It finally happened! Accord
It is common knowledge that President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama’s administrations went to great lengths to avoid punishing Riyadh and take it out of the shadow of suspicion. It is clear that there are a number of serious conclusions and issues connected therewith, primarily the fact that Washington still considers the Saudis as a strategic ally, and is not going to break their long-established connections under any circumstances. It is thus clear why the two US administrations never filed any claims against the Saudis, but did their best to conceal the fact that most of the terrorists that took part in the deadly attacks were from Saudi Arabia, which, as it became known from the Congress hearings, also played a critical role in sponsoring these terrorist attacks.
There is yet another little-known fact that is quite striking. Immediately after the events of September 11, George W. Bush used his position as President to provide the Bin Laden family members, dozens of whom were living in the US and had close business connections with the American establishment, with a jet carrying several hundred million dollars in cash that had been immediately collected from several banks. The plane freely and without customs inspection, which is also a violation of US law, left for Saudi Arabia. Who was the US President defending and saving?
It is quite reasonable that Osama bin Laden’s Saudi relatives maintained close contact with their family members, and could not know that the latter, according to the Americans, was planning to punish their American sponsors. Arabs place a great emphasis on the importance of family. They honour family bonds above everything else. That is why it was not by accident that until the last moment, the members of the family knew that their relative was in Pakistan and kept in touch with him. That is why all sorts of stories, widely spread by the CIA, which talked about how, for more than ten years (although for good money!), they were strenuously looking for Osama bin Laden (that ‘elusive Joe’) all over the world, do not stand up to scrutiny. Washington strategists again (and for the umpteenth time) invented the story of how, after many years of searching, they finally found and killed the bloody villain, a quite laughable story. It was enough to ask the relatives through the US establishment, who kept connections with them, where Osama bin Laden was, and the answer would immediately be received. Another interesting fact is how, after the ‘brilliant operation’ on killing the Saudi terrorist, the helicopter that carried the whole team of experts involved in the destruction of Osama bin Laden, was also ‘accidentally’ destroyed in Afghanistan. And now, who will tell the world the truth on the events of September 11 and the killing of the bloody villain who alone was torturing the whole of America for many years?
The decision by the members of Congress, who voted overwhelmingly for lawsuits against Saudi Arabia, is clear evidence that well-informed members of Congress are well aware of the ominous role that Riyadh played in the events of 9/11. The decision by the Congress caused a real hysteria in Saudi Arabia. They believe that the adoption of this Bill is the formal recognition of Riyadh as a sponsor of terrorism, and that the whole world will now clearly know who financially supports international terrorism and thanks to whom such terrorist organizations as the ‘Islamic State’ and some others appeared. Who triggered the civil war in Syria by sending in numerous terrorist groups there? Who drenched the once peaceful republic with innocent blood? The Saudis have immediately begun accusing the United States of undermining the national sovereignty of all countries, including the US itself. It may be said that a close US ally has finally recovered its sight, and has started speaking the truth. Saudi Arabian Ministry of Foreign Affairs delivered an ultimatum that either the US Congress would take the necessary steps to remedy the situation, or otherwise, as the Saudi diplomats warned, bilateral relations between Saudi Arabia and the United States will suffer irreparable damage.
In other words, the Saudis have made a desperate, and possibly the last, attempt to pressure Washington to remedy the situation. Riyadh’s previous attempt to financially blackmail the US government to force it to amend the decision was not successful. After that, the Saudis announced their decision to withdraw its assets in the US economy that are valued up to $1 trillion. However, this move evoked nothing but a smile. This case is reminiscent of the maxim of the fable of great I. Krylov: “Aw, pug, it should be strong that barks at the Elephant”.
The fact is that Washington has long become a skilled hand in such a very profitable operation as ‘freezing’ a foreign State’s assets.
Numerous examples may be cited when huge amounts of money were ‘frozen’ in the United States and used by the authorities to accomplish their own ends. Over the years, some of these “assets” have included the Philippine President, Ferdinand Marcos’s money, Saddam Hussein’s assets and a lot of money belonging to Muammar Gaddafi. There is even a very unique case when the US used Iranian money since the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1979 until the last moment. It is obvious that all this money was not lying still in the accounts, but was repeatedly manipulated on the stock exchanges. We may remember the scam with modern technologies in the early XX century, when the annual interest rates reached 16…18%. This was followed by a boom in the construction industry, when houses were imposed upon citizens, as it seemed, under very attractive terms. And here again, the interest rates in construction reached large numbers. It is not by accident that the financiers estimated that at least 250…300 billion dollars that went nowhere were made out of 100 billion dollars of Iranian assets. Apparently, this is why the Saudis, after announcing their decision to withdraw their money from the United States, then abruptly withdrew their statement and did not follow it through.
The decision of the Congress and the adoption of the Bill have also shown that US presidents know much more than US Congressmen, and this is why Saudi Arabia was not put under sanctions. Does this mean that the perpetrators of the September 11 attacks were not Saudi nationals? By the way, on the evening of September 11, quirky journalists immediately obtained and published lists of passengers who had been flying aboard the unfortunate aircraft which hit the World Trade Centre. For some reason, these lists did not contain the names of some of the passengers who were Saudi nationals, who later appeared on the official CIA list. However, Riyadh was disappointed at this, since a number of Saudis could not have flown on the US aircraft, because some of them had been deceased, while the others had never left Saudi Arabia. The CIA, as the experienced magicians they are, then provided new, already ‘re-worked’ lists of the Saudi terrorists. It should be noted that this case has many dark spots, and the entire official version of the September 11 events obviously does not hold water and is quite unclear.
In any case, the adoption of the ‘Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism’ Act, which entitles the relatives of the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks to submit claims for damages to foreign governments into US courts, would undoubtedly shed additional light on the sad events.
Naturally, this development will first hit Saudi Arabia, the main US ally in the Middle East, as 15 of the 19 participants (according to the official data) of the September 11 attacks were Saudi nationals. However, the Saudis are unlikely to perform the role of a ‘serf’ and without question, taking into account their difficult economic situation, will pay huge amounts of compensation. It is clear that only the best lawyers will be hired to uncover the minutest details of the course of events, and we will learn the essence of Washington’s behind-the-scene
Viktor Mikhin, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”