[A-List] US/Saudi tensions

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Saudi cash link to 9/11 investigated

Greed and torture at the House of Saud

Julian Borger in Washington
Sunday November 24, 2002
The Observer

The FBI is investigating a possible financial link between the Saudi royal
family and the 11 September hijackers, in an inquiry that the Bush
administration has attempted to keep secret for political reasons, it was
reported yesterday.
The investigation was triggered by the discovery of money transfers from a
US account under the name of Princess Haifa al-Faisal, wife of the Saudi
ambassador to Washington, to two Saudi students in California who in turn
gave financial assistance to two of the hijackers soon after they arrived in
the US.

The inquiry has been under way for some time and congressional investigators
have been putting pressure on the White House to release details of its
findings.

Some in Congress believe the investigation was being kept secret so as not
to alienate the Saudis at a time when Washington needs its help for a
conflict with Iraq.

According to Newsweek, monthly payments of $3,500 were sent from Princess
Haifa's account in Washington to the family of Omar al-Bayoumi, a student in
San Diego, starting in early 2000. Earlier al-Bayoumi had befriended Khalid
Almidhar and Nawaf Alhazmi, who had just arrived from an al-Qaeda meeting in
Malaysia and who would later crash a hijacked airliner into the Pentagon.

Al-Bayoumi is reported to have thrown a welcome party, guaranteed the lease
on a flat next door to his own and paid their first two months' rent.

Al-Bayoumi left the US in July 2001 and went to Britain to study business at
Aston University in Birmingham. British police picked him up for
questioning, but he denied any prior knowledge of the attack and was
released a week later. He is believed to be back in Saudi Arabia. After
Al-Bayoumi left the US, the monthly payments went to another student, Osama
Basnan, who had also made friends with the two future hijackers and who
later celebrated the 11 September attacks at a party.

A spokeswoman for the princess said she had not been questioned about the
transfers and would 'co-operate fully'. There is no evidence she knew the
students' intentions.