A TALE OF TWO VP'S
Everyone's favourite winning loser said some interesting things over the weekend:Jiddah, Saudi Arabia - Former Vice President Al Gore told a mainly Saudi audience on Sunday that the U.S. government committed "terrible abuses" against Arabs after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and that most Americans did not support such treatment.I'm not sure how useful Gore's speech was at the present time. I'm also curious as to what Gore would say were the US authorities to turn a blind eye to those without valid visas or green cards. Probably not the wisest move in terror prevention.
Gore said Arabs had been "indiscriminately rounded up" and held in "unforgivable" conditions. The former vice president said the Bush administration was playing into al-Qaida's hands by routinely blocking Saudi visa applications.
"The thoughtless way in which visas are now handled, that is a mistake," Gore said during the Jiddah Economic Forum. "The worst thing we can possibly do is to cut off the channels of friendship and mutual understanding between Saudi Arabia and the United States."
Gore told the largely Saudi audience, many of them educated at U.S. universities, that Arabs in the United States had been "indiscriminately rounded up, often on minor charges of overstaying a visa or not having a green card in proper order, and held in conditions that were just unforgivable."
"Unfortunately there have been terrible abuses and it's wrong," Gore said. "I do want you to know that it does not represent the desires or wishes or feelings of the majority of the citizens of my country."
And on the subject of Vice Presidents, spare a thought for Dick Cheney. He "violated a cardinal rule of hunting" - by not immediately telling the press all about his recent hunting accident. Oh, and he should have been looking more carefully at what he was shooting.
Poor Harry Whittington. With friends like these...
posted by Dan @ 4:52 pm
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