Walid Shoebat
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers raided the villa at 6024 Orris St, in Mclean, VA Last Tuesday night, which is owned by the Saudi Armed Forces Office and believed to house its defense attaché, removing two workers from the Philippines who are suspected of having been the ‘victims of domestic servitude’ and possible sex trafficking. The compound is not far (about four miles) from Prince Bandar Bin Sultan’s private residence at 644 Chain Bridge Road in McLean Virginia.
While the State Department lists the names of Saudi attaches who possibly used the compound, a search into this specific address confirms several from the highest profile Saudi military attaches resided there or used this address and were possibly ‘served’ at this compound by the two workers. These are registered by the U.S. Department of State as foreign diplomats, a status that grants them immunity from prosecution. Records show that a list of high profile attaches linked to the address at the suspected compound are:
1—Saudi Embassy defense attaché Brigadier General Amin Muhammad Shaker [photo here] [man on the left here] [link to address here]
In 2009, Shaker was part of a group that welcomed Assistant Minister of Defense, Prince Khalid bin Sultan to Washington, D.C. at Andrews Air Force Base.
2—Ahmed Rubaiaan (also spelled Ahmed Alrobayan) who was the Major General and Commander for King Fahd Military and an attaché to the U.S. He was also the spokesman for coalition forces during the Gulf War (see Okaz and link to address here). Rubaiaan is now the appointed general supervisor of the Office of His Royal Highness Second Deputy Prime Minister and rank of minister. Researching Rubaiaan revealed an interesting exchange which was posted on JustAnswer.com, an Internet based legal aid, and perhaps not realizing that such exchanges are made public, Alrobayan asked a legal question to extend his visa in order to remain permanently in the U.S. by using his “retired general” and “diplomat” status.
3—Saleh Bin Ali Al-Rakaf, another military attaché to the United States from Saudi Arabia [here].
4—Colonel Ali Saleh Al-Rakaf, defense attaché.
5—“H. Al-Qahtani” and we find Lieutenant Colonel Hadi Baker M. Al-Qahtani.
6—Abdul Al-Saif, the military attaché at Saudi Arabia’s Washington embassy.
7—Lt. Gen. and Commander, Royal Saudi Air Force Abdulrahman Al-Banyan, Chief of Staff, Office of the Minister of Defense and Nahla Alzuhair (female) defense attaché.
Records also confirm that two non-Saudi females of Asian origin in there sixties reside at that address; one is Filipino by the name of B. Saguban and the other is A. Khan. Whether it was these two that were removed by authorities remains to be confirmed.
It is not the first time that the U.S. had trouble with Saudi Attaches. In 2004, sources reveal about 70 diplomats and embassy staffers were expelled in late 2003 and dozens of others were ordered to leave the United States for “helping promulgate Al Qaida ideology”. Many of those expelled were said to have worked in the office of the Saudi defense attaché.
It is noteworthy that the US State Department filed several reports that the Saudis and slave trafficking are a Tier 3 status, considered to be the worst offender.
While the story in Virginia involves diplomats protected from prosecution, there are yet several high profile cases in the United States that do not have diplomatic immunities, yet receive special treatment since the Saudi kingdom has always pressured the United States to set free Saudi offenders. The most notable case is of one Saudi national named Homaidan Al-Turki who was found guilty and charged for holding an Indonesian woman as a sex slave, while living in Colorado.
In the case of Al-Turki, the Saudi government pleads with president Obama to give pardon to Saudi criminals:
Al-Turki even makes calls and is allowed to contribute in filming documentaries while in prison and gains access to go on the air on Saudi national TV while claiming that he committed no crime in owning a sex slave. “Why should he pay 28 years of his life to hire an Indonesian servant?” (see 1:18-1:36) says the host. In the West, he even gets airtime while leading the Iftar dinner at a local Muslim community since he was free on bond courtesy of the Saudi government:
So important are Saudi criminals that Colorado Attorney General John Suthers traveled to Saudi Arabia to meet King Abdullah for 3 days regarding the case. Recently, serious questions about al-Turki’s links to the murder of Colorado prison chief Tom Clements have surfaced. Clements who refused al-Turki’s request to be transferred (freed) to Saudi Arabia. A little more than one week later, Clements was shot dead in his own home.
The man believed to have murdered Clements was Evan Ebel, a member of a white supremacist prison gang. The Denver Post has reported that al-Turki’s prison bank account holds thousands of dollars and the Saudi national has bought large amounts of products from the prison canteen.
Then you have Prince Khalid Bin Talal visiting al-Turki’s family and even receiving calls from the prison cell during which the prince assured al-Turki that he would get him released soon.
Several such high-profile cases – leaked through Wikileaks – reveal that Saudi nationals can commit heinous crimes but with the proper family and government ties, can usually be set free.
Even terrorists, out of the 133 Saudi detainees held at Guantanamo, 100 were released due to political pressure from Saudi Arabia; many rejoined Al-Qaeda.
Another high-profile case is Dr. Nabil Al-Ruwais, a Saudi psychiatrist who was imprisoned for attempting to sexually harass a two-year old girl in California. His emails indicated that Al Rowais had previously molested two and 10-year-old girls in Saudi Arabia. The man’s conduct – according to investigators – “absolutely shocks the conscience.”
Our Arabic sources revealed that Al-Riwais is an accomplished figure whose family rules the region of Yamama in Najd, taking pride in that they pledged allegiance to Muhammad Abdul Wahhab, the founder of Wahhabism. He is also a student of Muhammad Bin Ibrahim, the one-time Mufti of Saudi Arabia. Nabil is an accomplished Muslim author on Islamic Hadith and Unitarianism who also wrote a volume on Islamic studies entitled, “The Harvest of The Times”.
These demands for pardons and special immunity for Saudi nationals may soon begin to wear thin with Americans. After all, the Boston bombings showed that immigrants coming from countries filled with people who hate America is no trivial concern.
Americans are starting to become more familiar with Saudi nationals in the wake of the Boston bombings, and they should.
Even diplomats should not be above the law.
Here is a documentary from Great Britain that features Filipino slaves to Saudi Arabia: