Rocky Mtn News: House Slaves - Saudi dignitaries abuse servants

[Turn CO Blue]

<http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/opinion/article/0,1299,DRMN_38_3864183,00.html>

House slaves

Saudi dignitaries living in U.S. no strangers to grave abuse of servants

By Daniel Pipes
June 18, 2005

Homaidan Al-Turki, 36, and his wife, Sarah Khonaizan, 35, appear to be a model immigrant couple. Having arrived in the United States in 2000, they live with their four children in an upscale Denver suburb. Al-Turki is a graduate student in linguistics at the University of Colorado, specializing in Arabic intonation and focus prosody. He donates money to the Linguistic Society of America and is the former co-owner of Al-Basheer Publications and Translations, a bookstore specializing in titles about Islam.

Last week, however, the FBI accused the couple of enslaving a young Indonesian woman. For four years, reads the indictment, they created "a climate of fear and intimidation through rape and other means." The slave woman cooked, cleaned, took care of children, and more for less than $60 a month, fearing that if she did not obey, "she would suffer serious harm."

(snip)
The U.S. State Department knows about the forced servitude in Saudi households and laws exist to combat this scourge but, as Mowbray argues, it "refuses to take measures to combat it." Finally, Saudis know they can get away with nearly any misbehavior. Their embassy provides funds, letters of support, lawyers, retroactive diplomatic immunity, former U.S. ambassadors as troubleshooters, and even aircraft out of the country; it also keeps pesky witnesses away.

Given the U.S. government's louche attitude toward the Saudis, slavery in Denver, Miami, Washington, Houston, Boston, and Orlando hardly comes as a surprise. Only when Washington more robustly represents American interests will Saudi behavior improve. Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum and author of Miniatures (Transaction Publishers).

(bold emphasis mine)
(more...)

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Yeah, as the article states, Saudi dignitaries are even provided "aircraft" to get "out of the country" ...like after 9/11. And don't forget how their dignitaries play holdy-hands and kissy-face with "Commander diputS"! Aaaaarrrggghhh! I'm not against Saudi citizens, just Saudi dignitaries and royals who enslave, violate and intimidate people for years. :spank:

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tcb

[htuttle]

1. Take note of the schism this article represents

Daniel Pipes is a bigtime Neocon. He's in the neocon/Likudnik wing of the Republican party (which would just as soon invade Saudi Arabia). The Saudis are defended by the big oil/big money part of the Republican party of which the Bushes are founding members, and are fine with the Saudis since the make so much money off of them.

The schism is between the Neocon/pro-Israel factions versus the pro-Saudi/Big Oil factions. They cooperated to enable the invasion of Iraq because it seemed to advance both their interests, but I think both expected to get the upper hand over the other. With the occupation going into a ditch, they've been doing a lot of finger pointing at each other.

I do wonder sometimes whether it's a form of 'good cop/bad cop' as far as relations with the Saudis are concerned, but it seems to go much deeper than that.

Realpolitik aside, it's disgusting that the US allows any form of slavery within it's borders.

[KoKo]

Thanks for the insight on that. When I saw Pipe's name that flagged

in the article...and I wondered what was up.

[Turn CO Blue]

2. Yep. Some choice we have for papers

the News or the Post? Hmmm. Root canal or tooth extraction? Didn't the Post used to be considered a good paper?

Anyway, my real point for posting was the treatment of that poor woman. There's likely another story underneath, because the FBI is involved.

[MountainLaurel]

3. Seems to be SOP for the Saudis

There was a similar case in DC a couple years ago with one of the "servants" for a member of the Saudi royal family.