Lawmakers threaten action against Saudis

WASHINGTON -- Angry House members warned Thursday of possible punitive action against Saudi Arabia unless the kingdom takes steps to resolve the cases of American children kidnapped to that country in parental disputes over custody.

'"We're going to beat the hell out of them until they promise to bring the kids back," said Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., chairman of the House Government Reform Committee. "The drumbeat is going to get louder and louder and louder."

Lawmakers by turns expressed indignation at a committee hearing over the injustice of American children, usually those with dual-citizenship, being spirited away. In most cases, lawmakers said, the children are taken by a Saudi father to a country that is repressive and intolerant.

Often the spouse left behind is entitled to custody, but Saudi authorities show no interest in enforcing these rulings, they said.

Burton listed potential ways of retaliating to State Department officials who testified at the briefing, at one point suggesting cutting off Saudi oil and stripping U.S. visas from Saudi royal family members.

Another recommendation was denial of U.S. visas to immediate and extended families of Saudis who abduct American children. Burton also urged that the same policy should apply to Saudi officials involved in preventing resolution of such cases.

At a Wednesday hearing, Burton said Saudi Arabia is undermining efforts to return abducted children and the State Department isn't doing much.

"They set up every impediment they could possibly set up to keep you from getting your daughter back to the United States," Burton told one mother, Samiah Seramur of Boca Raton, Fla.

Seramur recounted how U.S. officials kept losing documents and discouraging her as she tried to help her 17-year-old daughter escape from her ex-husband during a vacation in Malaysia.