The Saudi Kingdom & United States “Insult” To Osama Bin Laden
It primarily began when the Soviets retreated back to their broken homeland, with Afghanistan in chaos of a civil war, and a triumphant Bin Laden and his Mujahid fresh off a ten year war battling against all odds, a much help from the CIA and Pakistan. Now the Iraqi military began knocking at the door, invading Kuwait, some say under false pretenses that the Saudi Kingdom was next (Russian photos would make the declaration that the Iraqi military invading Kuwait was false). The Saudi Kingdom was worried about Saddam Hussein’s military enough that they called on Secretary of State, James Baker, for advice on how to repel the Iraqi’s if it ever came to it. The decision was made days later, the Saudi’s would invite the “kuffar” (disbelievers) on the most holiest of all Muslim lands to train and help protect their Saudi investments.
This enraged Bin Laden enough that he called for a meeting of the most senior of Saudi officials, which included King Fahd, Sultan bin Abdulaziz al Saud (Deputy Prime Minister) and Turki bin Faisal Al Saud (Director General Intelligence Directorate). Bin Laden pleaded his case to defend the homeland from the Iraqis by using the Mujaheddin to help repel the invaders. The proposal ended with a complete refusal of Bin Laden’s ridiculous proposition and the U.S military would land on Saudi soil on August 7,1990. Bin Laden furious at the notion that he would be turned down by his own Saudi leaders for the “disbelieving” military of the United States would come under constant monitoring from the Saudi Intelligence unit the General Intelligence Directorate.
Fearing a reprisal of angry Mujahid’s and terrorist attacks towards the city of Riyadh, the nation's capitol, Bin Laden’s finances were frozen and his passport was revoked. Leaving him in limbo, until a proposition was made, most likely from Turki bin Faisal Al Saud….leave the Kingdom and your assets will be relinquished and your passport returned. Bin Laden accepted the offer, and the Sudanese government influenced from its “spiritual leader” and National Islamic Front political leader, Hassan al-Turabi, accepted Bin Laden as one of their own. The CIA began to follow Bin Laden here in 1991 as the Mujaheddin and his mentor, Ayman al-Zawahiri followed him behind.
Meanwhile April Glaspie, U.S Ambassador to Iraq, would meet with Saddam Hussein who feared the United States would no longer support them, as it did during the previous Iraq-Iran war. Hussein offered reluctance to “trust” The U.S. Glaspie offered a retort of compliance towards Iraq:
“I know you need funds. We understand that and our opinion is that you should have the opportunity to rebuild your country. But we have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait … Frankly, we can only see that you have deployed massive troops in the south. Normally that would not be any of our business. But when this happens in the context of what you said on your national day, then when we read the details in the two letters of the Foreign Minister, then when we see the Iraqi point of view that the measures taken by the UAE and Kuwait is, in the final analysis, parallel to military aggression against Iraq, then it would be reasonable for me to be concerned.”
August 2nd 1990 Iraq invades Kuwait. Within hours of the invasion, Kuwait and US delegations requested a meeting of the United nations Security Council which passed Resolution 660, condemning the invasion and demanding a withdrawal of Iraqi troops. The Saudi’s would begin making the moves which would late have reverberations which nobody would even begin ti imagine and helped to create the boiling vitriol towards not only the Saudi Kingdom but towards the United States…..which would later experience the worst terrorist attack on it's homeland since the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor, only this time the attacks would center at the heart of New York City and the military capitol building, the Pentagon.
“The failure of all foreign troops to leave the sacred land of the holy places at the conclusion of the Gulf war of 1991 led to the enriching of al-Qaida from Bin Laden’s inheritance, and to his falling out with his family and country as a result.”