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| Arabia |
| Saudi Students Speak of FBI Mistreatment |
| 2004-07-13 |
| OH, the horror!! I wonder what Mr. Johnson thinks of all the "harrasment" that saudis are experiencing in the US...Ooops, I forget..he cannot think. His head is not attached to his shoulders!Saudi students returning from the US have spoken of shocking treatment at the hands of the FBI. Among other things, they complain of discrimination against them once they identify themselves as Saudis. Ibrahim Al-Toeimi, a finance and banking student at the University of Tampa, Florida, told Arab News the FBI would conduct random searches of his home once or twice a month. "They would come and knock on my door any day at any time... there was one occasion when they came to my house at eight o'clock on a Sunday morning." Without any warrants or justification, the FBI would proceed to search the apartment with a fine toothcomb. "They used to open my closet and search the pockets of my clothes to make sure I wasn't hiding anything. They would go through my drawers and even check my shoes," Ibrahim continued. "Once they took all my CDs and played them one at a time to check what's on them." When he asked them why, he was told: "It is part of our procedure." He went on to describe how agents would search his bathroom, kitchen and even checked under the carpet. "When they finished searching the place they would question me where I'd been and what I'd done.... they would ask me where my money came from and what I'd spent it on," Ibrahim said. "The thing is that they know every detail about you but they ask you anyway just to make you nervous." Abdul Aziz Al-Shammary, an engineering student at the University of Central Florida, recently returned, but said he did not do so willingly; he was deported. Al-Shammary comes from a well-off family. Once he traveled to the US, he continued to live the upscale life he was accustomed to in the Kingdom. During a random search, the FBI questioned him where his money came from and how he was able to afford his lifestyle. Al-Shammary simply replied that his father sent him money, and this led to the question of how his father was able to afford to send him such large amounts. "He was insinuating that my father was dishonest," he said. The comment led to a heated argument that eventually provided a reason to deport him. Al-Shammary is now banned from the US for seven years. Faleh Al-Makhazim, another student who was deported from the US, said he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. While taking a walk to the local store, Faleh was picked up by the police and accused of car theft. "Apparently I fitted the description of a guy who stole a car from that area earlier that day," he recalled. "I was taken to the police station and questioned. They treated me like I was a murderer or something." The woman whose car was stolen could not positively identify him as the thief, he said, and lack of evidence meant they could not keep him in custody, so instead they deported him. "When I asked why I was being forced to leave, they said that they know I stole the car but couldn't prove it, and since I had no respect for their laws I had no business being in their country." |
| Posted by:Anonymous4617 |
| #28 'Mistreatment' to this band of Wahhabi death cultists is 'infidels' not bowing down and submitting to their insanity. |
| Posted by: Mark Espinola 2004-07-13 6:57:44 PM |
| #27 Kicking a student out of bed at 8am is truly torture. Does the Red Cross know about this?? |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2004-07-13 3:57:23 PM |
| #26 .com - Many thanks! I was wrong to doubt her - she was utterly pissed to miss a year's tax free £££ but Northern [English] girls are notoriously hard to suppress - like the German ones I've met! |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2004-07-13 3:17:47 PM |
| #25 A Saudian slip, perhaps? |
| Posted by: .com 2004-07-13 2:47:46 PM |
| #24 Wow. I wasn't aware the FBI was supposed to serve them...how come I didn't get an email? |
| Posted by: jules 187 2004-07-13 2:37:16 PM |
| #23 Michael - I was rattling keys when you posted. SEVIS sounds great!!! I was worried, when the avant garde universities, like Stanford, stopped giving Pass / Fail such that no one ever fails, heavens no! They get incompletes and are invited to spend even more tuition money to retake the class. Heh. The fact that INS is on top of these guys is most welcome news, Thx! You should pop an anecdotal bit, too. The examples of the double-standards are endless. My absolute favorite is being up in First Class on a flight headed out of the Magic Kingdom. The instant the plane reaches Int'l airspace, while still climbing, the Saudis all hit the Stewardess "call" button - to order cocktails. As soon as the seat belt sign goes off, the ninjas in 1st Class and Business all run to the restroom - to change. What goes in is an MOB (Moving Black Object). What emerges 10-20 minutes later is a very modern Western-dressed woman, ready for shopping in NY or London. I think of it as the chrysalis to butterfly transition... What a hoot! What insane hypocrisy... and so very natural for the Arabs. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-07-13 2:29:32 PM |
| #22 Howard UK - Your ex-girlfriend's comments are absolutely spot-on. The Religious Police, called muttawas, have these sticks, like riding crops, which they hit women with (as you saw in Afghanistan - remember the Taliban?) for any "infraction" of propriety. The black thing they have to wear, the abaya, if it's too short and their ankles or calves show, these guys will whack 'em where skin shows. Keeping the head covered is the most important part! Stray hair is almost as bad. There are legends*. I've seen the muttawas at work with these sticks myself, doing precisely this, so I have no reason to doubt the story -- or your ex-girlfriend's comments. Spot-on. As for smoking at the moskkk entrance - oooooh baby - that's some bad juju, bro. You bet they got excited. Women are not supposed to smoke in public at all. In front of a moskkk? Scandalous! Modern update: I saw a group of 3 super-privileged young women do it at Aramco but that was outside an office bldg, they stood between the bldg and the 5+ft tall shrubbery, and they were from high-ranking families - that's why they were "working" at Aramco - using the term very very loosely. This was an office complex called West Park and there were no muttawas "on duty" there. And this was 2003 - I'd bet that's at least 10 years since your nurse friend was there. Believe her. She's telling the truth! * I recall a legendary episode at the old Al Shula Mall in Khobar (recounting the story - I wasn't present) where some German woman was shopping. She must've been 6ft 2in - a Teutonic Goddess - and they just don't make abayas that big! Some little twerp with his stick popped her on the back of the legs because the skin was quite visible. The story goes that she was instantly furious and wheeled on him intent on shoving that stick up his ass. The Saudis there placed themselves between them and wouldn't let her get to him - allowing him to make his escape - and he wanted to get away from this frightening woman. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-07-13 2:13:23 PM |
| #21 .com I knew it was you after one paragraph. Here's a little game that Saudi "students" on "scholarships" play. See, to get the scholarship in the first place, you need "wasta", literally an intermediary. In Chicago, it's called "pull". In other words, the student doesn't settle the issue; it's his dad, mom, sister, brother, cousin, etc. who makes the effort to get little Youssef the scholarship through work or university in Saudi. In other words, it has to be finessed, protocoled, face-saved, sugared, tead, all the bases touched, all the beaks wetted. Saudi friends all had super stories about how intercine battles are fought all the time over scholarships. OK, now Youssef is accepted to the Florida school of whatever. First order of business is pleasure, i.e. car, girlfriend, savings account, apartment, actually a combination of the above. Next step is to figure out how to get around INS rules re keeping visa. In other words, how many classes can I miss before I get in trouble? Well, in a regular university, a foreign student pays two ways if he doesn't go to class: 1. He fails academically; 2. He gets in trouble with school admin. How to avoid problem one? Enroll in the ESL affiliate of the university in question. There are lots of companies that do this: ELS, Aspect, Kaplan, among others. Why enroll at these schools? Because they are much easier on student status than the mean old university. However, things have changed much in the past three years. Old days are gone; foreign student visa holders now have to attend classes and if they don't, the school is obligated to inform INS; the program is called SEVIS; it's an acronym for Student Eligibility something-or-other. Now students get warning letters with teeth, sit-downs with language school admin, the riot act read, etc. IE, the perps are now treated as radioactive and language schools try to shoo them away ASAP as opposed to five years ago when the only thing that mattered was for the check not to bounce. It's instructive to note that students 2 and 3 were both deported, one because he got into an argument over how his dad made a living and the other over a stolen car and mistaken identity. What a laugh! I'd bet $100 that they were not in status due to excessive absences and they were flagged on a SEVIS check. Surprise the Arab News didn't bring up racial profiling regarding #3. Moral of the story: Welcome to the Home of the Brave, boys, but keep your noses clean or go try Canada. |
| Posted by: Michael 2004-07-13 2:08:44 PM |
| #20 That's the guy I was thinking about Mr. Lurker. Dragon Fly: I was rolling tween NewBerry Town and Hogtown and got behind a line of first tractors then pickups... I see progress here. :) |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-07-13 1:55:00 PM |
| #19 Orlando *read: Disney, read: SA* Not to be confused with my UF Gators *clears throat* |
| Posted by: Dragon Fly 2004-07-13 1:40:09 PM |
| #18 UCF, not USF, per the article. I think UCF is in Sarasota. Neither of these teach any useful trades, so I think HogTown's the winner here. However, #16, Sami al Arian is the USF (located in Tampa) professor now in jail for being a Hamas fundraiser. FWIW, the mosques around here are all virulent (yes, probably redundancy here), which is why I'm suspicious of the Saudi whiners--this is a major fundraising conduit for the jihadis. I suspect they got caught up in the Sami al Arian follow-ups, their hands were dirty, and they had to leave to protect their own asses. |
| Posted by: longtime lurker 2004-07-13 1:33:23 PM |
| #17 Lying is to Saudi as terrorist is to _____ Hey Abul can I use Saudi twice ????? |
| Posted by: Anonymous5075 2004-07-13 12:59:35 PM |
| #16 Abdul Aziz Al-Shammary, an engineering student at the University of Central Florida, Translation - bombmaker. Raj, that's not far from the truth. When I was an undergrad, a Palestinian in one of my extramural classes told me that he was in the US to learn how to fight and make bombs and weapons to fight the Jews. Here he was, one of the brightest in Palestine, sent to the US on US funded scholarship, using this opportunity to learn to kill Jews. And you wonder why the west Bank and gaza is in the shape it is. Of course I told him I was a Jew (I'm not). |
| Posted by: ed 2004-07-13 12:36:05 PM |
| #15 Ibrahim Al-Toeimi, a finance and banking student at the University of Tampa, Translation - future controller / bagman. there was one occasion when they came to my house at eight oâclock on a Sunday morning.â Right around the morning Abdul Aziz Al-Shammary, an engineering student at the University of Central Florida, Translation - bombmaker. Wasn't there also some CAIR affiliated asshat professor from UCF up on terrorism charges? I'm sure it's just a big In any event, Get Out And Stay Out! |
| Posted by: Raj 2004-07-13 12:18:30 PM |
| #14 (holds up sign) I give this a 3.2. No womans panties, no pointing at little wee-wees by women of questionable moral character, No nasty dogs barking at you. A poor performance all around. Very disappointing. Back to the whiners training camp for you! |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-07-13 12:14:05 PM |
| #13 Gracious, Ima mean HogTown of course. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-07-13 12:08:08 PM |
| #12 UCF? Ima assume you mean USF. Neither of these Florida Universities has an Ag Skool that can compare with Howtowns'. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-07-13 12:07:36 PM |
| #11 âOnce they know youâre Saudi you can see the change of attitude in their faces,â said Faleh. âThe way they look and talk to you, the way they serve you... it all changes once they know your nationality,â he said. Straight Jacksonian right there. I don't think you're my enemy... YET... but I sure as hell know you ain't my friend. |
| Posted by: Anonymous4021 2004-07-13 11:09:28 AM |
| #10 If I was visiting somewhere they all hated me like that I think I'd leave. Maybe they can get a technical education somewhere else ... yeah right. |
| Posted by: Formerly Dan 2004-07-13 10:29:43 AM |
| #9 Boo freakin' hoo... |
| Posted by: jawa 2004-07-13 10:19:12 AM |
| #8 I was crying a river while reading this....NOT. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2004-07-13 10:08:14 AM |
| #7 "Is cheek an Arab word, or what?" I don't know about that, but I suspect that just as the Eskimos have dozens of words denoting subtly different varieties of snow, Arabs probably have dozens of words denoting subtly different varieties of "playing the victim." |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2004-07-13 9:39:42 AM |
| #6 I picked out the same quote. Gee, could there be a reason, why Americans have become suspicious of our Saudi Friends? Saudis come here, enjoy our freedom, train to fly jets, then use said jets to murder 3000 Americans. Oh, just the latest, beheaded American Paul Johnson's family is complaining that the Saudis are NOT cooperating in providing info on the murderers of their kin. That's just the latest Saudi support for murderers of Americans. |
| Posted by: Jabba the Nutt 2004-07-13 8:53:46 AM |
| #5 Sounds to me like some dumb pogues had to make up a good story for why they got sent home. U of Tampa and UCF are hardly citadels of higher learning, but Tampa is a hotbed of jihadi fundraising. My guess is the FBI sniffed too close for comfort, so they left. Bye-bye! |
| Posted by: longtime lurker 2004-07-13 8:16:43 AM |
| #4 .com - a former girlfriend of mine who worked in Saudi as a nurse complained of being attacked with 'sticks' by the religious police for taking her towel off her head in public (she was suffering heatstroke). She also claimed to have been spat at by native women and of being threatened with arrest for smoking by the entrance to a Mosque. She was only there for two weeks before returning home, extremely disillusioned. Does this sound credible? I must admit I found it hard to believe - if this was true then why are these guys whingeing about the treatment of foreigners abroad, partic with regard to 9/11? |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2004-07-13 8:00:05 AM |
| #3 You know, if it'd been British men who'd murdered 3,000 that bright September day back in 2001... Is cheek an Arab word, or what? |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2004-07-13 7:27:38 AM |
| #2 Lol! What a hoot! This is classic Arab lying / wild-eyed exaggeration. Pre-Patriot Act, the FBI couldn't even search Moussaui's phreaking computer when he was considered to be a prime potential terrorist suspect. Get a grip, there Abdul. The Fibbies aren't now free to cycle repeatedly through raid target lists. For each and every encounter, they must obtain a warrant from a Judge. I can see them doing a "registration" search... then one, maaaaaybe two, follow-up(s), since once they've had the "treatment" and survived it, some asshats assume they're in the clear - and begin their real work. Total bullshit - except for the thoroughness of the search. Oh yeah, baby - THAT they do. This rings true: âThe thing is that they know every detail about you but they ask you anyway just to make you nervous.â It's not about making you nervous, Ibbie, its about seeing if you can remember your lies, if you're a liar. If you're not lying, then your answers will match. Get it, there, camel-boy? And this sings: "During a random search, the FBI questioned him where his money came from and how he was able to afford his lifestyle. Al-Shammary simply replied that his father sent him money, and this led to the question of how his father was able to afford to send him such large amounts. 'He was insinuating that my father was dishonest,' he said. The comment led to a heated argument that eventually provided a reason to deport him. Al-Shammary is now banned from the US for seven years." The Al Shammary family is very connected, very wealthy, and consequently arrogant beyond words. As for honesty, are we talking real honesty - or are we talking Arab-style? I'm sure he did flap his gums and get his sorry ass tossed - cuz he's Al Shammary! This is classic Arab News fluff stuff. Their audience of fervent conspiracy phreaks, Jooo holocaust deniers, Zionist Al Qaeda zoomers, and djin believers eat it up with a spoon. The Green Truth (the newsprint of the hardcopy version is tinted light green...), still sucks, as always. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-07-13 7:20:33 AM |
| #1 âOnce they know youâre Saudi you can see the change of attitude in their faces,â said Faleh. âThe way they look and talk to you, the way they serve you... it all changes once they know your nationality,â he said. I should hope so. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2004-07-13 6:27:28 AM |