Posted on 10/23/2005 10:25:49 AM PDT by Mount Athos
Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat- More than 10,000 Saudi students will travel to the US to attend university as part of a government-sponsored program following the adoption of new measures by the Ministry of Higher Education aimed at facilitating travel procedures for Saudis. In total, 21,000 Saudis are expected to take part in the program in the next four years.
Prospective students can submit their applications to the Ministry of Higher Education through a Ministry special office or its website for nine different specializations and will be able to benefit from assistance with their visa applications at the US embassy and its diplomatic missions throughout the country.
Fahd al Manur, a student who decided to enroll in the program told Asharq al Awsat, “I do not fear traveling to the US since Americans are a friendly people. Relations between our two countries have greatly improved recently and travel procedures are easier nowadays after being almost impossible following September 11th 2001.” Studying in the US would be a dream come true, he added, despite recent events. King Abdullah’s visit earlier this year strengthened bilateral relations and “reassured Saudis.”
Currently studying in the U.S., Mohammad al Mateeri described the initiative as an important step and described how in eight years of living in the US, “I have never been hassled, save for an increase in security checks to which a country is entitled to when protecting its citizens.”
His wife, Afaf, also a Saudi national, confirmed that Americans have been very friendly to the couple and treated them with respect. Once, however, she was detained for 24hours at a Washington D.C airport after a short visit to Saudi Arabia because of a mix up in names but was treated with respect and courtesy.
In the wake of the September 11 attacks on US cities, several Saudi students were detained around the U.S. Bandar al Qowaifal, who left home at 18 to attend university in America recalled his arrest. “After al Qaeda’s attacks, I was arrested for one whole month and extradited to Saudi Arabia . They didn’t have anything against me except some minor irregularities in my visa I hadn’t paid attention to. I am waiting for the right to time to go back to the US and resume my studies.” After applying to the exchange program and benefiting from relaxed visa procedures, Bandar is now back in the US studying at his own expense.
A PhD student, Saad al Sowaylim told Asharq al Awsat he was eagerly awaiting his return to the US to complete his degree, despite living through a difficult time while studying at John Hopkins University , three years ago. He felt it was important to correct the wrong impression some Americans had of Arab students in their country.
The Minister of Higher Education assist those already accepted in US universities by providing them with bank guaranteed and a recommendation to facilitate US embassy visa procedures.
Sources at the Ministry told Asharq al Awsat that the number of applicants who hope to attend US universities has reached 15,000 thousand, with the majority studying for B.A degrees.
Half of the prospective students will be sponsored by Saudi businesses to further their knowledge in a given field making use of bilateral treaties offering Saudis a number of opportunities in U.S. universities across the country.
Darwin is lurking.
Looks like we are.
This is insane, suicidal. Who authored and approved this?
Effing insane.
I wonder what the threat was they spoke of in passing... Probably just an unattended backpack - I wonder if it was near the staging area for the floats and such. That would make sense.
As far as the Saudis being shipped in... I never understood why with all the money they have they haven't build their own universities to rival ours. I could imagine they could attract some pretty intelligent people with the salaries they could afford to pay the teachers as well. As it is, it's extremely disturbing that we would be relaxing visa requirements - basically inviting danger IMHO.
First part of that post should've gone on a separate thread! LOL (o;
This is what happens when you start holding hands.
I'm more concerned about the uncounted numbers of potential terrorists crossing our porous Southern border than I am 10,000 Saudis with visas that we can track.
That's 10,000 more than we need. If the Saudis insist that we agree to letting these little shits into our country, then they ought to agree to pay the salaries of the private investigators and the FBI/INS/homeland security agents who get to keep an eye on them.
Hmmm. The senior network systems administrators in our US corporations must be getting old and needing like replacements.
What I"m wondering is where are the Congressmen/women who were outraged and tried to stop this from happening? Did NO ONE in Congress raise a voice against this??
You might ping PKM, who might know more about what they found. I never heard any more than what was mentioned in the article on the other thread. Surprisingly mum about it--usually they'll say, Oh, just a backpack someone dropped--or something like that. But this time--nothing. Just an assertion that it was harmless. (It probably was, but I must admit, their assertions are worth, approximately, the paper they're written on--and since they were verbal...)
I'm really concerned about 10k Saudis invading the country. How long before they drop out of sight and move into position for more of what almost got OU earlier this month, I wonder? Just gives me a really bad feeling.
Ping.
Good question. I wonder how many even knew about it? You gotta figure at least a few GOP Congresscritters would've raised a stink...
Whose goal, the Saudis or U.S. gov't officials? ;)
The Admin. is trying their best to keep us singing Kumbaya as long as possible, knowing that it can't last forever. Until that day, they have a lot of work to do...
Can you imagine Reagan holding hands with &/or kissing some stinkin' Saudi raghead?
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