investigation of an employee of Saudi Arabian Airlines, in 1999 after receiving information that Bin Ladin lieutenant Abu Zubaida had been in contact with a telephone number associated with in Portland. In May 2001, two individuals were arrested in Bahrain and later admitted they were on their way to blow up U.S. facilities in Saudi Arabia. One of them had a passport that had been issued to one of The FBI's Phoenix Field Office also received source reporting in 1999 that was checking security at the Southwest border and discussing the possibility of infiltrating individuals into the United States.
The FBI has developed information that has close ties with one of the Saudi princes and accompanies him on many trips, including travel to the United States. According to the FBI, was recently interrogated at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. He informed the FBI that got the job at Saudi Arabian Airlines through his contacts. He said that did not earn much money in this job, but that he "had another source of income through a Saudi prince" named Khalid al-Bandar. According to performed miscellaneous tasks for the Prince, such as handling real estate matters and assisting the Prince's grandmother. traveled many places with the Prince, including Europe, and often to the United Arab Emirates. made the cryptic comment that "nobody "knew everything about ." Although his name was on the State's Department's watchlist, was apparently able to circumvent the Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service because he was traveling with the Saudi prince. The FBI only learned of the trip after the fact. Agents in the FBI's Portland Field Office expressed their concern that and others where using their status as Saudi Arabian Airlines employees as a cover to enable them to transport weapons in and out of the United States.
Lack of Saudi Cooperation in Counterterrorism Investigations
In testimony and interviews, a number of FBI agents and CIA offices complained to the Joint Inquiry about a lack of Saudi cooperation in terrorism investigations both before and after the September 11 attacks. For example, a veteran New York FBI agent stated that, from his
