Michael Springmann

I joined what became the U.S. Commerce Department's International Trade
Administration in 1969, transferring to the U.S. Department of State in 1986.
Overseas postings included Economic/Commercial Officer at the Consulate
General in Stuttgart, Germany; Commercial Attaché at the Embassy in New
Delhi, India; Chief of the Non-Immigrant Visa Section at the Consulate
General in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; and, later, Political/Economic Officer at
the Consulate General in Stuttgart. My last assignment was as Economic
Analyst for Latin America and the Caribbean in the Bureau of Intelligence and
Research at the State Department in Washington, D.C.

I am now an attorney, admitted to the Bars of Washington, D.C., Maryland, and
Virginia where I practice immigration law, employment law, and national
security law.

Focus Area

The CIA is deeply involved in the visa process, and, at some Foreign Service
posts, controls it. At Jeddah, a CIA consulate where only three (3) of the
Washington-based staff of some 15-20 persons worked for the Department of
State, the Agency dictated visa policy. High State Department officials, in
collusion with or at the behest of CIA policy-makers, repeatedly ordered me
to issue tourist or business visas to what I later learned were fighters for
the Afghan war, recruited by CIA asset Osama bin Laden. The intent was to
bring them to the U.S. for terrorist training.