Perhaps the US government is being cautious. It is still on a high level of alert since 9/11. There are thousands upon thousands of leads to follow-up upon and thousands upon thousands of applications to investigate. This can be a giant task, especially when dealing with the bureaucracy of the Saudi government. I should know, I worked for Saudia for 4 years and I have first hand experience dealing with their government. It takes weeks to get a simple task accomplished. I can only imagine how long it would take for an acceptable background check to be processed.
It is true that Saudia fly's into JFK on a regular basis, and they have never attempted a suicide attack with their aircraft. But, no one ever did before 9/11. With the other avenues of attack virtually blocked, what would prevent a loyal terrorist from using a Saudi Jet? An ounce of prevention...
Would-be terrorists are weaned on the radical rhetoric of the Saudi Imam. And, all it takes is one dedicated maniac with a crash axe in the cockpit of a 777 and less than 2 minutes to the empire state building and you have another 9/11.
It's funny how the US government agencies were blamed for not doing their jobs before 9/11. And now, when they do their jobs, they're criticized. They can't please everyone, so they might as well please themselves. I for one am glad we are taking our time processing these new students. If the Saudis are upset, then that's just too bad! I'd rather inconvience the Saudi's (and any other country) than take the chance of one more innocent being killed.
