Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
level of scrutiny as citizens of other nations with extremely active radical
fundamentalist movements? If, at this moment, you are racking your
brains trying to come up with a logical answer related somehow to legiti-
mate security considerations, you can stop. There aren't any. In fact, log-
ically, Saudis should receive the highest degree of scrutiny. The reason
they don't is not complicated. American oil interests do billions of dollars'
worth of business with the Saudis. That is basically it. In a nutshell, it comes
down to dollars and cents. There may be other peripheral reasons, such
as the long friendship between the Bush family and the house of Saud.
President Bush values friendship and loyalty. There is also a need to main-
tain the goodwill of the Saudi government to obtain its support for any
military action against Iraq.
What about the exemption granted to Pakistan? Hundreds of Al Qaeda
fled Afghanistan and are now finding refuge in the mountains of Pakistan.
Seemingly every day, there are demonstrations in the streets of Islamabad
and Karachi calling for death to Americans. However, because the Presi-
dent of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf, courageously supported the
U.S. effort in Afghanistan, he is being rewarded with special status for his
citizens. This is understandable because our effort against the Taliban
would have been almost impossible to mount without Pakistani coopera-
tion. However, from a security and law enforcement perspective, it is inde-
fensible. Several months after the initial decision to exclude Saudi and
Pakistani citizens from the more stringent immigration regulations, the
ruling was changed to include them as well.
Several private companies provide local intelligence updates to Amer-
icans abroad on the security conditions in virtually every foreign country,
and they are free to do so without the general constraints of diplomatic
niceties. Firms like International SOS offer overseas medical assistance,
emergency evacuations, and intelligence. Our own company, Global Secu-
rity Group, LLC, and the Kroll subsidiary, IJET, both offer pretravel intel-
ligence and travel monitoring. While it is true that the security briefings
are largely based on information disseminated by the State Department,
sometimes additional items are based on independent observations. These
companies maintain an intelligence database that deals with all manner
of dangers and includes information about local crime, terrorist activity,
medical dangers, and the medical infrastructure. The first stop you as a
tourist or future expatriate should make is to the intelligence division of
one of these companies. Each country is unique; there are a few basic
things that you must find out about the local criminal element, level of
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