{{Short description|American consular official}} {{Cleanup|reason=needs better description of the interview|date=September 2019}} '''J. Michael Springmann''' (b. 1945) was the head of the American visa bureau in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in the Reagan and former Bush administrations, from September 1987 through March 1989.<ref>{{Citation |title=Loopholes leave U.S. borders vulnerable |publisher=St. Petersburg Times |last=Freedberg |first=Sydney P. |date=November 25, 2001 |quote="Michael Springmann, a consular officer in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from 1987 to 1989, said he issued more than 100 visas to unqualified applicants after pressure from his State Department bosses. "Keep the Saudis happy", Springmann said he was told, apparently because they are America's biggest supplier of crude oil. He said he later learned that visas went to terrorists recruited by the CIA and bin Laden to train in the United States for the war against the then-Soviet Union in Afghanistan."}}</ref> Since 1999 he has worked as an immigration, general practice, family, DUI, and DWI attorney and counselor at law, and is licensed to practice law in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.<ref>https://www.avvo.com/attorneys/dc-j-springmann-630520.html</ref> The Law Office of J. Michael Springmann is based in Washington, D.C.
==Education== Springmann holds a B.F.S. (Bachelor of Foreign Service) degree from Georgetown University (1967), and a JD from the American University Washington College of Law (1998).<ref>https://www.avvo.com/attorneys/dc-j-springmann-630520.html</ref>
== Claims regarding unqualified visa applicants and firing == While stationed in Saudi Arabia, Springmann was "ordered by high level State Dept officials to issue visas to unqualified applicants". Springmann states that these applicants were terrorist recruits of Osama bin Laden, who were being sent to the United States in order to obtain training from the CIA.<ref>{{cite web |title=Newsnight - Has someone been sitting on the FBI? |publisher=BBC News |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/events/newsnight/1645527.stm |date=November 8, 2001 <!-- date changed to what the BBC reports in meta data on the page (unchanged from information in oldest archive found 2002-10-11).--> |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021011104011/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/events/newsnight/1645527.stm |archive-date=October 11, 2002|url-status=live}}</ref> Springmann issued complaints to "higher authorities at several agencies," but they have gone unanswered, and his experiences were not mentioned in the 9/11 Commission Report.<ref>{{Citation |title=Reflections on the 911 Terrorist Attacks |publisher=Washington Examiner |date=September 10, 2011 |quote="Michael Springmann, former head of the Visa Bureau at the U.S. Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia said that he was repeatedly ordered by high-level State Department officials to issue visas to unqualified applicants. His complaints to higher authorities at several agencies went unanswered. In a CBC interview, he indicated that the CIA was indeed complicit in the attacks."}}</ref> The State Department has stated that the consular officer (Jay Phillip Freres, who served as U.S. Consul General in Jeddah from 1986 to 1989)<ref>https://mail.nationalwarcollege.org/index.php/alumni-news/item/467-remembering-jay-phillip-freres-class-of-1981</ref> had final authority in issuing the visas, not Springmann.<ref>{{cite web|title=Did U.S. train Arabs to help Afghans oust Soviets? |last=Gedda |first=George |newspaper=Deseret News |publisher=Associated Press |date=July 21, 2002 |url=http://www.deseretnews.com/article/926570/Did-US-train-Arabs-to-help-Afghans-oust-Soviets.html?pg=all |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140416184127/http://www.deseretnews.com/article/926570/Did-US-train-Arabs-to-help-Afghans-oust-Soviets.html?pg=all |archivedate=April 16, 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
From cited CBC Interview: {{quote|CBC: And when you questioned them, what would they say were their reasons for expecting to get a visa with such slight credentials?
Springmann: There was one instance of two Pakistanis who came to me, and they wanted to get to an American auto parts trade show. They couldn't name the show, and they couldn't name the city in which it was going to be held. And then the case officer came over and called me on the phone, and said, "Give them a visa". I said "No, it doesn't wash". "Well, we need it, I'm sorry." Then he went to the head of the consular section and got me overruled, and they got their visas. But when I complained to the powers in the consulate, and the people in Riyadh, I was told to keep quiet, that there was reasons for doing this, that it wasn't a case of my poor judgment, it was this and it was that. This simply fueled my suspicions that something untoward was going on.}}
Following Springmann's complaints, he was fired by the State Department.<ref>{{cite web|title=Michael Springmann CBC Interview |publisher=CBC News |date=July 3, 2002 |url=http://radio.cbc.ca/programs/dispatches/audio/020116_springman.rm |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20030101072456/http://radio.cbc.ca/programs/dispatches/audio/020116_springman.rm |archivedate=January 1, 2003 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
== Writings == Springmann is also the author of ''Goodbye, Europe? Hello, Chaos?: Merkel's Migrant Bomb'' (2017), in which he argues that "US foreign policy created the crisis. Destabilizing nations through invasion and espionage furthers US goals in the Middle East, he argues, creating migrant waves guided northward and westward to destabilize the European Union in general and Germany in particular. Germany’s own refugee program, designed to exploit migrants as cheap labor, made US intelligence efforts all the easier." (Quoted from summary at [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1011422391? the book's entry at Worldcat]).
== Bibliography == * {{cite book|title=Visas for Al Qaeda; CIA handouts that rocked the world: an insider's view|first=J. Michael |last=Springmann |location=Washington, DC |publisher=Daena Publications |year=2014 |pages=xviii, 263 |ISBN=978-0-9909262-0-7 |oclc=1004341231}} * {{cite book|title=Goodbye, Europe? Hello, chaos? : Merkel's migrant bomb|first=J. Michael|last=Springmann|publisher= Daena Publications LLC|location=Washington, DC|year=2017|isbn=9780990926221 |oclc=1011422391}} * {{cite book|title=American-Russian economic relations, 1943-1947 |first=Michael J. |last=Springmann |type=M.A. thesis at 'Catholic University of America'|year=1972 |oclc=52760807 }}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [https://www.adst.org/OH%20TOCs/Springmann,%20J.%20Michael.toc.pdf Interview of Springmann for "The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project"] by Charles Stuart Kennedy, started 1994, Copyright 1998 ADST (PDF) * [https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/out-of-the-blank/episodes/1320---J--Michael-Springmann-e1tgnq1 J. Michael Springmann interview by Robbie Robertson] (Jan. 15, 2023)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Springmann, Michael}} Category:Living people Category:Criticism of the official accounts of the September 11 attacks Category:People associated with the September 11 attacks Category:United States Department of State officials Category:1945 births Category:American University Washington College of Law alumni Category:Walsh School of Foreign Service alumni Category:Lawyers from Washington, D.C.