White House blocked probe of 9/11-Saudi link

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WASHINGTON: The White House blocked a congressional investigation into alleged links between the Saudi government and two September 11, 2001, hijackers, a top US senator wrote in a book to be released on Tuesday.

Florida Senator Bob Graham, the Democrat who co-chaired Congress’s probe into the September 11 attacks, wrote that Saudi government agents were part of a support network in the United States for two hijackers who took part in the devastating strikes, the Miami Herald reported on Sunday. But President George W Bush’s administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation blocked Congress’s investigation into the alleged ties, Graham wrote in "Intelligence Matters," a copy of which the Herald obtained.

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry called for an immediate "independent investigation" into the allegations "to determine if the very agencies charged with investigating the war on terror have been compromised by White House politics." "These are serious allegations being made by a well respected and informed leader," said Kerry, who is challenging the Republican president in the November 2 election.

"If the White House and the FBI did in fact block an investigation into the ties between the Saudi government and the 9-11 hijackers, then this would be a massive abuse of power," he said in a statement.
The congressional panel’s staff concluded that Omar al-Bayoumi and Osama Bassan, two Saudis living in San Diego, California, were Saudi government agents who gave significant financial support to two hijackers, wrote Graham, a former Democratic presidential candidate.

http://jang.com.pk/thenews/sep2004-daily/07-09-2004/world/w7.htm

[Catfight]

1. This is what a leader does, holds people accountable, thank God

for John Kerry since Congress won't investigate these crimes!

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2. The Independent review:

In particular, Mr Graham alleges that a mysterious Saudi, Omar al-Bayoumi, who was living in San Diego before the attacks and who befriended and funded two of the hijackers, was a Saudi government spy.

Mr Graham says that Mr Bayoumi was essentially a "ghost employee" of a Saudi contracting firm called Ercan, whose owner was an alleged early supporter of Osama bin Laden. He also had repeated contacts with a Saudi diplomat in Los Angeles who was later thrown out of the United States on suspicion of terrorist links.

Mr Graham's conclusions about Mr Bayoumi are in conflict with the conclusions of the 9/11 Commission report. The commission's investigators concluded that he had no link to the attacks.


http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=559002