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Saudi Arabia: Number 1 Terrorist State

Appeasement of Saudi Arabia even in the aftermath of September 11 is absurd and borders on treason. It does nothing to help the Muslem world (at least its leadership) come out of its state of deep denial for the responsibility for the worst terrorist outrage of all time. This denial is as irrational as the culture and religion that caused it. The real winner of Western appeasement has been Osama bin Laden and like-minded religious fanatics. Brezhinski's "excellent idea" (going back to President Carter) of using fundamentalist Islam to fight Soviet Communism has backfired by failing to grasp Islam's (Wahhabism) inherent link with violence and intolerance. The US helped create bin Laden then ignored the problem in order to appease Saudi Arabia.

Jonathan Pollard tried to warn both the US and Israel of what was going on and got "nailed to the cross" for treason. Turns out he wasn't the one selling out US Intelligence, the real culprits were a pair of WASP's nailed in the 1990's, not a Jew. But the fact he was a Jew was a ready excuse to silence a fair inquiry. Threatening Americans has become a worthy goal for Ashcroft and Bush.

Saudi Arabia is still the largest sponsor and supporter of Islamic terrorism in the world. Spreading the Wahhabi Cult across the Muslim world (including many Muslims in America) and teaching hate and intolerance, even of non-Wahhabi Muslims. The hate being taught in schools and mosques must be ended. The American "crack whore" addiction to cheap oil must end or we will continue to sell-out everything we stand for just to get the next fix. $3 a gallon for gas is cheaper then the next September 11.

Now Saudi Arabia itself may be the target of its own terrorists, as they seemed to have lost control. And the US seems to be planning to use terrorists against Iran. This is stupid because that will also go out of control.

Quoting Henry Kissinger, "The Saudis are pro-American, they have to operate in a difficult region, and ultimately we can manage them." Guess the homicide bombings in Saudi Arabia and the inside help the terrorists got from Saudi officials has proven his point wrong. Unless President Bush stops covering up for Saudi Arabia and using terrorists to bolster American policy, the War on Terrorism is a sick joke.


George W. Bush:
"There ought to be limits to freedom." May 21, 1999

A "culture of corruption in the Executive Branch renders it quite incapable of dealing with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the farsighted and disinterested manner that U.S. foreign policy requires." Daniel Pipes.

Also see Saudi Arabia, Bush, and a Troubling Influence

Foreign Fighters in Iraq Are Tied to Allies of U.S.

Extract New York Times November 22, 2007:

Saudi Arabia and Libya, both considered allies by the United States...were the source of about 60 percent of the foreign fighters who came to Iraq in the past year...The most significant discovery was a collection of biographical sketches that listed hometowns and other details for more than 700 fighters brought into Iraq since August 2006...(still) the insurgency in Iraq remains both overwhelmingly Iraqi and Sunni...Saudis accounted for the largest number of fighters...that despite increased efforts (they claim) by Saudi Arabia to clamp down on would-be terrorists since Sept. 11, 2001, when 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi, some Saudi fighters are still getting through...About four out of every five detainees in American detention centers are Sunni Arab, even though Sunni Arabs make up just one-fifth of Iraq’s population.

As the article goes on Libya was taken off the terrorism list last year, while Saudi Arabia, the biggest source of Sunni terrorism has never been on the list. To quote, "Also striking among the Sinjar materials were the smaller numbers from other countries that had been thought to be major suppliers of foreign fighters. As recently as the summer, American officials estimated that 20 percent came from Syria and Lebanon. But there were no Lebanese listed among the Sinjar trove, and only 56 Syrians, or 8 percent of the total...Among the Saudi fighters described in the materials, 45 had come from Riyadh, 38 from Mecca, 20 from Buraidah and the surrounding area, 15 from Jawf and Sakakah, 13 from Jidda, and 12 from Medina.

American officials publicly expressed anger over the summer at Saudi policies that were destabilizing Iraq. Sunni tribal sheiks in Iraq who risked their lives to fight extremist militants also faulted Saudi clerics. “The bad imams tell the young people to go to Iraq and fight the American Army, because if you kill them or they kill you, you will go to paradise,” Sheik Adnan Khames Jamiel, a leader of the Albu Alwan tribe in Ramadi, said in an interview.

More Saudis get into America

Office of the Press Secretary April 25, 2005

Joint Statement by President Bush and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, Crawford, Texas

"Both nations pledge to continue their cooperation so that the oil supply from Saudi Arabia will be available and secure. The United States appreciates Saudi Arabia's strong commitment to accelerating investment and expanding its production capacity to help provide stability and adequately supply the market...the United States and Saudi Arabia agree that our future relations must rest on a foundation of broad cooperation. We must work to expand dialogue, understanding, and interactions between our citizens. This will include programs designed to (1) increase the number of young Saudi students to travel and study in the United States; (2) increase our military exchange programs so that more Saudi officers visit the United States for military education and training; and (3) increase the number of Americans traveling to work and study in the Kingdom. The United States recognizes we must exert great efforts to overcome obstacles facing Saudi businessmen and students who wish to enter the United States and we pledge to our Saudi friends that we will take on this effort. A high-level joint committee has been established to be headed by the Saudi Foreign Minister and the U.S. Secretary of State that will deal with strategic issues of vital importance to the two countries."

K-STATE WELCOMES SAUDI STUDENTS TO CAMPUS

"and with the Saudi king now offering thousands of scholarships for his students to receive foreign bachelor degrees, the number of Saudi students at K-State and around the country is expected to increase..More than 80 percent of the Saudis who receive the scholarships wish to study in the United States," Holland said. The king of Saudi Arabia is using the country's oil profits to distribute 8,000 scholarships per year for five years for young Saudi students -- 3,000 of the scholarships were recently added especially for Saudi women."

President Bush and the new king of Saudi Arabia recently visited and agreed that Saudi students should and will be able to receive their student visas in a shorter amount of time than in previous years...President Bush wanted to speed up the process...It used to take six months for students to receive their visas; now it will only take two weeks. President Bush also wants people in the Middle East to see Americans as they really are, not as they are depicted in Arab media, so this helps counter anti-American propaganda."

"In exchange for the shorter student application visa process, the king of Saudi Arabia is using the country's oil profits to distribute the scholarships. Saudi students can apply to any university they choose. The Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C., also accepts applications and directs students to universities..."

And who puts out the anti-American propaganda? The state controlled medias of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Dubai, and the United Arab Emirates!

Source: Kenneth Holland, 785-532-3638, kholland@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Chloe Bos and Michelle Hall, 785-532-6415
February 28, 2005 (extracts)

More at the bottom of page.

From Lou Dobbs Tonight October 18, 2007:

DOBBS: Concerns tonight that Saudi-run schools in this country are teaching religious hatred. U.S. officials now say a Saudi school just outside our capital and funded by the Saudi royal family may be exporting messages of religious extremism. Brian Todd has more on that story from Alexandria, Virginia -- Brian.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Lou, a group from the U.S. government now wants the State Department to pressure the Saudi government to at least temporarily shut down this school right behind me. It's the Islamic Saudi Academy in Alexandria, Virginia. It is funded by the Saudi government. The U.S. panelists from the government want this because they say that an effort to get information about the textbooks in question, both here and in Saudi Arabia, that they were essentially stone- walled. They were not given any information that, in fact, hate-filled texts had been taken out of these textbooks, and they want to verify that. Now, what kind of texts are we talking about here?

Well, this U.S. government panel cited a report that mentioned a textbook used two years ago in Saudi schools. And here's a passage from that textbook: "The hour of judgment will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them." Now, in our discussions with Saudi officials today, they claim that all of those passages have been taken out of textbooks -- at least the ones used here in the United States. We came to this school earlier today and spoke to a school administrator. He said the same thing.

DAVID KOVALIK, ADMINISTRATOR, ISLAMIC SAUDI ACADEMY: There are no such passages that preach hatred or intolerance to any other faith or any other people. That's -- that's not what we're here for. We're here to teach a values-based education.

(End tape) But verifying that is actually fairly difficult. A student here gave us this textbook, which is a fifth grade book on Islam and the Koran. We went over it with a translator. We found no really inflammatory passages. But a known critic of the Saudi royal family gave us this book, which says is a ninth grade book here. And he translated a passage for us which does mention Muslims killing Jews. So, Lou, it is a very difficult process to actually verify that all the hate-filled text has been taken out of the books. The Saudis claim that it has been. You know, you'd have to go through just about every book in the school to know for sure.

DOBBS: Yes. And, in addition to the Saudi academy, as you know, Brian, there are great concerns that mosques across the country and the imams, nearly all -- nearly all of them reportedly trained in the Wahabi sect of Islamism. And that raises great concerns because of the violent nature of what is the Wahabi beliefs.

TODD: That's certainly true. And this school has been accused of that for some years now. We did a report three years ago on this very school using some of the same texts. At that time, they said they were working to take out some of this text. They say it takes a long time. Again, I guess, the jury is still out on that.

DOBBS: Yes. When it takes a long time to remove hate from one's teachings, there is a profound problem that we should be focusing on in this -- focusing upon in this nation. Thank you very much. Brian Todd.

This is an extract from FrontPageMagazine.com, September 12, 2005 interview with Sheikh Prof. Abdul Hadi Palazzi, Director of the Cultural Institute of the Italian Islamic Community and a vocal critic of militant Islam.

...after Saudi terrorists attacked the U.S. on 9/11 -- this would necessarily cause a radical revision in U.S.-Saudi relations. The first action a U.S. President had to do after such a criminal attack as 9/11 was to immediately outlaw Saudi-controlled institutions inside the U.S. and acknowledge that viewing Saudis as "friends" was a mortal sin representing sixty years of failed U.S. foreign and economic policy.

U.S. governmental agencies have plenty of evidence about the role of the House of Sa'ud in funding the worldwide terror network. U.S. citizens can even read in newspapers that some days before the 9/11 attack Muhammad Atta received a check from the wife of the former Saudi Ambassador to Washington, Prince Bandar, but unbelievably this caused no consequences. Let us consider plain facts: the wife of a foreign ambassador pays terrorists for attacks which murder thousands of U.S. citizens, and the U.S. government not only does not declare war on that foreign country, in this case Saudi Arabia, but does not even terminate diplomatic relations with that country.

On the contrary, then-Crown Prince Abdallah, the creator (together with the new Saudi ambassador to the United States, former Saudi ambassador to the United Kingdom, and Father of 9/11, Prince Turki al-Feisal) of al-Qa'ida, is immediately invited to Bush's ranch as a honored guest, and Bush tells him, "You are our ally in the War on Terror"!...As a matter of fact, the Saudis supported Bush's electoral campaign for his first term in office, and asked him in exchange to be the first U.S. President to promote the creation of a Palestinian State. Once he was elected, Bush refused to abide by the agreement, and the consequence was 9/11. "We paid for your election, and now you must do want we want from you", this was the message behind the 9/11 attack...

With Bush it's just greed and oil. With Liberals it's support anything anti-Western. But to continue to ignore the role of Saudi Wahhabi fundamentalism, is foolish. Quoting Ibn Warraq, the author of Why I Am Not A Muslim:

There are enormous differences between Islamic fundamentalism and any other kind of modern fundamentalism...Islamic fundamentalism has global aspirations: the submission of the entire world to the all-embracing Shari'a, Islamic Law, a fascist system of dictates designed to control every single act of all individuals....Islam justifies any means to achieve the end of establishing an Islamic world...Too many Muslims are taught from an early age that their first allegiance is to Islam...they must break the laws of the infidels, and only follow the Law of God, the Shari'a, Islamic Law.

Bush kicks off Muslim strategy for reelection

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM

Monday, July 28, 2003

President George Bush has launched an outreach effort to win Muslim support for his reelection campaign in 2004. One of the organizations the president is courting has opposed the listing of Hamas and other Islamic groups as terrorist organizations. The administration has been considering a proposal that would preserve Hamas as a political movement while eliminating its military wing, officials said.

On Thursday, the president met Yahya Mossa Basha, chairman of the American Muslim Council, during Bush's appearance in Michigan, Middle East Newsline reported. Basha delivered a letter to Bush on behalf of the American Muslim community.

The letter was reported to outline the positions of American Muslim leaders on the Arab-Israeli conflict and other Middle East issues. The AMC has opposed the listing by the State Department of such Islamic insurgency groups as Hamas, Hizbullah and Islamic Jihad as terrorist organizations.

"The majority in the American Muslim community voted for President Bush in the presidential election of 2000," the AMC said in a statement. "The community believes that the Muslim vote, and hard work and efforts of many Muslim activists in the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign played a decisive role in the victory for the president." The officials said the White House regards the Muslim vote as a key element in the campaign.

Among the U.S. agencies meeting with the Muslim community have been the State Department, Treasury Department and the FBI. Basha has met officials on such issues as U.S. policy in the Middle East and the freezing of assets of groups that support Hamas and others on the

Bush Hypocrisy and More

Bush tells Israel not to build a protective fence to protect civilians from the PLO homicide bombers, then Bush builds one in Iraq to protect our troops from homicide bombers. See Fences and Why Bush is a Hypocrite

The killing of Saddam's sons. On July 1, 2003, Pipes noted in "U.S. to Israel: Do As We Say ..." a repeated pattern of the U.S. government condemning Israel engaging in the very same actions it does itself. He had lots of good examples of this hypocrisy, but today's news of U.S. forces taking out `Udayy and Qusayy provides an even more compelling case. Can one not envision the sour American faces were Israel to kill its #2- and #3-ranking political leadership and in like fashion celebrate this achievement?

Pipes on the Saudi Cover up

A "culture of corruption in the Executive Branch renders it quite incapable of dealing with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the farsighted and disinterested manner that U.S. foreign policy requires." Daniel Pipes.

The Saudi Scandal Continues. In "The Scandal of U.S.-Saudi Relations " Pipes wrote about a "culture of corruption in the Executive Branch renders it quite incapable of dealing with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the farsighted and disinterested manner that U.S. foreign policy requires."

This point comes to mind with the news that the 28-page chapter on the role of Saudi Arabia and other foreign governments in the Congressional report released yesterday criticizing the work of the FBI and CIA leading up to 9/11 was virtually edited out at the insistence of the Executive Branch. "I just don't understand the administration here," responded Senator Charles E. Schumer (Democrat of New York). "There seems to be a systematic strategy of coddling and cover-up when it comes to the Saudis. (July 25, 2003)

Pipes does not play political correctness and is a nightmare to Saudi front organization such as CAIR and their pals Ted Kennedy and fellow liberals. Over their objections Bush Nominates Daniel Pipes to Board of US Institute of Peace. He got in anyway. Another problem in America is the fact Mideast Studies at most universities in America are dominated by Islamist terror supporters or radical Leftists hostile to American interests. Pipes give them hell with his Campus Watch organization. Thank you Mr. Pipes.

FACT: There is evidence that the Saudi Arabian government has provided millions of dollars to Al Qaeda. This evidence were laid out in the Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities before and after the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001.

"The 27 classified pages of a congressional report about Sept. 11 depict a Saudi government that not only provided significant money and aid to the suicide hijackers but also allowed potentially hundreds of millions of dollars to flow to Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups through suspect charities and other fronts, according to sources familiar with the document."
[Source: Los Angeles Times, 8/3/03]

"Senior officials of Saudi Arabia have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to charitable groups and other organizations that may have helped finance the September 2001 attacks, a still-classified section of a Congressional report on the hijackings says, according to people who have read it. The 28-page section of the report was deleted from the nearly 900-page declassified version released on Thursday by a joint committee of the House and Senate intelligence committees. The chapter focuses on the role foreign governments played in the hijackings, but centers almost entirely on Saudi Arabia, the people who saw the section said.
[Source: New York Times, 7/26/03]

FACT: Saudi Arabia has not fully cooperated with the FBI and CIA.

"In the two years since 9-11, the Saudis have been an obstacle, not an ally, in the battle against Islamic terrorism…. they've shown little inclination to stanch the flow of money from so-called charity organizations to al-Qaeda and other militant groups, and they've kept cooperation with the FBI and the CIA to a minimum."
[Source: American Prospect, October 2003]

FACT: Greater Saudi cooperation could have helped prevent 9/11.

"A high-level U.S. government officer cited greater Saudi cooperation when asked how the Sept. 11 attacks might have been prevented," according to the report."
[Source: Chicago Tribune, 7/30/03]

FACT: Republican Sen. Arlen Specter says that Saudi Arabia has been funneling money to terrorists - and doesn't understand why nothing's being done to fix that.

""When the question is raised about why we haven't clamped down on the Saudis for their support of terrorism, it's very hard to answer … it may be that we are concerned that the Saudi government could be unstable and could be overthrown like Iran was if the leadership in Saudi Arabia is questioned. I don't know of any good reason why we tolerate it, when we lose thousands of Americans on 9/11 and 14 [sic] of the 19 terrorists were Saudis, and when you have them spending $4 billion a year allegedly to charities with a lot of the money being funneled to terrorists … I think its high time we crack down, with economic sanctions or criminal sanctions where they aid and abet terrorists who murder American citizens."
[Source: Specter conference call with reporters on 8/1/03]

FACT: Sen. Specter also believes that the 28 censored pages should be released.

"Q: Without giving away national security secrets, can you say what you think were on the blank 24 [sic] pages?
"A: I believe that the information related to Saudi Arabia and their funding of terrorism, and this is something which I've been concerned about for a long time since I chaired the intelligence committee in the 104th Congress when we had Khobar Towers. I went to Saudi Arabia and investigated the scene and I talked to the Crown Prince and wanted to know why we weren't permitted to question the people who were held in confinement and didn't get an answer. The leader of the Saudi government was very evasive, I said so at the time and I've repeated it. … I think that we ought to protect sources and methods and not compromise pending investigations, but to the extent that information can be released identifying Saudi Arabia, we ought to do it."
[Source: Specter conference call with reporters on 8/1/03]

FACT: 9/11 Commission Chairman Tom Kean says the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia "has got to change."

"And our relationship with Saudi Arabia has got to change. Our relationship in the past with Saudi Arabia, to be very blunt, as I understand it, has been oil. That's been our relationship with Saudi Arabia. We're allies of the royal family. They ensure us enough oil. And that's sort of been the relationship.

"That can't be the relationship anymore. We've got to continue to work with the royal family, no question about it, but we've got to work with the royal family to bring some changes in that country. And it seems that they are now recognizing that their way of life for the royal families and the leaders of Saudi Arabia is under attack. And these Islamic militants would like to overthrow them just as much as they'd like to injure us at the moment.

"So they are, of necessity, our allies. And they also realize the need for change within their own borders. We've got to work with them on that. We've got to help them on that. And we've got to work with them instituting the changes that are possible and then try to push and shove a little bit and get a few more changes to the system, because if Saudi Arabia -- I mean, we identified those three countries -- Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Afghanistan -- because if any one of them went the wrong direction, we would have a world of trouble on the international stage and in the terrorist problem. So, yes, the relationship with Saudi Arabia has to change, must change."
[Source: Hearing of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, "Towards a Paradigm for Homeland Security Information Sharing," 8/17/04]

FACT: According to experts, Saudi Arabia has been a reluctant ally in the war on terror.

"U.S. business and political leaders are so wedded to preserving the gilded American-Saudi marriage that officials in Washington D.C. continue to give the oil-rich Gulf monarchy a wide berth, despite mounting evidence of support in Saudi Arabia for Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, some experts say. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, Saudi Arabia has been a reluctant ally, refusing to let the U.S. use Saudi bases as staging areas for military operations in Afghanistan. The Saudis have also balked at freezing the assets of organizations linked to bin Laden and international terrorism, some of which are Saudi-run."
[Source: Boston Herald, 12/10/01]

FACT: Republican Sen. Richard Shelby said there should be more investigation into Saudi financing of the 9/11 attacks.

"Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the committee's senior Republican, said he believed "there is a lot to the story - a lot more than a mere denial." Shelby, in an interview, said U.S. authorities should pursue whether the royal family financed terrorists "either directly or indirectly.""
[Source: AP, 12/4/02]


George and Laura Bush with Sami Amin Al-Arian, who is
charged with 50 counts of terrorism. Al-Arian even
went to a White House briefing with Karl Rove.

Al-Arian Admits His Role In Jihad

April 18, 2006 The Tampa Tribune (extract)

TAMPA - When Sami Al-Arian denied raising funds for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, he now says he was lying.

The former University of South Florida professor has portrayed himself as a martyr to free speech, a victim of anti-Muslim sentiment and the nation's war on terrorism. He maintained he supported only peaceful solutions to the problems in the Middle East. But in court papers unsealed Monday, Al-Arian admitted he raised money for the Islamic Jihad and conspired to hide the identities of other members of the terrorist organization, including his brother-in-law, Mazen Al-Najjar. He also admitted knowing "that the PIJ achieved its objectives by, among other means, acts of violence."

Al-Arian will be deported after serving a prison sentence that amounts to a little more than time served. (He is a Kuwait Arab, but claims to be a Palestinian Arab. This is typical of the so-called Palestinians.) This was part of a plea agreement. A jury in December acquitted Al-Arian of eight charges and deadlocked on nine others, including the charge to which he has admitted guilt. "I don't think it's a win," agreed attorney Stephen Bernstein, who represents Sameeh Hammoudeh, Al-Arian's co-defendant who was acquitted on all charges but remains behind bars in an immigration holding facility while he awaits deportation.

"This conviction is the result of years of exhaustive investigative and prosecutorial work, during which the government utilized the many tools we have available to us in the ongoing war against terrorism," said U.S. Attorney Paul I. Perez in a prepared statement. "Al-Arian has now confessed to helping terrorists do their work from his base here in the United States - a base he is no longer able to maintain."

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Insourcing of Foreign Students & Engineers Top U.S. Priority

Diane M. Grassi March 15, 2006

Effective on July 1, 2006, it will be more difficult for U.S. students to both become eligible for and borrow federally subsidized student loans, due to legislation signed by President Bush in February 2006. Known as the Budget-Deficit Reduction Bill, it wipes out $12 billion from the federal student loan program. The interest rates will climb to a fixed rate of 6.8 % for a student applying for a federal loan, referred to as the Stafford Loan program, with a capped rate of 8.5% for parents applying on behalf of their child, known as PLUS loans, also subject to additional variable rates. Many parents are considering home equity loans as an alternative, which provide far lower borrowing interest rates.

But with college tuition rates rising each year sometimes more than double the rate of inflation, it is becoming more and more impossible for the middle class to afford a college education. With the federal loan limit for years now remaining at $20,000.00 per school year, it requires many to apply for private bank loans in addition to the federal loan. Many students take as many as seven years to complete an undergraduate degree as they must work full-time at low-paying jobs, in order to afford tuition and living expenses, thus delaying their ascendance into the permanent work force.

According to the Department of Education, as many as 400,000 U.S. students each year forego a higher education entirely, dissuaded by tuition costs and fear of the inability to repay college loans. In the last several years, due to declining interest rates, students were able to consolidate their student loans in order to lower the rates on previous accruing loans. With the new legislation, the fixed rate will preclude them from doing so in the future, regardless of a decline again in interest rates.

The higher education dilemma in the U.S. is rather complex and multi-faceted, however, and universities have already begun to look to other resources in order to fill their coffers by going abroad. That brings us to the present immigration bill making its way through the U.S. Senate which is a far more liberal version than the U.S. House of Representatives’ bill which passed at the end of 2005. Buried in the text of the Senate bill is a restructuring of the student visa process, which was largely slowed down after September 11, 2001 and eventually put under the auspices of the Department of Homeland Security by 2003.

In April 2005, President Bush met with King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia at his Crawford, TX ranch. At such time, they made an agreement to encourage more Saudi students to receive their undergraduate educations in the U.S. Presently, there are approximately 5,000 Saudi Arabian students studying in U.S. colleges and universities and 15,000 applications in the pipeline, although confirming the exact figures is one momentous task, if not impossible to find.

The deal which King Abdullah proposed to President Bush was to allow 5,000 students per year the opportunity to study in the U.S., with all tuition costs footed by the Saudi Arabian government. The scholarship program, which was not publicly announced by either the White house or the Saudi Embassy, was an attempt for the Saudi government to fast-track the student visa program to which the administration has now agreed.

Of importance, and publicly disclosed and lauded by Maura Harty, the State Department’s Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs, when attending the U.S. University Presidents Summit on International Education, - a two-day forum to promote international education and hosted by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in January 2006 - is that the system to expedite the student visa application process has been a top priority since 9/11. She remarked that 500 new consular positions have been added since 9/11; negotiations extended reciprocity agreements reducing the number of times a student must renew or reapply for a visa; directing all U.S. embassies and consulates to put student and exchange visitors at the head of the line when scheduling visa interviews.

Also of note, is that during the 2004-2005 school year, there were 565,039 foreign students enrolled in institutions of higher learning in the U.S., meaning, there now are that many fewer slots for American students when applying to college. But Harty adds, “We do not want to lose a single foreign student and we don’t want them to miss the beginning of school, so the State Department has made processing of student and exchange visitor visas a priority at every post.”

And alarmingly so in a post-9/11 world, Harty states that “Some 97.5% visa applications are processed within two days, and that the screening process for the 2.5% visa applicants subject to special screening requirements for security reasons has been streamlined, typically taking one week to two weeks.” If true, Americans can only dream that other government services flowed so quickly and efficiently for them. In contrast, U.S. students applying for federal loans must wait months to find out the status of their applications and whether or not they will be able to afford the school year’s tuition.

But at the heart of the proposed expansion of the student visa program is another issue embedded in the Senate’s immigration bill which would raise considerably the amount of H1-B visas allowed, which are allotted to foreign workers to work in U.S. industry on a supposed temporary basis. Beginning in Fiscal Year 2006, the amount of such visas were limited to 65,000 but an additional 20,000 were eventually added, at the 11th hour, for foreigners who graduated from U.S. graduate and Ph.D. programs. In the new bill, measures call for doubling the number of skilled worker temporary visas to 115,000 per year with an option of raising the cap 20% more each subsequent year.

And in a new visa category known as the F-4 visa, students pursuing advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics would be granted permanent U.S. residence if they find a job in their field. They would only be required to pay a fee of $1,000.00. The rallying cries from such notables as Microsoft Chairman, Bill Gates, and Sun Microsystems CEO, Scott McNealy, have made it clear that they desperately need the government to increase the number of H1-B visas. But telling, as Microsoft’s Manager for Federal Affairs, Marland Buckner, states, “It’s in the best interests of Microsoft and we believe in the best interest of national competitiveness from an innovation standpoint, to bring as many smart people to the U.S. as possible.” Bill Gates wants no restrictions at all on H1-B visas.

But according to Ron Hira, Vice President of IEEE-USA, an organization representing 225,000 electrical and computer engineers, says, “Many U.S. companies don’t even bother to recruit Americans because they can find foreigners willing to work longer hours for less pay.” But with business and science leaders focusing almost exclusively on loosening laws in order to acquire foreign talent, they are seemingly turning their backs on educating Americans first, necessary to maintain a thriving, innovative economy for Americans.

Much like all other sectors of our government as well as commercial industry, both lawmakers and CEO’s myopically concentrate on the bottom line, while the U.S. educational system is being systematically abandoned and essentially dismantled. By not providing future livelihoods for future generations of Americans all in the name of globalism, the U.S. may find itself incurably behind, not only in terms of innovation but in terms of a basic standard of living. How can we expect our students to compete with such an agenda if they are no longer the top priority?

Diane M. Grassi is a freelance columnist, reporting and writing commentary on current events of the day with honest and often politically incorrect assessments. From U.S. public policy to Major League Baseball, she is an eclectic thinker, demanding readers to also observe their thinking patterns from a different perspective. Whether you agree with her or not, Diane M. Grassi will have you coming back to note her opinions, and if at best she wakes you up, then her goal will have been accomplished.

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Copyright 2006

Click here to view a video clip of a women suicide bomber.

And it isn't just Muslim women:

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