Counterterrorism Blog

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has officially announced its hearing, to be held on October 25, on the subject, "Saudi Arabia: Friend or Foe in the War on Terror." Witnesses for the hearing are not yet posted in the committee's website. Interestingly, and probably not coincidentally, Saudi King Abdullah has given an interview to Barbara Walters for broadcast tonight, in which he says that Islamic terrorism is "the work of the devil," and he commits Saudi Arabia to fighting it "until we eliminate this scourge." The king defended Saudi actions against charges that they have allowed radical Islamist fundamentalism to be taught in schools, leading students there towards terrorism. "For those who level these charges against us, I say provide us with the evidence that this is happening and we will deal with it. It is not logical or rational for us to be supporting it." He also claimed, "We have also regulated our charities and we have closed offices around the world, and we have withdrawn support for institutions that we found to be extremist."

The broad title of the hearing gives the Judiciary Committee an unlimited number of bases upon which to challenge King Abdullah's claims. Here's a short list of potential targets based on past CT Blog posts: the presence of a "Hamas command in Saudi Arabia" - the open solicitation of terrorist funds on Saudi TV by the secretary-general of the Saudi government's Muslim World League Koran Memorization Commission - the probable involvement of Saudi-based charities in the Bali bombings in 2002 and two weeks ago - the connections that Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, now held in northern Virginia in connection with terrorism-related charges, developed in Saudi Arabia - the long commitment of the current Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. to radical Islamic and wahhabist causes, including his role as Saudi "bagman" (Doug Farah's term) for the Taliban's victory in Afghanistan - and the role of Saudi citizens and Saudi embassy officials in the U.S. in disseminating hateful anti-American and anti-Israeli propaganda thoughout Islamic schools and mosques in the U.S.

"The word," as posted here and here, has been that the committee will focus on that last topic. It will be interesting to see whether Barbara Walters challenged her host on any of these topics during the interview.