NEW YORK - A Saudi Arabian charitable organization and two Saudi princes were dismissed as defendants in three civil lawsuits accusing them of providing support to Al Qaeda before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack.US District Judge Richard Casey made the rulings on Wednesday as he continued deciding who could remain as defendants in cases brought by representatives, survivors and insurance carriers of the victims of the attack. He made similar rulings in January, when the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, three princes and several financial institutions were dismissed as defendants.
| Yet another reason why the 'law-enforcement' model doesn't work against global terrorism. |
The plaintiffs had said that US forces raided its Sarajevo branch in October 2001 and found computer hard drives with photographs of the World Trade Center before and after its collapse along with photos of two US embassies in Africa that were bombed in 1998 and the USS Cole. The plaintiffs also had alleged that US forces found files on pesticides and crop dusters, the locations of Washington, D.C., government buildings, fake Department of State badges and cash.
The lawsuits said Prince Salman, a member of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Council of Ministers and the president of the Relief Commission, and Prince Naif, the Saudi minister of the interior since 1975, had provided material support to bin Laden and Al Qaeda.
The judge permitted the litigation to proceed against other defendants, including Tarik Hamdi and Wa’el Jalaidan. The lawsuits allege that Hamdi arranged the delivery of a battery for a satellite phone used by bin Laden to coordinate and order the African embassy bombings. Hamdi asserts that he is a journalist and that he did not buy the phone or battery pack, the judge said.
The lawsuits note that the United States has designated Jalaidan a terrorist, frozen his assets and named him one of the founders of Al Qaeda. The judge said Jalaidan, who served as the general director of a charitable group formed to help Pakistanis, maintains that the allegations against him amount to guilt by association.
| And it's a pretty strong association. |
Attorneys representing families that lost loved ones in the Sept. 11 attack said they were pleased the judge allowed the case to continue against the International Islamic Relief Organization of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, a charity they said was supported by top Saudi officials and established businessmen.
The judge found that the plaintiffs had made a prima facie case that IIRO was involved in terror plots and directed its activities against the United States, the Kreindler & Kreindler attorneys said in a news release issued Wednesday evening. The suit against IIRO claims it helped bin Laden nurture Al Qaeda in assassination plots against the pope and former President Clinton in 1995 and in money laundering schemes to fund terror attacks in the United States. It also claims the IIRO helped funnel millions of dollars to the Taleban government of Afghanistan while it was shielding bin Laden.