ZGRAM - 12/7/2002 - "Jews behind 9/11: Saudi cabinet minister"
irimland@zundelsite.org
irimland@zundelsite.org
Sat, 7 Dec 2002 18:45:22 -0800
ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny
December 7, 2002
Good Morning from the Zundelsite:
Make of it what you will. The headline itself is worth noting:
[START]
Dec. 6, 2002. 02:58 PM
Jews behind 9/11: Saudi cabinet minister
Comments published as Saudis continue PR damage-control efforts
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - The Saudi police minister has
claimed Jews were behind the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States
because they have benefited from subsequent criticism of Islam and
Arabs, according to media reports.
Interior Minister Prince Nayef made the remarks in the
Arabic-language Kuwaiti daily Assyasah last month. The latest edition
of Ain al-Yaqeen, a weekly Internet magazine devoted to Saudi issues,
posted the Assyasah interview and its own English translation.
"We know that the Jews have manipulated the Sept. 11 incidents and
turned American public opinion against Arabs and Muslims," Prince
Nayef was quoted as saying in the Arabic text, while Ain al Yaqeen's
English version referred to "Zionists" instead of "Jews."
"We still ask ourselves: Who has benefited from Sept. 11 attacks? I
think they (the Jews) were the protagonists of such attacks," Nayef
was quoted as saying. Nayef's spokesman, Saud al-Musaibeeh, did not
respond to repeated requests for confirmation the minister had been
quoted accurately.
The Internet magazine's English translation of the comments began to
attract attention in the United States just as the Saudis launched a
new public relations campaign to address accusations the kingdom is
soft on terrorism and inculcates extremist thought among its citizens.
The statements also were widely circulated by The Middle East Media
Research Institute, or MEMRI, a Washington-based organization that
translates articles from the Arabic media. MEMRI's president is Yigal
Carmon, a former anti-terror adviser who served two Israeli prime
ministers.
"The Saudis are telling us that they are an ally in the war on terror
while their top government officials are still blaming ... the Jews
and denying that 15 Saudis took part in the attacks on New York and
the Pentagon," Representative Eliot Engel, a New York Democrat, said
in Washington earlier this week.
"The Bush administration continually defends Saudi Arabia as a friend
of the United States and a committed partner in the war on terror,"
Engel said. "Does this Saudi minister sound like a partner in the war
on terror?"
Senator Charles Schumer, also a New York Democrat, wrote this week in
a letter to the Saudi ambassador to the United States that "the
interior minister's comments only serve to confirm American
suspicions about the Saudi government's commitment to the war on
terror."
Nayef's remarks echoed rumours that have been heard in the Arab world
since the attacks - but this time they are attributed to the man in
charge of Saudi investigations into the attacks.
The Saudi minister was quoted in the interview as saying his kingdom
is currently detaining some 100 terror suspects for interrogation. He
added that the suspects "will either apologize for their mistakes and
change their course or will be referred to trial."
The United States has blamed the Sept. 11 attacks on the Al Qaeda
terror network, whose chief, Osama bin Laden, was stripped of his
Saudi citizenship in 1994. It took Saudi Arabia five months after the
attacks to acknowledge that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis. The
Gulf kingdom, a close U.S. ally, has never officially held Al Qaeda
responsible for the attacks and usually refers to the hijackers as
people "enticed and deluded" into committing their crimes.
Several statements attributed to bin Laden aired by the Qatar-based
Al-Jazeera television claimed responsibility for the attacks. A
statement attributed to Al Qaeda's "political bureau" that appeared
Monday on an Islamic web site listed the Sept. 11 attacks as among
the successful operations carried out by the terrorist group against
the United States.
In the interview, Nayef said he could not believe that bin Laden and
his network, including Saudi participants, worked alone.
He was quoted as saying he believed terrorist networks have links to
"foreign intelligence agencies that work against Arab and Muslim
interests, chief among them is the Israeli Mossad."
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