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Intel: How Congress is trying to get US prisoners out of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey

US embassy charge d'affaires Jeffrey Hovenier (L) leaves the Caglayan courthouse on May 15,  2019, in Istanbul, after US consular staffer Metin Topuz was ordered to remain in custody after the latest hearing in his trial on espionage charges -- part of a growing rift between Washington and Ankara. - Topuz was arrested in 2017 and accused of contacts with police and a prosecutor suspected of ties to US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara says ordered an attempted coup in 2016. (Photo by Bulent

Congress is cracking down on increased instances of arrests of US citizens and diplomatic staff by American security partners in the Middle East.

The Senate’s foreign aid panel on Thursday adopted bipartisan language in a report accompanying its annual spending bill that would bar Saudi, Egyptian and Turkish officials from entering the United States if they have been “involved in the wrongful detention” of US citizens or locally employed staff at US diplomatic missions.

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