DoD Suspends Operational Training for all Saudi Military Student Terrorists in Wake of Pensacola Terror Attack

Good idea! Let’s stop teaching Saudi terrorists how to fly planes in our country. Let’s kick all of these terrorists out of this country and stop providing for their defense. Let them get the shit kicked out of them back in their desert shithole.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper has directed a strengthening of the vetting procedures for foreign military students studying in the United States and ordered a review of current vetting procedures in the wake of the Pensacola shooting that killed three Navy sailors and wounded eight others.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Navy confirmed the suspension of flight trainingfor more than 300 Saudi military flight students, but it was part of a larger safety stand-down and operational pause that the Pentagon announced later in the day and that limits all 852 Saudi military students in the U.S. to receive only classroom instruction.

In a memorandum to Pentagon leadership on Tuesday, Esper directed that immediate steps to strengthen the current vetting process for international military students who train on U.S. bases and ordered a formal review of the process to be completed in 10 days. The review will look at current policies and procedures for screening foreign students and granting access to bases.

“I direct the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence (USD(I)) to take immediate steps to strengthen personnel vetting for International Military Students (IMS), and to complete a review within 10 days of policies and procedures for screening foreign students and granting access to our bases,” Esper said in the memo.

“These efforts will seek to more closely align IMS vetting procedures with those we apply to U.S. personnel,” he added. “With respect to specific training programs and personnel under their cognizance, the Secretaries of the Military Departments may take additional security measures as they see fit.”

In the meantime, the 852 Saudi military students at U.S. military installations will not receive any operational training and will be limited to classroom instruction as part of a security and safety stand-down by the U.S. military services.

Esper said that the Pentagon is working closely with the Saudi government in its response to Friday’s deadly shooting incident that was carried out by a young Saudi air force officer.

“The secretary has placed a very high priority on this,” a senior defense official said of the review.

Esper’s memo stressed the importance of the long-standing military education and training with Saudi Arabia, adding that the Defense Department has trained 28,000 Saudi students over the life of the bilateral security cooperation relationship “without serious incident.”

Earlier the Navy had confirmed that 303 flight students based at Naval Air Station Pensacola and two other Navy bases in Florida would not be flying for an undetermined period of time.

“A safety stand-down and operational pause commenced Monday for Saudi Arabian aviation students at NAS Pensacola and NAS Whiting Field and NAS Mayport, Florida,” said Lt. Commander Megan Isaac, a Navy spokesperson. “Classroom training is expected to resume this week for those students.”

The operational pause affects 175 Saudi students based at Pensacola and Whiting Field naval air stations, in the Pensacola area, and 128 Saudi students at Naval Station Mayport, near Jacksonville, Florida.

There are a total of 272 international military students at NAS Pensacola from a variety of countries. According to the Defense Department there are currently 5,181 foreign students from 153 countries in the United States for DOD-led security cooperation related training across all of the military services.

The operational pause in flight training will not apply to students from countries other than Saudi Arabia.

Last Friday, Saudi Air Force 2nd Lt. Mohammed Alshamrani, a flight student at NAS Pensacola, used a handgun to shoot at fellow students in a classroom building at the base.

Three U.S. Navy sailors were killed in the shooting and eight other individuals were wounded by the gunfire. Alshamrani was killed in a firefight with local law enforcement officers who had responded to the scene.

Killed in the shooting were Airman Mohammed Sameh Haitham, 19, of St. Petersburg, Florida; Airman Apprentice Cameron Scott Walters, 21, of Richmond Hill, Georgia; and Ensign Joshua Kaleb Watson, 23, from Enterprise, Alabama.

The FBI is leading the investigation into the shooting and among other things continues to investigate whether Alshamrani acted alone or was part of a larger terror plot.

A senior defense official told reporters on Tuesday that they have not seen evidence to suggest a larger issue with Saudi students specifically.

We should kick all Muslims out of this country using the immigration law that’s already on the books. As it stands in the INA right now, the laws prohibits:

“Aliens who the consular officer or the Attorney General knows or has reason to believe seek to enter the United States solely, principally, or incidentally to engage in activities which would be prejudicial to the public interest, or endanger the welfare, safety, or security of the United States.”

That would be every single Muslim in the United States. Kick them out right now and use the existing laws on the books to do it! They don’t tolerate us in their countries so we shouldn’t be so stupid as to tolerate them here.

They’re not leaving, they’ll still be on our bases in the classroom.

Do you like that they are just sitting here in our country waiting to kill more Americans?

No, that was the reason for pointing it out. It seemed like the op thought they were going home.

How many Saudis have gotten flight training in the US since 1999?

How many of them have committed a terrorist act?

There’s 3.5 million, and the overwhelming majority of them are law abiding.

Who gives a shit? Just because someone is law-abiding doesn’t mean that we as a country should be taking them in and using our military to train them.

Well that’s quite the non sequitur.

We have no need to train every law abiding citizen in the US to fly fighter jets.

We do have a great need for our allies and partner forces flying US built aircraft to train with their American counterparts so that they can when needed work together in combat operations.

What’s more odd is that we are allied with a terrorist state.

The Kingdom is not recognized as a terrorist state.

I can think of a few. More people died on 9/11 than Pearl Harbor.

All I know is, every time we see a terrorist attack by Muslims, the bleeding hearts point out that most Muslims are not involved with terrorism. No doubt true; but tell that to the victims & their families. Even the most insane out of control zealots from all other religions combined, cannot hold a candle to radical Islam.

Right so you don’t classify a terrorist state as such and then you can ally yourself with it.

You constantly mention most Muslims are not terrorists. So how can a few from Saudi Arabia possibly speak for the whole country. Myself, I hope & pray some geek comes up with a method of producing hydrogen on a mega scale; cause all the ME has is oil, and I’d love to see the rug pulled out.

Well, a terrorist state is not representative of the citizenry to a person.

None of the 9-11 terrorists were trained by the US military nor were they acting on behalf of their gov’t.

All of the 9-11 terrorists got their training prior to 2000 if I remember right as well.

A terrorist state is run by a terrorist organization or uses terrorists to achieve their ends.

SA is not a “terrorist state”.

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I don’t disagree with that. I’ve never approved of the US allying with that terrorist state or bringing them here for training. But this odd relationship goes WAY back

They were trained here. There is only one degree of death.