Word: princess
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...Saudi Arabia's harshest critics in the media and on Capitol Hill have sought to portray the kingdom's rulers as intimately involved with al-Qaeda terrorism, although some of the evidence offered to support these claims is far from convincing - the suggestion that Princess Haifa, the wife of the Saudi ambassador to Washington sent money to 9/11 hijackers, for example, turns out to be based on a charitable check she wrote to a woman who, unbeknownst to the princess, had signed it over to a man who made brief loan to two of the hijackers without knowing their terrorist...
...hubbub began when congressional investigators leaked word that prominent Saudis--including Princess Haifa al-Faisal, wife of the Saudi ambassador to the U.S.--may have given money to associates of two 9/11 hijackers. The connection was tenuous but intriguing. Sources close to the case told TIME that beginning in January 1999 monthly payments of $2,000 were made from Princess Haifa's checking account to Majida Dwaikat, wife of Osama Bassnan. A Saudi national, Bassnan was living in San Diego last year and has been linked to Omar al Bayoumi, a Saudi student who befriended two men who wound...
...Charity, the Saudis say. In 1998 Bassnan wrote to the Saudi embassy in Washington pleading for assistance for his four kids and his ailing wife. A spokesman for Princess Haifa says "she had no knowledge that funds she gave away for charity may have been passed on to others." It's quite common for Saudi royals to give away large sums to countrymen who ask. What's more, agents haven't turned up evidence that Bassnan knew about the 9/11 plot, and the FBI has concluded that Bayoumi was not a witting accomplice...
Still, Bassnan was charged with visa fraud and deported on Nov. 17, and the FBI hasn't closed the investigation into his and Bayoumi's finances. The princess has her accountant scrutinizing all the checks from the account in question; no doubt she and her husband will think twice the next time someone begs their generosity. --By John Cloud. Reported by Massimo Calabresi, Elaine Shannon and Adam Zagorin/Washington
PLEADED GUILTY. PRINCESS ANNE, 52, of England; to violating Britain's Dangerous Dogs Act by allowing her bull terrier, Dotty, to run loose and bite two young children in Windsor Great Park; in Slough, England. The first modern royal convicted of a criminal offense, she was fined $785 and ordered to pay $393 in compensation...