THE CONNECTION – AT 11:34 A.M. ET:  Former Senator Bob Graham of Florida, who is a national defense Democrat (a rare breed) is charging that new information points to Saudi collaboration in the 9-11 attacks.  This is fascinating stuff, and Graham is a cautious guy.  From the St. Petersburg Times: 

SARASOTA — Weeks after terrorists brought down the World Trade Center, FBI agents swarmed into a Sarasota gated community to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a wealthy young Saudi couple who apparently had ties to some of the hijackers.

The couple and their two children abandoned their home abruptly, just a week or so before Sept. 11, leaving behind cars, furniture and food on countertops.

According to one published report, the FBI discovered phone calls between the house and at least two of the hijackers and several other terrorism suspects stretching back a year.

Yet until a Fort Lauderdale website reported the news this week, no mention of the couple has ever appeared publicly — not in the Sept. 11 commission report, nor in FBI briefings to congressional investigators, former Florida Sen. Bob Graham said Friday.

Graham called on President Barack Obama to reopen the case.

"This is the most important thing about 9/11 to surface in the last seven or eight years,'' Graham told the St. Petersburg Times. "It's very important for the White House to take control of this situation. The key umbrella question is: What was the full extent of Saudi involvement prior to 9/11 and why did the U.S. administration cover this up?''

The Sarasota revelations parallel earlier information about a Saudi government employee who had lived in California for years, Graham said. That man, Omar al-Bayoumi, had paid for a San Diego apartment for two of the hijackers, funneled them money and then left the United States in July 2011.

COMMENT:  Our relationship with Saudi Arabia has always been marked by scandal.  The Saudi lobby, operating through oil companies, defense contractors, influential Washington figures, and, yes, universities, is rarely reported on.  Money talks, and the Saudis have vast amounts of money.  They have bought silence.

It is often said that most American ambassadors to Saudi Arabia wind up on the Saudi payroll.  It is no secret that the Saudis finance Mideast studies departments and professorships.  The unspeakable Jimmy Carter has written of vacationing with former Saudi ambassador to Washington, Prince Bandar.  I doubt if Jimmy paid his own way. 

Graham is right.  This subject should be reopened.  However, it will not be, as it violates the "Muslim outreach" of the Obama administration. 

I hope that some enterprising journalist goes to work on the story.

September 11, 2011