America's Saudi air war - Features - Al Jazeera English

Controversy has built around a proposal to bring dozens of Saudi pilots to an Idaho training facility to learn how to pilot F-15E Strike Eagles, 84 of which Saudi Arabia is purchasing in a new arms deal [GALLO/GETTY]

On the morning of September 11, 2001, a Saudi pilot trained to fly in the US slammed a Boeing 757 jetliner into the Pentagon, killing more than 180 people.
Less than a decade later, with the Middle East in a state of upheaval and following the recent arrest of a Saudi college student on bomb charges, the Pentagon is planning to bring dozens of Saudis to the US to train them to fly - and to kill.
Last year, when moderate Muslims announced plans to build a community centre in Lower Manhattan, it created a firestorm as Republican politicians, conservative pundits, right-wing websites and survivors of September 11 lined up to assail the "Ground Zero Mosque".
The group 9/11 Families for a Safe & Strong America called the proposal "a gross insult to the memory of those who were killed on that terrible day." While Peter Gadiel, the president of 9/11 Families for a Secure America, wrote: "The proposed mosque near the site of the 9/11 mass murder is a continuation of Islam's violent history, which promotes destroying prior cultures and building on the ruins."
The choir of Islamophobia
Three of the many who joined the chorus against building an Islamic cultural centre two blocks from where seven Saudi terrorists helped to kill more than 2,700 people were congressman Mike Simpson and senators Jim Rischand Mike Crapo, all from Idaho.
"I do not believe the construction of this Islamic centre so near to Ground Zero is proper," insisted Crapo.
"This construction proposal is proving highly divisive to Americans across the political spectrum who are still seeking to recover fully from the emotional, economic and social scars caused by the terrorist attacks."
Simpson echoed those sentiments, stating: "I think building a mosque at Ground Zero is inappropriate and insensitive."
While Risch put his feelings this way: "Considering what occurred at Ground Zero in New York City I completely sympathise with those who object to a mosque being built in that area."
All three Idaho politicians, however, have come out in favour of hosting hundreds of Saudi military personnel and their families at a US air force base in Idaho where they will be trained by US air force personnel to fly advanced fighter aircraft and learn the fundamentals of aerial combat.
While active-duty military personnel and veterans have also lined up behind the air force plan, some locals, as well as members of the right-wing blogosphere and others who opposed the building of the Islamic cultural centre, have begun to voice outrage.
When I contacted Peter Gadiel, whose son was killed in the World Trade Centre, and asked him about the prospect of the US air force training Saudi pilots in Idaho, he was blunt. "Americans will die and the people in Washington don't give a damn," he said.

America's Saudi air war - Features - Al Jazeera English