Haifa bint Faisal Al Saud
Born1950 (age 73–74)
Paris, France
SpouseBandar bin Sultan Al Saud
Issue8, including Reema, Khalid and Faisal
Names
Haifa bint Faisal bin Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud
HouseAl Saud
FatherKing Faisal
MotherIffat Al Thunayan

Haifa bint Faisal Al Saud (Arabic: هيفاء بنت فيصل آل سعود; born 1950) is a member of the House of Saud.

Early life

Haifa bint Faisal was born in July 1950. She is the daughter of King Faisal and Queen Iffat who was born to a Circassian family.[1] She is the full sister of Mohammed bin Faisal, Saud bin Faisal, Luluwah bint Faisal, Sara bint Faisal and Turki bin Faisal.[2]

Philanthrophy

Princess Haifa is the founder of the Albaydha Housing Project, the national pilot for developmental housing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. [3] She is also the founder and chairwoman of the Zahra Breast Cancer Association in the Kingdom. [4]

Princess Haifa is also a board member of Effat University.[5] and the National Museum of Saudi Arabia.

9/11 Commission Report

The 9/11 Commission Report states in footnote 122: "We have found no evidence that Saudi Princess Haifa al Faisal provided any funds to the conspiracy, either directly or indirectly.".[6] (The quote itself comes either from David D. Aufhauser of the U.S. Treasury Department, or Adam B. Drucker, of the FBI.)

After the September 11 attacks, Princess Haifa was investigated for a sequence of payments allegedly made to a Saudi national by the name of Omar al-Bayoumi. Investigation has confirmed that some of the payments were in fact forwarded to al-Bayoumi's wife, Manal Bajadr; the significance of these payments (and the extent to which they may have assisted the hijackers) is unclear.[7] In April 1998, Osama Basnan, a Saudi national living in California, wrote to Haifa requesting money for his wife's needed thyroid surgery. Haifa sent Basnan $15,000, although his wife, Majeda Dweikat, was not actually treated for another two years.

At some later point (accounts vary as to when; dates between November 1999 and March 2000 were given, and a Saudi government official put the onset at 4 December 1999),[8] Haifa began sending monthly cashier's checks to Dweikat of either $2,000 or $3,500, transporting them through Riggs Bank.[9] Dweikat signed some of these checks over to her friend Manal Bajadr, wife of Omar al-Bayoumi. The payments continued through May, 2002 and eventually totaled as much as $73,000.[10] (This sort of charitable donation known as Zakat from members of the House of Saud to Saudi nationals living abroad is not particularly unusual.)[citation needed]

According to the Saudi daily, Al Riyadh, Haifa became "so terrified" that she asked that all checks drawn against her bank account with the Riggs Bank in Washington, D.C. since 1994 be examined. Some of these investigations led to the Riggs Bank scandals of 2003 and 2004. [11] In 2002, in regard to the accusations against Prince Turki, her brother, stated "Any allegations about money from my sister reaching the hijackers is allegation and half-truths and totally untrue."[12]

Personal life

Haifa is the spouse of Bandar bin Sultan.[13] They have eight children, four daughters and four sons,[13] including Reema, Khalid and Faisal.

Haifa told that when she saw Bandar first, she had a feeling she would marry him. After four years, in 1972 they married. She said that their marriage was not a pre-arranged one. Her mother, Iffat, was a friend of Bandar's grandmother, Hassa. She further said that her mother also liked Bandar.[14]

Ancestry

References

  1. ^ Steve Coll (2008). The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century. New York: Penguin Group. p. 163. ISBN 978-1-101-20272-2.
  2. ^ Bahgat Korany; Ali E. Hillal Dessouki (2010). The Foreign Policies of Arab States: The Challenge of Globalization. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press. p. 369. ISBN 978-977-416-360-9.
  3. ^ "About the Albaydha Housing Project".
  4. ^ "FaceOf: Princess Haifa Al-Faisal, founder of the Zahra Breast Cancer Association".
  5. ^ "Board of Founders". Effat College. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
  6. ^ 9/11 Commission Report, p. 498
  7. ^ "Faisal's Mother Sails". 12 January 1959. Archived from the original on 30 September 2015. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
  8. ^ "Fox News 23 November 2002". Fox News. Archived from the original on 22 December 2006. Retrieved 27 December 2006.
  9. ^ "Murky waters". Pravda. 27 March 2012. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
  10. ^ Jamie Reno (September 2003). "Terror Two Years After (Page 2)". San Diego Magazine. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  11. ^ Nimrod Raphaeli (2003). "Financing of Terrorism: Sources, Methods, and Channels". Terrorism and Political Violence. 15 (4): 59–82. doi:10.1080/09546550390449881. S2CID 144519175.
  12. ^ "Ex-Saudi intelligence chief defends princess". CNN. Washington DC. 26 November 2002. Archived from the original on 6 December 2008. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
  13. ^ a b "His Royal Highness Prince Bandar bin Sultan". Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  14. ^ Elsa Walsh (24 March 2003). "The prince" (PDF). The New Yorker. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 January 2012. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
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