Saudi Arabia and the 9/11 Attacks: Theory of Mass Destruction

Carmelo Cruz 

As Americans honor those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001, many still agonizingly search for an answer that justifies the attacks.

September 11, 2001, the day which began normally, but ended up engulfing 2,606 innocent lives, is the day that America and the world will never forget. The attack was carried out by 19 men affiliated with al-Qaida, 15 of whom were citizens of Saudi Arabia, while the remaining 4 were from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Lebanon.

It was in January 2000, when the first hijackers, Kahlid-al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, arrived in the United States and settled in San Diego County, California. They were followed by three more, Mohammed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, and Ziad Jarrah, to undertake flight training in south Florida. The fourth, arrived in San Diego in December 2000. The remaining hijackers entered the U.S. by early-and-mid-2001.

In 2009, Richard Clarke, a White House Advisor during the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush years, in a video interview, pointed out that the attacks of 9/11 were so successful because top CIA officials did not share information about potential plots against the homeland. This included the Director of the CIA, George Tenet, who had crucial information regarding al-Qaida’s plot against the U.S., including the arrival of hijackers Khalid-al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi.

Due to the alliance formed by top CIA officials and the Saudis, the United States was aware of the terrorists. Fahad al-Thumairy, a former Los Angeles consular official and imam in Culver City, California, was linked to two of the hijackers, Mihdhar and Hazmi. In 2003, while returning from Germany, he was deported from the U.S., following his suspicious connections with the terrorists. Ironically, he still holds a lucrative government position in Saudi Arabia.

The spreading of extremism by Saudi Arabia dates back to 1973 when King Faisal first imposed an oil embargo against the U.S. for supporting Israel in the Yom Kippur War. The Saudi ideology was to impose control over Muslims by exploiting Islam, allegedly molding it into what is today known as jihad. In 1976, Saudi Arabia began the King Faisal Institution, and started spreading its ideology.

The effectiveness of the Saudi’s ideology to change the notion of Islam, can be easily traced through the Afghanistan war of 1979, where they publicly called for jihad and stood with the rebels. They openly opposed the official Afghan government which was supported by the then-Soviet Union.

In 1983, Prince Bandar bin Sultan officially became the Saudi ambassador to the United States and he was used as a bridge to promote the propaganda that Saudi Arabia stood with U.S. against its adversaries. The kingdom used the jihadi groups to its advantage against the Soviet Union. After the war ended, Saudi Arabia used Pakistan and its charity organizations to continue to fund their ideology groups, which in 1988 were officially established as al-Qaida.

The ideology expanded liked wildfire, giving rise to the likes of Osama bin Laden, whose views supported the destruction of America. Later in 2004, just before the U.S. presidential elections, Osama bin laden taped a statement which clearly acknowledged al-Qaida’s involvement in the 9/11 attacks.

Not only Saudi Arabia, but the UAE was also involved in the accounts of 9/11. According to the Library of Congress, research division in its 2007 report, “Dubai is strongly linked to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the United States; more than half of the hijackers flew directly out of Dubai International Airport to the United States…and the UAE banking system had been used by the 9/11 hijackers to launder funds.”

Even today, as reported by the Associated Press these compromises led by Saudi Arabia and backed by the UAE have allowed al-Qaida militants to survive to fight another day. The U.S. has continuously been involved in the selling of arms to the Saudi-led coalition which has been killing the Yemeni civilians since 2015. Outrageously, the same report also highlights that the Saudi-led coalition is hiring the al-Qaida militants to fight against Iranian Houthis which has alarmed Arab allies of the United States.

Today, Prince Khaled bin Salman is desperately fighting JASTA which calls for justice against sponsors of terrorist’s attacks in order to counter the belief that his father is the biggest supporter and funder of terrorism.

https://intpolicydigest.org/2018/09/11/saudi-arabia-and-the-9-11-attacks-theory-of-mass-destruction/