Head of consular affairs at State resigns

COMING TO AMERICA
Head of consular affairs at State resigns
Flak over Saudi visa program benefiting 9-11 hijackers to blame?

Posted: July 11, 2002
1:00 am Eastern

By Jon Dougherty
© 2009 WorldNetDaily.com

The top State Department official for consular affairs has resigned after more than three decades in public service amid speculation that she may have been a casualty of hearings before a House committee last month that were critical of a U.S. program to grant easy visas to Saudi Arabian nationals.

A department spokeswoman confirmed Assistant Secretary of State Mary Ryan's resignation yesterday, but denied a report suggesting she had been fired.

Rather, the spokeswoman – who did not identify herself and read from a prepared statement – called Ryan's action a "retirement" that is effective in 90 days.

"She is the most senior U.S. career diplomat and a 36-year veteran of the foreign service," said the spokeswoman. "She is widely respected throughout the government for her professionalism, personal integrity and devotion to duty."

But Pat Roush, a California mother whose Saudi Arabian ex-husband kidnapped the couple's daughters nearly 16 years ago and took them back to his native country, believes Ryan may have been dismissed or, at a minimum, forced out.

"This is good news," she told WorldNetDaily. "The shakedown because of the Saudi Visa Express deal was too hot."

Roush was referring to a June 14 report filed by Joel Mowbray of the National Review that disclosed details of a State Department program that allowed three Saudi Arabian nationals "who were among the last of the Sept. 11 homicide hijackers" to enter the U.S. without having to "visit a U.S. embassy or consulate to get their visas."

"The program that made this possible … is still using travel agents in Saudi Arabia to fill this vital role in United States border security," Mowbray wrote.

In a follow up story June 21, Mowbray claimed consular affairs at the State Department, "which oversees visa issuance and implemented the open-door policy for Saudi terrorists, has come under fire from both the public and Capitol Hill for the Visa Express program."

At the House Government Reform Committee hearing, "[Deputy Assistant Secretary for Overseas Services] Diane Andruch told the committee that the Visa Express was no longer being used," Roush said. "She lied and perjured herself."

Roush first made national news after details of her ordeal at the hands of the U.S. and Saudi governments, and her Saudi Arabian ex-husband, were detailed in a column by WND editor and CEO Joseph Farah.

Pat Roush and her children, Alia and Aisha.

In his Feb. 7 column, Farah explained that Roush's ordeal began when her daughters Alia and Aisha al-Gheshayan were abducted from her care in a Chicago suburb in 1986. In defiance of a court order, the girls were kidnapped by their father, Khalid al-Gheshayan, when they were 7 and 3 respectively.

Since growing into adulthood, however, they have been prevented from leaving the Saudi kingdom and have been subjected to Saudi culture, which is much less respectful of women's rights than is the U.S.

Roush's story eventually caught the attention of Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., chairman of the Government Reform Committee, who held hearings June 12 into whether the U.S. should do more to help American kidnap victims held in Saudi Arabia.

Mowbray said that during an appearance last month on a Fox News program, State Department spokesman Ed Vazquez admitted Visa Express was still in existence.

"There is a program called Visa Express, or it used to be called Visa Express," Vasquez said.

Mowbray explained that State had changed the name of the program during the week of June 21, within days after his June 14 column exposing the program.

In a search of the State Department's website, WorldNetDaily could not find any references to the terms "Saudi Arabia" or "visa express."

At the hearings, Burton said the State Department "provided the committee with a list of 46 recent cases involving as many as 92 U.S. citizens who have been held against their will in Saudi Arabia, with the full blessing of the Saudi government and often in violation of U.S. law."

Ryan's resignation also comes as an investigation begins into two State Department employees who allegedly sold dozens of U.S. visas to foreign nationals in the Middle East.