Saudis Funded al-Qaeda, Enabled 9/11 Attacks: Suit

A syndicate of Britain’s Lloyd’s insurance company is suing Saudi Arabia on the assertion that the country gave material support to al-Qaeda in the years before 9/11, the Independent reports. The syndicate wants repayment of the $215 million it gave to victims of the 9/11 attacks; the company holds that charities and banks that supported al-Qaeda were “agents and alter egos” for Saudi Arabia itself. Saudi Arabia has denied giving any support to al-Qaeda, and the US 9/11 Commission saw no link between the Saudis and the terror group.

“The success of al-Qaeda's agenda, including the 11 September attacks themselves, has been made possible by the lavish sponsorship al-Qaeda has received from its material sponsors and supporters over more than a decade leading up to 11 September 2001,” says the 156-page claim, which adds that al-Qaeda wouldn't have been able to "conceive, plan, and execute" the attacks "absent the sponsorship." The claim names nine defendants and points the finger at a member of the Saudi royal family, Prince Naif bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud, who was allegedly running one Saudi charity when it "diverted more than $74m to al-Qaeda members and loyalists." Click through for more on the Lloyd's syndicate claim. (More Saudi Arabia stories.)