences of letting the Saudis get away with
it again and again. Only after September 11, when the Treasury Department
found the financial transactions linking the Saudi charities directly to
Osama bin Laden, did American officials realize the extent of their
betrayal.
We are not alone in our grief and anger. Saudi money sabotaged every
Israeli
initiative to make peace. The bewildered Palestinians may finally realize
that they have been stabbed in the back by an Arab brother.
The rules have changed after September 11, but the bottom line remains the
same: If we want to stop terrorism, we have to tell the Saudis to stop
funding it.
John Loftus |
