Saudis Threaten Asset Dump if Blamed For 9/11 by Congress

[MikeWB]

WASHINGTON — Saudi Arabia has told the Obama administration and members of Congress that it will sell off hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of American assets held by the kingdom if Congress passes a bill that would allow the Saudi government to be held responsible in American courts for any role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The Obama administration has lobbied Congress to block the bill's passage, according to administration officials and congressional aides from both parties, and the Saudi threats have been the subject of intense discussions in recent weeks between lawmakers and officials from the State Department and the Pentagon. The officials have warned senators of diplomatic and economic fallout from the legislation.

Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister, delivered the kingdom's message personally last month during a trip to Washington, telling lawmakers that Saudi Arabia would be forced to sell up to $750 billion in treasury securities and other assets in the United States before they could be in danger of being frozen by American courts.

Several outside economists are skeptical that the Saudis will follow through, saying that such a sell-off would be difficult to execute and would end up crippling the kingdom's economy. But the threat is another sign of the escalating tensions between Saudi Arabia and the United States.

The administration, which argues that the legislation would put Americans at legal risk overseas, has been lobbying so intently against the bill that some lawmakers and families of Sept. 11 victims are infuriated. In their view, the Obama administration has consistently sided with the kingdom and has thwarted their efforts to learn what they believe to be the truth about the role some Saudi officials played in the terrorist plot.

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"It's stunning to think that our government would back the Saudis over its own citizens," said Mindy Kleinberg, whose husband died in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 and who is part of a group of victims' family members pushing for the legislation.

President Obama will arrive in Riyadh on Wednesday for meetings with King Salman and other Saudi officials. It is unclear whether the dispute over the Sept. 11 legislation will be on the agenda for the talks.
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A spokesman for the Saudi Embassy did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Saudi officials have long denied that the kingdom had any role in the Sept. 11 plot, and the 9/11 Commission found "no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded the organization." But critics have noted that the commission's narrow wording left open the possibility that less senior officials or parts of the Saudi government could have played a role. Suspicions have lingered, partly because of the conclusions of a 2002 congressional inquiry into the attacks that cited some evidence that Saudi officials living in the United States at the time had a hand in the plot.

Those conclusions, contained in 28 pages of the report, still have not been released publicly.

The dispute comes as bipartisan criticism is growing in Congress about Washington's alliance with Saudi Arabia, for decades a crucial American ally in the Middle East and half of a partnership that once received little scrutiny from lawmakers. Last week, two senators introduced a resolution that would put restrictions on American arms sales to Saudi Arabia, which have expanded during the Obama administration.

Families of the Sept. 11 victims have used the courts to try to hold members of the Saudi royal family, Saudi banks and charities liable because of what the plaintiffs charged was Saudi financial support for terrorism. These efforts have largely been stymied, in part because of a 1976 law that gives foreign nations some immunity from lawsuits in American courts.

The Senate bill is intended to make clear that the immunity given to foreign nations under the law should not apply in cases where nations are found culpable for terrorist attacks that kill Americans on United States soil. If the bill were to pass both houses of Congress and be signed by the president, it could clear a path for the role of the Saudi government to be examined in the Sept. 11 lawsuits.
The Big Four in Saudi Arabia's Government

Brief background information on the most powerful figures in the kingdom, and how they stand in the sometimes complicated order of succession.

Obama administration officials counter that weakening the sovereign immunity provisions would put the American government, along with its citizens and corporations, in legal risk abroad because other nations might retaliate with their own legislation. Secretary of State John Kerry told a Senate panel in February that the bill, in its current form, would "expose the United States of America to lawsuits and take away our sovereign immunity and create a terrible precedent."

The bill's sponsors have said that the legislation is purposely drawn very narrowly — involving only attacks on American soil — to reduce the prospect that other nations might try to fight back.

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In a closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill on March 4, Anne W. Patterson, an assistant secretary of state, and Andrew Exum, a top Pentagon official on Middle East policy, told staff members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that American troops and civilians could be in legal jeopardy if other nations decide to retaliate and strip Americans of immunity abroad. They also discussed the Saudi threats specifically, laying out the impacts if Saudi Arabia made good on its economic threats.

John Kirby, a State Department spokesman, said in a statement that the administration stands by the victims of terrorism, "especially those who suffered and sacrificed so much on 9/11."

Edwin M. Truman, a fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said he thought the Saudis were most likely making an "empty threat." Selling hundreds of billions of dollars in American assets would not only be technically difficult to pull off, he said, but would also very likely cause global market turmoil for which the Saudis would be blamed.

Moreover, he said, it could destabilize the American dollar — the currency to which the Saudi riyal is pegged.

"The only way they could punish us is by punishing themselves," Mr. Truman said.

The bill is an anomaly in a Congress fractured by bitter partisanship, especially during an election year. It is sponsored by Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, and Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York. It has the support of an unlikely coalition of liberal and conservative senators, including Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota, and Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas. It passed through the Judiciary Committee in January without dissent.

"As our nation confronts new and expanding terror networks that are targeting our citizens, stopping the funding source for terrorists becomes even more important," Mr. Cornyn said last month.

The alliance with Saudi Arabia has frayed in recent years as the White House has tried to thaw ties with Iran — Saudi Arabia's bitter enemy— in the midst of recriminations between American and Saudi officials about the role that both countries should play in the stability of the Middle East.

But the administration has supported Saudi Arabia on other fronts, including providing the country with targeting intelligence and logistical support for its war in Yemen. The Saudi military is flying jets and dropping bombs it bought from the United States — part of the billions of dollars in arms deals that have been negotiated with Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf nations during the Obama administration.

The war has been a humanitarian disaster and fueled a resurgence of Al Qaeda in Yemen, leading to the resolution in Congress to put new restrictions on arms deals to the kingdom. Senator Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, one of the resolution's sponsors and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that Congress has been "feckless" in conducting oversight of arms sales, especially those destined for Saudi Arabia.


"My first desire is for our relationship with Saudi Arabia to come with a greater degree of conditionality than it currently does," he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/16/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-warns-ofeconomic-fallout-if-congress-passes-9-11-bill.html

[MikeWB]

I really hope this happens! If Saudis get pissed, they'll leak Israel's involvement for sure. They won't go down alone. I hope we get to hear how Mossad orchestrated the whole thing and Saudis provided people and money.



Report: Saudis vow to sell US assets if Congress decides gov was involved in 9/11
Saudi Arabia has reportedly told the Obama administration and congressional leaders that it will sell billions of dollars in U.S. financial assets if Congress passes a bill to make the Saudi government legally responsible for any role in the 9/11 attacks.

The administration has tried to stop Congress from passing the legislation, a bipartisan Senate bill, since Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir last month told Washington lawmakers his country's position, according to The New York Times.

Al-Juberi purportedly informed the lawmakers during a trip to Washington that Saudi Arabia would be forced to sell as much as $750 billion in Treasury securities and other American financial assets on the world market, fearing the legislation could become law and U.S. courts would then freeze the assets.

The revelations about the Saudis' ultimatum come several days after reports that President Obama will soon decide whether to declassify 28 pages of sealed documents suspected of showing a Saudi connection to the deadly 9/11 terror attacks.

Former Florida Democratic Sen. Bob Graham told Fox News on Tuesday that the White House told him a decision on whether to declassify the documents would be made within 60 days.

Graham helped lead a 2002 congressional inquiry into the attacks.

The Bush and Obama administrations have refused to unseal the documents, arguing their release would jeopardize national security.

Critics claim the reluctance is a calculated move to hide Saudi Arabia's involvement in the al Qaeda terror attack that killed almost 3,000 people on U.S. soil on Sept. 11, 2001.

Obama had come under renewed pressure to release the documents ahead of a scheduled trip next week to Saudi Arabia for a summit of Persian Gulf leaders.

Economists are purportedly skeptical about the Saudis making good on their vow to sell the assets, considering such a move would be difficult to execute and could severely hurt that country's economy, which depends on the U.S. dollar.

The separate 9/11 Commission essentially found no evidence that the Saudi Arabia government supported the attacks.

However, the commission's narrowly worded finding about having "no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded the organization" has skeptic suggesting that lesser officials government operatives or were involved.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/04/16/report-saudis-vow-to-sell-us-assets-if-congress-decides-gov-was-involved-in-911.html?intcmp=trending

[yankeedoodle]

I really hope this happens! If Saudis get pissed, they'll leak Israel's involvement for sure. They won't go down alone. I hope we get to hear how Mossad orchestrated the whole thing and Saudis provided people and money.

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/29527.html

Leak?  Don't make me laugh.  They can leak like a sieve, but who will listen, when the jews control the media?  Slowly, gradually, the Saudis are being set-up for regime change.

[MikeWB]

I really hope this happens! If Saudis get pissed, they'll leak Israel's involvement for sure. They won't go down alone. I hope we get to hear how Mossad orchestrated the whole thing and Saudis provided people and money.

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/29527.html

Leak?  Don't make me laugh.  They can leak like a sieve, but who will listen, when the jews control the media?  Slowly, gradually, the Saudis are being set-up for regime change.

If Saudis start providing paper trail and start publicly saying that Mossad was behind it, press will have to  listen. It will provoke a diplomatic incident.

[yankeedoodle]

If Saudis start providing paper trail and start publicly saying that Mossad was behind it, press will have to  listen. It will provoke a diplomatic incident.

Bull-fucking-shit.  Eventually, the Saudis are going down.  So, they're going to open their fucking bloody head-chopping mouths, are they?  They are set-up - CORNERED.

Americans have a lingering hatred for the Saudis, dating back to the oil embargo from the 1970's, and it won't take much to have them say GO.

Human rights violations, killing of civilians, war crimes, etc., etc.  They're all happening right now in Yemen.

Americans are ready to be whipped up, and the fact that they will be told that the Saudis are crashing the oil industry will just be fuel on the fire.

Rand Paul, believe it or not, will lead the charge.

YEMEN: Senator Rand Paul Combats Saudi Empowerment of AQAP and Indiscriminate Bombing of Yemeni Civilians
http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/04/15/yemen-senator-rand-paul-combats-saudi-empowerment-of-aqap-and-indiscriminate-bombing-of-yemeni-civilians/

[MikeWB]

Saudis have trillions in American economy. Do you know what would happen if they started pulling it out?

Rand won't make any impact.

[yankeedoodle]

Saudis have trillions in American economy. Do you know what would happen if they started pulling it out?

Rand won't make any impact.

In the American economy, you say?  Well, then, it's OURS, Americans will think, coz them fuckin' Mooosssslllluuummss been gougin' us for years.

Iran had billions in the American economy, and that's just where it stayed, and they maybe still don't have it back yet.

FROZEN.  FUNDS FROZEN. 

[rmstock]

[rmstock]

I really hope this happens! If Saudis get pissed, they'll leak Israel's involvement for sure. They won't go down alone. I hope we get to hear how Mossad orchestrated the whole thing and Saudis provided people and money.

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/29527.html

Leak?  Don't make me laugh.  They can leak like a sieve, but who will listen, when the jews control the media?  Slowly, gradually, the Saudis are being set-up for regime change.

Hats off yankeedoodle, that Video inside the  brasschecktv.com webpage really
tells it all. The deregulating bankers selected Obama over Clinton on purpose :

Greg Palast on U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker
by heckofjob , Published on Dec 15, 2014  (2,064 views)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Qe7T7byf0M
  "U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker has a sordid history of union
   busting, sub-prime lending, tax dodging, and more. She also played a
   major role in getting Barack Obama elected to the Presidency so, of
   course, Barack Obama had to pay her back by nominating and pushing her
   to be confirmed as U.S. Secretary of Commerce. (By the way,
   "progressive" Elizabeth Warren had no problem voting to confirm
   Pritzker's nomination.)

   This clip is an excerpt from "Greg Palast; Summers, Obama, Rubin-- The
   Bankster Monsters From Hell" which aired on the August 22, 2013 edition
   of the Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show.

   Please do check out and listen to the complete, and very revealing,
   Greg Palast interview (available at http://www.opednews.com/itunes/229/gr...)
   in which Palast talks about a bombshell memo that shows how vile Larry
   Summers is. The interview covers what's in the memo and then expands to
   give background on the roots and top levels of one of the most malevolent
   conspiracies in the world.
   
   You can find other details about Penny Pritzker and her dealing at the
   following links:
   [ ... ]"

[MikeWB]

It's coming!!! One thing Americans can't stand is blackmail. Saudis are idiots for not relying on PR and lobbying instead of resorting to threats.

[maz]

Just last month a few months ago some US court ruled Iran had something to do with 9/11 and could be held liable in the courts and now it's the Saudis?

Of course the Saudis is much more believable than Iran because we had that red herring about the Saudi Royal family being flown out of the US on the day of the attacks.

But now how many Muslim countries had something to do with 9/11? Iraq, Pakistan, Iran and now Saudi Arabia?

[yankeedoodle]

Just last month a few months ago some US court ruled Iran had something to do with 9/11 and could be held liable in the courts and now it's the Saudis?

Of course the Saudis is much more believable than Iran because we had that red herring about the Saudi Royal family being flown out of the US on the day of the attacks.

But now how many Muslim countries had something to do with 9/11? Iraq, Pakistan, Iran and now Saudi Arabia?

Great observation, Maz.  All them Moossslluuummsss did it, not them jews, who is our friends, and we need to go kill them Mooosssslllluuuummmss and take their oil, so they leave our friends, the jews, alone. 

This is the great plot, Maz.  THE TWO-STATE SOLUTION.

You have the Jewish State, and, the plot is for the US to destroy and loot ALL the Islamic countries around the Jewish State, and this territory will be invaded by the jew-controlled Islamic State.  Two states - Jewish State and jew-controlled Islamic State - get it?

[yankeedoodle]

Here's an interesting interview dealing with the US and Saudi Arabia. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WUBDqUuhl8&feature=youtu.be

[rmstock]

Friday Webcast, May 20, 2016
by  LaRouchePAC , Published on May 20, 2016
  "We begin tonight's broadcast with an on the ground video of activists
   with LaRouche PAC's Manhattan Project who held a rally earlier this
   week demanding an end to the Obama Administration's cover up of the
   Saudi-British coup behind 9-11. We are joined live by Diane Sare,
   member of the LPAC Policy Committee who reports on the continued
   mobilization to release the 28 pages in wake of the unanimous passage
   of the JASTA bill in the US Senate. The British-Saudi friends of Obama
   have gone into overdrive. Jeff Steinberg elaborates on the crucial role
   President Putin is playing in continuing to outflank his adversaries in
   the context of the ASEAN meeting occurring right now in Sochi.
   [ ... ]"