Author: Niles Lathem and William
J. Gorta
Publication: New York Post
Date: August 25, 2002
URL: http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/46913.htm
Saudi Arabian princes paid Osama
bin Laden and the Taliban $200 million to spare targets in the oil-rich
Gulf state, according to court papers.
Recently revealed evidenced contained
in a $1 trillion lawsuit, filed this month by the kin of 9/11 victims against
members of the Saudi royal family, Saudi banks and Islamic charities, alleges
the payoff funded al Qaeda terror training in Afghanistan.
The deal was hammered out in two
meetings between top Saudi princes, and officials from al Qaeda, Pakistan
and the Taliban.
The first, in Paris, was reported
by French intelligence agents, and lawyers claim to have transcripts of
the sit- down.
The second powwow was in Kandahar
in July 1998.
Saudi officials, worried over attacks
against U.S. servicemen in Saudi Arabia in 1995 and 1996, agreed to finance
al Qaeda in exchange for a promise the group would not try to destabilize
the Saudi government and would not carry out terror attacks in the kingdom,
according to the suit.
The Saudi princes also agreed to
block extradition of al Qaeda terror suspects or help in dismantling terror
camps in Afghanistan.
After the 1998 meeting, 400 new
pickup trucks - still bearing Saudi license plates - arrived in Kandahar
for the Taliban.
Pakistan and the Taliban also received
cash and oil in the deal, court papers said.
The suit has been denounced as a
"bogus, politicized lawsuit" by lawyer Katib al Shamri, who has filed a
class- action lawsuit in the United States on behalf of Taliban prisoners
being held in Guantanamo Bay and Saudis in the United States allegedly
mistreated in the wake of the terror attacks.
Prince Turki al-Faisal al-Saud,
then head of the Saudi secret service, was at the second meeting and has
since said the meetings were with Taliban officials only.
He said his government supported
the Taliban in order to keep lines of communication open.
The son of King Faisal, Turki, who
was dumped from his secret-service spot last year, made a series of speeches
in the United States trying to distance the House of Saud from al Qaeda.
Turki, who sent bin Laden to Afghanistan
to support the mujahedeen, said the terror kingpin offered to send fighters
to defend Saudi Arabia in the 1990s.
He also said bin Laden broke the
agreement by denouncing the Saudi leadership, and his government pressured
terror cleric Mullah Mohammed Omar to extradite bin Laden.
Omar agreed to give up bin Laden,
but reneged a month later, Turki said.
Saudi Arabia has repeatedly denied
financing terrorism and issued a statement earlier this month saying it
"condemns terrorism in all its forms."
President Bush has sought to reassure
the Saudi government and will host its ambassador, Prince Bandar bin Sultan,
at his Texas ranch on Tuesday.
The information came as part of
a suit filed Aug. 15 by 900 relatives of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.
