Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Enough Saudi nonsense

Thursday, June 19, 2003 | 8:18 a.m.

A YEAR HAS PASSED since Patricia M. Roush testified before the House Committee on Government Reform and told of her long, and unsuccessful, struggle to get her two daughters out of Saudi Arabia. Her testimony included the following statement:

"My daughters have become victims of the endless gamesmanship between U.S. diplomats and the Saudi family princes. Ties between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia are long and deep rooted, cemented by long-standing military and economic interests. The U.S. is the leading supplier of defense equipment and services to the kingdom. Billions of dollars of U.S. merchandise are exported to Saudi Arabia each year. And in turn Saudi exports to the U.S. last year totaled more than fourteen billion dollars. Vast amounts of seemingly unlimited money and deals have made the U.S./Saudi special relationship, an unflappable phenomenon. An unsinkable ship that everyone from entrepreneurs to U.S. Presidents has wanted to jump on. Despite the facts of September 11, 2001, the U.S. government still soft pedals the Saudi regime, makes excuses for them and does business as usual."

Roush's testimony was shocking and it infuriated some members of Congress. At the time of the hearings there were 46 child-custody disputes with Saudis that affected 92 children. Reuters reported that, "Under Saudi divorce law, which reflects Islamic sharia law, fathers have automatic custody of their children when they reach a certain age, regardless of the wishes of the mother.

"Female children, even when they grow up, cannot leave the country without the permission of their nearest male relative."

After the hearings in Congress, Rep. Edward Shrock, R-Va., told the press, "The Crown prince of Saudi Arabia doesn't mind coming and sitting in the Oval Office telling our president what he wants him to do. I think it's maybe time for the man in the Oval Office to call him and say: We want our kids back, and we want them back right now." What has been done about this outrageous love affair between our State Department and the Saudis? Evidently, according to the Wall Street Journal, nothing of substance. Today American Sarah Saga, age 23, and her two children are hiding in the U.S. Consulate in Jeddah. On Wednesday the WSJ commented in an editorial:

"The good news is that Ms. Saga and her kids haven't been escorted out by U.S. Marines, as happened to Monica Stowers 13 years ago at our embassy in Riyadh. In response to Congressional hearings and reports in these columns exposing such abuses, U.S. Ambassador Robert Jordan vowed that no American would be expelled from the embassy under his watch.

'"Yet allowing them to stay is not the same as getting them out. Notwithstanding marginal progress in increasing some family contacts, the Saudis still insist on remaining the only country we know of where an American accused of no crime is not free to leave when she pleases."

Why the WSJ has been the only media giant to express concern about the treatment of American women is beyond me. Nevertheless, it has provided readers with a running account of this mistreatment of our people while other newspapers give it little attention. The closing paragraphs of that newspaper's editorial gives readers some special insight. "What makes Saudi Arabia so unpleasantly distinctive is that if you are unlucky enough to be an American female, your husband or father effectively remains your jailor if he so chooses, backed up by the full powers of the Saudi state.

"If we have learned anything singe 9/11, it's the strong national interest all Americans share in letting the world know there will be consequences for molesting an American abroad. So long as the Saudis insist on the dismal status quo, we can't understand why any U.S. Administration would even consider issuing another Saudi visa or repatriating another Saudi detainee from Guantanamo."

Yes, if the U.S. Department of State and the White House has any remaining pride they should quit playing the Saudi money game and cancel all visas to our country until positive action is taken. Then, and only then, can Americans be proud of the diplomats representing us overseas.