The investigation, which featured in the bbc’s leading current affairs programme, newsnight , said the fbi was told to "back off" investigating one of osama bin laden’s brothers, abdullah, who was linked to "the saudi-funded world association of muslim youth (wamy), a suspected terrorist organisation," whose accounts have still not frozen by the us treasury despite "being banned by pakistan some weeks ago and india claiming it was linked to an organisation involved in bombing in kashmir".
Newsnight said there was a long history of "shadowy" american connections with saudi arabia, not least the two presidents bush’s "business dealings" with the bin ladens and another more insidious link revealed by the former head of the american visa section in jeddah. the official said he had been concerned about visas issued to large numbers of "unqualified" men "with no family links or any links with america or saudi arabia", only to find out later that it "was not visa fraud" but part of a scheme in which young men "recruited by osama bin laden" were being sent for "terrorist training by the cia" after which they were sent on to afghanistan.
In a reiteration of a now well-known claim by one of george w bush’s former business partners, the bbc said he made his first million 20 years ago on the back of a company financed by osama’s elder brother, salem. but it added the more disturbing assertion that both presidents bush had lucrative stakes along with the bin ladens in carlyle corporation, a small private company which has gone on to become one of america's biggest defence contractors. The bin ladens sold their stake in carlyle soon after september 11, it said.