Greg Palast
Officials told to 'back off' on Saudis before September 11
Fri Sep 6 19:58:48 2002
68.98.68.169

Officials told to 'back off' on Saudis before September 11
by Greg Palast and David Pallister

FBI and military intelligence officials in
Washington say they were prevented for political
reasons from carrying out full investigations into
members of the Bin Laden family in the US before
the terrorist attacks of September 11.

US intelligence agencies have come under
criticism for their wholesale failure to predict the
catastrophe at the World Trade Centre. But some
are complaining that their hands were tied.

FBI documents shown on BBC Newsnight last
night and obtained by the Guardian show that
they had earlier sought to investigate two of
Osama bin Laden's relatives in Washington and a
Muslim organisation, the World Assembly of
Muslim Youth (WAMY), with which they were
linked.

The FBI file, marked Secret and coded 199, which
means a case involving national security, records
that Abdullah bin Laden, who lived in
Washington, had originally had a file opened on
him "because of his relationship with the World
Assembly of Muslim Youth - a suspected terrorist
organisation".

WAMY members deny they have been involved
with terrorist activities, and WAMY has not been
placed on the latest list of terrorist organisations
whose assets are being frozen.

Abdullah, who lived with his brother Omar at the
time in Falls Church, a town just outside
Washington, was the US director of WAMY,
whose offices were in a basement nearby.

But the FBI files were closed in 1996 apparently
before any conclusions could be reached on
either the Bin Laden brothers or the organisation
itself. High-placed intelligence sources in
Washington told the Guardian this week: "There
were always constraints on investigating the
Saudis".

They said the restrictions became worse after
the Bush administration took over this year. The
intelligence agencies had been told to "back off"
from investigations involving other members of
the Bin Laden family, the Saudi royals, and
possible Saudi links to the acquisition of nuclear
weapons by Pakistan.

"There were particular investigations that were
effectively killed."

Only after the September 11 attacks was the
stance of political and commercial closeness
reversed towards the other members of the
large Bin Laden clan, who have classed Osama
bin Laden as their "black sheep".

Yesterday, the head of the Saudi-based WAMY's
London office, Nouredine Miladi, said the charity
was totally against Bin Laden's violent methods.
"We seek social change through education and
cooperation, not force."

He said Abdullah bin Laden had ceased to run
WAMY's US operation a year ago.

Neither Abdullah nor Omar bin Laden could be
contacted in Saudi Arabia for comment.

WAMY was founded in 1972 in a Saudi effort to
prevent the "corrupting" ideas of the west ern
world influencing young Muslims. With official
backing it grew to embrace 450 youth and
student organisations with 34 offices worldwide.

Its aim was to encourage "concerned Muslims to
take up the challenge by arming the youth with
sound understanding of Islam, guarding them
against destructive ideologies, and instilling in
them level-headed wisdom".

In Britain it has 20 associated organisations,
many highly respectable.

But as long as 10 years ago it was named as a
discreet channel for public and private Saudi
donations to hardline Islamic organisations. One
of the recipients of its largesse has been the
militant Students Islamic Movement of India,
which has lent support to Pakistani-backed
terrorists in Kashmir and seeks to set up an
Islamic state in India.

Since September 11 WAMY has been investigated
in the US along with a number of other Muslim
charities. There have been several grand jury
investigations but no findings have been made
against any of them.

Current FBI interest in WAMY is shown in their
agents' interrogation of a radiologist from San
Antonio, Texas, Dr Al Badr al-Hazmi, who was
arrested on September 12 and released without
charge two weeks later. He had the same
surname as two of the plane hijackers.

He was also questioned about his contacts with
Abdullah bin Laden at the US WAMY office.

Mr Al-Hazmi said that he had made phone calls to
Abdullah bin Laden in 1999 trying to obtain
books and videotapes about Islamic teachings
for the Islamic Centre of San Antonio.

To view the BBC television broadcast of the
Palast investigation, go to
http://www.GregPalast.com

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,589168,00.html