Difference between revisions of "Michael Springmann"
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| − | [[Michael Springmann]] blew the whistle on fraudulent granting of visas | + | [[Michael Springmann]] was a relatively junior official who worked in the visa section of what he described as the "spook-ridden [US] Jeddah consulate".<ref>http://whowhatwhy.org/2015/09/10/visas-for-al-qaeda-part-2-treachery/</ref> He blew the whistle on fraudulent granting of visas as a result of pressure from higher ups. He reports a pattern of regular overruling of his visa denials. |
==Background== | ==Background== | ||
| Line 21: | Line 21: | ||
==Visas for terrorists== | ==Visas for terrorists== | ||
| − | While stationed in Saudi Arabia, Springmann was "ordered by high level State Dept officials to issue visas to unqualified applicants". Springmann states that these applicants were terrorist recruits of [[Osama Bin Laden]], who were being sent to the [[United States]] in order to obtain training from the [[CIA]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Newsnight - Has someone been sitting on the FBI? |publisher=[[BBC News]] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/events/newsnight/1645527.stm |date=November 8, 2001 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20021011104011/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/events/newsnight/1645527.stm |archivedate=October 11, 2002|deadurl=no}}</ref> Springmann issued complaints to "higher authorities at several agencies" but they were ignored.<ref>{{Citation |title=Reflections on the 911 Terrorist Attacks |publisher=[[Washington Examiner]] |date=September 10, 2011 |quote=''Michael Springmann, former head of the Visa Bureau at the U.S. Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia said that he was repeatedly ordered by high-level State | + | While stationed in Saudi Arabia, Springmann was "ordered by high level State Dept officials to issue visas to unqualified applicants". Springmann states that these applicants were terrorist recruits of [[Osama Bin Laden]], who were being sent to the [[United States]] in order to obtain training from the [[CIA]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Newsnight - Has someone been sitting on the FBI? |publisher=[[BBC News]] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/events/newsnight/1645527.stm |date=November 8, 2001 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20021011104011/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/events/newsnight/1645527.stm |archivedate=October 11, 2002|deadurl=no}}</ref> Springmann issued complaints to "higher authorities at several agencies" but they were ignored.<ref>{{Citation |title=Reflections on the 911 Terrorist Attacks |publisher=[[Washington Examiner]] |date=September 10, 2011 |quote=''Michael Springmann, former head of the Visa Bureau at the U.S. Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia said that he was repeatedly ordered by high-level State Department officials to issue visas to unqualified applicants. His complaints to higher authorities at several agencies went unanswered. In a CBC interview, he indicated that the CIA was indeed complicit in the attacks.''}}</ref><ref>http://radio4all.net/index.php/program/82224</ref> |
==Consequences== | ==Consequences== | ||
Revision as of 14:07, 11 September 2015
 Michael Springmann     (9-11/Whistleblower, Attorney, Diplomat) | ||||||||||||||
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| Exposed | Saudi Arabia/Visa fraud | |||||||||||||
| Member of | American Herald Tribune, National Security Whistleblowers Coalition | |||||||||||||
Head of the visa section in Saudi Arabia, who blew the whistle on the granting of visas for training of terrorists and was fired as a result.
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Michael Springmann was a relatively junior official who worked in the visa section of what he described as the "spook-ridden [US] Jeddah consulate".[1] He blew the whistle on fraudulent granting of visas as a result of pressure from higher ups. He reports a pattern of regular overruling of his visa denials.
Background
J. Michael Springmann worked in the United States government Commerce Department and as a diplomat with the State Department's Foreign Service in Germany, India and Saudi Arabia. His last posting was as the former head of the Visa section of the US Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in the Reagan and former Bush administrations, from September 1987 through March 1989.[2]
Visas for terrorists
While stationed in Saudi Arabia, Springmann was "ordered by high level State Dept officials to issue visas to unqualified applicants". Springmann states that these applicants were terrorist recruits of Osama Bin Laden, who were being sent to the United States in order to obtain training from the CIA.[3] Springmann issued complaints to "higher authorities at several agencies" but they were ignored.[4][5]
Consequences
Following Springmann's complaints, he was fired by the State Department.[6]
Later activities
Springmann published a 250 page book, Visas for al-Qaeda: CIA Handouts That Rocked the World about his experiences, which directly accuses "high-ranking US government officials" of departures from standard operating procedure in order to let would be terrorists into USA, and [7]
In 2015 particularly, he has been vocal in his accusations about the fraudulence of the "war on terror".[8]
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References
- ↑ http://whowhatwhy.org/2015/09/10/visas-for-al-qaeda-part-2-treachery/
- ↑ Freedberg, Sydney P. (November 25, 2001), Loopholes leave U.S. borders vulnerable, St. Petersburg Times,
Michael Springmann, a consular officer in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from 1987 to 1989, said he issued more than 100 visas to unqualified applicants after pressure from his State Department bosses. "Keep the Saudis happy," Springmann said he was told, apparently because they are America's biggest supplier of crude oil. He said he later learned that visas went to terrorists recruited by the CIA and bin Laden to train in the United States for the war against the then-Soviet Union in Afghanistan.
Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto"). - ↑ "Newsnight - Has someone been sitting on the FBI?". BBC News. November 8, 2001. Archived from the original on October 11, 2002. Cite uses deprecated parameter
|deadurl=(help)Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto"). - ↑ Reflections on the 911 Terrorist Attacks, Washington Examiner, September 10, 2011,
Michael Springmann, former head of the Visa Bureau at the U.S. Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia said that he was repeatedly ordered by high-level State Department officials to issue visas to unqualified applicants. His complaints to higher authorities at several agencies went unanswered. In a CBC interview, he indicated that the CIA was indeed complicit in the attacks.
Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto"). - ↑ http://radio4all.net/index.php/program/82224
- ↑ "Michael Springmann CBC Interview". CBC News. July 3, 2002. Archived from the original on January 8, 2013.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
- ↑ http://michaelspringmann.com/
- ↑ http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2015/04/15/is-the-whole-war-on-terror-a-fraud/
