Top Saudi officials have directed huge sums to charity organizations and other groups that may have helped fund the September 11 attacks, The New York Times reported on Saturday.
Citing US officials who read the 28-page unpublished chapter of the nearly 900-page Congressional report on the hijackings released on Thursday by a joint House and Senate intelligence committee, the Times conveyed the chapter concentrates almost entirely on Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi government has angrily denied these allegations. The Saudi Embassy issued a statement late Thursday condemning what it calls “false accusations made for political purposes.”
The deletion of those pages has resulted in an anti-Saudi backlash in Washington. New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer said Friday that what had been deleted was surely sensitive information about Saudi Arabia, the homeland of 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers.
But some people who read the deleted section said it represented a searing indictment of how Saudi Arabia's ruling elite have distributed millions to extremists through an informal network of Saudi nationals, including some in the United States, the US newspaper reported. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
