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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (5938)	8/26/2003 8:56:51 AM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793587

This is a major step for the Saudis. U.S.-Saudi Anti-Terror Operation Planned Task Force Will Target Funding By Douglas Farah Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, August 26, 2003; Page A01 Saudi Arabia and the United States have for the first time agreed to set up a joint task force that will station U.S. law enforcement officials in the desert kingdom to target individuals suspected of funneling millions of dollars to al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations, officials from both countries said yesterday. Senior officials of the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service are flying to Riyadh today to iron out the operational details of the group, which will focus on mining information from bank accounts, computer records and other financial data to track and shut down the money flow, according to senior officials from both governments. Although several joint task forces have been tried before, none allowed U.S. officials to live in Saudi Arabia or have access to Saudi documents and investigations. U.S. and Saudi officials said the impetus for strengthening cooperation between the two nations came from al Qaeda's attacks in Saudi Arabia in May, when suicide car bombings of residential compounds in Riyadh killed 34 people, including nine assailants. U.S. officials said the creation of the task force is an important step whose effectiveness will depend on how seriously the Saudi government takes the issue. "I don't think there is a more immediate way to test the joint resolve of our countries than to have a joint investigative unit, with the linguistic and computer resources of both our countries, that is capable of focusing on specific targets, rather than talking in generalities," said David Aufhauser, the Treasury Department's counsel general, who helped negotiate the agreement. "We now have a testable proposition of people's resolve." Dennis Lormel, head of the FBI division investigating terrorist financing, agreed that "it is one thing for the Saudis to say they will cooperate and another to commit the resources to making this work. It was agreed to at a very senior level, so we hope this specifically focused group will work." Relations between the two countries have been strained in recent months over allegations in a congressional report and elsewhere that wealthy Saudis have financed terror groups and that Riyadh has not moved aggressively to stem that flow of money. Intelligence experts say that funding from wealthy individuals on the Arabian Peninsula, principally Saudi Arabia, to al Qaeda still amounts to millions of dollars a year. Independent terrorist analysts were cautiously optimistic about the agreement, saying that, with U.S. agents on the ground, it will be difficult for Saudi officials to drag their feet on investigations. "We are on a learning curve in terms of tracking the money," said one Saudi official. "What we are proposing is a full exchange of information, where we can get real-time information that can lead to a greater understanding of how terrorist financing works by both countries." There was one sign yesterday that some steps are already being taken. U.S. officials confirmed an Arab News newspaper report that the Saudi American Bank had summarily closed the account of wealthy Saudi businessman Khalid bin Mahfouz, a Saudi long suspected of financing terrorist organizations. He denies the allegations and no charges have been filed against him. Bin Mahfouz told the newspaper that he had received a letter from the bank, along with a check for the full amount of his bank deposit. "People are telling him they don't want his money because they don't like the associations being made between him and terrorism," said a Saudi official. "The bank was cutting off one avenue for him, although of course he has many others." The agreement in principle to establish the financial task force came in a July telephone call between President Bush and Crown Prince Abdullah, officials said. The idea was finalized earlier this month when a senior delegation of State Department, Treasury Department and National Security Council officials visited Saudi Arabia to press for further cooperation. The U.S. contingent on the task force will consist of five to 15 representatives from the FBI, the Treasury Department and other government agencies that monitor terrorism financing. Saudi Arabia has been under intense pressure by the United States to move more aggressively against suspected terrorist financiers since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Some of the charities believed to fund the al Qaeda terrorist network are sponsored by the Saudi government, and 15 of the 19 individuals who participated in the attacks were Saudis. In recent congressional hearings, a senior government official described Saudi Arabia as the "epicenter" of terrorist financing. Lormel and Aufhauser said one of the new group's top priorities would be analyzing a trove of documents seized by the Saudis following the May bombings. Immediately after the May attacks, a joint Saudi-U.S. intelligence task force was set up to track the perpetrators. That enhanced cooperation served as the template to set up a permanent group that "went to the wellspring of terrorist financing in Saudi Arabia," Aufhauser said. "There is a wealth of financial data that has not been exploited, as well as a great deal of chatter about end-of-summer terrorist threats," Aufhauser said. "Document exploitation and helping with threat assessments are the two immediate tactical goals." But in the long term, Aufhauser said, "we propose to create a living investigative unit that can pursue the source of terrorist financing that emanates from Saudi Arabia." washingtonpost.com

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (5938)	8/26/2003 11:01:42 AM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793587

I don't think it would buy him anything. Your response focuses on the short term, say the next few months, Nadine. Bush's problem is 04. If Iraq stays as it now is or gets worse (likely), the growing casualties, the lack of progress will turn back to highlight the spurious justifications for going in. It's a definite political loss. Faced, right now, with the need for more troops, Bush either asks for more US troops and faces those dilemmas or asks for international stuff and that's the UN. If he goes UN, then whatever happens in Iraq is much less likely to laid at his feet. Now if you think he can pull it out, then all this speculation of mine is beside the point. Most likely that's where we disagree.