Where this was said
9/11, Saudi Arabia, and Abu Zubaydah's Diary
At 44:30 · chapter starts 38:30
Kiriakou details the 6-week hunt for Abu Zubaydah across Pakistan, culminating in his capture in Faisalabad in March 2002. His confiscated diary — actually a collection of drawings, most classified top secret — contained the cell phone numbers of three Saudi princes. When the CIA demanded access to the princes, the results were swift and suspicious: one died during bariatric surgery, another in a one-car accident on a Saudi highway, and the third of thirst while camping in the desert. Kiriakou is unambiguous: Saudi Arabia killed them. He also notes that CIA Director George Tenet was the only official he ever saw 'completely lose his shit,' threatening Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar that the CIA would start killing people 'named Al Saud' if cooperation didn't improve.
Abu Zubaydah's diary contained the cell phone numbers of three Saudi princes. The CIA demanded access. Within days, one died on the operating table during bariatric surgery, another died in a one-car accident on a Saudi highway, and the third died of thirst while camping in the desert. Kiriakou says Saudi Arabia killed them.
Three Saudi princes whose cell phone numbers were found in Abu Zubaydah's diary all died suspicious deaths — hospital surgery, a one-car accident, and thirst while camping — before the CIA could interrogate them.
Kiriakou believes Israel had sources inside al-Qaeda and advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks but deliberately withheld that intelligence. The reasoning: they knew the U.S. would respond by attacking Afghanistan and Iraq, killing millions of Muslims — exactly what Israel wanted. He calls the 'Dancing Israelis' incident still unresolved and is 'still mad about it.'
