Slavery In Modern America
The conviction and sentencing of Mahender and Varsha Sabhnani, for the torture and enslavement of two Indonesian maids, has once again brought to the forefront the issue of slavery in modern America.
This case, which made international headlines, in part because of the International cast of characters as well as the reported wealth of the perpetrators, was colored with salacious testimony. Ms. Sabhnani, an Indonesian married to an Indian--purportedly a Hindu version of Cruella de Ville--was a very successful business woman who resided in The Long Island Gold Coast. Both she and her husband were US citizens.
Allegations of abuse included beatings with brooms and umbrellas, slashings with knives, being made to repeatedly climb stairs and take freezing cold showers as punishment for misdeeds that included sleeping late or stealing food from trash bins because they were poorly fed.Samirah, the woman who fled the house in May, said she was forced to eat dozens of chili peppers and then was forced to eat her own vomit when she failed to digest the peppers, prosecutors said."
"Enung testified that Samirah's nude body once was covered in plastic wrapping tape on orders from Varsha Sabhnani, who then instructed Enung to rip it off. "When I pulled it off, she was screaming," the housekeeper said through an interpreter before breaking down in tears on the witness stand."
Varsha was given 11 years, her husband, who never laid a hand on the women, was given 3 years, 4 months. The case generated publicity for a number of reasons.
Although this was initially thought to be a recurrent case of Muslims enslaving others, it does not appear that is true. But the victims were Muslims, (as was the alert Dunkin Donuts employee who fed, consoled and called the police for one of the escaped maids), and this generated anger in the Muslim blogoshere.
Because only Muslims get to enslave others, you know.
As to that proposition, there have been such cases. They gather headlines, but there is no pattern--other than the arrogance of the Saudi royal family, something that even other Muslims have trouble stomaching.
Examples
Saudi Gets 27 Years to Life for Enslaving Maid
Barbara Ferguson, Arab News
WASHINGTON, 1 September 2006 — A Saudi man convicted of sexually assaulting an Indonesian housekeeper and keeping her as a virtual slave was sentenced yesterday to 27 years to life in prison in Colorado
Homaidan Al-Turki, the 37-year-old Saudi national, denied the charges and blamed anti-Muslim prejudice for the case against him. He said prosecutors persuaded the housekeeper to accuse him after they failed to build a case that he was a terrorist.
Al-Turki, who was studying for a doctoral degree at the University of Colorado, was convicted June 30 of unlawful sexual contact by use of force, theft and extortion. All are felonies.
He was also convicted on misdemeanor counts of false imprisonment and conspiracy to commit false imprisonment. This next one involves a lovely Saudi Princess:
According to a press release(Sept, 1, 2006) issued by The United States Department of Justice, Hana F. al Jader, a Saudi Princess, was arrested today on charges of forced labor.
According to the allegation, al Jader used coercion to keep two Indonesian women as domestic servants for her and her family. Al Jader is alleged to have confiscated the women's passports, restricting their freedom of movement and preventing them from fleeing.
After the women's visas had expired, al Jader unlawfully prevented them from leaving. Al Jader is further charged with grossly misrepresenting the contract she made with the two women. The contract stated that the women would earn $1500 a month and work less than 8 hours a day. In reality, the women received $300 per month and worked well over 8 hours per day.
If convicted, al Jader faces up to 70 years in prison.
Her lawyer argued that her culture allowed such behavior.
How cool. American Feminists stormed the court room. Not.
As the State Department insists on bringing more of these Saudi barbarians into America, the problem will likely persist, at least on a sporadic level. Why the Bush Administration thinks that bringing in as many of these disdainful, sybaritic enemies of America as possible--which the Saudis are without a doubt--is a mystery to everyone.
Everyone but their handlers--oops, I mean hand holders--in Washington.
But there is a much worse problem than the boutique slavery of wealthy ethnics that look upon American mores with contempt. That is trade in human beings for sex.
The Girls Next Door
On a tip, the Plainfield police raided the house in February 2002, expecting to find illegal aliens working an underground brothel. What the police found were four girls between the ages of 14 and 17. They were all Mexican nationals without documentation. But they weren't prostitutes; they were sex slaves. The distinction is important: these girls weren't working for profit or a paycheck. They were captives to the traffickers and keepers who controlled their every move.
''I consider myself hardened,'' Mark J. Kelly, now a special agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security), told me recently. ''I spent time in the Marine Corps. But seeing some of the stuff I saw, then heard about, from those girls was a difficult, eye-opening experience."
This disgusting template is repeated throughout the nation. It is not only Mexican coyotes and drug dealers who are involved: usually through false offers of employment, young women from East Asia are lured into brothels in America, stripped of their possessions, beaten, starved, raped and turned into compliant whores.
With limited ability to speak English, an unwillingness to confide in their families because of the shame, and no one to appeal to locally, the girls are made to feel that their life is the norm in America. Many of these women are educated, middle class girls.
DIARY OF A SEX SLAVE:  For the next four months, You Mi would become a person she never imagined. She and five other sex workers would share a dingy apartment on O'Farrell Street across from the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre. She'd spend her waking hours at Sun Spa, having sex with more than a dozen men a day, six days a week, and scurrying into secret hideaways during police raids. --- You Mi finally summoned the courage to call to her mother for the first time since she'd landed in California. Her mother was furious. By now she had figured out that You Mi was in the United States. You Mi suspected her sister couldn't keep the secret. "I'm so sorry about all the trouble I put you through," You Mi said. Her mother had been able to pay the Samsung credit card with a $10,000 bank loan. But You Mi still owed about $30,000 to the moneylenders, and now her mother was frightened the family might lose the house. "I've failed as a parent," she cried into the phone. "Come home." "Mama, don't worry, the U.S. is a rich country, and I can pay the debts working here," You Mi said. There was silence on the other end of the line. Finally, her mother asked You Mi what kind of work she was doing. You Mi paused. "I have two jobs. I work in a restaurant in the day and a bar at night. I'm only getting five or six hours of sleep, but I'm making good money," she said. You Mi's mother didn't know very much about the United States, yet You Mi wasn't sure her mother had been fooled. Her mother didn't ask any more questions. You Mi didn't offer any more details. After You Mi said goodbye, she thought about her situation and got angry. She made up her mind to work as hard and fast as possible, even during her period, just so she could get out. A university student who thought America an opportunity to payoff a student loan. |
The CIA, in conjunction with the State Department, estimates that 50,000 people are trafficked into the USA every single year; and, while some transit to Canada, the vast majority remain in the USA as sex slaves or in involuntary servitude, i.e. domestic workers or house slaves.
There are a number of US citizens likewise trafficked, but the number is unknown. This has diminished significantly in areas where pimping is treated as a class A Felony with mandatory sentencing. The foreigners who own foreign slaves are much more brazen, both because the USA treats them as cultural misfits, and because they can return to their place of origin.
The real question is: how and why is this happening in America?
The answer is a surprising one. Every case cited here involved illegal aliens. The sex trade happens because our borders are porous and the "employers" of these women and children (a small but significant part of the trade is kids of both sexes) know that the chances of a raid by ICE agents is remote.
Much of the trade is conducted in and through through sanctuary cities.
For example, most of the trade in oriental women transits San Fransisco--whose misguided policy on illegals virtually guarantees unhindered operations for the crime syndicates. Likewise, Tucson and Los Angeles serve as the point of arrival for Hispanic slaves.
America has been badly served by our politicians. Instead of a beacon of hope, the Federal government's unwillingness to enforce the law is slowly turning this nation into a dangerous, lawless, slave market for thousands upon thousands of women and children.
And, like illegal immigration in general, the Federal government refuses to acknowledge the same in order to protect domestic employers of illegals.
President Bush has proved himself to be a firm ally of illegal entry into America, turning ICE into a useless entity, the staff being incompetent , with politically correct patrons.
Barack Obama and John McCain have both enunciated policies that are likely to vastly increase these social pathologies.
images:
* tabberone
* gothamist
* viewimages
* cinemakorea
* latimesblogs
sources:
* http://www.foxnews.com/story/0
* http://www.silobreaker.com
* http://www.arabnews.com/?page
* http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin
* http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01
* http://www.gvnet.com/humantraff
* http://www.gvnet.com/humantraff
* http://www.humanevents.com