SENSITIVE
RUT UNCLASSTFFFn
9/11
Working-level
Employee
DEPARTMENT OFSTATEBROADCASTING
BOARD
OF GOVERNORS
Office
of
Inspector GeneralMemorandum
of
Conversation
Issuance of
NTVs
to
9/11/2001
Hijackers
Subject
US Consulate
General,
Jeddah.
KSA
Office
KSA
Official
January
23.2003
Date
Poue
Ellice
Inspector
'arrived at Jeddah in August
2000
and workedtime\sprevious assignmenthadbeen
asf
much
of
thatHe
told
rtie
that post
policy, pre-9/11,
was to
interview
all
Third-Country National
(TCN)
\^
but few
Saudis. Once
in a
very great while,
he
told
me, a
Saudi's
application
for a
business
or
tourist
visa
Would
have something
so
strange
on it
that
the
applicant would
be
asked
to
come
in for a
personal appearance,
but
that
was
unusual. Saudi applicants
for
student
visas,
oji
the other
hand,
w,ere
routinely interviewed.
The
post
did not use
travel agencies
or any
drop
boxes to
channel applications
to the
section; applications were submitted
in
person,
usually
by
the applicant. An
FJSN
would
pie-screen
the application
and,
if the applicant were a Saudiseeking a
B-l
or
Btv2;
send them away.One
change
that occurred when Visas Express
was
introduced
was
that
most Saudi students
.
[stated:
"If
youhad
a
pulse,
and a
green (Saudi)
passport,
o
longer interviewed.1
you
got the
visa,"
i§as\;
were
He
clarified
one
thing
for
me\s
high
refusal
rate.
He
said that,
as the
only Arabic-speaking
officer,
hetendedto get
aj.1
the
T-Ctf
applicants who did notspeak English. Manyofthese wereindigent Somalia and Sudianese, pr workers from
other
third-world countries who had never
\d elsewhere
previously.
"These wereourworst
cases,
andthose least-likelyto be
issued."
S
n the other hand,
processescl
all those Saudis who did not need an interview, so shey thedozen. "That's
hpw
she got
into
all
this,"
he
said,
referring
to the
issuance
of
visasto
terrorists,
''and
how I did
not;
There but for fortune...."Former
CG
Baltimore
and
former
Consul]
Imet
regularlyj
related,
and
there
was no
visible
riction
between themabout
refusal
rates.
I
is
not
aware
of
any
times whenBaltimore
urged!
"Tto
alter section
policy.
He did
fault
Baltimoreby
stating
that"IneversawBaltimore visit the consular section." I lalso related a story about a particularly
poor
referral
Baltimore once made
- a
Class
A
referral
for the
maid
of the
former
(even then) mayorof Jeddah. His own high
refusal
rate in and of itself is not what got him into trouble he
said,
buthis
refusal
ofSaudis.The"trouble"hereferredto wasbeing rebukedbymanagementfor
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Memo of State Department IG Interview of Jeddah Consular Officer
A memo of a January 2003 interview by the US State Department's inspector general of David El Hinn, a consular officer at the US consulate in Jeddah at the time it issued multiple visas to the…
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