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Saudi Defense
Minister Prince Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud is among those
sued
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NEW
YORK, August 20 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Saudi's richest
investors are threatening to pull billions of dollars out of America in
anger at allegations they helped fund Osama bin Laden, reported a U.K.
newspaper Tuesday, August 20.
A
lawsuit filed by relatives of 900 people who were killed in the
September 11 attacks is provoking fury among wealthy Saudis, reported
the Telegraph.
The
suit filed in a Washington court last week seeking damages of $100,000
billion, names three members of the Saudi royal family, including
defense minister Prince Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud, reported the
paper, adding that the lawsuit alleges that Saudi money has "for
years been funneled to encourage radical anti-Americanism as well as to
fund the Al-Qaeda terrorists".
Banks
and charities named in the suit are calling on Saudi Arabia to review
its financial and political ties to the U.S, the paper said.
The
Telegraph said that this threat comes as foreign investment in
the U.S. dries up because of business scandals, lower corporate earnings
and the collapse of the technology boom.
According
to U.S. government figures, foreigners put $124 billion into the U.S.
last year, down from $301 billion in 2000, the paper said, quoting
economists as saying that the reluctance of wealthy outsiders to expand
their business interests in America is a major threat to the world's
largest economy.
Saudi
investors have $750 billion in the U.S. A mass walkout would seriously
impede the U.S. attempts to pull away from recession, reported the Telegraph.
A
spokesman for the Al-Rajhi Investment and Development Corporation, a
bank named in the lawsuit, said: "This is an act to extort Saudi
money deposited in the United States and a way of meddling in the
region."
Muslim
groups in both Saudi Arabia and Britain believe there is a media
campaign against the kingdom aimed at pressuring it to support an attack
on Iraq in the name of toppling Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
On
July 17, in a commentary sent to a Lebanese daily newspaper, prominent
U.K. reporter, Patrick Seale, considered by many as an authority in
Middle Eastern affairs, said that the American markets have lost their
appeal to Arab investors.
Writing
in the Daily Star, Seale said he has asked several international
bankers about how much Arab money is actually invested in the U.S. and
the estimates he has got range between $400 billion and $800 billion.
The
bankers made a distinction, however, between private assets held by Arab
families and individuals and “official” assets held by Arab states
and commercial banks, said Seale.
“Of
the two, official assets were the easier to estimate. I was told that
the official assets of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates,
Qatar and Oman currently held in the United States were possibly in the
region of $350 billion to $400 billion,” he said.
Some
bankers suggested that private Arab foreign assets might account for
another $300 billion, but where these funds were and to whom they
belonged was a gray area which no one seemed inclined to discuss in
detail, he added.
“Arab
money, I was told, was now flowing out of the United States, and this
trend was accelerating,” said Seale.
The
rise of anti-Arab sentiments in the U.S. following the events of
September 11 and the anti-Arab policies of the Bush administration were
among the reasons Seale was given. There was also the scandals and the
“great uncertainty afflicting U.S. financial markets and the U.S.
economy,” he said.
In
its July 31 issue, the U.S. weekly magazine, Time, questioned the
U.S. reluctance to isolate Saudi Arabia and posed several questions on
its strategic importance to the U.S.
Under
an article titled: “Do we still need the Saudis?”, Time
questioned the notion of oil sustaining the alliance between the U.S.
and Saudi Arabia, and whether this still applies, now that the U.S. has
found alternative oil sources.
Saudi
Arabia controls 30% of the world’s known oil reserves, said Time,
and that is why for years, “in the interest of maintaining the
world’s supply of crude, Washington has ignored evidence that the
ruling Saudis are allowing the country’s powerful religious leaders to
propagate anti-Western hate.”
Other
valid reasons, according to the magazine, to isolate Saudi Arabia is
open loathing for the U.S. and sympathy for Bin Laden’s cause.
“The
kingdom’s latent anti-Americanism has been stoked in recent months by
fierce opposition to the Bush Administration’s pro-Israel Middle East
policies and the perceived harassment of Muslims in the U.S,” said
that magazine.
