Why Is There No 'Saudi-Gate'?

http://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/11/trump-russia-bush-saudi-arabia
Date Written:  2017-11-01
Publisher:  Jacobin
Year Published:  2017
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX22541

For decades, the DC establishment has been on the payroll of a foreign terror state. But because it's Saudi Arabia, you won't hear a peep.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

"A 9/11 Scale Event"

Politicians and pundits have clamored to label the alleged Russian interference an "act of war." Several have compared it to Pearl Harbor, and Tom Friedman declared it a "9/11 scale event."

Even more of a 9/11 scale event was the actual 9/11. Fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were Saudi nationals, and the attack was planned by a scion of one of the country's wealthiest and politically connected families. The hijackers, we now know thanks to the release of twenty-eight previously classified pages from the 9/11 commission's report, had ties to members of the Saudi government, including the Saudi ambassador to the United States, who also belongs to the country’s royal family.

More recently, newly unearthed FBI files describe a 1999 "dry-run" for 9/11 carried out by Saudi government agents with tickets bought by the Saudi embassy.

But even without the 2016 release of those twenty-eight pages, Saudi involvement in anti-US terrorism has long been an open secret. John Lehman, Reagan's navy secretary and one of the members of the 9/11 commission, went on record, saying that "it was well known in intelligence circles that the Islamic affairs office functioned as the Saudis' 'fifth column' in support of Muslim extremists." Further, intelligence services suspect various Saudi charities of funding extremists, including the Al Haramain Islamic Foundation, a now-defunct, state-funded Saudi charity that exported a conservative, fundamentalist form of Islam and was known to support terrorists.

Leaked state department cables document Hillary Clinton's concerns about the Saudi government's reluctance to crack down on wealthy patrons of terrorism. Zacarias Moussaoui, a former al-Qaeda member, has testified that Saudi royals made large donations to the organization during the 1990s and that he discussed carrying out a terrorist attack with a Saudi embassy staff member. Meanwhile, many have complained that Saudi Arabia resists US efforts to crack down on terrorist financing and even stonewalls investigations.

In other words, if we're talking about national security threats, Russia can't compete with the chaos Saudi Arabia has facilitated -- and still does, given the weapons it’s been sending to extremists in Syria. But you're not likely to see any US officials or citizens hauled before Congress to testify about their relationship with Saudis anytime soon. The national security establishment has always protected Saudi Arabia, as the lack of any accountability for their complicity in September 11 demonstrates.