"We do recognize these cases and we pursuethem," said Honda Ferguson-Augustus, an officialat the State Department Saudi Arabia desk.
Ferguson-Augustus and other departmentrepresentatives declined to comment further oneither the Keene and Maes case or on Mallard'scharges of preferential treatment for Saudioffenders.
A representative of the office of White HouseCounsel C. Boyden Gray said last week that theBush administration has "no special policyregarding Saudi Arabia."
'Serious Charges'
Government officials who have lobbied on behalfof Keene and Mallard expressed dismay at Bush'sletter last week, and said they believe thatMallard's charge of pro-Saudi leanings in theState Department may have some validity.
George Pickart, a senior aide to Sen. ClaybornePell (D-R.I.), who has attempted to pressMallard's case since 1982, says he has beenrebuffed numerous times by Saudi Arabianofficials, and has received little cooperationfrom the State Department.
"These are very serious charges, and theexecutive branch didn't give them the attentionthey deserve," Pickart says. "It may be because ofan innate sense of not rippling the water withSaudi Arabia."
Representative Larry Smith (D-Fla.), whotestified with Mallard in front of Congress in1991, has come to similar conclusions, accordingto his spokesperson, Robert Patalano.
"The Bush administration would go to any extentto cover up [such incidents]," Patalano says.
Bemis Professor of International Law DetlevVagts, who worked in the State Department duringthe 1970s, says that the State Department islegally required to investigate Mallard'scomplaints.
"The U.S. government has an obligation topresent claims to foreign governments when U.S.parties have been maltreated," Vagts said. "Itmakes me a little suspicious that they are tryingto curry favor with the powerful of Saudi Arabia."
Aziz Abu Hamad, the associate director ofMiddle East Watch, agreed, noting, "Pressure hasto come from a higher level than ambassador orconsular...There is an excessive financial andstrategic relationship [between Saudi Arabia andthe U.S.]"
"They have not done enough to stop this, and itis within their ability to stop it," said Hamad, aSaudi Arabian native.
Mallard is not alone in urging greatergovernment response to alleged human rightsviolations overseas. A proposed Congressionalbill--which would permit Americans to seekrecourse in the U.S. court system for human rightsviolations outside the country--and an upcomingSupreme Court case are at last bringing the issueto greater public attention, and Mallard says hehopes these measures are a start in the rightdirection.
But Mallard says that experiences of the past12 years have led him largely to give up theexpectation that the State Department will take upKeene and Maes' case of its own accord. Theexecutive-turned-human rights activist says hishopes now rest with the efforts underway inCongress and in the Supreme Court.
If those efforts prove unsuccessful, Mallardsays he will try other avenues.
"I will continue to pursue the matter," hesays. "[Keene and Maes, and others like them]deserve better from their country."