Michael J Springman

From 9/11 Encyclopedia:

J. Michael Springmann, formerly chief of the visa section at the U.S. Embassy in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, explained in various interviews with European and Canadian media, that he rejected hundreds of suspicious visa applications in the late 90s, but the C.I.A. officers overruled him and ordered the visas to be issued. Springmann protested to the State Department, the Office of Diplomatic Security, the F.B.I., the Justice Department and congressional committees, but was told to shut up. Springmann observed that 15 of the 19 people who allegedly flew airplanes into buildings in the United States got their visas from the same CIA-dominated consulate in Jeddah. It all continued until Mid 2001:

"The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh is proud to announce the implementation of its new U.S. VISA EXPRESS service for expediting nonimmigrant visa applications throughout Saudi Arabia," the embassy in Riyadh and U.S. consulate in Jeddah announced to Saudi citizens on June 25, 2001, a posting printed in Arabic obtained by this column..."

Springman later supported a press conference by Unansweredquestions.Org, supported by many different 9/11 victim families. Joel Mowbray of National Review, who obtained the original visa-application forms released them at nationalreview.com on October 28th, 2002:

"Only one of the 15 provided an actual address - and that was only because his first application was refused. The rest listed such not-so-specific locations as "California," "New York," "Hotel D.C.," and "Hotel." One terrorist amazingly listed his U.S. destination as simply "No." But he still got a visa. Nikolai Wenzel, one of the former consular officers who analyzed the forms, declares that State's issuance of the visas "amounts to criminal negligence. The law is clear: "Every alien shall be presumed to be an immigrant until he establishes to the satisfaction of the consular officer, at the time of application for a visa, that he is entitled to a nonimmigrant ." State's Deputy Press Secretary Phil Reeker remarks that 214(b) is "quite a threshold to overcome" - it just wasn't for Saudi applicants..."

• Hani Hanjour, 1997 (~167k file) Mirrored
• Hani Hanjour, 2000 (a) (~205k file) Mirrored
• Hani Hanjour, 2000 (b) (~169k file) Mirrored
• Wail al-Sherhi, 2000 (~169k file) Mirrored
• Waleed al-Sherhi, 2000 (~206k file) Mirrored
• Abdulaziz Alomari, 2001 (~259k file) Mirrored

(See Noman, Abdullah) (See Atta, Mohammad Visa) (See Visa Alshehi) (See Visa, Helping Hands)

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