An Uneasy and Ill-Advised Alliance Exists Between Western Powers the Saudi Kingdom, as Saudi Arabia Continues to Support Terror Operations Globally.
Most ISIS fighters come from Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally in the Middle East.
According to unnamed Iraqi intelligence sources, jihadists from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) comprise nearly one-third of all ISIS terrorists in Iraq, adding that “Saudis comprise the largest single contingent of ISIS fighters, with Russian Chechens making up the second-largest contingent.”
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a high-ranking Iraqi intelligence officer said, “The Saudi presence in ISIS is very large. The Saudis make up a large number of suicide bombers, as they already have the ground work of radicalization installed in their minds from radical sheikhs in Saudi [Arabia]. And we’ve caught important ISIS commanders,” he added.
Over the course of the battle against ISIS, U.S. intelligence sources have recovered various ISIS-linked photographs and documents showing identification and credit cards of Saudi terrorists.
Concerns over Iraq becoming a proxy war between KSA and Iran continue to mount. Saudi Arabia (Sunni) views Iran (Shiite) as its rival and each sect of Islam seeks to control the Caliphate.
Iran exerts tremendous influence over the Shiite-led government of Iraq where militias backed by the Islamic Republic are fighting ISIS.
The Sharia law-compliant Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is regarded as the top global exporter of radical Islam via the numerous Sunni/Saudi-funded madrasses across the Middle East, preaching an extremist ideology of Wahhabism (adhered to by ISIS and various other jihadists groups).
In October 2016, Wikileaks revealed U.S. government officials acknowledging that Saudi Arabia and Qatar provide critical support for ISIS. Then Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton (former Secretary of State) sent an email to John Podesta in August 2014 (who was then-counselor to President Barack Obama) saying, “…we need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region.”
But the Kingdom’s support for terrorism can be traced back much further. More than 13 years after the congressional investigation published its report into the events surrounding the 9/11 attacks, the much discussed missing “28 pages” on Saudi involvement in the terrorist assault—which had been held back as too sensitive to publish—have been released. In fact, there are 29 pages, not 28, numbered 415 through 443 in the congressional inquiry into the 9/11 attacks. In addition to the redacted sections, totaling another 3 pages, readers may feel they are still not getting the full story.
But let’s examine what has recently been released over a decade and a half after the attack:
Page 415: “While in the United States, some of the September 11 hijackers were in contact with, and received support and assistance from, individuals who may be connected to the Saudi Government…. [A]t least two of those individuals were alleged by some to be Saudi intelligence officers.”
Page 417: One of the individuals identified in the pages as a financial supporter of two of the 9/11 hijackers, Osama Bassnan, later received a “significant amount of cash” from “a member of the Saudi royal family” during a 2002 trip to Houston.
Page 418: “Another Saudi national with close ties to the Saudi Royal Family, [deleted], is the subject of FBI counterterrorism investigations.”
Pages 418 and 419: Detained al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaida had in his phone book the unlisted number for the security company that managed the Colorado residence of the then-Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan.
Page 421: “a [deleted], dated July 2, 2002, [indicates] ‘incontrovertible evidence that there is support for these terrorists inside the Saudi Government.'”
Page 426: Bassnan’s wife was receiving money “from Princess Haifa Bint Sultan,” the wife of the Saudi ambassador. (Her correct name is actually Princess Haifa bint Faisal.)
Page 436: The general counsel of the U.S. Treasury Department, David Aufhauser, testified that “offices [of the Saudi charity al-Haramain] have significant contacts with extremists, Islamic extremists.” CIA officials also testified “that they were making progress on their investigations of al-Haramain…. [T]he head of the central office is complicit in supporting terrorism, and it also raised questions about [then-Saudi Interior Minister] Prince Nayef.”
Further evidence of the royal family link to terrorism was published by U.S. News & World Report in January 2002 quoting two unidentified Clinton administration officials as saying that two senior Saudi princes had been paying off Osama bin Laden since a 1995 bombing in Riyadh, which killed five American military advisors.
Connecting these bits of information paints our ‘ally’ in a different light. It seems high time we become energy independent—as the saying goes, “With friends like these, who needs enemies?”
Note: If you were not aware of the “missing 28” (really 29) pages of the 9/11 Commission Report or the U.S. News & World Report about the Saudi government paying OBL for killing Americans, perhaps it is because the Saudi government has vast network of PR, lobby firms in U.S. They pay millions of dollars a year to firms tasked with advancing the Saudi agenda and safeguarding their reputation. High ranking Saudi officials regularly meet with U.S. lawmakers, U.S. media outlets and banking and business executives—it’s no secret—even the WaPo has written about it.
Stay tuned for a report next week about the fundamentalist doctrine (called Wahhabism) and its inextricable link to the House of Saud dating back to the 1700’s. Stay safe. Stay informed.
