Businessmen tell of `escape' from Saudi Arabia

Anti-Americanism rampant in nation, pair say

Before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, before most people had even heard of Osama bin Laden, Mike Marriott and Mike Beardslee witnessed firsthand the disdain some Middle Easterners have for Americans.

The two are now partners at IT Strategies, 4550 W. Oakey Blvd., a company that provides computer solutions to companies.

But back in 1992, they were hired as independent contractors and flown to Saudi Arabia to work for a family with a myriad of business interests. Beardslee was hired to provide long-range planning solutions pertaining to computer needs. Marriott's specialty was in quality assurance analysis.

The first indication they were not held in high regard was when their initiation process included surrendering their American passports.

Though both were experts and considered executives, they said their authority was undermined and they had to ask permission for most decisions. They could not hire or formally reprimand their own staff, for example.

Each Friday, holy day for the Saudis, the imams (religious teachers) would get on the loudspeakers after services held at the mosques and spend the next half hour preaching. But it wasn't a message of peace on earth, the two men learned. It was a diatribe against the United States, telling people Americans were evil, infidels who could not be trusted. The man who offered to explain the imams' words seemed to take immense joy at the message.

"I couldn't believe it when he translated it," Marriott said. "There was always an undercurrent of anti-Americanism that you could detect, but I didn't know it was so pronounced."

The social structure in Saudi Arabia was similar to Afghanistan's, the men said. Women ate in a separate part of restaurants and had few careers open to them other than medical or teaching positions. Saudi females were required to wear abayas, long robes that covered them from head to foot, and their faces covered and heavily veiled.

"We never could figure out how they could see," Marriott said.

Though the men did not witness it themselves, other Americans told them the religious police screamed at, hit and spit on a woman who wasn't properly covered. Even American wives were encouraged to wear the abayas.

Beardslee said it didn't hit him how restricted women were in Saudi Arabia until the first time he needed to use the restroom while at the office. He found a restroom, but it had no sign on the door indicating whether it was for men or women.

"So I asked," he said. "I was told women were not allowed in the building. They couldn't work there so there (was no need for) a women's restroom."

He also learned that if he wanted to go on a date, the woman had to obtain written permission from her father. Marriott's wife, Debbie, wanted to take a day cruise with some of her female friends, but first she needed a letter saying she had his permission to go. Also, women Saudi Arabia are not allowed to drive, further restricting them.

"At first, it's an adventure and you say 'I'm in their country so I'll follow their guidelines,' " Beardslee said. "But as their guidelines become more and more extreme, you find it more and more difficult to endure."

The harassment extended to the two computer experts as well. Not only was their authority at work undermined, but on a field trip to a brick factory, Marriott was told to gaze through a portal and into the fiery furnace. All he could see were red-hot embers and flames.

"That is where you're going to end up because you're an infidel," he was told by a grinning Saudi.

Things never got better and when the two finished their obligations well ahead of their contracted schedule, the Saudi family refused to give them the agreed-upon bonuses.

"They made all kinds of excuses," Beardslee said. "You start to get nervous when they won't honor their obligations, and these were written contracts. We knew our status there was already questionable."

Rather than press for the money they were owed, the pair made secret plans to get out of the country. They spoke of it in private but never on the telephone for fear it might be tapped. Marriott used his daughter's acceptance at an American college as an excuse to get his kids and wife Debbie out of the country in 1996. He shipped most of the family's belongings back to the States, all the time worrying the shipping company would alert his employer to what he was doing.

"You start to build up a paranoia," Marriott said. "For that whole last year, I was a nervous wreck."

The Saudis insisted the two men could not travel together and one or the other always had to be on site. So the pair scheduled back-to-back vacations for themselves. It was the only way they could get their passports returned and secure exit visas to leave the country.

The plan was this: One would go on vacation saying he'd return on the weekend and the other would take off that same weekend. That way, it was Monday before anyone realized they were both gone, back in the United States.

"It took me a good three or four years to relax once we were home," Marriott said. "At night I had dreams of trying to get out. I still have them. I would have (preferred to leave) on good terms but they held all the cards and you held none."

Still, he faxed a letter of resignation to the company, using a post office box number so it couldn't be traced to him. The reply practically accused the pair of absconding with company funds, breaking their contracts and not living up to agreements. It also demanded thousands of dollars from them.

Now, both men said they marvel at the freedoms America offers.

They said they were not surprised about the terrorist attacks, though the scale of it was more than they could have imagined.


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