security risk?

Saudi Students in U.S. Could Pose Security Risk

By Erick Stakelbeck
Washington Terror Analyst

CBN.com – WASHINGTON - Following the 9/11 attacks, the number of Saudi students at American universities declined sharply. But that is about to change, and some are wondering if it is a good for America’s security.

After their meeting last April in Crawford, President Bush and Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah released a joint statement vowing "to increase the number of young Saudi students that travel and study in the United States." Now the Saudi kingdom is sponsoring a new program -- one that provides scholarships to thousands of Saudi students to study abroad.

For many in the program, their colleges of choice are located in the United States. There are currently over 2,500 Saudi students on America's college campuses. With the new Saudi scholarship program, that number is expected to increase substantially in the next few years. Some wonder if this influx of Saudi students could pose a security risk.

Counterterrorism consultant Daveed Gartenstein-Ross stated, “Fifteen of the 19 9/11 hijackers--as is very well known--came from Saudi Arabia. And one of them, Hani Hanjour, was on a student visa. The bottom line is that terrorists are not stupid -- they are quite intelligent. And if you give them an opening that is very easy for them to use, then they are likely to see how they can take advantage of that.”

Michael Greenberger is a former Department of Justice official who currently heads the University of Maryland’s Center for Health and Homeland Security. He wonders just how closely the incoming Saudi students will be scrutinized.

“I'm not sure whether the traditional vetting that we give to Saudis when they come to the country is adequate. But I will tell you this:I have very serious doubts that the visa requirements that apply to Saudis--whatever the strength is--are being followed carefully,” Greenberger said.

A State Department spokesperson told CBN News that the visa process for Saudi nationals is the same as for other international students.

“We'll do everything with them that we'd do with any foreign visitor--in accordance with the law,” the spokesperson stated. “There are name checks, biometric fingerprinting, and an interview. Some may go through further background checks. There's also a special process for people who come from countries that are state sponsors of terrorism.”

But while it has long been accused of funding and supporting terrorism worldwide, Saudi Arabia is not on that list of state sponsors of terror. Even so, it is suspected that the House of Saud continues to fund Palestinian terrorist groups such as Hamas. In addition, some Iraqi government officials insist that the majority of suicide bombers in Iraq are Saudi nationals.

Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C., remarked, “The Saudis have used much of the oil revenues they've garnered over decades to promote the Islamo-fascist ideology we're confronting not just here in this country, but in France, Indonesia, Jordan, and Australia -- literally around the world. And we cannot continue to give them a pass for engaging in what is at best a double game, and at worst, a really duplicitous agenda aimed at our destruction.”

In addition to being the head of the Center for Security Policy, Gaffney also served as an Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan administration. Gaffney says the fact that students taking part in the new Saudi scholarship program were handpicked by the Saudi government is cause for concern.

“To be indifferent to the possibility that these Saudi students have been selected by that same government,” said Gaffney, “for purposes that are inimical to our security is reckless. And possibly downright dangerous.”

But Murhaf Jouejati says that such fears are unwarranted. Jouejati is the director of Middle East studies at George Washington University. He maintains that the 9/11 hijackers are not indicative of the Saudi population, and that students coming to the U.S. from the royal kingdom are the cream of the Saudi crop.

“They are most likely--or many of them are likely--to be future leaders in their country. And we want them to take back to their homes American values, American norms, and to contribute to the future modernization, and hopefully democratization of Saudi Arabia,” declared Jouejati.

Sultan Al-Sultan, an Iraqi native who is studying at George Washington on a student visa, agrees. He believes that the scholarship program will help break down barriers -- and bolster U.S.-Saudi relations.

Al-Sultan stated, “This is what it is all about--an exchange of culture. I give you a little bit of me, and then you give me a little bit of you. And we get to understand each other better.”

But while the United States is tolerant of all religions and viewpoints, Saudi students come from a society that is anything but. Thanks to the royal kingdom's official state religion—an ultra-radical strain of Islam called Wahabism--Saudis are taught from an early age to hate Christians and Jews, and to never take them for friends.

According to a recent State Department report, freedom of religion "does not exist" in Saudi Arabia.

Churches and synagogues are banned in the royal kingdom, so are Bibles and Torahs, and the display of crosses is strictly forbidden. Earlier this month, a Saudi secondary school teacher was sentenced to 40 months in jail and 750 lashes. His crime? Discussing the Bible and praising Jews.

The story is quite different, however, for Saudis in America. Gaffney says that Saudi Arabia’s spread of Wahabism here has been anything but stifled.

Gaffney explained, “Including proselytizing on our campuses. Including taking over mosques--some 80 percent of them today have their financing underwritten by the Saudis. Including putting recruiters in our prison system and in our military in the guise of chaplains. These are very dangerous--I think--even ticking time bombs.”

As for the new Saudi scholarship program, the Saudi embassy says it wants the recipients to build "people-to-people contact" with citizens of other countries. Whether they will be allowed to practice some of their newfound freedoms once they return to Saudi Arabia is another question entirely.

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