proud republican wrote:
And report is heavily redacted.... So really we don't know the whole t***h...
That FBI report is full of assumptions, speculation, omissions, and erroneous guesses.
One example: The allegation that Prince Bandar bin Sultan "appears to have been one of the sponsors of the 9/11 attacks".
Whether this slander was intentional on the part of FBI speculators, if it is a spin on the facts, or just a failure to connect the dots is anybody's guess. Really bad call all the way around.
And, If this allegation stared Prince Sultan in the face, it is no wonder he refused to be questioned.
The political environment the FBI has operated in for decades is decidedly biased. I don't trust them as far as I can spit. Comey and Smirk are the FBI poster boys.
Prince Bandar bin Sultan was the Saudi ambassador to the United States, and during the Soviet/Afghan war, he approached the US government and requested support for the Mujahadeen fighting the Russians. Osama bin Laden personally thanked him for that. Beyond that, it was the last time the two would ever meet.
And, King Fahd? Poor guy was beside himself trying to figure out what to do about this radical, and virulently outspoken, anti-government son of his beloved builder of Saudi Arabia's infrastructure, Mohammed bin Laden.
(Among all the roads, bridges, tunnels, schools, and mosques Mohammed bin Laden's company built, they designed and built the Great Mosque in Mecca.)
Osama h**ed the Saudi royals and their secular governance of his beloved country. Osama demanded Sharia.
Osama condemned them for their alliance with the United States.
Osama scorned the royals for their lavish life styles, their debauchery and whoring and greed, for their billion dollar palaces and their million dollar yachts. For hoarding the nation's wealth to the extreme detriment of the citizens.
And, when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, and the fourth largest army in the world was stacked up on Saudi Arabia's border, the Saudis were terrified. The Saudi military was definitely no match for an army with 4000 tanks.
What to do?
King Fahd called a meeting. All the royalty, the princes and crown prince, the committees, the advisers, anyone who had a say came together. The big question was whether or not they should call on the United States to come lend a hand.
The big objection to that came from the fundamentalists who were adamantly opposed to an army of Infidels desecrating their sacred soil.
Others were pragmatic, realists, they well understood the gravity of the threat Saddam posed to them and their inability to defend against it. King Fahd was one of them. The question these men had was, if they do call for the United States to help, will the Americans leave after the issue is settled?
Fights broke out over these questions. Bad idea, some said. No other options, said others
King Fahd met with SecDef Cheney who assured the king the Americans would leave, either after the issue was settled, or when the king himself requested they leave.
With that promise, king Fahd told Cheney, "bring every thing you can and hurry."
When Osama bin Laden, who obviously was not at this meeting, heard of this, he saw it as sacrilege, he went ballistic. issued fatwas, condemned the king and his unholy cretins to hell.
From their bases in Sudan, Osama bin Laden, with his fledgling Al Qaeda and Ayman al Zawahiri, with his al-Jihad started raising hell in Egypt and Yemen, blowing things up and k*****g people. Had a direct effect on Saudi Arabia,
The Saudis even had to deal with Islamic fundamentalists taking their cues from bin Laden's violent decrees who assaulted Islam's holiest site, the great mosque in Mecca. Lot of people died in that siege.
Got so bad, king Fahd finally revoked bin Laden's citizenship and kicked his ass out of the country.
The seeds of violent Jihad, Islamic fundamentalism, and modern Islamic terrorism were planted in Egypt 70 years ago. The Egyptian journalist and teacher who planted them is considered the god father of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Osama bin Laden an Ayman al Zawahiri were members of the brotherhood, a brotherhood the Saudis resolutely condemned.
Osama bin Laden raised Al Qaeda into a global terrorist network while he was in Afghanistan. There were a few wealthy Saudis with ties to the royals who contributed to that effort. But the Saudi royals and members of the government had nothing to do with it.