While the level of protection afforded Saudi Arabia in Washington is hardly a secret, the level of that support was on display this month when officials pushed the Obama Administration to release long-withheld pages from the 9-11 report, as we previously discussed. Those pages reportedly implicate Saudi Arabia in the 9-11 attacks. Saudi Arabia response with an express threat to sell off hundreds of billions of dollars of assets if Congress were to pass a bill allowing the Kingdom to be held liable for the attacks. One would think that the response would be outrage at the threat. After all, the bill would only allow citizens to sue and a bipartisan group of Senators have joined to support the 9-11 families. Saudi Arabia could still defend itself (and according to its government, vindicate itself) in a court of law. Of course, the United States has a real court system as opposed to the government controlled, Sharia “courts” used in the Kingdom to mete out medieval justice.
The Administration not only is staying silent about this insulting threat but is doing precisely what the Saudis are demanding in trying to block the bill. When push comes to shove between the victims or 9-11 and the Saudis, the choice appears clear.
So that there would be no mistake about the threat,
Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister, delivered the kingdom’s message personally last month — threatening a sudden sell-off of $750 billion in treasury securities and other assets to cripple the economy. The rationale is to avoid the assets from being frozen by American courts. Interestingly, this assumes that you are likely to be found guilty of complicity in the worst terrorist attack in United States history. What is interesting is that the use of al-Jubeir seemed calculated to maximize the threat. The same message could have been delivered through leaks that the Saudis were preparing such a selloff for strategic reasons. The open threat was a serious miscalculation by the Saudis in my view. Few Americans would take the threat as anything short of a slap in the face of the victims of 9-11 and the country as a whole.
The Obama Administration is shrugging off the insult to our legal system by a country that violates every core principle of due process and civil liberties in their own country. Instead, it is suggesting that holding Saudi Arabia liable for American deaths could put Americans at legal risk overseas. Whatever the merits of the argument against the access to the courts for these citizens (and I would be very interesting to hear them), the Administration should have delivered a clear message that we do not respond to such threats, particularly when another country is balancing American lives against foreign investments.
What do you think?
Is it possible the White House “reluctance” to reveal the truth about Saudi involvement has something to do with emptying out Gitmo? After all, two days ago it was announced that 9 more “detainees” were being shipped to Saudi. Sounds like tit for tat to me.
One of the downsides of global free trade is that other nations can economically put the screws to you.
That said, we should have frozen their assets back in 2001 when this was first known.
i agree w/ Darren.
Economic sanctions to influence governmental behavior? How barbaric!
hahaha “the United States has a real court system” The best money can buy.
Here are examples of the United States court system;
According to U.S. and International Law all the U.S. / Israeli invasions are Wars of Aggression, War Crimes
These are the same crimes the Nazis committed
Millions have been murdered due to these invasions
Washington, DC = Nazi Berlin
Anyone who supports the Republicans, Democrats & Israel are accomplices to murder
Where are the indictments? Where are the lawsuits?
As per 9/11;
Israel and Zionist Jews did 9/11
(documentation at http://BuenaVistaMall.com & http://www.Bollyn.com)
Please reference articles by Kevin Barrett, Christopher Bollyn, Preston James & Dr. Alan Sabrosky
Feel free to google ‘Israel did 9/11’ or ‘Israel behind 9/11’
Where are the indictments? Where are the lawsuits?
Saudi Arabia is like a woman who cries false rape and then tries acts of threat and coercion.
Will Obama stand up or buckle under pressure? Just one more EO before Obama is out of office.
The Obama administration continues to demonstrate how spineless it is rather than to stand up to the blatant threats from the tyrannical and barbaric House of Saud.
Good. Lets hope they sell everything. China too.Call me a nationalist I dont care. A country should own its own land.
Call their bluff and offer them 5 cents on the dollar. The United States can inflict far more economic damage on the Kingdom than they could on us.
I suspected from just after the terrorist attacks that someone within the Saudi Government, or at least their royal family, made material contributions to the attacks. My suspicions were first keyed when the Saudi ambassador emerged from a meeting with White House officials and in listening to what he had to say and coupled with the non-verbal cues I recognized in him, he looked like a man who had been revealed something as strongly upsetting as it would if he had just read his own death warrant. I In the first year or two afterward, I was convinced of my suspicions: that the CIA and others knew with certainty of Saudi involvement and the ambassador was informed of this during the meeting.
Essentially the executive branch and others knew that if the American public knew the full truth of the matter, and especially since we just bailed Saudi Arabia and Kuwait from the gulf war a decade prior, the public and subsequently Congress would have wanted Saudi Arabia on a pike. And, justifiably so.
But, the geopolitical matters proved to place the US Government and the Saudis as strange bedfellows. I don’t know if their king had approved such an attack, I don’t think he would have personally, but I suspected it was someone in the middle, but enough to implicate their government as a whole.
Since then, the two executive administrations have got themselves into a real fix. If they do not release the documents, or pass this legislation, they will be viewed as bowing to the Saudis, perhaps even lower than our current president did years ago. But, if they do release the documents and it was proven the government let the Saudis off the hook and deceived the American citizens we might want our government on a pike. And with the mistrust and resentment of the federal government and politicians generally, it is going to be very ugly indeed.
As to the sell off of assets, what are they going to do with the money, keep in in Saudi -Arabia? There is a reason it isn’t there now Nd it isn’t that why want to help us. It’s because they want it in a safe place if they have to run!
Don’t we still sell them military weapons? Don’t they need us as much as we need them?
Prince Bandar is a part of the Saudi government, an important and powerful part of it!
The idea that a foreign government feels powerful enough to warn us which laws we may pass is so disturbing that I would not care which government it was but since it is the theocratic government that we , our government, has defended, coddled and supported in every way possible, it makes my blood boil. The fact that the President would rush to Ryhad to placate these charming folks is disgusting and inappropriate. He should be announcing a boycott of Saudi Arabia, instead.
“…the United States has a real court system as opposed to the government controlled, Sharia “courts” used in the Kingdom to mete out medieval justice.”
Would that be the real court system that has imprisoned three-million Americans behind bars, more prisoners than all other countries combined have behind bars? Or the court system in Texas, which executed an innocent man because high-school dropouts were the arson investigators. And a judge refused to intervene because she had an hair appointment? Or the court system that routinely imprisons innocent men of rape? I could go on and on.
There is no real court system in the United States any more than voters have a real say in their government.
According to sources, the Saudi government is not implicated in the 9/11 report. However, Prince Bandar is a player and is liable. If they can attach his actions to the House of Saud, the House will fall.
There is a strong probability that some of the demented scum that slaughtered the thousands of innocents on 9/11 are matched with like demented scum in the Saudi government, whether at the level of accommodating functionaries or among the thousands of inbred poobahs that run that particular sewer. What will be almost impossible to prove is that any assistance given by scum to scum was intended to aid in these acts of terrorism or simply to aid the scum to get into the country, as a matter of course, like functionaries of any country assisting their citizens regarding issues of visas, etc. It may all come down to the tit for tat of diplomatic privileges and what may be construed as participating in these heinous crimes but was only negligence or nothing at all. The US putting Saudi Arabia on trial, in this most litigious country, may just be a lot of Trumpeting.
Washington calls it “smart diplomacy”, I call it selling out.
It appears that Saudis count for more in Washington than do American citizens.
Reblogged this on Truth Troubles: Why people hate the truths' of the real world.
“What you ca n0t criticize is your God.” (Unknown author.)
Call their bluff they are bleeding now with the low oil price and will have to sell investments in any case. They already put part of crown jewel Aramco up for bid.
Kill’em all, let Allah sort it out.