WASHINGTON Ñ The Bush administration reports that Saudi Arabia has
responded to a U.S. appeal to freeze assets of suspected terrorists.
U.S. officials said King Fahd issued the order about a month after
President George Bush directed the freezing of assets of suspected
terrorists linked to Saudi fugitive Osama Bin Laden. The
officials said the Saudi order was part of a drive by the Gulf Cooperation
Council to stop the financing of terrorist groups. Until now, 81 countries
have issued orders blocking suspected terrorist assets.
So far, the officials said, the Saudi move has not produced any results
and the cooperation remains limited. In the past, Saudi officials have
played down any link with Bin Laden, whose citizenship was annulled by Riyad
in 1994.
But U.S. Treasury Undersecretary Jimmy Gurule suggested that Riyad was
monitoring suspected terrorist bank accounts to provide Washington with
information on their financing. Gurule would not elaborate.
"I think what's most important is cooperation," he said.
Officials said the Saudi efforts against terrorist financing will be
explored when a U.S. delegation arrives in Riyad as early as next week. The
delegation will be composed of representatives from the State Department and
Treasury.
In Washington, representatives of 29 nations agreed to halt
money-laundering, including that of "hawala," the movement of funds through
money-changers and the black market.
The administration has repeatedly asserted that Saudi Arabia is
cooperating with the United States on a range of anti-terrorist activities.
"We're cooperating with Saudi Arabia in any number of areas Ñ
law enforcement, finance, as well as other areas," State Department
spokesman Richard Boucher said.
But Pentagon sources dispute this assertion. They said the Saudis have
refused to cooperate on a range of military and law enforcement issues
regarding Bin Laden.
"We have not yet come to grips with the pernicious consequences of the
policies of Saudi Arabia," Richard Perle, head of the Pentagon's Defense
Advisory Board, told the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace. "And we have become so accustomed to regarding the
Saudi administration as a friend of the United States that we have largely
ignored Saudi policies that have
made an enormous contribution to the growth of global terrorism."
