Part of the reason I haven't been posting with any regularity the last few days is that I have been totally obsessed with my wedding and all of the delays surrounding it. My fiancée is still stuck in Russia and the American Embassy still has her passport. Our original wedding date was planned for September 7, 2002. Unfortunately, because the Department of State thinks that she represents more of a threat than Saudi or Malaysian students her visa application has to undergo some very serious hand security checks that are supposedly mandated by law. The Embassy in Moscow has told us that every Russian applying for a visa (except tourist visas) must undergo these checks.
But that isn't the truth. Recently, a Russian hockey player for the Dallas Stars was given an "exemption." He's happy and playing with the Stars now. I guess I need to contribute more to my Senator's campaign in the future.
If you do not believe me about the State Department thinking my wonderful bride-to-be is more a threat than Muslim students just go here and read Richard Boucher's transcripts on the subject.
On the subject of Boucher and the Department of State and visa issuance I suggest you read this piece in the National Review.
The goverment is still not addressing why it is giving favorable treatment to Muslim students. See this piece and this piece and this piece for the facts. All this, even under the new, tightened security procedures. And the Russians, supposedly our allies in the War on Terror, are left in the lurch.
Anyway, a few days ago she had me in tears of laughter. She said "honey, I know the KGB could find out more about your life history in 4 weeks than the Department of State has been able to learn about mine in 12 weeks." The sad thing is that she is probably right.
We have been delayed now for twelve weeks. Her visa has been approved but still the Department of State will not issue the visa. There are at least 3,000 people affected by this whole clusterf**k.
Me and several hundred other of the aggrieved have initiated a complaint to the Office of Inspector General at the Department of State. We hope this will help.
But I still can't help but to wonder why Muslim student are given visa priority over U.S. citizens and their family members? And Congress recently passed legislation that in Joe Biden's words, "[is] an immigration system that readily admits large numbers of persons who have a recent involvement with weapons of mass destruction, have recently aided a country in the so-called "axis of evil,'' and are bringing their families."
Howzat? Huh? Did I hear you correctly?
Don't believe me? It is in the Congressional record: October 8, 2002 (Senate)] [Page S10120-S10130]. I can't provide a link but you shouldn't have trouble finding references to it.
If you want to learn even more about this problem go see this webpage. It is a provocative website, yet it makes some interesting points.
The New York Times and the Washington Post are working up stories right now about my fiancée and I but I have no idea when they will run. As I said last week, they were here taking photos of me. I'll post links when they do.
I miss my fiancée a lot.
I'm working up a new post about the coming war in Iraq. As I said before, it will be called: "How to Fight" and will focus primarily on the strategies that the military may or may not use. The last entry on this subject will be titled: "Rebuilding Iraq?" I hope to be finished with them all in a week. Two at most.
Posted by Sean-Paul @ 10/10/2002 08:25 PM
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Comments:
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Here's one theory; maybe it's part of the war against terrorism. As the Moroccan/Dutch writer Hafid Bouazza suggested in this weeks Humo (http://www.humo.be); how do you fight Islamic fundamentalism? By focussing on the Unique Selling Points of our Western world. Let Muslims experience our way of life and maybe they'll be more friendly. Sex sells.
