Phydeaux
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The figure of 11000 madrassas over the 8 year period was from a speech I gave in 2002, and another in 2006. I'll see if I can find the end notes for you.
In the mean time, let me give you some facts and figures I have to hand:
http://www.pewforum.org/2005/05/03/the-global-spread-of-wahhabi-islam-how-great-a-threat/
Now, the Faustian bargain that Luis was referring to is what George Shultz – co-chairman with me of the Committee on the Present Danger and a not a man easily given to overstatement – calls a grotesque protection racket. And what I meant by the Faustian bargain is that in the 1970s, particularly by 1979, two things happened on the Arabian Peninsula.
The House of Saud became very, very wealthy and very, very frightened – wealthy because of the huge spike in oil prices by the end of the decade, taking them from a couple of billion dollars a year in foreign earnings to 20 billion dollars, and frightened because of two events: the fall of the Shah and the coming to power of Islamists to govern in Tehran among the hated Shiites, and the takeover attempt in Saudi Arabia, which was really a coup attempt that resulted in the takeover of the great mosque in Mecca by Islamist terrorists for a time.
The deal that I believe was struck, whether implicitly or explicitly who can say, was for the Wahhabis to be given all of the money in the world they could ever remotely dream of needing or wanting to spread their sect’s beliefs and for them to leave the House of Saud alone. The effect over the last 30 years, at least according to Alexei Alexiev, is that some 85 to 90 billion dollars – that is “billion” with a B – have been spent fostering and spreading Wahhabism in the world – totals that would have been a dream to the Comintern a generation before. You see it in the “madrassas,” or schools, of Pakistan and in the literature that Paul and Nina described in the Freedom House publication. It is there and really rather obvious.
From http://www.islamdaily.org/en/wahabism/5807.saudi-arabia-wahhabism-and-the-spread-of-sunni-the.htmquote:
The Saudi royal family revoked bin Laden's Saudi citizenship (in response to heavy American pressure), but did little to interfere with Wahhabi "charities" in the kingdom and abroad. These entities raised money for al-Qaida, while the religious onslaught of Wahhabism continued to receive government sponsorship and funding. Osama bin Laden is widely believed to have reached an agreement with Prince Turki al-Faisal, then-chief of Saudi National Security and Intelligence in the mid 1990s, whereby al-Qaida would not target the kingdom, and the kingdom would not interfere with al-Qaida's fundraising or seek bin Laden's extradition. In fact, al-Qaida abstained completely from attacks on Saudi targets within the kingdom prior to 9-11.
Terrorist attacks and clashes between Saudi police and Islamist militants have erupted periodically since May 2003, after the Saudi Government began cracking down on underground cells in the kingdom (under pressure from Washington). However, it appears that most al-Qaida-affiliated terrorist groups still respect this quid pro quo: hundreds of members of the Saudi royal family jet around the world without fear of assassination. The country's vulnerable petroleum industry has only once been targeted by terrorists, and then in a less that serious manner.
And from http://theweek.com/articles/570297/how-saudi-arabia-exports-radical-islam
quote:
To combat the spread of Shiite Islam and ensure that the Islamic world is primarily Sunni. In recent years, the ancient Sunni-Shiite conflict in Iraq, Yemen, and throughout the Middle East has grown more overt, bitter, and violent. Now that Iran has agreed to rein in its nuclear program in return for the lifting of international economic sanctions, Riyadh fears a newly enriched Tehran will be more aggressive in spreading its Shiite doctrine and promoting Shiite-led revolutions. A trove of Saudi diplomatic documents covering 2010 to 2015, recently released by WikiLeaks, shows a Saudi obsession with Iranian actions and Iranian influence. Saudi government agencies monitor Iranian cultural and religious activities, and try to muzzle Shiite influence by shutting down or blocking access to Iranian-backed media. Saudi diplomats keep close tabs on Iranian involvement everywhere, from Tajikistan, which has strong historical Persian ties, to China, where the tiny, beleaguered Uighur population — which is Muslim — is growing more religious.
How do the Saudis promote their religious views?
By investing heavily in building mosques, madrasas, schools, and Sunni cultural centers across the Muslim world. Indian intelligence says that in India alone, from 2011 to 2013, some 25,000 Saudi clerics arrived bearing more than $250 million to build mosques and universities and hold seminars. "We are talking about thousands and thousands of activist organizations and preachers who are in the Saudi sphere of influence," said Usama Hasan, a researcher in Islamic studies. These institutions and clerics preach the specifically Saudi version of Sunni Islam, the extreme fundamentalist strain known as Wahhabism or Salafism.
So while this certainly doesn't give direct support to the number or time frame I said, it does point out that it is at least possible.
The Saudis sent 25,000 clerics to build madrassa in India alone between 2011 and 2013.
From http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/02/01/DI2007020101782.html
Khalid al-Dakhil: Well, I would say that the influence of the Wahhabi ideology on the foreign policy of the Saudi state is very limited. It should be recalled that the Saudi relations with the U.S. ( a Christian nation) are more than 70 years old -- it was an alliance forged by the founding father of Saudi Arabia. In other words, this relationship started during the time the Saudi society was most conservative, and closer to the Wahhabi society of the 19th century. The power of the Wahhabi establishment then was at its peak, and yet there was no problem. The problem started after the 1980s, and specifically after the war to liberate Afghanistan from the Soviet occupation.
In the Saudi state there is a clear distinction between the realm of religion, where the ulama are accorded a wide leeway, and the realm of politics, where the ruler is given a free hand to run the affairs of the state. So the Saudi government can co-opt or undercut the Iranians in Iraq without having to answer to the Wahhabi clerics. It's a matter of the political interests of the state, and the clerics. And remember that the Saudi role in the events in Iraq since the American invasion has been limited not because of the Wahhabis but because of the Bush administration.
All three of these links support the idea that wahhabism had explosive growth, triggered by islamacists almost getting control of the main mosque in SA. All of them agree that part of the saudi's fear was overthrow, and another part was the rise in shi-ite ideology caused by the overthrow of the shah of Iran. All of them point to the US being a security patron - and your links as well as mind suggest that the Saudi's have been generally helpful in providing intel to the US.
Our positions are actually fairly close, differing (really) only in the idea that I believe the Sauds have legalistically been very careful not to fund terroism against the us.
On the other hand -
1. I do believe the saudi's are exporting an extreme form of wahhabism.
2. That wahabbism contributes to the rise of hate, and huges numbers of jihadi's willing to fight for militant islam.
3. I do believe that many of the groups the sauds fund -do commit terroism.
4. I do believe that the spread of virulent wahhabism is rapidly getting to a breaking point - something we should have caught years ago.
5. Historically, the Iranian brand of hatred has been slightly less virulent than the Iranian kind.
6. I do believe that individual saudis, companies and charities have committed acts of terrorism against the US.
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RE: Saudi and Iran - 
Profile
There were five other nations who refused to send any troops but did supply field hospitals. 
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