TWO FACED By NILES LATHEM

December 4, 2002 -- WASHINGTON - Saudi Arabia's split personality was laid bare to the world yesterday, as a Saudi official in Washington vowed to crack down on terror funding - while another in the Mideast blamed "Zionists" for the 9/11 attacks.

The shocking remarks by influential Saudi Interior Minister Prince Naif Ibn Abd Al-Aziz - who blamed Jews while denying involvement by any Saudi in the Sept. 11 attacks - sparked a firestorm in Congress last night and appeared to undermine a carefully orchestrated Saudi public-relations campaign.

"Who committed the events of Sept. 11? . . . I think they [the Zionists] are behind these events," Prince Naif was quoted in a Nov. 29 interview by Kuwait's Al Siyasa newspaper.

"It is impossible that 19 youths, including 15 Saudis, carried out the operation of Sept. 11," Naif said, adding that the "Zionist-controlled media" in the United States is manipulating the terror war to create a backlash against Muslims.

Naif is an influential member of the Saudi royal family and is a key defendant in a lawsuit filed by kin of 9/11 victims, who charge him with funneling millions of dollars through charities to Osama bin Laden's network as part of a secret pact to keep al Qaeda out of Saudi Arabia.

"The Saudis are telling us that they are an ally in the war on terrorism while their top government officials are still blaming 9/11 on the Jews. . . . Does this Saudi minister sound like a partner in the war on terror?" said Rep. Eliot Engel (D-Bronx).

Naif's remarks surfaced on a day when the Saudis moved on two fronts to try to shore up its relationship with the U.S.

CBS News last night reported that the Saudis have agreed to allow U.S. war planes to use its airspace and ultra-sophisticated Prince Sultan Air Base if it goes to war with Iraq.

It quoted a U.S. military official as saying the agreement was part of "a slow, deliberate process of war preparation" to try to pressure Iraq into handing over its weapons of mass destruction.

The Saudi royal family also dispatched Adel al-Jubeir, its smooth-talking, American-educated troubleshooter, to the United States on a high-stakes mission to stamp out the firestorm over the donations of blood money to terrorists through Saudi charities.

Al-Jubeir, 40, foreign-policy adviser to Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler Crown Prince Abdullah, announced new banking regulations and creation of a high commission to monitor Saudi Arabia's 300 charities and disrupt the terror-money trail.

Al-Jubeir admitted there were 15 Saudis on the hijack teams, but said bin Laden deliberately chose them for the suicide attacks to "give the operation a Saudi face and drive a wedge between our two countries."

"In a way he almost succeeded," al-Jubeir said.

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2002