Saudi Arabia, UAE funded jihadi networks in Pakistan: Wikileaks cable | The Raw Story

Islamic charities from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates financed a network in U.S. ally Pakistan that recruited children as young as eight to wage holy war, a local newspaper reported on Sunday, citing Wikileaks.

A U.S. diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks said financial support estimated at $100 million a year was making its way from those Gulf Arab states to a jihadist recruitment network in Pakistan's Punjab province, Dawn newspaper reported.

It said those sources claimed that financial aid from Saudi and United Arab Emirates was coming from "missionary" and "Islamic charitable" organizations ostensibly with the direct support of those countries' governments.

The network in Punjab reportedly exploited worsening poverty to indoctrinate children and ultimately send them to training camps, said the cable.

Saudi Arabia, home to the fundamentalist Wahhabi brand of Islam, is seen as funding some of Pakistan's hardline religious seminaries, or madrassas, which churn out young men eager for holy war, posing a threat to the stability of the region.

"At these madrassas, children are denied contact with the outside world and taught sectarian extremism, hatred for non-Muslims, and anti-Western/anti-Pakistan government philosophy," said the cable.

It described how "families with multiple children" and "severe financial difficulties" were being exploited and recruited, Dawn reported.

"The path following recruitment depends upon the age of the child involved. Younger children (between 8 and 12) seem to be favored," said the cable.

With friends like the Saudis, eh? On 9/11 it was mainly Saudi hijackers financed by the Saudi government that performed the attacks and now we read this. Yet Saudi Arabia remains one of this nation's "closest allies" simply because they have all that oil. I remember when in 1978 Pres. Jimmy Carter urged Americans to conserve gas and oil and to invest in green energy. It's one of the things that cost him his re-election as the Saudi's had cut back oil supplies to America leading to the second energy crisis in 5 years (the first was under Nixon). If only we'd have listened.