-Caveat Lector-
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=72255
Study claims terror money still slips through Saudi Arabia
Barcelona, Spain
|By Sebastian Rotella
| 28-12-2002
Despite a crackdown on terrorism financing after the September 11
attacks, Saudi Arabia still must dismantle a system that has
allegedly permitted hundreds of millions of dollars to flow to
extremists through businesses and charities, a report recently
submitted to the United Nations claimed.
Prominent Saudi donors, companies and charities whose funds
have been traced to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaida network by
investigators around the world are allegedly still doing business, the
French investigator who wrote the report said in an interview on
Monday.
The problem stems in part from a blurring of religion and finance in
Saudi society that impedes reform, according to the report.
"Al Qaida was able to receive between $300 (million) and $500
million over the last 10 years from wealthy businessmen and
bankers whose fortunes represent about 20 per cent of the Saudi
GNP, through a web of charities and companies acting as fronts,''
claimed Jean-Charles Brisard, the investigator.
"Most of this financial backbone is still at large and able to support
fundamentalist institutions.''
The 34-page report was submitted by Brisard earlier this month at
the request of the Colombian ambassador to the United Nations, the
current president of the Security Council.
Brisard spent years analysing Al Qaida's finances for a French
intelligence service.
He works now as a private investigator for relatives of victims of the
September 11 attacks who have filed a lawsuit against Saudi
political and economic leaders alleging they sponsored Al Qaida
terrorism.
A spokesman for the Saudi mission to the United Nations declined
to comment on the allegations on Monday.
"The report speaks for itself,'' the official said. "We do not comment
on such reports.''
Saying they have been unfairly criticised in the aftermath of the
World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, Saudi authorities have
taken steps to regulate hundreds of millions of dollars in religious
donations that leave the kingdom each year.
In November, authorities said they would intensify audits of Islamic
charities and create new regulations and special units to fight money
laundering.
But the report claimed such measures are insufficient because the
financing of terrorism, in which legitimate funds are diverted to
"criminal purposes, differs from money laundering, which recycles
criminal profits into legal enterprises."
The report says bin Laden's public statements show he has
encouraged and profited from the abuse of 'zakat,' a pillar of the
Islamic faith that requires Muslims to give a percentage of their
earnings to the needy.
Because the donations are largely unregulated, they have become
"the most important source of financial support for the Al Qaida
network,'' the report alleges.
The kingdom has "repeatedly tried to establish legal rules to govern
zakat and donations,'' Brisard acknowledged. Since September 11
last year, Saudi authorities confirm they have frozen about $5.5
million in 33 bank accounts belonging to three individuals.
However, the report alleges that resistance from conservatives has
shielded business professionals, companies and banks involved in a
structure that benefits extremists.
The report recommends that Saudi Arabia make drastic changes
such as forming a nonreligious agency to oversee the zakat process
and banning cash donations and charitable contributions by
companies.
"One must question the real ability and willingness of the kingdom to
exercise any control over the use of religious money in and outside
of the country...,'' the report alleges.
@Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service
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