Money Talks – We know it. But when it comes to terrorism, money can speak a very strange language, with mixed messages that will make you scratch your head.
Those are the roots of a story that could break out next month in New Jersey.
This tale includes a popular golf course in the town of Bedminister in central New Jersey, and one of this community’s most famous part-time residents who happens to be a former president.
Yes, dear readers, once again we are trying to solve a mystery related to Donald Trump.
This story begins from afar in the sands of Saudi Arabia.
Some wealthy Saudis seem to have discovered they love golf – so much so that the cash-rich Public Investment Fund in the oil-producing country, controlled by the Saudi royal family, decided to fund a new professional golf league, with tournaments. which feature lucrative prizes.
When it comes to golf, Saudi Arabia isn’t exactly Scotland – or even New Jersey. The desert of Saudi Arabia has a lot of sand – for golf sand traps. But the grass is as scarce as the rain.
Back here, in the USA, Saudi golf fans have found a welcome group of friends.
If you’ve been following this story as it has unfolded in recent weeks, you know that several well-known professional golfers, including Phil Mickelson and Greg Norman, have emerged as supporters of a new Saudi-funded round of golf.
But golf rounds need golf courses.
Trump, golf and the politics of terrorism
Which brings us to Donald Trump, Bedminster – and the politics of terrorism.
Trump happens to own Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster. From July 29-31, the Saudi-funded LIV Tour of Golf is scheduled to stop at Trump Course.
Now, none of this probably seems strange. Trump is hardly shy about his love of golf. Before entering politics and winning the presidency in 2016, Trump, as a private business magnate, developed a series of prestigious golf courses around the world. Now, back to private life, why wouldn’t Trump sponsor a tournament at one of his golf courses?
But as president, Trump has faced head-on with an entirely different dilemma that is much more difficult than sinking him with two feet. During his occupation of the White House, Trump knew firsthand that the FBI and other American counterterrorism investigators had discovered credible evidence that Saudi government officials helped carry out the deadliest terrorist attack in American history on September 11, 2001 that killed nearly of 3000 people. . Trump even expressed a desire to release these FBI files, even though his administration never followed through.
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impression:Phil Mickelson takes blood money and runs to the Saudis
Fast forward now.
Is it right for a former US president, who claims he wants to run again for the White House, to engage in a comfortable business deal with the alleged 9/11 conspirators?
Trump doesn’t answer that question – not yet.
It’s been two decades since 19 Islamist followers of Osama bin Laden crashed four commercial airliners that hijacked them in the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in midtown Manhattan, the Pentagon in northern Virginia and a farm field in Pennsylvania. But there are still many mysteries.
One such puzzle concerns Saudi Arabia and the growing pile of credible evidence that Saudi officials provided financial and logistical support to the 9/11 hijackers here in America in the months leading up to the 9/11 attacks.
This support was hardly illogical. It included four distinct corners of America – northern New Jersey, central Florida, southern California, and northern Virginia.
Recently declassified FBI reports indicate that Saudi officials – possibly including the Saudi ambassador to the United States, who was a member of the royal family – oversaw a large-scale plan to provide assistance to the kidnappers as they integrated into American life in the months prior. for attacks. This included opening bank accounts and postal boxes, taking flying lessons, and renting apartments.
Alleged Saudi links to the 9/11 attacks are now at the center of a massive and slow-moving federal lawsuit – said to be the largest civil lawsuit in US history. About 10,000 relatives of the 9/11 attacks claimed in court papers that Saudi government officials—including members of the royal family—knew of the attacks and helped support them. At stake are billions of dollars in potential payments by the Saudi government to 9/11 victims and their relatives if a US judge finds that Saudi officials aided the 9/11 hijackers.
Khashoggi’s fears are renewed
Compounding concerns about Saudi links to 9/11 is compelling evidence that Saudi intelligence officials carried out the brutal October 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Prior to his murder, Khashoggi, who was living in Northern Virginia, served in the Saudi government and had links to Saudi intelligence officials. But in the years before his death, Khashoggi became increasingly critical of Saudi Arabia’s new and powerful crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. As this columnist reports, a year before his death, Khashoggi secretly met a retired FBI agent who was helping lawyers representing 9/11 victims gather evidence in a federal lawsuit alleging a Saudi government link to the 9/11 attacks.
US officials now believe that Salman ordered Khashoggi’s murder and dismemberment when Khashoggi visited the Saudi consulate office in Istanbul, Turkey. It was never confirmed whether Khashoggi’s meeting with a retired FBI agent to discuss what he might have known about Saudi links to the 9/11 attacks was a factor in his death. But the timing of Khashoggi’s murder should certainly raise questions.
And now, this tainted tale is even more bizarre. Crown Prince Salman happens to be the head of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which is funding a new professional golf league that is set to hold a tournament at Trump Bedminster Golf Club. If nothing else, this is a strange coincidence.
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What some critics fear is that Saudi Arabia is trying to work its way out of responsibility for the 9/11 attacks – and Khashoggi’s murder – by spreading money across America.
Even Phil Mickelson, who is very welcoming of Saudi cash, admits that this might be a possibility. In a disarming autobiographical interview, published last month, Mickelson described Saudi financial support for American golf professionals as “sportswashing” — implying that Saudi Arabia was trying to use its funding for a popular sport like golf to mitigate some of its harsh effects. on human rights.
In a biography by golf journalist Alan Shipnock, Mickelson went on to describe the Saudis as “scary” and added, “We know they killed Khashoggi and they have a terrible human rights record. They execute people there for being gay. Knowing all this, why am I even thinking about” Saudi-backed golf league support?
The answer to that question, Michelson said, is about money. Mickelson said the Saudi League would put pressure on the long-established American Professional Golf Association to raise prize money for golfers like him in all kinds of tournaments such as the US Open.
In other words, money speaks.
But what about the alleged Saudi link to the September 11 attacks? What about Khashoggi’s murder?
Those questions are the gist of a letter signed this week by nearly 2,500 9/11 survivors and victims, which calls attention to controversial Saudi support for a new golf league — and America’s lack of anger.
said Brett Eggelson, of Middletown, Connecticut, who emerged as a harsh leader critical of Saudi Arabia after his father Bruce was killed in the Trade Center collapse. “The Saudis are stained with blood, and no amount of sports washing should clean that up for them.”
Donald Trump now has an opportunity to step into this debate and possibly clean it up.
Trump now spends much of his time raising money for his next presidential campaign while also trying to explain the charges against him that he helped instigate the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Perhaps Trump should first look at what is to be held at Bedminster Golf Club next month.
Trump golf course in Bedminster needs no sport wash. But it must be clean.
Mike Kelly is an award-winning columnist for NorthJersey.com, author of three critically acclaimed non-fiction books, and producer of podcasts and documentaries. To get unlimited access to his insights into the way we live life in New Jersey, please sign up or activate your digital account today.
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