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EDITOR'S NOTE:
On
September 29, 2004 Representative Cunningham (R-CA)
addressed the subject of U.S.-Saudi relations in a special
order speech during which he laid the groundwork for what
he described as a "vision of peace in the Middle
East." [Those
remarks were provided in a SUSRIS Item of Interest on
October 1, 2004.]. The "vision of
peace" presentation followed his remarks about
US-Saudi relations in an August 4, 2004 hearing of the
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
During questioning of witnesses 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. [See Terror,
Students, Policy and Relationships: A Congressman Looks to
the Future," SUSRIS IOI of August 8, 2004.]
Last
week Representative Cunningham again turned to US-Saudi
relations in remarks made in a special order speech in
Congress. He expanded upon his earlier remarks and
added numerous items to the record that illuminate the
discussion bilateral issues: the joint war on terrorism,
travel restrictions, reforms and other components of the
relationship.
We
present Mr. Cunningham's October 4, 2004 special order
remarks in two parts [part 2 next week] and have posted
the items he added to the record on the SUSRIS web site.
To Cast Aside a Friend
Remarks by Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham
Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA):�Mr. Speaker, I am not going to talk about spending, deficits, taxes, Democrats, Republicans. I am going to do something a little different on the floor. I will talk about a vision for world peace. And, the title is "To Cast Aside a Friend," maybe a little different perspective on Saudi Arabia.
There was a speech in which the individual talked about a Saudi businessman who was talking about the murderous events on September 11. We know it as 9/11. The Saudi was worried about the derailment of the partnership and alliance that Saudi Arabia and the United States have enjoyed over the past 60 years for the betterment of a free world, both for Saudi Arabia and for the United States.
I recently visited Saudi Arabia for a couple of weeks, and I want to talk a little bit about what I found there, the support for the United States but yet some of the anger towards the United States, not hatred, but anger.
There has been a firestorm of criticism against Saudi Arabia in the months since 9/11, and the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States has been condemned and vilified. I believe Saudi Arabia remains a valuable ally to the United States. The detractors will say that Saudi Arabia is an incubator for terrorism simply because many were Saudis on that flight during 9/11, and they were citizens.
The individuals to whom I spoke in the cabinet and the Shura council, which is like the Congress of the United States, were in disbelief when they were told that Saudis were on that airplane. One of the reasons for disbelief was that some of the people who were reported on those airplanes were still walking around Saudi Arabia, so they said, "No, it cannot be. It is misinformation." And, when it was proven that it was, they were in disbelief.
If you have a gang of thugs in a city, it does not represent the mainstream of that city. And, I found through the citizens I was able to speak to -- businessmen, teachers, almost every cabinet member, the Shura council, women in universities and colleges in Saudi Arabia -- I found nothing but support for the United States, and a lot of people want to keep the relationship and better the relationship.
Osama bin Laden was targeting Saudi Arabia, not just the United States, and more specifically, he was targeting the relationship between the two countries by using Saudis as hijackers in 9/11. We know he could have used dozens of different nationalities on those airplanes, but Osama bin Laden wants to bring down the Saudi regime, which condemned and expelled him years before.
Second, the disparagers will say that Saudi Arabia is an incubator of terrorism because of school systems.
I will be including this because I do not have time tonight to read the whole thing, but it goes onto talk about the bank system, the lending system and how the Saudis have shut down terrorism.
I would like to first cover what I found about education. We had about 20,000 Saudi Arabian students in the United States before 9/11. One of the fathers sent his son back. He was a senior in college. And after 9/11, he went through the airplane, and INS saw that he was a Saudi student, held up his visa and made the statement, "Okay, smile for me like a terrorist."
This is the inhumane treatment that many of the students and the ill treatment that people from the Mideast are receiving when they come back into the United States. So, when I say anger by the Saudis, not hate, in some cases, I believe it is justified.
I have an individual in my district. He has been an American citizen for many, many years. His brother still lives in Saudi Arabia. His brother's son, named Bader, came through the airport as he had many, many times to come back to school within the United States. He ended up on some list. No one was able to find out what list or why that list existed.
Upon arrival, he was put in handcuffs and shackled, his legs shackled like a common criminal. He was held at the airport and shipped back to Riyadh. No explanation. When he got back to Riyadh, guess what? The United States found out that the allegations were not true.
Now, can you imagine how my constituent's brother treated him when he came back to Saudi Arabia? He still loves the United States. The son, Bader, loves the United States. But, would there be anger? If it was my son, you bet.
These are the kinds of things that Secretary Colin Powell is working on to find out, how do we allow the students to come back into the United States, $1.2 billion just from students coming in from Saudi Arabia? Seventy-five percent of the Saudi cabinet graduated from U.S. schools and colleges and universities. Most of them end up with PhDs. These are the leaders running the country in Saudi Arabia; and every one of them with whom I spoke supported the United States and wanted to regain that kind of relationship. It is best in their economic and their political lives to be friends with the United States.
One other area that I have heard criticism of Saudi Arabia is that they teach Wahhabism. Eighty-five percent of the curriculum in Saudi Arabia is okay by the United States; 15 percent was marginal; and five percent taught intolerance. Well, guess what? The Saudi government, under the Crown Prince fired over 3,000 of imams who were teaching intolerance. They have changed the curriculum to go along with a 100-percent "okay" by the United States. They either fired these imams, or they actually threw them in jail, and now, they actually have a school curriculum to purport no intolerance that will be taught within the Saudi schools.
The curriculum had not changed much in 40 years in Saudi Arabia, but they are doing that because they know that is also in their best interest. Now, also, 75 percent of the Shura council, which is like our Congress, their Shura council supported the United States.
It was an odd thing though, Mr. Speaker. Every person that had just visited the United States and the Cabinet or the Shura Council had not made those personal relationships, not made friendships, learned our economic system, learned why a free society is good. They rejected the United States and said, "I do not need the United States; I will send my son to Australia, or New Zealand or to England to learn."
My fear, Mr. Speaker, is that in a very short time, we have 75 percent of the Cabinet and the Council and the leadership in Saudi Arabia that is very strong supporters of the United States. If we lose that relationship because their sons and their daughters and this generation is going to other countries to study, we are going to lose that mass friendship toward the United States and the support that we have today, and that is scary.
The next generation will be lost. Many of the businesses that support the United States are now purporting to Russia, China, Vietnam, New Zealand and to Australia. We are losing $40 billion a year in just trade and business because of the way that we are treating Saudi Arabia.
One of the key issues I think in the relationship is visa delay. It is critical. Secretary Colin Powell, when I spoke to him, is working diligently to make sure that we improve the visa situation and at the same time to ensure national security and homeland security in visa issuance. That is a difficult task, but we have got to do it. These visa restrictions are alienating students and the Saudi people themselves.
In medical care and health care, most Saudis come to the United States for their health care. One of the groups was talking about health care a minute ago, but our hospitals and doctors lose over $1 billion a year from Saudis coming to our hospitals. When you take a look at the hotels, the restaurants, the transportation that they use, the firms that they contact for business, we are looking in excess of $15 billion a year that the United States loses in revenue. Four hundred in new business opportunities have been lost between 2003 and 2004.
Colin Powell once said that like our Statue of Liberty, our nation has a spine of steel, but our torch is a welcome torch, and that is all we are trying to do, Mr. Speaker, is to make sure that our longest-serving friend in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, remains our friend, and we castigate those that would say otherwise.
I would be a fool to say that Saudi Arabia does not have its own problems. Are there people that want to kill us in Saudi Arabia? Absolutely, but I want to tell my colleagues, there are other areas in what I looked at as well.
The leadership in Saudi Arabia escorted me to several banks where I witnessed American, Canadian and British auditors in every bank making sure that every single dollar that goes through there is legitimate and not going to service terrorism. They have taken their charities into one group, and anyone that invests in a charity cannot do it with cash. You cannot use an ATM card. You cannot use a credit card. The individual that puts the money into the charity has got to be identified and identify where the money is going to, penny for penny. We could not do that in this country, but yet Saudi Arabia is trying to cut off any fiscal resources that the terrorists could use, both through money laundering in their banks or through charities, and they have done a good job.
It is not just with the United States. They are working with Interpol. They are working with MI5. They are working with our intelligence services on a day-to-day basis on banking, on money laundering and on charities.
Mr. Speaker, I sit on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and I cannot get into a lot of it, but I want to tell my colleagues that the intelligence that we receive from Saudi Arabia rivals the information that we receive from our strongest allies, and I want to tell my colleagues also, Mr. Speaker, they are suffering miserably against al Qaeda. Just in the past weeks they have killed or captured 300 al Qaeda, at a loss of many of their police and their own military. Many have realized that if they pet the wolf, the wolf is going to bite them. They are in full array trying to share as much information as they can with us and our allies.
Crown Prince Abdallah Aziz and King Fahd are visionaries, Mr. Speaker. I would like to submit for the record copies of initiatives and actions taken by Saudi Arabia to combat terrorism. There are reams of pages of loss of life of Saudi police and military that talks about the captures in here. It documents it. It talks about their international cooperation, the regard to charitable organizations, combating money laundering, and legal and regulatory actions.
I would also like, Mr. Speaker, to submit for the record political and economic reforms in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and somewhere in here, I think most importantly are the public statements by senior Saudi officials condemning extremism and promoting modernization.
[Representative Cunningham submits documents for the
record.]
Documents Presented for the Record by Representative Cunningham
Part Two of Representative Cunningham's remarks will be distributed next week.
Also see:
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