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Dubious Spin on Saudi Arabia

(Washington Times) Editorial - In the wake of last week's announcement that Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the longtime Saudi ambassador to the U.S., will be replaced by Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former head of Saudi intelligence and the monarchy's current ambassador to London, Riyadh's supporters have begun spinning the idea that the prince could be America's salvation in the war on terror. A central problem with this thesis is that the Saudis remain heavily involved in financing radical jihadism. In July 13 testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, Stuart Levey, Treasury undersecretary in the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said that while Saudi Arabia has become much more cooperative since the May 2003 Riyadh bombings, "even today, we believe that Saudi donors may still be a significant source of terrorist financing, including for the insurgency in Iraq." Mr. Levey singled out several Saudi charities whose support for terrorism "continue to cause us concern." Given Saudi Arabia's longstanding role as a financier of the Wahhabi terrorist network that brought us everything from the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center to the September 11 attacks, many Americans might think that the U.S. needs to demand that the Saudi government crack down on Saudis inside and outside of government who continue to fund jihadists.
2005-07-29 00:00:00
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