The Foreign Service Journal, April 2003

Saudi government does not consid- er it illegal for the children of Saudi citizens to be removed from the United States and taken to the king- dom, regardless of their place of habitual residence or lack of con- sent by the other parent. In addi- tion, the absence of a U.S.-Saudi extradition treaty has rendered meaningless U.S. arrest warrants that have been issued against Saudi abductors who have returned to their homeland. Crocker also noted that Saudi children must have permission from their father to leave the coun- try. Indeed, it is a crime in Saudi Arabia for women to remove their children from the country without the father’s permission. In some instances, a Saudi par- ent has allowed a U.S. consular offi- cial to check on the well-being of an American child. But only rarely have Saudi parents allowed American-citizen parents to visit their American children. Crocker testified at the October hearing that abduction cases “are some of the most daunting we deal with ... Let me be perfectly clear: there are no easy answers. We understand the human tragedies involved for the parents as well as the children, and view continued engagement, no matter how dis- heartening and difficult, as a major priority.” A Trip to London The Roush case took a bizarre twist last summer when Burton led a delegation to Saudi Arabia to dis- cuss the abduction of Alia and Aisha, as well as other kidnapping cases. As the delegation was flying to Saudi Arabia in late August, the Saudi government flew the Roush sisters and their husbands to London, where Alia and Aisha issued a statement condemning their mother and saying they had no desire to return to the U.S. They reaffirmed that view in a meeting with a State Department consular official and in an off-camera inter- view with a producer from the Fox network’s widely watched show, “The O’Reilly Factor,” hosted by Bill O’Reilly. Joining the producer were a Saudi public relations official and a Fox translator. The sisters’ husbands were not present. O’Reilly interviewed the producer, Stacey Hocheiser, and Roush on camera a few days after the London meeting. O’Reilly said he believed the London trip offered the girls the opportunity to make a “run for free- dom,” which they passed up. Hocheiser said the sisters, in addition to denouncing their mother, discussed other issues. According to Hocheiser, Aisha, the younger sister, thought that Osama bin Laden was a “peaceful” person. Alia, he said, believed the United States was a violent country. Both acknowledged, however, that they knew no Westerners. There is no way of corroborating Hocheiser’s account of the meeting. Roush insisted on the program that the London trip proved noth- ing. “You’ve got Saudi Arabian men 64 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 State’s critics say it is unwilling to risk U.S. relations with one of the Arab world’s most important countries over its policy on child abduction issues.