Giuliani Did Business With Sheikh Tied To 9/11 Plot

Giuliani's bid for the GOP nomination may be on the verge of capsizing amidst a perfect storm of sex, money and terrorists. Links to terrorists, that is.

Oy.

Ben Smith of Politico.com posted a story of Giuliani's shady financial records while mayor, but it is Wayne Barrett of The Village Voice with a devastating report about Giuliani's post-9/11 business dealings with a Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifah al-Thani, a Qattari oil tycoon with well known ties to the 9/11 terrorists.

As usual, Barrett sums up the significance of the story for the Giuliani campaign:

In retrospect, Giuliani's embrace of the emir appears peculiar. But it was only a sign of bigger things to come: the launching of a cozy business relationship with terrorist-tolerant Qatar that is inconsistent with the core message of Giuliani's current presidential campaign, namely that his experience and toughness uniquely equip him to protect America from what he tauntingly calls "Islamic terrorists" -- an enemy that he always portrays himself as ready to confront, and the Democrats as ready to accommodate.

The contradictory and stunning reality is that Giuliani Partners, the consulting company that has made Giuliani rich, feasts at the Qatar trough, doing business with the ministry run by the very member of the royal family identified in news and government reports as having concealed KSM -- the terrorist mastermind who wired funds from Qatar to his nephew Ramzi Yousef prior to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, and who also sold the idea of a plane attack on the towers to Osama bin Laden -- on his Qatar farm in the mid-1990s...

In other words, as incredible as it might seem, Rudy Giuliani -- whose presidential candidacy is steeped in 9/11 iconography -- has been doing business with a government agency run by the very man who made the attacks on 9/11 possible.

(read the full story here)

Alrighty, then.

So, let me get all this straight:

• After the 1993 bombing of the WTC -- when he supposedly knew so much about security and stuff -- Giuliani ignored expert advice and put NYC emergency headquarters in the WTC


• Before 9/11 -- when he was supposedly studying up on terrorism -- Rudy was really breaking up his (2nd) marriage via an affair with Judith Nathan (and hiding the charges in obscure agencies)


• After 9/11 -- when he was supposedly stiff-arming state sponsors of terrorism -- Giuliani was really doing business (big money) with the oil Sheikh who protected and facilitated the 9/11 terrorists


• With the money and contacts and prestige from that and other business, Giuliani runs a presidential campaign claiming he is a big-time pro on fightin' terrorism -- better than everyone else, particularly the Democrats

One has a hard time imagining Giuliani squirming out of sex and money and business ties to terrorism all at the same time, although I am sure he will try his darnedest.

Nonetheless, if you cup your hand behind your ear and turn towards Iowa, you can hear a faint, but distinct sound over the horizon: the flutter of Giuliani staffers mailing off their resumes to the Huckabee campaign.

Cross-posted from Frameshop.

Comments

[Kundera]

Hilarious.
You lefties have been predicting the downfall of Rudy for years now, and it'll continue until the eve of his Inauguration.

[desertdweller]

A friend of a friend of my enemy is also MY ENEMY! Rudy's hands are dirty, but his pockets are overflowing. He's been in bed with criminals, corrupt cops, and terrorists. Who knows what dreaded diseases he carries around?

[AnotherMcIntosh]

So this was uncovered in the The Village Voice.

Apart from Olberman's 11/28 report on Wayne Barrett's efforts, how much of this is being covered by the MSM?

Are those in the MSM now treating this like a non-story?

Where's the coverage by the Washington Post? The New York Times? The Chicago Tribune? The Los Angeles Times? The Boston Globe?

[Ringwind]

The FBI uses polygraphs to eliminate suspects ... Google and type in "we got nuked on 9/11"

[Pdubya]

you should see his connection to the spanish company wanting to pave the North American Highway.

look it up. would love to see a story.

[Lemeritus]

I don't mean to bring Raid! to this gathering of flies, and I'm certainly no fan of Mr. Giuliani, but come on! Who doesn't have a prince or an emir in their pocket (if you can afford one)? See the touching photo here: http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/bushbeat/archive/2007/06/saudi_paper_put.php.

Big duh, y'all!

[Dap]

Imagine that! Who would have thunk it?

[Oldchef]

Rudy will say what he always does, "I'm not perfect", as if that excuses his fanatic pursuit of money. He blew off a position on the 9/11 commission in order to pursue money-making opportunities with his pals, including Bernie Kerick. One of those money-making opportunities was a security deal with Sheik Hamad, much more important to Rudy than a chance to be a real patriot. Rudy is a fake, a poor administrator, a worse husband, and no damn hero.

[nefertiti]

Quote : I don't know. Sounds like the perfect resume for a Republican presidential candidate

Bravo Fpie !!!!

[nefertiti]

Bush did business with the Bin ladin Family and invested for them via his Arbusto Company ! and many US officials still do businesses with many Saudis in the carlyle group .

[amberglow]

the media is still not covering these actual crimes and misdeeds like they do utter lies about Democrats--it's pathetic.

(see the Washington Post today -- the front page is all Obama Muslim emails smears, and no Rudy stories at all.)

[realitytrumpsbull]

No, no, NOT another sordid dealing with a foreign oil guy! No! Say it isn't so! No,
no, tell us you're not using it all as an
excuse to build a police state, Rudy! Say
it ain't so!


Didya ever get the feeling that our governmenter
was basically being bought out?

[fpie]

I don't know. Sounds like the perfect resume for a Republican presidential candidate.

[peterg76]

I owe Giuliani an apology. All this time I thought his only experience with terrorists was wandering around Manhatten in a daze on Septeber 11th, because he had located the disaster management centre in the most obvious terrorist target in New York. It turns out his experience was broader than I had assumed.

[mommadona]

"He was made and offer he couldn't refuse."
OR
"Damn - I have NEVER seen a 24K weenie before"
OR
"Come here often?"
OR
"I have a friend of a friend that can get you a really FABulous deal on a little compound on Martha's Vineyard.....really...no problem....they are looking to upgrade...."