Kreindler website revealed that the release of FBI's report on Saudi government's complicity in 9/11 attacks came as part of US President Joe Biden's attempts to pressure Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as US-Saudi relations hit new low.
Argued largely in private, behind closed doors and in secret filings, the factual underpinnings of the case was released under an executive order by President Joe Biden.
Biden’s order specifically directs the release of the 16-page report by the September 11, 2021 anniversary.
The report shed new light on what the FBI knows about several men connected to the hijackers, including Saudi nationals, Muslim leader Fahad al-Thumairy and suspect Saudi spy Omar al-Bayoumi.
The new development came as Biden nominated Michael Ratney, a career diplomat, to be US ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
Biden's new pick for US ambassador to Saudi Arabia has been be considered an insult by MBS. A former US official said the Saudis usually expect a political appointee with military ties, and could be insulted by this pick.
The nomination comes at a low point in US-Saudi relations, with Biden clearly distancing himself from the country and Crown Prince Mohammed — also known as MBS — reportedly trying to punish him back.
David Schenker, who served as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department from 2019 to January 2021, told Insider of Ratney: “He's a very capable diplomat, he served in positions of importance, requited himself well, and is held in high regard.”
“But we've seen a lot of stresses in the relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia and this is not going to help.”
John Jenkins, a former UK ambassador to Saudi Arabia said: “I suspect [the crown prince] is betting on the Republicans winning big in the midterms and then regaining the presidency – with or without Trump.”
He added: “He probably thinks Biden is politically weak and he can therefore afford to spite him. That sends a signal not just to the Dems but also to the Republican party. And – judging by the debate raging in DC policy circles on these matters – it’s working.”
Senior Democrats reacted furiously to the revelation of the Saudi investment into Kushner’s fund. Senator Elizabeth Warren called for the justice department to “take a really hard look” at whether the arrangement was illegal.
Senator Chris Murphy tweeted: “Just because the breathtaking corruption occurs in public doesn’t make it not breathtaking.”
US-Saudi ties have been strained by Biden’s decisions last year to curtail US support for the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen and to publish intelligence on an operation that led to the capture and killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
The Saudi government has denied any involvement in the murder of Khashoggi, a US resident who wrote opinion columns for the Washington Post critical of Riyadh.
Relations between the United States and the world’s largest oil exporter have also been frayed by Biden’s efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which US allies in the Gulf argue does too little to prevent Tehran from getting an atomic bomb.
Washington has also been trying, so far without success, to persuade Saudi Arabia to pump more oil beyond the small increase it has agreed within the OPEC+ production group to offset potential losses in Russian supplies after Moscow was sanctioned by the West over its invasion of Ukraine.
