Posted on 11/22/2006 7:11:10 AM PST by goldstategop
While Americans celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow, Saudi Arabians already had theirs over the weekend.
Tomorrow, we eat turkey. Over the weekend, the Saudis had us begging to eat crow over a man named Turki.
In an utter display of American weakness and shame, Colorado Attorney General John Suthers traveled to Saudi Arabia to apologize. Apologize for the American justice system and virtually everything else that America stands for.
Suthers went to Saudi Arabia to apologize for the conviction of Homaidan Al-Turki. Just before Labor Day, Al-Turki was sentenced to 27 years to life in a Colorado prison for keeping a slave and raping her, among other crimes.
Extremist Makeover: Homaidan Al-Turki & Wife Sarah, Before & After
Al-Turki, from a prominent Saudi religious family, was in Denver seeking his Ph.D. at Colorado University. This summer, he was convicted of sexually assaulting his Indonesian housekeeper, whom he and his wife--also convicted--kept as a slave. The Al-Turkis' abuse of this fellow Muslim went on for five years. They brought the 24-year-old woman to their home in Aurora, Colorado to serve as their cook, maid, nanny, and apparently "marital aid" (or in this case, also, "marital aide").
Mr. Al-Turki was convicted of felony counts of unlawful sexual contact by use of force, theft, and extortion, and misdemeanor counts of false imprisonment and conspiracy to commit false imprisonment. He and his wife confiscated the woman's passport and kept her prisoner.
When it was time for Al-Turki--like any other American resident convicted of any crime--to ask for the mercy of the court, he chose a different tack: chutzpah. Al-Turki's statement to Judge Mark Hannen at sentencing was simply stunning:
Your honor, I am not here to apologize, for I cannot apologize for things I did not do and for crimes I did not commit. The state has criminalized these basic Muslim behaviors. Attacking traditional Muslim behaviors was the focal point of the prosecution. No, upholding American laws against slavery, false imprisonment, and rape was the focal point of the prosecution. But that's something that our State Department--and apparently Colorado's chief law enforcement officer--now don't understand.
In an unprecedented move, the State Department flew Attorney General Suthers to Saudi Arabia to personally explain--and apologize for--Al-Turki's conviction to Saudi King Abdullah. Yes, U.S. taxpayers paid for this outrageous trip, though now Suthers is claiming Abdullah decided to reimburse the tab.
Suthers flew 19 hours to answer to leaders of another sovereign nation for enforcing the laws of Colorado. And apparently, he contracted a rapidly infectious case of Stockholm Syndrome during his stay, calling his pander-tour "the adventure of a lifetime."
Monday, he lectured the media that King Abdullah et al simply can't understand "that an Indonesian maid was considered a competent witness in our courts."
He also instructed that Abdullah and company were upset that they couldn't just buy their way out of it and pay off the maid. "They didn't understand how that wasn't possible here," Suthers said.
Suthers said that, under Saudi law, four eyewitnesses are needed to prove a rape case. Memo to Suthers: You are the Attorney General of Colorado, not Saudi Arabia. The four witnesses is taken from Islamic law, since Saudi Arabia is a theocracy. We are not. And that should be the end of the story.
Our "friends," the Saudis can't get over Al-Turki's conviction. Saudi state-run media, under King Abdullah's complete control, continues to portray the Saudi slavemaster in America as the victim of a judicial system biased against Muslims.
This is the same judicial system that failed to convict Islamic Jihad frontman Sami Al-Arian, despite six-months worth of overwhelming evidence. The same judicial system that failed to convict Saudi national, Sami Omar Al-Hussayen, of terrorism, despite his creation and oversight of terrorist-related websites calling for planes to fly into buildings . . . well before 9/11.
The same judicial system that agonized for over a year on the fate of Zacarias Moussaoui, and spared his life despite his prior knowledge of the impending murder of 3,000 Americans. The same judicial system that overturned--on the flimsiest of reasons--solid convictions of Al-Qaeda terrorists who comprised the Detroit terror cell. The same judicial system that has now indicted the valiant and innocent prosecutor of that terror cell. The same judicial system that overturned the NSA wiretaps of suspected Al-Qaeda terrorists.
2 Turkeys: Colorado Attorney General John Suthers & Fellow Cooked Bird
If anything that system has bent over backwards in favor of Muslims, to no avail in the Muslim world.
But that's not the point. Our judicial system is not perfect. It is, however, the fairest in the world. And we chose it. We need not apologize for it to anyone, much less the bloated self-anointed king of a totalitarian state. We need not apologize for it to the man from whose country 15 of 19 hijackers emanated.
We have many foreign nationals convicted in America, every single day. But American taxpayers don't send them to foreign lands to "explain" why they were found guilty.
The Saudis understand our legal system very well. They did not just discover America. The Saudi government pays for the best legal eagles for its nationals in America, when they are accused of a crime. The Saudis funded an absurd website comparing Al-Turki to the Statue of Liberty (strangely, the site's English version was removed). This sudden summons of a top American law enforcement official to "explain" is absurd and degrading. More absurd is that U.S. officials complied and went along with the act.
Can you imagine the U.S. sending a state Attorney General to explain to Hitler why we allow Blacks and Jews to serve as witnesses in our courts and why enslaving and raping them for five years is a crime?
In those days, America did not apologize for being a just society. These days, America just apologizes.
Colorado Attorney General Suthers is the latest emblem of those endless apologies to those who hate us. He can write his political epitaph with it.
Tomorrow, it's doubtful Suthers will be eating turkey like the rest of us. He's still digesting all the Saudi crow he consumed.
Sorry, but what do you think an "apologetic" is? Hippies always saying they're sorry for what the US is like? Nope, it's when they try to excuse the enemy.
"But he didn't apologize. He did go to EXPLAIN, but it isn't likely a rare occurance to explain things to foreigners.
If there was an American who was imprisoned in a foreign country, and we had doubts over whether they received a fair trial, I would expect that we could pay for someone from that country to fly over here and explain it to us so we could be sure justice was being served. And I doubt anybody here would complain."
“If there was an American who was imprisoned in a foreign country, and we had doubts over whether they received a fair trial, I would expect that we could pay for someone from that country to fly over here and explain it to us so we could be sure justice was being served. And I doubt anybody here would complain.”
I suppose that you have a point. But don’t you think that just going there to “explain” our system is an apology of sorts. Certainly it’s a “defense” of our American way of life, which I would think that the Saudi king by now understands if he has read our Constitution and our Bill Of Rights. I think that most of the problem with Islam is that its believers think that their laws are naturally superior to, and should override, all man-made laws including those of equal rights. And I doubt that they will ever change even if we send an envoy to “defend” every US law that every Muslim violates. Every American traveler who enters a foreign country is warned that they are bound by the laws of that country, not by US law. If I’m caught carrying a gun in Mexico or spitting on the sidewalk in Singapore, I can’t expect an official of that government to travel to the US to justify their laws.
Finally, my quarrel is not really with the Colorado AG as much as with our State Department. I believe that it is arrogant and deft to the desires and needs of most Americans.
The State Department arranged the trip to try to smooth relations with a country, like it or not, we count as an ally.
I don't know. If I have a question about my taxes, I call the IRS, and they explain to me exactly why they made the changes they made. They aren't apologizing for them, they are answering my questions.
If you receive a sentence in court, you might ask the judge to explain the sentence, he isn't going to apologize.
We are always calling people to explain things to us, and if they are nice people they will explain nicely so we can understand.
In this case, a high-profile member of Saudi society is going to jail for a LONG LONG time, and the Saudi government really wanted to hear directly from someone in charge exactly what the evidence was so they could understand.
Sure, it's "special treatment", but we GIVE special treatment to dignitaries and foreign leaders.
In the story last week about John Edwards and the Playstation 3, lost in the obvious humor of it all was that some 20-something kid called Walmart to ask for special treatment, and actually got direct attention of a high official, and a call-back explaining the policy. I am pretty sure you or I would not get that treatment, he got it because he invoked the name of a FORMER senator and FORMER VP candidate.
I'm not saying it is completely fair, but I hardly see it as a major scandal, or even surprising, that we would offer a face-to-face explanation about why we are sending the guy to jail for 28 years, upon request and payment for service by the head of Saudi Arabia.
Yes, that is what an "apologetic" is, and that is most certainly NOT the definition Debbie was invoking in her statement. And in an "apologetic", you are not "apologizing", you are explaining.
Although you can be called an "apologist" for it, you would not be apologizing.
I lived in Saudi Arabia for three years and abuse of domestic workers is common. There is an office that is responsible for monitoring conditions and protecting workers but they don't have a lot of power.
When you go to work there your employer takes your passport and you are issued an iqama which has your photo and serves as your identity card and work permit. Women who agree to go work there from third-world countries know full well what kind of thing they are getting into but most sign up and take their chances.
Saudi's are kind of schizo over abuse of women. A Saudi Marine guard at our housing compound was beaten and jailed because he searched a car containing the Thai wife of one of our contractors and without removing her from the car put his hand under the front seat behind her legs to feel around.
He arrived back several weeks later with his head shaved, which is done in prison, quite subdued.
The other point mentioned was about Abdullah's confusion over why the charges couldn't have been dealt with a payoff. The Saudi government reportedly paid $322,000 to defend this guy. In Sharia, it is both allowed and expected that 'blood money' can be paid to resolve claims.
I'm not totally against it and saw it work in Saudi Arabia where some poor shlub would run over a Saudi crossing the highway in the dark. People donate money to 'blood money' funds to pay off victims. Muslims are encouraged to forgive transgressions against them and their families and often do, even murders. They'll stage this stuff. Just before the swordsman swings the sword a family representative will step forward and forgive the murderer. The crowd loves it and it always makes the paper as an example of good behavior.
Americans and Brits were quite favored in the Saudi legal system even when they egregiously violated the law there. Two British nurses convicted of murder were not executed when I was there although it was clear they murdered another nurse, an Australian.
The Saudi's desperately didn't want to execute these women although they have no problem when it comes to Nigerians, Pakistanis or Philipinos. They convinced the Australian woman's family to accept the blood money which reportedly was over two million bucks.
I'm guessing the Saudi government, or maybe even the Brits, donated the money. I don't remember that the Australians brother, who was recognized by the Saudis as the family head, was real happy about it but he did it. At one point he seemed quite firm in his opinion that he would be pleased if the mandated sentence for murder under Sharia would be carried out. I think the anti-death penalty people in Britain and Australia finally wore him down.
Story here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/97099.stm
Quite honestly, I think the Saudi guy got an excessive sentence, but one that is quite common here for that category of crime.
The Saudis seem to have forgotten an episode a few years ago where some Saudi guys going to school here murdered another Saudi student. It was a difficult crime to solve, to get enough evidence to convict, but they did. Interestingly, some of the perps escaped to Saudi before Colorado LE could get them. The punishment in Saudi was much less than the guy got here. Perhaps it was the blood money thing you explained.
"Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute."
WHY THE HECK DOES HE NEED TO DO THAT? THAT'S A BS WAY OF SAYING HE WENT TO "EXPLAIN," EXCUSE, APOLOGIZE, ETC. THE FACT IS--AS I SAID QUITE CLEARLY IN THIS COLUMN--THE SAUDIS KNOW ABOUT OUR LAWS. MANY OF THEM STUDY AND LIVE HERE (UNFORTUNATELY). KING ABDULLAH IS QUITE AWARE OF HOW OUR COUNTRY AND LEGAL SYSTEM WORKS.
SUTHERS HAD NO BUSINESS GOING THERE. WILL HE GO TO EVERY SINGLE COUNTRY THAT HAS NATIONALS HE PROSECUTES? IT'S ABSURD. THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR HIS TRIP. NO "INVESTIGATION" NEEDED. THE STORY IS QUITE CLEAR. PLEASE WAKE UP. DEBBIE SCHLUSSEL
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
As your probably aware most of the population of S.A. belongs to a religion that would be perfectly happy with slitting your throat whilst stepping on your chest to speed up the bleeding out just because your not one of them. This religion of submit or die was effectively on trial in the Co. AG's jurisdiction.
The rulers of S.A. arraigned this BS diplomatic meeting to show their intolerant masses that they looking out for the interests of their subjects.
I'm with you, I wish we did not have to do business with these beverly hillbillies of the middle east we have no choice but to do business with these beverly hillbillies of the middle east and such diplomatic posturing is necessary.
DS might live in a vaccum but our Republic does not.
She did seem to be kicked off Jewish World Review long ago with no explanation.
INTREP - War on Americanism...and America - from within!
Mike Coffman for senate. Colorado's new Secretary of state (former Treasurer) and Iraq War vet hero.
I had thought that Suthers would be a great candidate to succeed Wayne Allard (whom I expect to retire). In the immortal words of Emily Litella, "Nevermind."
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