I read this, and remember how reluctant the State Department is to deport any Arab Muslim, and wonder if we have vicious treason in government.
I read this, and remember how reluctant the State Department is to deport any Arab Muslim, and wonder if we have vicious treason in government.
Well, I can't speak to this from a reporting standpoint... yet. What I can tell you is that Warren Christopher wrote a very reasonable letter to Janet Reno which basically boils down to "Jordan wants us to deport this guy, which we should do so that other countries will deport the people we want."
What the letter fails to account for is the fact that we had a legit claim and national security need to keep him -- at the time, mind you, and not just in hindsight.
Based on what I currently know, you can pick a number between one and 10, with one being "complete stupidity" and 10 being "ulterior motive" and use your own judgment as to where the number falls.
I suspect (and this is just a guess) that there may have been some quiet lobbying by the Saudis to make sure the deportation proceeded. Khalifa, in his role moving money from the Saudi elite to bin Laden's troops, was likely in possession of a lot of information that would be very embarrassing for the royal family.
jmb