Scrapbook
Scrapbook Sultans of Spin, cont. As previously detailed in our editorial about a series of hideous international child abduction cases ("Sultan of Spin," December 16), the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia...
...A grand jury subpoena for al-Marri's wife, Maha, was issued in December 2001...
...Then, on September 10, 2001, al-Marri returned to the States again, this time with his wife and five young children, ostensibly to pursue a master's degree at good ol' Bradley U. The very next day, you'll recall, more than 3,000 people were slaughtered in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania...
...At which point al-Marri was arrested, and his family's passports were confiscated...
...Her children could not attend schools...
...Unless, of course, the Saudi-born husband in question happens to be "an associate of al Qaeda" now under a multiple-felony-count federal indictment in connection with the September 11 hijackings...
...Perhaps a measure banning the dismemberment of Iraqis whose family members outside of the country make the mistake of criticizing Saddam Hussein...
...This innovative approach—a legislative dictatorship, you might call it—has the potential to improve the lives of all Iraqis...
...For 11 full months before it snuck her out of North America, the Saudi government paid all the rent on her Falls Church, Virginia, apartment and provided her with a chauffeured limousine, $3,000 a month in living expenses, and legal representation...
...It was a feminist mission-of-mercy sort of thing, the embassy explains in a press release...
...Indeed," the embassy advised in an official communique to the State Department last August, "the judicial and societal concerns underlying the spousal privileges are particularly relevant to the case of a Saudi Arabian woman, like Mrs...
...This problem seems not to have bothered the family all that much until after the FBI came knocking...
...De Villepin responded to Colin Powell's case against Iraq last week with an exciting new proposal: Pass a law...
...For almost a year, the Justice Department pursued fruitless negotiations over a possible informal interview with Mrs...
...The Iraqis, he said, could demonstrate their intent to cooperate by "adopting legislation prohibiting the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction...
...al-Marri had no money or means of economic support...
...al-Marri...
...Even if he was reelected last october rather decisively—"by an 11 million-to-0 margin," according to the Associated Press—signing legislation that bans weapons of mass destruction would no doubt only increase that support...
...And then, three months ago, without warning, Prince Bandar's office notified the State Department that she and her children "were returned to Saudi Arabia yesterday...
...The United States, with much of the world lining up in support, is now poised to eliminate the threat by using overwhelming military force...
...THE SCRAPBOOK is confident that the Iraqi parliament could pass such a law...
...To prevent Mrs...
...As previously detailed in our editorial about a series of hideous international child abduction cases ("Sultan of Spin," December 16), the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will happily slander them, but otherwise does not much bestir itself over the plight of women residing in the United States whose Saudi-born husbands turn out to be criminal monsters...
...Fact: Maha al-Marri was not without money or other practical support...
...But lawyers retained for Maha al-Marri by the Saudi embassy in Washington, citing "spousal and other relevant privileges," repeatedly refused to present her for questioning...
...Fact: For $179,974, there are any number of doctors in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area who could quite effectively have taken care of Mrs...
...There's this fellow named Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, you see...
...Enter Dominique de Villepin, the French foreign minister...
...weapons inspectors, 17 Security Council resolutions, surgical strikes—nothing has worked...
...If a private citizen were to behave like this—secreting out of the country a woman under subpoena in a terrorism investigation—he would be arrested, swiftly convicted, and sent to prison for obstruction of justice...
...And while we're in a legislative mood, how about a permanent prohibition on French fatuity...
...There Oughta Be Une Loi For 12 years, the international community has struggled to make Saddam Hussein get rid of his weapons of mass destruction...
...During the summer of 2000, al-Marri briefly returned to the Peoria area—to room 209 of the Time Out Motel in Macomb, actually— where, operating as "Abdullakareem A. Almuslam," he established something called "AAA Carpets," a fictitious business financed exclusively with the proceeds of computerized credit card theft...
...Then, according to two eye-opening reports last week by Susan Schmidt of the Washington Post, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's tender concern for The Wife becomes practically boundless...
...Altogether, this amounted to $179,974 in expenses...
...al-Marri's Grave's disease, thank you very much...
...And Saddam Hussein, who said again last week that his country is "clear of weapons of mass destruction," would surely sign it...
...Attorney...
...We doubt the Iraqis will listen to us—with all of our recent bellicosity, you know—but perhaps M. de Villepin will pass these suggestions along: The Iraqis could adopt legislation prohibiting the removal of the tongues of citizens who criticize the government...
...She was suffering from Grave's disease and was in need of medical attention...
...Fact: Maha al-Marri's children "could not attend schools" only in the sense that they spoke no English—as the imam of Peoria's local Islamic center has explained to reporters...
...Fact: In this latest embarrassment, as always, the Saudi embassy in Washington is being fronted by Qorvis Communications, the Northern Virginia public relations firm that pockets millions of dollars a year distributing ridiculous propaganda on behalf of— however talented the spin—what looks more and more like a hostile foreign government...
...We're sure the French have already thought of this, being such innovative thinkers on the Iraq issue, but imagine the electoral possibilities for President Hussein when voters next go to the polls...
...But the Saudi embassy, in response to Sue Schmidt's Post disclosures last week, declares itself positively proud of the deed...
...He's a native of Saudi Arabia (though he lately carries Qatari citizenship) and from 1983 to 1991 he attended Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois...
...Maybe a law prohibiting the use of electric shocks on the genitals of prisoners...
...Defeat in Desert Storm, voluntary disarmament, U.N...
...Mrs...
...In a new spirit of cross-Atlantic cooperation, The Scrap-book humbly offers the following legislative proposals...
...Armed with this curious piece of information, agents from the Bureau's Chicago field office twice visited al-Marri's Peoria home in the fall of 2001, secured his permission to search the contents of a laptop computer he owned, and found on its hard drive more than 1,750 stolen credit card numbers, audio files of lectures by Osama bin Laden, directions for obtaining terrorism training in Afghan camps, and links to websites about internet hacking, counterfeit identification documents, and poisonous chemicals...
...The FBI also found that al-Marri had systematically bookmarked those pages of an annual almanac that concerned dams, reservoirs, and railroad tunnels in the United States—and determined that he had lied to them throughout their interviews...
...And Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz, the Kingdom's American ambassador, spares no expense to whisk The Wife home to Riyadh, for "humanitarian, medical, and legal reasons"—and in defiance of a grand jury subpoena seeking her testimony...
...al-Marri, given that in Saudi Arabia, it would be improper for a wife to speak about her husband in the manner suggested by [the U.S...
...al-Marri from rejoining her family for such a long period of time [was] unreasonable and unjust...
...And in the weeks that followed that slaughter, FBI investigators would subsequently learn, someone using a cell phone and pre-paid long-distance cards registered in Ali Al-Marri's name made multiple calls to the same number in the United Arab Emirates that Mohamed Atta had used to contact Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, thought to have been the conspiracy's principal moneyman...
Vol. 8 • February 2003 • No. 22
