- Senior members of the ruling Saudi royal family have
been accused of ultimate responsibility for the terrorist attack on the
World Trade Centre that killed nearly 3000 people and sparked the worldwide
"war on terror".
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- As the US marked the third anniversary of the 9/11 attacks
with memorial services and a presidential address, the owners of the twin
towers site, the Port Authority of New York, issued a lawsuit naming senior
Saudis as liable for the atrocities by funding Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda
network through religious charities.
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- The Port Authority says it intends to hold senior Saudis,
including the country's current ambassador to the UK and almost 100 other
defendants, liable for the al-Qaeda attacks .
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- Fifteen of the 19 suicide bombers who flew hijacked passenger
planes into the twin towers and the Pentagon were Saudi Arabians. Senior
members of the country's ruling family have long been suspected of sponsoring
the Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's terrorist ventures to prevent domestic
unrest. Alongside its absolute monarchy, the cornerstone of Saudi society
is Wahhabism, an austere form of Islam that promotes jihad (holy war) against
non- believers and holds that only the chosen ones of their own faith will
go to Heaven.
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- Just before the time limit on legal action ran out on
Friday, the Port Authority announced that it was joining a lawsuit filed
by Cantor Fitzgerald Securities, a bond trading firm that lost 658 of its
1050 employees in the attack.
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- The $4 billion suit names four Saudi officials, saying
they had aided al-Qaeda for at least seven years before September 11. The
four are Prince Nayef bin Abdel Aziz, the interior minister; Prince Sultan
bin Abdel Aziz, the defence minister; Prince Salman bin Abdel Aziz, the
governor of Riyadh; and Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former intelligence
chief, who is now ambassador in London.
-
- Legal action could prove embarrassing for President Bush,
whose family and associates have made an estimated $14 billion out of close
business relationships with the Saudi royal family over a 30-year period.
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- Yesterday in New York City, pipes and drums sounded out
as the now traditional ceremonies got under way at Ground Zero. Church
bells tolled before silence fell at 8.46am ñ the exact time the
first plane struck one of the towers.
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- "We come here to remember and to ask the country
and the world to remember the names of those we lost three years ago,"
Mayor Michael Bloom berg told the audience. "We will never forget
that each person was someone's son or daughter."
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- In what has become an anniversary tradition, the names
of the 2749 victims at Ground Zero were read out ñ this year by
parents and grandparents of the dead.
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