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7 of 8 DOCUMENTS Copyright 2003 The Washington Post The Washington Post December 7, 2003 Sunday Final Edition

SECTION: A Section; A01 LENGTH: 842 words HEADLINE: U.S. Revokes Visa of Cleric at Saudi Embassy; Monarchy to No Longer Be Islamic Institute's Sponsor BYLINE: Susan Schmidt and Caryle Murphy, Washington Post Staff Writers BODY: U.S. authorities have revoked the diplomatic visa of an influential Islamic cleric, and the Saudi government has decided it will no longer sponsor an Islamic institute in Virginia where he sometimes lectured, moves that reflect both nations' increasing efforts to curb the spread of extremist Islamic rhetoric, according to U.S. and Saudi officials. Jaafar Idris, who was affiliated with the Fairfax-based Institute for Islamic and Arabic Sciences in America, left the United States two weeks ago after his visa was revoked, U.S. officials said. Idris is a native of Sudan, but was sponsored as a diplomat here by the Saudi embassy and had an office in that embassy's Islamic affairs section, according to a lawyer associated with him. Idris's departure follows a decision by the Saudi government to stop providing diplomatic status to Islamic clerics and educators teaching overseas, according to a senior Saudi official who declined to be identified. The official said that in the future, only staff with legitimate diplomatic business at Saudi embassies around the world will be given diplomatic visas, part of a larger effort to get Saudi embassies out of the business of promoting religion. "We are going to shut down the Islamic affairs section in every embassy," the officials said. "That's the objective." Referring to the Institute in Fairfax, which is a satellite campus of a prominent university in Riyadh, the Saudi official also said: "We're going to sever its ties with the embassy.... They will no longer be sponsored by the embassy." Such a move could complicate the institute's future because its staff, lacking diplomatic status, will be required to obtain visas and work permits to teach in the United States, something that U.S. authorities may be unwilling to provide in some cases. Officials at the institute could not be reached for comment. The Saudi action is part of that government's increased vigilance toward expressions of religious extremism after the deadly May terrorist attack in Riyadh that shocked the oil-rich nation and its ruling family. The government has dismissed hundreds of imams from Saudi mosques for allegedly using extremist rhetoric, and has moved to delete language denigrating non-Muslims from school texts and curriculum. The Saudis also have cracked down on violent Islamic extremists operating in the desert kingdom. In addition, U.S. law enforcement agencies are trying to learn whether hundreds of millions of dollars spent by the embassy here each year have aided extremists in the United States.

3 of 3 DOCUMENTS Copyright 2003 The Washington Post The Washington Post December 11, 2003 Thursday Final Edition

SECTION: A Section; A24 LENGTH: 632 words HEADLINE: Saudi Group's Leader Critical of Clerics BYLINE: Susan Schmidt, Washington Post Staff Writer BODY: The director of a U.S. group that seeks democratic reform in Saudi Arabia complained yesterday about an upcoming conference in Texas that will feature addresses broadcast from Riyadh by clerics who have praised holy war and Osama bin Laden. Ali Ahmed, head of the Washington-based Saudi Institute, also noted that instructors at a Virginia Islamic institute who hold diplomatic credentials issued by the Saudi Embassy are scheduled to speak at the gathering. Keynote speakers at the three-day event in Houston, scheduled to begin Dec. 24, have espoused intolerance for Christians, Jews and Shiite Muslims. One of them, Sheikh Allamah Ibn Jibreen, has publicly urged young Saudis to join al Qaeda and fight U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the Saudi Institute. Ahmed said he believes it is outrageous that the Saudi government is allowing the clerics to espouse their views while repressing groups, such as his, that urge reform. Saudi Embassy officials declined to discuss the upcoming conference. "The embassy has no comment on something that hasn't happened yet," said Michael Petruzzello, whose public relations firm represents the embassy. "The preaching of incitement or extremism is prohibited in Saudi Arabia. If that's what happens, they'll deal with it after the conference." Last week, a Saudi official said that the embassy would cease sponsoring the Fairfax-based Institute for Islamic and Arabic Sciences in America (IIASA), as part of Riyadh's recent efforts to curb the spread of extremist Islamic rhetoric. The diplomatic credentials of 16 clerics and instructors at IIASA who are accredited with the Saudi Embassy are being withdrawn, the official, who asked not to be identified, said this week. Among IIASA instructors on the conference schedule are Yusef Shebaili and Saleh as Sawi. Two others have canceled, according to an updated list of conference speakers. They are the IIASA's Islamic Studies director, Fuad Ghanem, and Ibrahim bin al-Kulaib, who is also president of the Islamic Foundation of America in Springfield. Jibreen, who is to speak via video hookup from Saudi Arabia, is an influential cleric whose Web site is linked to the IIASA site. Ahmed said Jibreen praised bin Laden in a speech recorded in Saudi Arabia as recently as two months ago. "Osama is a man who fought in the path of God for a long time," Jibreen said, according to a translation provided by the Saudi Institute. "May God aid him and bring victory to him and by him."

3 of 8 DOCUMENTS Copyright 2004 The Washington Post The Washington Post January 29, 2004 Thursday Final Edition

SECTION: A Section; A10 LENGTH: 878 words HEADLINE: U.S. Revokes Visas of 16 at Islamic Institute; Order Is Part of Ongoing Crackdown BYLINE: Caryle Murphy and Susan Schmidt, Washington Post Staff Writers BODY: The State Department recently revoked the diplomatic visas of 16 people affiliated with an Islamic institute in Virginia, the latest step in a joint U.S.-Saudi crackdown that has led to an exodus of Riyadh's diplomats from the United States in recent months, a senior Saudi official said yesterday. The 16 staffers at the Fairfax-based Institute for Islamic and Arabic Sciences in America are among two dozen Saudi personnel whose diplomatic credentials were revoked in recent weeks, a senior U.S. law enforcement official said. The revocations, the official said, were part of "an ongoing effort to protect the homeland." He said the Saudis have been told that they must leave within two weeks. In all, about 70 people with Saudi diplomatic credentials about have left the United States in the past four months, the Saudi official said. The most recent revocations are part of the attempt by both countries to curb the spread of extremist Islamic rhetoric in this country and ensure that all Saudi Embassy employees are engaged in legitimate diplomatic activity, U.S. and Saudi officials said. The joint effort is part of Riyadh's increased cooperation with Washington in the war on terrorism, which began when Saudi Arabia was hit last May by the first of two deadly suicide bombings. The attacks are believed to be the work of terrorists linked to al Qaeda. The State Department's move to revoke the diplomatic status of institute staffers came after Riyadh decided that the institute and its staff would no longer be attached to the embassy. That decision followed accusations that the institute, a satellite campus of al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, was promoting a brand of Islam that critics say is intolerant of other strains of the religion as well as Christianity and Judaism. In December, the Saudi official added, the embassy informed institute employees of its decision, advising them to apply to U.S. authorities for work permits or leave the United States. Last week, the State Department informed the Saudi Embassy that the staffers would lose their diplomatic status in 30 days, the Saudi official said. Attempts yesterday to reach some of the institute staffers were unsuccessful. Of the 16 institute staffers, 11 are Saudis and five are non-Saudis, the Saudi official said. One has already returned to Saudi Arabia and another, Ibrahim bin al Kulaib, had applied for and received a U.S. work permit, which would allow him to remain here, he added.

washingtonpost.com: Bank Data For Saudi Embassy Subpoenaed

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washingtonpost.com

Bank Data For Saudi Embassy Subpoenaed FBI Investigating Riyadh's Spending for Terrorist Ties By Douglas Farah Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, November 23, 2003; Page A22

The FBI, in an unprecedented move that has strained relations with a close ally in the war on terrorism, has subpoenaed records for dozens of bank accounts belonging to the Saudi Embassy, part of an investigation into whether any of the hundreds of millions of dollars Riyadh spends in the United States each year end up in the hands of Muslim extremists, U.S. and Saudi officials said. The wide-ranging investigation into the $300 million a year the Saudi Embassy spends here was launched this summer, just as the U.S. and Saudi governments were hailing a new era of cooperation in the fight against Muslim terrorism. Earlier this year, U.S. and Saudi officials established the first-ever joint task force to track terrorist financing in Saudi Arabia. U.S. officials said the FBI's Washington field office subpoenaed the records of dozens of Saudi bank accounts to determine whether Saudi government money knowingly or unknowingly helped fund extremists in the United States. Although many Saudi entities have been investigated in the past, U.S. officials said this was the first investigation to directly probe Saudi government funds.

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Senior U.S. officials said they do not recall any other time when the bank records of an embassy were subpoenaed. The probe, U.S. officials said, was approved by the National Security Council working group on terrorist financing at the request of several congressional leaders. The investigation focuses on the financial activities of the Islamic and cultural affairs office of the embassy as well as the activities of Saudi consulates around the United States, officials said. The subpoenas outraged Saudi officials, who believe they were unnecessary. "We became aware of the subpoenas in August, and we immediately said to the American authorities, 'if you want this information, why didn't you just ask us? We would have given it to you,' " one senior official said. In fact, the official said, the Saudi government subsequently turned over embassy spending records for the past 20 years, including records of Saudi payments for educational expenses and medical attention for Saudi nationals here. "We have nothing to hide," the official said. "If there is something suspicious, we want to know. But if there is nothing, they owe it to us to say publicly they found nothing."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A6898-2003Nov22?language=printer

11/24/2003