Of Saudi Arabia, Petro-dollars and Terrorism
I recently came across this interesting admission by a senior US government official putting it on record that:
Saudi Arabia today remains the location where more money is going to terrorism, to Sunni terror groups and to the Taliban than any other place in the world
As the report, Saudi Arabia’s Terror Finance Problem by Douglas Farah notes,
There is little willingness to tackle the Saudis anymore on the issue of cracking down on terror finance. Intelligence services here and in Europe know most of the money for the mujahadeed in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere still come from wealthy donors in the Kingdom.
Only a handful of officials, however, dare to say so publicly
The exception has been Stuart Levy, the Treasury undersecretary for terror finance issues, who recently and publicly took on the Saudis in little-noted Congressional testimony.
One of the more interesting parts of the story, however, is…that, in essence, the Saudi government has repeatedly lied to the U.S. government over the steps the Kingdom has taken to crack down.
For example more than two years ago, the Saudis assured then-Rep. Sue Kelly (R-NY) that the Kingdom, as promised in 2003, had set up a financial intelligence unit and a commission to oversee the financial dealings of charities, many which have had ties to funding terrorist activities.
Now, Saudi spokesman Nail Jubeir (brother of ambassador Adel Jubeir) “confirmed that Saudi Arabia has not set up the financial intelligence unit or charity commission, but said it was cracking down on the financiers of terrorism in other ways, such as making it illegal for anyone to send money outside the kingdom -without going through official government channels.
Why should I loose sleep over this, you may ask. What concern is it to us?
If this report is anything to go by, it should be of pretty serious concern to us. I doubt though that anyone is loosing sleep over this – yet.
From, “Saudi Arabia Woos China and India“Â by Harsh V. Pant, read this richly referenced extract:
A more significant impediment, especially with regard to India, is the proliferation of Saudi-funded religious schools in the country.
A madrasa (Islamic school) education in India has long been a part of many Muslim children’s lives. Madrasas in India number between 8,000 and 40,000.[46] But concerns have been rising in India about the dated and, with Saudi financing, increasingly radical curricula. In 2001, a report of the Group of Ministers on “Reforming the National Security System” recommended the need to modernize madrasa education.[47]
Saudi financial assistance has gone to a range of Indian-Islamic organizations resulting in the establishment of mosques, madrasas, and publishing houses inculcating the Saudi worldview.[48]
Riyadh also provides scholarships to Indian students to study religion in its universities. Â The Ahle-Hadith (People of the Tradition of the Prophet), a Sunni Islamic sect with ties to the Saudi state dating back to the 1920s, has arguably been the biggest beneficiary of Saudi monetary assistance contributing to internecine rivalries among various Indian Muslim sects.[51] Â While the early Ahle-Hadith was in many ways progressive, it has now altered into an intolerant, literalist strand.
Several Indian Islamic jurists and scholars seem to have gravitated towards this Saudi-sanctioned, radical interpretation of Islam and to a conspiratorial version of global politics. Instructive in this context is a claim made by a Muslim jurist from the Deoband sect in India that “should it be proved that Osama was the mastermind behind the attacks of September 11, he would not be punished under Islamic law since his actions were the result of an independent, legal opinion issued by top jurists.”[52]
Another Islamic scholar from a prominent seminary in north India has argued that “a worldwide anti-Muslim alliance has been formed and is headed by the U.S. It runs in an arc from Hindu fundamentalist India, through China and Russia, and ends with Europe and the U.S. in the west. The effect is to encircle and choke the Islamic world.”[53]
While the radicalism of Deoband would hardly surprise readers – given its reputation for teaching “the most fundamentalist, narrow, puritan, rigid, oppressive version of Islam that exists anywhere in the world today – what is more worrying (at least to me) is the slow radicalisation of otherwise harmless Madrassas now flush with Saudi money and dominated by Wahabbi ideas (do remember the “S” in SIMI)
That is the real danger lurking beneath the surface and that is what we should be most worried about.
Unfortunately, such worries are rather unfashionable in Lutyen’s Delhi…and such thoughts are far from the mind of our government which earlier this week sent External Affairs Minister, Sh. Pranab Mukherjee to Riyadh to establish a “strategic partnership” with Saudi Arabia.
Curiously, ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna issued a statement after the meetings saying:
“Both sides were keen that genuine businessmen from both sides be given multi-entry visas to boost bilateral investment…”
“genuine businessmen”? I hope they mean it!!
Related Posts:
can u say petrodollar warfare
B Raman: futile to expect that S Arabia could (assist) India in dealing with jihadi terrorism emanating frm Pak/B’Desh http://bit.ly/8Xqlvn
Saudi Arabia remains the world’s leading source of money for Al Qaeda and other extremist networks and has failed to take key steps requested by U.S. officials to stem the flow. Infact, Russia has criticised Western attempts to support moderate factions in the Taliban and named Saudi Arabia as a major source of funding international terrorists. The Russian Defence Minister, Mr. Sergei Ivanov, drew an equation mark between Number 1 terrorist, Osama bin Laden, and the Taliban, calling them “two sides of a coin”. “Trying to differentiate between them and to say that Osama Bin Laden is bad, Mr. Ivanov told the Upper House of Russian Parliament, the Federation Council. Mr. Vladimir Putin, openly accused Saudi moneybags of funding terrorists.
“Funding of extremists, which comes from the territory of Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, is based on two simple sources – petrodollars and drug trafficking, which brings billions of dollars,” Mr. Ivanov said, adding that most terrorists who had carried out the September 11 attacks in the U.S. were mostly from Saudi Arabia, Afganistan, Pakistan, Dubai and various Islamic Countries. As the U.S. mulls extending the anti-terrorist operation to other “hostile” countries, such as Iraq, Moscow is advising Washington to pay closer attention to some of its allies, such as Saudi Arabia. Moscow has long listed Saudi Arabia among main funding sources for Chechen rebels. The Bush administration has a complicated relationship with Saudi Arabia, which has long been a close U.S. ally but remains a key source for extremists. Saudis are believed to be the single largest nationality among foreign suicide bombers in Iraq. A senior Treasury Department official testifying before Congress was unusually frank about how much work remains for the Saudi government to crack down on terrorist financing. “Saudi Arabia today remains the location where more money is going to terrorism, to Sunni terror groups, and to the Taliban than any other place in the world,” said Stuart Levey, a Treasury under secretary. More broadly, a companion report by the National Counterterrorism Centerfound that the number of terrorism attacks worldwide remained largely steady in 2007, measuring only a tiny decline from the year before. Some 80 percent of the recorded attacks occurred in the Middle East and South Asia. One of the biggest increases took place in Afghanistan, which has seen the number of terrorist attacks more than double between 2005 and 2007.
In India most of the Islamic religious places such as Madrasas, Mosques is been sponsered by Saudi Arabia my question raises why they are interested in sponsering so much amont of funds?and what they are been taught only terrorism activities and result of this is to harm our Indian Economy. Our Indian Govt must give permission to various authorised Dept of CBI, CID,ACB to check all the bank accounts of every individual citizens and start asking queries if they find any suspicious amount in their account. This is way how we can stop funds from several gulf countries for terrorism activities.
Courtesy Wikileaks, S Arabia “most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups wrldwide” incl. al-Qaeda, Taliban & LeT http://bbc.in/fNdjot
Adding this here for the record..From Russian President, Saudi Spy Chief
Discussed Syria, Egypt, a brief excerpt:
…(Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan) told Putin, “..As an example, I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics in the city of Sochi on the Black Sea next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us..â€
…
Putin thanked King Abdullah for his greetings and Bandar for his exposition, but then he said to Bandar, “We know that you have supported the Chechen terrorist groups for a decade. And that support, which you have frankly talked about just now, is completely incompatible with the common objectives of fighting global terrorism that you mentioned…”
Also referred here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/10266957/Saudis-offer-Russia-secret-oil-deal-if-it-drops-Syria.html
Shantanu- this Strategic Partnership with Saudi is an oxymoron- neither is it strategic nor is it really a partnership. Saudi and much of Middle East is itself destined to be a significant importer of energy esp gas (where OPEC does not and can not provide any pricing air cover); the recent US statement against SA needs to betaken in the context of this new energy reality. Not many are yet aware that for the last 3 years US has overtaken Russia in gas production.
Saudi Arabia (and the greater Middle East) now has a dilemma: sustainability of social programmes and social stability demands an international oil price of $100 and more and the US- the most secure and largest customer historically- in its own changed context no longer needs to play ball. China has already locked in oil at ‘strategic prices’ ; so now only India is the remaining “lallu” with large enough demand and a spectacular inability to leverage any bargaining power to boot.
We have a choice: buy at international prices or offer something of strategic interest to Sunni Wahabism if we want a ‘china price”.
you have to ask a question: what did china offer to get a discounted oil price? Answer is visible everywhere in the current crises in the Middle East with the latest example being Syria.
From The Blind Spot: Azadeh Moaveni, a brief excerpt (emphasis added):
…
There is also an enormous blind spot around the role Saudi Arabia and Qatar – traditional Western allies in the Persian Gulf – have played in fuelling this sectarian conflict. It is truly an unexamined and under-acknowledged dimension to what we’re seeing. I would call it a wholescale underestimation of Saudi Arabia’s systematic drive over the past decade to spread jihadi extremism from North Africa all the way to Pakistan. It is perhaps the gravest threat to global security we are witnessing today, and yet the conventional narrative in the Western media holds that Iran’s nuclear program is what is really pushing the world to the brink of destruction.