Why is America about to train yet another cadre of Saudi airmen!?

http://www.jewishworldreview.com | Though less than a year has passed since 15 Saudi nationals joined four other hijackers in wreaking havoc on Sept. 11, America is now set to train yet another cadre of Saudi airmen.

In a report Monday in the English-language daily Arab News, Saudi Arabian Airlines Vice President for Technical Affairs Ahmad Jazzar announced with evident pride that some 202 of his employees were being sent to the United States for what he described as ''advanced training in aircraft maintenance.''

The employees, said Jazzar, would study at various unnamed ''aviation institutes in the U.S.'' and would then receive ''international licenses for aircraft maintenance.'' (The text of the article appears at: www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=17697).

Call it an overdeveloped sense of deja vu, but doesn't this strike anyone out there as oddly misguided?

Although Saudi Airlines itself had nothing to do with the horrific attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, it does seem more than a tad bit strange to agree to hold such a training program. After all, the last time a group of the kingdom's nationals studied at American flight schools, President Bush had to be whisked away to a secret location to ensure his safety.

With all of the recent complications in the two countries' relations, including the debate over whether to label the Saudis an ''enemy,'' this hardly seems like the most appropriate time for Washington to be lending a helping hand to the Saudi airline industry.

But there is another little twist to this story--one that only further underlines its utter absurdity.

Ironically enough, on the same day that the news item appeared about Saudi Airlines employees studying in the United States, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal made an announcement of his own. He declared that the desert kingdom would refuse any request from Washington to extradite 16 al-Qaida members recently handed over to Riyadh by Iran.

Speaking to the Arabic daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, al-Faisal said, ''If the involvement of any of the 16 suspects in terrorist acts is proven, they would be tried in accordance with Saudi laws.'' Tried, but not handed over to the United States, he emphasized.

And so it appears that the Saudis are eminently selective as to who they are willing to send to American soil and who they are not. They will gladly take advantage of American generosity to enhance their technical know-how and send 200 Saudis to study at American aviation institutes. But when it comes to turning over suspected followers of Osama bin Laden, the Saudis are suddenly no longer willing to cooperate.

Don't expect the Saudis' apologists at the U.S. State Department to raise a ruckus over this one, though. Since all of the 16 al-Qaida members just happen to be Saudi citizens, we will no doubt be told that we must take into account Saudi ''sensitivities'' about extraditing their nationals to the West.

The argument may be stale and facile, but it has worked well enough for Riyadh over the past decade, so there is little reason to suspect that it won't work just as well now. So much for Saudi cooperation in the war on terror.

"After all, the last time a group of the kingdom's nationals studied at American flight schools, President Bush had to be whisked away to a secret location to ensure
his safety."

Is this true? I was under the impression that Saudi nationals have been here in the U.S. on a continuous basis for years getting piloting and maintenance training. Perhaps what might distinguish the Al-Queda terrorists would be that they weren't already employed in the airline industry when they took training (and the rather odd circumstance of their training as well, given they had no interest in takeoffs and landings). Perhaps someone might know the facts in this case?

I favor "No terrorists, no training", by the way. Sounds like a good idea.

The Saudis are as dangerous to our wellfare as Iraq-- following our victory over Saddam we will be forced to focus on Saudi Arabia as the primary source of funding Arab-backed terror. Any association w/ the Saudis is dubious, particularly one which invites their nationals into our country for training.

...following our victory over Saddam we will be forced to focus on Saudi Arabia....

Why wait? We should get Saudi Arabia first.

I can't go into specifics but let's just say there's more to this than meets the eye. We get paid tons of money to do this training. If we don't there are plenty of European companies who will gladly take it (they beg for it, but Saudis want the best, American training). There are several reasons I can go into depth about this, but this program is a winner for Uncle Sam ( for the time being ). We've been training Arabs since the 1970's. No problems as yet.

I've met and talked to Saudi's, and I'll tell ya, now is the time to attack them and take over their oil fields.

But that's not even the point: It's either them or us.

You are with the terrorists, or you are with us. Period.

Why should we give them money to promote terrorism?

If they can't take a joke well then......

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