Posted on 03/21/2002 12:31:30 AM PST by JohnHuang2
Despite initial steps in response to U.S. requests, Saudi Arabia continues to tolerate the transfer of finances to al-Qaida insurgents.
U.S. intelligence sources said Saudi princes are believed to be funding the flight of al-Qaida agents from Afghanistan to the Persian Gulf and Middle East. They said the princes have paid millions of dollars for the escape of hundreds of al-Qaida and Taliban members from Afghanistan through Iran and to the Persian Gulf.
Many of those who fled Afghanistan, the sources said, are Saudis or those who had been sponsored by the House of Saud.
The al-Qaida agents, the sources said, have resettled in such countries as Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Others have moved to Lebanon and Syria.
"The Saudis have acted when we have pointed to specific information on a specific group," an intelligence source said. "Otherwise, the money flow to al-Qaida continues from members of the royal family."
The sources said Vice President Dick Cheney discussed the issue of Saudi financing to Islamic insurgency groups during his visit to Riyadh over the weekend. Cheney met in Riyadh with Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz.
The United States has maintained a dialogue with Saudi security chiefs regarding the flow of money to Saudi charities alleged to have supported Islamic insurgents. On March 19, U.S. ambassador to Riyadh, Robert Jordan, met Saudi intelligence chief Prince Nawaf Bin Abdul Aziz. The official Saudi Press Agency said the two men discussed bilateral relations as well as developments in the region.
"Saudi officials have at minimum a clear pattern of looking the other way when funds are known to support extremist purposes," Matthew Levitt, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former law enforcement official, said in a report. "Saudis are now encouraged to donate funds in fulfillment of their zakat obligations only through established groups operating under the direct patronage of a member of the royal family. However, as the recent case in Bosnia attests, many of these groups are themselves suspected of financing terrorism."
U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said the United States and Saudi Arabia have cooperated to block the assets of the Somalia and Bosnia-Herzegovina branches of a Saudi-based charitable foundation. The Al Haramain Islamic Foundation was said to have diverted funds to al-Qaida and satellite organizations, such as the Egyptian Gamiat Islamiya.
Al Haramain is said to spend $30 million a year and maintains 50 offices around the world.
U.S. officials said the blocking of assets to Al Haramain was the first joint venture by Riyadh and Washington as part of the U.S.-led war against terrorism. The officials said the Bush administration spent months urging the kingdom to take action against charities determined to have funded al-Qaida.
"This joint designation marks a new level of coordination in the international cooperation that has characterized the fight against international terrorism to date," O'Neill said.
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