The Washington Post has a story about one Saleh Ibn Abdul Rahman Hussayen, an itinerant Wahhabi who made some rather interesting journeys in this country back in 2001. Here’s (in outline – but read the whole thing) what the paper tell us:
1. “On the night of Sept. 10, 2001, Hussayen stayed at a…hotel that also housed three of the Saudi hijackers who would slam an aircraft into the Pentagon the next day, though there is no evidence that he had contact with them.”
2. “After the [9/11] attack, an FBI agent interviewed hotel guests, including Hussayen and his wife, but did not get very far.According to court testimony from FBI agent Gneckow earlier this year, the interview was cut short when Hussayen “feigned a seizure, prompting the agents to take him to a hospital, where the attending physicians found nothing wrong with him.” The agent recommended that Hussayen “should not be allowed to leave until a follow-up interview could occur,” Gneckow told the court. But “her recommendation, for whatever reason, was not complied with,” he said. On Sept. 19, the day air travel resumed, Hussayen and his wife took off for Saudi Arabia.”
3. Shortly thereafter, Hussayen was “named a minister of the Saudi government and put in charge of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque, “a position that involves him in the administrative affairs of the kingdom”
Now, stories like this can be enough to make anyone reach for the aluminium headgear, but they would lose a lot of their power if people felt that the administration was being as straight with us as it can (there is always going to be a need for some secrecy) about this country’s relationship with the Saudis. Releasing those 28 pages from the 9/11 report (or giving a good reason why they cannot be released) would be a start.
In the meantime, why was an individual with links to an extreme form of Islam and who (allegedly) feigned illness during an FBI interview (presumably to avoid further questioning) allowed to leave the country with no further questions being asked – and within only a few days of the worst terrorist attack in US history? Seems odd to me, but perhaps the tin-foil isn’t working.