More recently, there have been reports that the Saudis have refused to cooperate with U.S. efforts to cut off financial support for terrorism, and to this day refuse to accept that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi. In October, Bush administration officials were telling reporters that the Saudi government was still refusing to freeze the assets of Osama bin Laden and was uncooperative in the investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks. Saudi spokesmen denied those charges as well as ones that Saudi money funds the spread of militant Islam throughout the globe, and that their schools teach hatred and intolerance for any non-Sunni Muslim.

On Nov. 27 White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said that the president was satisfied and pleased with Saudi cooperation in the war on terrorism. "The Saudi Arabian government has done everything the United States has asked it to do in the war on terrorism," Fleischer said. He listed a number of areas where the Saudi government -- despite press reports and off-the-record comments from Bush administration officials -- had been helpful, including economic assistance to Pakistan, humanitarian relief to the people of Afghanistan, and intelligence sharing. A few days later, a U.S. delegation consisting of officials from the Department of State, the Treasury Department, the FBI and the National Security Council went to Saudi Arabia to urge more cooperation.

More recently, there have been tensions about the U.S. military base in Saudi Arabia, and conflicting news accounts about whether the Saudis will request the exit of the American military. And on Tuesday, after seven years of legal battles, the Pentagon lifted its requirement that female military personnel stationed in Saudi Arabia don black abayas -- or full-body gowns -- when off the base. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was being sued by Air Force Lt. Col. Martha McSally over the dress code, which McSally claimed was discriminatory. Military requirements against female military personnel driving, sitting in the front seat of a vehicle, or leaving base without a male companion are still in place.

Former President Clinton also spoke at the conference, though his advice was a bit different from Neil Bush's. Clinton said Americans need to "do a better job and listen to Muslims ... who thought that before Sept. 11 the U.S. was insensitive to their needs, hostile to their values, beliefs and economic interests." He praised those Saudis who had condemned terrorism, such as the imam of the Grand Mosque, but he also, controversially, urged Saudis to teach tolerance in their educational system. "We see people speaking out against terror ... this must also extend to the school," Clinton said. "You have to help us end that kind of indoctrination.

Clinton also expressed support for a renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace process, saying that "violence must end, terror must stop and the suicide bombings must cease."

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