Saudi adviser says FBI will participate in investigation

WASHINGTON -- Contradicting his country's interior minister, a Saudi foreign policy adviser said Sunday that U.S. authorities will actively participate in the investigation of last week's bombings in Saudi Arabia.\nAdel al-Jubeir defended the kingdom's commitment to fighting terrorism and its response to U.S. terrorism warnings before last Monday's attacks.\nBut the conflicting remarks about U.S. investigators could give fresh ammunition to lawmakers who accuse Saudi Arabia of a "double game:" taking a strong anti-terrorism stance for U.S. audiences, while trying to appease a Saudi populace largely sympathetic to Saudi-born Osama bin Laden.\nAl-Jubeir, who appeared on several Sunday talk shows, said the 60-plus U.S. investigators in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, "will do as much as they can do in any other country in the world."\n"This is a joint investigation," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press."\nBut in Riyadh, Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef repeated earlier remarks that the role of U.S. investigators was limited. He said they had come to examine the sites, "and we welcomed them based on that, for examining only."\nAsked about the discrepancies later on CNN's "Late Edition," al-Jubeir said: "I think we can differ on how we put things, but the bottom line of it is the FBI will be very satisfied with what it is able to do and how it will be able to interact with our security services."\nHe noted that FBI Director Robert Mueller has praised initial Saudi cooperation in investigating the attacks, which killed 34 people, including eight Americans.\nU.S. lawmakers are insisting that Saudis provide better cooperation than they had after the 1996 truck bombing of the Khobar Towers dormitory that killed 19 U.S. military personnel. The Saudis denied the FBI access to witnesses and suspects.\n"We see the pattern repeating," said Rep. Jane Harman of California, top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. "There may be more people on the ground this time, but if they're not going to investigate, if they can just observe, it will be the same result."\nHarman said the bombings were preventable.\n"We know that there was a massive security failure. Despite repeated warnings by U.S. intelligence, the Saudis did not take adequate measures," she said.\nAl-Jubeir said Saudis had responded to U.S. concerns and called criticism "the blame game and Monday morning quarterbacking." He spoke shortly before Saudi Arabia announced the arrests of four suspects in the bombings and said they were linked to al Qaeda.\nSen. John Kerry, a Democratic presidential candidate, said the Bush administration was "lackadaisical about the relationship with Saudi Arabia.\n"I think we could be tougher and I think we could be smarter in how we protect Americans," Kerry, D-Mass., told CBS' "Face the Nation."\nHouse Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss, R-Fla., said on ABC's "This Week" that Saudi cooperation has improved since the attacks "and we see a commitment to do a better job in Saudi Arabia."\nBut, he added, "I'm not sure they've got the competency yet to deal with the kind of problems they have in the kingdom," such as widespread anti-Americanism.\nAl-Jubeir said Saudi Arabia has cracked down on clerics "who have transgressed," such as by praising terrorists.\n"The fact that we haven't talked about it does not mean that we're not doing it," he said on "Fox News Sunday." "We need to educate our people, and we need to educate the world."\nAl-Jubeir was a last-minute replacement on three talk shows for Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States. Al-Jubeir said Bandar had been sent on a mission, which al-Jubeir did not identify.