U.S. criticizes Saudi anti-terror effort

WASHINGTON (LA Times) -- Although Saudi Arabia has cracked down on militants within its borders, the kingdom has not met its promises to help prevent the spread of terrorism or curb the flow of money from Saudis to terror cells around the world, U.S. intelligence, diplomatic and other officials say.

One result, these critics said, is that countless young terror suspects are believed to have escaped the kingdom's tightening noose at home by fleeing across what critics call a porous border into Iraq. U.S. military officials confirm an aggressive role by Saudi fighters in the insurgency in Iraq, where over the past year they reportedly accounted for more than half of all Arab jihadists killed.

And millions of dollars continue to flow from wealthy Saudis through Saudi-based Islamic charitable and relief organizations to al-Qaida and other suspected terror groups abroad, aided by Riyadh's failure to set up a government commission to police such groups as promised, senior U.S. officials from several counterterrorism agencies said in interviews.

Those officials said Saudi Arabia has taken some positive steps within its borders. But they criticized what they called the Saudis' failure to take a more active role in the global fight.

Daniel L. Glaser, the deputy assistant Treasury secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes, recalled attending a counterterrorism conference in Riyadh last February at which the Saudis declared they would be an international leader in fighting al-Qaida and in eradicating terrorism worldwide.

Nearly a year later, Glaser and other U.S. officials say, those promises are unfulfilled.

"They promised to do it and they need to live up to their promises," Glaser said. "They need to crack down operationally on donors in Saudi Arabia. And they need to exert their influence over their international charities abroad . . . . They have to care not just what al-Qaida is doing just within their own borders but wherever it is operating."

In response, a senior Saudi official vehemently insisted that the kingdom has taken strong steps to fight al-Qaida -- not only at home but worldwide. In a series of interviews last week, the official said the government is working closely with regional partners and the United States on operational and intelligence-gathering fronts.

The Saudi official spoke on the condition of anonymity, saying he did not want to disturb the ongoing and "extremely sensitive" discussions with Washington on various counterterrorism issues.

The official objected to U.S. criticisms about Saudi fighters playing an important role in the Iraq insurgency, and said Riyadh has done a good job of sealing off the border between the two countries. Any Saudis entering Iraq have been forced to transit through other countries, he said.

By contrast, the Saudi official said, U.S. forces in Iraq have done little to patrol that country's borders with Saudi Arabia and that foreign fighters are entering Iraq through Syria and Iran.

"We have captured thousands of people coming into Saudi Arabia from Iraq, including drug dealers and people trying to smuggle explosives," the Saudi official said. "And for somebody to have the audacity to say the Saudis are not doing enough is unreasonable . . . . Which side is not doing enough? The side that has beefed up its border or the side that has not?" The official acknowledged that Saudi Arabia has not established a formal charity oversight commission as it pledged in 2004 but said the government controls all Saudi money going to charities and relief organizations overseas.

Saudi Arabia has been under intense pressure from its longtime allies in Washington since the Sept. 11 attacks, when it became clear that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis. But critics say that the oil-rich Persian Gulf kingdom, long considered a nexus of al-Qaida activities, did not begin seriously cracking down on terrorists until its own capital was rattled by a series of deadly suicide bombings in 2003.

Since then, the kingdom has killed or captured dozens of senior terrorism operatives. The senior U.S. counterterrorism and intelligence officials from several counterterrorism agencies praised Saudi Arabia for working closely with the FBI and CIA on operations within the kingdom.

But they say the Saudi effort has focused almost entirely on crackdowns on small operational cells of al-Qaidamilitants at home. In interviews and recent congressional testimony, they said they have urged Saudi Arabia repeatedly, without success, to take a much more active role in the broader effort.

The U.S. officials say the Riyadh government, consisting mostly of the ruling Saud family dynasty, has done little to rein in influential Saudi radical religious clerics who have openly encouraged their followers to attack U.S. interests in Iraq and elsewhere. Riyadh also has failed to staunch the flow of millions of dollars in annual "zakat," or mandatory Muslim alms taxes, to highly suspect Saudi-based charities and relief organizations that have ties to al-Qaida, U.S. officials say.

And they say the Saudi government itself continues to pay spend lavishly to promote the spread of a militant form of Islam known as Wahhabism. U.S. officials say the government funding of Wahhabist religious clerics, mosques, study groups, textbooks and cultural centers in Asia, Africa, Europe and even the United States is undercutting the global counter-terrorism effort.

The Saudi official said Riyadh is retraining thousands of teachers and clerics so they can disseminate a more moderate form of Wahhabism. But he acknowledged problems in countering the influence of radical clerics.

"We have a problem with imams," the Saudi official said. "We have a hundred thousand of them. Can we stop every one? No."