Back in August 2002, a congressional delegation was traveling around Saudi Arabia, home to 15 of the 19 al Qaeda hijackers who less than a year earlier had launched the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

On one leg of the trip, in a big, white embassy van, Republican Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan, a former FBI agent, turned to the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Robert Jordan. He asked Jordan, in light of how the Sept. 11 attacks had revealed the Saudis’ role in nurturing al Qaeda-connected charities and religious schools, whether Jordan, a big-time Houston oil and gas lawyer, would be the first U.S. ambassador to not go to work for the Saudis after leaving his post.

Jordan, who had George W. Bush as a client before he went to the White House, considered Rogers’ question for a moment, and then politely declined to “take the pledge,” according to a witness who recalled the episode.

Not that it mattered: Jordan’s firm, Baker Botts LLP — that would be James A. Baker III, secretary of State in the first Bush administration and lawyer for the second Bush in the 2000 Florida election deadlock — already had a host of business clients in the royal kingdom, with offices in Riyadh and Dubai.

In any event, Jordan in 2003 joined the long list of U.S. ambassadors and other former American officials working directly or indirectly for the Saudi royal family.

Rogers last week introduced a bill that would bar federal employees from representing foreign governments for four years after they leave public service. Also last week, the House overwhelmingly approved a resolution (H Res 648) that sharply curtails lobbyists by foreign agents on the House floor.

Rep. Frank R. Wolf, R-Va., plans similar legislation, but more narrowly targeted diplomatic and intelligence officials. He called the practice of ambassadors — and former CIA officials — representing the Saudis, or other governments where they had worked, “scandalous.”

“It’s a great honor to be an American ambassador, to represent the United States,” Wolf said by telephone. “And we have some great ambassadors. But with that, to whom much is given, much is required.”

Reached in Houston, Jordan said he doesn’t remember “all the details of that conversation,” but added: “At that time I certainly didn’t have any intention of representing Saudi interests. It was premature in any event, because I was still pretty much in office.”

Pressed further, he said, “I remember someone bringing it up, and it may well have been Congressman Rogers.”

Rogers declined to comment on the matter.

Actually, it would be big news if a senior U.S. diplomat in the Middle East did not accept the warm embrace of the Saudis or other despots upon leaving the region.

They are sprinkled all over Washington, particularly in such well-known Saudi-supported think tanks as the Middle East Institute (MEI).

Two former top American diplomats in Saudi Arabia lead the MEI — Wyche Fowler Jr. (chairman), ambassador to Riyadh from 1996 to 2001, and Edward “Ned” Walker (president), a former deputy chief of the U.S. embassy there and at one time the State Department's deputy assistant secretary for the Near East. MEI’s vice president, David Mack, was an ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and, like Walker, a top Near East official at the State Department. Also at MEI is Richard Parker, former ambassador to Algeria, Lebanon, and Morocco, and Michael Sterner, former ambassador to UAE and deputy assistant secretary of Near Eastern Affairs.

Chas. W. Freeman Jr., another former U.S. ambassador to the kingdom, is president of the Saudi-backed Middle East Policy Council. Another ambassador, Walter Cutler, leads the Saudi-backed Meridian International Center.

From the Saudi point of view, all this is a good thing.

The legendary former Saudi ambassador to Washington Prince Bandar bin Sultan was quoted in The Washington Post a few years back as saying, “If the reputation then builds that the Saudis take care of friends when they leave office, you’d be surprised how much better friends you have who are just coming into office.”

Rogers’ bill would prohibit U.S. officials from leaving office and lobbying “on behalf of any foreign entity.”

Wolf’s bill “will be much more narrow, focused primarily on ambassadors and [CIA] station chiefs,” said an aide.

Wolf is concerned about Saudi Arabia’s influence. But he’s also watching China.

Last July he sent a blistering letter to the Washington powerhouse firm of Akin Gump, which represented the China National Offshore Oil Corp. during some of its aggressive takeover bids here last year. One of its partners was a member of the president’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.

“That’s just not appropriate,” Wolf said.

Jeff Stein can be reached via jstein@cq.com.