Posted on 08/22/2002 5:22:47 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
RIYADH On a blistering 120-degree morning in August, a Saudi Arabian Airlines pilot named Sultan Al-Duweihi took his place in line for a visa outside the US Embassy.
Being made to stand outside and wait was a new experience for many of the two dozen Saudis in line. Since Sept. 11 the rules are stricter. No longer can Saudis leave the paperwork to their travel agent; everyone between ages 12 and 70 has to be interviewed by a consular officer, and approval can take more than five weeks.
"This is too much over and beyond disgusting," said Al-Duweihi. "Saudis are being collectively punished for the actions of a few." He was referring to Sept. 11.
Americans would argue that new precautions are only natural. But Saudis feel betrayed by a country where many studied, vacationed and did business, and which they looked to as a bastion of the freedoms and human rights.
"People see the visa line as a sign that says, Hey we hate you, we regard you with suspicion, we dont want you," said Khaled M. Batarfi, a managing editor of the Saudi newspaper Al-Madinah and a journalism graduate of the University of Oregon. Saudi and US officials insist that government-to-government ties remain solid, that the basis of the relationship has not changed.
"The relations are there. They have existed for 70 years," Prince Saud, the foreign minister, told The Associated Press recently, and added that he saw nothing to indicate a change.
But at the non-governmental level the new frostiness has been evident in one incident after another: Rudy Giuliani, as New York mayor, spurning a donation to the city from Prince Alwaleed ibn Talal; relatives of Sept. 11 victims suing Saudi officials, banks and charities, claiming they helped finance Osama Bin Ladens network and the terror attacks; a US defense think-tank analyst suggests the United States target Saudi oil fields and financial assets unless the kingdom does more to fight terrorism.
Without offering any specifics, US officials say the Saudis are giving exceptional help in law enforcement and intelligence since Sept. 11, and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said this month he was happy with the relationship.
Saud has said his country is sharing with US officials information obtained from 16 alleged members of Bin Ladens network, Al-Qaeda, who had fled Afghanistan into Iran and were recently turned over to Saudi Arabia. But another division looms, over how to deal with the Iraq question.
Saud told the AP the Kingdom will not allow the United States to use Saudi soil for an attack on Iraq.
The United States would most likely use the Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, which it quietly has been setting up, for an attack on Iraq.
Then theres the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Senior Saudis, accuse the United States of tilting further toward Israel, and ordinary Saudis have expressed their anger by raising tens of thousands of dollars for the Palestinians.
Dawood Al-Shirian, regional director of the daily Al Hayat newspaper, said the crisis has had an impact on Saudi-US relations. Saudi nerves are also jangled by stories in the Saudi press as well as unsubstantiated hearsay about Saudis being held in US jails, US landlords not renting to Saudis and Saudis being singled out for humiliating searches at US airports.
Nowadays Al-Riyadh daily has been carrying ads for universities in Romania, the Czech Republic, Malaysia, China and Arab countries as alternatives to US colleges.
Outside the embassy, 42-year-old Ali Hassan was full of understanding when he arrived to apply for a visa to travel to Orlando, Fla.
"I dont mind waiting. I dont like it, but you have to understand the global situation," said Hassan as he settled into line.
But after waiting more than eight hours for a two-minute interview with a consular officer, he said he had changed his mind.
"I thought the whole thing would take maximum three hours," he said. "But nine hours? Thats not only humiliating. It also doesnt make any sense." (AP)
Got a gripe, Saudis? Donahue is looking for victims of American oppression and intolerance. Better hurry, though, his ratings are going down faster than a K-Mart tire.
O.K. Weve got you that far, now all you need to do is not come here anymore.
Simply amazing what flying a few fully loaded passenger jets into our buildings, publicly raising money for suicide bombers, covertly (semi-covertly anyway) funding terrorists, and serving as ground zero for a religion thats foremost goal is total destruction of our way of life and subjugation of our people will do for relations.
Whod a thunk?
Owl_Eagle
Guns Before Butter.
This sounds good to me!
If I were Prez, it would be a still-smoking hole as a result of a work accident occurring precisely on September 12, 2001.
Shameless b@st@rds will pay, big time.
Let me reinforce it for you: We hate you, we regard you with suspicion, we dont want you!
Hey, welcome to security, federal-government-style.
If they could make it any more inconvenient, I'm sure they would. Trust me, its not much better for us.
"Saudis are being collectively punished for the actions of a few."
The US and Saudis have had an exceedingly close relationship for 50 years. The Saudi government has been almost an extension of ours, and vice-versa; I think a case could be made that our foreign policy was essentially managed from Ryadh over the last decade.
US companies, and citizens, have had first shot at projects and financial opportunities in the Kingdom, and Saudis were treated as quasi-US citizens here. The level of trust between the two governments was really astounding.
And for years the Kingdom subsidized off-books operations by the CIA, helped our balance of payments by buying every weapons system to come down the pike, only to bury it in the desert in case we might need it some day. They have tolerated our support of Israel as one tolerates a friend's bad habits, and we have relied on them for advice in all of our dealings in the Muslim world, from Chechnya to Bosnia to Kosovo, and on.
It bought us a hole in the ground in downtown NYC, and friends who could not commiserate without laying blame at our feet, and friends who would not give any public support as we went after the killers in Afghanistan. Friends who provided 15 of 19 hijackers, but admitted none of it publicly.
In past years we have always understood the Kingdom's need to keep its support for us, and its friendship with us, quiet and under the table. In the past we accepted it. But no more.
The Saudis are not being punished for the actions of a few. Our entire relationship with them is being weighed, and found wanting, because they could not stand up publicly when it counted, because no Saudi has been able to express genuine sympathy and support when we expected it.
And because their policies are in conflict with those countries who did stand up. Saudi support for Chechen killers and Indian Muslim extremists, and Indonesians who slaughter their Christian neighbors, Saudi support for Philipino killers who cut the heads off of missionaries, in the aftermath of the attacks on us is no longer something we can simply ignore.
The Saudis need to know that our view of them has undergone a real, and dramatic change, and barring a "road to Damascus" change of direction their world will soon be rotated on its axis.
Stop reading things into everything and just listen to the simple words coming out of our mouths... We hate you, we regard you with suspicion, we dont want you... We don't want you, your religion, your oil or your money. Any Wahhabe Muslim in this country is to be viewed as a member of a dangerous cult that is out to destroy our people, our religious freedom, our culture and all that we hold dear. Does that take the ambiguity out of it for you?
Now get the f*ck out of my country.
Good idea.
Mustard
Punished?? A Visa to the U.S. is a privilige, not a damn right, you sand-eating pig. Why don't all of you Saudis just keep pouring into Europe instead of coming here?
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