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Bush praises Saudi Arabia as key ally

US President George W. Bush on Friday renewed Saudi Arabia as a key anti-terrorism ally despite concerns over its track record and fears it is exporting extremist ideology.

The move by the US leader came just weeks after a top US Treasury official sharply criticized the kingdom's record on combating terrorism and while authorities considered a proposal to close down a Saudi-backed school outside Washington for alleged religious intolerance.

"I hereby certify that Saudi Arabia is cooperating with efforts to combat international terrorism and that the proposed assistance will help facilitate that effort," the president said in a memorandum to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to free up aid from Washington to Riyadh.

A little more than a month ago, the US Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey charged that Saudi Arabia had failed to prosecute the bankrollers of terrorist groups.

Levey told the US network ABC that not a single individual identified by the US or the UN as a terror financier had been prosecuted by Saudi Arabia.

"If I could somehow snap my fingers and cut off the funding from one country, it would be Saudi Arabia," Levey told the television network one day after the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal dismissed the criticism, saying Levey's public rebuke was at odds with private praise from US officials.

Amid the concerns, the independent US Commission on International Religious Freedom asked Rice, the chief US diplomat, to shut down a Saudi-backed private school in Northern Virginia unless it could prove it was not teaching religious intolerance.

The panel, appointed by the US president and Congress leaders, cited in a report "significant concerns" over teachings at the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA), which it said could "adversely" affect US interests.

The commission complained about the Islamic kingdom's "exportation of extremist ideology and intolerance in education material" and wanted the school closed until the official Saudi textbooks it used were made available for "comprehensive public examination."

Tom Casey, a spokesman for the US State Department, said Washington would take a "close look" at the commission's report.

He said the US had been discussing with the Saudi authorities for sometime concerns about textbooks and other material that promoted "negative stereotypes" and "intolerance."

"The Saudis have taken some measures to do so. They are reviewing textbooks," he said.

"My understanding is the complete process of doing that is something they've said would take a couple of years to accomplish in total," he said.

Saudi Arabia has been on the State Department's religious freedom blacklist for the last three years, but Washington granted the Middle East ally a reprieve last year and discussed steps to promote religious freedom and tolerance.

But the US religious freedom commission charged in its report this week, following a fact-finding mission to Saudi Arabia, that there was little transparency in the textbook revision process and "intolerant and inflammatory elements" remained.

During the trip, Saudi government officials "did not provide a single textbook to the commission," the panel said.
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