Counter-terror expert: Obama let Saudis escape responsibility

By WND Staff

Beam from Twin Towers
Beam from Twin Towers

White House officials claimed President Obama “cleared the air” when he met with King Salman on his visit this week to Saudi Arabia.

Yet the future of the relationship remains murky, as controversy grows in the United States over Saudi Arabia’s possible support for the 9/11 hijackers, and officials in each nation challenge the usefulness of their supposed “ally.”

In a recent interview, former Saudi Intelligence Chief Prince Turk Al-Faisal questioned the “steadfastness” of American leadership as well as his country’s “dependence” on the United States, suggesting the relationship is something “we have to recalibrate.”

The resulting uncertainty was on full display when Obama received a noticeably cool welcome to Saudi Arabia, with neither the king nor any other high-ranking member of the royal family greeting the president at the airport. Instead, a relatively low official was dispatched in what several media outlets reported as a deliberate snub.

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CNN’s Michelle Kosinski said the Obama administration is pushing back against such reports, claiming it was the White House which actually wanted a smaller welcoming ceremony.

Yet the deeper tensions exposed by the visit were evident to all, as Saudi Arabia has reacted sharply to a bipartisan effort in Congress to declassify 28 pages in “The 9/11 Commission Report,” which could help document Saudi assistance to the hijackers.

In addition, the kingdom has threatened to sell off $750 billion in American assets if Congress passes the legislation.

Obama claims he has not read the classified pages. Even so, it appears he opposes a bill that would allow the victims of the 9/11 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia’s government, claiming it could expose the American government to similar lawsuits in other countries.

Philip Haney sees Obama’s actions as yet another example of America’s one-sided relationship with Saudi Arabia.

“Since the September 11 terrorist attacks, the terms of our relationship have been continuously defined by the Saudis rather than by the United States,” he told WND.

Haney won numerous awards and commendations during his career as a Customs and Border Protection officer for analyzing intelligence and producing actionable reports that led to the identification of hundreds of terrorists.

But Haney faced opposition from the politically correct Obama administration, which made him the subject of nine investigations. Haney chronicles his experiences, including his connection to the investigations of the San Bernardino and Boston Marathon terrorist attacks, in the new book “See Something, Say Nothing.”

Haney argues the American government made a deliberate choice after 9/11 to overlook Saudi Arabia’s possible involvement in sponsoring terrorism.

“To gain their support in the ‘War on Terror,’ one of the first post-9/11 compromises America made with the Saudis was to redact the 28 pages in the 9/11 Commission Report, thus shielding and/or exonerating them from any involvement or responsibility,” he said. “A second compromise we made with our supposed Wahhabi partners in peace was to ignore their decades-long role in the funding and support of thousands of pro-jihad madrassas throughout the Eastern Hemisphere.”

The veteran counter-terrorism analyst accused the American government of ignoring both morality and national security to protect the interests of those who benefit from the status quo.

“The one-sided quid pro quo arrangement between American and Saudi Arabia is remarkably similar to the ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ between Turkey and the West to overlook the Armenian Genocide, supposedly for the sake of peace and political and economic stability,” he said. “In fact, President Obama reinforced this viewpoint on April 19, when he stated, ‘A country with a modern and large economy like Saudi Arabia would not benefit from a destabilized global financial market, and neither would the United States.’

“The White House claims legislation to allow Saudi Arabia to be sued for its involvement in 9/11 would mean the end of ‘sovereign immunity.’ If we pause and explore what this revealing statement actually means, we might easily come to the conclusion that no country on earth will ever be held accountable for supporting terrorist attacks and/or regional wars, simply because one country’s ‘terrorist’ is another country’s ‘freedom fighter.'”

Has our own government already surrendered to Islamic jihad? A national security insider uncovers the terrible truth. Philip Haney’s “See Something, Say Nothing” is available for pre-order from the WND Superstore.

Indeed, Haney argued a changing strategic situation is leading Saudi Arabia to expand its ties to certain terrorist groups, most notably Hamas. King Salman met with top Hamas leaders in a move described by the New York Times as “the most striking example yet of the new king’s willingness to work with Islamist organizations long considered foes.”

The Hamas meeting was described as an attempt to unite the Arab world against Iran, while at the same time, Obama is moving to repair relations with the Shiite nation.

Thus, as Obama tries to push Saudi Arabia to take stronger action against ISIS, the Saudis are more interested in trying to convince Obama to back away from Iran. Saudi commentators were especially outraged by the president’s recent comment that Saudi Arabia and Iran needed to “share” the Middle East. And as Obama tries to navigate the complicated geopolitics of the Middle East, Haney argues the president is seemingly forgetting the American people.

“A new report indicates the flight certificate of a bomb maker for al-Qaida was found hidden in an envelope from the Saudi embassy in Washington,” Haney said. “This raises further questions about how directly involved the Saudi government is in sponsoring terrorism against the United States.”

Meanwhile, the Obama administration is still aggressively lobbying against the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, or JASTA, which is sponsored by a bipartisan group of 16 U.S. senators attempting to curtail the ability of countries to invoke sovereign immunity in lawsuits accusing them of supporting terrorism. The effort is designed to help clear the way for U.S. citizens to seek a legal remedy for Saudi Arabia’s alleged complicity in the 9/11 terror attacks.

As one woman whose husband died in the 9/11 attacks put it, “It’s stunning to think our government would back the Saudis over its own citizens.”

Haney says Obama is letting down Americans by refusing to put citizens first.

“It’s time to call Saudi Arabia’s bluff,” he said. “It’s time to stop basing our national security decisions on chronic appeasement of the ‘Guardian of the Holy Places.’ The statements from the White House show the Obama administration is anxious protect the image of Saudi Arabia, even after they deliberately insult him. With falling energy prices and vast untapped American reserves, we are no longer dependent on the kingdom. Now is the time to stop letting them slip away from responsibility for sponsoring terrorism.”

Enemies within? The hidden truth about the War on Terrorism. “See Something, Say Nothing” is available for pre-order from the WND Superstore.

 

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