Official U.S. regrets were expressed yesterday that all American reporters traveling with Secretary of State Cyrus Vance were identified as Christians on their hotel registration forms in Saudi Arabia.
According to reports received here, a U.S. official explained in Taif, Saudi Arabia, where Vance was meeting Saudi officials, that he filled out the registration forms to save the reporters time. He said he gave no thought to any religious matter. Saudi Arabia has long been biased against Jews entering their country although it has made exceptions, notably Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and the newsmen accompanying him.
Some of the reporters in the Vance party were Jewish. At least three of them changed the religious identification on the forms to reflect that fact. Hodding Carter, Vance’s press assistant, said that the completion in advance of the hotel forms “is a mistake which we sincerely regret.” He said “The action does not reflect either Embassy or U.S. government policy.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
