Sending Mixed Signals Re Saudi Arabia?s Contribution to the War on Terrorism

By Victor Comras

The Bush Administration seems of late to be alternating criticism and compliments when it comes to Saudi Arabia�s actions in the war on terrorism. Two days ago Secretary of State Condolezza Rice told an Audience at the San Francisco Commonwealth Club that:

�We really applaud what Saudi Arabia has done in terms of the fight against terrorism, particularly since the events of May of last year in Riyadh. The Saudis have been very aggressive in hunting down the terrorist cells that are in Saudi Arabia and we've had a good deal of success also on the terrorist financing front. You may know that some of the financing for terrorism was coming from non-governmental organizations that had very nice titles about what it was they supposedly did in the world, the relief effort for this group or that group and many of them were kind of fronts for terrorist financing. And that was true, by the way, of some in the United States. It was true of many in Saudi Arabia. And we've worked very hard with the Saudis to shut down some of that terrorist financing. So the Kingdom is working very hard on these issues.�

Compare this with what US Treasury UnderSecretary Stuart Levey told AIPAC just four days earlier on May 23, 2005

� For too long, wealthy donors and multinational charities in Saudi Arabia were underwriting terrorism of all kinds, without any meaningful controls. Since 9/11, our government has worked aggressively to press the Saudis to take action against these financiers and to clean up their charitable sector. It is true that the Saudis have come a long way to improve their efforts against terrorist financing. It is also true that they probably had the furthest to go. Some progress has been made�. Of course, much remains for the Saudis to do. We impatiently await the creation of a commission to monitor the charitable sector, and continue to insist that this commission regulate all Saudi charities, without exception of such groups as the Muslim World League and the International Islamic Relief Organization, or "IIRO." Also, in addition to the export of terrorist funds, we are extremely concerned about the export of terrorist ideologies. These teachings are as indispensable to terrorists as money, and possibly even more dangerous. We must do all we can to ensure that extremist, violent ideologies are not disseminated under the cover of religious organizations, charities, or schools.�

Levey�s statement, I think, more closely reflects the actual situation. The Saudi�s have promised much, but done much less. Self preservation led the Saudi Royal Family to crack down on al Qaeda cells inside Saudi Arabia, and to monitor more closely funds that might flow directly to groups supporting these cells. But, they have not taken any real action to punish Saudi financiers of international terrorism or to follow-up on shutting down overseas branches of tainted charities. Saudi source funds are still supporting the insurgency in Iraq, and funding extremist activists and jihadist worldwide. Its much to early to put ourselves in compliment mode for Saudi actions in the war on terrorism. For more on this see my Article "Al Qaeda Finances and Funding to Affiliated Groups" in Strategic Insights

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