Cartoon by Rob Rogers
Pentagon suspends military training of Saudi students after Pensacola shooting
The Guardian: The Pentagon announced on Tuesday it was halting operational training of all Saudi Arabian military personnel in the United States until further notice in the wake of the deadly shooting by a Saudi air force officer.
The decision will have far-reaching impacts, including grounding more than 300 Saudi Arabian military aviation students.
The Pentagon has also ordered a broad review of vetting procedures for international students who participate in training on US military installations and demanded the process be strengthened.
The memo signed by the deputy defense secretary, David Norquist, said the review of the vetting must be completed in 10 days, and the flight restrictions will continue throughout the review and until they are lifted by senior leaders.
There are about 850 Saudi students currently in US military training programs, according to the Pentagon. US officials said they aren’t sure how many of those would see some type of flight or other restriction, but many will.
The FBI has said US investigators believe the Saudi air force Second Lieutenant Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, 21, acted alone when he attacked a US navy base in Pensacola, Florida, on Friday, before he was fatally shot by a deputy sheriff.
The shootings have again raised questions about the US military relationship with Saudi Arabia, which has come under heightened scrutiny over the war in Yemen and Saudi Arabia’s killing of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi last year.
Still, US military leaders have sought to portray this as a localized issue which would not affect the overall US-Saudi relationship.
The US navy spokeswoman Lieutenant Andriana Genualdi said the safety standdown and operational pause began on Monday for Saudi Arabian aviation students.
She said the grounding included three different military facilities: Naval Air Station Pensacola, Naval Air Station Whiting Field and Naval Air Station Mayport, all in Florida. The US air force said its groundings of Saudi aviation students also applied to additional US bases.
“Given the traumatic events, we feel it is best to keep the Royal Saudi Air Force students off the flying schedule for a short time,” the air force spokeswoman said.
The US defense secretary, Mark Esper, has dismissed suggestions that the shootings might make him more reluctant about new US deployments to Saudi Arabia, which were announced in October and first reported by Reuters.
“Saudi Arabia is a longstanding partner of ours in the region. We share mutual security interests,” Esper said over the weekend.
Esper said he had instructed the armed forces to review both security at military bases and screening for foreign soldiers who come to the United States for training after the shooting.
The US should continue to sell billions of dollars in arms to the Saudis to save American jobs. But the US should not train the Saudis on how to use these sophisticated arms so the innocent Yemeni and other people are not killed.
The US should also deport the 850 Saudis who are in training immediately.
I can't undrestand why military personel are not armed in these military bases. If they were, these people will think twice before they start anything, Saudi or otherwise.
If a bunch of military guys walking around the US bases are armed to the teeth, then a whole bunch of US military people and higher ranking officers might get killed for simple arguments and disagreements. A Wile West scene where a bunch of drunk people shoot at each other!
The real question is why a 21-year-old Saudi trainee can go to a gun shop and legally buy a gun. Ask your NRA rep that question. Also ask him why a person on the “no fly list” can buy a gun, or a person with mental disorder.
Not arming the personnel is probably for damage control. Had the personnel been armed, these guys would've come up with more destructive methods.
Under Obama: 8 Islamic Terror Attacks That Could Have Been Prevented
With the massacre in Orlando, Fla., Islamic terrorists have now killed 91 and injured more than 370 on U.S. soil since President Obama took office. Yet Obama still refuses to admit that radical Islam is a threat. Could this explain why his administration keeps missing warnings signs that could have prevented these attacks?
It didn’t take long after the attack at a gay bar in Orlando, which claimed 49 lives and injured at least 53 others, for the public to learn that the terrorist, Omar Mateen, had been on a terrorism watch list and was twice interviewed by the FBI.
In fact, FBI director James Comey said on Monday that there were “strong indications of radicalization.” In other words, this attack didn’t come out of the blue. So why wasn’t something done before Sunday?
https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/why-does-obama-keep-missing-red-flags-before-islamic-terror-attacks/