9/11 plotter says Saudis helped al-Qaeda

The only Al-Qaeda plotter convicted over the 9/11 attacks tells American lawyers that members of the Saudi royal family donated millions to the terror group in the 1990s.

French citizen Zacarias Moussaoui, dubbed the “20th hijacker,” makes the revelations in court papers filed in a New York federal court by lawyers for victims of the attacks who accuse Saudi Arabia of supporting Al-Qaeda.

He says he created a digital database of Al-Qaeda donors, including members of the royal family such as former intelligence chief Prince Turki al Faisal and Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who was Saudi ambassador to United States for 22 years until 2005.

Moussaoui says he met in Afghanistan an official from the Saudi embassy in Washington DC to discuss Al-Qaeda’s plots to attack the United States, and that he was supposed to meet the same man again in Washington for help on a plot to shoot down Air Force One.

He also claims there were direct dealings between senior Saudi officials and bin Laden, saying he traveled to Saudi Arabia twice to deliver handwritten letters between the Al-Qaeda mastermind and senior Saudis, including Prince Turki.

The Saudi embassy in Washington DC denies the allegations.

— AFP