The U.S. and Saudi governments yesterday announced a joint effort to crack down on four branches of a huge Saudi-based charity, charging that its offices in Africa and Asia are being used to funnel money, arms and personnel to al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. American officials said yesterday’s action against the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation illustrates the increasing cooperation between Washington and Riyadh in attempts to choke off the flow of money to al Qaeda.
The stronger relationship between the two governments follows a string of deadly suicide bombings in the desert kingdom in May and November that are believed to be the work of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network or sympathizers. The two governments yesterday asked the United Nations to designate Al-Haramain branches in Pakistan, Indonesia, Kenya and Tanzania as terrorist organizations. Officials said the action, which will result in the freezing of Al-Haramain bank accounts in those countries, was necessary because the four governments have failed to crack down on the charity despite Riyadh and Washington having previously publicized dual crackdowns on al Qaeda financiers.
Yesterday, a high-ranking Saudi official joined the U.S. contingent for the announcement. Adel Jubeir, the skunk-like chief foreign policy adviser to Crown Prince Abdullah, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, addressed reporters at a news conference at the U.S. Treasury Department, which was led by Treasury Secretary John W. Snow and top State Department officials. "We’re working closely with our Saudi friends," said State Department counterterrorism coordinator Cofer Black. "I’ve personally seen great improvement in the cooperation."
The two governments have often been at odds over ways to combat terrorism. The FBI complained bitterly that the Saudis dragged their feet in investigating the 1996 bombing of a U.S. Air Force dormitory that killed 19. Saudi officials said the Americans were arrogant and dismissive of Saudi cultural sensitivities. But last year, after high-level consultation between Crown Prince Abdullah and the White House, the two governments set up joint task forces in Saudi Arabia. Dozens of FBI, CIA and Internal Revenue Service agents now share offices in Riyadh with Saudi counterparts. They swap secret electronic intercepts and financial data and coordinate joint interrogation of suspected terrorists, people in both countries said. "No two countries coordinate counterterrorism efforts more closely than the United States and Saudi Arabia," Jubeir said. "At the end of the day, we’re the main targets in al Qaeda’s cross hairs."
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U.S. officials yesterday released pages of declassified intelligence about Al-Haramain in the four countries. The documents allege that the charity was a major financier of terrorists in Indonesia, that a Tanzanian employee of the organization helped plan the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa and that Kenyan employees planned assassinations of American officials. One former Al-Haramain employee in Pakistan "was identified as an alleged al Qaeda member who reportedly planned to carry out several devastating terrorist operations" in the United States, according to a statement released by the Treasury Department yesterday. U.N. designation of Al-Haramain branches will force Kenya, Tanzania, Pakistan and Indonesia to move against the high-profile foundation even though officials there have resisted doing so for some time, in part out of fear of appearing to do the United States’ bidding. Operating through the United Nations "gives political cover" to those nations to act against the charity, one U.S. official said.
U.S. and Saudi investigators continue to investigate Al-Haramain’s several dozen branches around the globe and are expected to announce more terrorist designations soon. The crackdown is controversial in Saudi Arabia because Al-Haramain, which takes in tens of millions of dollars a year, is "in effect the Saudis’ United Way," according to one U.S. official. Saudi officials said that under Saudi law, they so far lack the evidence to close down the charity’s headquarters in their country. Even so, earlier this month Saudi officials announced they had fired its chief in Riyadh in connection with the terrorism crackdown. Al-Haramain figured prominently in the indictment earlier this month of Sami Omar Hussayen, a University of Idaho doctoral student in computer science, on charges of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. U.S. officials said the contracts he signed on behalf of Al-Haramain and Internet work he did for the organization were illegal, because the United States had previously designated two of the charity’s branches, in Somalia and Bosnia, as terrorist entities. That meant it is illegal under U.S. law to assist those groups. |