Iran Hands al Qaeda Fighters Over to Saudi Arabia
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Saudi Arabian officials say they're interrogating 16 suspected al Qaeda fighters. The group was delivered to the Saudis by Iran in June. As CNN's Suzanne Malveaux reports, some in Washington are troubled by the hand over.</s>SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the president's January State of the Union address, Bush declares Iran a member of the axis of evil.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: These regimes pose a grave and growing danger.</s>MALVEAUX: But now Saudi officials announce Iran has turned over 16 suspected al Qaeda to Saudi authorities in an effort to cooperate in the war on terror.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we have been handed these six, these 16 members. And they are being interrogated.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything that we know and everything that we will find out, we will share with the United States.</s>MALVEAUX: Iran's action received no official comment from the Bush administration, while the president is vacationing in Crawford, Texas. Iran's hand over of al Qaeda seen only as proof to the Pentagon that for months the country has served as a safe haven for al Qaeda fighters crossing the Afghan border. For critics, the news does not help Saudi Arabia's image.</s>SEN. FRED THOMPSON (R-TN), SELECT INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: To learn from the Saudis that the Iranians and the Saudis are working together kind of off to the side and behind our back to our benefit, let's just say I meet with a certain amount of skepticism. Some of our folks have been quite critical of the Saudis and they're clearly trying to do things and point toward things that will ameliorate that.</s>MALVEAUX: That criticism generated from a private analysts' presentation to an advisory board to the Pentagon, claiming the Saudis were supporting terrorism. The report was dismissed by the White House. But administration officials acknowledge it's a critical time for U.S.-Saudi relations, especially since Saudi's foreign minister announced the U.S. would not be allowed to stage troops on Saudi Arabia in the event of a military attack on Iraq.</s>SEN. CARL LEVIN (D-MI), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: The president says you're either with us or against us in the war on terrorism and the answer is sometimes the Saudis are with us, sometimes they're not.</s>MALVEAUX (on camera): The Bush administration is looking at other options in the event of a U.S. attack on Iraq, either basing troops in other Arab countries or stationing forces aboard U.S. aircraft carriers. Suzanne Malveaux, CNN, Crawford, Texas.