From Global Security Newswire:

Saudi Arabia continues to be the primary funding source for al-Qaeda and other terrorist entities because the country has not taken necessary actions to target individuals and organizations that finance terrorism, the U.S. Treasury Department’s top counterterrorism official said yesterday (see GSN, April 19, 2006 ).

“Saudi Arabia today remains the location where more money is going to terrorism, to Sunni terror groups and to the Taliban than any other place in the world,” Undersecretary Stuart Levey told the Senate Finance Committee.

Levey said that U.S. overtures to target terrorism funding sources have gained little traction in Saudi Arabia, which U.S. officials have named a major source of terrorism funding in the past.

“We continue to face significant challenges as we move forward with these efforts, including fostering and maintaining the political will among other governments to take effective and consistent action,” he said, later adding that “our work is not nearly complete.”

Referring to a March 24 Los Angeles Times report on wider problems with U.S. actions to eliminate funding for terror groups, committee members requested an independent study of Washington’s financial counterterrorism efforts.

According to U.S. officials and counterterrorism analysts, the campaign has been plagued by ebbing international support, interagency strife and adaptation among terror groups.

“We are simply not prepared right now to keep up with them and put them out of business once and for all,” said Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the committee’s ranking Republican (Josh Meyer, Los Angeles Times, April 2 ).