I N T E R N A T I O N A L

Havana. August 11, 2004

JUAN Zárate, the high-ranking official responsible for dealing with terrorism in the Treasury Department - the agency that is paralyzing the application process for thousands of Cuban Americans wishing to visit their families in Cuba - is maintaining his long-standing and cordial relationship with the Saudi government. To such an extent that he organized a press conference on the subject of funding terror last June 2 at the embassy of that Arab country; a country that many people suspect is strongly implicated in financial support for terrorism.

Zárate is the same individual who recently announced that the Treasury Department’s Office for Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) does not have the necessary personnel to process license applications for the thousands of Cuban-Americans who wish to use their “right” to travel to Cuba, now confined to once every three years.

On June 1, 2004 White House accredited press correspondents received a strange invitation from the Treasury Department’s Public Relations Office. They were invited to the Saudi Arabian Embassy at 11:00 a.m. the following day at for a meeting on the subject of joint efforts with Saudi Arabia in the financial war on terror”.

It was announced that Juan Zárate, deputy secretary of the Department, in coordination with the U.S. State Department and the Saudi Arabian government, would speak on those joint efforts and that the discussion would include a briefing with Zárate and officials from the State Department and the Saudi government.

The invitation revealed that in addition to Zárate, the meeting was to include a State Department coordinator and no less than His Excellency Adel Al-Jubeir, special foreign policy advisor to His Royal Highness Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud of Saudi Arabia.

The head of the Saudi diplomatic representation in Washington is the controversial ambassador, Bandar bin Sultan who was mentioned by Michael Moore in his documentary Fahrenheit 9/11.

An article in Newsweek in December 2002 revealed that the diplomat’s wife Princess Haifa bint Faisal sent checks worth $150,000 to the wife of Omar al-Bayoumi, an accomplice of Khalid Almidhar and Nawaf Alhazmi, two of the Saudi terrorists implicated in the events of September 11.

Fifteen of the 19 terrorists in the catastrophic attack were Saudi Arabian citizens. The majority of them lived and trained in Jeb Bush’s Florida without the FBI - then under the direction of Héctor Pesquera in Miami - discovering their presence. Pesquera devoted his time to pursuing “Cuban agents” infiltrating Cuban-American terrorist groups in South Florida. A top priority task for the administration.

At that time, the High Prince’s advisor explained to the press that Princess Haifa bint Faisal’s action was the result of “her tremendous generosity”. Quite simply that.

However, the British police finally arrested al-Bayoumi in the city of Birmingham and discovered a telephone bill on which calls appeared showing the numbers of two diplomats from the Saudi embassy in Washington.

The FBI was able to establish there were direct links between Omar al’Bayoumi, who was released and back in Saudi Arabia, the family of Princess Haifa bint Faisal and Osama Bin Laden.

Newsweek revealed that according to several Saudis who knew him, al’Bayoumi was a well-known member of the intelligence services in his country.

The Saudi monarchy depends on the military and economic power of the United States, but according to experts in terms of calming internal opposition they had no other option but to finance the Al Qaeda terrorists who attacked the United States.

With the aggressive intolerance with which the Bush government condemns and even punishes people and nations for maintaining any relations it considers dubious - and even journalists as in the case of Al Jazeera - one would expect that Zárate would maintain a certain distance between himself and the Saudi officials, particularly with well-known figures such as Al-Jubeir.

But there’s more. The FBI has also discovered direct links between various Saudi charitable organizations and terrorism funding. In particular, it identified the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO) as a provider of millions of dollars to the Al Qaeda terrorist network.

At a press conference in Washington in December 2003, Adel al’Jubeir, advisor to Prince Abdullah and Zárate’s privileged interlocutor, affirmed that no such links existed. However, at the June 2 press conference, he said exactly the opposite.

He announced the nationalization of all charitable organizations within the Wahabi Kingdom in order to merge them into one, under state control.

In the luxurious salons of the embassy, he appeared alongside his friend Zárate. The latter, in an extremely cordial manner, publicly referred to him by his first name only - Adel - leaving aside his surname and numerous honorable titles.

Some months ago, two senators, Bob Graham (D-Florida) and Richard C. Shelby (R-Alabama), accused the Bush administration of refusing to declassify information demonstrating possible links between Saudi Arabia and terrorism “because it did not want to bother the Saudis” or threaten its “special” links.

Remember how, when he was attempting to film outside the Saudi embassy, Michael Moore discovered that this delegation is protected by the Secret Service, the presidential security service. A unique case in the diplomatic world of Washington.

Zárate traveled to Saudi Arabia on at least three occasions: in December 2002, then with his boss Secretary John Snow - who is also obsessed with Cuba - in September 2003, and finally with Frances Fragos Townsend, one of Condoleezza Rice’s advisors, in December 2003.

The privileged relationship of Zárate - responsible for investigating the financing of terrorism - and the Saudis - suspected of having financed terror - is still more surprising in terms of the violent condemnations of the Saudi kingdom expressed by human rights organizations. They confirm that the numerous political prisoners detained without charges or trials for indefinite periods are frequently subjected to torture and are denied the right to legal representation. And don’t even mention women’s rights.

In the White House, when it comes to looking after your buddies, no one cares about these considerations. Just as no one cares that Zárate’s privileged interlocutors in Miami are known terrorists or have links to anti-Cuban terrorism. When the time comes to securing votes with the capos, no principle is worth anything.

When directing his troupe of OFAC investigators, Zárate does not get confused either.

Harass Cuban-Americans and court the terrorists.

And this is how the Office for Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has dozens of officials to harass people who dare to travel to Cuba without its blessing whilst there are no staff to process their travel requests.

With respect to the investigations into the financing of terrorism, there is no hurry either.

Last March 24, by pure chance Zárate gave a talk on Saudi Arabia and “the struggle against terror financing” before a Congress committee presided over by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Cuban-congresswoman linked to notorious Miami terrorists including Orlando Bosch - this last described by the FBI itself as the most dangerous terrorist in the hemisphere. Ros-Lehtinen has encouraged and contributed to campaigns supporting terrorist groups and maintains wide links with numerous individuals linked to terrorism.

She is the daughter of Enrique Ros who was the first coordinator of the Movimiento Demócrata-Cristiano counterrevolutionary organization and then conspired within the Frente Revolucionario Democrático and the Consejo Revolucionario Cubano, a creation of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

It is nothing strange that Zárate is also responsible for Saudis and the anti-Cuban economic repression within his department.

No. Both tasks are priorities for George W. Bush. Protecting his financial interests in the world of oil and his relationships with the Saudis who so greatly support his financial adventures, and guaranteeing his reelection in Florida thanks to the maneuvers of Cuban-Americans from the Batista generation.

And, for this reason, Zárate is exactly the mercenary that the president needed.