Saudi money suppresses free speech in UK

News article filed by BNP news team
 
Whether we like it or not, it is an indisputable fact that “money talks” and if you have pockets as deep as those of the oil rich Saudis money doesn’t just talk, it shouts and loudly. It shouts so loudly and forcefully that many British journalists, editors and publishers of international repute cower in terror at the prospect of crossing swords with the Saudis.

They are afraid of the financial consequences to their business ventures if they are mention or report about the chilling links between global terrorism, the international trade in heroin and the vast oilfields of Saudi Arabia. These individuals; the editors, the hacks and the directors of media corporations put profits before principle and profits before the security and welfare of our people.

Global terrorism is not run on a shoestring; training of suicide bombers and operating terrorist groups require large and liquid sums. Most terrorist organizations circumvent funding bans by creating “political” and “charitable” wings, a ruse that enables their individual and state supporters to contribute “clean” money to the terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah. Interviewed by ABC News on September 11, 2007, U.S. Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI) Stuart Levey, said: “If I could somehow snap my fingers and cut off the funding from one country, it would be Saudi Arabia.” Still, the U.S. government does not designate the Saudis, or other oil producing countries as terrorist entities, although they are the major suppliers of “clean” money that feed of the global proliferation of radical Islam. As the West consumes more oil, the higher the price tends to rise and more petrodollars are available to spread radical Islam.

Proceeds of crime

But “charitable” donations alone do not satisfy the terrorists growing appetite. They also regularly generate funds through “common” transnational crimes. Yet inadequate official recognition of this convergence lets terrorists operate below the radar.

A major funding source for terrorist and criminals is the trade in illegal drugs. In contrast to oil revenues, pricing illegal drug works precisely the opposite. The more heroin, cocaine and methamphetamines are produced, the larger global supply and consumption grow. Increasing supply force prices to drop precipitously, thereby creating even larger markets. In http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1978487,00.html.

In July this year the world’s oldest publishing house centred around one of Britain’s finest academic institutions capitulated in the face of the mere threat of a lawsuit from Saudi billionaire Khalid bin Mahfouz.

Cambridge University Press agreed to pulp all the unsold copies of “Alms of Jihad: Charity and Terrorism in the Islamic World,” issue a public apology to Mahfouz and pay his legal expenses and substantial undisclosed damages. Not only that, it has asked more than 200 libraries worldwide to pull the work off their shelves.

Since March 2002, Saudi billionaire Khalid bin Mahfouz has sued or threatened to sue in England at least 36 writers and publishers – including many Americans – who have documented his financial contributions to al Qaeda and other Islamic terror groups, through his Muwafaq (Blessed Relief) foundation, and the Saudi National Commercial Bank he owned. Everyone settled with bin Mahfouz, – except one courageous American writer Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld.

Mahfouz sued Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld in London in January 2004, shortly after her book “Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed – and How to Stop It” was published in the United States. Dr. Ehrenfeld refused to acknowledge a British court’s jurisdiction over a book published in the US; the court then ruled in bin Mahfouz’s favor by default. It enjoined British publication of “Funding Evil,” awarded bin Mahfouz $225,900 in damages and expenses and ordered that the author publicly apologize and destroy the book.

The data in both “Alms for Jihad” and “Funding Evil” is all well-documented by the media and the U.S. Congress, courts, Treasury Department and other official statements. Further corroboration comes from French intelligence officials at the General Directorate of External Security (DGSE), as reported in the French daily, Le Monde. For example, the DGSE reported that, in 1998, it knew bin Mahfouz to be an architect of the banking scheme built to benefit Osama bin Laden, and that both U.S. and British intelligence services knew it, too.

“Arab effect”

Bin Mahfouz and fellow Saudis alleged as terror financiers, known as “libel tourists,” have made the English libel bar rich, leading the London Times to declare Britain the “libel capital of the Western world.” English lawyers now refer to the “Arab effect” to describe the surge of English libel actions by wealthy, non-resident Arabs accused of funding terrorism. For purposes of clarification that means an Englishman, living and working in England can be sued in an English court by a Saudi businessman who himself has never set foot in this country and never paid a penny to the UK Treasury.

No other British political party, no British newspaper or political magazine dares mention the alleged links for fear of a costly libel suit. Even one of the most respected international publishing houses which has long been a champion of academic freedom of speech caves in to legal threats.

Fortunately for the British people there is one media outlet which doesn’t tolerate cowardice, doesn’t tolerate the situation where money buys “justice” in British courts. We will get the message across to our compatriots and those overseas who are watching and listening to what we have to say. That bastion of freedom and justice is here – the BNP website, the number one political website in the UK.

Fortunately for us and unfortunately for the Saudi plutocrats the BNP web team is made up of financial men of straw and libel threats will remain just that; unenforceable threats. We are the mosquito on the camel’s back and we will keep biting!

http://www.bnp.org.uk

2007-10-01