Out of Arabia / LET OUR PEOPLE GO (Sarah Saga)

Wall Street Journal ^ | 6/26/2003 | WILLIAM MCGURN

[Ready4Freddy]

An American woman is free at last. But her kids are still Saudi prisoners.

FRESNO, Calif.--In this lifetime there can be few thrills greater than witnessing a fellow American take her first steps in freedom. And so it was with Sarah Saga, a plucky American mother of two whose cause this newspaper championed when she and her children sought refuge last week in the U.S. Consulate in Jeddah. In what must be seen as a bittersweet victory, the 24-year-old Ms. Saga stepped off an airplane here this Tuesday night into the loving arms of a mother who's had to wait 18 years for that embrace.

[Ready4Freddy]

Couldn't / wouldn't stick around the Consulate long enough to allow the public to bring pressure on the Bush admin?

[darkwing104]

Which is why an unnamed American woman who fled to the same Jeddah consulate only days before Ms. Saga didn't get out.

There is another?

[darkwing104]

Couldn't / wouldn't stick around the Consulate long enough to allow the public to bring pressure on the Bush admin?

Now I want to know more, a lot more. Most mothers I've known would of fought like h*## for their children. Not an attack just an observation.

[eyespysomething]

the Saudis take a different approach, actively lobbying her husband not to agree to let their children go to America

This needs to be out front. Its not just that they are following some inane Saudi Wahhabiest law, they are campaigning to not let the children leave.

Thanks for the heads up earlier about contacting the senators. I did. My hubby'll love my cell phone bill. I didn't get to talk to a single one, of course, but their phone answerers will be "sure to pass along my concern about Sarah Saga and her children".

I wonder if my fax to Jeddah was even read. She had to have been gone. Grrrr

[Ready4Freddy]

Sure, probably 50-100 mothers / kids in Saudi. The one the editorial refers to made it to the Consulate in early June, I believe, and left w/ kids a few days later. Wonder if she's still alive.....

[darkwing104]

Sure, probably 50-100 mothers / kids in Saudi. The one the editorial refers to made it to the Consulate in early June, I believe, and left w/ kids a few days later. Wonder if she's still alive.....

I hope so. I didn't hear about that one.

[darkwing104]

Ping

[CobaltBlue]

Sarah was kidnapped from her American mother, who had custody, when she was six, by her Saudi father, and forced into an arranged marriage when she was young. I wonder how much attachment one would have to children born under those conditions. It's not like she grew up in a culture where force marriages are the norm.

Even in those cultures, the suicide rate for young wives in forced marriages is quite high. The husbands can legally rape, beat, and otherwise mistreat the women and nobody will ever come to their aid.

I think if I were impregnanted by a rapist I'd have a hard time feeling attached to the child. Thank goodness I was never in her shoes.

[Ready4Freddy]

I have AZFolks on the ping list, btw.

[Ready4Freddy]

"It's not like she grew up in a culture where force[ed] marriages are the norm."

Are you saying that arranged / forced mariages aren't common in Saudi?

[Ready4Freddy]

Ping list for Sarah Saga is:

dennisw; netmilsmom; eyespysomething; darkwing104; SarahW; SJackson;tkathy;Capriole;MissAmericanPie;AZFolks;CobaltBlue

Let me know if you want on / off.

[darkwing104]

I think if I were impregnanted by a rapist I'd have a hard time feeling attached to the child. Thank goodness I was never in her shoes.

This is one story that leaves me asking more questions. We just aren't getting the whole story, just is what being spoon-fed to us by a few people. I have a deep appreciation for my fellow FReepers but my gut feeling says there is something else going on. I'am glad she is back in the U.S. and that is a start. We got a ways to go before the Saudis get a clue that their culture is way behind the times.

[darkwing104]

AZFolks asked a few good questions. I just wanted to keep him/her invovled.

[Ready4Freddy]

Sure, np, just FYI for future. Pisser that you can't see entire to: / ping list, eh?

[Roughneck]

"full of American aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents who haven't seen her since she was a little girl"

I hope all these folks pooled their money together to PAY for this "rescue".

[Ready4Freddy]

Dunno how she flew to US, something tells me Saudi Arabian Airlines doesn't offer discounts for such a flight.....

[Roughneck]

I dont mind National Fervor helping the Saudis change their minds about letting Sara go, but I'm gonna be one mad son of a gun if I find out that even ONE tax dollar was spent.

The financial responsibilty for Sara Saga's flight rests soley on her family. Sara is not military personnel, nor does she work for the US Government in any capacity.


She was a victim of a custody dispute between a private citizen and her bad mistake of a spouse, I dont mind paying for my own mistakes . . .but NOT HERS!

[Ready4Freddy]

Perhaps her mother's mistake, since Sarah was kidnapped as a 5-6 yo child and had no apparent choice in the matter.

[SarahW]

No, she was an American kidnapped and held prisoner in a foreign land. Military protection of citizens abroad should be a given.