Friend and Ally Update. This should surprise no one, because Saudi Arabia has done nothing to confront the jihad ideology. And the State Department doesn’t even know what the jihad ideology is. From Reuters, with thanks to Twostellas:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia must do a better job at ferreting out major individual donors who continue to fund terrorism abroad, including in Iraq, a top U.S. Treasury official said on Tuesday.
Stuart Levey, the Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said Saudi Arabia had made significant strides in counterterrorism efforts in recent years and that the kingdom was “doing an excellent job” fighting operatives of Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network at home.
But he told a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee that concerns remained, including the existence of so-called “deep-pocket donors” and the abuse of charities to fund militants.
“Is money leaving Saudi Arabia to fund terrorism abroad? Yes,” said Levey, who has traveled to Saudi Arabia twice in the last two months. “Undoubtedly, some of that money is going to Iraq. And it’s going to Southeast Asia and it’s going to any other place where there are terrorists.”