Saudi Arabia is threatening to financially punish the U.S. if it holds the kingdom to account for its 9/11 role, coercion that hovers over President Obama’s new visit to the Saudi “allies” and that 9/11 widow Kristen Breitweiser condemns.
By Kristen Breitweiser
On Saturday, Mark Mazzetti wrote an article that appears on the front page of the New York Times called, “Saudis Tell U.S. To Back Off Bill On 9/11 Lawsuits.” The shocking title alone should make American citizens sit up and take notice.
When did the U.S. government start taking orders from foreign nations? Did I miss something? Have we become a foreign territory of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia? Did Saudi Arabia somehow become a branch of the U.S. government with sway over the President, Congress, and the Judiciary?
President Obama and King Salman Arabia stand at attention during the U.S. national anthem as the First Lady stands in the background with other officials on Jan. 27, 2015, at the start of Obama’s State Visit to Saudi Arabia. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza). (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Mazzetti documents disturbing details that reveal a U.S. government not just taking and carrying out Saudi orders, but a U.S. President being brought to his knees by Saudi extortion. Mazzetti also summarizes the Obama Administration’s decision to support the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia over the 9/11 families’ right for justice and accountability for the 9/11 attacks.
The Saudis get such royal, preferential treatment because they’ve stomped their feet, threatened to pull all their money out of the U.S. economy and bankrupt the world if not given their way. As ridiculous as that threat sounds, the Obama administration is apparently very scared by it.
Currently, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been dismissed from the 9/11 families’ lawsuit via their Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) protections. As a result, the court has yet to have the opportunity to see the evidence against the Kingdom with regard to their alleged role of financing the 9/11 attacks.
This sets a dangerous precedent since it means that as long as a foreign nation is not listed as a “known state sponsor of terrorism,” they are completely immune from being held accountable for any bad behavior or illegal acts they perpetrate inside the U.S. — yes, even the mass murder of 3,000 people on 9/11.
Suffice it to say, this isn’t your typical young Saudi prince getting a parking ticket for his gold Lamborghini. This is the Saudis getting a pass for funding mass murder — with the blessings of the U.S Government.
At a time when most can’t get Washington to agree on much of anything, the 9/11 families have been able to gather Members of Congress — both Democrats and Republicans, and as polar opposite as Al Franken and Ted Cruz — to work together on a vital piece of legislation called Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism (JASTA). Quite a feat. But then again, 9/11 has the unique ability to unite almost everyone together under that one broad undeniable theme: being a true American.
JASTA removes the protection of the FSIA from any nation (regardless of their status as an ally or named state sponsor of terrorism) that participates in a terrorist attack when the terrorist attack is perpetrated on U.S. soil. JASTA makes clear that U.S. citizens remain the priority not foreign nations that fund terror. Specifically, JASTA removes the Saudis’ use of the FSIA as a shield of immunity — allowing them to be brought to court to finally answer charges for their alleged role in the 9/11 attacks.
Clearly, the Saudis are deeply concerned about JASTA since it would mean all the incriminating evidence gathered against them and their alleged role in the 9/11 attacks would finally be revealed and presented in an open court of law — nearly 15 years after the crime was committed. Indeed, many who have seen this evidence have commented that Americans will find the information “shocking” and that the “revelations will require a complete re-appraisal of the U.S./Saudi relationship.”
Why should this vital information be kept from the 9/11 families and the American public by President Obama? Why should evidence of the mass murder of 3,000 people be kept out of a court of law? Why does the Obama White House oppose holding the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia accountable for their funding of terrorist acts, including the terrorist attacks of 9/11? Why isn’t the U.S. government protecting the rights of the U.S. victims of terrorist attacks?
Prince Bandar bin Sultan, then Saudi ambassador to the United States, meeting with President George W. Bush in Crawford, Texas, on Aug. 27, 2002. (White House photo)
It is bad enough that Wall Street tycoons got off the hook in 2008 because they were “too big to fail.” But, to re-victimize the 9/11 families in order to protect the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia because they are “too invested in the U.S. economy to be held accountable” is appalling. It is extortion — plain and simple.
We struggle to understand why the U.S. government led by President Obama would so willingly drop to its knees and bare its neck to the shiny sword of Saudi extortion. What has become of our country?
America needs elected officials and leaders who recognize that U.S. citizens are their constituents — not oil-rich nations that bankroll terrorists. America needs to send a clarion message to the world — if you murder our citizens, you will answer for it. And America should never succumb to extortion by terrorists.
Are we to do away and dispense with all laws and accountability everywhere leaving us with a sort of Wild West environment where murder by the wealthy is OK, and rule of law is secondary to greed and power?
We call upon every member of Congress and all presidential candidates to endorse JASTA and to publicly rebuke such Saudi extortion. And we ask President Obama, to ignore the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s undue influence and extortion attempts by passing JASTA now.
Kristen Breitweiser is a 9/11 widow and activist who – working with other 9/11 widows known collectively as the “Jersey Girls” – pressured the U.S. government to conduct a formal investigation into the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Follow Kristen Breitweiser on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kdbreitweiser. [This article originally appeared as a blog post at HuffingtonPost.]
The entire bush crime family was involved with 9/11. Either by covering up what really happened and who did it, or being directly involved, which is what I firmly believe. Either way, they are mass murderers.
Please watch this documentary featuring Kristen and the other Jersey Girls.
It shows how the bush crime family tried to prevent ANY investigation into 9/11 and how the
final product is nothing but a political white wash cover-up..
9/11: Press for Truth
https://youtu.be/RmHPfXemf10
I add this comment only for a clarification of this tragic event which happened in NYC. As Darth Cheney repeated ad infinitum, 3,000 Americans were killed during the attacks and it created quite a furor. Those who have researched the dead have also concluded there were anywhere from 2,200 to 2,700 Americans. I am not trying to raise a point of contention, nor diminishing the suffering, since the horror is without a doubt . But I wish those who quote the 3,000 American figure would also take the time to realize how many other foreigners were also victims of this catastrophe. People of all faiths and religions also perished, and to not give them just due is also a shame. Many Muslims also perished for example. We in the US seem to only quote US fatalities, much to the chagrin of the world at large.
While it is unlikely that the Saudi State and Saudi government was in any knowing or official way involved in the 9/111/01 guerrilla action against targets in the United States, it is, as has been acknowledged, certain that initial funding, at least, for Al Qaeda came from the country of Saudi Arabia. After all, Bin Laden was Saudi and his money and family’s money was in Saudi Arabia.
It is also fairly certain that the Saudi government funded the American schooling, and subsidized the travel and living expenses of the Saudi participants in the 9/11/01 guerrilla attack. The Saudi government has subsidized such schooling for just about all Saudi’s who wanted to go to school in America.
The question is: So what?
What do the people who are all wound up about the 9/11/01 guerrilla attack want? They are not going to bring anyone back to life. They are not going to undo what was done, in property damage or human suffering, or unspecified losses.
In fact, they are like the people who emerged from the woodwork decades later to weep and wail about “priest abuse”, some trusted persons in the Roman Christian Church human structure who had done things we are all supposed to condone, nowadays, being commonly done by government protected alternative gender-interest oriented individuals.
In both cases the driving component is perception of opportunity to manipulate legal process to suck money away from organizations perceived to have “deep-pockets” and so to be able to afford to “share their wealth” with the greedy whom “god”, or fate, or fortune, has put into positions of opportunity to get in a grab. After all, as at least the lawyers for the greedy will agree, the American judiciary system has become oriented to gouging, and has emplaced machineries to enable and ensure success in legal-process gougery. Might as well use the machinery, and take advantages of the contrivances connived into the “law” of the current United States to exert pressures and coerce agreements, in lieu of actually arguing legitimate legalities…
The end is going to be disaster: So the Al Qaeda guerrillas killed three thousand American citizens. So what? It is hyped up to be a big-deal and some kind of outrage and tragedy and outrageous tragedy and monstrous calamity and on and on…
But who the hell are these dead American people? And why are they important if the tens and hundreds of thousands the United States kills, not killed, kills, each year, year after year, who are as much people, but who are different, apparently, only for not being American ones. Why are their killings not equally tragic? Why are their lives not worth whatever millions the greedy Americans are going to try to grift for their paltry three thousand, too?
If fairness, and established precedent, reigned in the wake of a “9/11 lawsuit” the same the “9/11 Survivors” would be able, permitted and allowed to do, to whoever they might define “defendants” in their lawsuits for compensations, including freezing funds and impounding assets, would be permitted, allowed and enacted against the United States and its funds and assets. Will that happen if the “9/11 Survivors’ suits go forward?
If not the not happening will expose the United States “legal” system to be a scam and a fraud and a tool to screw others and dodge return screwing under the screwers’ screwing-defined rules. To avoid the legitimately permissible turn-about screwing that the United States, for its many times more equivalent murderings, would legally and properly have coming under the precedents its parties would established doing their screwings, the United States’ judges and judiciary would have to demonstrate themselves corrupt and partisan and void of any actual legal intents, interests or capabilities.
Or they would have to open United States courts to every and any and all counter-parties to carry forward equal and equivalent lawsuits, to obtain equal assignments of guilt to the United States, and equal compensations.
I, personally, am nothing more than an observer, or perhaps more correctly, a spectator, since I have no stake in any element of the legal game being set up and maneuvered to be played. To me it is going to be interesting whichever way the United States loses whatever it loses for whatever it puts into the game, in addition to what it has put into it already, writing the rules for the contest and setting up the “hazards” of the play.
“Are we to do away and dispense with all laws and accountability everywhere leaving us with a sort of Wild West environment where murder by the wealthy is OK, and rule of law is secondary to greed and power?”
This is already the case, though most people with goodness in their hearts might never come to believe it. Evil has been afoot for so long in the US, and so cleverly disguised, that we cannot recognize it.
911 is becoming more and more an unfathomable deep sea of ink (or oil for that matter). It takes courage and will power to not get drowned in it, but that must be a struggle. Please know, Mrs. Breitweiser, that it is not very difficult for an 911 outsider who only saw the events on TV (like me, from the Netherlands) to know that now the Saudis made it clear that they do not want to have these 28 pages declassified, that they must have something to hide in it. And that some of your government are very complicit in keeping this a secret, which is truly a scandal. A scandal that repeats itself… My government gave us (the Dutch) MH17 and a black sea of ink to drown in.
I know one thing for sure: don’t ever believe the garbage governments try to sell to the victims and relatives of victims of a terrorist attack, which garbage is also known as “politics” or “diplomacy”.
WHERE IS THE TRUTH
The suggestion by Kristen Breitweiser may be true but I share with Zachary
Smith’s scepticism.
The US and its crucial policies are always being influenced by foreign
nations. Israel through its control of Congress has an iron grip not
only on on US foreign policy (to wit, Israel’s fabricated “intelligence”
cand complicity with various US administrations. To understand these
facts, read Gareth Porter’s MANUFACTURED CONSENT”.
Of course, Israeli’s are our so-called allies and have not bombed
anyone on US soil. They are considered by the US to hold
impunity in massacres, destruction of Palestinians. Perhaps only
Bernie Sanders and “the left” see anything wrong with bombing
hundreds at a time using US-made Appache heliocopters…
See Max Blumental’s GOLIATH:LIFE AND LOATHING IN GREATER
ISRAEL , especiall Chap;ter l and 2. But since Israel is a US ally
and the massacres were not on US soils…the Israelis have, what is it called?…
a right to defend themselves. I still think the bombing of a family
leaving 48 corpses (pp 7-8) constitutes terror.The report was published
in THE DAILY TELEGRAPH :”Gaza:-Palestinian Family Mourns 48 Dead”
(www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/palestinian authority/4290533/
Gaza-Palestinian-family-mourns-48-dead-html). Needless to say, the
report did not “go viral” in the US!
And, of course, it was not on US soil.
—-Peter Loeb, Boston, MA, USA
Odds are Saudi Arabia is upset because they’re “the patsy” in the Israel Mossod and US Govt FALSE FLAG operation on 911. There were NO Arab names in the original flight manifests published by the airlines right after 911. If you want to connect the dots, Google “Dov Zakheim 911 electronic hijacking” and study the results. Then Google “The Greater Israel Project” and wake up from your slumber.
Could the 911 Commission’ 28 pages reveal a Saudi co-conspirator country that holds even more influence over the U.S. be the real reson the pages are secret? I think you know what country I’m referring too.
The Jersey Girls should listen to Alex T. In any case, the planes hitting the Twin Towers were a pretext for the explosives previously installed in them. In fact, it was not the planes but the explosives that brought down the Twin Towers (plus a third building). Hence the victims’ relatives should try to trace the real culprits and murderers. Simply see who has benefitted from all this.
Evil florishs when good is silent and at sleep. evil shall be coronated as Queen/King when good people are on holidays.
Histrionic nationalistic babble notwithstanding there is a kernel of truth to what she’s saying. If the Chinese and Saudis decide NOT to rollover their govies all hell will break loose on Wall Street. Might not be such a bad thing. I digress. The fact that the “Obama administration” has allowed this Saudi thing to happen is proof positive that the cabal behind Reagan/Bush still rules and their power is high above any president or political party.
The Saudi’s didn’t control the FAA or NORAD which could have put a stop to 9/11 within 15 minutes of the first drone striking the WTC.
The Saudi’s didn’t provide access to WTC 1,2 and 7 in the months before the attack which allowed the nano thermite devices to be installed.
SA may have provided the patsies, but the source of 9/11 was from Israel and the US politicians who are beholden to them.
Very astute Alex T,
I think this story is far from over. Could the Saudis have enough strength or resolve to implement the others in the 911 incident? Time will tell.
If they have the fortitude to mention Israel, and many of the deliberate US contrived military exercises done on that day on the other side of the country, things could get more than interesting. It all depends how cornered they may feel after the release of documents. I would suspect, in the background there are many litigants already working on damage control for the Saudis. The Saudis may have provided many of the passports, logistics, money and the like, but the rest?
A passenger plane doesn’t fly almost 45 minutes with transponder off due to anything the Saudis have done. The spinners have quite a task before themselves to even release the pages. The pages are only is a very, very small part of the story. The rest of the story is the controlled demo, the dancing Israelites, ticketed people on the fateful planes, and no DNA records in the Pennsylvania hole in the ground, just to name a few problems.
If the Saudis feel cornered, there is an entire trough of info the US wants to hide. If they leave their money in the US it is only part of the agreement with officials not to tell tales out of school. But this could get interesting. Lets just hope they drag Cheney, Bush, and their ilk down with them as a gift to the world. The US won’t be happy since everyone is a hero these days, but let us only hope this is the beginning of the truth.
One other thought, is this: How would the 29 pages effect the ruling by US District Judge George Daniels who ruled the Iranians should pay over 7 billion to the families, and over 3 billion to the insurance companies? As far as I can see, being no attorney, the entire case appears to be bogus and Daniels ruling may blow up in his face.
Does Larry Silverstein need more cash for a new venture?
The loss of the people on 9/11 is indeed tragic and most certainly the Saudis should be investigated openly for all to see. In the same breathe, though, I see the much larger crime being the invasion of Iraq where a 1/2 Million to 1 Million people were murdered which doesn’t include those dying from exposure to depleted uranium (that is 1,667 Iraqis dead for every 1 person dead on 9/11 – on the low end of the spectrum). I would hope that the author, Kristen Breitweiser, would also crusade for the prosecution of the United States for its’ crimes in the Middle East since all life should be sacred – not just American life. 9/11 was definitely tragic but it should bring an understanding also of the pain that other people from countless countries feel on the other end of American bombs, coups, wars etc.
I hate to be seen defending the Saudis in any way, but in my opinion they’re quite justified with their threat of yanking their money out of US securities.
Still an opinion, but I see the Senate bill as an unusually stupid one. The US has been running on borrowed money for way too long, and if one of the major buyers of that debt cuts us off cold, the consequences are going to be major. Anyhow, the Saudis have been recently acting as if they are crazy enough to burn their bridges and to Hades with the consequences. Cutting the price of oil to the levels they did shows how willing they are to do drastic things.
In any event, this may be a pre-planned move to destabilize Saudi Arabia, for it remains one of the few remaining Muslim nations in the region of Israel which hasn’t yet been destroyed. The destabilization of Turkey seems to be proceeding reasonably well, and the issue may be as simple as it’s Saudi Arabia’s time to be in the barrel.
While I see no great problem is requiring Saudi Arabia to answer for the crime of its citizens, I can tell you why the courts will not do that and neither will the politicians.
From the perspective of our corrupt Supreme Court, that would be even worse than the situation of the recent Twombly case, where they refused to allow prosecution of AT&T for price-fixing, because they claimed that some level of proof was needed at the outset, before they would even allow the discovery (subpoena) process to get more evidence. The rationale was to prevent unfair subpoenas for mountains of evidence on mere speculation, but the effect was to require proof before they would allow private investigation, and they no doubt intended to prevent private action to enforce the Sherman Ant-Trust Act. They do not explain or care why the US government does not do such investigation.
So they would not allow private suit against a foreign country unless it was socialist. That would be international coercion to force the Saudis to find evidence against their citizens if not their government. The question is why the Saudis would not want to investigate to clear their government of suspicion, why the US government does not ask the Saudis to cooperate in such investigation, and why the US government does not investigate, if it has not. But keep in mind that the US has a long history of alliance with AlQaeda in Afghanistan/Pakistan which caused the 9/11 backlash, which it still conceals.
One might think that your next recourse would be the International Criminal Court (ICC). But only signatories of the Treaty of Rome are bound by its judgments. Probably Saudi Arabia has not signed. The US refused to sign the treaty because it would be immediately prosecuted for its war crimes around the world.
The US is the only nation that has actually threatened to militarily attack the Hague if the ICC there prosecutes any US citizen for war crimes. And the US is actively allied with AlQaeda in Syria to harass Russia and get political bribes from Israel feeding back our Billions of “aid” to control our government. What a deal.
So don’t expect the utterly corrupt government of the US to do anything, even for US victims. It is a government of, by, and for the gangsters. It regards the people and their rights with extreme contempt and derision. There will be justice for 9/11 victims about three generations after the US oligarchy has been overthrown. But that oligarchy is far worse than the one toppled in 1776: it is worse than the Tsarists overthrown by the Bolsheviks or the Facists overthrown by the WWII Allies, and you will have to join whatever groups oppose them to make any progress toward justice.
You should sue the US in the Court of Federal Claims (COFC) in Washington, for failure to investigate Saudi Arabia or its citizens, and failure to disclose its relationship to AlQaeda. Only the most patriotic citizens sue the US for its wrongdoing, for only they have the courage to correct government wrongs..
Of course the only value of a US lawsuit is to expose the corruption of the Judiciary, but that has real value in your 9/11 case. The COFC will of course just invent more excuses; that is their job. But the case would prove that the US refuses to investigate Saudi Arabia or its citizens, and refuses to disclose its relationship to AlQaeda. Even the mass media should pick up on such remarkable refusal to protect its 9/11 victims, and that will teach something to the deluded sheeple who willfully exclude all but mass media propaganda from their minds, so as to make easier their willful subjection to the economic tyranny of their masters.
I was always repulsed by Dubya’s anointment of Prince Bandar Bush. As if the latter would deign to address Dubya with the appellation, “George ibn Saud”.
I think the issue says something about the American way of life – the dependency on oil. If Americans don’t like being held hostage by the oil suppliers, then they need to look at other means of running the economic machine. Until then, the US Govt will always bow to the Saudis as the consequence of their withdrawal from the American economy outweighs the consequences of the US Govt keeping evidence under wraps.
Beware of Zionist fall guys.There is no way in hell Zion hasn’t anything to do with 9-11,from dancing Israelis to their leaders statements.
The Zionist MSM has been ironclad in its protection of the Saudis since 9-11.If they are turning on them now it means something is about to blow.
Thank you, Kristen, for writing this article. I’m a person who, in order to unearth authentic news, will spend an inordinate amount of time trying to uncover the needle in the massive, almost bottomless haystack of propaganda (as well as attempts to not report real news at all). So I just want you to know that your efforts do not go unnoticed. I accord great weight to the implications of your words.
I find it hard to live in a country layered with so much deceit, where so little effort by those with the power to change things are inclined to do so. Following the money is always the answer.