Speaking at a joint press conference in Washington, D.C., U.S. and Saudi officials claimed that one charity in particular, the Al Haramain group, has channeled tens of millions of dollars each year to so-called terrorist organizations.

Adel Jubeir, the foreign affairs adviser to Crown Prince Abdullah, the effective head of the monarchical government, told the media that the group’s funds would be seized and dispensed by a new government-controlled commission.

The announcement followed by less than a week the May 29-30 attack in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, on a housing complex for foreign oil company employees by four men claiming affiliation to al-Qaeda. Twenty-two workers, taken hostage by the attackers, were killed during a siege by Saudi police and commandos and a subsequent firefight.

The June 3 New York Times noted that the closure of the Al Haramain Islamic Foundation had been “a major goal for both the Clinton and Bush administrations, but until Tuesday [June 1] the Saudi government had limited its actions to smaller steps.” U.S. Treasury officials have accused the foundation, which is chaired by the government’s minister of Islamic affairs, of “providing support for the al-Qaeda network and promoting militant Islamic doctrine worldwide.”

In January, Washington and the Saudi regime in Riyadh proposed to United Nations officials that they add the charity’s offices in Indonesia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Pakistan to their list of “terrorist” groups. Officials said June 2 that the list would be further expanded to include Al Haramain’s branches in Afghanistan, Albania, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and the Netherlands.

Two months ago Saudi religious authorities fired Al Haramain’s top official, Aqeel Abdulaziz Aqil, seized his assets, and barred him from traveling overseas. U.S. Treasury official Juan Zarate, speaking to the media after the announcement, claimed that “it was under the cloak of charity that Aqeel al-Aqil used the Al Haramain organization to benefit himself and al-Qaeda.”

Zarate predicted that a Saudi government investigation of Aqil will “come to fruition fairly soon.”

Joining Zarate at the media conference, Francis Townsend, who is designated the White House “deputy national security adviser for terrorism,” gave the Saudi government a pat on the back. “The Saudis have been frankly very aggressive” about cracking down on funding to “terrorist” groups, she said. “They have committed to financial transparency and auditing.”

Former National Security Council official Lee Wolosky, who recently co-directed a “terrorism financing” task force of the Council on Foreign Relations, was more critical of Saudi actions, the Washington Post reported. “Regulatory actions are nice and good and should be applauded, but they don’t go far enough,” he said. “What you really have to do is put people in jail. But it’s exactly that, going after the elites, that is something the Saudis have not done.”

Alongside these moves against alleged funding to opposition groups, the Saudi government has waged a more direct offensive against so-called terrorist organizations. Riyadh “has issued a list of 26 most-wanted militants,” reported the Associated Press. Of these, “18 remain on the list.”

Coming on top of a string of other bombings and clashes between Saudi police and opponents of the regime, the May 29-30 attack in Khobar was a setback to this campaign by the Saudi government. By June 7, Saudi forces still had not captured the three men at large in the attack.

A unit of the British “antiterrorist” SO13 police squad, originally formed to crack down on Irish republicans, has flown to Saudi Arabia to offer “assistance and support to the Saudi authorities,” in the words of a Scotland Yard spokesman.

On June 2, gunmen fired at two vehicles carrying U.S. military personnel near a National Guard compound in Riyadh, where a U.S military unit is based.

Some 400 U.S. troops remain in Saudi Arabia, down from around 5,000 a year ago. At the time of the announced withdrawal, U.S. deputy secretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz told the media that opponents of the monarchy were winning new forces on the basis of their opposition to the imperialist military presence. “It’s been a huge recruiting device for al-Qaeda,” he argued in an interview with Vanity Fair magazine.

The spate of attacks on oil assets, and the pro-imperialist stance of important elements of the weak, monarchical regime, have provided Washington with new openings to reestablish its military presence in the oil-rich nation.  
 
 
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