Greg Palast exposes Bush - Saudi links

Bush knew.
-T

http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=253&row=0

BUSH AND THE SAUDIS SITTIN' IN A TREE . . . KAY EYE ESS ESS EYE EN GEE
The President Exempts Gays from Marriage, Saudis from Guilt Web Log
Friday, August 1, 2003

by Greg Palast

Well, well, well. President George was in one hell of bind this week 
when it turned that that Saudi Arabia funded Al Qaeda, not Iraq. 
Realizing we'd invaded the wrong country, Bush did the honorable 
thing: he's come out against gay marriages.

This caused some real confusion in my staff where a gay member of our 
investigations team announced he was changing his allegiance from 
Howard Dean to George Bush. "Bush Saves Gays from Marriage! Bush 
Saves Gays!" he rushed around the office beaming. "Gay people exempt 
from going to in-laws for Thanksgiving dinner! Gay-mericans exempt 
from PTA meetings and hiring divorce lawyers!"

But then I had to bring him down to earth. ('Had to' because, while 
Bush announced last month that our conquest of Iraq had made 'the 
world a safer place', our President mentioned THIS week there's now a 
'real threat' of new Al Qaeda hijackings. So America is safer? As 
long as one stays indoors.)

But here's the real kick in the head. Turns out that unlike the 18 
minutes missing from the Nixon tape, the 28 pages missing from 
Congress' publicly released report on the September 11 attack has 
been found. And it turns out to be a summary of Saudi Arabia's 
financing of terrorist fronts including the 'charities' supporting Al 
Qaeda.

And now, the New York Times tells us, the US Senate has been 
embarrassed into holding hearings on those Saudi charity fronts 
including one named WAMY.

Of course, this is ancient news to those who watched my report on 
WAMY and Saudi funding of terror -- broadcast on BBC's evening news 
on November 9, 2001. (In the USA, that report earned me the title of 
'conspiracy nut.' In America, a 'conspiracy nut' is defined as a 
journalist who reports the news two years before the New York Times.)

And here's the ugly little punchline to the story you WON'T read in 
the Times. Why has the Bush Administration covered up for WAMY and 
the Saudi's other blood-soaked 'charity' operations?

For the answer, let me take you back to Midland, Texas, 1986. A young 
old man, George W. Bush, seems to have trouble finding oil. But he 
strikes it rich when his flailing drilling partnership is bought out 
by Harken Oil. Despite the addition of the business acumen of Bush 
Jr., Harken faces collapse; but is pulled from the brink by a cash 
infusion from a Saudi, Sheik Bakhsh. The money from Arabia has 
nothing to do, we must assume, with Dubya's daddy at the time holding 
the post of Vice-President of the Free World.

The Bakhsh booty continued a pattern of the young Bush being saved 
from his dire business decisions by a line of Sheik angels. His first 
oil company, Arbusto, going bust-o, was aided by the American 
financial representative of the bin Ladin family.

And on BBC TV last month, I reported this: following the bombing of 
our embassies, the Clinton Administration sent two delegations to 
Saudi Arabia to tell their royal highnesses to stop giving money to 
the guys who are killing us. But Mr. Bush, once in office, put the 
kibosh on unfriendly words to the Saudis.

Furthermore, in the summer of 2001, Mr. Bush disbanded the US 
intelligence unit tracking funding of Al Qaeda. What is it our G-men 
were uncovering? According to two separate sources speaking to BBC, 
the funders of Al Qaeda fronts include those who have previously 
funded Bush family business and political ventures.

Now that's a wee bit embarrassing. Something you wouldn't want in a 
congressional report. Something you may not want the FBI to dwell on. 
(And you can unlock the womens and children: the BBC reports will NOT 
be broadcast on US television.)

And there's this: a document marked "Secret" and "199I" (meaning 
'national security') which found its way out of the offices of the 
FBI in into the office of our BBC/Guardian newspaper team. It 
indicates (and whistleblowers confirmed) that, prior to the September 
11 attack, the Bush Administration held back agents of the FBI from 
tracking two members of the bin Laden family. According to the buried 
FBI report, the bin Laden lads were operating in the USA for "a 
suspected terrorist organization", WAMY.

But we mustn't ask too many questions of the Bush Administration's 
blindfolding the FBI, nor, Heaven forbid, discomfit the Saudis over 
their contributions to Terror-R-Us. After all, in BushWorld, Saudi 
Arabia and America have shared values: we want our boys to kill, not 
to kiss.


Greg Palast is author of the New York Times bestseller, The Best 
Democracy Money Can Buy, which includes the award-winning report, 
"Did Our President Spike the Investigation of bin Laden?" View his 
report for BBC Television's Newsnight on Bush, WAMY and the bin 
Ladens at www.GregPalast.com

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<http://www.groundtruthinvestigations.com/>