RIYADH, 7 December 2005 — The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Robert Mueller has acknowledged the existence of a small FBI bureau in the Kingdom, without elaborating on the number of its staff or location.
Addressing a press conference here yesterday, Mueller said that some Saudi intelligence officers had received training in the United States from the FBI as part of the cooperation between the two countries. He also said that whenever the bureau received any information regarding a possible terrorist threat, it immediately informed Saudi Intelligence.
Commenting on the information that the FBI evaluates before issuing a warning of a possible terrorist attack, he said, “It can come from intelligence services around the world; it can come from a telephone call; it can come from the Internet; it can come in the form of an email. One evaluates the sources and determines the threat level in view of the existing situation.” He said that a warning was not issued until thorough consultations and an understanding of the impact the threat might have.
He said that one of the bureau’s challenges today was with information on the Internet.
Commenting on the nationalities of insurgents who are carrying out attacks against American forces in Iraq, Mueller said, “The majority of them are not from the Kingdom.”
He commented that Islam had nothing to do with what the terrorists were doing.
The director said that cooperation between the United States and Saudi Arabia in the fight against terrorism was the same as it was in 2003 and 2004. “You can look at some recent cases in which there have been substantial successes in terms of successful prosecutions of persons who threatened terrorist attacks against the United States. In the wake of the May 12, 2003, bombings, we had a number of experts here working side by side with their Saudi counterparts. Back in June 2004, when several Americans were killed, we again worked closely with Saudi intelligence.”
He lauded Saudi intelligence for being very quick to exchange evidence and information with the FBI after those two attacks.
In answer to a question about the number of Saudi students in the US and the complaints some have made about mistreatment from the FBI, the director said that those were “very few cases.” He stressed that the majority of Saudis who study in the United States return to the Kingdom after having made new friends and lived in an open society.
Mueller said that he met the Deputy Interior Minister for Security Affairs Prince Muhammad ibn Naif and senior members of the Saudi intelligence in order to discuss ways to improve intelligence cooperation between the Kingdom and the United States, particularly in fighting cyber crime, organized crime and other criminal activities.
