# Haifa bint Faisal (wife of Bandar Bush) and 9/11 **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 23, 2010, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haifa-bint-faisal-wife-of-bandar-bush-and-9-11/551194 "2010-08-23T20:10:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haifa-bint-faisal-wife-of-bandar-bush-and-9-11/551194/1 "2010-08-23T20:10:51Z")
I just came across this while browsing Wikipedia the other day. It may be old news (well, it is), but it’s the first interesting thing I’ve read about 9/11 in a long time. > **[Haifa bint Faisal Al Saud](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haifa_bint_Faisal)** > > Haifa bint Faisal Al Saud (Arabic: هيفاء بنت فيصل آل سعود; born 1950) is a member of the House of Saud. She is one of the grandchildren of Saudi Arabia's founder King Abdulaziz and one of the children of King Faisal. > Haifa bint Faisal was born in July 1950. She is the daughter of King Faisal and Princess Iffat who was born to a Circassian family. She is the full sister of Mohammed bin Faisal, Saud bin Faisal, Luluwah bint Faisal, Sara bint Faisal and Turki bin Faisal. > Princess Haifa is the fo... > [@](#): > > After the September 11, 2001 attacks, she was investigated for a sequence of payments allegedly made to a Saudi national by the name of Omar al-Bayoumi, who is known to have assisted two of hijackers upon their arrival in Southern California, and who himself is suspected of being a Saudi intelligence asset. > > Investigation has confirmed that some of the payments were in fact forwarded to al-Bayoumi’s wife, Manal Bajadr, the significance of these payments (and the extent to which they may have assisted the hijackers) is unclear. [Bandar bin Sultan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandar_bin_Sultan), member of the Saudi royal family and former ambassador to the United States, is so close to the Bush family that he earned the nickname “Bandar Bush.” His wife, apparently, has credible ties to the 9/11 plot. That sounds too close for comfort to me. My wife and I share absolutely everything. I wonder if there’s something very obvious that I’m missing here, since after years of reading and discussing conspiracy theories and their debunking, I have never once heard this mentioned by either side. Thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haifa-bint-faisal-wife-of-bandar-bush-and-9-11/551194/2 "2010-08-23T21:28:56Z")
How many wives does Bandar have? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haifa-bint-faisal-wife-of-bandar-bush-and-9-11/551194/3 "2010-08-23T21:56:01Z")
He only has the one. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haifa-bint-faisal-wife-of-bandar-bush-and-9-11/551194/4 "2010-08-23T22:02:28Z")
Imagine if Obama was buddies with this guy. The media would never shut up about it. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haifa-bint-faisal-wife-of-bandar-bush-and-9-11/551194/5 "2010-08-23T22:10:55Z")
Do you know for a fact that Obama ISN’T buddies with this guy? They’re the same religion, and Obama is always looking to blame his problems on W., so I think this is part of a secret Muslim brothers plan to make W. look bad. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haifa-bint-faisal-wife-of-bandar-bush-and-9-11/551194/6 "2010-08-23T22:22:23Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > Do you know for a fact that Obama ISN’T buddies with this guy? They’re the same religion, and Obama is always looking to blame his problems on W., so I think this is part of a secret Muslim brothers plan to make W. look bad. Really? Bandar is Christian? ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haifa-bint-faisal-wife-of-bandar-bush-and-9-11/551194/7 "2010-08-23T22:47:42Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > Really? Bandar is Christian? Don’t worry about that zipping noise. It’s the sound jokes make as they sail right over your head :). ---
**Author:** ![PeacePlease](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/71c47a/32.png) [@PeacePlease](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PeacePlease)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haifa-bint-faisal-wife-of-bandar-bush-and-9-11/551194/8 "2010-08-23T23:09:50Z")
Obams doesn’t anything to do with this. Someone please enlighten me on the very, very close ties of the Busj admin and the Saudis. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haifa-bint-faisal-wife-of-bandar-bush-and-9-11/551194/9 "2010-08-23T23:15:03Z")
> [@PeacePlease](#): > > Obams doesn’t anything to do with this. Someone please enlighten me on the very, very close ties of the Busj admin and the Saudis. I like Busj more than Obams. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haifa-bint-faisal-wife-of-bandar-bush-and-9-11/551194/10 "2010-08-24T02:48:04Z")
Not long after 911 the media kept reporting about how Saudi Arabia isn’t as good a friend as we thought; it mentioned letters and memos implicating royal members giving money to terrorist organizations. Most of the hijackers were Saudi’s. Wahhabism came from there. Yet each time a report would come out putting Saudi Arabia in a bad light, Bush would always just shrug it off and say everything is fine; Saudi Arabia is a good friend and ally, and just ignore reports that say anything to the contrary. But I don’t think it’s a conspiracy. As long as we depend on foreign oil and need to maintain bases in the Middle East, we’ll pretty much look the other way regardless of what they do. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haifa-bint-faisal-wife-of-bandar-bush-and-9-11/551194/11 "2010-08-24T14:59:45Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > I wonder if there’s something very obvious that I’m missing here, since after years of reading and discussing conspiracy theories and their debunking, I have never once heard this mentioned by either side. Either side of what? The Wikipedia page you linked says that the 9/11 commission investigated and found no links between Bandar’s wife and the hijackers. Context might be interesting. Did she write checks like this to lots of Saudis in the US as a matter of course, for instance? ---
**Author:** ![newcomer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e5b9ba/32.png) [@newcomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcomer)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haifa-bint-faisal-wife-of-bandar-bush-and-9-11/551194/12 "2010-08-24T17:45:35Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > But I don’t think it’s a conspiracy. As long as we depend on foreign oil and need to maintain bases in the Middle East, we’ll pretty much look the other way regardless of what they do. This is too funny. You just defined what a conspiracy is. Oh, wait, do they wear capes and masks when they meet? No? Ok, then, carry on, it’s not a conspiracy. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haifa-bint-faisal-wife-of-bandar-bush-and-9-11/551194/13 "2010-08-24T18:40:40Z")
> [@newcomer](#): > > > [@Nobody](#): > > > > But I don’t think it’s a conspiracy. As long as we depend on foreign oil and need to maintain bases in the Middle East, we’ll pretty much look the other way regardless of what they do. > > This is too funny. You just defined what a conspiracy is. > > Oh, wait, do they wear capes and masks when they meet? No? Ok, then, carry on, it’s not a conspiracy. Looking the other way is not the same thing as a conspiracy. I suppose it can be part of a conspiracy, but they don’t necessarily go hand in hand. ---
**Author:** ![ironbender](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ba8739/32.png) [@ironbender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ironbender)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haifa-bint-faisal-wife-of-bandar-bush-and-9-11/551194/14 "2010-08-24T19:00:17Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > > [@Cisco](#): > > > > I wonder if there’s something very obvious that I’m missing here, since after years of reading and discussing conspiracy theories and their debunking, I have never once heard this mentioned by either side. > > Either side of what? > > The Wikipedia page you linked says that the 9/11 commission investigated and found no links between Bandar’s wife and the hijackers. > > Context might be interesting. Did she write checks like this to lots of Saudis in the US as a matter of course, for instance? You mean the 911 commission that included the likes of Bush and Blackwater lawyer Fred Fielding, and John Lehman who was involved with PNAC? Or how about Lee H. Hamilton, who refused to investigate Reagan or Bush Sr. during Iran-Contra. I’m sure these guys really wanted to get the truth. ---
**Author:** ![newcomer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e5b9ba/32.png) [@newcomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcomer)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haifa-bint-faisal-wife-of-bandar-bush-and-9-11/551194/15 "2010-08-24T20:10:42Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > > [@newcomer](#): > > > > This is too funny. You just defined what a conspiracy is. > > > > Oh, wait, do they wear capes and masks when they meet? No? Ok, then, carry on, it’s not a conspiracy. > > Looking the other way is not the same thing as a conspiracy. I suppose it can be part of a conspiracy, but they don’t necessarily go hand in hand. I’m sure there is a definition of conspiracy that suits your preference but, what I know of real court cases, if a person in position of authority looks the other way, said person becomes accused in a conspiracy to commit criminal act. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haifa-bint-faisal-wife-of-bandar-bush-and-9-11/551194/16 "2010-08-24T21:33:46Z")
> [@newcomer](#): > > > [@Nobody](#): > > > > Looking the other way is not the same thing as a conspiracy. I suppose it can be part of a conspiracy, but they don’t necessarily go hand in hand. > > I’m sure there is a definition of conspiracy that suits your preference but, what I know of real court cases, if a person in position of authority looks the other way, said person becomes accused in a conspiracy to commit criminal act. To me, a conspiracy means being in on something. It’s kind of like a mobster’s wife who is purposely ignorant of her husband’s business. She pretty much knows what he does, but she doesn’t ask any questions and doesn’t participate in any gangster activities. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haifa-bint-faisal-wife-of-bandar-bush-and-9-11/551194/17 "2010-08-30T01:01:55Z")
I must admit, **Nobody** : I thought the exact same thing as **newcomer** when I read post #10. > [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > The Wikipedia page you linked says that the 9/11 commission investigated and found no links between Bandar’s wife and the hijackers. Though I don’t know why it would say that, because Omar al-Bayoumi is quite clearly, demonstrably, a link between Bandar’s wife and the hijackers. And Bandar’s wife is quite clearly linked to Bandar, and Bandar is so closely linked to our then-President George W. Bush that he is widely known to go by the same surname. These aren’t tenuous links. ---
**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haifa-bint-faisal-wife-of-bandar-bush-and-9-11/551194/18 "2010-08-30T03:32:44Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Though I don’t know why it would say that, because Omar al-Bayoumi is quite clearly, demonstrably, a link between Bandar’s wife and the hijackers. And Bandar’s wife is quite clearly linked to Bandar, and Bandar is so closely linked to our then-President George W. Bush that he is widely known to go by the same surname. These aren’t tenuous links. Don’t read his post so literally. The report actually states that there was “no evidence that Saudi Princess Haifa al Faisal provided any funds to the conspiracy, either directly or indirectly,” and does not make any reference to “links”. Which is good, because links can be found between damn near anything if you’re willing to pursue something far enough (as often shown by Glenn Beck). In any case, is there any evidence that Princess Haifa even knew of the existence of al-Bayoumi? All we have are some checks drawn from her account for a Saudi woman living in the US as part of what seems to be a common act of Islamic charity by the Saudi royal family. There’s nothing suggesting that she had ever even met that woman. At the worst, she gave money to someone (Dweikat) who gave some of the money to someone else (Bajadr) who gave money to someone else (Basnan) who gave money to someone else (al-Bayoumi) who likely gave money to the hijackers. This might be worth following if we were talking about real money, but at the most we’re talking about $73,000 (most likely less, since Dweikat apparently did have the medical procedure that sparked all this in the first place.) This, from someone who has a fortune and would, without a doubt, have more efficient ways of funneling real money to terrorists if she wanted to do so. That’s going by the Wikipedia article, which isn’t particularly good (the introduction’s “a sequence of payments allegedly made to a Saudi national by the name of Omar al-Bayoumi” makes it seem as if she was paying al-Bayoumi directly) and appears to be based a dead link and a Fox News article. The Fox News article in turn is based on Newsweek reporting by Michael Isikoff, who broke the story. The [most recent article](http://www.newsweek.com/2002/12/08/charity-and-terror.html) by Isikoff (from 12/02) on the issue noted that “No evidence has surfaced tying the royal couple to the September 11 hijackers. Some investigators suspect that the two may actually have been scammed.” (BTW, from what I can tell through on-line searches, the only people who use the nickname “Bandar Bush” outside of the Bush family are liberal pundits, bloggers, and conspiracy theorists.) ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haifa-bint-faisal-wife-of-bandar-bush-and-9-11/551194/19 "2010-09-01T18:22:45Z")
> [@ironbender](#): > > > [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > > > Either side of what? > > > > The Wikipedia page you linked says that the 9/11 commission investigated and found no links between Bandar’s wife and the hijackers. > > > > Context might be interesting. Did she write checks like this to lots of Saudis in the US as a matter of course, for instance? > > You mean the 911 commission that included the likes of Bush and Blackwater lawyer Fred Fielding, and John Lehman who was involved with PNAC? Or how about Lee H. Hamilton, who refused to investigate Reagan or Bush Sr. during Iran-Contra. > > I’m sure these guys really wanted to get the truth. The British are having a 911 inquiry right now and they say Bush and Blair wanted the war and exaggerated the intelligence to get it. They also ignored intelligence that suggested Al Qeada would be helped by the war. Most of us knew that anyway. ---
**Author:** ![adhay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@adhay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhay)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2010, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haifa-bint-faisal-wife-of-bandar-bush-and-9-11/551194/20 "2010-09-03T12:35:54Z")
From The National Review [http://old.nationalreview.com/york/york091102.asp](http://old.nationalreview.com/york/york091102.asp) > [@](#): > > But the bin Ladens did not have to worry about that. While FBI agents looked into bin Laden family members in the Boston area immediately after September 11, it appears that the agents’ first chance to interview them — or other family members who lived elsewhere in the country — came on the day they left the U.S. Each family member was given the all-clear on the basis of a single, day-of-departure interview — conducted, in Bill Carter’s words, “at the airport, as they were about to leave.” > > Asked by National Review whether the FBI had conducted a full and thorough investigation of all the family members before allowing them to go, Carter repeated his earlier statement: “The FBI had an opportunity to interview the individuals on that plane, and we were satisfied with the information they provided.” Asked again, he said the same thing. “Unless you have evidence to stop them from leaving the country, they have every right to do that,” Carter explained. “The bin Laden family is very large, and for the most part are involved in legitimate enterprises. The fact of the matter is that because of September 11, some of these individuals felt it would be better to leave the country. They have every right to do that.” > > But some law-enforcement experts found the abbreviated investigation puzzling. “That’s highly unusual, and they could not have done a thorough and complete interview,” said John L. Martin, the former chief of internal security for the Justice Department. “It was obvious at the time that the Bureau did not have the kind of intelligence to know who was behind [the September 11 attacks], how they were financed, and what the U.S. connections might have been.” Also, Martin said, “It is an absolute rule of law enforcement that the agent or officers conducting the interviews control the interview, and that the persons of interest, suspects, or prospective defendants do not set the ground rules for the interview.” > > In addition, it is a routine law-enforcement practice to question — sometimes repeatedly and in great detail — family members of suspects in murder cases. Investigators do not usually presume that a relative has no connection or knowledge of a crime; instead, they usually conduct an investigation to make sure the relatives can be eliminated as suspects or witnesses. While that is going on, the instincts of law enforcement are normally to freeze all potential suspects and witnesses in place until the investigation has reached some conclusions. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haifa-bint-faisal-wife-of-bandar-bush-and-9-11/551194.md?page=2)