James Forsyth James Forsyth

Now the Saudis claim they warned the US about 9/11

Following on from King Abdullah’s claim that the British were warned about 7/7, Prince Bandar—formerly the Saudi ambassador to the US who is extremely close to the Bush family—has said that if the Americans had cooperated with the Saudi properly, 9/11 wouldn’t have happened.

Here’s how ABC’s The Blotter reports the Prince’s remarks:

“Saudi security was actively following the movements of most of the terrorists with precision,” Bandar, the national security advisor to Saudi King told the Arabic satellite network, Al-Arabiya, Thursday.   “If U.S. security authorities had engaged their Saudi counterparts in a serious and credible manner, in my opinion, we would have avoided what happened,” Bandar said.

These comments from the Saudis are bizarre as they must know how unhelpful they are. They also draw attention to Saudi Arabia’s distinctly patch role on counter-terrorism and the Saudis really should not want to shine a light on their pre 9/11 activities.

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