Howard Owens of Global News Watch took the initiative and followed up my earlier e-mail to the Saudi Embassy with an exchange of his own. The Saudi response, written by "Tarik", was more of the same refusal to condemn terrorism against Israelis, only terrorism by Israelis, whatever that might be. And this is the public face of a peace initiative that we're supposed to take seriously?

Instead of spending millions of dollars in hard-earned oil revenues on expensive ad campaigns that will persuade nobody that Saudis have peaceful intentions, why not just hire a bunch of less-expensive e-mail writers who will also persuade nobody about Saudi benevolence? As we've seen from Hisham and Tarik's letters, the correspondents don't need to have factual knowledge of the Middle East, command of the English language or the ability to present an argument that will appeal to American sentiments. All the Embassy needs to do is hire as part-time stringers any of the many Saudis who are already in this country studying airplane piloting, nuclear engineering, etc. and let them speak for themselves.

(Thanks to Howard Fienberg for the info on the Saudi ad campaign)

UPDATE: (6/5 9pm) Howard Owens claims to have exchanged additional emails with Tarik, and to have received a one-line message that says "Okay - We condemn suicide bombings, including the event of May 27." This would certainly be welcome news and a good first step. Now if they would only start acting more aggressively to help prevent the bombings...