Kagan Has Saudi, Bin Laden Money Ties

In a disturbing revelation for a Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan took millions of dollars from the Saudis as dean of Harvard Law School and a chunk of it reportedly came from 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden.

The bin Laden family has donated millions of dollars to the Ivy League university over the years, including generous endowments for the school’s Islamic law program and others to finance scholarships for students from Muslim countries. The family has a fondness for Harvard because Osama bin Laden’s brother, Abdullah, received a master’s degree from the school in the 1990s and a doctorate in 2000.

When Kagan took over as dean of the law school in 2003, she launched an aggressive and unprecedented fundraising campaign that raked in a whopping $476.5 million, the most lucrative in the law school’s history. Renowned as a prolific fundraiser, Kagan was tapped to head the law school after spending a few years as a professor there when her job in the Clinton White House ended. In addition to the $476.5 million generated by the targeted campaign—dubbed "Setting the Standard"—Kagan helped raise an extra $60 million for the Harvard Law School Fund.

A chunk of the cash came from the Saudis—and probably the bin Ladens—who have bankrolled many key programs at the Cambridge Massachusetts school over the years. In fact, Harvard has accepted so much cash from the bin Ladens that the Cambridge City Council passed a resolution calling upon the university to donate compensation money for victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Harvard officials refused.

Kagan’s Saudi/bin Laden money connection probably served as an inspiration in protecting the Saudi kingdom against a lawsuit for financing the 2001 terror attacks. Thousands of family members of 9/11 victims sued Saudi Arabia and several members of its royal family for actively aiding in financing the attacks through front groups posing as charities. As Solicitor General, Kagan blocked the lawsuit, citing the “potentially significant foreign-relations consequences of subjecting another sovereign state to suit."

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