The mother of an American woman holed up in the U.S. Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, with her two children is calling on President Bush to put the three on a military plane and bring them to safety in the U.S., fearing that her daughter could be killed if she remains in the kingdom.
Sarah Saga, 23, was kidnapped by her father as a child in 1985 and taken to the kingdom. She has been prohibited from leaving there ever since. As has happened with other Americans, Saga was married off to a Saudi and bore her own children. Now the woman, who claims to have been abused by her father, stepmother and husband, has sought refuge in the U.S. Consulate. She is pleading with U.S. officials to help her and her children, age 3 and 5, travel to America. According to her mother, Debra Dornier, however, Saga has been told if she leaves, her Saudi-born children must stay in the kingdom.
Saudi law dictates that no woman, American or not, can leave the country without permission of her husband or father.
Dornier appeared on Fox News Channel’s “Day Side” today to tell the story of her daughter and appeal to the public and media to assist in winning her freedom.
“Sarah took her life in her hands to try to escape,” Dornier explained to host Linda Vester, saying she reached the consulate safely on Sunday.
Dornier says while Saga was living with her father, “he beat her; he threatened to kill her; he cut off her hair; he threw her up against a wall … because she talked to someone she shouldn’t have.”
She had a cruel stepmother, Dornier asserted, who “locked her up for three months.”
“To be able to get out of her room, she would have to kneel down and kiss her stepmother’s feet and beg her forgiveness so that she could eat,” Dornier said.
Vester spoke to Saga via a poor phone connection.
“I was told I can’t take my children out,” Saga said. “I don’t want to leave them. They don’t need to live the life I’ve lived. … I am fighting all the time to have them go with me.”
Saying she fears her father, Saga said she could not leave the consulate.
Dornier spoke a message to her embattled daughter: “Sarah, I’m so proud of you. I know you’re scared, but you’re doing great, honey. We’re going to get you home and we’re going to bring those babies with you.”
Quoting her daughter after reaching the consulate, Dornier said Saga told her: “Mama, I can go for a walk. My kids played in a playground for the first time. … Mama, I’m free.”
Also appearing on “Day Side” was Pat Roush, who chronicled her quest to retrieve her own children from Saudi Arabia in a book for WND Books, “At Any Price.”
“The State Department is doing everything it can to intimidate Sarah Saga inside the consulate,” Roush said, adding that U.S. officials told the woman “that if she goes on American television, all her chances will be dashed to get out of Saudi Arabia.”
Roush compared Saga to her own children’s plight: “She did not ask to go to Saudi Arabia. She did not ask to be married off and have children. And she should not be forced to trade her freedom for her children.”
Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., also appeared on the program. Burton has been working to help free American kidnap victims in the kingdom.
“There are hundreds, probably thousands, of women over there who are kept not only as hostages but literally as chattel. They are owned by their husbands,” Burton said.
The congressman mentioned the custody battle over the children, commenting, “That’s something we’re going to have to fight over very hard.”
Burton says the U.S. State Department needs to be tougher on Riyadh and “be a little more difficult to work with as far as the Saudis are concerned.” He also called on the administration to make things hard on the Saudis economically to put pressure on the kingdom to loosen its policies.
Roush said it would take “nothing less than a presidential call [from Bush] to the crown prince” of Saudi Arabia to get action.
With emotion welling in her voice, Dornier appealed to Bush to put Saga “on a military plane and bring her home. … Send a message to the Saudis that we are not going to kow-tow to them.”
Another American woman and her children left the U.S. compound yesterday after a two-week stay, reportedly of her own accord, the Associated Press reports U.S. State Department spokesman Philip T. Reeker as saying.
According to the AP, a consulate official said the Saga case “involves marital problems.”
The Saudi Foreign Ministry issued a statement today:
“Concerning the two women, it’s natural for them to contact the mission of their country. But concerning their Saudi children, the government of Saudi Arabia will take all the necessary measures to protect the rights of its citizens.”
According to the AP report, a U.S. official said today that the children, being of an American mother, were also American. Saudi Arabia, however, does not recognize dual citizenship.
A Wall Street Journal editorial today notes: “The Saudis still insist on remaining the only country we know of where an American accused of no crime is not free to leave when she pleases. … If you are unlucky enough to be an American female, your husband or father effectively remains your jailor if he so chooses, backed up by the full powers of the Saudi state.”
Roush’s ex-husband and the father of their children – Khalid al-Gheshayan – defied a court order and abducted Alia and Aisha al-Gheshayan, then 7 and 3 respectively, from Roush’s suburban Chicago home in 1986. Roush has been active in passing legislation relating to human rights, protection of American children and women in foreign countries, religious freedom, abduction prevention and visa restrictions. She has testified before congressional committees numerous times.
Read WND’s exclusive stories on Americans being held in Saudi Arabia.
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