As questions on Saudi links to 9/11 swirl, why is Trump hosting LIV golf tournament? - Kelly

Money talks — we know that. But when it comes to terrorism, money can speak in a very strange language, with mixed messages that make you scratch your head.

Such are the roots of a story could explode next month in New Jersey.

This tale involves a famous golf course in the tony Central New Jersey town of Bedminster, and one of that community’s most famous part-time residents who just happens to be a former president.

Yes, dear readers, once again we are trying to untangle a mystery involving Donald Trump.

This story begins far away, in the sands of Saudi Arabia.

It seems that some wealthy Saudis have discovered they like golf — so much so, that the oil-producing nation’s cash-rich public investment fund, which is controlled by the Saudi royal family, has decided to bankroll a new professional golf league, with tournaments that feature lucrative prizes.

When it comes to golf, however, Saudi Arabia is not exactly Scotland — or even New Jersey. The Saudi Arabian desert has plenty of sand — for golf sand traps. But grass is as rare as rain.

Back here, in the good ole USA, those Saudi golf fans found a welcome group of friends.

If you’ve been following this tale as it unfolded in recent weeks, you know that several well known professional golfers, including Phil Mickelson and Greg Norman, have emerged as supporters of a new Saudi-financed golf tour.

But golf tours need golf courses.

Trump, golf and the politics of terror

Which brings us to Donald Trump and Bedminster — and the politics of terrorism.

Trump just happens to own the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster. From July 29-31, the Saudi-financed LIV Golf Tour is scheduled to make a stop at Trump’s course.

Now, perhaps none of this seems odd. Trump is hardly shy about his love of golf. Before entering politics and winning the presidency in 2016, Trump, as a private business mogul, developed a series of well-regarded golf courses across the world. Now, back in private life, why wouldn't Trump sponsor a tournament at one of his golf courses?

But as president, Trump came face-to-face with a far different conundrum that is far more difficult than sinking a two-foot putt. While occupying the White House, Trump had firsthand knowledge that the FBI and other U.S. counter-terror investigators had unearthed credible evidence that Saudi government officials helped to pull off the deadliest terrorist attack in American history on Sept. 11, 2001 that killed nearly 3,000 people. Trump even expressed a desire to disclose those FBI files, though his administration never followed through.  

9/11 connection: Exclusive: New FBI documents link Saudi spy in California to terror attacks | Mike Kelly

Perspective: Phil Mickelson is taking the blood money and running to the Saudis

Fast forward to now.

Is it right for a former U.S. president, who claims he wants to run again for the White House, to be involved in a cozy business deal with alleged co-conspirators in the 9/11 attacks?

Trump isn’t answering that question — not yet.

Two decades have passed since 19 Islamist followers of Osama bin Laden crashed four commercial jetliners they hijacked into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan, the Pentagon in Northern Virginia and a farm field in Pennsylvania. But far too many mysteries remain.

One of those mysteries involves Saudi Arabia and the increasing pile of credible evidence that Saudi officials provided financial and logistical support to the 9/11 hijackers here in America during the months before the 9/11 attacks.

This support was hardly inconsequential. It involved four distinct corners of America — Northern New Jersey, Central Florida, Southern California and Northern Virginia.

Recently declassified FBI reports indicate that Saudi officials — including possibly the Saudi ambassador to the United States, who was a member of the royal family — oversaw a widespread plan to provide help for the hijackers as they assimilated themselves into America life in the months leading up to the attacks. This included opening bank accounts and post office boxes, taking flying lessons and renting apartments.

The alleged Saudi links to the 9/11 attacks is now at the center of a massive, slow-moving federal lawsuit — reportedly the most extensive civil court action in U.S. history. Some 10,000 relatives of the 9/11 attacks claim in court papers that Saudi government officials — including members of the royal family — knew about the attacks and helped support them. At stake are billions of dollars in possible payouts by the Saudi government to 9/11 victims and their relatives if a U.S. judge finds that Saudi officials assisted the 9/11 hijackers. 

Khashoggi concerns are renewed

Adding to the concerns about the Saudi links to 9/11 is damning evidence that Saudi intelligence officials carried out the brutal murder in October 2018 of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Before he was killed, Khashoggi, who lived in Northern Virginia, served in the Saudi government and had links to Saudi intelligence officials. But in the years before his death, Khashoggi had become increasingly critical of the new and powerful Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. As this columnist reported, a year before his death, Khashoggi secretly met with a retired FBI agent who was helping lawyers representing 9/11 victims assemble evidence in the federal lawsuit alleging a Saudi government link to the 9/11 attacks.

U.S. officials now believe that Salman ordered Khashoggi’s murder and dismemberment when Khashoggi visited a Saudi consulate office in Istanbul, Turkey. It's never been established whether Khashoggi's meeting with the retired FBI agent to discuss what he may have known about the Saudi links to the 9/11 attacks was a factor in his death. But the timing of Khashoggi's death should certainly raise questions.

And now, this tainted tale is even more strange. Crown Prince Salman also just happens to be the head of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which is bankrolling the new professional golf league that is scheduled to hold a tournament at Trump's Bedminster golf club. If nothing else, this is a strange coincidence.

More Mike Kelly: Exclusive: 9/11 hijackers lived in plain sight in North Jersey. How did they do it?

What some critics fear is that Saudi Arabia is trying to buy its way out of responsibility in the 9/11 attacks — and Khashoggi’s murder — by spreading money across America.

Even Phil Mickelson, who greedily welcomes the Saudi cash, concedes this may be a possibility. In a disarming interview for a biography, published last month, Mickelson called the Saudi financial support of American professional golf “sport washing” – meaning that Saudi Arabia was trying to use its financing of a popular sport like golf to smooth over some of its rough edges on human rights.

In the biography, written by golf journalist Alan Shipnuck, Mickelson went on to call the Saudis “scary” and added: “We know they killed Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider" supporting the Saudi-backed golf league?

The answer to that question, Mickelson said, comes down to money.  The Saudi league will put pressure, Mickelson said, on the long-established, American-based Professional Golf Association, to increase prize money for golfers such as him at all kinds of tournaments such as the U.S. Open.

In other words, money talks.

But what about the alleged Saudi link to the 9/11 attacks?  And Khashoggi’s murder?

Those questions are at the heart of a letter this week signed by nearly 2,500 survivors of the 9/11 attacks and victims that draws attention to the controversial Saudi support for a new golf league — and the lack of outrage by America.

“For more than 20 years the 9/11 community has sought accountability and justice from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for its role supporting the hijackers and this attack on our nation,” said Brett Eagleson, of Middletown, Connecticut, who emerged as a harsh critic of Saudi Arabia after his father, Bruce, was killed in the collapse of the Trade Center. “The Saudis have blood on their hands, and no amount of sports washing should ever clean that up for them.”

Donald Trump now has a chance to step into this controversy and perhaps clean it up.

Trump is spending much of his time now raising money for his next presidential campaign while also trying to explain away the charges that he helped to instigate the assault on the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021. Maybe Trump first ought to look at what is scheduled to take place at his Bedminster golf club next month.

Trump's golf course in Bedminster does not need any sports washing. But it needs to be clean.         

Mike Kelly is an award-winning columnist for NorthJersey.com as well as the author of three critically acclaimed non-fiction books and a podcast and documentary film producer. To get unlimited access to his insightful thoughts on how we live life in New Jersey, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: kellym@northjersey.com 

Twitter: @mikekellycolumn 

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: LIV Golf: Why is Trump course hosting Saudi-backed event