US agents were told to 'back off Bin Ladens'
November 07 2001 at 06:17AM
London - Special agents in the United States probing relatives of
Saudi-born terror suspect Osama bin Laden before September 11 were
told to back off soon after George W Bush became president, the BBC
reported on Tuesday.
The BBC's Newsnight current affairs programme said that Bush at one
point had a number of connections with Saudi Arabia's prominent Bin
Laden family.
It added there was a suspicion that the US strategic interest in Saudi
Arabia, which has the world's biggest oil reserve, blunted its
inquiries into individuals with suspected terrorist connections - so
long as America was safe.
Newsnight reported it had seen secret documents from a FBI probe into
the September 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington which
showed that despite the reputation of Osama bin Laden as the black
sheep of the family, at least two other US-based relatives are
suspected of links with a possible terrorist organisation.
So long as America was safe
The programme said it had obtained evidence that the FBI was on the
trail of Bin Laden family members living in the United States before,
as well as after, the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Newsnight said Bush made his first million 20 years ago with an oil
company partly funded by the chief US representative of Salem bin
Laden, Osama's brother.
Bush also received fees as director of a subsidiary of Carlyle
Corporation, a little-known private company which in just a few years
since its founding has become one of America's biggest defence
contractors, and his father, George Bush senior, is also a paid
advisor, the programme said.
The connection became embarrassing when it was revealed that the Bin
Ladens held a stake in Carlyle, sold just after September 11, it
added.
Newsnight said it had been told by a highly-placed source in a US
intelligence agency that there had always been "constraints" on
investigating Saudis, but under President George W Bush it had become
much worse.
The connection became embarrassing
After the elections, the intelligence agencies were told to "back off"
from investigating the Bin Laden family, and that angered field
agents, the programme added.
The policy was reversed after September 11, it reported.
The former head of the American visa bureau in Jeddah from 1987 to
1989, Michael Springman, told Newsnight: "In Saudi Arabia I was
repeatedly ordered by high-level State Department officials to issue
visas to unqualified applicants.
"People who had no ties either to Saudi Arabia or to their own
country. I complained there. I complained here in Washington... to the
Inspector General and to Diplomatic Security and I was ignored."
He added: "What I was doing was giving visas to terrorists - recruited
by the CIA and Osama bin Laden to come back to the United States for
training to be used in the war in Afghanistan against the
then-Soviets."
Newsnight also said it had seen a document that showed US special
agents were investigating a close relative of Osama bin Laden,
identified only as Abdullah, because of his relationship with the
World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), which the programme said was a
suspected terrorist organisation.
The programme reported it had found where he used to live with another
close relative, Omar, also an FBI suspect, in Falls Church, Virginia,
a suburb of Washington.
The house was conveniently close to WAMY, it said, and just a couple
of blocks down the road was a place listed by four of the alleged
September 11 hijackers as their address.
The US Treasury has not frozen WAMY's assets, and insists it is a
charity, the programme said, yet Pakistan had expelled WAMY
"operatives" and India claimed WAMY was funding an organisation linked
to bombings in Kashmir.
The FBI did look into WAMY, but for some reason agents were pulled off
the trail, Newsnight said. - Sapa-AFP
This article was originally published on November 07, 2001
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