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Are Your Children Safe? Abduction of America's Children into Sex Slave Rings and Breeding houses facts you need to know!
Are Your Children Safe? Abduction of America's Children into Sex Slave Rings and Breeding houses facts you need to know! « previous | index | next »
 
 
Daughters of America Saudi Arabia holds U.S. citizens hostage. Will President Bush demand their freedom? Thursday, June 13, 2002 12:01 a.m. EDT Remember the fuss raised by Saudi Arabia's Interior Minister back in January about the U.S. detention of captured Saudi nationals in Guantanamo? "We'll demand that the Saudi detainees be handed over, because they are subject to the Kingdom's rules," Prince Naif told the Arab News back in January. At least the Saudi government speaks up for its (male) citizens. Chairman Dan Burton says his House Government Reform Committee has evidence of some 46 cases involving American citizens held against their will in Saudi Arabia. And his committee has just drafted a bipartisan letter to President Bush, urging him to express the same interest on behalf of these innocent Americans that the Saudi minister showed for his country's captured terrorists. (Even Mr. Burton's arch-foe, Henry Waxman, signed it!) Mr. Burton's letter, which he tells us he hopes to deliver personally, grows out of emotional hearings yesterday in which three American women related their horror stories about being caught between a hostile Saudi law and an ineffective and too often indifferent State Department. As William McGurn reported Tuesday, Pat Roush's two daughters, Alia and Aisha, were kidnapped from America in 1986. On Monday she learned that her Saudi ex-husband has married off Aisha in what she believes is retribution for her participation in these hearings. Dria Davis was luckier: At 13 she escaped from her abusive Saudi father, after getting no help from the U.S. embassy. But perhaps most searing was Monica Stowers's tearful account of having two U.S. Marine guards escort her out of the Riyadh embassy where she'd sought refuge with her children. "One of them apologized to me saying, 'Ma'am, I'm sorry but we're only doing our job.' " Miss Stowers delivered her testimony yesterday via videotape, because she refuses to leave Saudi Arabia so long as the Saudis won't let her daughter depart with her. Now, we sympathize with diplomats trying to uphold American law and interests in difficult parts of the world. That's their job. Unfortunately, the State Department has not yet recognized that when an American child is kidnapped, or when an American woman charged with no crime is held against her will, it's not just an affront to the individual. It's an affront to America. So when the U.S. instructs its ambassadors to "maintain impartiality," it sends a terrible signal to foreign nations. We also have to believe that U.S. Marines don't sign up for duty believing they'll be called upon to do the dirty work of removing desperate American mothers and children from the premises. Certainly the Saudis picked up on it. As a Saudi official sneered when Miss Stowers showed up on his doorstep, "Why don't you go to your government for help?" When asked about these cases during his briefing Tuesday, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher again referred to them as "civil matters" between individuals, not state-to-state issues. In the specific case of Pat Roush's daughters, he further argued that "at this point they're adults and they need to decide on their own." Our friends the Saudis must have had a good laugh at that one. Saudi law forbids women of any age from leaving their country without permission. Another way of stating those same facts would be to say that two adult U.S. citizens are trapped in a country where women are treated as the property of men, with no way of knowing what they really think. The only way to let these and other women "decide on their own" is to insist, as Mrs. Roush requests, that they be permitted to come to America and speak for themselves. For too long State has let the Saudis hide behind the pretense that they are handcuffed by a Saudi law that gives all rights to men, as if that feudal state were some kind of democracy. This tolerance for what amounts to kidnapping is one more example, like funding madrassa schools that teach the hatred of America, of the way the Saudis treat their supposed ally with contempt. The fact is that the Saudis could issue exit visas to these innocent Americans any time they wanted. With President Bush set to meet Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al Faisal today, we can't think of a better time to ask.

Comments (2) | Add a Comment

I have a friend who ran away from her abusive Saudi husband last year. Now she's afraid that he can come to the USA and take their daughter back to Saudi Arabia or file charges against her. She was married in Saudi Arabia, but not in the USA and she never legally divorced him in Saudi Arabia. Do you know if the abusive Saudi husband has any legal recourse against her? Thank you for any information you can provide.
Tom Anderson | foofy007@yahoo.com | July 10, 2012

I am responding to Tom.

Tom, you didn't state whether the woman was originally a United States citizen or a Saudi citizen. I say "originally," because Saudi Arabia does NOT acknowledge dual citizenship like the USA does. If your friend was a US citizen when she married in the KSA she, according to Saudi law, lost her USA citizenship and became a full Saudi citizen by marriage, and is fully under Saudi law. If your friend was a US citizen at the time of her marriage, the USA recognizes her as BOTH a US citizen AND a Saudi citizen. This poses a few problems internationally.

Because she is not divorced, she is still considered a Saudi citizen in Saudi Arabia and is still subjected to the full course of Saudi laws. If she left the country illegally and is out of the country without her husband's permission that could carry severe penalties for her upon return, i.e. flogging, or execution. She should NEVER go back now, not for ANY reason!!!

If she's NOT originally a US citizen she NEEDS to apply for asylum in the USA from Saudi Arabia ASAP. She needs to speak to an FBI agent who specializes in Saudi Arabian culture and to an FBI VICTIM ADVOCATE. Do not speak to anyone else but a VICTIM ADVOCATE!!

Something I hate to say but her best bet for asylum might be England, not the USA. England WILL prosecute Saudis INCLUDING members of the royal family, and obtaining diplomatic immunity is more difficult there. She might consider going to England. She could call an organization called "The Helen Bamber foundation." They might, I say "might," be able to help her. Regardless, however, she needs to apply for asylum be it her in the USA or England - for herself AND her children. Here's why:

Depending on the financial means of the Saudi husband, if he is wealthy, 9 times out of 10 he will make plans to bring her and the children back to the country. The wealthy Saudis are very patient, very smart, and will wait till she thinks "it's all over, he's not going to do anything," and let enough time pass that she will "get comfortable" and "careless." When she starts to think "the coast is clear" that's EXACTLY when he will do something! She will need to guard her children AT ALL TIMES ALWAYS FOR ALL YEARS TILL ADULTHOOD!! Sorry, but letting them walk to and from school alone is not a luxury your friend can afford. Sorry...her life must now change. She cannot live like "everyone else." Sorry.

If the Saudi is not wealthy, then her chances are MUCH MUCH better.


amybelle | amybelleanderson@gmail.com | June 05, 2013