JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (CN) - Lloyd's insurance says the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its banks and charities, which sponsored al Qaeda, should pay the more than $215 million the insurer has spent on insurance settlements to families of the victims of 9/11. "Absent the sponsorship of al Qaeda's material sponsors and supporters, including the defendants named herein, al Qaeda would not have possessed the capacity to conceive, plan and execute the September 11th Attacks," the insurer says.
Named as defendants are the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Saudi High Commission for Relief of Bosnia & Herzegovina, the Saudi Joint Relief Committee for Kosovo and Chechnya, the Saudi Red Crescent Society, National Commercial Bank, Al Rajhi Banking and Investment Company, Prince Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, Suleiman Abdel Aziz Al Rajhi [CEO of al Rajhi Bank], and Yassin Al Qadi [employee of al Rajhi Bank].
Plaintiff, The Underwriting Members of Lloyd's Syndicate 3500, says it has already paid more than $215 million in claims for the "9/11 Aviation cases."
"Through the instant action, plaintiff seeks recovery of amounts paid on behalf of its insureds in settlement of the 9/11 Aviation cases, and amounts expended in relation to the defense of its insureds in the 9/11 Aviation Litigation, from parties who knowingly provided material support and resources to al Qaeda in the years leading up to the September 11th Attacks, and who by virtue of their intentional conduct bear primary responsibility for the injuries resulting from the September 11th Attacks."
The 154-page federal complaint, filed by Stephen Cozen with Cozen O'Connor of Philadelphia, contains a history of al Qaeda, from its creation during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, its ideological roots that predate that war, its objectives, tactics, the way it built and sustained its funding and infrastructure, and its close ties to Saudi Arabia.
"Although al Qaeda has in limited instances established its own charities to serve as channels of support for particular initiatives, al Qaeda's development into a sophisticated global terrorist network was fueled primarily by the massive support it received from purported charities acting as agents and alter-egos of the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, many of which worked with the al Qaeda leadership during the Afghan jihad," the complaint states. "These governmental agents have served as the primary conduits for channeling financial, logistical, operational, and ideological support for al Qaeda's global jihad for more than twenty years. To this day, many of these arms of the Saudi government remain dedicated to promoting al Qaeda's goals and operational objectives, and continue to play a singular role in propagating the violent and virulently anti-Western ideology that provides religious legitimacy for al Qaeda's terrorist activities and draws new adherents to al Qaeda's cause.
"Although representing themselves to the West as traditional 'charities' or 'humanitarian organizations,' these organizations are more accurately described as Islamic da'awa organizations, created by the government of the Kingdom to propagate a radical strain of Islam throughout the World, commonly referred to as Wahhabism.
"Under the direction of the Saudi government, these organizations have aggressively pressed the view that Western society, under the leadership of the United States, is conducting a coordinated 'Western Cultural Attack' (Ghazu Fikari in Arabic) on Islam, designed to destroy the fabric of Muslim society as a predicate for Western conquest of Muslim territories.
