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Tue. Oct 14, 2003

Foggy Bottom's Friends

Foggy Bottom’s Friends – A column from Joel Mowbray, subtitled, ”Why is the State Department so cozy with the Saudis?” ”The date was April 24, 2002. Standing on the runway at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston, the cadre of FBI, Secret Service and Customs agents had just been informed by law-enforcement officials that there was a ”snag” with Crown Prince Abdullah’s oversized entourage, which was arriving with the prince for a visit to George W. Bush’s Western White House in Crawford, Texas. The flight manifest of the eight-plane delegation accompanying the Saudi would-be king had a problem. Three problems, to be exact: One person on the list was wanted by U.S. law enforcement authorities, and two others were on a terrorist watch list.”

”The FBI believed that felons, even Saudi felons, were to be arrested. State had other ideas. The Secret Service didn’t really have any, other than to make sure that the three Saudis in question didn’t get anywhere near the president or the vice president. State went to the mat in part because it was responsible for giving visas to the three in the first place.”

In the end, someone with a felony warrant and two suspected terrorists didn’t get near Bush, but they didn’t get near a jail cell either. The government intervened to prevent ”an international incident.”

Don’t you wish that you got the kind of governmental assistance our friends the Saudi do? The next time you’re in legal trouble, I bet you do.

The more I think about it, it seems we regular folks are the ones most subject to felony charges, while government leakers, drug procuring celebrities, and some special Saudi friends get a free pass.