Conflicting rhetoric
In the aftermath of verbal sparring between Saudi and US officials regarding Congress's report on the 9/11 attacks American rhetoric demonstrates conflicting views over the oil rich kingdom's fight against terrorism. Khaled Dawoud reports from Washington
At a tense United States Senate hearing last week, key Republicans and Democrats accused the US administration of "shielding" Saudi Arabia from investigations over its alleged role in financing charity organisations with links to terrorists who carried out the 11 September attacks. They alleged Saudi Arabia's status as the world's largest oil producer, its close ties with the administration and its role in the Middle East peace process as influencing the current government's reluctance to level unequivocal criticism against the kingdom.
The Senate's Governmental Affairs Committee held its hearing amidst the continuing controversy in the US Congress and media over a classified, 28- page chapter in a 900-page report issued late last month by a joint Senate and House of Representatives commission on intelligence shortcomings that led to failures in identifying and foiling the 11 September attacks in which 3,000 Americans were killed. President George Bush insisted on maintaining opacity regarding those pages despite a Saudi appeal. The classified pages reportedly deal with the possible role of foreign governments in the attacks, particularly the allegedly nefarious role of Saudi Arabia (see "Missing pages described as malicious," Al Ahram Weekly, 31 July-6 August 2003, p. 8).
However, at the Senate hearing on 31 July John S Pistole, deputy assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), said that the 12 May Riyadh bombings, in which both Saudi and American civilians were killed, marked a turning point in Saudi Arabia's willingness to cooperate with US authorities. Until that date, "there was very limited cooperation from the Saudi government." He added that after the bombings "the royal family in particular feels vulnerable. I think they see themselves in a struggle for survival at this point." Pistole is leading a delegation of senior FBI and intelligence officials who arrived in Riyadh on Sunday for meetings with Saudi counterparts on cooperation in combating terrorism. In a questionable attempt to barter US security for human rights, Pistole said that besides pressing the Saudi government for more cooperation in withholding any financing by charity organisations to what he referred to as terrorist groups, he would also ask the Saudis not to pay for lawyers for their nationals now held without charges or trial at a military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for their alleged links to Al-Qa'eda.
Meanwhile, Senator Charles E Schumer, Democrat of New York, asked for the resignation of Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz for allegedly failing to cooperate with US authorities in investigating Al-Qa'eda terrorist activities and refusing to take measures against charity organisations with alleged and imputed links to terrorist groups. In a letter to the Saudi Ambassador to Washington Bandar bin Sultan the senator alleged that Prince Nayef has a "well-documented history of supporting terrorist financing and ignoring the evidence when it comes to investigating terrorist attacks on Americans". The Saudi interior minister has long been attacked in the US intelligence circles for refusing access to Saudi suspects involved in the 1996 bombing of the Kohbar towers in which 19 US servicemen were killed.
However, after the recent bombings in Riyadh top US officials, starting with President Bush and US Secretary of State Colin Powell, have been lauding the Saudi level of cooperation. Saudi Arabia has allowed US investigators to interrogate suspects involved in the attacks. It has also agreed to allow the team led by Pistole to meet Al- Bayoumi for further questioning. Al- Bayoumi was questioned and released by the British intelligence agency that held him for questioning on US request shortly after the 11 September attacks. But US officials say they now need to question him again.
In an interview on Monday Powell praised Saudi support during the Iraq war and discussed how the kingdom has responded to US pressure by reforming its charitable giving practices which had previously seen money "funneled to certain religious organisations that are teaching more than religion". He evaluated the US-Saudi relationship as "good" and underscored that differences between the two governments are engaged on the basis of a 50-year friendship.
