KUWAIT - Continuing Co-operation.

Kuwait has been at the centre of the anti-terror diplomacy since the campaign against terrorism began. The emirate was quick to condemn the WTC/Pentagon attacks and this was appreciated by the US. On Sept. 26, 2001, Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah stressed that the US could actually use Kuwaiti military establishments in Kuwait in any operation targeting the perpetrators of the WTC/Pentagon attacks. Numerous American officials who have visited Kuwait since then expressed appreciation privately and publicly. US government websites have declared that Kuwait has been supporting the war against terror diplomatically, financially and militarily.

Visiting the emirate on June 10, 2002, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that Kuwait "has been obviously very cooperative in all aspects of supporting the UN resolutions and the world community's effort to see that Iraq does not develop weapons of mass destruction, and that it does not entertain acts of aggression against its neighbors". Earlier, during a visit to the emirate on March 5, 2002, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill thanked Kuwait for assisting in tracking down and dismantling the financial networks of the militant groups associated with Al Qaida, and added he was also confident that the two countries could "reduce the possibility of terrorists having access to funds through our normal financial systems and our charitable systems".

Kuwait has been aiding the US in whatever way possible to track down the financial trail of radical Islamist networks. On Jan. 14, 2002, the daily 'Al Rai Al Am' quoted sources at the foreign ministry as saying that a US intelligence delegation had been holding meetings with several security, financial and banking officials in the emirate to collect information about bank accounts and names in the framework of the anti-terror campaign. The sources added that another delegation would arrive a week later on a similar mission.

Apart from Treasury Secretary O'Neill, another visitor to the emirate in March was US Vice President Dick Cheney, whom many regard as the "eminence grise" of the Bush administration. He was defence secretary at the time that Kuwait was liberated from Iraqi occupation by former president Bush, the current president's father. Cheney said during his visit that the US "remains fully committed to doing everything we need to do to defend Kuwait's sovereignty and independence".

Cheney's visit was followed on April 23 by a relatively longer visit by Gen. Tommy Franks, the Commander-in-Chief (CINC) of the Central Command (CENTCOM). During the visit, aimed at inspecting US bases stationed in the kingdom, Gen. Franks commended the emirate's co-operation in the war against terror and said he considers Kuwait as "his second country". The US is building a new military facility in Kuwait to shift away from Camp Doha where it currently has its troops. Camp Doha was on a facility that used to be administered by the Kuwaiti Ministry of Public Works. The new base will be on property under the jurisdiction of the Kuwaiti military.