To
Cast Aside a Friend
Remarks by
Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham |
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 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.
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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.
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I
found nothing
but support for
the United States,
and a lot of people
want to keep the
relationship and
better the
relationship.
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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.
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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.
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..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
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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.]
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Documents
Submitted for the Record by Representative
Cunningham
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Part Two of
Representative Cunningham's remarks will be distributed
next week.
Also
see:
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