Turki day: Will an Osama associate represent Saudi Arabia in D.C.?

If you saw Fahrenheit 911, you'll recall the sight of former Saudi ambassador Prince Bandar -- "Bandar Bush" -- hobnobbing with our current prez and his dad. Bandar has been "axed" to leave. The Saudis replaced him with Turki al Faisal, the former head of Istakhbarat al Amiyyah, otherwise known as the Saudi version of the CIA.

Turki used to be Saudi Arabia's liaison man to a fellow named Osama Bin Laden. Interestingly, Turki al Faisal quit his post as intel chieftain only ten days before the attack on America. Some reports say he was removed following pressure from the United States.

The private lawsuit filed on behalf of the 911 families named Prince Turki as an ally of Al Qaida -- a charge he has always denied. A judge in the case ruled that Prince Turki had immunity; his name was therefore dropped.

The uncle of Turki al Faisal, interestingly enough, was Kamal Adham -- a major player in the BCCI scandal. The crooked BCCI bank (which specialized in money laundering and other unsavory activities) intertwined with the CIA, radical Islamists, and the Bush family.

Turki al Faisal defends his dealings with Osama in this interview with British report Con Coughlin. Some readers may find this choice of interviewers odd, since Coughlin has, in the past, played the role of a British intelligence asset.

Perversely enough, Reverend Moon's Washington Times praises Turki as someone who "has long been involved in his country's efforts to combat al Qaeda." This, despite the printed accounts of his early-90s collusion with Osama Bin Laden in a plot to change the government of Yemen. The Moonie Times analysis also contradicts the allegations printed here about Turki al Faisal and the possible funding of Al Qaida.

The above link will take you to a secondary source which quotes a piece titled "The Politics of Three -- Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Israel" by a German writer named Paul W. Rasche. Unfortunately, the original article seems to have been removed from the internet, and now maintains on online existence only in quotation.

In brief, Raschke states that Turki al Faisal heads (or headed) the Faisal Islamic Bank of Saudi Arabia -- which, according to Raschke, had subterranean connections to the world of Osama Bin Laden, and to the bank most closely associated with Al Qaida, Al Taqwa:

The president of the Al Taqwa Bank Group is Youssef Mustapha Nada, naturalized Italian, and a member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and Jamaa-al-Islamiya, which is directly allied with Al Qaeda through Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, said by some intelligence sources to be the brains behind bin Laden. When the Bahamas closed Al Taqwa Bank Ltd. early this year, Swiss authorities required a name change in Al Taqwa Bank, which then became registered in Switzerland as Nada Management Organization SA. It is the same Al Taqwa Bank.

More:

In 1970, Youssef Nada moved to Saudi Arabia and, with help from the Muslim Brotherhood, established contact with members of the Saudi Royal family, and founded a construction company in Riyadh, much the same as the Bin Laden family. He remained active in Riyadh, and soon founded the first Islamic bank in Egypt, the Faisal Bank.

More:

The Faisal Islamic Bank of Saudi Arabia is the head bank of a number of affiliated Islamic Banks under that name across the Islamic world from Egypt to Pakistan to the Emirates and Malaysia. The head of Faisal Islamic Bank of Saudi Arabia is former Saudi Intelligence Chief, Turki al-Faisal. Faisal Islamic Bank is directly involved in running accounts for bin Laden and his associates, and has been named by Luxembourg banking authorities in this regard.

(Emphasis added by me.) Is the Raschke article accurate? I do not know. In truth, I have not even seen the orginal piece.

However, I do think we have sufficient grounds to warrant congressional scrutiny of the man who, it seems, will soon function as Saudi Arabia'sambassador to the United States.