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Saudi Arabia threatens to sell US assets if blamed for 9/11

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K

Kyzer

Banned
Apparently an impending judgement of disclosure will officially allow the possibility to blame Saudi Arabia for 9/11, and if that happens, they have threatened to sell "hundreds of billions" in US assets.

Some of the 9/11 committee have said that while the report did say that they found no official link between the Saudi institution and the terror cells, they were never exonerated.

Searched, found nothing.

Live right now on CNN

Cant find the story online, not sure if CNN just makes things up on Saturdays.

Edit: Here's a NY Times Article, courtesy of Rorschach and dabig2

dabig2 said:
NYTimes has an article:

NYTimes: Saudi Arabia Warns of Economic Fallout if Congress Passes 9/11 Bill

WASHINGTON — Saudi Arabia has told the Obama administration and members of Congress that it will sell off hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of American assets held by the kingdom if Congress passes a bill that would allow the Saudi government to be held responsible in American courts for any role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The Obama administration has lobbied Congress to block the bill’s passage, according to administration officials and congressional aides from both parties, and the Saudi threats have been the subject of intense discussions in recent weeks between lawmakers and officials from the State Department and the Pentagon. The officials have warned senators of diplomatic and economic fallout from the legislation.

Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister, delivered the kingdom’s message personally last month during a trip to Washington, telling lawmakers that Saudi Arabia would be forced to sell up to $750 billion in treasury securities and other assets in the United States before they could be in danger of being frozen by American courts.

...
Click to expand...


fake edit: see also above
Click to expand...
 
D

dabig2

Member
NYTimes has an article:

NYTimes: Saudi Arabia Warns of Economic Fallout if Congress Passes 9/11 Bill
WASHINGTON — Saudi Arabia has told the Obama administration and members of Congress that it will sell off hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of American assets held by the kingdom if Congress passes a bill that would allow the Saudi government to be held responsible in American courts for any role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The Obama administration has lobbied Congress to block the bill’s passage, according to administration officials and congressional aides from both parties, and the Saudi threats have been the subject of intense discussions in recent weeks between lawmakers and officials from the State Department and the Pentagon. The officials have warned senators of diplomatic and economic fallout from the legislation.

Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister, delivered the kingdom’s message personally last month during a trip to Washington, telling lawmakers that Saudi Arabia would be forced to sell up to $750 billion in treasury securities and other assets in the United States before they could be in danger of being frozen by American courts.

...
Click to expand...

fake edit: see also above
 
K

kmax

Member
The U.S has been mute on the atrocities that the Saudis have comitted for years.

It'll be interesting to see if they dare to go all the way.
 
E

ElTorro

I wanted to dominate the living room. Then I took an ESRAM in the knee.
Kyzer said:
Cant find the story online, [...]
Click to expand...

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/16/w...allout-if-congress-passes-9-11-bill.html?_r=0

Saudi Arabia has told the Obama administration and members of Congress that it will sell off hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of American assets held by the kingdom if Congress passes a bill that would allow the Saudi government to be held responsible in American courts for any role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The Obama administration has lobbied Congress to block the bill’s passage, according to administration officials and congressional aides from both parties, and the Saudi threats have been the subject of intense discussions in recent weeks between lawmakers and officials from the State Department and the Pentagon. The officials have warned senators of diplomatic and economic fallout from the legislation.

Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister, delivered the kingdom’s message personally last month during a trip to Washington, telling lawmakers that Saudi Arabia would be forced to sell up to $750 billion in treasury securities and other assets in the United States before they could be in danger of being frozen by American courts.
Click to expand...

Saudi officials have long denied that the kingdom had any role in the Sept. 11 plot, and the 9/11 Commission found “no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded the organization.” But critics have noted that the commission’s narrow wording left open the possibility that less senior officials or parts of the Saudi government could have played a role. Suspicions have lingered, partly because of the conclusions of a 2002 congressional inquiry into the attacks that cited some evidence that Saudi officials living in the United States at the time had a hand in the plot.

Those conclusions, contained in 28 pages of the report, still have not been released publicly.
Click to expand...
 
entremet

entremet

Member
Seems like bad foreign policy by the Right again.

I'm not a fan of Saudi Arabia, but this bill doesn't seem wise.
 
A

Azih

Member
Do it. Break your Saudi shackles Americans!

Just holding Iran and Saudi Arabia to the same standards would make a world of difference to the Middle East and the world.
 
ebullientprism

ebullientprism

Member
Oh this should be fun. Backing down publicly when threatened doesn't sit well with the US's macho image of itself. SA might have unwittingly forced the US to do just that.
 
M

mclem

Member
Is the thread title misleading, or the article content? The thread title implies that the trigger is being blamed for 9/11, while the articles are implying that the trigger is being able to be blamed.

If it's the latter, that does make these threats seem a bit... overly defensive?
 
K

Kyzer

Banned
so basically they are threatening to transfer their power chip to someone else. not sure how this hurts us unless they sell to north korea or ISIS\

mclem said:
Is the thread title misleading, or the article content? The thread title implies that the trigger is being blamed for 9/11, while the articles are implying that the trigger is being able to be blamed.

If it's the latter, that does make these threats seem a bit... overly defensive?
Click to expand...

good catch
 
L

Lightning_Roller

Banned
Wow Saudi Arabia, way to pretty much threaten to destroy yourselves in this situation. No way they would they do this, but I like to see them try.

Edit: also why would the U.S. Government try to throw SA under the bus for 9/11?
 
N

nillah

Banned
really is some high school shit like U.S. is out gunning for someone to blame

the sooner the u.s. stops buying/selling from that region

8GttO_.gif


the sooner we'll have to less war
 
E

effzee

Member
The country was behind it or some of its citizens who are against the Kingdom itself did it?

Pretty distinction there.
 
Coreda

Coreda

Member
effzee said:
The country was behind it or some of its citizens who are against the Kingdom itself did it?

Pretty distinction there.
Click to expand...

From what I read on Zacarias Moussaoui's Wikipedia page it's Saudi royalty that is suspected of funding the attacks, including the current king Abdulaziz Al Saud.

Civil action is being taken by relatives of September 11 attacks victims, insurers and others against the Saudi Arabian government. In the course of this Zacarias Moussaoui has stated on oath and wrote to Judge George B. Daniels that Saudi royal family members helped finance the September 11 attacks and al-Qaeda.

Prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud, Prince Bandar Bin Sultan and Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, of the Saudi royal family were specifically mentioned as Al-Qaeda donors - but the project’s major patrons was Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, who in January 2015 became Saudi Arabia’s king.

The former Senators Bob Graham of Florida and Bob Kerrey of Nebraska and the former Navy secretary John Lehman believe the Saudi role in the 9/11 plot has never been adequately examined and they demand the release of 28 pages of the congressional report that explored Saudi connections and remain classified.

Both the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama have refused to declassify the 28 pages on grounds of "national security", but as Graham argues the opposite is true the real "threat to national security is non-disclosure": The Saudis know what they did and the U.S. knows what they did, and when the U.S. government takes a position of passivity, or actively shuts down inquiry, that sends a message to the Saudis.
Click to expand...
 
F

Foffy

Banned
Wasn't there a BBC documentary about Saudi Arabia that outright implied they had connections to terrorism?

I don't recall if it was for 9/11, though.
 
M

Maiorum

Member
Regardless of the outcome of this specific situation, the souring of the US-SA relationship can only be a good thing.
 
K

Kyzer

Banned
I updated the OP again and title.

Whether or not SA as an institution had any involvement in 9/11, there is no hard evidence. But members of the committee are saying they were never explicity exonerated either.
 
S

SyNapSe

Member
Title badly needs an update.

They are saying if they were able to be blamed they'd sell their assets because otherwise the assets would be at risk of being frozen by the US govt.
 
A

AuthenticM

Member
nib95 said:
What are you talking about? Just because some of the terrorists were Saudi nationals, doesn't mean Saudi Arabia itself is responsible for 9/11. That's not how it works.
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All of the signs points to Saudi Arabia being the main source of funding for Al Quaeda and other terrorists groups working against western interest.
 
S

Steiner84

All 26 hours. Multiple times.
someone explain to me what the "threat" is pls.

They sell what they own. So?

isnt that the intended behavior of markets?

I dont understand.
 
S

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
nib95 said:
What are you talking about? Just because some of the terrorists were Saudi nationals, doesn't mean Saudi Arabia itself is responsible for 9/11. That's not how it works.
Click to expand...

It's widely and credulously believed that senior Saudi royals and businessmen did and still fund al Qaeda and virulently militant and incindeary flavors of exported wahhabiism- and this is not a controversial thesis.
 
N

nib95

Banned
AuthenticM said:
All of the signs points to Saudi Arabia being the main source of funding for Al Quaeda and other terrorists groups working against western interest.
Click to expand...

Evidence points to the US being in some ways responsible too, in-fact there is actual evidence out there showing that the US was responsible for training the Afghani's in terror strategies, included the skewing of religious text to justify such attacks, which they intended to be used against the Soviets. It's not as black and white as you're trying to make it. Saudi and the US have traditionally had mostly aligned foreign policy and strategies.
 
S

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
nib95 said:
Evidence points to the US being in some ways responsible too, in-fact there is actual evidence out there showing that the US was responsible for training the Afghani's in terror strategies, included the skewing of religious text to justify such attacks, which they intended to be used against the Soviets. It's not as black and white as you're trying to make it. Saudi and the US have generally had traditionally aligned foreign policy and strategies.
Click to expand...

Of course they are.But I am glad you admit SA is funding its own eventual existential threat.
 
E

ElTorro

I wanted to dominate the living room. Then I took an ESRAM in the knee.
SyNapSe said:
They are saying if they were able to be blamed they'd sell their assets because otherwise the assets would be at risk of being frozen by the US govt.
Click to expand...

That's a bit weird given that the current administration already knows everything that's in that report and does even try to keep it classified. At most, the next administration could decide to do something about it. But the next administration would have access to that report anyway.

Both Saudi Arabia and the US government are probably concerned by potential public pressure resulting from that report going public. But for that to happen the report would have to contain something that goes beyond the common knowledge that there is a lot of support in Saudi Arabia for Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism.
 
N

nib95

Banned
Stinkles said:
Of course they are.But I am glad you admit SA is funding its own eventual existential threat.
Click to expand...

I think like most shitty foreign policy by the involved nations (Saudi and the US included), what we're seeing and have seen, is blowback from horribly miscalculated foreign policy strategies that have lacked foresight in the interests of short term gain, whether political or economic. That is, they support, fund and train these militia and groups intending one purpose, and then later down the line it comes back to bite them in the ass when things take a different turn.

This is the case whether you look at the Shah in Iran, Saddam, Al-Qaeda, and even the recent rise of ISIS, who in many ways are formed of some of the very 'moderate rebels' that Western powers and Saudi etc funded and supported in the first place, in the hopes they would more quickly oust Assad.
 
K

Kolx

Member
AuthenticM said:
All of the signs points to Saudi Arabia being the main source of funding for Al Quaeda and other terrorists groups working against western interest.
Click to expand...

The same people that attacked the Kingdom countless times? Why would SA fund them? If it was about spreading Wahabism there are much better choices than funding a group that consider you an enemy.

Maybe b4 when they were fighting the Soviet but after I can't see a reason to do that.
 
Y

Yamauchi

Banned
nib95 said:
I think like most shitty foreign policy by the involved nations (Saudi and the US included), what we're seeing and have seen, is blowback from horribly miscalculated foreign policy strategies that have lacked foresight in the interests of short term gain, whether political or economic. That is, they support, fund and train these militia and groups intending one purpose, and then later down the line it comes back to bite them in the ass when things take a different turn.

This is the case whether you look at the Shah in Iran, Saddam, Al-Qaeda, and even the recent rise of ISIS, who in many ways are formed of some of the very 'moderate rebels' that Western powers and Saudi etc funded and supported in the first place, in the hopes they would more quickly oust Assad.
Click to expand...
You could scarcely devise a greater axis of terrorism than the US-Saudi Arabia alliance. One provides the world's most advanced weaponry paired with a willingness to back anyone for the sake of realpolitik. The other provides the theological foundation, spreading the most viciously evil religious system that the world presently knows (Wahhabism). Combine the two and you get situations like the 1980s-2016 Afghanistan and the Syrian Civil War.
 
B

BMO = GOAT

Member
Forgive me if i am wrong, but wouldn't the United States be able to buy those assets as well? Or would they outright not try to even negotiate them with us?
 
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