The Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida has expelled more than a dozen Saudi students just over one month after a Saudi Air Force lieutenant — 21-year-old Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani — open-fired on the naval base which left two dead, according to a report from CNN.com.
While none of the expelled students were believed to have a direct connection to Alshamrani or the shooting, some were believed to have connections to extremist organizations while others were accused of being in possession of child pornography.
“In the wake of the Pensacola tragedy, the Department of Defense restricted to classroom training programs foreign military students from Saudi Arabia while we conducted a review and enhancement of our foreign student vetting process,” department spokesman Lt. Col. Robert Carver said in a statement.
“That training pause is still in place while we implement our new screening and security measures.”
From the CNN report:
About a dozen Saudi trainees at the Pensacola base had been confined to their quarters as the FBI investigated the shooting as a potential terror attack, and the Pentagon initiated a review of all Saudi military trainees in the country, numbering around 850 students. The Justice Department is expected to conclude that the Pensacola shooting was in fact an act of terrorism, according to a US official.
The Saudi government expressed its support of the investigation and no co-conspirators have been charged in connection to the fatal shooting.
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