Read this whole clip, from Friday's Wall Street Journal:
KEEP THE MONEY, Snow tells lawmakers, after House votes extra $25 million for Treasury's unit policing terror-financing. Current funds "are appropriate," he writes. White House won't discuss aide Fran Townsend's secret Saudi Arabia trip to discuss concerns about the Al Rajhi Banking & Investment Corp. A bank spokesman says is it "is not aware of any investigation by U.S. or Saudi authorities" and doesn't support terrorism.
So, first, John Snow claims current spending is 'appropriate' -- echoing, I might note, the lines of his predecessor O'Neill and Lawrence Lindsay. Second, Frances Townsend, the White House Homeland Security aide (works under Condi) makes a secret trip to the huge Saudi bank that has been the central focus of several terror financing investigations, and is apparently connected to 'the U.S. government's largest domestic investigation into the financing of terrorism'... (from Lexis, no link)
The Wall Street Journal (4/26, A6, Simpson) reports that federal prosecutors will seek indictments "of a group of prominent Muslim businessmen who are at the center of the U.S. government's largest domestic investigation into the financing of terrorism. In an unusual hearing sought by lawyers for the businessmen, a federal judge pressed prosecutor Gordon Kromberg to spell out the Justice Department's plans.The wealthy Islamic activists are involved in a group of commonly controlled businesses and charities in Herndon, Va., that allegedly has financial links to the Al Rajhi banking empire of Saudi Arabia. Former federal officials allege that the Al Rajhi Banking & Investment Corp. has links to the financing of terrorists. The bank has denied the allegation."
So the Bush administration is putting our anti-terror-financing efforts to the 'Saudi test'?
