[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 73 (Monday, June 6, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6107-S6109]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. SPECTER (for himself, Mr. Bayh, Ms. Collins, Mr. Johnson, 
        Mrs. Murray, Mr. Feingold, and Mr. Wyden):
  S. 1171. A bill to halt Saudi support for institutions that fund, 
train, incite, encourage, or in any other way aid and abet terrorism, 
and to secure full Saudi cooperation in the investigation of terrorist 
incidents, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Foreign 
Relations.
  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I have sought recognition to offer 
legislation to halt Saudi Arabia's support for institutions that fund, 
train, incite or in any other way aid and abet terrorism, and to secure 
full Saudi cooperation in the investigation of terrorist incidents and 
organizations.
  Despite the Saudi government's attempts to show otherwise, a growing 
amount of evidence indicates that Saudi Arabia has provided only 
lackluster support for U.S. investigations into terrorist networks, 
such as al Qaeda. Mounting documentation and reports have revealed that 
since the attacks of September 11, 2001, Saudi citizens have provided 
significant amounts of financial support to al Qaeda, Hamas, and other 
terrorist organizations. The Saudi government continues to use direct 
and indirect means to support organizations that propagate hate and 
incite terror around the world.
  United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373, adopted in 2001, 
mandates that all states ``refrain from providing any form of support, 
active or passive, to entities or persons involved in terrorist acts . 
. . take the necessary steps to prevent the commission of terrorist 
acts . . . deny safe haven to those who finance, plan, support, or 
commit terrorist acts . . . ensure that

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any person who participates in the financing, planning, preparation or 
perpetration of terrorist acts or in supporting terrorist acts is 
brought to justice'' and that member countries ``afford one another the 
greatest measure of assistance in connection with criminal 
investigations or criminal proceedings relating to the financing or 
support of terrorist acts.'' I would like to share some findings with 
my colleagues that I believe paint a clear picture that Saudi Arabia 
has failed to comply with this U.N. standard.
  Saudi Arabia's lack of cooperation with the United States is not a 
post
9/11 phenomenon. At the time of the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996, I 
chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee. I visited Dhahran and had 
the opportunity to inspect the results of the car bomb which killed 
nineteen of our airmen and injured 400 others. In that situation, U.S. 
investigators were denied the opportunity to interview the suspects. I 
personally met with Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and requested 
that the FBI be permitted to speak with suspects in custody. Crown 
Prince Abdullah denied my request and informed me that the United 
States should not meddle in Saudi internal affairs. The murder of 
nineteen U.S. airmen and the wounding of 400 more hardly qualifies as a 
Saudi internal affair.
  A joint committee of the Select Committee on Intelligence of the 
Senate and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House 
of Representatives issued a report on July 24, 2003, which found ``a 
number of U.S. Government officials complained to the Joint Inquiry 
about a lack of Saudi cooperation in terrorism investigations both 
before and after the September 11 attacks.'' With regard to dealing 
with Saudi officials, General Counsel of the Treasury Department, David 
Aufhauser, testified on July 23, 2002, that ``there is an almost 
intuitive sense, however, that things are not being volunteered. So I 
want to fully inform you about it, that we have to ask and we have to 
seek and we have to strive.''
  The Saudi Government has asserted its right to question Saudi 
nationals captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan, yet according to a 
September 15, 2003 issue of Time Magazine, the Saudi Government denied 
``U.S. officials access to several suspects in custody, including a 
Saudi in detention for months who had knowledge of extensive plans to 
inject poison gas in the New York City subway system.''

  In a June 2004 report entitled ``Update on the Global Campaign 
Against Terrorist Financing'', the Council on Foreign Relations 
reported that ``we find it regrettable and unacceptable that since 
September 11, 2001, we know of not a single Saudi donor of funds to 
terrorist groups who have been publicly punished.''
  Additionally, the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the 
United
  States, also referred to as the 9/11 Commission, interviewed numerous 
military officers and government officials who repeatedly listed Saudi 
Arabia as a prime place for terrorists to set up bases. ``In talking 
with American and foreign government officials and military officers on 
the front lines fighting terrorists today, we [9/11 Commission] asked 
them: If you were a terrorist leader today, where would you locate your 
base? Some of the same places come up again and again on their lists . 
. . the Arabian Peninsula, especially Saudi Arabia.''
  The U.S. should not be in the position of begging for information and 
expending time and energy pleading for assistance from Saudi Arabia on 
matters of such great importance to our national security.
  In the case of funneling funds to terrorist organizations, Saudi 
Arabia cannot be permitted to turn a blind eye to the millions of 
dollars its citizens funnel to radical organizations. It sends a 
message to the U.S. that they are not serious about stemming the flow 
of support for terror and it sends a message to their own people that 
this type of behavior is tolerated.
  The New York Times reported on September 17, 2003, that ``at least 
fifty percent of Hamas's current operating budget of about $10 million 
a year comes from people in Saudi Arabia.'' In a July 3, 2003 report, 
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reported that various 
Saudi organizations have funneled over four billion dollars to finance 
the Palestinian intifada that began in September 2000.
  The 9/11 Commission also clearly stated that ``Saudi Arabia's society 
was a place where al Qaeda raised money directly from individuals 
through charities.''
  In testimony presented to the Senate Judiciary Committee in July 
2003, David Aufhauser, General Counsel of the Treasury Department, was 
asked if the trail of money funding terrorists led back to Saudi 
Arabia. He indicated that ``in many cases it is the epicenter.''
  Not only has the government failed to halt the hemorrhaging of 
terrorist funds from its citizens, but its own leadership has 
reportedly provided significant support for terrorist organizations. 
Saudi Arabia must begin by getting its own house in order which 
includes rooting out those of its leaders and those in its government 
who are fanning the fire of hate. According to the aforementioned MEMRI 
report, ``for decades the royal family of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 
has been the main financial supporter of Palestinian groups fighting 
Israel.''
  In addition to financial support, Saudi Arabia, through its various 
domestic and foreign institutions, has supported the spread of radical 
ideology. A report released on January 28, 2005 by Freedom House's 
Center for Religious Freedom found that Saudi Arabia is the state most 
responsible for the propagation of material promoting hatred, 
intolerance, and violence within United States mosques and Islamic 
centers, and that these publications are often official publications of 
a Saudi ministry or distributed by the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in 
Washington, DC.

  Freedom House also found that ``while the government of Saudi Arabia 
claims to be `updating' or reforming its textbooks and study materials 
within the Kingdom, its publications propagating an ideology of hatred 
remain plentiful in some prominent American mosques and Islamic 
centers, and continue to be a principal resource available to students 
of Islam within the United States.''
  One such document Freedom House collected from a Herndon, Virginia 
mosque, distributed by the Cultural Department of the Saudi Arabian 
Embassy in Washington, was found to contain ``virulent denunciations of 
Christians and of the infidelity of their beliefs and practices. It 
offers intricate guidelines concerning the proper relations Muslims 
should have with non-Muslims while they reside in the latter's `lands 
of shirk and kufr' (i.e. lands of idolatry and infidelity).'' The 
report also found a fatwa in a Saudi Embassy publication condemning 
tolerant Muslims and ``is followed by selective Koranic verses that 
spell out the infidelity of Jews and Christians and condemn them to the 
eternal fires of hell.''
  In a May 2003 report on Saudi Arabia, the United States Commission on 
International Religious Freedom found ``some Saudi government-funded 
textbooks used both in Saudi Arabia and also in North American Islamic 
schools and mosques have been found to encourage incitement to violence 
against non-Muslims.'' The Commission further found ``offensive and 
discriminatory language in Saudi government-sponsored school textbooks, 
sermons in mosques, and articles and commentary in the media about 
Jews, Christians, and non-Wahhabi streams of Islam.''
  The September 13, 2003 issue of Time Magazine reported eighth and 
ninth grade Saudi textbooks which read ``that Allah cursed Jews and 
Christians and turned some of them into apes and pigs . . . and that 
Judgment Day will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill 
them.''
  Time also, found that ``many of the Taliban, who went on to rule much 
of Afghanistan, were educated in Saudi-financed madaris in Pakistan.'' 
In the September 2003 issue of Time Magazine, a former Saudi diplomat, 
Mohammed al-Khilewi, stated that ``the Saudi government spends billions 
of dollars to establish cultural centers in the U.S. and all over the 
world'' and that they ``use these centers to recruit individuals and to 
establish extreme organizations.'' It is no surprise that it is from 
these fertile grounds that fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers were 
born and radicalized.

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  To be successful in the global war on terrorism we need the proactive 
and full cooperation of all nations--especially those who consider 
themselves allies of the United States.
  The Saudi Government must provide complete, unrestricted and 
unobstructed cooperation to the United States in the investigation of 
terrorist organizations and individuals. This bill directs the 
President to certify to Congress that the Government of Saudi Arabia is 
fully cooperating with the United States in investigating and 
preventing terrorist attacks, has closed permanently all Saudi-based 
terror organizations, has ended funding for any offshore terrorist 
organization, and has made all efforts to block funding from private 
Saudi citizens and entities to offshore terrorist organizations. If 
Saudi Arabia fails to take such steps, this legislation will require 
the President to prohibit certain exports to Saudi Arabia and restrict 
the travel of Saudi diplomats. This legislation permits the President 
to waive such sanctions if he determines it is in the national security 
interest of the United States.
  Two major objectives in the Global War on Terrorism are to deny 
terrorists safe haven and to eradicate the sources of terrorist 
financing. We cannot be successful in this war by ignoring the problem 
Saudi Arabia presents to our security. The government of Saudi Arabia 
can no longer remain idle while its citizenry continues to provide the 
wherewithal for terrorist groups with global reach nor can it continue 
to directly facilitate and support institutions that incite violence.
  President Bush has stated that the United States ``will challenge the 
enemies of reform, confront the allies of terror, and expect a higher 
standard from our friends.'' The 108th Congress passed, and the 
President signed, the Syrian Accountability Act. I believe the Saudis 
are a much greater threat to U.S. interests than the Syrians and there 
ought to be a very firm approach to our relationship with the Saudi 
Government. The 9/11 Commission recommended that the problems in our 
bilateral relationship with Saudi Arabia must be confronted openly--
this legislation takes a step in that direction.
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