But what happens to them after they're turned over to the Saudis? Are they released with encouragement to try again? From AKI, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:
Riyadh, 30 May (AKI) - Syria has handed more than 30 Saudis caught trying to cross the border into Iraq back to Saudi Arabia, according to the Saudi interior minister Prince Naif. The Saudi newspaper Arab News reports that in the last few weeks Syria has arrested more than 300 Saudis it suspected of travelling to Iraq to join the insurgency there. Syria is under immense pressure to tighten up security along its "porous border" with Iraq.Saudi Arabia says it has no idea how many Saudis are in Iraq, but analysts believe hundreds, even thousands may have gone there since the US-led invasion two years ago, which brought down Saddam Hussein's regime.
Earlier this month one influential Saudi cleric, Safar al-Hawali, said that while he supports the jihad against the US in Iraq, no-one outside Iraq has the right to participate in the fight. He also urged families to immediately contact the authorities if a male relative goes missing, so he can be stopped before he leaves the country.
If Saudi Arabia were really serious out preventing its nationals from entering Iraq, it should hand over all Saudis trying to go to Iraq to American forces. By themselves, the Saudi government cannot be trusted.
And what are the Saudis doing in the US?
http://washingtontimes.com/metro/20050528-103500-5918r.htm
Critics want probe of Alexandria Islamic school
By Matthew Barakat
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Islamic Saudi Academy in Alexandria is an outpost of militant Islam, say critics who point out that the school's 1999 valedictorian is charged with joining al Qaeda and plotting to assassinate President Bush.
Two other persons connected to the academy also have been linked to terrorism-related cases, and a U.S. senator has asked the Justice Department to investigate the school.
Female students recently celebrated their induction into the National Honor Society. Most but not all of them wore a hijab, the head scarf that some Muslims believe is required for females.
Essays and artwork share space on the walls with pictures of the Saudi royal family. One essay was about the TV show "Fear Factor."
In recent years, the academy has been at the center of debate over the religious curriculum in Saudi schools and whether it fosters radicalism. Those questions resurfaced when the former valedictorian, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, was charged in February. He pleaded not guilty and argued that Saudi authorities extracted a false confession from him through torture.
School officials also say the religious curriculum shows no favoritism, though critics say the Saudi curriculum is biased against Shi'ites.
Abdalla I. Al-Shabnan, the school's director general, acknowledged some of the religious curriculum that comes from Saudi Arabia needs to be modified. "If there is anything ... that we feel is offensive, we ask the teachers not to teach that kind of subject here," he said.
Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, has asked the Justice Department to investigate the school, saying that Abu Ali is not the only former academy student to engage in questionable activities.
A federal indictment in Chicago last year named a former treasurer of the school, Ismael Selim Elbarasse, as a high-ranking official within the militant group Hamas, though Mr. Elbarasse is not charged with a crime. Mohamed Osman Idris, an academy graduate, pleaded guilty in 2002 to lying on a passport application, following an investigation into whether he was supporting Hamas. The Justice Department told Mr. Schumer it could not comment on whether the academy itself was under investigation.
Abdullah Hijazi, a senior from Mitchellville, Md., said he and other students have not been exposed to extremism, adding: "We never really reach that depth in Islamic studies. Shi'ites and Sunnis, they differ about little things."
Maybe they are just weeding out the weaklings to make sure only the really strong jihadists get to Iraq?
Like a kind of border-crossing boot camp, where the washouts are sent home to work on the war effort in other capacities.
Will Saudi execute these returned traitors?
Or just appoint them to teach in the mosques?
It sounds like a shell game.
I'm amazed...a muslim cleric who understands the difference between an insurgent/freedom fighter and a terrorist. The line is very foggy, especially in Iraq where both types mix and you cant tell the players without a score card.
It matters little in warfare anyway, they are the common enemy and you have to deal with them as such. Outsiders comming across borders to participate in jihad are one hundred percent terrorists. Not only that, they are invaders.
Any peacefull Iraqi's should be very paranoid about the presence of these terroristic invaders.
They may be the friends of Allah, but they are not the friends of the Iraqi people...