The Foreign Service Journal, April 2003

“Alia spoke English with an Arabic accent, while Aisha spoke no English at all. Alia told her: ‘He (her ex-husband) said you left us here.’ “Roush said, ‘Alia, you know that isn’t true.’ She continued, ‘I am going to get you out of here; I am working with the embassy. I will never stop until I bring you home.’ “Gheshayan waited outside the room. But unable to resist a look at his former spouse, he stepped inside for one moment. ‘Hello, Patricia,’ he said. ‘Hello, Khalid,’ she answered.” Eight years later, Roush’s chil- dren, now 24 and 20, are married to Saudis. Aisha has a child. In almost any other country, the sis- ters, given their respective ages, would be able to pack up and leave if they wished, but under Saudi law a woman cannot depart without the permission of her husband, father or brother. So far as is known, they have never been in a setting in which they have been allowed to voice their true feelings about their situation. Help From the Hill By now, Roush’s story is known to many Americans, thanks to the visibility the media has given to her plight. But her quest has cost her and her family hundreds of thou- sands of dollars, much of it in lost time at work, airline tickets, phone bills, attorneys’ fees and detective fees. It has also been for naught. Neither the U.S. nor the Saudi gov- ernment seems willing or able to do much to help her. The State Department might have more leverage in the case if Saudi Arabia were a member of the Hague Convention, an international agree- ment that requires signatory coun- tries “to secure the prompt return of children wrongfully removed to or retained in” another member country and “to ensure that rights of custody are effectively respect- ed.” The United States ratified the convention in 1988. In her attempts to reclaim her children from Saudi Arabia, Roush is far from alone: there are at least 10 other current abduction cases involving Saudi parents and American children. But the Roush case is perhaps the most prominent. Patricia Roush vented her frus- trations about her ordeal at a June 2002 hearing of the House Government Reform Committee. The panel was chaired by then- Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., perhaps Roush’s strongest supporter on Capitol Hill. Roush told the com- mittee: “My daughters have been stolen and kept in captivity for 16 years — incommunicado with the entire world. “They have no knowledge of the rest of the world except by way of Saudi Arabian-censored television and the males that are their mas- ters. Saudi Arabia is a totalitarian state where my daughters are locked up, wrapped up and shut up.” Burton, who has a way of getting the media’s attention, voiced his own indignation toward the Saudis at a hearing of his committee on Oct. 3. He said he would find ways to increase pressure on the Saudis. “The drumbeat is going to get loud- er and louder and louder,” he said. At one point, he took aim at what he described as Saudi Arabia’s male- dominated culture. “If a man tells a woman, ‘Don’t go to the bathroom,’ she doesn’t go to the bathroom,” he said. Burton pointed out that Saudi oil imports have declined sharply as a percentage of total U.S. imports and are now in the 15-percent range. He suggested a U.S. embargo on Saudi oil might be appropriate. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., signal- ing agreement, replied, “If we have to stand in line for oil, so be it.” Indeed, of the dozen or so law- makers who attended the hearing, none spoke of Saudi Arabia as an energy, security and trade partner of the United States. All seemed to agree that pressure on Saudi Arabia was entirely appropriate, given the injustices committed against American children. Burton has never been a favorite among State Department officials who, not surprisingly, believe it would be a mistake to follow his advice and allow the future of U.S. relations with one of the Arab world’s most impor- tant countries to be determined by its policy on child abduction issues. Nor is it likely that Burton’s threats to pressure the Saudis into submission will get very far. This past fall, Burton’s commit- tee tried to subpoena documents from some of the Saudi Embassy’s U.S. lobbyists and lawyers, as well as Qorvis Communications, a public relations firm that Burton said is paid $200,000 per month by the Saudis. The Saudi government refused to hand over the docu- ments, contending that internation- 62 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / A P R I L 2 0 0 3 Roush’s lobbying of the State Department has persisted through four secretaries of State and included frequent contact with consular affairs officials.