MAYOR
REFUSED SAUDI OFFER
WHAT OBAMA
COULD LEARN ABOUT LEADERSHIP
NYC MAYOR GIULIANI PUT SAUDI PRINCE IN HIS
PLACE
TAGS:
MAYOR GIULIANI, NYC SEPTEMBER 11, 2001, SAUDI PRINCE’S
$10
MILLION DOLLAR OFFER, GIULIANI: "SHOVE IT",
OBAMA
VS THE HOUSE OF SAUD, JASTA BILL, OBAMA VOWS TO VETO
LEGISLATION
YIELDING TO SAUDI “THREAT”
(Thursday April 21, 2016
Liberty St., NYC) On October 12, 2001 with the massive recovery effort at the
site of the World Trade Center into its 31st day, the unmistakable
cloying stench of death permeated the 16-acre site; it hung over that mammoth
pile of wreckage like a pregnant thunderhead. For anyone who had spent any time
there that is an unforgettable odor: so
powerfully pervasive a scent that the rescue dogs had to be taken off site in
order for them to get some rest. When
they remained on-site their highly trained sense of smell would permit them no
relief.
Fires still smoldered unseen
within the twisted iron, steel, concrete; the pulverized contents of 220 acres
of office space and their contents.
Within the debris the remains of hundreds of victims lay yet to be
discovered. The recovery was a
painstakingly slow process, at times simple bucket brigades cleared wreckage
bit by bit searching for remains. There
was a decidedly solemn tenor to the efforts; we were in many cases seeking to
recover our own. But, of course, the victims
were many, their remains precious to the hundreds of families seeking some
modicum of “closure” if such a state was even attainable.
As the very ground beneath our
feet emanated waves of heat as did the pile, so too our boiling anger remained
just below the surface. There was, after all, work to be done, tasks to focus
on. The time for our anger would have to
wait.
October 12, 2001 was a day on
The Pile just like the 31 that preceded it.
But there occurred an event that
was a collective expression of our anger.
Mayor Rudy Giuliani hosted a visit from a member of the House of Saud,
the ruling Kingdom of that gulf country, the birthplace of 15 of the 19
hijackers who executed the attacks of September 11, 2001. Giuliani escorted Prince Al Waleed ibn Talal
ibn Abdulaziz al Saud to “Ground Zero “and gave him a brief tour of the
area. The Prince offered a check for $10 million
dollars to our Mayor as his family’s contribution to a relief fund for the
families of the victims of the attack.
Later that day the Prince made highly charged statements that
essentially said that the United States “policies” regarding the Middle East
and the “Palestinian brethren” in particular were partially to blame for the
attacks. Upon learning of this statement
Giuliani refused to $10 million dollar check and issued a strong rebuke to Prince
Al Waleed.
Giuliani appearing on Fox News
earlier this week said about that day in 2001 commented, “I was given a check
by a Saudi Arabian prince for $10million and he had the temerity to put out a
press release blaming America and Israel for the attack on September 11th. I
can't tell you what I said when I decided to tear up the check and give it back
to him because I can't repeat it on television. His money he can keep and go
burn it in hell.” Giuliani was on air to
discuss the recent conflict escalating between the Saudis and the Obama
administration regarding a pending piece of legislation known as the “Justice
Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act,” (JASTA)
that would allow survivors of the victims of 9/11 to sue the government of
Saudi Arabia. This proposed bill has
boiled over and has muddied the waters this week while President Obama is on a
state visit to the Saudi Kingdom.
The Saudis have threatened
to divest themselves of $750 million dollars of assets they currently hold
in the United States so that their properties and accounts cannot be frozen in
the event that JASTA passes through Congress.
For his part our President has vowed to veto the legislation should it
make it to his desk. His stated rational
is that the passage of JASTA would make the United States vulnerable to suits
from people in countries where we conduct military operations presently and in
the future. There is a profound
difference between state sponsored military action as in the case of our
declared military actions against terrorists and the countries that grant them safe
haven and a blatant act of terrorism as was delivered onto our soil just a few
blocks from here.
Obama has expressed his concern that there may be an errant drone
strike that kills innocent people and that such an error could result in a
legal suit against the United States.
This is on its face a facile argument in that none of the countries our
military is currently operating within, they it be in the tactics of drone
warfare, Special Operations missions or more conventional embedding with
various countries troops on the ground, all are acknowledged and known military
activities that cannot be equated with acts of terrorism. Our military abides stringently to the Code
of the U.S. Fighting Force as well as the Geneva Conventions. Adherence to the Geneva Conventions alone
constitutes the legality in widely adopted international law governing the
conduction of warfare. Terrorism is at the
diametrically opposite end of the spectrum between legal and illegal military
activities.
President Obama could
demonstrate courage and conviction by emulating those traits so evident in Rudy
Giuliani in his dealings with the Saudi Royal family. Is it too much for us to expect our own
President to stand up in a dignified and principled, tough yet diplomatic
manner? Yes, sadly it appears that it is
too much to expect from Barack Obama.
Copyright The Brooding Cynyx 2016 © All
Rights Reserved
