ABSTRACT
For decades, US government agencies have engaged in a consistent pattern of deference to Saudi wishes, making so many unwanted and unnecessary concessions. US government acceptance of Saudi norms is particularly evident as concerns the treatment of women, children, practicing Christians, and Jews. Starting in 1991, the US military required its female personnel based in Saudi Arabia to wear black, head-to-foot abayas. The pattern of Saudi fathers abducting children from the United States to Saudi Arabia, and then keeping them there with the full agreement of the Saudi authorities, affected at least ninety-two children of US mothers and Saudi fathers as of 2002, perhaps many more. There have been some people who really do go on the Saudi payroll, and they work as advisers and consultants. The culture of corruption in the Executive Branch renders it quite incapable of dealing with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the farsighted and disinterested manner that US foreign policy requires.
