The anniversary of the 9/11 attacks seems the right moment to remind people how even very solid, careful reporting of apparent “deep politics” links in the attacks has never entered the larger American conversation. The story of the Saudi connection to a house in Sarasota, Florida, is must reading. It also is useful to consider given the established role of Saudi intelligence in the Syrian uprising.
A Long-Standing Relationship
The Ghazzawis’ relationship with the United States seems to date back to the 1950’s, when U.S. immigration records show that Abbas Ghazzawi visited New York. Abbas Ghazzawi was a prominent Saudi attorney. Esam, whose full name is Esam Abbas Ghazzawi, appears to be his son. (WhoWhatWhy was unable to reach Ghazzawi for comment on any of the matters in this article.)
Abbas Ghazzawi, arriving on a first class ticket on a connecting flight that originated in Saudi Arabia, was traveling in an elite entourage. One companion, Rasem al-Khalidi, was a high-ranking Saudi monetary official. Another, Faisal al-Hegelan, would years later serve in the all-important position of Saudi ambassador to Washington. He held that post during 1979-1983, a period that partly coincided with the Reagan-Bush Administration. His replacement was Prince Bandar, the Bush family friend jokingly called “Bandar Bush.”
Saudi Air Force AWACS
The focus of Saudi royals in their dealings with the United States can be seen in the conduct of al-Hegelan. As ambassador, al-Hegelan was principally concerned with propping up the Saudi regime. He had seventeen military attachés assigned fulltime to lobby for the sale of the advanced command-and-control aircraft known as AWACS to the Saudi air force. (see P. 17 of the book Arab Reach, by Hoag Levins.) Overcoming heavy pressure on Washington from the Israelis, the Saudis succeeded in getting Congress to approve the AWACS sale. Al-Hegelan also led a lobbying campaign against Secretary of State Alexander Haig’s public support of Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. President Reagan, with strong input from his vice president, George H.W. Bush, removed Haig and replaced him with George Schultz, who sided with the Saudis; Schultz had been president of Bechtel, one of the largest construction contractors in Saudi Arabia, whose projects included the original Trans-Arabian Pipeline.
We find the Ghazzawi clan again in the United States in 1970, when the young Esam married the American Deborah G. Browning. The marriage didn’t last long—in July, 1971 they obtained a divorce in Orange County, California.
The first sign of the Ghazzawi clan on the east coast of the United States was in 1992, when Esam bought a penthouse apartment in the D.C. suburb of Rosslyn, Virginia. In various accounts, Esam is described as a banker or financier, who also works as an interior designer. He accrued additional property in Arlington, Virginia and Longboat Key, Florida, and his name turns up in connection with a fancy office building in the K Street lobbying corridor.
In this period, Esam’s name surfaced when investigators probing the monumentally corrupt Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) sought to recover assets from Saudi Prince Fahd bin Salman—brother of Prince Sultan bin Salman. The prince argued that his assets were being held in another account under Esam Ghazzawi’s name. Only low-level BCCI officials went to jail in the sprawling scandal, which involved banks and governments all over the world. Prince Fahd bin Salman is one of the relatives who died unexpectedly in the year of the 9/11 attacks. (The Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations were repeatedly accused by investigators into the BCCI mess of obstructing their inquiries; it is worth noting that the Treasury Department official responsible for scrutinizing BCCI’s affairs in the Reagan-Bush administration was assistant secretary for enforcement John M. Walker Jr.—who happened to be George H.W. Bush’s cousin.)
In 1995, Ghazzawi’s daughter Anoud, living in South Florida, married Abdulazzi al-Hiijii, who was a university student in the area. Esam and Deborah Ghazzawi, apparently reunited sometime after their 1971 divorce, purchased the Sarasota home into which the couple moved. Abdulazzi appears to have received a B.S. and Masters of Information Systems from the University of South Florida. His Master’s should be noted in the context of only one of two items removed from the Sarasota house before the couple fled—a computer.
Today, the family seems comfortably ensconced back in Saudi Arabia. In August, 2003, Abdulazzi al-Hiijjii became a career counselor at the government oil company—Saudi Aramco—a position he retains to this day. He served on the committee holding a symposium about electronic services in the eastern (oil-producing) province of Saudi Arabia, held in Khobar in 2008.
We found the American-born Deborah Ghazzawi, posting online just three years ago for help on finding her username/password for a Saudi Blackberry sim card.
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The seeming reluctance of the US government to pursue hints of possible Saudi complicity in the 9/11 attacks, wherever they might lead, is hardly an isolated failure. Richard Clarke, the chief counterterrorism official in both the Clinton and Bush administrations, has recently stated his view that the CIA made an unsuccessful attempt to recruit two of the hijackers as double agents before the 9/11 attacks, then scurried to cover up this bungled effort. Clarke thinks evidence points to the spy agency itself allowing the hijackers into the U.S. as part of this scheme. If Clarke is correct, this would be another case of interested parties in the government keeping the truth bottled up for their own purposes.
President Bush with Saudi King Abdullah
Even more disturbing, the final section of the Congressional inquiry’s report, on “sources of foreign support for some of the Sept. 11 hijackers,” was totally redacted. It is still unavailable to the public on the 10th anniversary of the attacks. Both Graham and his GOP counterpart, Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, determined that national security would not be harmed by releasing those pages. Yet they were withheld—on the orders of George W. Bush.
Graham told the reporters he thinks suppression of the material provided “protection of the Saudis from embarrassment, protection of the administration from political embarrassment … some of the unknowns, some of the secrets of 9/11.”
Tellingly, the venerable British insurance company Lloyd’s of London actively investigated Saudi complicity in 9/11. As reported by the U.K. paper The Independent, a Lloyd’s unit has launched what is described as “a landmark legal case” against Saudi Arabia, claiming that the kingdom is indirectly responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Lloyd’s asserts that Saudi banks and charities acting as surrogates for the royal family gave the terrorist group the sustenance it needed to carry out the 2001 assault. (Lloyd’s is seeking to recover sums it paid to firms and individuals affected by the event.) Reports The Independent:
The legal claim states: “Absent the sponsorship of al-Qa’ida’s material sponsors and supporters, including the defendants named therein, al-Qa’ida would not have possessed the capacity to conceive, plan and execute the 11 September attacks. The success of al-Qa’ida’s agenda, including the 11 September attacks themselves, has been made possible by the lavish sponsorship al-Qa’ida has received from its material sponsors and supporters over more than a decade leading up to 11 September 2001.”
Bizarrely, several days ago, Lloyd’s quietly withdrew its suit, declining to explain why. But the move was conducted in such a way to suggest a possible settlement, thereby raising still more questions for investigation.
President Obama with Saudi King Abdullah
Meanwhile, in the United States, a growing chorus of voices—some very establishment voices—are demanding accountability and candor. Graham and Clarke have now been joined by retired CIA officer Bob Baer, by several former FBI agents and by Tom Kean, chairman of presidential 9/11 commission, all of whom express concern that the full story has not been permitted to emerge.
“No evidence,” But None Sought
The 9/11 Commission report “found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials” financed Al Qaeda. But this carefully worded statement does not foreclose the possibility that members of the Saudi royal family personally provided financing, or that senior officials funded companies or outsiders that in turn provided financing.
Many questions remain to be answered. For example, why did the Ghazzawi clan flee in such a hasty manner, pausing only to empty their safe but leaving food on the kitchen counter and their pool pump running? Was it because they had received some unexpected news, news so urgent and alarming that normal preparations for an orderly departure gave way to what appears to be a panicky exit?
If this question seems inconsequential, think about what kind of news, in the days just before 9/11, could have prompted such intemperate flight from the United States by a well-connected clan of Saudis? The possible answers to this question could prove world-changing. The most important Mideast nation so far untouched by the dislocations of the Arab Spring is Saudi Arabia, the single largest supplier of petroleum to the western world. If major players in that country’s ruling family are shown to have had a hand in the 9/11 attacks, it would be the equivalent of a geopolitical tsunami—upsetting powerful elites around the world. Is it any wonder that efforts have been made to prevent a no-holds-barred investigation of this connection? And isn’t it time, ten years later, to end this coverup — in the name of the common good?
Former Senator Graham, for one, is increasingly adamant. As he told the St. Petersburg Times: “These 19 people did not play out this plot as lone wolves. The chances that 19 people, most of whom had never been in the U.S., who did not speak English, and most of whom did not know each other, could have completed training, practiced and executed such a complicated plot defies common sense.”
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