SAUDI ARABIA - Aug. 28 - US Agents To Monitor Funds.

A report in The IHT says: "The United States will station as many as 15 FBI and Internal Revenue Service investigators in Saudi Arabia in what the Bush administration is describing as an important step in cracking down on Saudi involvement in the financing of Al Qaida and other terrorist groups... The [US] officials said the Saudis' agreement to allow such a large, permanent deployment of US law enforcement agents reflected an important concession. 'This is a public commitment by both countries to pursue a declared end', David Aufhauser, the [US] Treasury Department's general counsel, said in an interview, 'and that end is to stop as best as possible any terrorist funding that emanates out of the Arabian Peninsula'. The [US] federal agents, including specialists in financial crimes and accounting, will be assigned to Saudi Arabia as part of a task force on terrorist financing established by the two countries this summer. Relations have been strained in recent months over evidence linking prominent Saudis to large contributions to Al Qaida and over what US investigators have described as a reluctance if not refusal by the Saudi government to take action.

The Bush administration has refused to declassify portions of a congressional report on the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks that detailed how Saudi citizens had financed Al Qaida over the years. The rest of the report was made public last month.Officials said the Saudis had demonstrated new willingness to co-operate in shutting down the money flow as a result of terrorist bombings in Riyadh that killed 35 people in May. 'The May bombings demonstrated to the Saudis just how close to home the terrorism is', a [US] administration official said. 'There is optimism about Saudi co-operation'. American officials said representatives of the two agencies were travelling to Saudi Arabia this week to organise the offices of the investigative team and to continue a joint review of financial evidence unearthed by Saudi banking officials. American officials said the negotiations that had led to the creation of the investigative unit had begun this summer in telephone conversations between [US Pres.] Bush and Crown Prince Abdullah and were completed this month when a delegation led by officials from the [US] National Security Council, the [US] State Department and the [US] Treasury Department travelled to Saudi Arabia".