The Kingdom’s Phone – Dialing 9/11
On April 24, 2002, Saudi Prince Abdullah arrived at Ellington
Air Force base in Houston, Texas. He was there to visit President Bush at his
Crawford ranch. One person in his entourage was wanted by U.S. law enforcement
and two people in his entourage were on a terrorist watch list.
Osama
Basnan showed up in Houston at the same time. He met with a high Saudi prince
who has responsibilities for intelligence matters and is known to bring
suitcases full of cash into the United States. A Houston police report obtained
by NEWSWEEK shows that Basnan complained he had been robbed of his Saudi
passport and $400. It is dated April 25, the same week the crown prince was in
town to visit President Bush.
28
pages were redacted from the 2002 Joint Inquiry that investigated the 9/11
attacks. The report was finished in December 2002.
President Bush redacted the pages showing evidence of Saudi
government involvement with the 9/11 hijackers and plotters.
The 28 pages were released on July 15, 2016.
One of the suspects mentioned in the 28 pages is Abu Zubaydah. You
may remember him from the President’s Daily Brief (PDF), presented to President
Bush on August 6, 2001.
The PDF was titled “Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US”. It
was approved for release to the public on April 10, 2004. Abu Zubaydah is
mentioned twice on the first page.
On August 24, 2001, a foreign intelligence report was issued
with the title: “Consideration by Abu Zubaydah to attack targets in the United
States”.
President Bush has been widely criticized for ignoring the
warnings before 9/11 and not taking appropriate action.
Zubaydah was captured on March 28, 2002. On October 14, 2002,
Bush called Zubaydah "one of the top three leaders” in al-Qaeda.
An alternate spelling of Zubaydah is Zubaida. This is the
spelling most used in the 28 pages.
Abu Zubaida is mentioned on pages 418, 419, 428, 437, 438, 441, and
442.
Page 428 - The telephone book of Abu Zubaida was retrieved by
coalition forces on March 28, 2002. One of the numbers in Zubaida’s book is
unlisted and subscribed to by the ASPCOL Corporation in Aspen, Colorado. ASPCOL
is the umbrella corporation that manages the affairs of the Colorado residence
of Prince Bandar. The number is not listed in any phonebook and is not easily
locatable. Due to the sensitivity of the matter, the FBI decided to hold their
investigation in abeyance until they received guidance from FBI headquarters.
Page 428 – Another phone number in Zubaida’s book has a link to
a home in Mclean Virginia owned by Prince Bandar. (This paragraph is very
heavily redacted and much of the information is blacked out.)
Page 429 – Another Virginia phone number was found at a Usama
Bin Ladin safe house in Pakistan. It belonged to a man who provided services to
a couple who are personal assistants to Prince Bandar.
Osama Basnan, the 9/11 suspect who was in Houston when Prince
Abdullah visited Bush, is mentioned in the 28 pages. There are numerous
allegations and references to him, but I will highlight only a few of the more
significant ones. The alternate spelling (Bassnan), is used in the 28 pages.
Page 426 “Bassnan made a comment to an FBI source after the 9/11
attacks suggesting that he did more for the hijackers than al-Bayoumi did.”
Page 427 – Bassnan’s wife received 31 cashiers checks from
Princess Haifa, (Prince Bandar’s wife), totaling $74,000. They were allegedly
for nursing services but there is no evidence that nursing services were
provided.
Page 427 – Bassnan received at least one check directly from
Prince Bandar for $15,000.
Page 428 – FBI assistant director D’Amuro commented on the money
that came from Bandar’s wife: “What the money was for is what we don’t know.”
Page 428 – Bassnan hosted a party for the Blind Shaykh at his
house.
Page 428 – Bassnan spoke of Bin Ladin “as if he were a god”.
Page 428 – Bassnan stated to an FBI asset that there are already
enough Muslims in the United States to destroy the United States and make it an
Islamic state within ten to fifteen years.
It should be noted that the money Bassnan received from Bandar
and his wife are not just allegations. Proof was found when Bassnan’s residence
was searched (page 427).
There was a lack of cooperation between the Saudis and U.S.
agencies before and after 9/11. This was documented on pages 437-440.
The Saudi financing of terrorists was discussed on pages
435-436. There was a very similar narrative in a cable (originally marked
SECRET/NOFORN) written by Secretary Clinton in 2009. She said “Saudi Arabia
remains a critical financial support base for al-Qa'ida, the Taliban, LeT, and
other terrorist groups, including Hamas, which probably raise millions of
dollars annually from Saudi sources, often during Hajj and Ramadan.”
On July 15, 2016, USA Today published an article titled “Declassified
9/11 pages show ties to former Saudi ambassador” (Prince Bandar)
I had previously found other evidence connecting Prince Bandar
and Abu Zubaida. I have not published it before, but I will now.
I found the video by accident. It’s a sidewalk interview between
two independent researchers and Robert Baer, the well-known former CIA case
officer who was assigned to the Middle East. He has appeared on CNN as an
analyst. He's written two best sellers, including "Sleeping with the Devil", revealing a convenient relationship between the Saudi royal family and the United States. His book was censored by the CIA. He has the credentials to know a lot of secrets.
And there he was, on a sidewalk, discussing 9/11. He had just
participated in another discussion at the Hammer Museum in LA on October 16,
2008. As he was leaving the event, he allowed two citizens interested in 9/11
to interview him. The interview is in the middle of a video they posted.
After answering several questions, Mr. Baer said something no
one had ever heard before. This was years before the 28 pages were released.
He said “Look, Abu Zubaydah, one of the key guys, called Bandar
in Aspen right up until the tenth of September, and then started calling him
again on the sixteenth of September.”
The interviewers didn’t realize how important this statement was
and didn’t ask any follow up questions.
Robert Baer has written extensively about the Saudi royal
family, but some of his narrative was censored. He has the credentials to know
a lot of secrets. He blurted one out on a sidewalk in LA in 2008 and no one censored
him. No one destroyed the video. He made another profound statement on that
sidewalk. He said “I’m just talking about the facts. I don’t do conspiracy.”
Robert Baer wrote an article for “Time” in 2007. He said CIA
Director Michael Hayden has admitted the CIA destroyed interrogation tapes of
Abu Zubaydah. Also in the article, Mr. Baer said Zubaydah had two ATM cards on
him when he was captured. One was issued by a bank in Saudi Arabia, with ties
to the royal family. Telephone records found in Zubaydah’s house included calls
to the United States. The calls stopped on the tenth of September, and resumed
again on the sixteenth of September. Those are the same dates he mentioned in
the sidewalk interview.
As far as I knew, Mr. Baer had never revealed who Zubaydah was
calling in the United States, until that moment on the sidewalk. The Bandar he
was referring to is Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to the
United States from 1983 to 2005. I knew it was him because he had a home in
Aspen, Colorado in 2001. It was a 32 room mansion built in 1991 and sold in
2012. Mr. Baer specified “Bandar in Aspen”.
Prince Bandar is a longtime friend of the Bush family, nicknamed
“Bandar Bush”. He tutored George W. Bush on foreign affairs. He was very
involved with the official business of the Bush administration.
There is a famous photo of Prince Bandar relaxing at the White
House on September 13, 2001. He is sitting next to Dick Cheney, across from
Condi Rice and President Bush. He has his legs stretched out and looks relaxed.
And, according to Mr. Baer, he had just received a phone call from Abu Zubaydah
three days earlier, one day before 9/11. The evidence in the 28 pages supports
Mr. Baer’s statement and explains how the phone calls occurred.
A 2008 New York Times op-ed, titled “Stonewalled by the CIA”,
written by 9/11 Commission Chairmen Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton confirmed that
interrogation tapes were never given to the 9/11 Commission. They wanted to
question Abu Zubaydah directly, but CIA director George Tenet told them point
blank that they would have no such access. Zubaydah’s interrogation tapes were
destroyed by the CIA in 2005.
An April 15, 2004 CBS article revealed that Prince Bandar was
shown the top secret Iraq war plans.
Here are excerpts from the article:
Journalist Bob Woodward calls his new book, "Plan of
Attack," the first detailed, behind-the-scenes account of how and why the
president decided to wage war in Iraq.
"Saturday, Jan. 11, (2003) with the president's permission,
Cheney and Rumsfeld call Bandar to Cheney's West Wing office, and the chairman
of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Myers, is there with a top-secret map of the war
plan. And it says, 'Top secret. No foreign.' No foreign means no foreigners are
supposed to see this," says Woodward.
"They describe in detail the war plan for Bandar. And so
Bandar, who's skeptical because he knows in the first Gulf War we didn't get
Saddam out, so he says to Cheney and Rumsfeld, 'So Saddam this time is gonna be
out, period?' And Cheney - who has said nothing - says the following: 'Prince
Bandar, once we start, Saddam is toast.'"
After Bandar left, according to Woodward, Cheney said, "I
wanted him to know that this is for real. We're really doing it."
But this wasn't enough for Prince Bandar, who Woodward says
wanted confirmation from the president. "Then, two days later, Bandar is
called to meet with the president and the president says, 'Their message is my
message,'" says Woodward.
Prince Bandar enjoys easy access to the Oval Office. His family
and the Bush family are close. And Woodward told 60 Minutes that Bandar has
promised the president that Saudi Arabia will lower oil prices in the months
before the election - to ensure the U.S. economy is strong on election day.
On April 25, 2004, an Associated Press article outlined the
importance of Saudi Arabia in the Iraq war. This article also states that
Bandar was shown the war plans. According to the article, some lawmakers have
demanded to know why a foreigner (Prince Bandar) was brought in on private war
planning.
Here is what can be proven.
President Bush and Vice President Cheney tried to stop the 9/11 Congressional
investigation before it started. They wanted NO investigation into the events
of 9/11. I documented this on my blog page titled “No Pages”. Their efforts
were unsuccessful and there was a Congressional Inquiry.
The 28 pages linking Prince Bandar with Zubaida and Bassnan were
redacted from that Inquiry by President Bush in December 2002.
Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Myers would have read or known what
was in the 28 pages. They would have known about the Prince Bandar allegations.
A month later, in January 2003, knowing what they knew, they
invited Prince Bandar to review the top secret war plans.
It is possible that some of the allegations had innocuous
explanations.
It is impossible that all of them could have been thoroughly
investigated and explained in such a short time.
It would have been hard to explain a $15,000 check from Bandar
to Bassnan. It would have been hard to explain how Zubaida got the unlisted
private number to Bandar’s corporation in Aspen.
No one has ever asked Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Myers why they
trusted Bandar after reading the serious allegations in the 9/11 Congressional
Inquiry.
They weren’t just protecting the Saudis because they needed them
to launch the Iraq war. They trusted an individual 9/11 suspect, Prince Bandar,
enough to show him the war plans.
Here are the facts known so far:
Bush and Cheney did not want any 9/11 investigation.
In 2002, evidence showed that Prince Bandar had contact with two
9/11 suspects. Other evidence showed connections between 9/11 suspects and
other Saudi government officials, including three Saudi Naval officers.
That evidence was hidden from the public by President Bush.
A month later, Bandar was shown TOP SECRET NOFORN war plans.
Both Bush and Bandar wanted to take out Saddam Hussein.
In 2003, because of Bush administration statements and insinuations,
69% of Americans believed that Saddam Hussein was behind the 9/11 attacks. No
evidence has ever surfaced connecting Iraq or Saddam Hussein to 9/11.
Many of you may be thinking that this is the smoking gun proof
that inside job conspiracy theorists have been looking for. It may be the proof that Bush allowed 9/11 to happen with the help of the Saudi
government.
I think it is the proof. It’s not a conspiracy theory anymore. Everything
is documented and cross referenced. Everything fits together like a puzzle. The
puzzle has been solved.
We know who was on the Kingdom’s phone on September 10, 2001. It
was Abu Zubaydah.
Everyone is still free to deny it, though. Bush and Bandar will.
I only wish there could be some kind of justice for the families
of the 9/11 victims.
Comments please.
