According to investigative reporter Gerald Posner, Abu Zubadayah told his interrogators after being given sodium pentothol, that three high ranking Saudi officials were involved with the 9/11 attacks. Zubadayah was Al Qaeda's chief of operations until he was captured in March of 2002. The Saudis supposedly named by Zubadayah were Prince Ahmed bin Salman bin Abdul Aziz, Prince Fahd bin Turki bin Saud al-Kabir, and Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal bin Abdul Aziz. Over the course of one week in July of 2002 all of these men died. Prince Ahmed died of a heart attack at age 43, Prince Fahd died of thirst, and Prince Turki was killed in a car wreck. If what Posner reported was true, how likely is it that the CIA had a hand in their demise? Would you support the assassination of foreign dignitaries if linked to Al Qaeda?

if what he said is true, hell, even if what he said WASN'T true I think it is highly possible that the CIA (or more likely "'N'o 'S'uch 'A'gency") had at least a hand in it, if they were DIRECTLY involved.

I think the assassination of foreign dignitaries for ANY reason is an extremely slippery slope. are you aware of WHY congress banned such action? it was because on this day, 20 years ago a DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED official (allende) was assassinated by a person the CIA supported (general pinochet) all because he was marxist (first elected marxist leader in history) this is well documented.

This is interesting because i have never seen anything on these deaths.

Kinda makes me wonder if we really did attack the Saudis for their hand in 9/11. The CIA, even though it is not as effective as it was during the Cold War era, could have had a hand in the deaths of these Saudi officials.

As for your question, yes i would support assaination of anyone who is connected to al-queda in the internation leadership stage. They deserve to be punished for assisting these murderers

I think it is just as like the Saudi's would have taken them out on their own.

I think either we took them out or possibly the Saudi government did to keep America from retaliating against them. It's always better to handle embarrassing situations within your own house quietly than to have an outsider point it out.

Knowing the Saudi culture somewhat, getting caught is more of a crime than being involved, most likely it was the Saudis that took them out. Inside jobs make assasination and the subsequent coverups very easy.

Well, gee which is it? The President pretends the Saudi's had nothing to do with 9/11 and Iraq did. Why didn't we assassinate Saddam and go to war in S.A.?

If you don't know any of the facts how can you support assassinations without investigations or trials or facts? Allende is a perfect example of why we shouldn't do these things. His death is still mourned today in Chile....which I'm sure means there is still bitterness for the US...which ends in blowback like 9/11. The American people will end up paying for the games played by our government ten, twenty, or thirty years before.

Paladin, I read that recently as well. I think the stories behind those deaths would be very interesting. I think the entire story is a huge piece of the puzzle of 9/11 and should be investigated now rather than later. Some investigative reporter will be tracking down grassy knoll shooters and the world will never know the truth if we wait like they did for JFK.

But we have to WANT to know the truth. Too many people say they trust the President to take care of them and it's ok if he lies to them for their own good. Too bad they may not find out if it's for their good or not until it's too late and they're burying a loved one.

Danya...don't start making this a thread of personal attacks toward Bush & Iraq.

To end it here and now: IF we had attacked Saudi Arabia, we would be targeted more by terrorists if we attacked because of Mecca. It'd make the current terrorist situation in Iraq look like a picnic.

END OF DEBATE THERE


Bush probably, to make good PR with the Saudis, pretended to go along with the fact that they were the good guys and secretly had them assassinated. There are no FACTS to assassinations because assassinators don't try to leave evidence behind and it's not like the CIA will go out and say "Yep...we did it"

That is not the end of this debate. Carry on.

QUOTE

If what Posner reported was true, how likely is it that the CIA had a hand in their demise? Would you support the assassination of foreign dignitaries if linked to Al Qaeda?

And yet, in Iraq there is the city of Najaf, for Shiites the third most important city after Mecca and Medina. What's in Najaf?

· resting place of Imam Ali Ibn Abu Talib, the Shiites' most revered saint; Ali's shrine is also a landmark of Islamic art

· seat of Shiites' spiritual leaders

· center for academic and theological studies for the Islamic world

· third most holy city in Islam after Mecca and Medina (for Shiites -Jerusalem would be the third for Sunnis)

· overlooks world's largest cemetery where Shiites hope to be buried

While I agree with you that attacking SA might have earned us the emnity of all Muslims, I don't think that is one of the resons we didn't attack them. I think it has more to do with complex economic and political ties with SA's ruling family. While they are despots, the situation in SA is more beneficial to US interests. SA is one country in which we definitely DON'T want democracy to flourish. Which is pretty sad reasoning, but there it is.

It's possible that these deaths were coincidence, but I would not be surprised at all if they were taken out, probably by their own government, or possibly by Al Qaeda. If they were murdered by Al Qaeda, the truth will probably come out. If they were murdered by the Saudi government, we'll likely never know.

After reading a bit more on this it seems at least as likely, if they were killed, that it is part of an internal struggle for power within the Saud family.

I was just thinking of something that i saw on CNN.com during the massive raids in Saudi Arabia after the Saudi capital bombing at the Western residenses. There was an article that Al-Queda was threatening to kill Saudi Royals and Saudi higher ups because of their raids that they were conducting. I just can't find the article

I do not believe that Ahmed or Turki had anything to do with the 9/11. They were very simpathetic towards the Palestinians, but they were also pro American. Moreover, they would not have been part of any terrorist plot anywhere. They were both kind hearted, men of peace.

If Prince Ahmed was bumped off, his family are completely unaware of it. He died of heartfailure; however, it did so on the operation table where he was having a bit of light cosmetic surgery.

Let the poor man rest in peace. He does not deserve this!