8/14/2019 Memo of 9/11 Commission Interview of Former Jeddah Consul General Richard Baltimore

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Commission SensitiveMEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD

Event: Richard Baltimore interview, Ambassador to the Sultanate of OmanType of event: Interview -- untapedDate: 12-2-03Special Access Issues: NonePrepared by: Tom Eldridge/Janice Kephart-RobertsTeam Number: 5Location: Room 5125, GSA BuildingParticipants - Non-Commission:Name AgencY/TitleRichard Lewis Baltimore, Ambassador

Phone

Paula Barton Asst. Legal Counsel 202-647-2227Participants - Commission:Tom EldridgeJanice Kephart-Roberts

Counsel Team 5Counsel Team 5

202-401-1686202-401-1705

Documents/handouts received the Commission: NoneOther contacts referred to: NoneTEXT:Mr. Baltimore's BackgroundB.A. G.W. University, 1969JD Harvard, 1972Joined State Department 1972Lisbon P and Ec. 1973-1975S.A. P and Cons 1976-1979Spec. Asst. Sec State 1976-1979Egypt P 1981-1983Hung. Lang. Trng. 1983-1984Budapest Pol. Chief 1984-1987Near Eastern Regional Affairs 1987-1990

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8/14/2019 Memo of 9/11 Commission Interview of Former Jeddah Consul General Richard Baltimore

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//9/11 Working-level Employee

DCM Budapest 1990-1994, \:\ " "Snr. Pol. Advisor to Holbrooke on Bosnia ~994-199,$ __Pres. Sm. Seminar 1995-19~,6 :: \. 'DCM San Jose 1996-1999.'/ \: \CG Jeddah, SA 1999,,20q1 ':.Amb, M uscat, Om an 19102 - PresentJeddah Consulate - Arrived summer 1999When be arrived :'(:arl Cockburn was head of the consular secti6n. -"Under Cockburn were, i ' , , ,9/11 Working-level Employee :, .... '

" cockburnf~~ then replaced by . . ~h~ in tum was replac~dbY ... ..I

(Dep. D i T . and Dir.)

The junior officers were replaced by.. -"!- .......We asked Baltimore to describe the role of the CG:': He said it is a misnomer, becausethey do not focus on consular work. Rather, the co is in charge of the consulate. Thethree posts in SA, Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dahran divided up the country. As CG, he hadoversight over all branches of the USG in Jeddah, including the admin, public diplomacy,FAA, USGS, Political and Economic Sections, and military. There was no INS person inJeddah. FAA was there because every Saudi pilot was certified by the FAA, somethingnot true for any other country, including Israel. \. 'Baltimore believed his job was to make sure people g

8/14/2019 Memo of 9/11 Commission Interview of Former Jeddah Consul General Richard Baltimore

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19/11 Classified

Fraudulent documents '. iBaltimore said that he recalled one instance when Ddiscc>:~ered the use by a offraudulent documents. ~aIled the police and the police came and took theaway. ~aid it was all handled "smoothly." ~Otherwise, Baltimore does not recallev er h~ut Saud is using,fraud u len t d o cum ents to obtain v isas fro m any so urce.Terrorist Threat """Baltimore was never told of a t er ro r i st threat posed to the United States from Saudis, nordid he recall being "~oldabout iihadist activities of Saudis. He did receive intelligencei n fo rmat i on each w~,ekJ Ibut he very rarely saw anyfinished intelligence"'product. [Note: see handwritten notes for classified material on thistopic.] Although he could not recall any specific instances, he did believe anyinformation on a parti~.ular visa applicant would have been shared with the consularsection. .'\ \ :F or te rro r c o nc ern s, they..e...i ed o n V i ~" ,a sV i pe r a n 1 , Tipoff.Visa PolicyB altim o re said tha t R iyad h w as the ultim ate v isa P ?licy -se tter.Baltimore concurred with our assertion \that Saudi's were generally considered to be goodrisks for becoming intending imm ig ra nts, a nd for this reason were not generallyinterviewed. Before 9-11, Baltimore said , it "wasn't likely" that a Saudi could be aterrorist. Moreover, the visa adjudication system was not designed to catch terrorists.Rather,i t w as d esigned to catch intending immigrants .H e w as no t aw are o f any special i~ te rv ieW {ro gram s at po st.He said there was always pressure te issue visas from commercial interests in SA and inthe U.S. He said he had never seen ~ congress ional letter questioning why a visa hadbeen issued to a Saudi before 9-11, only since, He! said he never criticized the refusalrates 0 a n y o f his ~IlU ~ul;U ;l~ iers. He d id 'recall the F o w ler incid en t referenced in am em o to him fro ~ . . . , . J

9/11

Visa ExpressBaltimore said that h{~as at post ~hen it\;was\intr~duced, top-down, from Riyadh. Hesaid the TARP had been used in another post Mexico City - successfully by the CG inRiyadh (Furey): Ba1timore did not recall that part of the reason for it was to improvesecurity forthe consulate and embassy ......" \ ", :Baltimore di~ recall t~ai ke.~t a~ded wo:k fo~ the consular se~tion inJeddah. Baltimore said It also added one to t : p ~ processing time for the Saudis to get

,th eir v isas (fro m sam e d ay to tw o d ays), and irlanY .\.i ,:~o m plaineda bo ut th is.

Personal Privacy 3 c:9/11 Working-level Employee

8/14/2019 Memo of 9/11 Commission Interview of Former Jeddah Consul General Richard Baltimore

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9/11 Classified Information

Baltimore said the perception that VE led to tQe State Department divesting itself ofresponsibility for evaluating the merits of Saudi visa applications was incorrect. He said,however, that this perception prevailed, a nd fo r ce d the State Department to drop VisaExpress. This decision was made in Riyadh and at the top of the Department, saidB~m~. \ .Changes post 9-11Baltimore said initially, everyone at post was shocked ~d horrified to learn that they hadissued visas to some of the hijackers. They collected paperwork for the variousgovernment agencies investigating, including CA, the F B i ' 1 I Their mainquestion was: Did we follow proper procedures? After reviewing the applications, they"were convinced we did." They concluded that although the system may have beenfaulty, that the State Department employees in Jeddah implemented it as designed.When we pressed Baltimore on details - such as the incomplete applications - seeminglyinconsistent with this conclusion, he stated, "I wasn't involved in the details."As a general matter, Baltimore said the State Department is "very poorly understood."He said that State employees are just as patriotic as any other American. He saidconsular officers were not to blame, that we were taken advantage of as a system and as acountry because of our openness and trusting nature. He also said the visa law isdesigned by Congress, and that it is simply not fair to blame anyone branch ofgovernment for 9-11.He also said that if State is to do more interviewing post 9-11, then they should be giventhe resources and training to do this job. .

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