When narcissistic demagogue Donald "Rump" Trump made his tour of the Middle East last spring, his royal Saudi hosts knew just how to handle him: parades, gaudy pageantry and medals. By then, he was well known for his simpleminded maxim: you treat me nicely and I'll be your bestie. The corrupt, cynical Saudis went all out, believing that, in return for their over-the-top treatment and promises of billions in investments in the U.S. (and Princess Ivanka's scam), they could milk Rump for mundane favors, like arms deals, favorable bilateral trade terms, and support for their Sunni war with the Shia (e.g. Iranian) Muslims. There apparently was another more vital "favor" the Saudi hosts were quietly looking for: help in quashing the lawsuit brought against them by 6,500 victims of 9/11.
Writing in Harper's, Andrew Cockburn details the Saudi dilemma. Faced with concrete evidence that their government was implicated in providing logistical support to the 9/11 hijackers, including financing a "dry run" for two prospective terrorists prior to the attacks, the Saudis face a multi-hundred billion judgement against them, something that would cripple them economically at the same time that oil prices are slumping and their war in Yemen is costing billions. U.S. intelligence and law enforcement has identified Omar al-Bayoumi, a San Diego-based Saudi connected to the Saudi Ministry of Defense and Aviation, as a key figure in the conspiracy:
"Bayoumi had driven across town to a Middle Eastern restaurant where he 'accidentally' encountered and introduced himself to [al-Qaeda operatives] Hazmi and Mihdhar. He invited them to move to San Diego, found them an apartment, paid their first month’s rent, helped them open a bank account, and introduced them to members of the local Saudi community, including his close friend Osama Bassnan.
During the time Bayoumi was catering to the hijackers’ needs, his salary as a ghost employee of the aviation company got a 700 percent boost; it was cut when they left town. That was not his only source of extra funds: After Hazmi and Mihdhar arrived in San Diego, Bassnan’s wife began signing over to Bayoumi’s wife the checks she received from the wife of the Saudi ambassador in Washington. The total value reportedly came to nearly $150,000. (snip)
[The lawsuit] cites evidence of direct support for the attacks by Saudi officials such as Thumairy, Bayoumi, and Bassnan. It also lays out the case for the intimate involvement of the Saudi government in the creation and expansion of Al Qaeda. Whereas the 9/11 Commission Report began its narrative with Osama bin Laden, In re Terrorist Attacks goes back to the foundation of the Al Saud family’s rule and its alliance with the puritanical and intolerant Wahhabi sect. In the 1970s, and then again in the early 1990s, violent challenges to the family’s legitimacy, fostered by its corruption and backsliding from the fundamentalist creed, persuaded the ruling princes to appease the clerics by giving them further leeway, and massive amounts of money, to export their extremist agenda." (emphasis added)There's much more in Cockburn's lengthy article, details of which are in the plaintiff's case against the Saudi government, and which is a must read. The Saudi government has applied tremendous pressure to have the lawsuit dismissed, variously threatening to dump billions in U.S. securities, launching a media campaign, and filing a motion to dismiss on August 1, 2017. To the extent that they think they've bought an ally in Rump and his Justice Department, they hope to succeed with their dirty business.
(photo: Getty Images. "Accept this as a token of our corruption.")
