Saudi Arabia has “turned a blind eye” to the money that flows from its wealthy citizens to the al-Qaeda terrorist network, according to a report released yesterday by the Council on Foreign Relations (see GSN, April 11; Douglas Farah, Washington Post, Oct. 18).

Saudi officials said the report was an “opinion” and included “false and inconclusive information” (Agence France-Presse/Straits Times, Oct. 18).

The report comes as Jimmy Gurule, the U.S. Treasury undersecretary for enforcement, prepares for a six-day European trip to seek help in freezing the assets of al-Qaeda’s major financial supporters.  Through interviews with imprisoned al-Qaeda operatives and the tracking of money couriers, the United States has focused on about a dozen sources of terrorist funding, among them many wealthy Saudi citizens, according to a senior Bush administration official.

The list prepared by U.S. intelligence goes “to the check writers who give the money to al-Qaeda, not just the facilitators and those who move the money around. We are finally getting to the source,” the official said.  Gurule will ask European countries — where freezing assets is much more difficult — to assist the U.S. effort.

“I believe it is always better to act cooperatively than unilaterally,” Gurule said.  “Cooperation has been very good, and we want to engage the Europeans in an effort to make them more proactive in this fight.”

Gurule plans to visit Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Denmark and Sweden to push the U.S. cause.  Saudi officials, however, have been uncooperative in the effort to stop al-Qaeda funding, according to U.S. officials.

“In the next weeks you will hear cries of pain, mostly from Saudi Arabia,” the administration official said.  “If the Saudis don’t take action against these people, we will at least make sure they cannot travel outside their home country and cannot do business as usual around the world” (Farah, Washington Post).

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom has said it will help countries implement measures designed to stop terrorist funding, Pakistan’s Dawn reported today.

Foreign Office Minister Denis MacShane said yesterday the United Kingdom was working to develop an international framework to combat money laundering.  The United Kingdom is taking advantage of its position as head of the U.N. Security Council’s counterterrorism committee to fight terrorist financing (see GSN, Oct. 7; Arshad Sharif, Dawn, Oct. 18). 

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