The current issue of U.S. News & World Report features an informative article, “The Saudi Connection: How billions in oil money spawned a global terror network,” based on five months of research, “a review of thousands of pages of court records, U.S. and foreign intelligence reports, and other documents,” and in-depth interviews with “more than three dozen current and former counterterrorism officers, as well as government officials and outside experts in Riyadh.” It’s ten pages long, so here are some highlights:
– U.S. intelligence officials knew about Saudi Arabia’s role in funding terrorism by 1996, yet for years Washington did almost nothing to stop it. Examining the Saudi role in terrorism, a senior intelligence analyst says, was “virtually taboo.” Even after the embassy bombings in Africa, moves by counterterrorism officials to act against the Saudis were repeatedly rebuffed by senior staff at the State Department and elsewhere….
The Saudi funding program … is “the largest worldwide propaganda campaign ever mounted”–dwarfing the Soviets’ propaganda efforts at the height of the Cold War.
– Saudi donors sent $150 million through Islamic aid organizations to Bosnia in 1994 alone…. A CIA investigation found that a third of the Islamic charities in the Balkans … had “facilitated the activities of Islamic groups that engage in terrorism,” including plots to kidnap or kill U.S. personnel.
– The agency identified over 50 Islamic charities engaged in international aid and found that, as in the Balkans, fully a third of them were tied to terrorist groups. … “Even high-ranking members of the collecting or monitoring agencies in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Pakistan–such as the Saudi High Commission–are involved in illicit activities, including support for terrorists.”
– The CIA found that the IIRO was funding “six militant training camps in Afghanistan,” where Riyadh was backing a then obscure sect called the Taliban….
– They receive substantial funds from the government and members of the royal family and make use of the Islamic affairs offices of Saudi embassies abroad.
– Electronic intercepts of conversations implicated members of the royal family in backing not only al Qaeda but also other terrorist groups….
…[I]n many of the jihad struggles, Washington was neutral, as in Kashmir, or even supportive, as in Bosnia. When Saudi money began financing jihadists headed to Chechnya, Washington responded with “a wink and a nod,” as one analyst put it.
– On the subject of Saudi ties to terrorism, the word came back: There was simply no interest. The result, says a CIA veteran, was “a virtual embargo.”
– The G-men found the source of the cash curious: a Saudi charity…, which had funneled the money through the Saudi Embassy. Senior Justice Department officials expressed concerns about “national security,” and the case, eventually, was dropped.
– In his recent book Sleeping With the Devil … former CIA operative Bob Baer calls it “Washington’s 401(k) Plan.” “The Saudis put out the message,” Baer wrote. “You play the game–keep your mouth shut about the kingdom–and we’ll take care of you.” The list of beneficiaries is impressive: former cabinet secretaries, ambassadors, and CIA station chiefs. Washington lobbyists, P.R. firms, and lawyers have also supped at the Saudi table, as have nonprofits from the Kennedy Center to presidential libraries. The high-flying Carlyle Group has made fortunes doing deals with the Saudis. Among Carlyle’s top advisers have been former President George H.W. Bush; James Baker, his secretary of state; and Frank Carlucci, a former secretary of defense.
– Official inquiries about bin Laden went unanswered by Riyadh. … [T]he CIA instructed officials at its Riyadh station not to collect intelligence on Islamic extremists–even after the bombing….
Frustrated with Riyadh, Newcomb’s Office of Foreign Assets Control at Treasury began submitting the names of Saudi charities and businessmen for sanctions. But imposing sanctions required approval from an interagency committee, and that never came.
– As part of a still-classified report, he wrote a cable instructing U.S. ambassadors to insist that host governments crack down on the groups. But some at State argued that the charities were doing important work and fought to kill Sheehan’s initiative. The cable was deep-sixed.
– At the Saudi High Commission in Bosnia, which coordinated local aid among Saudi charities, police found before-and-after photos of the World Trade Center, files on pesticides and crop dusters, and information on how to counterfeit State Department badges.
– For two years, investigators have followed the money to offshore trusts and obscure charities which … they believe are tied to Hamas, al Qaeda, and other terrorist groups. To date, no groups have been indicted.
– …President Pervez Musharraf has twice asked Riyadh to curtail the millions of Saudi dollars that pour into local Islamic political parties, jihad groups, and religious schools. Again, the Saudis have promised change, but Pakistani officials are skeptical. They point to the visit to Mecca last month by the chief of the Jamiat-e-Ullema Islam, one of Pakistan’s top Islamic parties. The JUI shares power in Pakistan’s Northwest Territory, where it provides sanctuary for Taliban members staging attacks in Afghanistan. Why was JUI’s boss in Mecca? For fundraising, JUI sources told U.S. News.