In droves!
Senate Judiciary Committee to Hold Hearing, "Saudi Arabia: Friend or Foe in the War on Terror?" on November 8
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Arlen Specter, has officially rescheduled its hearing titled, "Saudi Arabia: Friend or Foe in the War on Terror?" for Tuesday, November 8, to examine the role of Saudis in disseminating hateful anti-American and anti-Israeli propaganda thoughout Islamic schools and mosques in the U.S.. The hearing was originally scheduled to be held on October 25, but it was postponed. I won't post the witness list until the witnesses are officially announced by the Committee. In my post of October 14, I discussed the witnesses scheduled for that hearing and linked to their bios. The propaganda issue has been addressed on this blog often, with a summary post on March 11 linking to the Freedom House report on Saudi-sponsored propaganda and a bipartisan letter to Secretary Rice on Saudi violations of religious freedom and the export of extremist teachings. I'll have more to say about the hearing as it approaches.
Posted by Andrew Cochran at 08:59 AM | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
http://counterterror.typepad.com/the_counterterrorism_blog/2005/11/senate_judiciar.html
Evaluation of Foreign Student Program
SNIP:The following evaluation of the foreign student program concludes that:
• The INS has little control over the number and type of students being admitted;
• The program is littered with corruption and fraud;
• American taxpayers subsidize a sizable part of the tuition of foreign students;
• The benefits from the program are greatly exaggerated, and the program may well generate a net economic loss for the country;
• The program is best viewed as yet another redistribution program, shifting wealth away from native workers and taxpayers and redistributing it to universities and
foreigners. Many foreign leaders, ranging from Pakistan’s former President Benazir Bhutto to Mexico’s Carlos Salinas de Gortari, from Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Barak to Philippines’ Corazon Aquino, obtained part of their education in the United States. One can easily argue that such training may be one of America’s highest valued exports. By giving future foreign leaders first-hand exposure to American democratic values and showing them how the system works, we are presumably building a safer and more prosperous world.
Another foreign student, Hani Hasan Hanjour, a 26-year-old Saudi national, got a student visa to study English at ELS Language Centers in Oakland, California, a Berlitz-owned school that leases space at a local college. Hanjour did not attend a single English class. Instead, he became one of the terrorists in the plane that crashed into the Pentagon on September 11. And two other terrorists — including Mohammed Atta, the presumed ringleader — were waiting for the official approval of their student visas to attend flight school, an approval that the Immigration and Naturalization Service dutifully mailed out six months after the attacks. Understandably, many Americans demanded to know just how many foreign students were present in the country, and how many of those students originated in the countries identified as "terrorist sponsors" by the State Department.
The INS, however, had not learned the lesson from the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979, when President Carter considered the possibility of retaliating by expelling all the Iranian students then enrolled in American colleges and universities. He too wished to know how many such students would be affected. The INS could not provide that number during the entire 444 days of the crisis. And the INS still has no way of determining how many foreign students are present in the United States.
I would like to send a warm hello to all the great people out here. You guys are doing a great job. I have missed you a great deal. I have had a very rough year. I've suffered a great deal of loss this year. I know believe the old saying: "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger". I'm just happy to be back out here with you guys. G-d bless. Stay safe and vigilant.