Update on Sarah Saga and an Emergency Senate Hearing Thursday!

Senate Foreign Relations Committee/Scarborough ^ | 6-25-03 | N/A

[JustPiper]

Thursday, June 26, 2003 The Department of State's Office of Children's Issues -- Responding to International Parental Abduction

Time: 2:00 P.M.
Place: 106 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Foreign Relations - To hold hearings to examine the Department of State's Office of Children's Issues, focusing on responding to international parental abduction.

I got this info after watching Joe at 8pm.

Joe came through again, I begged him for help.

More on that in the next post!

This one is to get the word out in time, with less than 12 hours call your Senators! The Senators that will be hearing this issue today, are:
Senator Richard G. Lugar -
senator_lugar@lugar.senate.gov -

Honorable Chuck Hagel - United States Senate
202-224-4224 - 202-224-5213 (FAX)

Senator Chafee - (202) 224-2921

Senator Allen - Phone: (202) 224-4024 - Fax: (202) 224-5432

U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback - Phone: (202)224-6521 - Fax:(202)228-1265

Senator Enzi -Phone: (202) 224-3424 - Fax: (202) 228-0359(Contact person-Wendy Gnehm, Foreign Relations)

Senator Voinovich - (202) 224-3353

Senator Lamar Alexander - 202-224-4944 // 202-228-3398 (fax)

U. S. Senator Norm Coleman - 202-224-5641

Senator Sununu - (202) 224-2841 - FAX (202) 228-4131

http://lugar.senate.gov 202-224-4814

[JustPiper]

It is important we call any/all these Senators before 2pm , as well as our own to say we want something done about this issue!

[JustPiper]

Important Ping, we have 12 hours to fax/call!

[JustPiper]

Important Ping! Now is our chance to get results with this hearing today! Call, fax, tell them to protect our Americans in this situation!

[JustPiper]

I cannot find this on the CSpan schedule for this afternoon

JUNE 26, 2003
To hold hearings to examine the Department of State"s Office of Children"s Issues, focusing on responding to international parental abduction

[JustPiper]

If you see this before 3AM CST, Joe will be on one more time, then you can see his segment on this.

[JustPiper]

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen,R -FL
Phone: (202) 225-3931 - Fax: (202) 225-5620
Miami, FL 33173 - Phone: (305) 275-1800 - Fax: (305) 275-1801

She was a guest on Joe's show and said the State Dept. is not doing enough for Sarah. Dan Burton said there are 50 women at least he is aware of being held in order to stay with their children.

Joe is more my hero now, for he responded and this was not part of his scheduled show tonight! He's listening to his fellow Freepers and he cares.

Transcript will be posted later today if you miss the last show at 3AM CST!

[Ready4Freddy]

Joe reported that Sarah has arrived in California, w/o her kids.

[JustPiper]

I know ;( Wish I could watch the Senate hearings today!

[JustPiper]

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen,R -FL was not the guest, it was Senator Lincoln talking like a stupid beauty queen.

[JustPiper]

U.S. Should Help Saudi Captives

The Intelligencer


Months ago, after a string of embarrassing press coverage, the government of Saudi Arabia claimed that it would make it easier for American women and their children effectively held captive in the kingdom to come home.

Tell that to Sarah Saga, who is hiding out in the U.S. Embassy with her children out of fear for her life. Her Saudi husband threatens to kill her if she leaves.

The U.S. government's response is not quite as bad as in previous cases. She has been allowed to seek refuge in the U.S. Embassy. But she hasn't been given much help to get home. Most recently, a group of Saudi officials were invited to meet with her, and they offered her a devil's bargain: She could leave, but her children must stay.

All of this stems from a Saudi law that forbids women from leaving the country without the permission of their husbands or fathers. For Americans who marry Saudis, it too often spells disaster.

But it is an even worse disaster for those caught in the Saudis' system because the State Department refuses to confront the Saudi government, nor has the White House been much help.

We would dare suggest a simple solution for Sarah Saga and others like her: The United States should assert its sovereign right to protect its citizens abroad, and if necessary spirit her and her children out of Saudi Arabia under military escort.

Somehow we doubt the Saudis would dare stop an official U.S. motorcade, especially if, say, Colin Powell were in the lead car.

[firewalk]

bttt

[MissAmericanPie]

Oh no, that's terrible.

[dennisw]

Those kids are Islamic property. Their welfare is never considered. Islam hates to lose a single warm body.

Gotta keep those numbers high for their demographic Jihad!

[MissAmericanPie]

She should not have left them, if she had stayed she would have become a national cause. Not only her children but other mother's trapped there and their children would have been helped. But she is young and scared.

Evidently Bush ignored all the calls to the White House comment line that called for U.S. intervention for this mother.

[rrrod]

i do agree we must step in and help but at the same time people need to understand that these women that have married saudis should have their heads examined

[MissAmericanPie]

I am pretty sure Sarah's mother, back in those days, was pretty ill informed about Saudi conditions and the type of man she was marrying. How much did you know about Suadi's twenty years ago?

But to me this is no excuse for the U.S. government to allow her mistake to ruin the life of Sarah, a kidnapped U.S. citizen, entitled to the rights and protections of a U.S. citizen, and her children.

[rrrod]

oh i agree with you! i was making a point concerning some who fall for saudi BS...i spent almost 17 yrs in the middle east and n&w africa.....OH the storys i could tell!..in any case lets do all we can to help our fellow american ..and i might ad a lot of brit women are stuck too!..LOTS!

[Ready4Freddy]

"She should not have left them, if she had stayed she would have become a national cause."

Haven't seen anything definitive yet re: the kids. Scarborough said she came w/o the kids, but I believe all I've seen written indicate that 'no one can talk about' whether or not the kids were with her. Wonder why that is.

Hopefully we'll get the bird's-eye lowdown on why she left the kids, if that's the case.

[dennisw]

If the United States had stood up for Sarah and her children I'll bet many others would have come out of the woodwork. Saudi is the uber Muslim nation since they are custodians of Mecca & Medina and have so many fundamentalist Islamoids there.

I would think it would be easier to get a Syria or Jordan to be resonable on child custody.

[cgk]

I'm VERY confused!! Linda Vester just announced that Sarah Saga will be IN STUDIO tomorrow with her mother. I just flipped over to FNC so that's all I saw on the story - and one audience member said "her children should be able to come home." So is Sarah BACK in the US without her kids?!