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Groton Daily Independent
Saturday, Nov. 114, 2017 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 125 ~ 56 of 66
Reliable and discreet, the Binladin Group would go on to build con dential defense projects in the king- dom, as well as landmark skyscrapers, universities, a military hospital, an airport, a nancial district and much more.
Run as a private company by members of the large Binladin family, the rm is no stranger to political upheaval and changes in the kingdom. In fact, part of its success has been in its ability to adapt to the whims of kings and princes.
“The Binladins were able to remain essential to the royal family despite very dramatic events within the royal family,” said Steve Coll, author of “The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century.”
The Binladins were also no strangers to controversy. They weathered the blow to the family name and reputation after the 9/11 attacks in New York masterminded by Osama bin Laden, a son of family patriarch Mohammed Binladin.
In 1931, the elder Binladin, a poor Yemeni migrant who had traveled north in the 1920s to the Red Sea port of Jiddah, founded the company that bears his name. He married some two dozen women and fa- thered more than 50 children, including the future al-Qaida leader.
After the 9/11 attacks, the Binladins hired lawyers and public relations specialists in the U.S. to try to communicate their disdain for Osama bin Laden, and their willingness to cooperate with Washington, Coll said.
In the 1990s, under pressure from the Saudi government, Bakr Binladin oversaw proceedings to strip his brother of all his shares in the family’s company and wealth, a move that came as the kingdom stripped the al-Qaida leader of his nationality.
“Bakr achieved what he set out to do, which is he kept the company intact, he kept it legitimate in the international economy and went on to concentrate primarily on construction in the region, and in Saudi Arabia in particular,” Coll said.
The Binladin Group was crucial to Saudi rulers in 1979 when militants laid siege to Islam’s holiest site in Mecca for 15 days. The company, which had been working on expansion projects there, helped ush the rebels out of tunnels because they had the blueprints and maps, Coll said.
But while the Al Saud-Binladin alliance has been a pillar of how the royal family retained power over the years, the needs of the kingdom have changed, Kamel said.
“They helped the Al Saud family in their time of need, but the utility of that relationship has been ex- hausted,” he said. “It is no longer attractive for Al Saud to retain that, nor can they afford to.”
In 2015, the Binladin Group suffered two major blows: the collapse of oil prices and the collapse of one of its cranes.
The crane disaster killed 111 hajj pilgrims on the pristine marble oors of the Grand Mosque housing the cube-shaped Kaaba. The rm came under investigation, a travel ban was imposed on Bakr Binladin and the company remains embroiled in litigation to this day.
The collapse of oil prices delayed government payments to contractors, and by 2016, the Binladin Group was forced to cut tens of thousands of jobs. Disgruntled workers complained they had not been paid in months and hundreds took to the streets of Mecca in rare protests, setting company buses alight.
At the time, the company was in the midst of the largest expansion in the history of the Grand Mosque, a project initiated by the late King Abdullah that included the construction of one of the world’s tallest towers topped by a neon clock. The rm was also involved in controversial construction projects ordered by the king that historians say wiped out key traces of Mecca’s history dating back to the Prophet Muhammad.
In many ways, the Binladins were seen as part of the old guard— a part of the economy that was based on personal relationships and not transparent, Coll said.
As part of that system, the Binladin Group appeared to be doing well nancially before the collapse of oil prices, though it does not disclose its gures. Bakr Binladin is known to have private planes and real estate around the world.
It may have cost the Binladins heavily as the crown prince moves to take down old alliances and power bases. “You could easily see them caught up in a story about corruption and privilege,” Coll said.