Panel clears Saudi government

By Susan Schmidt
The Washington Post

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"Saudi Arabia has long been considered the primary source of al-Qaida funding, but we found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior officials within the Saudi government funded al-Qaida," the report concluded.

Al-Qaida still found "fertile fund-raising ground in the Kingdom," where religious extremism flourishes and charitable giving is considered an obligation.

The panel's conclusions about the Saudi government reflect views shared among law enforcement, intelligence agencies and many terrorism experts.

"The fact is we don't support terrorism and eventually the truth will come out," said Adel al-Jubeir, foreign-affairs adviser to Crown Prince Abdullah.

Dennis Lormel, who until the end of last year led the FBI's terror finance investigations, said "clearly they could have done a lot more a lot sooner to stem the flow of financing, but we never were able to link the government to anything." Government officials, he said, "are one step removed."

The Saudi minister of Islamic Affairs has been the titular head of global charities accused of financing al-Qaida and other terror organizations, and there have been various claims that members of the royal family had supported such groups.

"Most of the major charities are sponsored and overseen by (interior minister Prince) Nayef," said David Aufhauser, who until recently oversaw probes of terror financing at the U.S. Treasury.

The Saudi government has clamped down since al-Qaida began launching attacks there in May 2003. This month, it said it would place operations of all global charitable organizations under a commission.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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