Posted on 05/30/2004 8:40:34 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie
THE 22 who died came from diverse backgrounds but held a common interest: a fascination with Saudi Arabia and the advantages that the Kindgom offered both financially and personally.
They also shared in common their deaths at the hands of suspected terrorists. One man was asked to stay on the job instead of retiring, to see the company through another two years. Another lived in the Kingdom most of his adult life. Another was a loyal driver who died with his boss.
On Sunday, family, friends and colleagues helped the Saudi Gazette piece together a picture of some of the expatriates who died Saturday in the terrorist attack at Apicorp facilities at Al-Khobar.
Michael Hamilton, 62, was due to retire from the Arab Petroleum Investment Corporation next year. His contract was renewed last year at the request of the management because his services were badly needed by the company. Hamilton was Apicorp s senior manager for trade and finance. He was also lead adviser for Apicorp s hydrocarbon and gas projects.
He was married to Penelope Hamilton. They have children who are professionals, including a lawyer and medical doctor. The children reside in London and Australia.
He initiated the latest investment package for Apicorp that enables the company now to extend financing to project related to power generation and electricity. Apicorp was purely a financing company for oil and petroleum related projects for the Arab countries.
Hamilton, a British citizen from Sussex, was with Apicorp for the last 15 years. He joined Apicorp after working for Abu Dhabi Bank.
He arrived from Cairo, Egypt, last Thursday after attending the Egyptian International Economic Conference where he represented Apicorp. Jesse Navalta, his secretary, said Hamilton was scheduled to go to Dubai to attend a two-day business meeting starting May 30.
He also recently came from India where he recruited project finance managers.
He was a very good boss, a disciplinarian. He considered me his son and a friend, said Navalta, Hamilton s secretary for the past eight years.
P.J. Sarath, his errand boy, said he is sad and deeply shaken by the death of his boss. He was kind-hearted and caring man, he said.
American Frank X. Floyd, about 52 years old, was the deputy general manager for marketing of Resource Science Arabia Limited (RSAL). He was a resident of Saudi Arabia for more than 18 years and resided in Al-Khobar with his wife.
Floyd was active in professional organizations, including the Project Management Institute in which he was longtime member. Last Saturday he was scheduled to have a meeting with a local consulting and engineering company in Al-Khobar.
He was a very nice, quiet person, a friend said. He is very much respected in the local business community of expatriates.
Lawrence Gregory Monis, who was in his early 40s, is the assistant general manager of Sagr Insurance Company for the past 20 years. He was a very nice, gentle person, said a colleague at the insurance company.
Monis was married. He had two children, a boy and a girl. He is from Karnataka, India.
He was preparing for the visit of his family and was very excited about their coming, said Ashraf, a colleague.
Two of the three Filipinos who died were working in the same company called Resource Science Arabia Limited (RSAL). They were Gerry Dizon and Jolly Guiray.
Dizon was RSAL s accountant. He is from Pampanga province, which is located north of Manila. He is about 40 years old, married and had a 5-year old daughter. His wife recently arrived with their daughter for a few months visit.
Jolly Quiray is the driver of Frank Floyd, the American who was killed with the two Filipinos. He is from Makati City, Metro Manila.
The other Filipino casualty, Mariano Cabasab, worked as a cook at the Oasis Hotel s Japanese restaurant. He was 28 years old and came from Cagayan Valley. He is an Ilocano and a bachelor. He shared a room with six other Filipinos: Roy Villalobos, Elvis Vergara, Ricky Maganto, Marvin de Castro, Emil Monazo and Ian Mortel. The roommates said Cabasab was caught in the crossfire when firefight ensued between the terrorists and Saudi military.
Rami, the 7-year-old Egyptian boy who died when the terrorists exploded the vehicle s gasoline tank, is the son of Samer Ghanoni. Rami was with three other children in that bus two girls and a four-year old boy.
The three of them escaped unhurt together with the bus driver. Rami was seated in the front of the bus.
That's what I was getting at. I don't take pleasure in the violent death of innocent people. If they don't treat strangers with kindness, no I wouldn't want to work there. The larger point that goes beyond a paycheck, something I think we can all agree upon here is, that as an American, when I go abroad, I would like to be treated with R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Its not too much to ask for, even in Third World backwaters like Saudi Arabia.
There's a difference between places where we have to be and places where we are supposed to be guests. If we aren't treated like guests in Saudi Arabia its time to pack up and leave before we get slaughtered like animals. As Americans, we're entitled to inalienable human dignity, including the right to live, and we don't require Al Qaeda's permission to keep it. If they want us there, let them stop assaulting our people. Its that simple, amigo.
Evil is the right word.
What concerns me the most is a terrible feeling that 90% of the world's Muslims are about one degree away from "acting-out" in a similar crazed terroristic fashion and thus triggering their own nuclear annihilation at our hands.
I mean, three of four terrorists in this Saudi compound assault got away! Say what? They're all liars. The terrorists, ourFriendstheSaudis, the Religion of Peace, blah blah...
You really need to learn how to read and think, before you let your alligator mouth overload your hummingbird ass.
Semper Fi
Below are the actual voting records of various Arabic/Islamic States which are recorded in both the US State Department and United Nations records:
Kuwait votes against the United States 67% of the time.
Qatar votes against the United States 67% of the time.
Morocco votes against the United States 70% of the time.
United Arab Emirates votes against the U. S. 70% of the time.
Jordan votes against the United States 71% of the time.
Tunisia votes against the United States 71% of the time.
Saudi Arabia votes against the United States 73% of the time.
Yemen votes against the United States 74% of the time.
Algeria votes against the United States 74% of the time.
Oman votes against the United States 74% of the time.
Sudan votes against the United States 75% of the time.
Pakistan votes against the United States 75% of the time.
Libya votes against the United States 76% of the time.
Egypt votes against the United States 79% of the time.
Lebanon votes against the United States 80% of the time.
India votes against the United States 81% of the time.
Syria votes against the United States 84% of the time.
Mauritania votes against the United States 87% of the time.
US Foreign Aid to those that hate us:
Egypt, for example, after voting 79% of the time against the United States, still receives $2 billion annually in US Foreign Aid.
Jordan votes 71% against the United States and receives $192,814,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.
Pakistan votes 75% against the United States receives $6,721,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.
India votes 81% against the United States receives $143,699,000 annually
It is time to get out of the UN and give the tax savings back to the American workers who are having to skimp and sacrifice to pay the taxes.
Now they want to cut oil production, We should cut aid to them by 50% to start.
It would be funny if it weren't so sad:
Let's get our own oil and not have to depend on the Saudis for it -- as long as we don't drill for it.
Let's find other technoligies that don't depend on fossil fuels -- oops, nuclear power is too dangerous.
Gasoline should cost $3 per gallon to force people to conserve -- gasoline costs $2 per gallon and this is an outrage that is hurting the poor people!
Fossil fuels cause global cooling -- fossil fuels cause global warming, so we must ban fossil fuels now.
At last! We can use power lines to bring electricity to everyone -- but power lines emit dangerous electro-magnetic fields so we must ban power lines now.
At last! We can generate cheap, safe electricity using hydroelectric dams -- but dams are big, ugly structures that interfere with the "natural" flow of rivers, so we must ban hydroelectric dams now.
At last! We can generate cheap, safe electricity using windmills -- but windmills are ugly and even kill birds, so we must ban windmills now.
At last! We can generate cheap, safe electricity using solar power -- but solar cell arrays themselves capture a lot of heat from the sun and this may harm the environment (even if the solar cells are in the middle of a desert), so we must ban the use of solar power now.
We need small, fuel-efficient cars -- but these cars are dangerous in an accident, so we must ban small, dangerous cars now.
Bigger vehicles are safer in an accident -- but SUVs are ugly status symbols and use too much fuel, so we must ban SUVs now.
The government should "do something" so that everyone has cheap wireless connectivity to the phone system and the internet -- but cell phone towers are ugly and cell phones emit dangerous radio waves, so we must ban towers and cell phones now.
Those were just the Luddite excuses I could think off the top of my head. I'm sure I could find more if I were to read Al Gore's book.
ROFLOL! Exactly.
You are a stupid man and have no clue about what you speak.
Why do you not blame the terrorhoid?
So if it sounds pretty demented, its cause the Saudis have made their country unsafe for foreign expatriates to work in, not the other way around. Its not the victims fault they got murdered.
Then why did you refer to their salaries as "ill-gotten gains"?
It just seemed to me it was bad luck they tried making a living in a part of the world where they were told in the gristliest possible terms that they weren't welcome.
Bad luck indeed.
Nazi Germany was a part of the world where Jews weren't welcome. Would you have reacted to the murder of Jews there by saying, "Is it really worth it working in a country where Jews are hated?" Or even worse, "I hope they enjoy their ill-gotten gains six feet under."
That would have been a much more reasonable point for him to have made.
I don't see how the phrase "ill-gotten gains", which he used, could possibly relate to this point.
About the only worse example malfeasance in the worlds economies are america democrats. All american democrats even ex-democrats are why the Saudis are NOT afraid to wield their weapon of mass economic degradation. The oil rich sand monkeys are primitives that would'nt even make the Jerry Springer show without american democrat support.
The american democrats moratorium on drilling America for oil (Alaska and other places) are the Saudis greatest political mole. For Alaska has as much or MORE oil than the Saudi peninsula. Why not drill for oil Independence's and maybe even EXPORT ?.. American democrats and a few republicans. A portion of ever dollar that goes to Saudi Arabia ends up in terrorist hands. Islam runs on blood money and Saudi Arabia runs on money period.
The Saudis are a symptom of the problem. American democrats and some, maybe most, ex-democrats are the source. Because without the money to finance islams malfeasance the muslims would be involved in tribal intrigues and further destroying their gene pool and inter tribal murder, as they have for that last 1426 years..
Are American democrats and ex-democrats the most obvious threat to america ?
Answer: Absolutely.. You can remove the democrat from the party, buts its almost impossible to remove the democrat from the democrat. If they had any sense they would'nt have been a democrat at all. Did I say almost impossible, YES, I did.. Well, I'm an optimist..
Probably most of us try to stay out of those too.
We should limit our government aid, our trade, our immigration and student visas to just our allies --- let our enemies start to rot. We need to become self-sufficient in everything possible, develop alternate energy sources so that we can shut down those who don't support us or share our goals.
In a way you would --- would you want to work in Nazi hospitals, work in building up Nazi infrastructure, keep the Nazi economy and society rolling? And in another way --- would you want the Jews to have their own homeland --- Israel, so they would not have to live in a country where they are hated but instead could have their own.
You mean would Jews in Germany have wanted to work in Germany at the time the Nazis gained power? Of course they would have, and did, if/when they were allowed to, one assumes. If/when they got killed for it, you're *really* saying you'd react with the comment "i hope they enjoy their ill gotten gains six feet under"? that *was* my point with the analogy after all
I still can't figure out what the hell the guy meant by calling the salaries of innocent people "ill-gotten gains"
would you want the Jews to have their own homeland --- Israel, so they would not have to live in a country where they are hated but instead could have their own.
Sure ok.
That still doesn't mean that if/when Jews get murdered elsewhere for existing in a place where lots of other people hate them, I'd spit on their graves.
Which is essentially what the guy i was responding to did.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.