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EDITOR'S NOTE:
This Item of Interest provides a summary of reporting on the recent resolution of a libel suit brought by Saudi Ambassador to the United Kingdom Prince Turki al-Faisal. He was falsely accused of complicity in terrorist acts by a French magazine and Laurent Murawiec, who gained notoriety through a widely discredited briefing to a Pentagon policy board.
Controversial Libel Suit Won
On
Monday, Prince Turki Al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia's
ambassador to Britain, won a libel suit against
the French magazine, Paris Match, and its
publisher Hachette Filipacchi Associes. An
October 2003 article in the magazine alleged
that Prince Turki Al-Faisal had set up Al Qaeda
and was responsible for the 9/11 attacks on the
United States.
"These
allegations were outrageous," said
Prince Turki Al-Faisal, following the court
decision in his favor. "On behalf of
my government, I spent a number of years trying
to track down Osama bin Laden and bring him to
justice at a time when other governments were
less convinced of the threat he posed.
"Al
Qaeda and all terrorist groups go against
everything I believe in and hold most sacred.
They are an evil cult, which we must all, as an
international community, fight to destroy.
The killing of innocent life goes totally
against Islamic beliefs."
In its
October 9-15, 2003 issue, Paris Match published
an article that included an interview with Laurent
Murawiec and extracts from his book, La
Guerre D'Apres. The article gave
Murawiec's account of the dangers Saudi Arabia
posed for the United States and specifically
cited Prince Turki Al-Faisal as having set up Al
Qaeda as his own "military
organization." The article further
placed direct responsibility of the September
11th attacks on Prince Turki Al-Faisal.
In
response to Murawiec's allegations in the
October 2003 Paris Match article, Prince
Turki Al-Faisal denied all links to the 9/11
attacks and Al Qaeda. In a statement read
in open court on December 6, 2004, Hachette
Filipacchi Associes, publishers of Paris
Match, accepted "Prince Turki's
assurances that there is no truth in the
allegations" and that "Mr. Murawiec's
views have been rejected at the highest level in
the United States government, as well as by the 9/11
Commission."
"Substantial"
damages were awarded to Prince Turki Al-Faisal
and are to paid by the publishers of Paris
Match. The damages are to be donated
for relief work in Afghanistan. The
publishers will also pay for the prince's legal
costs. The magazine has released a public
apology and has accepted that the allegations
put forth in the October 2003 article were
incorrect and without foundation.
Prince
Turki Al-Faisal was formerly the head of Saudi
Arabia's External Intelligence Service from 1977
until his retirement from that position in
August 2001. In that capacity during the
1980s, Prince Turki had contact with Osama bin
Laden, who had gone to Afghanistan to support
the Afghan mujahideen in their resistance to
Soviet occupation of their country. After
the Soviet withdrawal, bin Laden returned to
Saudi Arabia, but after the first Gulf War, he
adopted a confrontational stance against the
Kingdom and the United States. He was
stripped of his Saudi citizenship in 1994.
Related
Links:
Laurent
Murawiec
In July
2002, Laurent Murawiec, a former Rand Corp.
analyst, prepared and delivered a controversial
briefing on Saudi Arabia to the Defense Policy
Board in the United States. This board
consists of a group of prominent intellectuals
and former senior officials who advise the
Pentagon on defense policy. According
to an August 6, 2002 article in the Washington
Post, in this briefing, Murawiec
described Saudi Arabia as an enemy of the United
States and went further by stating that Saudi
Arabia is "the kernel of evil, the prime
mover, the most dangerous opponent" in the
Middle East. The Department of Defense
quickly distanced itself from Murawiec's
briefing making clear it "did not represent
the views of the board or official government
policy, and in fact runs counter to the present
stance of the U.S. government that Saudi Arabia
is a major ally in the region."
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Links:
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