“In May of this year, I called on President Bush to impose sanctions on Saudi Arabia and Saudi Arabian charities for money laundering. Recent press reports have stated that individuals linked to the Saudi Arabian government provided funding for some of the September 11 hijackers while they were in the United States. Now it is being reported that Bush Administration officials have stopped efforts to freeze the assets of some Saudi Arabian charities which likely support terrorism. As long as al-Qaida retains access to a viable financial network, it remains a lethal threat to the United States and our interests around the world.

“Continued inaction by the Bush Administration to stop the flow of money from Saudi Arabia to al-Qaida and other international terrorist organizations threatens the security of the United States and may put American lives at risk.”

Background Yesterday, the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee held a hearing on terrorist financing which focused primarily on Saudi Arabia. In the hearing, Richard Newcomb, Director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control within the Department of Treasury said that some Bush Administration officials (in the State Department and to a lesser extent the FBI and CIA) have opposed Treasury Department attempts to freeze assets of some Saudi Arabian charities which have supported terrorism. In response to Mr. Newcomb’s refusal during the hearing to state to which organizations he was referring, Senator Carl Levin demanded that Mr. Newcomb provide a list of Saudi Arabian organizations the Office of Foreign Assets Control has recommended for sanctions to the Committee within 24 hours.

Last week, the Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 2001 released a final report which classified 28 pages in the report detailing specific sources of foreign support for some of the September 11 hijackers while they were in the United States. It has been reported in the press that Saudi Arabia is the country referred to in the classified pages of the report. Senator Kerry has publicly called upon the Bush Administration to declassify this section of the report.

In response to the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, Senator Kerry worked with Senate Banking Chairman Sarbanes and Senator Levin to develop a package of anti-money laundering provisions which included his bill the International Counter-Money Laundering and Foreign Anticorruption Act. These anti-money laundering provisions were included in the USA PATRIOT Act, which was signed into law by President Bush in October 2001.

In May 2003, Senator Kerry asked President Bush to name Saudi Arabia as a primary money laundering concern (using the authority provided by his bill) and to impose enhanced due diligence on financial transactions involving Saudi Arabian financial institutions, charities and high net-worth individuals to determine whether any transactions pose an unacceptable risk of being related to the finance of terrorism.