Certain Saudi Royals Funded Al-Qaeda Attacks, Moussaoui

An Al-Qaeda terrorist, Zacarias Moussaoui, who has been sentenced to life imprisonment in the US, makes some revealing statements. He said that in the 1990s, his network received support from the Royal family of Saudi Arabia, according to sputnik.com.

He made the statements in a testimony filed in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday by lawyers for attack victims.

He included his letter to a judge of the US federal court in New York last year. Hence, his disclosure draws in members of the Saudi royal family, such as former intelligence chief Prince Bandar Bin Sultan and the ambassador of the country in the United States, Prince al-Waleed Bin Talal.

Moussaoui affirmed that he had created a digital database of donors, which could give Osama Bin Laden an overview of those who had contributed to jihad. Every day for two or three months, he punched names of the group's donors into a Toshiba computer, along with how much they gave, according to cnn.com.

He added that he had drawn out a plan with a Saudi embassy member in the US to bring down the US president's plane 'Air Force One' with a Stinger missile.

He had pleaded guilty in 2005 to six terror-related charges, and now makes these startling revelations in a sworn statement in a brief submitted Tuesday, as part of an ongoing civil case by the families of 9/11 victims. The families of those killed in the WTC attack had included his letter in their lawsuit filed against Saudi Arabia, although the Saudi embassy rejected his accusations.

In 2004, the 9/11 Commission's report had confirmed that there was no evidence of the link with the Saudi Arabia family. "It does not appear that any government other than the Taliban financially supported al Qaeda before 9/11, although some governments may have contained al Qaeda sympathizers who turned a blind eye to al Qaeda's fund-raising activities," the report said. "Saudi Arabia has long been considered the primary source of al Qaeda funding, but we have found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded the organization."

Still, the report noted in parentheses, "This conclusion does not exclude the likelihood that charities with significant Saudi government sponsorship diverted funds to al Qaeda."

Responding to these allegations, the Saudi Embassy in Washington said, "There is no evidence to support Moussaoui's claim. The Sept. 11 attack has been the most intensely investigated crime in history and the findings show no involvement by the Saudi government or Saudi officials."

The Monday's statement pointed out: "Moussaoui is a deranged criminal whose own lawyers presented evidence that he was mentally incompetent. His words have no credibility."

A French citizen, Moussaoui's parents were Moroccan. Sentenced to life imprisonment in 2006, he had been suspected of organizing 9/11 attacks and had been arrested a few weeks before them. The German "Spiegel" magazine reports that just one of the twelve juries had saved him from the death penalty.