Saudi Arabia had tried to move against potential "terrorist" elements at home well before Sept. 11, 2001 but had met resistance from the State Department, a leading Saudi diplomat said on Monday.

Saudi Arabia's long-time ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz told a foreign affairs group here that the resistance came from State Department officials who were "telling us we were terrible to these dissidents."

Speaking to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, he suggested the Saudi government was aware of and sought to act against potential terrorism in the country but that state department officials concerned with human rights labeled the people "dissidents" and criticized Saudis for trying to crack down on them.

Prince Bandar has played a key role in relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia, which have grown increasingly tense since Sept. 11, when 15 of the 19 suicide hijackers were identified as Saudi nationals. While the Saudi government says it has done everything possible to assist with the U.S. war on terror, many U.S. lawmakers have criticized the kingdom for providing only limited cooperation.

The ambassador said that two days before the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, "We were telling you they were terrorists (and) the State Department was telling us that we were terrible to these dissidents."

He said he understood because "What looked so clear and obvious after 9/11 wasn't so clear before ... and trust me the same is true in Saudi Arabia."

Prince Bandar said that efforts by Saudi Arabia to track funneling of money to groups with terrorist ties was thwarted to some degree by U.S. financial regulations and privacy safeguards surrounding U.S. financial institutions.

He added, "We have cooperated 100 percent with the United States in the fight against terrorism, not for the sake of the United States but for the sake of protecting our people. (Osama) Bin Laden and al Qaeda and people who think like that are not the only problems."

Americans should not "make the deadly mistake that we're not doing anything just" because Saudi actions are not transparent, he said, adding:

"We are at war; just because you can't see airplanes and tanks and missiles being fired doesn't make it any less of a war." He said the 9/11 planners hatched their plot in western countries "when those evil people sat down to make their final plans to attack the United States they were in Paris and London and Munich and Frankfurt. Think it through."

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