Skip to main content

Saudi govt to stem funds to Qaeda: US

Wednesday, September 30, 2009 WASHINGTON: Saudi Arabia's drive to disrupt al Qaeda financing networks should be more strictly enforced while Yemen is emerging as a new base for terror groups plotting against U.S. and Saudi interests, a U.S. government watchdog report said on Tuesday, a British news agency reported.The Government Accounting Office (GAO) said Saudi Arabia has made progress in the fight against terrorism, arresting and prosecuting suspects and taking steps to curtail fund-raising by extremist groups inside the country.But it said loopholes remain, including the flow of donations from individuals and charities in Saudi Arabia to support extremist organizations outside the country as well as the nation's limited ability to crack down on cash couriers who physically transfer funds.The report stressed there was no indication the government of Saudi Arabia is providing funding for terrorism.But it said Washington should set certain specific performance targets on preventing terror financing to help measure efforts to stop people from bankrolling al Qaeda and other extremist groups.The ranking Republican on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee said the report underscored the need for more action."It is vital that the U.S. demand more from the Saudi government in cutting off the money flow to the Islamist extremist network," Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said in a statement,The report painted a picture of gradual improvement in Saudi Arabia's policies to combat terrorism following the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington and subsequent attacks on U.S. and Saudi citizens in Saudi Arabia.Among the Saudi efforts are government-run rehabilitation and after-care programs to re-educate those arrested for supporting terrorism and extremism as well as for people returned from the U.S. Guantanamo detention camp.Saudi officials said the programs had treated 4,300 people overall, but that recidivism -- which at one after-care center was put at 20 percent -- was a problem.Former Guantanamo detainees account for most of the individuals who resumed extremist activity once leaving the after-care center, the report said. "Saudi officials acknowledge such cases illustrate the difficulties associated with assessing which participants should be released."Another focus of concern is the situation in neighboring Yemen, where political instability was seen as a potential challenge to counterterrorism efforts."Despite some successes against al Qaeda, the response of the government of Yemen to the terrorist threat was intermittent due to its focus on internal security concerns," the report said.The United States this month offered to help Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country that is battling a Shi'ite revolt in the north, separatist unrest in the south, and intensified al Qaeda militancy.The GAO report said Saudi officials had said they were already providing Yemen with assistance on a number of areas including counterterrorism, education and health."Saudi officials also stated that Saudi Arabia is building an electronic fence on the Saudi-Yemen border," it said.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

India's swine flu death rate is increasing

Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in...
Post a Comment
Read more

Suicide bombings kill 18 in Iraq

Thursday, August 13, 2009 MOSUL: At least 18 people, most of them members of the ancient Yazidi religious sect, were killed when two suicide bombers blew themselves up on Thursday in a packed cafe in northern Iraq, a local government official said.At least 31 people were also wounded after the bombers detonated suicide belts packed with explosives in the cafe in Kalaa town, in the district of Sanjar, local district chief Dakheel Qassem Hasoon, told a foreign news agency."Two suicide bombers entered the Cafe Barbaroz at 4:30 pm (1330 GMT) and blew themselves up, killing 18 civilians and wounding 31. Most of the victims were Yazidis," Hasoon said.Kalaa, northwest of the insurgent stronghold of Mosul in northern Nineveh province is predominantly populated by the minority Yazidi religious sect, as well as Arabs and Kurds.The attack is the deadliest since Monday, when 51 people were killed across Iraq, including 28 members of the tiny Shabak sect cut down when two truck bombs det...
Post a Comment
Read more

US drones to target Taliban in Afghan war

Friday, July 31, 2009 WASHINGTON: The US military plans to use more drone aircraft to target Taliban militants in Afghanistan while focusing less on hunting down Al-Qaeda figures, report said on Thursday.Although defeating the Al-Qaeda terror network remains an overriding goal for Washington, officials now believe the best way to pursue that objective is to ensure stability in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan instead of Al-Qaeda manhunts, the paper said, citing US government and Defense Department officials.It was more important to prevent a slide towards violence and anarchy that could be exploited by Al-Qaeda, which used Afghanistan to stage its attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, the officials said."We might still be too focused on Bin Laden," an official said. "We should probably reassess our priorities."The shift in priorities for the drone fleet comes despite President Barack Obama's declaration that defeating and dismantling Al-Qaeda ...
Post a Comment
Read more