July 13, 2002

State Dept. detains journalist
Oh, those writers over at the NRO! How they *do* stir up trouble! And I, for one, am glad they do.
It seems Mr. Mowbray, who's been doing an investigative series on the State Department's scandalous Visa Express program in Sauda Arabia, got detained by State's "diplomatic security" for 30 minutes yesterday in an attempt to get him to reveal the source of a priviliged communication from the American ambassador to Saudi.
In a time when our TV media and the F.B.I. won't call an Egyptian jihadi who kills Jews a "terrorist," Mr. Mowbray has conducted a journalistic (dare we say it?) CRUSADE to end the Visa Express program, whereby Saudi Arabians can quickly and painlessly secure visas to the U.S.A. online, with a travel agency.
No less than 3 of the 9/11 hijackers got their visas to come here and kill our civilians in Saudi from Visa Express!
Thanks almost solely to Joel's stories, our Saudi consulate is ending this practice (Thank you, Joel!) and going back to the traditional face-to-face interview process and the woman who implemented this policy, Mary Bryan, just got the sack from SOS Colin Powell on Thursday.
Let's face it, what good will it do the INS and the FBI and Homeland Security (or whatever it will be called) to hunt down and deport these people, when we can prevent them from getting here at all by an improved screening process in "hot" countries like Saudi Arabia?!
[Aside: There was a story this week about 70 or so immigrants from Yemen also, who had fraudulently obtained U.S. visas,too.]
Mowbray's dedication to getting the word out about Visa Express is so profound that he even testified before Congress about Visa Express earlier this month.
Looks like journalism, perhaps with a lot of help from bloggers and the Web, may be getting back to what it does best!
And don't worry Joel, we'll all chip in to get you a good lawyer and a cake with a file if it happens again!