THE US: Allegations at the weekend of Saudi royal family involvement in providing funds to al-Qaeda suspects, and of Pakistani covert help for North Korea's nuclear arms programme, have raised disturbing questions for Washington about the role of two of its key allies in the US war on terrorism.
US officials have confirmed a Newsweek story that the FBI is investigating whether charitable contributions made by the wife of the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States may have indirectly benefited two of the September 11th hijackers.
Saudi officials claim the money was for charitable purposes, and Saudi foreign policy adviser Mr Abdel al-Jubeir yesterday accused unidentified people in Washington of "trying to peddle a story that is not true", adding: "We will be merciless against people in the war on terrorism."
The officials acknowledged that Princess Haifa al-Faisal, the wife of Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan and daughter of the late Saudi King Faisal, gave money to the family of Osama Bassnan, a Saudi citizen, when they were in the US. They said it was to pay for medical treatment.
One of Bassnan's friends, Omar al-Bayoumi, helped two of the September 11th hijackers, Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi, with introductions to the Muslim community when they arrived in San Diego in 2000, and provided money for two monthly rent payments. The Saudi officials said the princess made regular charitable donations to Saudis in the US, and US officials acknowledged that there was no evidence that the hijackers got any of the money.
The princess reportedly provided $15,000 in 1998 to Bassnan and $2,000-$3,500 monthly checks to Bassnan's wife, Majida Ibrahim Ahmad, while she was living in the Washington area.
Bassnan was deported to Saudi Arabia on November 17th and his wife was deported to her native Jordan the same day, both on visa violations, officials said.
The case apparently came to light when a Congressional panel reviewing FBI files asked for more details about the money trail. The Bush administration has refused to declassify the information, saying it is still under investigation.
On Friday, Riggs Bank in Washington allowed Saudi embassy officials to go through cheques issued by the princess to see if any made out to the Bassnan family were signed over to Bayoumi. Any proven link between the Saudi government and the hijackers, "raises the stakes substantially of what the threat is in the United States", said Democratic Senator Bob Graham of Florida, outgoing chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Such a network could "facilitate the next wave of terror".
Relations between the US and Saudi Arabia have been strained since the September 11th attacks on the US, in which 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis. The US wants to use Saudi air bases in any war with Iraq, but the Saudi government has not yet made clear its intentions.
On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly questioned Saudi Arabia's commitment to fighting terrorism at a joint press conference with President Bush in St Petersburg, where he said that "we should not forget" that Saudi Arabia was the home for most of the hijackers. Mr Putin also raised questions about Pakistan's role, noting that Osama bin Laden was most likely still at large in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border regions.
The New York Times added to questions about Pakistan's role as a US ally with a claim yesterday that in the last six months Pakistan has received missile parts from North Korea while providing Pyongyang with designs for gas centrifuges and machinery to make highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons.
The CIA told Congress members last week that North Korea's nuclear weapons programme will produce nuclear bombs in two-three years, the paper said. It quoted US officials as saying the relationship between Pakistan and North Korea was "deeper and more dangerous" than the US suspected.
In one instance in July, US intelligence agencies tracked a Pakistani cargo aircraft picking up ballistic missile parts at a North Korean airfield, using an American-built C-130 aircraft that was part of a military force that Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf told Mr Bush would be used to capture members of al-Qaeda.