Author: Jonathan Levin
Publication: National Review
Date: December 5, 2002
URL: http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-jlevin120502.asp
The well-oiled Saudi PR machine
chugged into action this week with foreign-policy adviser Adel al-Jubeir
at the helm. "For too long Saudi Arabia has been wrongly accused of being
uncooperative or ineffective in combating terrorism," al-Jubeir proclaimed
to an audience of newsmen at the Saudi embassy, "the unfounded charges
against Saudi Arabia have gotten out of control."
Al-Jubeir went on to list the Saudis'
successful strikes against terrorism: arresting the mastermind of 2000's
USS Cole bombing, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri; freezing nearly $5.6 million
in terrorist assets; freezing Wael Hamza Julaidan's assets. The finishing
touch, Al-Jubeir said, is the enactment of stringent measures by which
the Saudi government can track the finances of charities that have in the
past funded al Qaeda. Al-Jubeir then pointed out that the new accounting
measures are merely precautionary, telling reporters, "We have not found
a direct link between charity groups and terrorism."
Of course, Saudi-based charities
have raised millions (if not billions) of dollars for terrorism. One Saudi
charity, Al Haramain Charitable Trust, has had it offices in Bosnia and
Somalia declared Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entities.
Another charity, the Rabita Trust, has been marked SDGT outright.
The World Assembly of Muslim Youth
(WAMY) and International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO) are two of
Rabita Trust's sister organizations. The Wall Street Journal recently published
an in-depth account of the ties between IIRO, Saudi al Qaeda financier
Yassin al- Qadi and the 1998 African-embassy bombings. IIRO has been linked
to planned attacks in Pakistan, India, the Philippines, and Africa.
WAMY was founded in the United States
by Osama bin Laden's brother, Abdullah. The short WAMY book Islamic Views,
printed by the Saudi government's Armed Forces Printing Press, contains
passages such as, "[T]each our children to love taking revenge on the Jews
and the oppressors, and teach them that our youngsters will liberate Palestine
and al-Quds when they go back to Islam and make Jihad for the sake of Allah."
The Saudi promise to cut off al
Qaeda funding is a welcome development. What is troubling is, just as Al
Jubeir is announcing his government's new accounting practices, Saudi royals
are donating to some of the worst offenders. The weekly political magazine
Ain al Yaqeen ("Heart of the Matter"), reported on November 29 that Prince
Abdul Majeed ibn Abdul Aziz recently headlined a joint WAMY/al Haramain
fundraiser and gave a $40,000 donation. A couple weeks later, Prince Mohammed
ibn Fahd ibn Abdul Aziz spoke at a fundraiser for WAMY, al-Haramain, and
IIRO.
American public opinion is against
the Saudis because of precisely these sorts of deceptions. Saudi minister
of the interior Prince Nayef Ibn Abd Al-Azizs told the Kuwaiti paper al-Siyaasa,
"we [the Saudis] put big question marks and ask who committed the events
of September 11 and who benefited from the. Who benefited from events of
9/11? I think they [the Zionists] are behind these events." Clearly, the
Saudis have yet to accept their role in motivating and financing terrorism.
But then, as al-Jubeir said, Saudi charities were never a problem in the
first place.
(Jonathan Levin is a terrorism analyst
with the Investigative Project, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank tracking
terrorists and their supporters around the world.)
