According to the U.S. State Department, Alia and Aisha Gheshayan, two American children abducted by their Saudi father nearly 17 years ago, now are, as adult American women (ages 20 and 23), quite happy living in a country other American women would consider a prison. So happy, in fact, that they decided, in State’s words, to go “on vacation” in London the very same weekend a congressional delegation arrived in Saudi Arabia to rescue them.

The bipartisan delegation, led by Rep Dan Burton, Republican of Indiana, did accomplish something American diplomats have not in more than a decade of half-hearted trying: They got the Saudi foreign minister to promise that any adult American women in Saudi Arabia would be given exit visas without regard to Saudi law that requires permission of husbands or fathers. It is a promise yet to be fulfilled, but for the 15 adult American women in question, at least it is a promise.

The central purpose of the congressional trip, however, was 46 child custody disputes between the United States and Saudi Arabia, involving 92 American citizens who are children or, as in the Gheshayan case, abducted children now grown to adulthood. On that matter, there was no progress – the Saudi promise made no mention of it.

And in the Gheshayan case, there was cold, calculated deception, aided and abetted by U.S. State Department cowardice. This is the most high profile of the disputes; the American mother, Patricia Roush, was a star witness at the House hearings held by Rep. Burton in June, she has attracted widespread media coverage, the story of how her little girls were taken from their suburban Chicago home by their Saudi father in 1986 is well known. For more than a month, congressional staff worked with the Saudis to establish ground rules under which they could meet with the women, under which Ms. Roush could meet with her daughters and under which these American citizens would be permitted to come back to America.

After the delegation arrived, however, the Saudis announced that their two biggest problems suddenly had decided to take a trip to London. Instead of meeting with members of Congress or their mother, the Gheshayan women were kept under wraps in a London hotel. Their only non-Saudi contact was a State Department official who took a statement in which they said they did not want to return to the United States, not even for a visit.

It’s bad enough that State would participate in this charade, even worse that it goes out of its way to affix a stamp of legitimacy. No one really believes that two young women, after living under restrictive conditions of Saudi Arabia, would go on vacation to one of the world’s great cities yet never leave their hotel, or that they would seek out to meet, of all the exciting possible new acquaintances, only a career government bureaucrat. No one believes that except the U.S. State Department.

The reason for this failure of the American government to stand up for these American citizens is a deep and longstanding fear of alienating our oil-rich Saudi “friends.” It is a fear that originated several administrations ago but that persists in the current one. Despite all that is known about Saudi support for and encouragement of the fundamentalist Islamic ideology behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, it is a friendship that endures.