Misspent charity

last updated 8 January 2015

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Saudi officials this week denounced as “baseless fabrications” U.S. allegations that a diplomat’s wife funneled money to the 9/11 hijackers. Princess Haifa al-Faisal, wife of the ambassador to the U.S., gave thousands of dollars every month to a Saudi woman to help with medical bills. Apparently the princess did not know that the woman was married to a Saudi man who is suspected of having funded the hijackers. The U.S. is now urging Saudi Arabia to crack down on suspected terror financiers. But Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef said that would be difficult, as Saudi expatriates help each other out informally all the time. “If they consider any assistance from one Saudi to another as a crime,” he said, “then this is a problem.”