Universities must stop helping Saudis

Even though the University of New Haven’s ties to the police/military college received international attention after the Jamal Khashoggi killing, UNH President Steven H. Kaplan, Dean Mario Thomas Gaboury and its board of governors are making no changes. They continue to “put the University of New Haven’s world-renowned programs in criminal justice, national security and forensic science studies at the service of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s next generation of security professionals,” to quote one of their press releases.

They refuse to respond to critics. They refuse to have an open meeting on campus to discuss the matter. That the U.S. Senate unanimously declared that the Saudi Crown prince was responsible for Khashoggi’s murder appears to have made no difference.

UNH officials claim to be improving the justice system of Saudi Arabia. Really? Take a look at the trial of the members of the Saudi hit team that murdered Khashoggi. As the Washington Post notes, it’s a “travesty.” The proceedings are all secret. We have no idea if the arrested can testify freely. The Saudi prosecutor is not even releasing the names of the people on trial!

The Post says it’s believed that none of the senior security officers are being charged. One of those apparently not on trial is Salah al-Tubaigy, the top Saudi forensic scientist who brought his bone saw with him to Istanbul. Al-Tubaigy is still listed on the governing board of the Saudi Society of Forensic Medicine which is housed at King Fahd Security College, the college where UNH lends its forensic and other services.

UNH explicitly says it wants to help Saudi programs in “national security.” Does it realize that the Saudi feminist activists who have been in jail since last May are typically slandered in the regime media as “traitors”? Amnesty International says some of these activists are being abused and tortured. Isn’t it reasonable to assume that the Saudi “security professionals” would use all their skills to root out these supposed feminist “traitors” and others the regime despises like Shia Muslims, free thinkers and people opposed to its war against Yemenis?

UNH says it’s helping train at KFSC College with its “curriculum.” Is ethics part of the that curriculum? What about human rights and respect for international law? Do they get a mention? We don’t know because UNH won’t reveal the curriculum.

The public needs to persuade UNH officials to break their ties with the Saudi government. A good start would be for West Haven and New Haven city councils and political leaders to make public statements in this regard and to turn down invitations for social events or collaborations with the West Havenbased college.

To be clear, we’re not picking on UNH. Yale Law School has taken $10 million from a shady Saudi billionaire to foster studies in “Islamic law.” Its Kamel Institute has not seen fit to consider if Saudi executions, its persecution of women, its arbitrary “detaining” of businessmen or its aggression against Yemen are violations of Islamic law. Yet the University of New Haven, as the only U.S. college directly helping Saudi “security professionals,” should be the first object of concern for those who care about human rights and peace.

Getty Images Writer Jamal Khashoggi looks on during a press conference in the Bahraini capital Manama in 2014. The CIA has concluded Saudi's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was behind the killing of Khashoggi.