Saudis’ Funding Helps Foster Terror Groups, Experts Say. In a rare congressional hearing on Saudi funding of extremism, two U.S. senators and a panel of terrorism experts said yesterday that top Saudi officials and institutions spend huge sums from the kingdom’s oil wealth to promote an intolerant school of Islam embraced by al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. “The problem we are looking at today is the state-sponsored doctrine and funding of an extremist ideology that provides the recruiting grounds, support infrastructure and monetary lifeblood to today’s international terrorists,” said Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), who chaired the hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s terrorism panel. Although administration officials have avoided suggesting that Saudi Arabia, an important U.S. ally, is the world’s leading source of terrorist funding, Treasury Department general counsel David Aufhauser testified yesterday that “in many ways, [Saudi Arabia] is the epicenter” for the financing of Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network and other terrorist movements. Full Story
About OODA Analyst
OODA is comprised of a unique team of international experts capable of providing advanced intelligence and analysis, strategy and planning support, risk and threat management, training, decision support, crisis response, and security services to global corporations and governments.