Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Sarah defies Saudi thugs, won't leave without kids!
WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Friday, June 20, 2003 | Pat Roush

Posted on 06/19/2003 11:45:45 PM PDT by JohnHuang2

On the eve of her 24th birthday, Sarah Saga, the courageous, young woman who has sought sanctuary inside the U.S. Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for the past five days, was brought face-to-face with members of the Saudi government inside her living quarters. She was not given the choice of refusing these uninvited guests, but told by U.S. consular officers that she must comply with Saudi demands for a meeting.

As Sarah and her two young children huddled in a corner of the room, three Saudi men from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs approached her. She had grown up in a household with an abusive Saudi father who had beaten her on a regular basis, threatened her with a knife, and locked her up in a room for two years as revealed to me in an audiotaped interview a few weeks ago. Now, her worst nightmare was coming true – Saudi men again intimating her and scaring her right inside the U.S. Consulate and in her own bedroom.

One of them said, "Let us tell you what your problem is – but your option is only one." The nervous, frightened woman signed the document placed before her and then the men left. The arrangements had been made. Sarah was to be placed on a commercial airliner at 2 a.m. this morning and her children were to be given to relatives. The Saudis wanted to end this "hostage situation" and get back to their PR campaign in the U.S.

But Sarah has decided that she won't go. "I will never leave my children here to suffer the same horrible life that I had to endure," she tells a Fox News audience. She has locked herself inside her room and keeps her little ones close by.

A couple of days ago, Sarah told her mom that she had a piece of chocolate cake at the consulate cafeteria. "I told Sarah we'll have a big chocolate cake for her birthday when she comes home. That was her favorite."

Birthdays aren't celebrated in Saudi Arabia. They consider it a Western holiday. When I met my daughters in a hotel room in Riyadh eight years ago, Aisha didn't even know her correct age. I brought Alia a "Sweet Sixteen" birthday card as a present, but she was perplexed by it all.

This will be the first birthday in eighteen years that Sarah Saga will celebrate. Although she may be alone in a room in the U.S. Consulate with danger all around her, she can have her chocolate cake with her kids and we can each light one candle for Sarah and pray for her safe return.


Fox News has posted addresses of U.S. officials that can be contacted to express support for Saga in her quest for freedom for both herself and her children.




TOPICS: Editorial; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 161-169 next last
To: swarthyguy
I agree. From what I've heard about her story from her mother - Sara's mom married a Saudi. When they divorced, she visited her dad in Saudi Arabia. One visit, he simply stopped her from leaving, forcibly converted her to Islam, and married her off, where her children came from. Now that she is a Saudi wife, she has no rights to speak of and is not considered an American citizen by that country any longer. They want her children, to keep their bloodlines clean of inbreeding, which is one of the reasons they are always trying to marry Europeans and Westerners.
21 posted on 06/20/2003 2:59:23 PM PDT by cgk (Rummy on WMD: We haven't found Saddam Hussein yet, but I don't see anyone saying HE didn't exist.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: cgk
Was Sara born in the US? Was she ever a citizen or merely the child of her mother and the Saudi husband and a divorce pawn?
22 posted on 06/20/2003 3:09:31 PM PDT by KC Burke
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: KC Burke
Sara was born in the US from the story I've heard (several times now) on FNC... after the divorce she visited her dad and one day, never came back.
23 posted on 06/20/2003 3:13:56 PM PDT by cgk (Rummy on WMD: We haven't found Saddam Hussein yet, but I don't see anyone saying HE didn't exist.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: LibertyLight
God Speed Sarah! Make it home safely! We'll all be praying for you until you are home safe and sound.
24 posted on 06/20/2003 3:14:28 PM PDT by PeaceCorpsGuy (Boycott Saudi Arabia!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: cgk
So she grew to adolesence in SA and was married in an arranged marriage and had two children, by that marriage, in Saudi Arabia. Is there any dispute that the children of Sara aren't US citizens or should not be subject to the laws of the land of their birth and the native country of their father?
25 posted on 06/20/2003 3:19:33 PM PDT by KC Burke
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: KC Burke
I found more on the story here at World Net Daily, though it is differing slightly from what Sara's mom has been saying on the FNC shows, who made it sound like Sara visited dad on her own, not at age 5 or so:

Sarah Saga, 23, was kidnapped by her father as a child in 1985 and taken to the kingdom. She has been prohibited from leaving there ever since. As has happened with other Americans, Saga was married off to a Saudi and bore her own children. Now the woman, who claims to have been abused by her father, stepmother and husband, has sought refuge in the U.S. Consulate. She is pleading with U.S. officials to help her and her children, age 3 and 5, travel to America. According to her mother, Debra Dornier, however, Saga has been told if she leaves, her Saudi-born children must stay in the kingdom.

26 posted on 06/20/2003 3:20:12 PM PDT by cgk (Rummy on WMD: We haven't found Saddam Hussein yet, but I don't see anyone saying HE didn't exist.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: KC Burke
In that WND article I just posted, a US official is saying that Sara's children would be considered American citizens as well as Saudi citizens. Saudi Law does not recognize dual citizenship.
27 posted on 06/20/2003 3:22:05 PM PDT by cgk (Rummy on WMD: We haven't found Saddam Hussein yet, but I don't see anyone saying HE didn't exist.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: lavaroise
The problem is the kids. They are not American citizens.
28 posted on 06/20/2003 3:24:36 PM PDT by cinFLA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: JohnHuang2
I sure hope President Bush does something about this situation pronto before Jesse Jackson decides to go to Saudi Arabia to save the day.

leni

29 posted on 06/20/2003 3:26:01 PM PDT by MinuteGal (Click Any Ship Icons to Link to Our "After-Cruise Report Buzz & Pics" Thread !)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Courier
These are Americans.

She is an American and is free to leave. The kids are not American citizens.

30 posted on 06/20/2003 3:28:08 PM PDT by cinFLA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: cinFLA
Of course they're American citizens. Any child born to an American Citizen has citizenship rights. They'll have all the rights of a citizen until they reach the age of 18, when they have to make a choice.

The above being subject to their presence in the US, of course....

31 posted on 06/20/2003 3:33:35 PM PDT by Ready4Freddy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: Ready4Freddy
Of course they're American citizens.

I hope you are not a lawyer.

32 posted on 06/20/2003 3:35:29 PM PDT by cinFLA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: cgk
In that WND article I just posted, a US official is saying that Sara's children would be considered American citizens as well as Saudi citizens.

No US official is quoted. They only say some US official said something. And it could be that he was wrong.

33 posted on 06/20/2003 3:37:13 PM PDT by cinFLA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: JohnHuang2
Our friends, the Saudi's.........
34 posted on 06/20/2003 3:37:16 PM PDT by tuna_battle_slight_return (Foam is good; foam saves lives.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: tuna_battle_slight_return
Our friends, the Saudi's.........

Would you want the US to turn over two American kids against their father's wishes to their non-American mother in another country?

35 posted on 06/20/2003 3:39:59 PM PDT by cinFLA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: Ready4Freddy
I just read your homepage. You have immigration law as a specialty.
36 posted on 06/20/2003 3:41:33 PM PDT by cinFLA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: cinFLA
If the mother was born in the US, the children are US citizens.

As my page indicates, I am an attorney. Mostly maritime law, but immigration as well.

37 posted on 06/20/2003 3:43:33 PM PDT by Ready4Freddy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: cinFLA
No US official is quoted. They only say some US official said something. And it could be that he was wrong.

Correct. The official is not quoted by name but the article says this is the something that was supposedly said to AP:

According to the AP report, a U.S. official said today that the children, being of an American mother, were also American. Saudi Arabia, however, does not recognize dual citizenship.

I wasn't trying to play semantics, honest. It's one of my least favorite games. :)

38 posted on 06/20/2003 3:46:40 PM PDT by cgk (Rummy on WMD: We haven't found Saddam Hussein yet, but I don't see anyone saying HE didn't exist.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: Courier
These are Americans. They are being held hostage.

Are they dual citizens? Don't the children have a Saudi father and a half-American mother and weren't they born in Saudi Arabia?

39 posted on 06/20/2003 3:52:33 PM PDT by FITZ
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Ready4Freddy; cinFLA
"If the mother was born in the US, the children are US citizens."

There are exceptions, of course, as to whether or not the children acquire US citizenship at birth. The mother's absence from the US will pertain here. I don't think there's any doubt that the children may opt for US Citizenship at age 18, if they can make it to the States.

The main issues here are that 1) - Saudi doesn't recognize dual citizenship to begin with, and 2) - they don't recognize any rights except Saudi male rights. It'll be almost impossible to get the kids out of the country - they can't just walk up to a airline counter and hop on a plane there.

40 posted on 06/20/2003 3:56:37 PM PDT by Ready4Freddy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 161-169 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson