"Visas For Al Qaeda" - A talk by J. Michael Springmann

Former head of the American visa bureau in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, J. Michael Springmann, talks about his book "Visas for Al Qaeda" at Bus Boys & Poets in Washington D.C. Spingmann talks about how he was over-ruled regarding U.S visas for multiple applications that ultimately belonged to many of the 9/11 hijackers. (4-7-2016)
Michael Springmann was, to all appearances, your run-of-the-mill junior level consular employee, but he was not in a usual place, nor in a usual time. His government sent him to Saudi Arabia right as it was preparing for a battle royale with the USSR in Afghanistan. In this excerpt from his book, Springmann describes a consulate teeming with CIA personnel, and reveals how, as head of the American visa bureau, he was ordered not to follow his best instincts but instead to approve visas for all manner of dubious individuals. In retrospect, he realized he was witnessing the mujahideen pipeline — the flow of young fighters to take on the Soviets — the same people who later became al-Qaeda.

Springmann, it turns out, was not run-of-the-mill at all. He did not behave as expected. He asked too many questions and made too many complaints to too many agencies about what was going on. For sounding the alarm, the State Department fired him. The story, in his words:

“This tale is a sordid sketch of backstabbing, disloyalty, double crosses, faithlessness, falsity, perfidy, sellouts, treachery, and betrayal. All of this is in addition to the stupidity and incompetence normally manifested by the State Department and the intelligence services.”
ADDITIONAL INFO:
https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/government-integrity/visas-for-al-qaeda-part-2-treachery/