In his State of the Union address last night, President Bush grouped Saudi Arabia in with "our friends" in the Middle East, with whom the United States will work to "promote peace and stability" and "fight the common threat of terror." Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Queens and Brooklyn), sponsor of the Saudi Arabia Accountability Act, released the following statement:
"Saudi Arabia is no friend to the United States," said Rep. Weiner. "They've stopped cooperating in our terror investigations, provide financial support to Palestinian terrorists, and are the wellspring for the fanatical wahhabism that lies at the core of our enemies violent ideology. Change in Saudi Arabia will only come if we demand it, but the White House seems intent on coddling."
In July of last year, the House finally cracked down on the Saudis, passing Weiner's legislation cutting aid to the Saudis on a largely party line vote, with 156 Democrats voting yes and152 Republicans, led by Majority Leader Tom Delay, voting no. Saudi Arabia lobbied furiously against the measure.
Congressman Weiner has introduced the Prohibit Aid to Saudi Arabia Act of 2005 to prohibit assistance to Saudi Arabia.
Here are reasons straight from the bill:
(1) More than 50 percent of the funding for Hamas, a Palestinian terrorist organization, comes from Saudi Arabia.
(2) In its June 2004 report entitled `Update on the Global Campaign Against Terrorist Financing', the Council on Foreign Relations reported that `We find it regrettable and unacceptable that since September 11, 2001, we know of not a single Saudi donor of funds to terrorist groups who has been publicly punished.'.
(3) Abu Zubaydah, an al Qaeda operative, admitted to his American interrogators that al Qaeda had struck a deal with the Saudi Royal Family to desist from violence in exchange for Saudi financing.
(4) On May 29, 2004, Saudi security forces allowed 16 kidnappers to escape at a residential compound in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, after killing 16 westerners.
(5) Al Qaeda terrorists who kidnapped and killed American contractor Paul Johnson used official police uniforms and vehicles received from sympathetic Saudi police officials.
(6) Saudi Arabia denied United States officials access to several suspects in the custody of the Government of Saudi Arabia, including a Saudi Arabian citizen in detention for months who had knowledge of extensive plans to inject poison gas in the New York City subway system.
(7) The Saudi Royal Family has provided cash payments in the amount of $5,333 to each family of `martyrs' killed while trying to murder Israelis.
(8) Saudi Arabia is the center of Wahhabism, the ultra-purist, jihadist form of Islam followed by members of Al Qaeda.
(9) In November 2004, 26 leading Saudi Wahhabi clerics publicly incited the Iraqi people to fight against United States Armed Forces in Iraq.
(10) The Saudi Royal Family has wholly or partly funded 210 Islamic Centers, 1,500 mosques, 202 colleges, and 2,000 schools in countries without Muslim majorities.
(11) The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has reported that Saudi Arabian Government-funded textbooks used both in Saudi Arabia and also in North American Islamic schools and mosques have been found to encourage incitement to violence against non-Muslims.
(12) Khaled bin Ouda bin Mohammed al-Harby, the terrorist who is linked to Osama bin Laden and the terrorist attacks against the United States that occurred on September 11, 2001, returned to Saudi Arabia under an amnesty program in June 2004, and remains in that country, a free man.
(13) In March 2004, a group of Saudi reformers calling for a constitutional monarchy were imprisoned and are still awaiting trial.
(14) In September 2004, the Government of Saudi Arabia issued an edict banning most working Saudis from questioning the policies of the Saudi Arabian Government.
(15) The Government of Saudi Arabia has sought to acquire nuclear weaponry from Pakistan.
This bill is important legislation. I hope you will contact your congressman in support of this bill. If your congresssman is Republican and cannot support the bill, ask why our foreign policy does not include freedom for our "friends".
