I left this one alone until it became a topic during a House hearing Thursday morning, which raised questions as to why the Saudi National once considered a "person of interest", then cleared, is now reportedly being deported on "security and related grounds."
Key points, via TheBlaze:
- On Sean Hannity’s Fox News program Wednesday night, terror expert Steve Emerson cited sources saying Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi, the Saudi national who was briefly named a “person of interest” in the Boston Marathon bombings, is being deported on Tuesday.
- Thursday morning, Glenn Beck revealed on radio that TheBlaze was informed by sources that the Saudi national’s visa had been revoked and he was, in fact, going to be deported on “security and related grounds.”
- Among other things, sources told TheBlaze that the Saudi national had ties to a well-connected Saudi family and that his deportation was set to be framed as a “voluntary” departure to be with his family.
- A file, called an “event,” was started on him three days ago.
- While discussing the issue on radio, TheBlaze’s Chief Content Officer Joel Cheatwood revealed that the government is now considering not deporting Ali Alharbi.
The video below is a tense exchange between South Carolina Rep. Jeff Duncan and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, regarding the deportation of the Saudi National who has had his visa revoked.
Transcript of the discussion, via TheBlaze:
“We have someone who’s being deported due to national security concerns,” Duncan had said during a Capitol Hill hearing Thursday. “We’ve got this guy who was there, we know he was there…and yet we’re going to deport him? We’re going to remove him from the scene?”
“If I might, I am unaware of anyone who is being deported for national security concerns at all related to Boston,” Napolitano said.
“He is being deported,” Duncan said.
Napolitano said as she understood it, the man was not technically a person of interest or a suspect, and “this is is an example of why it is so important to let law enforcement do its job.”
“I want them to do their job,” Duncan said. “Wouldn’t you agree with me that it’s negligent for us as an American administration to deport someone who was reportedly at the scene of the bombing and we’re going to deport him, not to be able to question him anymore?”
“I am not going to answer that question it is so full of misstatements and misapprehension that it’s just not worthy of an answer…there’s been so much reported on this that’s been wrong I can’t even begin to tell you, congressman,” Napolitano replied. “We will provide you with accurate information as it becomes available.”
Notice Duncan mentioned the fact that the man was being deported, but it was Napolitano that spoke of "national security concerns at all related to Boston," which wasn't Duncan's original point as he corrected her in the video saying he didn't say it was "related to Boston."
Duncan's whole point was that everyone there at the time of the bombing is being asked for eyewitness accounts and help to identify the bombers, yet one specific witness, who was reportedly a "person of interest" at one time, is now being removed from the country, for security reasons.
It was clear what Duncan was talking about, yet Napolitano deliberately misinterpreted and misquoted the whole intent of the question, and she wasn't even subtle about doing so.
It is suspicious enough that Rand Paul now says "we’ll definitely look into."
“I hope that this won’t be someone involved with a student visa. I don’t have any special details on the current situation,” he said.There are questions being asked and Napolitano's refusal to address them are simply fueling the fire of conspiracy theories around the Internet.
“But I’m concerned in general that students from various countries that are dead set on harming Americans, that we have to be more careful and should have more scrutiny on these students when they arrive,” he added.
He went on to explain his concerns over the student visa program as it currently stands. “From a general perspective, we need to have more scrutiny on student visas,” the Kentucky Republican said. “We need to know where the students are. Are they attending school? We need to do extensive background checks on people coming to visit us.”
“Because the 19 hijackers on 9/11,” he continued, “several of them were here on … student visas, and were not obeying even the rules of the student visa program.”
“Had we been paying attention we may well have sent some of these students back home because they weren’t attending school,” he added.
It isn't helping any that Barack Obama had a meeting with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal to discus Syria, on Wednesday either.
