Saudi Court to Review Case of Rape Victim

The Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister announced on Tuesday that the case of a rape victim who was sentenced to 200 lashes and prison time will be reviewed by the Saudi judiciary. The case has drawn international outrage over the harsh sentence handed to the 19 year old woman, who was abducted at knife-point and gang-raped, because she was in a car with a man she is not related to at the time of the attack.

The announcement is a change in direction from the Saudi Justice Ministry’s Saturday announcement defending the sentence and claiming that the woman had confessed to adultery. The victim, who was recently married, states that she was meeting with a high school friend to retrieve a picture of herself, reports the Associated Press.

The Saudi court originally sentenced the woman to 90 lashes, but more than doubled it to 200 lashes and six months in prison when her lawyer appealed the case, claiming that she was trying to use the media to influence them. The appeals court also increased the rapists’ sentences, from one to five year prison terms to two and nine year prison terms.

Media Resources: Feminist Daily Newswire 11/26/07; Associated Press 11/27/07; AFP 11/27/07

Senator: U.S. has become haven for war criminals

This certainly isn't new. Our American government has been providing refuge for war criminals for decades. We shielded many Nazi war criminals after WWII. Only recently has our government admitted to that one and to the fact that the "intelligence gathering value" of said criminals wasn't so valuable, after all.

Donald Rumsfeld (on behalf of President Ronald Reagan) gave WMDs of the chemical and biological kind to Saddam Hussein so that he might commit crimes against his own people, his neighbors and all humanity. A war criminal if ever there was one. So... what does that make the government (ours) that enabled Saddam to do his war crimes?

During the full-on boycott against doing trade with Saddam, Dick Cheney's Halliburton was doing trade with Saddam.

That the current occupier of the White House is into full mouth kissing with a Saudi prince in spite of Saudi Arabia's crimes against humanity beginning with the human sex slave trade should come as no surprise when one considers George Jr. is the spawn of George Sr. whose White House was used for sex parties with children.

Daddy Bush, after all, was being very supportive of good pals the bin Ladens as he watched the events of 9/11 unfold while in the company of Osama bin Laden's brother. No, Osama was not the atypical bad seed of a family of good and pure and sweet people. That very brother who stood next to Daddy Bush and watch 3,000 murders take place is himself a sponsor of terrorism and crimes against humanity.

But, hold on there, Daddy Bush is himself the spawn of Grandpa Bush - Prescott Bush - whose company was found guilty of violating federal law as regards betraying our nation by doing business with Adolph Hitler.

So that this government would give shelter to war criminals and the lowest scum of humanity ought not to be a surprise at all.

Senator: U.S. has become haven for war criminals

WASHINGTON — More than 1,000 people from 85 countries who are accused of such crimes as rape, killings, torture and genocide are living in the United States, according to Department of Homeland Security figures.

America has become a haven for the world's war criminals because it lacks the laws needed to prosecute them, Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said Wednesday. There's been only one U.S. indictment of someone suspected of a serious human-rights abuse. Durbin said torture was the only serious human-rights violation that was a crime under American law when committed outside the United States by a non-American national.

"This is unacceptable. Our laws must change and our determination to end this shameful situation must become a priority," Durbin, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, said at a hearing of the subcommittee Wednesday.

READ MORE OF WHAT YOUR GOVERNMENT IS DOING IN YOUR NAME

U.S. astonished by Saudi rape sentence

U.S. astonished by Saudi rape sentence

WASHINGTON - The State Department expressed astonishment Tuesday about a Saudi court's sentence of six months in jail and 200 lashes for a woman who was gang raped.

...The decision by the Qatif General Court more than doubled the woman's sentence after she was convicted of being in the car of a man who was not a relative.

The woman initially had been sentenced to 90 lashes after she was convicted of violating rigid laws on the segregation of the sexes. The Saudi court said the woman's punishment was increased because of "her attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media."

...The seven men convicted of raping the woman were given prison sentences of two years to nine years.

MORE...

We know whose side Bush and Cheney are on.