Riyadh calls for terror intelligence center

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JIDDA, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi Arabia, which has suffered at least a dozen terrorist attacks in the past two years, is proposing an international center to exchange intelligence on potential attacks, money laundering and arms smuggling.

Crown Prince Abdullah, the nation's de facto ruler, made the proposal with 50 nations in attendance at the opening at a four-day international conference on terrorism that ends today.

The head of the U.S. delegation, homeland security adviser Frances Townsend, welcomed the proposal, but cautioned that it should not take the place of direct communication.

"The center would not end the need for bilateral exchange of information. Nothing would," she said.

Although the United States says intelligence sharing with Saudi Arabia has vastly improved over the last year and a half, many analysts still say that the kingdom could improve its information-sharing with foreign governments and between its own agencies.

But one Saudi official defended the kingdom's record in sharing information, noting that even in the United States rival agencies often did not share information before the September 11 attacks.

"Intelligence-sharing between agencies is often difficult, as their assets are their bits of information, but they must find a way of sharing information without compromising their security," said Jamal Khashoggi, media adviser to the Saudi ambassador to Britain, Prince Turki Al-Faisal.

"Look at the U.S. itself. Its intelligence services didn't talk to each other before 9/11."

Saudi Arabia was the birthplace of 15 out of the 19 terrorists who attacked the United States on September 11, 2001. It also is the birthplace of Osama bin Laden, who bases his terrorist ideology on the teaching of Islam's fanatic Wahhabi sect, the desert kingdom's official religion.

A recent report by the New York-based human rights group Freedom House charged that the Saudi government continues to export Islamic fanaticism to the United States with literature sent to mosques.