AT WAR II: A New Day.

Who is the enemy in the Terror War? Al-Qaeda, obviously, and the Taliban (R.I.P.). Iraq and Iran are charter members of the Axis of Evil. Other radical Arab regimes are either sitting tight or (in the case of Yemen) on their best behavior.

That leaves the recruiting ground and international banker of Islamism, Saudi Arabia. National Review and NRO have been early critics of Saudi bad faith. But recently others have caught on. In October a report commissioned by the Council on Foreign Relations laid it on the line. "For years, individuals and charities based in Saudi Arabia have been the most important source of funds for al Qaeda, and for years Saudi officials have turned a blind eye to this problem." This was a stinker in the wonk world of foreign policy. Then in November came the story that hit the front pages: Princess Haifa al-Faisal, daughter of a former king of Saudi Arabia and wife of the Saudi ambassador to the United States, had given thousands of dollars over the years to Osama Bassnan, a Saudi citizen living in San Diego, ostensibly as charity to help his sick wife. But at the same time, one of Bassnan's friends, Omar al-Bayoumi, was paying the rent for two of the future 9/11 hijackers.

Saudi spokesmen hit the airwaves to deny that the princess ever intended to subsidize mass murderers. Nor, in all likelihood, did she. But like many guilty nouveaux riches, the Saudi upper classes salve their insecurity over the divergence between their tastes and their creed by spreading their money around. Much of it goes, as per Muslim law, to the poor. But much of it also goes ...