Saudi Arabia | The William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism

September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City: V... — September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City: View of the World Trade Center and the Statue of Liberty. (Image: US National Park Service ) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In December of 2002, Congress released its report on the “Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001.” Part of that report, anyway: 28 pages remained classified until July 15, 2016, when they were finally presented to the public with significant redactions.

Why the long wait, and what do the 28 pages reveal?

If we’re to believe the headlines in Saudi media (e.g. Al Arabiya) and mainstream American media (e.g. Time and the Washington Times) the big news is what they don’t reveal: A “smoking gun” connecting the government of Saudi Arabia to the 9/11 attacks.

If we’re to believe the 28 pages themselves, the big news is that they do, in fact, reveal a “smoking gun” connecting the government of Saudi Arabia to the 9/11 attacks.

Here’s the opening sentence from the newly released material: “While in the United States, some of the September 11 hijackers were in contact with, and received support or assistance from, individuals who may be connected with the Saudi government.”

Among those individuals was Omar al-Bayoumi, who sported a “no-show” job at a company affiliated with the Saudi Ministry of Defense (the company reported that he visited their facilities once, thereafter collecting a continuing salary). When 9/11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hamzi and Khalid al-Midhar arrived in the United States, they stayed with al-Bayoumi until he found them an apartment and someone to help them get drivers’ licenses … and locate flight schools.

The two also appear to have received assistance from Osama Bassnan, who lived across the street from them in San Diego. According to the CIA, Bassnan received significant funds from Saudi government sources and members of the Saudi royal family. According to the FBI, Bassnan was a supporter of both Osama bin Laden and New York terror plotter Omar Abdel-Rahman.

Why are we only now finding out all this? Because four words make the whole thing problematic: “The Saudi royal family.” In particular, Prince Bandar bin-Sultan, Saudi ambassador to the US at the time, whose wife appears to have been the conduit through which money was routed to Osama Bassnan — and then, quite possibly, used to service the needs of the 9/11 plotters.

But Saudi Arabia controls much of the world’s oil supply either directly or as the dominant member of OPEC, the Saudi military buys lots of US-manufactured weaponry, and Saudi assets in the US — which the Saudi government threatened to sell off if the US changed its laws to hold them responsible for their role in the attacks — top $750 billion.

In other words, unlike Afghanistan’s Taliban regime, the Saudi regime carries considerable clout with the US government. In fact, Prince Bandar visited president George W. Bush at the White House immediately after the 9/11 attacks.

In response to those attacks, Afghanistan suffered US invasion, the overthrow of its government, and is now in its 15th straight year of war and occupation.

Saudi Arabia enjoyed not just a 13-year reprieve from the exposure of damning evidence, but seemingly better relations with the US government than ever before. Go figure.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY

“9/11: 28 Pages Later,” by Thomas L. Knapp, OpEdNews, 07/18/16
“9/11: 28 Pages Later,” by Thomas L. Knapp, CounterPunch, 07/19/16
“9/11: 28 Pages Later,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Antiwar.com, 07/19/16
“9/11: 28 Pages Later,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Ventura County, California Citizens Journal, 07/20/16
“9/11: 28 Pages Later,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Arab American News, 07/21/16
“9/11: 28 Pages Later,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Key West: The Newspaper [Florida], 07/22/16
“9/11: 28 Pages Later,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Queens Ledger [New York City] , 07/27/16
“9/11: 28 Pages Later,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Queens Examiner [New York City] , 07/27/16
“9/11: 28 Pages Later,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Long Island City/Astoria, New York Journal, 07/27/16
“9/11: 28 Pages Later,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Leader/Observer[New York City], 07/27/16
“9/11: 28 Pages Later,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Forest Hills/Rego Park, New York Times, 07/27/16
“9/11: 28 Pages Later,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Greenpoint, New York Star, 07/27/16
“9/11: 28 Pages Later,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Brooklyn, New York Downtown Star, 07/27/16
“9/11: 28 Pages Later,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Glendale, New York Register, 07/27/16

On October 22, US Army Master Sergeant Joshua L. Wheeler died near Hawija, in northern Iraq, while taking part in a mission aimed at rescuing prisoners from Islamic State forces. Wheeler is the first American soldier — or at least the first one we’ve been told about — to die in combat in Iraq since 2011.

I’m not an expert on US foreign policy in the Middle East, but I have long taken an interest in the subject, especially since Thanksgiving weekend of 1990, when I mobilized with my Marine Corps reserve unit and headed for Saudi Arabia to participate in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm (that kind of thing tends to powerfully focus one’s attention). Over the intervening quarter century, I’ve reached one conclusion:

US intervention in the Middle East always makes things worse.

Sometimes more obviously and quickly, sometimes more subtly and slowly, but always.

Worse for the people there, and worse for Americans too.

The US overthrew Iran’s elected government in 1953, replacing it with the Shah’s authoritarian regime. It took 25 years for that poison fruit to ripen into revolution, a hostage situation, and an anti-American theocracy.

The US supported Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in his eight-year war against Iran. Two years after that war ended, the US found itself kicking Saddam’s army out of Kuwait and establishing a permanent military presence on soil which Osama bin Laden deemed off-limits to infidels. You probably remember how that turned out.

The US invasion of Iraq in 2003 empowered Iran’s theocrats and various Sunni Islamist groups. The country remains a shambles more than a decade after that empty “victory.”

For nearly 40 years, since the Camp David accords, the US has paid through the nose to keep a lid on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. Consequently, the incentive is for both sides (as well as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, who also get payoffs) to keep the conflict at a permanent simmer and occasionally let it boil over instead of settling it. If the conflict ends, so do the US aid checks.

As the old Alcoholics Anonymous saying goes, insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results. And the first step in recovery is admitting you have a problem.

Let the Middle East solve its own problems. Let Master Sergeant Wheeler be the last American to die for this seemingly endless series of mistakes.

Thomas L. Knapp is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY

“US Military Adventurism: The Definition of Insanity,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Ventura County, California Citizens Journal, 10/23/15
“US Military Adventurism: The Definition of Insanity,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Antiwar.com, 10/24/15
“No more Americans need to die in the Middle East,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Libby, Montana Western News, 10/27/15
“US military adventurism: The definition of insanity,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Davenport, Iowa Quad-City Times, 10/27/15
“US military adventurism: The definition of insanity,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Muscatine, Iowa Journal, 10/27/15
“US military adventurism: The definition of insanity,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Southern Utah News [print edition], 11/05/15