VZCZCXYZ0009
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHRH #0858 1541106
ZNY SSSSS ZZH
P 021106Z JUN 08
FM AMEMBASSY RIYADH
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8516
INFO RUEHJI/AMCONSUL JEDDAH PRIORITY 9570

S E C R E T RIYADH 000858 
 
NOFORN 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR CA/VO JUNE KUNSMAN AND CA/VO/L/C 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/28/2018 
TAGS: CVIS PHUM PREL PTER SA
SUBJECT: MISSION REQUEST TO REVIEW JAFAR AL-SHAYEB,S VISA INELIGIBILITY 
 
Classified By: CDA Michael Gfoeller for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
¶1. (U) This is an action message.  It has been cleared by 
State, GRPO, and DHS. 
 
¶2. (S/NF) Summary.  On April 24, 2007, CA/VO determined 
that Jafar Mohammed al-Shayeb (DOB: 10 Jan 1959, Saudi 
Arabia) was inadmissible under INA Section 212(a)(3)(B) 
based on information contained in TD 314/29893-05 released 
on 20 May 2005.  The U.S. Mission in Saudi Arabia 
recommends a review of decision since much of the 
information on which this decision was based appears to be 
erroneous.  GRPO, DHS, and State Department political 
officers are unaware of any information supporting the idea 
that al-Shayeb belongs to a terrorist organization or 
supports terrorist activities.  End Summary. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Jafar al-Shayeb is one of Saudi Arabia's best 
known democracy and human rights activists.  In July 2007, 
he was selected, along with nineteen other Arab human 
rights activists, to meet with President Bush in Prague. 
He is generally regarded as the No. 2 man in Saudi Arabia's 
"Shirazi" movement, a group which King Fahd "blessed" as 
the leadership of the Saudi Shi'a community in the 
mid-1990s.  He also served until recently as the elected 
Chairman of Qateef's Municipal Council.  Al-Shayeb has 
worked actively with the National Endowment for Democracy 
(NED) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) on 
regional democracy initiatives.  Due to the finding of his 
inadmissibility, he was unable to attend an NDI-sponsored 
conference in the United States, take a summer fellowship 
at Stanford University, and the State Department's Middle 
East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) had to abandon plans to 
invite him to participate in one of their reform projects. 
 
¶4. (S/NF) Jafar's inadmissibility appears to be based on a 
single sentence in TD 314/29893-05, a raw intelligence 
report which correctly identified al-Shayeb as a Shirazi 
and in which a source made the allegation that, "This 
("being a Shirazi") was, for all intents and purposes, the 
same thing as Hizballah.  The Shirazi movement predated 
Hizballah but it evolved and folded itself into the 
Hizballah organization and movement.  The term, Shirazi, 
therefore, had come to identify a group and generation (or 
clique) of leaders who were part of that movement before 
Hizballah came into prominence.  These leaders were, 
however, part of Hizballah and received their direction and 
support from Hizballah." 
 
¶5. (S/NF) The allegation that the Shirazi movement and 
Hizballah have "merged" and are "the same thing" is not 
corroborated by intelligence reporting, political 
reporting, or independent academic research conducted on 
these Saudi political movements for the past twenty years. 
In fact, independent academics and the bulk of all 
reporting suggest precisely the opposite--that the Shirazis 
and Hizballahis are rivals and that the Shirazis are the 
main political opponents of Hizballah in the Saudi Shi'a 
community. 
 
¶6. (S/NF) The Mission is aware of no evidence that 
al-Shayeb is a member of Hizballah or receives direction or 
support from them.  All of the information available to us 
suggests that he is a non-violent political moderate and an 
active opponent of Hizballah.  GRPO has done a detailed 
search of Jafar al-Shayeb in their databases and has turned 
up no/no information that he is a terrorist or supports 
terrorism.  GRPO has so advised the National 
Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) which has agreed to remove 
their "hits" on al-Shayeb from their system. 
 
¶7. (S/NF) All information