zimv20
Apr 11, 2004, 05:38 PM
saw this interview on NOW with Bill Moyers. was taken aback by the 'visa express', hadn't heard of it before. i'm posting a portion of the interview
link (http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript315_full.html)
BILL MOYERS: In your article coming out this weekend in the LOS ANGELES TIMES¸ you write about how the Bush administration actually coddled the Saudis and the Bin Laden's, both before and after 9/11. And you say the Arab connection is going to be a very big live wire in-- this election. What do you mean?
KEVIN PHILLIPS: Well, let's take the two separately. The Arab connection is that the Republicans back in 2000, 1999 and 2000, were putting a major emphasis on the Muslim vote, believe it or not. And the estimates range from-- anywhere from three million to seven million Muslims, and in some states they were deemed to be pivotal. And Florida was one of them. And it looks like the Republicans swept the Muslim vote in Florida with 50,000, 60,000. So that would mean that that was the margin.
So when they were courting the Muslim vote, they were dealing with a lot of these Saudi-funded Muslim foundations in the United States, some of which later turned out to have some links to some of the problem. 'Cause of course the Saudis were part of the problem.
Now, the Bush's have a long tie to the Saudi royal family, and indirectly to the Bin Laden's. And as a result of the ties to the Saudis, we don't need to take it any further than that for the moment; they put through in 2001 a change called the visa express. By which people in Saudi Arabia could get U.S. visas without actually going in and being photographed by U--
BILL MOYERS: This was when?
KEVIN PHILLIPS: In 2001. June 2001. And three of the terrorists came into the United States under this very permissive framework. Then after 9/11, a group of people from Saudi Arabia, several groups were-- including Bin Laden family members, were allowed to fly back when very little else was moving. Fly back to the Middle East. So this is coddling. It's hard to define it any other way.
BILL MOYERS: But isn't that it large part the consequence of an American economy that runs at high speed on Middle Eastern oil?
KEVIN PHILLIPS: Well, oil is absolutely critical here, obviously. And if you think that Saudi Arabia might be falling apart, you want to think about getting Iraq which also has huge reserves.
If you look at the way in which the Bush's have conducted foreign policy, oil has always been a major priority.
It's a family that's always been connected to the oil business. I mean, it goes back literally 100 years. And oil is a very major yardstick. But-- frankly, they're right about that. Oil for us is a huge yardstick. But in their particular case, it's more than for other people because that's what their background is.
BILL MOYERS: But every administration has to try to protect that flow of oil?
KEVIN PHILLIPS: And they have. You can go all the way back to FDR in the 1940s declaring Saudi Arabia a major concern. Obviously in the 1970s. Everybody's done it.
But the other presidents, however much they cared about oil, didn't have these personal involvements.
emphasis mine
link (http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript315_full.html)
BILL MOYERS: In your article coming out this weekend in the LOS ANGELES TIMES¸ you write about how the Bush administration actually coddled the Saudis and the Bin Laden's, both before and after 9/11. And you say the Arab connection is going to be a very big live wire in-- this election. What do you mean?
KEVIN PHILLIPS: Well, let's take the two separately. The Arab connection is that the Republicans back in 2000, 1999 and 2000, were putting a major emphasis on the Muslim vote, believe it or not. And the estimates range from-- anywhere from three million to seven million Muslims, and in some states they were deemed to be pivotal. And Florida was one of them. And it looks like the Republicans swept the Muslim vote in Florida with 50,000, 60,000. So that would mean that that was the margin.
So when they were courting the Muslim vote, they were dealing with a lot of these Saudi-funded Muslim foundations in the United States, some of which later turned out to have some links to some of the problem. 'Cause of course the Saudis were part of the problem.
Now, the Bush's have a long tie to the Saudi royal family, and indirectly to the Bin Laden's. And as a result of the ties to the Saudis, we don't need to take it any further than that for the moment; they put through in 2001 a change called the visa express. By which people in Saudi Arabia could get U.S. visas without actually going in and being photographed by U--
BILL MOYERS: This was when?
KEVIN PHILLIPS: In 2001. June 2001. And three of the terrorists came into the United States under this very permissive framework. Then after 9/11, a group of people from Saudi Arabia, several groups were-- including Bin Laden family members, were allowed to fly back when very little else was moving. Fly back to the Middle East. So this is coddling. It's hard to define it any other way.
BILL MOYERS: But isn't that it large part the consequence of an American economy that runs at high speed on Middle Eastern oil?
KEVIN PHILLIPS: Well, oil is absolutely critical here, obviously. And if you think that Saudi Arabia might be falling apart, you want to think about getting Iraq which also has huge reserves.
If you look at the way in which the Bush's have conducted foreign policy, oil has always been a major priority.
It's a family that's always been connected to the oil business. I mean, it goes back literally 100 years. And oil is a very major yardstick. But-- frankly, they're right about that. Oil for us is a huge yardstick. But in their particular case, it's more than for other people because that's what their background is.
BILL MOYERS: But every administration has to try to protect that flow of oil?
KEVIN PHILLIPS: And they have. You can go all the way back to FDR in the 1940s declaring Saudi Arabia a major concern. Obviously in the 1970s. Everybody's done it.
But the other presidents, however much they cared about oil, didn't have these personal involvements.
emphasis mine
