Former Al Qaeda member claims Saudi funding, discussed possible attack on USA with Saudi official

Zacarias Moussaoui, a former Al Qaeda operative who is serving time in prison, has testified in a 9/11 case against Saudi Arabia, claiming that members of the royal family were actively funding Al Qaeda in the 1990's. He further alleges that while in Kandahar, he had discussed plans of a potential terrorist attack against Air Force One with an official of the Islamic Affairs Department of the Saudi Embassy in Washington.

Despite Moussaoui's mental health conditions, lawyers said that he appeared to have a sound mind about him. He was also judged mentally fit to stand trial for terrorism charges. Regardless, Saudi Arabia claims that the "national Sept. 11 commission had rejected allegations that the Saudi government or Saudi officials had funded Al Qaeda."

Further information:

In highly unusual testimony inside the federal supermax prison, a former operative for Al Qaeda has described prominent members of Saudi Arabia’s royal family as major donors to the terrorist network in the late 1990s and claimed that he discussed a plan to shoot down Air Force One with a Stinger missile with a staff member at the Saudi Embassy in Washington.

The Qaeda member, Zacarias Moussaoui, wrote last year to Judge George B. Daniels of United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, who is presiding over a lawsuit filed against Saudi Arabia by relatives of those killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He said he wanted to testify in the case, and after lengthy negotiations with Justice Department officials and the federal Bureau of Prisons, a team of lawyers was permitted to enter the prison and question him for two days last October.

...

He said in the prison deposition that he was directed in 1998 or 1999 by Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan to create a digital database of donors to the group. Among those he said he recalled listing in the database were Prince Turki al-Faisal, then the Saudi intelligence chief; Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, the longtime Saudi ambassador to the United States; Prince al-Waleed bin Talal, a prominent billionaire investor; and many of the country’s leading clerics.

“Sheikh Osama wanted to keep a record who give money,” he said in imperfect English — “who is to be listened to or who contributed to the jihad.”

Mr. Moussaoui said he acted as a courier for Bin Laden, carrying personal messages to prominent Saudi princes and clerics. And he described his training in Qaeda camps in Afghanistan.

He helped conduct a trial explosion of a 750-kilogram bomb as a trial run for a planned truck-bomb attack on the American Embassy in London, he said, using the same weapon used in the Qaeda attacks in 1998 on the American Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. He also studied the possibility of staging attacks with crop-dusting aircraft.

In addition, Mr. Moussaoui said, “We talk about the feasibility of shooting Air Force One.”

Specifically, he said, he had met an official of the Islamic Affairs Department of the Saudi Embassy in Washington when the Saudi official visited Kandahar. “I was supposed to go to Washington and go with him” to “find a location where it may be suitable to launch a Stinger attack and then, after, be able to escape,” he said.

He said he was arrested before being able to carry out the reconnaissance mission.

www.nytimes.com...

I'm honestly unsurprised by these allegations. I think much more research needs to be done on Saudi Arabia's connections with extremists and terrorist groups.

this does not surprise me either. The world governments are so corrupted it's ludacris that the people cannot see it. interesting times we live in. and it is only gonna be more interesting as the days pass by. Sit tight ATS we are all in for the ride of our lives!

It's OK to lie to the infidels, make deals with them and then stab them in the back. It's in their religion to convert, subdue or destroy the unbelievers by any means necessary.

Glad to hear about this specific case. For YEARS Saudi Arabian royals have been linked to Al Queda and terrorist networks that hate the US, but there is pretty much a media blackout on the issue. Let us not forget, almost ALL of the 911 hijackers were Saudi nationals. Saudi Arabia is also one of the strictest muslim countries. Also one of the richest.

Of course this 'confession' also takes the heat off the US Government and gives the US another country to go after. Taking Saudi by force would make a great many people very rich let alone getting hold of all of their gold bullion.

Timing is nice too. Right when the Saudis are playing devil may care with oil prices.

I think we need to look deeper.

In some ways, it feels like a get out of jail card.

If this guy now dies in prison, well, that would be some nice icing.

It also seems like a nice failure of security. All of his testimony coming out before the trial so we can all chew it like a bone we have been thrown.

I would check to see if we are being led around by the nose here. It is just so nice to have all of this info right now.

I am not buying it. That the Saudis give to terrorist, yes indeed!

That some terrorist brought down the Twin Towers, not a chance. They were involved, but they were just pawns in a much larger game of thrones.

This is just more deception. Some one else to blame. Look over there, now over there, no over here.

Look at your feet instead.

P

Saudi's funded it, Israel planned it, America put the plan into action.

No way we let all those things happen on one day, either we allowed it to happen or we had some of the most incompetent idiots running our country back then.

Actually, it's probably a bit of both.

I really hope we get a "smoking gun", it's so obvious to me at this point that I kind of want to rub it in the faces of those who keep denying it.

Blood, oil, and banking. What a combination! 15 of the 19 terrorists on 9/11 were citizens of Saudi Arabia. With America trying to keep the petro-dollar relevant, it was a match made in hell. Throw in one ex-director of the CIA and a son who had ties with the Bin Ladins, who so happen to be presidents and you have a whole lot of fun.

Reposting the OP of my closed thread to keep this one alive. Also, these articles seem to have different yet equally valuable content. Here's the CNN one I posted:

CNN: Saudi Royal Family Funded 9/11, Says '19th' Highjacker

Article:
New allegations of Saudi Involvement in 9/11

New allegations have emerged from the man described as the 20th 9/11 hijacker, alleging members of the Saudi royal family supported al Qaeda.

Moussaoui goes on to say he met with members of the Saudi royal family in person more than once in Saudi Arabia, in order to hand-deliver letters to and from al Qaeda's notorious leader.

"I was introduced as the messenger for Shaykh Osama bin Laden," Moussaoui told attorneys on Oct. 21.

"Did they treat you well during the [first] visit?" the lawyer asked.

"Extremely well," Moussaoui said.

Moussaoui said he traveled on private jets and in limousines. His meetings took place in luxury hotels and even Saudi palaces.

He was also given money for travel expenses at the Saudi Embassy in Islamabad, which he considered a bribe, he said.

Furthermore, Moussaoui said his primary point of contact with the royal family was Prince Turki al-Faisal Al Saud, and that Turki introduced him to other prominent members of the family, including another former Saudi ambassador to Washington, Prince Bandar bin Sultan.

He also said at that time that he had met with a Saudi prince and princess in early 2001 when he was taking flying lessons in Norman, Oklahoma, and that she "gave me money."

A statement from Bob Graham, 9/11 Commission member:

"I am convinced that there was a direct line between at least some of the terrorists who carried out the Sept. 11th attacks and the government of Saudi Arabia,"

This should carry huge implications; only time will tell if it has any real impact on foreign relations or public opinion about our 'BFF's', Saudi Arabia, who funded ISIS and taught them how to be gangstas.

a reply to: daaskapital

Good! There was a lid on this info for long enough.

Nothing new for some, but good this finally comes to light via MSM for the general populace to see.
I am very eager to see the whole bloody truth come out, no matter the aftermath.
It's about time the so-called "war on terror" turns towards the real culprits.

Interesting times indeed. S+F.

a reply to: supermarket2012

Yes.

Moussaoui's deposition statements were for a New York trial brought by 9-11 families, so good to keep this in the news. We have to remember that the Saudi royals did not like OBL and were paying him money (extortion) to keep him out of Saudi Arabia. The Saudis wanted to have OBL and his group gone for good, so these payments could stop.

What we really need to see is what's in those redacted 28 pages in the 9-11 Commission report.

There probably were 9/11 connections to SA, I'm not sure that Moussaoui is the right one to make the connections though.
The US authorities already had depositions likely obtained under duress from a leading Al Queda terrorist pointing back to OBL, but then, who was OBL working for? Just to confuse things further, OBL himself denied any involvement.
More telling is that Moussaoui was under arrest in Minneapolis since some time in August, this is the preamble leading up to his arrest.

Timothy Nelson, a colleague of Prevost's at the Pan Am Academy, phoned the Minneapolis office of the F.B.I. on August 15 to report that he and co-workers had suspicions about Moussaoui, who had paid for his lessons $19,000 in cash and lacked a pilot's license. The F.B.I. interviewed both Nelson and Prevost. "Do you realize how serious this is?" Prevost asked. "This man wants training on a 747. A 747 fully loaded with fuel could be used as a weapon!"
That should have been a full blown terrorist alert for the country, yet the local FBI was ignored by Washington.

So whaddaya think?

This was reported in the press months ago, I am working on a thread just now about the Saudi involvement this rabbit hole goes much deeper

a reply to: OtherSideOfTheCoin

Yes.

The Saudis (family-govt) offered more than $ but also "logistical support". Let's say Saudi intelligence, at some point, gave the "logistical support" to draw the US into a war with OBL. The Saudis would be rid of their family enemy (via US) and the US would get its war with Iraq. Win win.

IMO the money that is being discussed was hush money and not money specifically donated to help OBL with his anti-US campaign. OBL was anti-Saudi royals also.

originally posted by: desert
a reply to: OtherSideOfTheCoin


IMO the money that is being discussed was hush money and not money specifically donated to help OBL with his anti-US campaign. OBL was anti-Saudi royals also.

That has already been mentioned in the press canteen somewhere, but it's neither here nor there, since there are few burgers who will really believe that rightly or wrongly.
If tides turn, as they often do, that information..if it is information, would be used by the powers of the day..for their own ends, just as was done in the opening of Moussaoui's trial when the prosecutors directly blamed Moussaoui's lying to the FBI as the reason that the attacks were not pre-empted by the US, which is a load of shiite, since Moussaoui was in holding by the local Minneapolis FBI for three weeks because they had the clearest picture of what was likely to happen from the Jumbo jet flying instructors, while Mueller in Washington ignored the local FBI fears, and while Mueller and Tenet blamed each other or the Clinton admin in the aftermath, for not being able to communicate something that was what was blindingly obvious..that an aerial attack was imminent, and that Washington was a likely target. Now does that make any sense at all? No, but that is what happened, and Tenet got a gong from G.W.
Now correct me if I am wrong, I don't see, Mueller, Tenet or G.W. as inmates of Guantanamo..in the waterboarding section!


"We owe the families a full accounting," said Rep. Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts, a Democrat who has read the classified pages written in 2002. They were left out of the public version of the report on the orders of President George W. Bush, who said they could divulge intelligence sources and methods."
That's a pretty simple statement, it's not Yay or Nay, it's just something that the Plebs should be entitled to see..and to make their own minds up on.

Wow...reading the comments section of this article is giving me faith in humanity again. I really think we're on the cusp of a sea change.

Interesting, back in 2004 I watched Fahrenheit 9/11 at the time I still wholly and totally believed the OS.
But really wondered about the Saudi/Bush connection mentioned in the movie.
In retrospect it was ground breaking, and an interesting point was made if there really was slander in the movie Micheal Moore would have been sued and charged into oblivion, yet there was nothing, his points stood.

Moore then discusses the complex relationships between the U.S. government and the Bush family; and between the bin Laden family, the Saudi Arabian government, and the Taliban, which span over three decades. Moore alleges that the United States government evacuated 24 members of the bin Laden family on a secret flight shortly after the attacks, without subjecting them to any form of interrogation.

I think it's obvious to all, the operation has Saudi involvement all over it, it seems the intelligence services of Saudi Arabia and it's royalty had much more to do with 9/11 than Iraq ever even dreamed about. Which make the war in Iraq even a more heinous act of total evil.

I thought the MSM was not to believed?
I thought the MSM was controlled by TPTB?

Now the conspiracy believers accept an article from the NY Times?????

Sounds like some people are bending things to fit their own beliefs.

If Moussaoui is to be believed then this confirms the accusations against the Saudi Royal Family of buying off Terrorist Organizations and sending them to attack their supposed allies.You have the CIA and the rest looking the other way while these guys infiltrated the country.There's the suspected Saudi/US intelligence agent Omar al-Bayoumi who,BTW the FBI claims he was "unknowingly" involved in the 9/11 plot.

You can not shoot down an Airlines with a stinger