For 20 years I have served without compensation as a lawyer for federal whistleblowers within the U.S. intelligence community. In the last year, I have received highly classified information from several of my confidential clients concerning a Saudi covert operation. The Saudi relationship is so sensitive that, for more than a decade, federal prosecutors and counter-terrorist agents have been ordered to shut down their investigations for reasons of foreign policy.

I am filing a lawsuit in Hillsborough County Court to expose the manner in which Florida charities were used as a money laundry for tax-deductible terrorism. The complaint cites specific testimony including highly classified information that has never been released before. Simply put, the Saudi government was laundering money through Florida charities for the support of terrorist groups in the Middle East. Through the charity network and others, the Saudi government secretly funded al-Qaeda, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

The Saudi purpose was twofold: the destruction of the State of Israel and the prevention of the formation of an independent Palestinian state. Two particular terrorist groups, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, were specifically chosen and funded by the Saudis for their willingness to undermine Arafat's Palestinian authority. The secret Saudi goal was to create such animosity between Israel and the Palestinian authority that it would wreck any chance for the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

Their tactics specifically called for the intimidation or murder of those Palestinians who were willing to work with Israel for peace. To put it bluntly, the covert Saudi network in Florida funded the murders of fellow Muslims for the crime of wanting to create the first democratic Arab state.

Whatever harm the Israelis may have done, they did build an excellent public education system, including several universities, for the benefit of their Palestinian neighbors. That was the problem. While literacy in the Arab world is below 50 percent, in Israel it is 97 percent. Israel is the only place in the Middle East where an Arab woman can vote. After 50 years, Israel has created the first Arab class exposed to democracy, literacy and Western values.

To the Saudis, a democratic Palestinian nation would be a cancer in the Arab world, a destabilizing example of freedom that would threaten Arab dictators everywhere. As King Fahd said, "Next to the Jews, we hate the Palestinians the most." The harder the Israelis and Palestinians worked for peace, the more money King Fahd poured into his murder-for-hire program.

Year after year, members of the intelligence community warned that a rising wave of terror was coming. Oliver North wrote in his autobiography that every time he tried to do something about terrorism, he was told to stop because it would embarrass the Saudi government. John O'Neill quit his job as head of FBI counter-terrorism for the same reason. Jonathan Pollard went to jail.

Federal agents in Tampa, who had known about the Florida connection since 1990, were ordered to drop the investigation in 1995.

The Saudi influence-buying machine had effectively shut down any threat of criminal prosecution. Those Americans, including a former president, who lobbied for the Saudis, have a lot to answer for. So do the Saudis.

With the explosive growth of al-Qaeda and their Taliban allies, the Saudis finally recognized that they had gone too far. Eventually, a much chagrined Prince Abdullah belatedly announced that the Saudis would release the names of the terrorists that their charities had "unwittingly" funded, but only in Somalia and Asia. The main Saudi charities in Herndon, Virginia, and Florida are still untouched. My clients are betting that the American influence-peddlers hired by the Saudis will succeed once again in derailing a federal investigation. They came to me for help in exposing the cover-up. That is why I am filing this lawsuit.

In the months to come, the American public may finally begin to learn why the Saudi-Florida charities/terror networks went untouched for so long. It wasn't an intelligence failure, it was a foreign policy failure. The orders were not to embarrass the Saudi government. Year after year, the cover-up orders came from the State Department and the White House. The CIA, the FBI and the Justice Department just did what they were told. No one intended the harsh consequences of letting the Saudis get away with it again and again. Only after Sept. 11, when the Treasury Department found the financial transactions linking the Saudi charities directly to Osama bin Laden, did American officials realize the extent of their betrayal.

We are not alone in our grief and anger. Saudi money sabotaged every Israeli initiative to make peace. The bewildered Palestinians may finally realize that they have been stabbed in the back by an Arab brother. The rules have changed after Sept. 11, but the bottom line remains the same: If we want to stop terrorism, we have to tell the Saudis to stop funding it.

John Loftus is president of the Florida Holocaust Museum, a former federal prosecutor and author of several books, including The Secret War Against the Jews. He is an Irish-Catholic. If you would like to respond to this Slant or have one of your own (850 words), contact Howard Altman, City Paper interim editor, 123 Chestnut St., third floor, Phila., PA 19106 or e-mail altman@citypaper.net.