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DLR'sCock
09-12-2004, 12:34 PM
New York port authority sues Saudi Arabia over Sept 11 attacks


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NEW YORK : The agency that owns the World Trade Center site and lost 84 employees in the September 11, 2001, attacks, said it had decided to join on Friday a lawsuit charging Saudi Arabia with providing financial aid to Al-Qaeda.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said in a statement that it had an obligation "to preserve its legal options at this time," given that the the three-year statute of limitations on legal action expires on Saturday - the third anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

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Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman said the bi-state agency was joining a seven-billion-dollar lawsuit filed last week in US District Court in Manhattan by the Cantor Fitzgerald investment firm, which lost more than 650 workers in the attacks.

The suit accuses the Saudi government of providing "funding and material support and substantial assistance" to al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.

"We have a responsibility to the millions of people who live and work in the region as well as to our bondholders to pursue every legal avenue to recover the losses we sustained on September 11," the Port Authority statement said.

"Our proposed action is in line with similar suits filed by other injured parties."

The Cantor suit specifically names four Saudi officials, saying they organized and controlled a network of financial institutions and charities that 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 defense 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.

Al-Qaeda was also named as a defendant, along with a number of Saudi corporate entities and charities.

The federal commission that investigated the September 11 attacks described Saudi Arabia as "a problematic ally" in combating Islamic militancy when it released its report in July.

The report also pointed out that Al-Qaeda had found fertile ground for fundraising in Saudi Arabia, where religious extremism is rampant and where charities are part of local culture and operate with little control.

However, the commission also said it had found "no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded (Al-Qaeda)."

Ahead of the US presidential election in November, the issue of US ties with Saudi Arabia has entered the heated political debate between President George W. Bush and his Democratic challenger John Kerry.

Bush says he has led Riyadh to take a tougher stand on terrorism since the attacks, while Kerry has insinuated that the incumbent is too close to the Saudi royal family to force necessary changes to US policy. - AFP