From the Times (UK)
FRIDAY OCTOBER 12 2001
US anger at lax response
BY ROLAND WATSON
Washington: The White House is frustrated with the lack of help from Saudi Arabia in freezing Osama bin Laden's assets and tracking those behind the September 11 hijackings (Roland Watson writes). The Saudi regime has so far refused to clamp down on the assets of bin Laden or other al-Qaeda figures, despite repeated requests from Washington.
It is also failing to meet CIA and FBI requests for background information on those of the 19 hijackers carrying Saudi passports, severely hampering the investigation.
It is threatening to create a rift between the US and the ruling House of Saud that could prove a major obstruction to the President's war on terrorism.
Washington's greatest concern is the unwillingness of the Saudis to clamp down on charities and organisations that channel money to bin Laden, as 19 other countries have done. A key problem is that Saudi Arabia lacks a bank system that would allow money to be tracked. Offers from Washington to help to set one up have been refused.
William Wechsler, who worked on counter-terrorism in the National Security Council during the Clinton presidency, said the Saudis always claimed they had the financing of terrorists under surveillance and under control.
"But they have not had either the legal regime or the political will to take the kind of actions the United States wants," he told The New York Times