Saudi Arabia: seeking security (catch all)

[OUTLAW 09]

If you really think about it...the KSA response has feet and shoes and can walk for a number of reasons at least from their POV.

Any US law and or US court decision against the KSA and or KSA individual can easily be used to attach any kind of KSA assets much as is being done now in the Russian Kudos court decision being used against Russian assets in say France to the tune of 1B USD.

By eliminating say the 850B USDs they are no longer attachable within the US.

Secondly, there has always been a witch hunt in US media against alleged KSA 9/11 involvement since 9/11.

Saudi Arabia's king ran state charity that 9/11 victims say funded and armed al Qaeda
http://www.floridabulldog.org/2016/04/12513/

Lastly, this is another stone in a drumbeat against the KSA which actually parallels the Obama Goldberg interview comments concerning KSA.

After those comments I am surprised that Obama is going to the GCC meeting.

It is general knowledge of the "divided loyalities" within the KSA ruling elite...just look at the bin Laden family and that many in the US never did understand why the Bush Administration allowed bin Laden family members to leave the US just after 9/11 AND the RUIMNT that has been spun out of that move by Bush..or even look at the relationship of the first Bush to the KSA royal family.........

[OUTLAW 09]

Worth reading the Senate's initial submission and then the "marked up" Bill and one can see exactly what is the KSA "heartburn"....and along the way notice the US is precluded from the Bill...as one could construct something out of the Bill that actually fits the US.......notice the language....excludes any agent of the US working under the "color" of the US government.....meaning what happens if a Us CIA agent is working for an "opposition group" that goes rogue such as say the Kurdish YPG and attacks civilians in Turkey...is then the US government a "sponsor of terrorism" as well.....????

Under the Senate Bill...no...but the KSA is....?????

Here it is:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-...nate-bill/2040 …
There is the full bill and a summary on this page.

[Bill Moore]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minut...t-steve-kroft/

The link above is to the 60 minutes video and transcript on the missing 28 pages of the 9/11 commission report not released to the public.

Roemer and others who have actually read the 28 pages, describe them as a working draft similar to a grand jury or police report that includes provocative evidence -- some verified, and some not. They lay out the possibility of official Saudi assistance for two of the hijackers who settled in Southern California. That information from the 28-pages was turned over to the 9/11 Commission for further investigation. Some of the questions raised were answered in the commission's final report. Others were not.

Steve Kroft: Is there information in the 28 pages that, if they were declassified, would surprise people?

Tim Roemer: Sure, you're gonna be surprised by it. And, you're going to be surprised by some of the answers that are sitting there today in the 9/11 Commission report about what happened in San Diego, and what happened in Los Angeles. And what was the Saudi involvement.

The increased focus on potential Saudi officials supporting the 9/11 mass murderers and the increasing political pressure to declassify these 28 pages is driving a wider wedge between Saudi and the U.S. Saudi is threatening economic nuclear option if the papers are declassified.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-0...ongress-passes

Saudi Arabia Threatens To Liquidate Its Treasury Holdings If Congress Probes Its Role In Sept 11 Attacks

Back in January, when the market was watching in shocked silence as oil prices were crashing to decade lows and as concerns emerged that Saudi Arabia may need to commence selling its vast, if unquantified, USD reserves, we wrote a post titled "Attention Finally Turns To Saudi Arabia's "Secret" US Treasury Holdings" where we noted something very surprising: whereas we do know that Saudi Arabia is the owner of the world's third largest USD reserves...... their actual composition remains as a secret, because while the US discloses the explicit Treasury holdings of all other nations, Saudi Arabia's holdings, for some unknown reason, are not officially disclosed.
"It’s a secret of the vast U.S. Treasury market, a holdover from an age of oil shortages and mighty petrodollars," Bloomberg wrote of Saudi Arabia’s US Treasury holdings.

By way of background, 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.

Suddenly Saudi Arabia is panicking: its response - if the US does pass this bill it would liquidate hundreds of billion in U.S. denominated assets, and perhaps as much as $750 billion in US Treasurys (the NYT's estimate of Saudi Treasury holdings).

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.”

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.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slate...11_report.html

Your Guide to the 28 Classified Pages About Saudi Arabia and 9/11 That Obama Might Release

What do they say, allegedly? 60 Minutes—based on the statements of people who’ve read them—says the pages amount to “a working draft similar to a grand jury or police report that includes provocative evidence—some verified, and some not” about assistance that Saudi nationals with government connections provided to some of the 9/11 hijackers while those hijackers were in the United States. More than one outlet has reported that some of the allegations involve Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi national who’s known to have done favors (a small loan, help renting an apartment) for two of the hijackers after meeting them at a Los Angeles restaurant on the same day that he also met with someone at L.A.’s Saudi consulate. (Al-Bayoumi has claimed that he didn’t know anything about the future hijackers and just happened to have struck up a friendship with them after randomly meeting them at the restaurant.)

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/...lassified.html

Why are 28 pages of the Joint Congressional Investigation into 9/11 still classified?

If I were a family member of a 9/11 casualty, I wouldn't care about the geopolitical considerations. I'd want the information released and the guilty parties brought to justice. So perhaps we should take our cue from those who lost the most on 9/11 and get the information before the American people and let the chips fall where they may.

We all can read between the lines and see where our biases take us. Still, assuming the Saudi officials are innocent, keeping this secret has simply made it worse. And if some of the officials are guilty, then they need to be held responsible. Beyond this sad story is an even larger story of a potentially fraying alliance and Saudi's readiness to employ economic power on the world stage to coerce. Not the first time, but this may indicate the U.S. doesn't have the level of power and influence it had previously to shape events globally now.

[OUTLAW 09]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minut...t-steve-kroft/

The link above is to the 60 minutes video and transcript on the missing 28 pages of the 9/11 commission report not released to the public.



The increased focus on potential Saudi officials supporting the 9/11 mass murderers and the increasing political pressure to declassify these 28 pages is driving a wider wedge between Saudi and the U.S. Saudi is threatening economic nuclear option if the papers are declassified.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-0...ongress-passes

Saudi Arabia Threatens To Liquidate Its Treasury Holdings If Congress Probes Its Role In Sept 11 Attacks








http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slate...11_report.html

Your Guide to the 28 Classified Pages About Saudi Arabia and 9/11 That Obama Might Release



http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/...lassified.html

Why are 28 pages of the Joint Congressional Investigation into 9/11 still classified?



We all can read between the lines and see where our biases take us. Still, assuming the Saudi officials are innocent, keeping this secret has simply made it worse. And if some of the officials are guilty, then they need to be held responsible. Beyond this sad story is an even larger story of a potentially fraying alliance and Saudi's readiness to employ economic power on the world stage to coerce. Not the first time, but this may indicate the U.S. doesn't have the level of power and influence it had previously to shape events globally now.

Bill..you bring up an interesting use of the word economic nuclear option....if one looks closely at the current oil debate the Saudi's have been using oil pricing as their nuclear option and if we see their stand yesterday at Doha....then they are driving against three targets...1) US shale oil, 2) Russia and 3) Iran and they are willing to drive the price down to the 10-15 USD ranges to achieve their goals...

Obama's comment of a "cold peace" may haunt him in the coming years as of this moment there will never be a "cold peace" between KSA and Iran and we are yet to see if KSA takes the step and enters Syria which some including myself say is not a question of "if"...but "when" and that "when" is not far away if Assad keeps up his terror civilian bombing campaign in the middle of this so called cessation of hostilities....

That they must now get bank loans to fill their budget does not seem to bother them...depicts just how serious they are and you are right the US has absolutely no influence and I am surprised that Obama is even going to the coming GCC meeting especially after this Goldberg interview.

BTW...Kerry also has no further creditability in the ME after his two statements that Iran is pulling their mercenaries and troops out of Syria... a DoS should always state facts...not "his wishes" especially in the ME....

BTW....reference the 28 pages...I would rather have a far more detailed analysis of the 9/11 investigation that did not dig into exactly what did the NSA truly know and yet did not pass on to other federal agencies......many have alluded to the fact that the NSA did in fact monitor a number of the participants and yet we have heard nothing about that and it was not part of the 9/11 investigation as NSA "classified it at the TS/SCI SIGINT levels.

Yet the 9/11 panel let it pass.

That analysis is actually far more important as it points to some current recent failures within the US IC.

[OUTLAW 09]

BTW.....instead of this Saudi debate we need urgently a debate on just why the Obama WH has looked the other way with Iran and Hezbollah that are since 1979 1) a terror sponsoring country and 2) Hezbollah a terror organization--and elements of IRGC as well.......as they have also a large number of US personnel "blood on their hands".......

Commander of #IRGC ground forces saying they sent their forces to #Syria for training, and #USA is their main enemy.

[OUTLAW 09]

Many are overlooking the simple fact that the current KSA royal family is in a generational shift and the younger group has been preaching that KSA must be more forceful in stating their FP and security needs.

AND this group is both forward thinking and vocal in their statements.

IMHO....the threat to sell off over 700B in US assets was not just a verbal threat but seriously meant as a true wake up call to the US.

If one thinks it through....the Saudi's could use the 700B to cushion the price of oil at 5USDs per barrel while the rest of the oil producing countries ie the US would truly suffer.....my father was a SVP for a major oil company in the US and in the gas crisis in 1973...he made an interesting comment...if oil gets to 10USD we will be still making a profit and oil will flow...Saudi's have once or twice alluded to the cost of production being 2/3USDs per barrel.

While that massive of a sell off would effect the global finance world...KSA would still be selling oil......

We are now seeing them nuzzle up to Turkey, we see Turkey nuzzling up to Israel as does KSA and we still have the Saudi Palestine Peace proposal on the Arab League table....Obama and Iran are doing far more to motivate KSA than we are willing to fully understand.....

Turkey and Saudi embrace as Iran rises and US disengages
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tu...lder-vz2vln5fs …

If I were the Russians instead of accusing the US of "hybrid warfare against them" I would seriously look at KSA as Putin does not understand in the least Saudi security needs......AND Putin seems to have forgotten that it was the Saudi's that drove down the oil price in the 90s that collapsed the Soviet Union.

No Agreement in Doha, Ruble Falls; Bastrykin Claims US Wages 'Hybrid War' on Russia
http://www.interpretermag.com/russia...18-2016/#13383 …

[CrowBat]

[B]Commander of #IRGC ground forces saying they sent their forces to #Syria for training, and #USA is their main enemy.

Oh, what a surprise... isn't it?

Especially in the light of all the possible Western businessmen being so eager to go making billions in Iran: makes me wonder, how do they want to do so with an IRGC-regime in power?

Sure, IRGCs are as easy to bribe like all other Iranians. But, if that's going to make business with them anything like 'profitable'...?

Saudi's have once or twice alluded to the cost of production being 2/3USDs per barrel

That's the approx price they sell it at home. Means: their probable production price is not even half of that.

...AND Putin seems to have forgotten that it was the Saudi's that drove down the oil price in the 90s that collapsed the Soviet Union....

...and Iran to accept a cease-fire with Iraq... and then this was what bankrupted Iraq etc...

[OUTLAW 09]

The interesting "missing 28 pages" might in fact be about Saudi back channel funding BUT a far more critical aspect that is not being discussed here and CrowBat brought it up as did the IRGC Commander with his comment he is training for war with the US.

A well known ME analyst type has kept pounding away that there is far more Iranian involvement with IS/AQ than the Obama WH and his NSC truly wants us to understand.

AND it dates BEFORE 9/11........

Kyle W. Orton ‏@KyleWOrton
"Iran never paid a price for [killing our soldiers in #Iraq], any more than it did for waging a global terrorist war against the West".

Appears in the Obama WH drive to implement the Iran Deal even Obama overlooked the simple fact that one of the most deadliest IEDs...the EFPs were manufactured and then smuggled into Iraq from Iran......notice not a single attempt by the Obama WH to punish Iran for this...instead Obama hopes for "moderates" and passes IRGC and Khamenei 150B USDs.

Iran’s Partnership with al-Qaeda and Unanswered Questions
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on September 19, 2015
https://kyleorton1991.wordpress.com/...red-questions/

Also from 1992, Hizballah chief + IRGC officer Imad Mughniyeh was training al-Qaeda jihadis in the Bekaa, jointly did Khobar, etc

More than a decade BEFORE there was an Al Qaeda
Hezbollah carried out a suicide bombing against US embassy in #Beirut 33 years today, killed 60 US Marines & staff.

Then this yesterday.......
Saudi cash and #Iranian know how - al-Qa’ida and 9/11
http://observer.com/2016/04/uncoveri...truths-of-911/ …

[CrowBat]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minut...t-steve-kroft/...

A very interesting read, thanks a lot.

Still, assuming the Saudi officials are innocent, keeping this secret has simply made it worse. And if some of the officials are guilty, then they need to be held responsible.

Full agreement.

There was absolutely no point in keeping Saudi involvement 'secret' all through 2001-2008 period: anybody with at least a trace of clue about US-Saudi relations knew they were, while those Saudis that wanted to do so were just given years of time to continue making troubles (or at least financing those who did so). ...which they would've been unable to do, if sacked on time.

There's even less so a reason to keep this secret ever since.

I - and I'm surely the first to admit I'm poorly informed about what's up in the USA - have first heard of this report in... must've been in late 2012 or early 2013... around the time Prince Bandar was sacked from all of his positions. Back then the story was that he was sacked (and Saudis didn't get deeper involved in Syria) in exchange for keeping this report back.

From my POV, that was little else but treachery (treachery of the US government against its own people): absolutely nothing in US interest.

Indeed, considering probable repercussions at earlier times (say: before 2012, when it would've likely caused sacking of nearly all the top royals too, and their replacement by more sane people), it was counter-productive and not the least in Saudi interests either.