U.K. Terrorism Report on Saudi Arabia May Be Kept Secret
U.K. Terrorism Report on Saudi Arabia May Be Kept Secret by Tom O'Connor, Newsweek
The results of a government-sponsored inquiry into the sources of funding for Islamist militant groups operating in the U.K. may be kept hidden forever due to the nature of its findings, the U.K.'s Home Office has said, according to local media.
The investigation was reportedly authorized by former Prime Minister David Cameron during his Conservative administration's bid to convince the Liberal Democrat opposition to approve British airstrikes against positions held by the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) in Syria in December 2015. The Liberal Democrats were satisfied and, the following month, British intelligence began looking into how foreign entities transferred funds to promote radical ideology in the U.K. According to a report published Wednesday in The Guardian, however, the Home Office not only declined to disclose any information regarding its findings, it suggested it may never do so, due to the "very sensitive" nature of the results which are believed to contain references to Saudi Arabia, a close ally of the U.K. and known sponsor of ultraconservative Wahhabist Sunni Muslim ideology around the world.
A Home Office spokesperson told the publication that a decision may be made on the inquiry after the nation's next government is elected, but the article provided no further details. The foreign affairs spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, Tom Brake, has written to Prime Minister Theresa May, who was the home secretary at the time the inquiry was launched in 2016, demanding answers. He criticized May's inaction despite two deadly acts committed by U.K. citizens—Khalid Masood in March and Salman Ramadan Abedi last week—that a left a combined 28 people dead and dozens more injured since the 2016 inquiry was opened. Both individuals were said to be inspired by the hardline Islamist ideology the Home Office was tasked with investigating…
