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EDITOR'S NOTE:
The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence conducted a hearing to discuss the 9/11 commission recommendations on August 4, 2004. Representative Randy �Duke� Cunningham (R-CA) contributed remarks concerning the US-Saudi relationship in the context of the war on terror during questioning of hearing witness Ambassador J. Cofer Black, State Department Counterterrorism Coordinator. Mr. Cunningham spoke of his visit to Saudi Arabia, the close cooperation in the war on terror and on the prospects for maintaining close ties with particular emphasis on the dwindling number of Saudi students seeking American education. The response of Ambassador Black to Mr. Cunningham's remarks are included in this excerpt.�
Terror, Students, Policy and Relationships: A Congressman Looks to the Future
Panel III of a Hearing of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence - Aug. 4, 2004
Excerpts:
Representative Randy Cunningham (R-CA): .. The Saudis had 85 -- first of all, they hadn't changed their education system in four years. I mean it was the same -- 85 percent of their program of their curriculum was okay by our standards; 15 percent was in a gray area; but five percent was like Wahhabism and the bad part. They've changed all that. It's now 99.9 percent agreeable with the United States. �
I went to their banks, and I saw British and American auditors going through and making sure dollars didn't go to the right place. Seventy-five percent of their Shura council, which is their Congress, and their cabinet had graduated from United States schools. And, every one that I -- I talked to every single cabinet member over there -- it was an exhausting trip. But, every one that had spent time in the United States and had developed those friendships wanted strongly to maintain their friendly relationship with the United States. Those that hadn't said, "We don't need the United States -- we'll go to Australia, Great Britain, New Zealand for English" -- and that's where they're sending their children.
My concern is when you're talking about five years from now what's our policy and so on, five years from now we are going to lose, I feel, those folks who are pro-U.S. in Saudi Arabia if we don't make some policy changes. I see one of the folks that I talked to about -- there was a gentleman named Bader (ph) -- I've got a constituent in my district, Saudi Arabian descent -- his brother is still in Saudi Arabia. And, his son came over here after four years of schooling, named Bader (ph), and was arrested, put in chains and sent back to Riyadh. Well, my constituent's brother, you can imagine what he told him on the civil liberties broken by his son wanting to go to school. I've spoken to Colin Powell -- he agrees that there's a finer line between safety and allowing student visas to come in. But, have you thought about those kinds of relationships?
I feel that Saudi Arabia is the leader in the Arab world, especially with Medina and Mecca. I feel that Osama probably put 15 Saudis in there, flew them into the [World Trade] Center, partially to divide one of our better allies that we have in the Middle East from us.. ..I realize they do have problems there. But I also -- and I can't address it here, but I can in closed session -- note to the extent that the Saudi intelligence agencies are working with us daily in helping -- more so than most agencies. And so, I see them as an emerging support for us, but I'm afraid that's going to erode. And collectively, I know it's INS, it's FBI, it's CIA -- your problem is going to be magnified five years from now unless we get our arms around this. Are you all looking in that direction for the future?
State Department Counterterrorism Coordinator J. Cofer Black: .. you've really given an excellent summation of where we are with Saudi Arabia. It wasn't that long ago, congressman, I'd be in hearings, I'd be challenged regularly -- are the Saudis really playing a positive role in the global war on terrorism? In fact, they absolutely are. The young men, the young policemen and soldiers being killed in Saudi Arabia -- they really are stepping up their forces, growing in effectiveness. We're helping them with that. They're looking at their own societies. They're cutting flows of cash to terrorists. They're looking at educational materials for their young people and framing it. Mullahs that previously used to preach hatred of the United States or anti-Semitism were being identified and weeded out as appropriate.�
The Secretary of State and of Homeland Security is looking at this as a real priority area. The Saudi Arabian peninsula is crucial to the global war on terrorism, essentially the war is underway there as we speak. We need to be able to have the type of relationship with the people of Saudi Arabia that we've enjoyed for our lifetimes, and I can just tell you that whereas we want to have a secure country, we have to let people in and educate them. And the Secretary of State, and the great phrase that he uses --
Representative Randy Cunningham (R-CA): .. We had 25,000 Saudi students; we now have 2,000. We're going to lose that relationship unless you, as a collective group, get together with Colin Powell and try to come for the president for some kind of policy that protects -- saves this.
State Department Counterterrorism Coordinator J. Cofer Black:
Congressman, we are looking at that very closely, and we, too, are very disturbed about it, and we want to change those numbers around.
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