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© St. Petersburg Times, published October 12, 2001
NEW YORK -- City officials rejected a $10-million relief check from a Saudi prince Thursday after he suggested U.S. policies in the Middle East were partly to blame for the World Trade Center attacks.
Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, in a statement released by his publicist during his visit to Ground Zero, said: "At times like this one, we must address some of the issues that led to such a criminal attack. I believe the government of the United States of America should re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stance toward the Palestinian cause."
The comments drew a rebuke from Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, followed by an announcement that the check was rejected.
"We are not going to accept the check -- period," said Sunny Mindel, the mayor's communications director.
Giuliani, at a news conference, said such remarks were part of the problem behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"There is no moral equivalent for this attack," the mayor said. "The people who did it lost any right to ask for justification when they slaughtered 5,000, 6,000 innocent people. . . . Not only are those statements wrong, they're part of the problem."
Spokesman Amjed Shakir, reached before the prince boarded a plane for Saudi Arabia, said that Alwaleed could not comment because he was unaware that the check was rejected.
The prince, an outspoken member of the Saudi royal family, is a major investor in American companies. After his tour of the trade center ruins, the prince initially called the attack "a tremendous crime."
"It's just unbelievable," he said. "We are here to tell America and to tell New York that Saudi Arabia is with the United States wholeheartedly."
But in the statement, the prince said: "Our Palestinian brethren continue to be slaughtered at the hands of Israelis while the world turns the other cheek. . . . Arabs believe that if the U.S. government wanted, it could play a pivotal role in pushing Israel to sign and fully implement a comprehensive peace treaty."
Alwaleed is chairman of Kingdom Holding Co. and was No. 6 on Forbes magazine's list of the world's richest men for 2001, with a worth of $20-billion.