Terrorist Financing: Washington Admits that Saudi Arabia and Gulf States are Funding Al Qaeda
Gulf Donors Remain Important Source of Terrorist Financing: US Treasury
A United States Treasury official on Thursday said donors located in the Gulf remain an important source of revenue for Al Qaeda.
« Donors located in the Gulf have traditionally been an important source of revenue for AQ. This remains the case, but we are making strides in cutting off their financial networks, » Daniel Glaser, assistant secretary for terrorist financing at the US Department of Treasury, said at a hearing. 
He said the Gulf countries have taken a wide range of actions, and called Saudi Arabia a « regional leader » in combating terrorist financing, amid suspicions in Congress the kingdom is not doing enough to choke off support for terrorists.
« All Gulf countries have now passed counter-terrorism laws that criminalize terrorist financing, and have enhanced financial controls across the charitable sector to ensure that funds intended for humanitarian objectives do not benefit terrorist activity, » he said.
« In particular, Saudi Arabia has emerged as a regional leader within the Gulf and has joined us in a targeted designations, » he said.
Still, Glaser said despite progress, there is « more work to be done » to ensure the entire Gulf financial system is a hostile environment to Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations, particularly to Nusrah Front — Al Qaeda’s branch in Syria.
Criticism of Saudi Arabia has mounted in recent weeks on Capitol Hill, after one of the authors of a congressionally-commissioned report on the 9/11 terrorist attacks called for the declassification of 28 pages he says show that the kingdom was involved.
