The New York Post reports on questions being asked at the State Department.
The State Department has launched an investigation into whether hard-line Islamic employees at the U.S Embassy in Egypt are working behind the scenes to deny visas to Coptic Christians, The Post has learned.State Department officials are closely examining 15 to 20 Egyptian employees of the embassy's consular section after top officials received complaints from lawyers and human-rights groups about discriminatory behavior toward the Copts seeking visas to the United States, sources said.
Umm, excuse me, could you please tell me why "hard-line Islamic employees" are working in our embassy?
In a recent meeting organized by Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), top State Department officials were told that these employees, who conduct prescreening interviews and translations, appear to have unusual influence over a process that is supposed to be controlled by Americans.
The more I think about it, the less I like the idea of "hard-line Islamic employees" deciding who should come into our country. I am even more worried about who they want to let in than I am about who they want to keep out.
Among those making complaints to the State Department is a Christian man who was seeking to donate a kidney to an uncle in New Jersey.He says he was twice told to remove the cross he was wearing if he wanted a visa.
Oh, so maybe it was just the ACLU's Egyptian branch.
The State Department has launched an investigation into whether hard-line Islamic employees at the U.S Embassy in Egypt are working behind the scenes to deny visas to Coptic Christians...
Gee, This gets me all flummoxed. If these hardliners are keeping Coptic Christians from getting into America then whose wheels are they greasing? Who are they approving for entrance into the Big Satan? I sure hope they warmly embrace multiculturalism like our educated idiots in the State Department.
"could you please tell me why "hard-line Islamic employees" are working in our embassy?"
-- from a comment by Robert above
Robert, I beg to differ. Since we have no way of distinguishing the "hard-line Islamic" from the "Muslim-for-identification-purposes-only" Muslim, and all gradations in between, shouldn't the real question be: why are Muslims involved in the choosing of who obtains a visa, and who does not?
And if they are doing damage by preventing Copts (Maronites, other kinds of Christians, Mandeans, the remaining dozen odd Jews, etcetera) from obtaining visas in Egypt or other Muslim-ruled lands, what about the greater damage done when they help facilitate the obtaining of visas by the most dangerous Muslims, as an Armenian from Syria, known to me, described was going on -- the quota was being filled by what he called "the reallly bad kind of Muslims." And he knows.
Hugh,
Please note the "posted by..." I did not write this.
Anyway, your point is well taken, but Anne was quoting the phrase used in the article.
Cordially
Robert Spencer
Ummm, Robert, what happened to taking the afternoon off?
Ummm, Hugh I was just quoting the article. But more importantly, I am not Robert Spencer, as I noted Saturday. No beard, female, not Robert.
On the plus side, I think I have found the Burns and Allen CD set for you. It is too late for Christmas, but we can celebrate Three Kings Day in high style.
All US embassies abroad should do away with the employment of locals in sensitive positions like the consular departments especially in the Islamic countries. They over look the background of Islamic preachers and hard line Islamsts when recommending them to obtain visas whereas, to enter the US & EU .The truly deserving are sent from pillar to post and delays created to obtain a visa to enter the US or EU. How else was it possible for the likes of the Blind cleric in prison to enter the US so easily. There are many more undesirable Islamists in the US right now, they were all able to get here because of the Muslim employees in the consular departments in the US embassies abroad..
I wish some wish some one with influence will get this message to the high ups in the State department.
Thanks for giving this some visibility at your site. Consular sections walk a fine line, sometimes, between delegating purely clerical or administrative tasks and functions to Locally Engaged Staff (formerly known as Foreign Service Nationals) thereby freeing consular officers for the tasks which, by statute or regulation, only they are permitted to perform, and becoming overwhelmed by non-officer tasks for which no consular section is sufficiently staffed with FSOs to perform.
Sorry about the run-on sentence.
I've linked to your post here: http://consul-at-arms.blogspot.com/2005/12/re-coptic-visa-nix-scandal.html.
I have lived and worked overseas (Latin America) for over 40 years, and had to deal with U.S. Embassies in the region. I assume that my experiences are similar to most such installations.
Almost all visa applications are handled by local employees, with U.S. "diplomats" supervising the operations on a very "hands-off" basis. These locals can be real shitheads, and that's being very nice to most of them. They make certain that local applicants know just how important the local employees are, and go out of their way to make the application process as difficult as possible.
Even requests for assists by Members of Congress are often ignored by these people, but then again, the State Department (Foreign Service) people all too often feel that they, and not the elected people in Washington, have the right to run U.S. foreign policy. It's a bad, bad situation, and not getting any better. Worse, most of the State Department people, especially those who have served in Arab countries, have been compromised by the Arabs, and often seem to be doing a better job defending Arab interests than they do when defending U.S. interests.
Please convey my chagrin the next time you contact Anne. I was not reading closely.
more house cleaning at the State Department is needed pronto! they are acting more like the UN and BBC!
Hopefully, this story will receive wide publicity and some more attention from Congress. It is difficult enough to secure our borders. It would seem, on the surface, to be more feasible to keep out dangerous people through the visa process. That said, the State Department employees should be required to take "minority sensitivity" classes on non-Muslims in Islamic countries, taught by those minorities and not some Muslim on staff. Policies and procedures should also be changed to reflect the acknowledged problems of minorities in Muslim countties. The State Department and other government agencies have spend far too much time on hand-wringing over Muslim "sensitivities."
he State Department and other government agencies have spend far too much time on hand-wringing over Muslim "sensitivities."
Posted by: maryrose at December 26, 2005 10:49 PM
Ain't that the truth! I'm so damned sick of hearing about "Islamic sensitivity workshops" and "Islamic cultural training" I could vomit. WHO CARES?! Nobody but the idiots in the State Department, who seem to be more interested in kissing muslim ass than looking out for the best interests of the United States of America, their EMPLOYER.
I wonder if these sycophants, appeasers, apologists, and Islamophiles at the U.S. State Department have ever considered a permanent change of venue and citizenship. Most of them, dedicated as they are to advancing the Islamic agenda, should be living and working in an Islamic hellhole for an Islamic tyrant. Converting to Islam, if they haven't already, shouldn't pose a problem for any of them.
Is the knowledge of Islam a requisite for these bureaucrats? On the one hand, I doubt if any of them know the first thing about it except the crap churned out by people like Karen Armstrong and Esposito. On the other hand, maybe they're all so enamored of Islam that they are subverting the best interests of the United States.
I think the State Department is as corrupt as the UN and nothing could be much more worthless and dangerous than that horrid abomination.
Fanatical Muslim, both naturalized citizens working at diplomatic posts and locally hired paper pushers, have turned the American embassy in Cairo into a den of fanaticism and Coptic persecution. Having passed through the embassy as a teenager obtaining my visa, I have seen this behavior first hand. Also, working with Coptic asylum seekers, I got to see the effects of fanatical Muslim translators on the outcome of cases. Actually, a dear friend of mine lost his case, partly due to the stupidity of the Judge, and partly due to the bearded fanatic who was tasked with interpreting during the hearing. It is the same thing as hiring Nazis to sort out the asylum claims of Jewish refuges and Holocaust survivors, not only it does not make sense, it is extremely cruel. The Muslim employee, out of hatred and spite, but also to open up the field for his type of people, sabotage the visa and asylum process for Coptic applicants, and I have to believe that it is a wide pattern facing other refugees from Islam. The fact that the Muslims are so blatant and unashamed in their treatment of Coptic applicants, and the fact that this has been going on for years, and especially post 911, is indeed despicable. However, the U.S. government has formed from such outrages a constant stream of endless disappointments that nothing quite seems shocking anymore.
Actually, the Copts have been complaining loudly for over a decade. The arrival of the Clinton administration saw many Muslims entering the diplomatic service and almost exclusively Muslim local workers replacing the once robust Christian presence; most are graduates of the fantasized generations growing up under Sadat and Mubarak. Actually, a Muslim became a consular general in Egypt and implemented the anti-Coptic immigration policy. Other officials promoted during the Clinton years included a Muslim woman who as I recall was in charge of a senior post dealing with human rights in the Middle East. The lady was such a fanatic that she openly insulted Coptic leaders meeting with her to discus the blight of the Copts. A complaint filed against her to Secretary Albright resulted in nothing.
The Bush administration, the greatest Dhimmi administration in U.S. history, saw the greatest in extent and the highest in scope Muslim penetration of the federal government, most notably, our diplomatic and intelligence services. Also, Muslims control to a large extent the hiring and management of many of the contractors tasked with providing linguistic and technical expertise to support intelligence operations. Also, I know of several Muslims who were hired at great cost to develop Arabic data mining and exploitation software. I saw with my own eye Muslim translators’ sabotage and anti-Americanism. The FBI whistleblower has poignantly shown that fanatical saboteurs exercise great control over our intelligence exploitation process.
Undoubtedly, Muslims working for our government are sabotaging our government: bringing fanaticism and corruption; violating innocent people’s rights, working within to advance the cause of Jihad and the demographic conquest; holding in check likely opponents of the Jihad by baring them from entering the U.S., or from working for the government services once they enter, or if such non-Muslim Arabic speakers are working for the government, they attack and demoralize them to render them ineffectual or force them to resign. Among many native Christians which were, at one time, inspired by the great shining city on top of a hill to fight the good fight and resist Islamic hostility, it has become evident to them wither they are Copts, Maronites, or Assyrians that they can not count on America to help them against their oppressors at home or even inside America.
The meteoric rise of Muslims and the amount of power they accumulated especially on the ruins of the towers, the pentagon, and vaporized flesh of Americans is heart breaking. The 911 attacks were a great morale boost to Muslims the world over, a ladder of success and a path to riches to Muslim in America, and an avenue that led many thousands of Westerners into Islam who have might never thought of considering it before.
The moral of this Coptic Visa story is that Justice denied has great future ramifications for all of us.
"I wish some wish some one with influence will get this message to the high ups in the State department."
Many have complained to the highest levels without any results. I wish the Copts had enough funds to hire lobbyists, lawyers, and buy media coverage, but alas by the time they get to be where the Marointes are, the memories of Islamic bondage would be, most likely, forgotten by successive generations with no tangible link to the horrors in Egypt.
"The meteoric rise of Muslims and the amount of power they accumulated especially on the ruins of the towers, the pentagon, and vaporized flesh of Americans is heart breaking."
Yes, it is heart-breaking to watch their power and influence grow. All of us need to double or triple our efforts stem the tide. And we will.
faqi
I wish some wish some one with influence will get this message to the high ups in the State department.
I believe that Rice, on becoming SOS, rewarded the woman responsible for the Saudi visa mess that helped, amongst others, the 9/11 perpetrators.
This phenomenon, specifically as affecting Copts, goes back to at least the early 1970s. I knew a woman who rented rooms to students studying at universities and colleges [several were near her home] in a large city in the NE USA. An Egyptian Coptic medical student rented from her in the early 1950s. In the early 1970s, as I recall, this man, now a physician, wanted to get out of Egypt and come to the USA. She agreed to sponsor him, but his visa application got nowhere for a very long time. I don't know for sure the final outcome of this story, but I think --I'm not sure-- that he eventually did get a visa to come to the USA. Bear in mind that in his case, he was a physician and had a sympathetic sponsor who was an American citizen. No doubt, others are not so lucky.
Outrageous! Thanks to all for the update on the State Department and "local officials." The stupidity and naiveté of our elected officials is not a surprise; most ordinary Americans could probably do a better job.
One of the more sad storys I have read here, one would hope that these people that would surly add to the west are being denied entry, from the very people they wish to escape from. The old tv show " The Prisioner" comes to mind.
We should take full control of this, and soon.