Abused maid killed trying to flee employer

An Indonesian housemaid was killed when she plunged down from the fourth floor after she tried to flee her employer’s house, a local daily said Sunday.  The maid tied blankets together and dangled them from the window of her bedroom in her employer’s apartment in Kuwait City, Alqabas said.

“As she started to climb down, she lost balance and fell down…she was taken to hospital with internal head bleeding and body fractures but she died later.”

The paper did not identify the maid or say why she was trying to flee.

And another one from ME online/TT

Abused  Indonesian maid shows wounds to Saudi court

Female Saudi employer denies stabbing, beating, burning Sumiati in court, saying maid has beaten herself.

The Saudi woman’s son has earlier testified against his mother

RIYADH – An Indonesian house maid who has accused her female Saudi employer of stabbing, beating and burning her appeared in court for the first time on Wednesday and showed her wounds, an Indonesian official said.

Sumiati Binti Salan Mustapa, 23, “showed the judge her injuries, especially her head,” said Diddi Wahyudi, an Indonesian consular official in Jeddah.

The Saudi woman was arrested after allegedly beating Sumiati so severely as to break bones and cause internal bleeding, putting a hot iron to her head and stabbing and slashing her with scissors.

During the hearing, the woman “denied everything, saying that the maid has beaten herself,” Wahyudi said by telephone.

But “the judge said that everybody knows from these pictures that (the maid) must have been beaten by someone” when he was showed photographs of Sumiati’s wounds, Wahyudi added.

The Indonesian official also said the Saudi woman’s son has earlier testified against his mother.

Wahyudi said the next hearing was set for a week later without specifying a fixed date.

The case, being heard in the city of Medina, had been postponed on December 28 because the maid was not yet ready to confront the woman, Wahyudi said at the time.

“Sumiati is not psychologically ready to appear in court.”

Her case shocked and outraged rights groups and labour activists as another example of the paucity of protection for millions of mostly Asian domestic workers, especially in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states.

Saudi Arabia’s labour ministry said it was sorry about the case, but called it an isolated incident.

In November, Wahyudi said Sumiati had undergone surgery, but that she would need to be operated on once more.

Wahyudi said she was still seeking her pay and other benefits from several months of employment in Saudi Arabia.

“She has nothing, she does not even have a single abaya,” Wahyudi said of the black cloak that all women in Saudi Arabia must wear in public.

“She wants her employer to be punished severely,” he added.

He said the Indonesian government was still pursuing the case of another maid, Kikim Komalasari, whose dead body was found near Abha earlier in November after being beaten.

Two people, her employers, have been arrested in that case, Wahyudi said.

SRI Lanka is probing allegations that one of its nationals employed in Jordan was forced to swallow nails, in the third case involving alleged torture in three months.

.
A housemaid identified as D M Chandima has told the Sri Lankan diplomatic mission in Amman that her employer forced her to swallow six nails, an official at the Foreign Employment Bureau of Sri Lanka said yesterday.

“We are awaiting a full report from doctors,” said the head of the bureau, Kingsley Ranawaka, adding that the authorities would decide on the next steps after looking at the medical evidence.

The report came as another Sri Lankan housemaid who had been working in Kuwait accused her employer of driving 14 wire nails into her body as punishment for failing in her work.

The woman, identified only as Lechchami, 38, underwent surgery to have the nails removed after returning home to Sri Lanka, the director of the hospital in the northwestern town of Kurunegala said on Saturday. (Herald Sun)

• Body of maid dumped in skip – reportHerald Sun, 2 hours ago
• Nail torture highlights maid abuseHerald Sun, 3 days ago
• Sri Lankan maid alleges torture in KuwaitHerald Sun, 6 days ago
• Servants need a slap, govt worker saysHerald Sun, 3 Sep 2010
• Nails extracted from Sri Lankan maidHerald Sun, 27 Aug 2010

Update:

Indonesian maids’ protection urged

Al Jizz

There are growing calls within Indonesia to stop sending migrant domestic workers to Saudi Arabia, following two cases of alleged torture by employers in the past week.

The Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara (NTB) has already announced a moratorium on local women travelling to work in Saudi Arabia after Sumiati binti Salan Mustapa, a 23-year-old woman from the region, was hospitalised in the Saudi city of Medina.

“This moratorium is an assertion from the local administration, which also pushes for the central government to take action to stop abuse of Indonesian migrant workers, especially those from NTB,” Zainui Majdi, the governor of NTB, was quoting as saying by the news website kompas.com.

Majdi urged the central government to defend Sumiati’s rights and promised to provide her with compensation.

During her time working as a maid in Saudi Arabia, Sumiati’s employers allegedly burned her, broke her middle finger and cut her lips with scissors.

Saudi statement

Abdulrahman al-Khayyat, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Indonesia, said on Thursday that the case of Sumiati was “a very rare case”, according to The Jakarta Post newspaper.

But Anis Hidayah, the executive director of the Indonesia-based voluntary body Migrant Care, condemned al-Khayyat’s statement as “deceitful”, the daily reported.

His organisation has recorded 5,563 cases of alleged abuse of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia so far this year, including 1,090 allegations of physical abuse and 898 allegations of sexual abuse.

Sumiati, pictured, was allegedly cut with scissors and burned with an iron by her employers [AFP]

Amnesty International (AI), the London-based human-rights watchdog, said on Friday that the two cases could be just “the tip of the iceberg” concerning the “systematic abuse” of Asian women working as domestic servants in the Gulf region.

Gulf states “have to take steps to put an end to this horrific treatment of migrant domestic workers, by immediately removing the legal climate of impunity that allows employers to exploit, enslave, abuse, assault and injure their domestic workers with virtual impunity” Malcolm Smart, AI’s director for the Middle East and North Africa, said.

AI said Sumiati’s treatment symbolised the plight of foreign workers in the region.

Earlier this week, New York-based group Human Rights Watch urged Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait to do more to protect domestic workers in their countries, saying a string of allegations point to a “broader pattern of abuse”.

Indonesia has already demanded an investigation into reports that a maid was allegedly killed by her employer in Saudi Arabia and dumped in a bin – the second case of domestic worker abuse in the country to emerge this week.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia’s president, said on Friday that a team had been sent to the Saudi town of Abha to investigate reports of the murder of 36-year-old Kikim Komalasari binti Uko Marta.

Kikim was allegedly sexually and physically abused before her death.

Policy review

Muhaimin Iskandar, the Indonesian labour minister, said Komalasari’s neck had been slashed and she had severe cuts to the rest of her body.

“As ordered by the president, we will make a full review to reach a final conclusion over whether to continue or not [sending migrant workers],” he said after a cabinet meeting on the need to give greater protection to the country’s migrant workers in the Middle East – estimated to be close to one million.

Demanding justice for the “extraordinary torture“, Yudhoyono said: “We will launch an investigation this week for the two cases. It’s not only to seek justice but to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.”

Yudhoyono said he was encouraged by the Saudi government’s quick response, but said Indonesia was reviewing sending migrant workers to Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

“I’m hopeful the perpetrators will be punished according to law,” he said.

Adelaide man Mohammed Tasleem Tahir charged with torture

A SOUTH Australian man who tracked down his former girlfriend on the Gold Coast before allegedly slicing open her cheeks and cutting off part of her tongue has appeared in court.

Mohammed Tasleem Tahir, 21, was not required to enter a plea during a brief appearance in Southport Magistrates Court yesterday, but faces charges of grievous bodily harm, acts intending to maim or disfigure causing grievous bodily harm and torture over an horrific incident at a Surfers Paradise unit early Saturday morning.

• Adelaide Now/thanks to Mullah
• Mohammed, profit of Islam, also tortured a fair bit….

The police report submitted to the court gave a sickening account of the injuries sustained by Catherine Jessica Cameron, 20, who police will allege moved to the Gold Coast six months ago to get away from her former partner, who eventually followed her because he “wanted to repair the relationship”.

Police claim the young woman was out with friends on Friday night when she received a series of threatening messages and returned to her unit.

Once home, she was allegedly confronted by Tahir, who hit her repeatedly with an empty rum bottle, leaving her with a fractured eye socket before placing her in a headlock and holding a knife to her throat.

Police will allege he then put the knife in her mouth, slicing both of her cheeks and cutting her tongue in half.

She told police she “played dead” so he would stop hurting her.

She remains in hospital after being treated for her shocking injuries.

Woman’s tongue ‘cut out’ Courier Mail, 9 hours ago

Tahir was arrested at the unit a short time later after police received a triple-0 call.

Appearing for Tahir, defence barrister Bernard Battley said his client would apply for bail at his next court appearance, at Southport on November 26.

Thanks to the RoP

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission

The Sowdi Barbarians  really have a way to treat their domestic servants:

(August 25, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka Guardian) Mrs. L.T. Ariyawathi (49), a mother of three has returned from Saudi Arabia after less than five months of employment. Within a short time of her return she was hospitalized for an operation to remove 24 nails from her foot and a needle implanted by her employer. Doctors who x-rayed her at Kamburupitiya hospital have identified these items and are preparing to operate in order to remove them.

Mrs. Ariyawathie explained to the doctors about the manner in which husband and the wife of the family she went to serve as a domestic helper punished her after some house hold glass items fell from her hand. While the wife held her tightly the husband implanted the burning hot iron nails in her foot. On a separate occasion the wife implanted a needle in her forehead. (Sri Lanka Guardian)

Other links from the RoP:

• Gay Arab Kidnapped and Beaten by Family…
• Hezbollah Next to Demand ‘Peaceful’ Nuclear Power…
• Suicide Bomber Thwarted in Mauritania…
• US Citizen Slain Over Ahmadi Religion…
• Canada Finds ‘Asylum Refugees’ Vacationing Back…

Vlad Tepes Links:

• Surprise! Canadian Muslim leaders ‘shocked’ at Ottawa terror cell bust
• McDonalds doesn’t serve Mustard at Ramadan
• Two people assaulted in France for eating during Ramadam. One was not even Muslim
• Six busses shot at, in heavily Muslim, Malmo Sweden
• Greens may push to decriminalize polygamy

Warner Bros. had it all figured out in 1940

And now, the few who remember, are not allowed to say it.

At a hundred miles an hour:

Afghanistan: Women crowd secret shelters with scars from “fists, knives, burns, electrical cords”

Here is another report that describes the prevalence and severity of domestic violence in a Muslim country without considering Islam’s role. The broadcast version of the story, aired tonight, mentioned attempts to convince men that such behavior was un-Islamic and not what Muhammad would want; even that is absent from the online version excerpted below.

Other news:

• Taliban ‘ready to unleash 3,000 suicide bombers in Pakistan’
• Calls for sharia in Ireland
• Canada ‘Can’t’ Stop Muslim Men from Child Marriages…/RoP
• Christian Couple Begins 25-Year Sentence for Touching Qur’an…/RoP
• Just another maid: Christian Maid Set on Fire by Pakistani Employers…/RoP
• “Some 1,500 years ago, it was decided for an individual’s personal reasons that women should [be secluded] and since then millions of Muslim women all over the world have had to suffer”

But the Qur’an (4:34) says you can beat your wife — never mind the parenthetical additions of “lightly” by some Western translators. That doesn’t help the women in Afghanistan. Nor do fanciful re-translations of the Arabic term. There can be no meaningful discussion of domestic violence in the Muslim world without acknowledging that Islam’s scriptures, believed to be the direct word of Allah, approve of the idea of resorting to violence to “control” supposedly disobedient women.

As for Muhammad, he was a wife-beater himself, as Aisha recounts in this hadith that “He struck me on the chest which caused me pain.” When, per Qur’an 33:21, a man who marries a child and beats her is your “beautiful pattern of conduct,” you’ve got a serious problem.

That problem continues to manifest itself across the Muslim world. “Exclusive: The Secret Shelters That Protect Afghan Women,” by Margaret Ako and Mark Mooney forABC News, March 11, JW:

Not every Afghan is hoping the Americans soon leave their country. Some are actually dreading it.

“You can’t leave Afghanistan,” Manizha, who helps run a shelter for battered women, recently warned “World News” anchor Diane Sawyer. Behind Manizha, women who were beaten, bruised and badly scarred shake their heads in urgent agreement.

The secret women’s shelter is run by Manizha — who, like most Afghans, goes by only one name — and by New Yorker Esther Hyneman. It is one of a string of shelters and counseling centers that opened in 2007 and have since helped about 1,500 Afghan women escape beatings and abuse that can shock even battle-hardened combat surgeons.

Among the most heartbreaking is the story of Bebe. She is 17, and she says her face was mutilated by her husband, a Talib. Bebe’s nose and ears were cut off as punishment for running away to escape the constant pummeling by her husband and his family.

She was married to the radical Muslim when she was 12, Manizha told Sawyer. Her marriage was the result of an outlawed tribal custom called “baad” in which the daughter was given away as compensation for a crime or offense committed by a male member of Bebe’s family.

Girls given away in baad transactions are often little more than slaves. Bebe was forced to sleep in a stable with the animals, and beatings and pain became part of life for her.

Bebe tried to escape but was captured. Her husband was ordered by the Taliban to punish her by disfiguring her face. While her brother-in-law held her down, her husband sliced off her nose and ears.

Left for dead, she crawled to her uncle’s house, but he refused to help. Bebe staggered on to her grandfather’s house. He called her father. The local Afghan hospital was unable to treat her wounds, and suggested her father take her to the nearby U.S. military base, Forward Operating Base Ripley in Oruzgan province.

“She was very scared. She covered up,” said Air Force Sgt. Lindsey Clark, a medic who was on duty when Bebe arrived three days after the attack.

Maj. Jeff Lewis, an Air Force surgeon, told ABC News he was used to seeing war wounds, but Bebe’s injuries appalled him.

“It was barbaric and shocking to see this, that somebody had done this to this young girl… It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” Lewis said. “I’m surprised that … it still exists, this type of problem in the world.” Despite their scars — from fists, knives, burns, electrical cords — there is an argument that the women at Manizha’s shelter are the lucky ones.These women have found a way out of their brutal marriages. Millions of Afghan women are routinely handed over for marriages while they are still children and endure lives of constant battering.

“Ninety percent of Afghan women have experienced some form of human rights violation, 15 million Afghan women probably need our help,” Manizha told Sawyer….

Ransom Demand for German Hostages

Archive photo of airhead Jill Carroll (replacement for another picture from a bunch of wankers who call themselves “diggers realm”- )

Yemen Kidnappers Want Release of Terror Suspects and $2 Million

The German government has been presented with a new challenge in Yemen. Kidnappers holding a German family are allegedly demanding $2 million in ransom and the release of several suspected Islamist terrorists being held by the Yemeni government. The demands are being met with skepticism. more…

• Iraq kidnappings ‘utterly un-Islamic’ | Mail Online
• Article: Ulama tag kidnapping as un-Islamic...
• Totally un-Islamic Beheading in the Philippines — Winds Of Jihad …
• Yemen: More infidels being kidnapped — Winds Of Jihad By SheikYerMami
• Moe’s Jihad News: Moe’s Inner Struggle Watch

Cry me a river:

The Pain of Listening

Using Music as a Weapon at Guantanamo

For years, US interrogators at Guantanamo used painfully loud music on prisoners at Camp Delta. Rock musicians like Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and civil rights organization are demanding an investigation into the practice. By Tobias Rapp more…

More Than Half of Turks in Austria Want Sharia…

More than half of the approx. 220,000 Turkish immigrants – 2.65% of the 8.3 million people in Austria – want Islamic law introduced into the Austrian legal system.  Asked whether some parts of Islamic law (e.g. marriage, family and inheritance laws) should be incorporated into Austrian law, 50% agreed, 16% said it depended on which elements were incorporated and 22% were against it.  Responses varied by education level and German language skills, but religion was the most decisive factor.  Close to 62% of religious-political Muslims agreed Sharia should be incorporated, compared to 41% of secular Muslims.  In both groups, an additional 16% said it depends on what elements were to be incorporated.

72% says that following religious commandments is more important than democratic ones.  For 57% of the Turks, the laws and regulations of Islam are more important than that of Austria.  And almost half of the Turkish immigrants say that crime in Austria is caused by democracy… Islam in Europe>>

Related links:

• UK: Schools Secretary refuses to ban smacking in Muslim schools
• Finland: Airport considering religous profiling
• UK: BS- Fatwa against suicide bombings/infidels are NEVER innocent>>

Ahmadinejad’s Imam: Islam Allows Raping, Torturing Prisoners

Islam, as understood by true believers. Now watch our Islamo trolls pop up and tell us none of this has anything to do with Islam and we got it all wrong…

* and our lefty loons have their knickers in a twist over ‘Gitmo’ & ‘Abu Ghraib…’

H/T ZIP

Mesbah-Yazdi (l) with Ahmadinejad

(IsraelNN.com)- A highly influential Shi’a religious leader, with whom Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad regularly consults, apparently told followers last month that coercion by means of rape, torture and drugs is acceptable against all opponents of the Islamic regime.

In the wake of a series of publications worldwide regarding the rapeand torture of dissident prisoners in Iran’s jails, supporters of Ahmadinejad gathered with him in Jamkaran, a popular pilgrimage site for Shi’ite Muslims on the outskirts of Qom, on August 11, 2009. According to Iranian pro-democracy sources, the gathered crowd heard from Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi and Ahmadinejad himself regarding the issue.

…….”Can an interrogator rape the prisoner in order to obtain a confession?” was the follow-up question posed to the Islamic cleric.

Mesbah-Yazdi answered: “The necessary precaution is for the interrogator to perform a ritual washing first and say prayers while raping the prisoner. If the prisoner is female, it is permissible to rape through the vagina or anus. It is better not to have a witness present. If it is a male prisoner, then it’s acceptable for someone else to watch while the rape is committed.”

“Is the rape of men and young boys considered sodomy?”
One aspect of these permitted rapes troubled certain questioners.

Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi: “No, because it is not consensual. Of course, if the prisoner is aroused and enjoys the rape, then caution must be taken not to repeat the rape.”

A related issue, in the eyes of the questioners, was the rape of virgin female prisoners. In this instance, Mesbah-Yazdi went beyond the permissibility issue and described the Allah-sanctioned rewards accorded the rapist-in-the-name-of-Islam:

“If the judgment for the [female] prisoner is execution, then rape before execution brings the interrogator a spiritual reward equivalent to making the mandated Haj pilgrimage [to Mecca], but if there is no execution decreed, then the reward would be equivalent to making a pilgrimage to [the Shi'ite holy city of] Karbala.”

One aspect of these permitted rapes troubled certain questioners: “What if the female prisoner gets pregnant? Is the child considered illegitimate?”

Mesbah-Yazdi answered: “The child borne to any weakling [a denigrating term for women - ed.] who is against the Supreme Leader is considered illegitimate, be it a result of rape by her interrogator or through intercourse with her husband, according to the written word in the Koran. However, if the child is raised by the jailer, then the child is considered a legitimate Shi’a Muslim.”

Rest here>>>

* Jawa Report “Taliban: This is a Video of Us Murdering Someone We Don’t Like”

* Bombmaking Notes Found on UK Train

]]> http://sheikyermami.com/2009/09/01/iran-top-shia-cleric-and-ahmadinejads-spiritual-adviser-says-islam-sanctions-rape-of-political-prisoners-both-male-and-female/feed/ 53 http://sheikyermami.com/2009/07/24/saudi-arabia-the-mistreatment-of-the-slaves/ http://sheikyermami.com/2009/07/24/saudi-arabia-the-mistreatment-of-the-slaves/#comments Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:59:14 +0000 sheikyermami http://sheikyermami.com/?p=33180

Sri Lankan maid fractures legs in attempt to escape sponsor

To use the term “maid” is a misnomer – these women (and boys) are nothing more than modern day SLAVES. Slaves to be abused, raped, tortured, maimed, and killed.

LINK

Gulf labour laws fail to halt abuse Al Jazeera

• Maid’s Screwdriver Stabbing, Strangulation, Throat-Slitting Death Ruled Accidental…
• KUWAIT CITY, Dec 2, 2009:  An Asian housemaid died Tuesday after her sponsor allegedly detained and tortured her for two days.

Arabs were slave-hunters and traders long before Christianity and before Muhammad invented Islam…. slavery is sanctioned in the Koran and since the Koran is the word of Allah….

By Shabna Aziz/Saudi Gazette

DAMMAM – A housemaid, 48, is convalescing in Dammam Medical Complex after she jumped from the second floor of her sponsor’s home to “escape from the torturing sponsor and family”.
Rita Joseph from Sri Lanka fractured both her legs as a result of the high jump. Her backbone is also broken. (“Rita Joseph” sounds like she’s a Christian./ed)

Update: Kuwaiti gets 10 years in jail for torturing maid to death

He’ll be out in less than two. If a guy can get away with murdering his wife in an ‘honor killing’ with a few months, why would they keep him longer for killing a lowly maid servant, an infidel on top of it?

• Filipino maid hurt in bid to get away
• Sowdi Arabia: “At Least She Hasn’t got AIDS”
• Maids ‘treated as slaves’ in Saudi Arabia
• Runaway Maids in Saudi Arabia
• Spotlight on Saudi Slave Abuse of Foreign Maids…
• Foreign Female Workers Were Tortured to Death, Saudi ambassador Said “It Was Her Destiny”

The housemaid revealed her tragic story to Saudi Gazette from her hospital bed. It has been only two months since she came to Saudi Arabia to work as a domestic helper. She was offered SR650 as a monthly salary by the agency which recruited her.
Unfortunately, since the very first day of her job, she alleges that she had to undergo physical torture at the hands of her sponsor and his family. “They used to beat me for each and everything. ‘Baba’ and another man together grabbed me by the neck and hit me on the head. They pulled my hair and used to drag me by the hair,” she said with tears welling up in her eyes. “I was afraid to even sleep in fear of someone coming and beating me,” she said.
According to Joseph, the wife of the sponsor was equally abusive. She showed the bruises inflicted by the sponsor’s wife, whom she calls ‘Mama.’
“Mama always beat me if she was not satisfied with my work. Even worse is that they did not let me talk to my family back home. Whenever I tried to call Sri Lanka, they snatched the phone from me,” she said sobbing.
Rita alleged she was given hardly anything to eat. “They used to give me only the leftovers and sometimes that too was denied,” she said.
“I decided to escape when Baba and yet another man hit me when I accidentally spilled some milk. I fell down and when they continued to beat me, I begged them on my knees not to hit me further. Then they beat me on my back and the pain was so severe that I felt that I could not endure such treatment any longer. I packed a small bag with my clothes and jumped out through an opening in the wall from the second floor. After the jump, I could not walk, so I crawled outside and fell on the street. Police found me and hospitalized me,” she said.
“The sponsor and wife came here and Mama took all my belongings including my ‘Thali’ necklace,” she said. (Thali is the symbol of marriage in the subcontinent, worn by married women from the day of their marriage)
Rita said someone representing the Sri Lankan embassy came to see her in the hospital, but they never returned. All she wants now is to go back to Sri Lanka. “They did not give me a single riyal as salary, but now, all I want is to go back to my family in Sri Lanka. When I came to Saudi Arabia, I never thought I would have to endure such hardships. I don’t want to go back to my sponsor’s family, I want to go to Sri Lanka and never come back,” she added.
Saudi Gazette contacted the Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh and the expatriate’s welfare wing attaché confirmed that the embassy was handling the case of Rita Joseph. He said that the embassy had received a written complaint from the maid’s relatives in Sri Lanka.
According to the attaché, embassy officials have visited her in Dammam Medical Complex based on the complaint received from Sri Lanka and have gathered detailed information. The embassy is now proceeding with all necessary formalities to send her back to Sri Lanka as soon as she was able to travel. – SG

Hospital fears for abused maid’s life

The maid was admitted to hospital on Dec. 20, 2009 after she fell from the third floor of her sponsor’s apartment building.

The maid, Sariti Haiti, told hospital authorities that she had been tortured by her sponsor. She was brought to hospital by Red Crescent officials with injuries and bruises on different parts of her body. Initial reports said the maid’s backbone and neck were broken after falling from the building. Arab News has more>>

Dying to know:

America’s Muslim POTUS  Has “More Effective” Method to Get Intel from Terrorists – What Is It? 

* Must be Obambi magic, just guessing…

By: Dennis Prager

If waterboarding is unnecessary and ineffective, what should we use instead? ….more>>

• Lets ask our torture expert Yusuf from Planet Irf: how  ’bout a little tickle with a feather boa..? Too much for ya, Yusuf…?

• Pentagon: Yes, one in 7 released from Gitmo really do return to jihad
• GITMO? NO, KILL THUGS ON SPOT

The Torture Debate, Continued…

By Charles Krauthammer/WaPo

This month, I wrote a column outlining two exceptions to the no-torture rule: the ticking time bomb scenario and its less extreme variant in which a high-value terrorist refuses to divulge crucial information that could save innocent lives. The column elicited protest and opposition that were, shall we say, spirited.

And occasionally stupid. Dan Froomkin, writing for washingtonpost.com and echoing a common meme among my critics, asserted that “the ticking time bomb scenario only exists in two places: On TV and in the dark fantasies of power-crazed and morally deficient authoritarians.” (He later helpfully suggested that my moral deficiencies derived from “watching TV and fantasizing about being Jack Bauer.”)  

Continue reading below….

• Norway Police Discover Muslim Immigrants Planning Attacks…
• Gulf States Urged to End Human Trafficking…
• 13-Year-Old Girl ‘Honor Raped’ by Gang of 10…
• Kuwait: Women Urged Not to Vote or Run for Office…
• Mob Beats Christian Family with Sticks for Marrying Muslim Girl…
• US Prepared to Take Out Nukes if Pakistan Falls to Taliban?…
• Erekat shows his hatred for his people

On Oct. 9, 1994, Israeli Cpl. Nachshon Waxman was kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists. The Israelis captured the driver of the car. He was interrogated with methods so brutal that they violated Israel’s existing 1987 interrogation guidelines, which themselves were revoked in 1999 by the Israeli Supreme Court as unconscionably harsh. The Israeli prime minister who ordered this enhanced interrogation (as we now say) explained without apology: “If we’d been so careful to follow the [1987] Landau Commission [guidelines], we would never have found out where Waxman was being held.”

Who was that prime minister? Yitzhak Rabin, Nobel Peace laureate. The fact that Waxman died in the rescue raid compounds the tragedy but changes nothing of Rabin’s moral calculus.

That moral calculus is important. Even John McCain says that in ticking time bomb scenarios you “do what you have to do.” The no-torture principle is not inviolable. One therefore has to think about what kind of transgressive interrogation might be permissible in the less pristine circumstance of the high-value terrorist who knows about less imminent attacks. (By the way, I’ve never seen five seconds of “24.”)

My column also pointed out the contemptible hypocrisy of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is feigning outrage now about techniques that she knew about and did nothing to stop at the time.

My critics say: So what if Pelosi is a hypocrite? Her behavior doesn’t change the truth about torture.

But it does. The fact that Pelosi (and her intelligence aide) and then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss and dozens of other members of Congress knew about the enhanced interrogation and said nothing, and did nothing to cut off the funding, tells us something very important.

Our jurisprudence has the “reasonable man” standard. A jury is asked to consider what a reasonable person would do under certain urgent circumstances.

On the morality of waterboarding and other “torture,” Pelosi and other senior and expert members of Congress represented their colleagues, and indeed the entire American people, in rendering the reasonable person verdict. What did they do? They gave tacit approval. In fact, according to Goss, they offered encouragement. Given the circumstances, they clearly deemed the interrogations warranted.

Moreover, the circle of approval was wider than that. As Slate’s Jacob Weisberg points out, those favoring harsh interrogation at the time included Alan Dershowitz, Mark Bowden and Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter. In November 2001, Alter suggested we consider “transferring some suspects to our less squeamish allies” (i.e., those that torture). And, as Weisberg notes, these were just the liberals.

So what happened? The reason Pelosi raised no objection to waterboarding at the time, the reason the American people (who by 2004 knew what was going on) strongly reelected the man who ordered these interrogations, is not because she and the rest of the American people suffered a years-long moral psychosis from which they have just now awoken. It is because at that time they were aware of the existing conditions — our blindness to al-Qaeda’s plans, the urgency of the threat, the magnitude of the suffering that might be caused by a second 9/11, the likelihood that the interrogation would extract intelligence that President Obama’s own director of national intelligence now tells us was indeed “high-value information” — and concluded that on balance it was a reasonable response to a terrible threat.

And they were right.

You can believe that Pelosi and the American public underwent a radical transformation from moral normality to complicity with war criminality back to normality. Or you can believe that their personalities and moral compasses have remained steady throughout the years, but changes in circumstances (threat, knowledge, imminence) alter the moral calculus attached to any interrogation technique.

You don’t need a psychiatrist to tell you which of these theories is utterly fantastical.

letters@charleskrauthammer.com

Dr Andy Bostom:

Educating Charles Krauthammer on Hamas’ Ten Year “Truce” Offer