De-classified transcript: Guantanamo inmate believes Saudi royal had role in 9/11

Says a religious figure who urged him to take part in anti-US plot referred to a man as ‘Your Highness’

An accused al Qaeda bombmaker told military officials at the US base in Guantanamo Bay that he believed an unnamed member of the Saudi royal family was part of an effort to recruit him for violent extremist acts before 9/11 attacks, The Associated Press reported on Saturday.

Ghassan Abdallah al Sharbi, who went to college in Arizona, said a religious figure in Saudi Arabia used the term ‘your highness’ during a telephone conversation with a man, just before urging al Sharbi to return to the US and take part in a plot that would involve learning to fly a plane, according to a newly released transcript.

He described the conversation in June to the Periodic Review Board, which assesses whether Guantanamo prisoners can be released. The Pentagon on Thursday posted a transcript, with parts blacked out, on the website of the board, which includes representatives from six US agencies and departments.



The statement is convoluted and lacks important details, such as whether the ‘religious figure’ might be close to any Saudi officials. It does not indicate who the Saudi royal might be and al Sharbi did not say he met the man.

His statement adds to a list of suggestive but hardly definitive clues about possible involvement by members of the Saudi establishment in the 9/11 attacks.

The Saudi Embassy in Washington declined to comment on the al Sharbi transcript. In the past, the Saudis have pointed to the 9/11 Commission, FBI investigations and other probes that found no Saudi government or royal family involvement in the attacks. The 9/11 commission found there was no evidence to indicate that the Saudi government as an institution or Saudi senior officials individually had supported the attacks.

There have been consistent allegations, including by Guantanamo prisoners, of financial and other support by Saudi officials and members of the royal family for al Qaeda-linked charities, said terrorism consultant Evan Kohlmann, who reviewed the 28-page transcript.

“The Saudi royal family is quite large and diverse, and it is no secret that various members were once reputed for their patronage of Islamist causes and charities,” Kohlmann said. “In that light, it is hardly ridiculous that al Sharbi would have encountered a Saudi royal who sympathised with al Qaeda.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 18^th, 2016.