Pentagon: Saudi military students can still enter US despite shooting
The Defense Department plans to establish new vetting policies for all foreign military students who enter the United States as a result of the fatal shooting of US sailors by a Saudi air force member at a US base in Florida.
Saudi military trainees can still lawfully enter the US for classroom tutoring during a Pentagon security stand-down following a deadly shooting by a foreign student at a naval station in Florida last week, a Defense Department spokesman said today.
The news from Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman comes after Trump ally Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., asked the Defense Department at a hearing Wednesday to answer whether Saudi students could continue to come to the United States after last week’s shootings, which left three sailors dead and wounded eight.
But Hoffman added that no more foreign students were likely to come to the United States during the review, which defense officials said this week is likely to take five to 10 days. In the meantime, Saudi trainees on the base, including those believed by the FBI to be acquaintances of the alleged shooter, Mohammed Alshamrani, will be restricted to the Pensacola base.
“I don’t have any evidence to suggest that there’s a larger ring or larger conspiracy,” a senior defense official told reporters earlier this week.
