Posted on 11/27/2001 3:59:13 PM PST by Shermy
Officials in Saudi Arabia are refusing to honor US requests to freeze bank accounts that Washington suspects are linked to terror groups, slowing the US-led global war on terror, the New York Times reported Tuesday.
Riyadh's hesitation on the financial front has prompted the administration of US President George W. Bush to prepare to send a delegation of State Department, Treasury and National Security Council officials to resolve the matter.
A high-level Saudi official told the US daily on condition of anonymity that US requests for the freezing of assets allegedly linked to terrorist organizations had not been backed up with sufficient proof. "This is the problem between us and the Americans," he said. "When they ask us to do something, we say 'Give us the evidence.' That's when they accuse us of helping the terrorists."
The crackdown on terrorist financing is an important component of Bush's war on terror, sparked by the September 11 attacks in the United States that left some 4,000 people dead.
Top US officials have repeatedly refuted reports that Riyadh was being less than cooperative in the US-led effort to stamp out terrorism, focused on nabbing top terror suspect Osama bin Laden and dismantling his al-Qaeda network.
They say Saudi interior ministry officials have fully cooperated with US federal investigators in Saudi Arabia on the criminal front, but similar cooperation on terror financing has been slow in coming.
One US official told the New York Times that Riyadh had been asked to freeze accounts bearing the names of those identified by Washington as having links to terrorist organizations, but he did not know of funds actually being seized.
"We cannot move without evidence, and no one has given us the evidence," the senior Saudi official told the US paper.
Those expected in Riyadh as part of the US delegation include US deputy assistant secretary of state Ryan Crocker, responsible for the Persian Gulf states, and R. Richard Newcomb, director of the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, the paper reported.
WE DON'T CARE! YOU FILTHY ISLAMIC TERROISTS WENT TO FAR!
We don't believe one word of your lies. You are wasting your time here. Go to DU with the rest of your America hating buddies.
We bombed the crap out of helpless Afghanistan, when are we going to seize the oil fields of SA? Are we going after the Saudi Royal Family like we went after the Taliban?
Hmmmmmm........
I'm not holding my breath. Double standards abound everywhere.
We threaten the Cayman Islands with economic ruin if they don't knuckle under, but the Saudis....
Goes to show, that our gov't wants to get the tax cheats more than the perps who committed 9/11.
Just send over the Chairman of the joint chiefs with a short note and a picture of what Saudi Arabia would look like after we bomb their banks.
That might take years. I'm prepared for that, aren't you?
I'd hate to see what would be left of the Bill of Rights or any of the rest of our freedoms. If you draw a line in the sand, you had better be able to put up or shut up. This is the trouble with public ultimatums - you paint yourself into a corner.
SA usually gets a free pass from the US. I say that we take their oil fields and then vouchsafe them a few dollars to subsist. Perhaps that will "smoke out" the terrorists.
The best way to lose this war is to get so freaked out and selfish that moral support, national support fades. Daschel and Hillary would love it. We need to make sure they don't succeed.
I expect if the wonderful men and women who sacrificed in our Revolutionary War were willing to give their very lives for freedom, we can make a few calculated sacrifices of our own to ensure its continuance. Our Free Republic is only free as LONG as we are willing to fight for it
Yes, the people who were in the front lines of our war for independance against the Crown of England did sacrifice quite a bit. They went to war to prevent the arbitrary use of gov't force against a free citizenry. The "Patriot Act" is Orwellian doublespeak, much like the "Banking Privacy Act" which served to do nothing more than make your banker a gov't informant on any transactions you may make.
As for fighting for freedom...
I served in the modern military for over a decade, in a forward-deployed status, and in combat. Perhaps I have a little moral authority on this "fighting for freedom' subject. I fully believe the original patriots of our republic are barfing in their graves at what Bush/Aschroft are proposing.
There is nothing "calculated" about any of these rollbacks in our freedoms, other than the gov't "calculates" they will use these new "tools" to catch any citizen hiding a few bucks down in the Caribbean when the "threat" subsides into normalcy. If you want "calculation" then arm the f**king border and pay attention to what foreigners you let into our country and what they are doing once they get here. Keep gov'ts grimey mitts off our citizens when it comes to prosecuting terrorism.
....and if that means sacrificing freedoms to which we love and desire for a temporary gain on locating terrorists, so be it.
Don't plan on getting those freedoms back when we catch those terrorists. We took down Pablo Escabar, how many freedoms given up to make laws designed to catch drug kingpins have been reinstated? (Hint: NONE!!!)
TO say that President Bush or anyone else wants to restrict our freedoms, forever, is insulting.
Look to history, my friend. History is nothing more than a study on the eternal struggle between government and citizens striking a balance for freedom. The gov't almost always wins, and it ain't pretty. Bush, Clinton, Gore, Reno, Ashcroft, et al, are all the same. More power, more power, more power. Some want the power for the children, some for the environment, some for family values, some for freedom (sick irony), some for equality, some for...
If tapping MY PHONE means somewhere out there in cable land a terrorist will be caught, I am willing to have it done.
I guess you have the "I have nothing to hide," mentality. Let the gov't look into yours (and everyone elses) bank accounts, so long as we catch one terrorist. Let them monitor your conversations (and everyone elses), so long as they catch one terrorist. Let them search your house without a warrant and without telling your legal council (and mine as well), so long as they catch one terrorist. Let them seize your guns (and everyone elses), so long as they catch one terrorist. Let them suspend your right to a speedy public trial (and everyone elses), so long as they catch one terrorist. Let them seize your property without due process (and everyone elses), so long as they catch one terrorist or druggie. Let them suspend the your right to confront accusers (and everyone elses), so long as they catch one terrorist.
Where does it stop? If they want to amend the Constitution, there are procedures in place to make that happen. This is not to be one of them.
But only for as long as we are at war. And we are at war.
NEWSFLASH!!!!
We are not at war! Article I, section 9 declares that Congress has the authority to declare war. Has this happened? (Hint: no). Therefore, all of we reactionary, Constitutionalists, tin-foil hatters think we are not at war. Therefore, no war - no reduction in rights. I am so f**king tired of hearing people talk about how we are at war. WE ARE NOT!! READ YOUR CONSTITUTION!!!!!
Perhaps I just need my medication.
And it is serious. And more are going to die. And I will do anything I can to help them survive.
Really? It's been almost three months since 9/11. What have you done? Tell me, when is your date for boot camp?
The best way to lose this war is to get so freaked out and selfish that moral support, national support fades. Daschel and Hillary would love it. We need to make sure they don't succeed.
No, the best way to lose this "war" is to get so freaked out that we give up freedoms as citizens for laws that have no hope of catching terrorists. Perhaps if we had a sound immigration policy, secure borders, and a gov't that had its head out of its a$$, 9/11 might not have happened. Tell me, WTF were the CIA, DOD, NSA, INS, Border Patrol, FBI, and everything else doing prior to 9/11? What makes Daschle and Hitlery get wood/wet is watching a bunch of sheep offer their freedoms on gov'ts altar, when we are not at war, and our survival is not threatened. That's f**king scary.
Oh but we need the oil...
and the energy bill is gone for this year...
and that insy winsy piece of ANWR will collect more snow this year...
Could the CIA dig a few wells without anyone knowing or is there are eco-whactivist handcuffed to a snowman out there watching?
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