RIYADH, 3 June 2007 — The US Embassy here has withdrawn a dinner invitation it extended to a senior Saudi official without offering any reason.
Soliman Al-Buthi, general manager of Environmental Health at the Riyadh Municipality, was extended an invitation to attend a US Embassy function in Riyadh outside the Diplomatic Quarter yesterday. The American mission subsequently withdrew the invitation when it was found that the invitee was the former director of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation.
“We invited Soliman Al-Buthi to an embassy sponsored function and later we withdrew it,” Rachel Grass from the US Embassy, told Arab News yesterday without giving reasons for the change of heart.
The dinner was in honor of Felice Gaer, chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, and was hosted by Michael Boynton, political officer of the United States of America to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The dinner was held at Café Blanc on Tahlia Street in Olaya, Riyadh.
Al-Buthi, 45, was designated a terrorist by the US government for his role in operating the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation in the southern Oregon city of Ashland. The Ashland chapter of the charity was closed after Al-Buthi and chapter founder Pete Seda were indicted on federal tax charges in 2005.
“Al-Buthi was sent an invitation by mistake. The invitation has been withdrawn,” said Dave Foley, spokesman for the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. The embassy withdrew the invitation after US newspaper The Oregonian questioned federal authorities in Washington about the matter.
Speaking to newsmen in the United States, Tom Nelson, Al-Buthi’s Portland attorney, said the invitation was probably extended because of his client’s appeal for calm during controversy over the Danish cartoon controversy.
“I got the invitation a week ago, to a reception to be held on June 2 Saturday and the political officer from the US mission in Riyadh called me to say the invitation was canceled,” Al-Buthi told Arab News yesterday.
Describing it as a work invitation, Al-Buthi recalled that the invitation was faxed to him to his official address at the Riyadh Municipality.
“I do not know why it was withdrawn. Perhaps the mission must have got orders from the US government. Any way it was funny,” he said, pointing out that the Saudi government, a staunch opponent of terror, would not tolerate a terrorist working in one of its government offices.
Al-Buthi lamented that the United Nations (UN) approves the US list of terrorists based on “suspicions” without going through each case individually.
