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Terror's Financiers: Get Serious About the Saudi Connection

(Jerusalem Post) Neal M. Sher- Saudi Arabia has for years been engaged in a criminal conspiracy to give aid, comfort, and material support to mass murderers. Last week Attorney General Ashcroft announced that a Dallas-based "charity" - the Holy Land Foundation - and seven of its officials had been indicted for supporting Hamas. The Saudi government, our supposed ally, has in reality been the Holy Land Foundation's partner in crime. Ashcroft warned that the Holy Land Foundation prosecution makes clear that "[t]here is no distinction between those who carry out terrorist attacks and those who knowingly finance terrorist attacks...the United States will ensure that both terrorists and their financiers meet the same, certain justice." A key element to the indictment is the charge of engaging in a criminal conspiracy to finance the outlawed Hamas by providing funds earmarked for the families of suicide murderers. Through such support, the indictment reads, the defendants "effectively rewarded past and encouraged future suicide bombings and terrorist activities." Before its demise, Saddam's Iraq proudly gave $25,000 to the families of suicide bombers. His partner in what the U.S. government considers to be a serious crime was the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Not some rogue Saudis, not a fringe element. No, the Saudi government itself. There is iron-clad, irrefutable evidence in the form of documentation captured in 2002 from Palestinian Authority offices by Israel that leaves no doubt that under the auspices and control of the Saudi Ministry of Interior, large sums of money were directed through Hamas to support families of terrorists known to have carried out suicide bombings. Indeed, the documents actually provide the names of those involved. Among the beneficiaries of Saudi largesse was at least one family of a terrorist who murdered an American. So under the very standards established by our government, the Saudi regime has gotten away with supporting and facilitating mass murder. The writer is a former executive director of AIPAC and former director of the Office of Special Investigations in the U.S. Justice Department.
2004-08-13 00:00:00
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