Sarah defies Saudi thugs, won't leave without kids!

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Friday, June 20, 2003 | Pat Roush

[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.

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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.

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[JohnHuang2]

Friday, June 20, 2003

Quote of the Day by Jim Robinson

[LibertyLight]

Thank you for posting this crucially serious matter.
What can we do? I know that we must pray for God's protective hand to take care and make the way for this mother and her children to return to America.
Can all the FReepers write, call, fax the President, American Consulate, etc...?
I think we really truly need to do all possible to help this woman.
May God's hand of freedom swoop her and her children from the evil Saudi system...PLEASE HELP AND PRAY FOR SARAH!

[Banjoguy]

Send in a chopper and pick her up....

[lavaroise]

I am sorry, but this story would fit for assylums and dissidents. Why wouldn't it work for US citizens?

Tell me this is not true.

[cgk]

Sara was on the phone this morning during Fox and Friends. She told E.D. Hill she will live in that room at the Consulate FOREVER, rather than leave her children behind. She says the US Consulate workers let the Saudis into her BEDROOM without her permission where they intimidated her into signing a paper. She vows to die there before she leaves her children.

The State Dept has told Sara's mom that the US Government will not pay for food for Sara or her children while they are in the consulate, so she (Sara's mom) needs to send money to Sara. I have written Fox asking them if there is any way that anyone who cares about this woman and her bravery can help - if there is an account or trust for her and her children to help them survive until they can get back home to America.

[cgk]

From FNC website:

Show Your Support for Sarah Saga

If you are interested in helping Sarah Saga and her children return to the United States, please write to:

President Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
president@whitehouse.gov

Bureau of Consular Affairs
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520

State Dept: Main Switchboard: 202-647-4000

Send a Message to the Secretary of State

Linda Vester is covering this on Dayside today, on FNC. (on now, Pacific time).

[swarthyguy]

Oh, the Saudis will get theirs, wait and see...We'll sock it to them....they're scared of our presence in Iraq.....Blah blah blah......

She even has to pay for her own food!

How many times can you say disgraceful!

It's all FDR's fault for starting this relationship...yea...that's the ticket!

[Courier]

When Elian was returned to Cuba, Clinton and Reno were cursed incessantly.

Elian was not an American.

These are Americans. They are being held hostage. Agents of a hostile foreign power are being allowed to operate and intimidate Americans in an American Embassy.

Is there nothing Bush can do to lose your support?

[swarthyguy]

Ssssh!! Strategery!!

We're hunting wacky wahhabis! Ssshh! Don't say boo or you might scare them away!

[cgk]

Here is the letter I sent to Powell and President Bush:

(I'm not much of a letter writer, by way of eloquence, sorry).

---

Dear Mr.President,

Many of us have witnessed the plight of American citizen Sara Saga who is holed up in the US Consulate in Saudi Arabia, trying to leave so she can home to the USA. We were told this morning on Fox News Channel that Consulate workers let Saudi representatives into Sara's bedroom without her permission where she was intimidated and coerced into signing a paper.

Sara stated this morning on Fox News Channel that she will live in that bedroom forever rather than leave the country without her children.

Why is the State Department not doing more to help this mother and her children, when they are in fear for their lives? This mother was kidnapped, married off and forcibly coverted to Islam.

Why is the State Department telling Sara's mother that any food Sara and her children need will not be provided by our government, but must be provided for by her for her daughter and grandchildren? This is obviously an exceptional circumstance.

I strongly urge you to consider the amount of media attention this story is garnering, and the fact that nearly every story on TV is included with an on the phone interview with Sara herself who is reporting her treatment back to us at home. Her treatment not only by the Saudi government she is desperately trying to escape, but her treatment by her own American government, who are supposed to be protecting her under the rule of "asylum."

Please take whatever actions necessary to ensure that Sara and her children can safely travel back to America.

Press the Saudi government on this issue. I strongly urge you to refuse their citizens educational and travel visas to our country unless they allow this woman, an American citizen, her adult and human right to travel at her own will, with her children.

We are counting on you to do the humane thing, the right thing.

[Alouette]

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.

American mothers! Don't allow your daughters to date Saudis!

[MississippiMan]

Where in the HECK is Bush on this?

MM

[swarthyguy]

What's shameful is so many blame her and others for this predicament. Any other country apart from the coddled Saudis would have raised a firestorm; Imagine Saddm's Baath Party doing this.

And this is no an isolated incident but a pattern with willing cooperation by the State Dept at the behest of whichever political party is in power at any particular time.

[Reagan is King]

I think all this story needs is publicity to get settled. O'Reilly, Rush and Hannity could stir up the pot enough that the Saudi's would want a quiet ending to this mess.

[malia]

"American mothers! Don't allow your daughters to date Saudis!"

American daughters! Don't marry Saudis!

[MJemison]

Newt Gingerich is right. The State Department is a disaster!

[enuu]

Same place our government has always been for decades, obsequiously placating the Saudis.

[Churchillspirit]

Can't imagine why this woman would marry a Saudi after her own childhood experience. Apparently it is the law in Saudi Arabia that a father has custody of his children once they reach a certain age.

[enuu]

No one cares. Americans are still clueless after 9/11. Fox has done exposes on the Saudis, as have conservative papers and magazines. It's just like with Israel, most people don't see the relevance. Americans are accused of being self-absorbed and ignorant about the rest of the world, and for the most part they are. That's partly why 9/11 happened. Americans should be rioting in the streets over this, but that only happens when they need to protest a war.

[Shooter 2.5]

What would happen if she married one of the Marine Guards?