U.S. activist, CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin held overnight in Egypt jail, claims abuse

[Cleita]

Last Updated Mar 4, 2014 11:10 AM EST
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-activist-codepink-co-founder-medea-benjamin-says-egypt-police-have-broken-her-arm-in-jail/

LONDON -- American rights and peace activist Medea Benjamin said Tuesday that Egyptian police held her at an airport jail without explanation and that they had broken her arm.

"Help. They broke my arm. Egypt police," Benjamin, who co-founded the CODEPINK anti-war group, said on Twitter.

CODEPINK said that she has been deported to Turkey.

U.S. Embassy spoeksperson Mofid Deak confirmed to CBS News' Alex Ortiz that Benjamin had left the country after the embassy provided consular assistance. However, CODEPINK's Alli McCracken told CBS News that the U.S. embassy in Egypt did not help Benjamin.

"I was brutally assaulted by Egyptian police, who never said what I was being accused of," Benjamin said later in a statement. "When the authorities came into the cell to deport me, two men threw me to the ground, stomped on my back, pulled my shoulder out of its socket and handcuffed me so that my injured arm was twisted around and my wrists began to bleed. I was then forced to sit between the two men who attacked me on the plane ride from Cairo to Istanbul, and I was (and still am) in terrible pain the whole time."

more at link

[frazzled]

1. Yup, if you want to see a real police state

you might try Egypt these days.

Earlier this year, the Canadian filmmaker John Greyson was held, along with medical doctor Tarek Loubani, was held in a Cairo prison, without charges, for like 7 weeks: from August 16 to October 5, 2013. Upon their return, they too reported incidents of severe abuse in the prison.

[Cleita]

2. It's too bad. How could such an impassioned plea for democracy and change go so wrong. n/t

[arcane1]

4. If the U.S. has "interests", the track record is not very good n/t

[Cleita]

10. They don't care if it's not on their agenda. Medea is a peace activist

you know against war and all that. For the most part our leaders don't like troublesome women shouting loudly for peace. It threatens all those nice MIC profits.

[frazzled]

11. I think it was the military coup in July 2013

that removed Mohamed Morsi.

These things are always messy. Let's remember that after the French Revolution, it took a full hundred years for a real republic to be established. There was first the Terror, then alternating restorations of the monarchy and installments of emperors. There were a number of revolutions, in 1848 and 1870 ...

I don't expect places like Egypt to settle on one type of government or to settle down into a stable democracy any time soon. Still, you have to ask yourself if that is reason to have left a longstanding dictatorship in power.

[Cleita]

12. Actually looking at history. Very few revolutions are successful. Ours was and the one

where Chile broke from Spain was, but I don't really remember any others not being horridly messy and sometimes taking a nation backwards. Russia surely was and is a mess to this day.

[frazzled]

13. Both of those examples are unique

They were less "revolutions" than "wars of independence." What we now call the American Revolution was more often called the War of Independence at the time.

In both the examples you cite, citizens of a geopolitical entity were fighting to gain their independence from a (far-away) foreign power. It seems those types of "revolutions" are easier to stabilize than internal ones. Though one can say there has been relative stability in Cuba for the last 60 years, no matter what you might think of the government. Despotic governments do better at keeping things stable ... which is not an argument for despots, just an observation.

[Cleita]

14. And the unique thing about Cuba is they have been able to withstand our attacks

on them to bring them down. I never understood that. I know part of it was to keep the Russians out as it was in Chile when Allende was elected. But if we hadn't had such an irrational fear of communism and continued our aid and diplomaatic ties, and didn't embargo in both countries, Russia would not have been invited in I don't believe and some Cubans and Chileans have told me the same. Just saying. I don't understand it.

[Cleita]

3. I thought women's rights activist would care about this.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. I was wondering how this was going to end

not well I see. It broke overnight that she was arrested.

I hope she gets medical care PRONTO...

[Cleita]

6. I assume she will get medical attention in Istanbul. Story is developing.

However, it seems our State Department meaning embassy or consulate refuses to help her if this report is correct.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. From my years of calling consulates

the US Consulate was very slow to respond. And that is charitable. So the Embassy being slow on the uptake shocks me in the least.

And you are right, where are the usual suspects when women rights are at stake?

[Cleita]

8. As much as I don't like Lara Logan as a journalist, what happened to her

at the hands of the Egyptian protesters was something our government should have sought some justice for. Another woman assaulted there.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Oh fully agreed

there are places you could not pay me enough to go cover, and stories you could not pay me enough to cover either.

[TorchTheWitch]

15. She knows why she was detained and deported

She was barred from Egypt in 2010. It was stupid of her to think she could try to go back into that country after that. I'm also skeptical of her claims of abuse... they let her keep her phone so she could go on her Twitter page and make accusations but she never felt the need to actually take photos of her alleged injuries nor call on the US embassy or her congressperson or anyone for actual help nor do I believe she was given no medical attention had she required any.

We'll see.

[Cleita]

16. In her own words, she talks to Amy Goodman.

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/3/4/help_they_broke_my_arm_egypt

It seems she was in the Cairo airport enroute to Gaza, so it seems she wasn't really entering Egypt.

[TorchTheWitch]

17. You do realize that Cairo is in Egypt?

If she was in the Cairo airport she was in Egypt. And she was detained trying to enter Egypt which is why she was in the Cairo airport. Is she really so stupid that she can't figure out a travel route that avoids touching down in Egypt that she knows she was banned from entering? She can't decide it's better to meet up with these people in some other country or not elect to meet up with them at all until getting to some other place along the way?

The article you posted clearly shows that she went to EGYPT to meet up with other delegates on her way to the Gaza Strip when she knew she was banned from entering Egypt. Yes, she deliberately went to a country she had been banned from entering in order to meet people and continue her journey. Whether or not she only intended to enter Egypt to meet up with other delegates and quickly leave is immaterial. She entered a country she knew she was banned from and who had every right to detain her and send her on her way.

I don't give a shit who she's talking to. Without any actual proof she was attacked or injured other than her own words I remain skeptical and remain skeptical that if she was so injured she wasn't offered medical attention all when she was given her smartphone and sent where she WANTED to go to continue to the Gaza Strip rather than being sent back to the US which she HAD to have requested herself. She didn't contact any US authorities (but had no problem using her Twitter page and contacting journalists) to get "help" and has no desire to post any photos of her alleged injuries nor her getting medical attention in Turkey to support her accusations.

Benjamin has a personal beef with Egypt since it was Egypt that a few years ago kicked her out and banned her from entering the country again for protesting during her visit to Egypt during that time that pro-Palestinians were being blocked from entering the Gaza Strip from there.

[Cleita]

18. Yes, but international airports have areas for passengers in transit that are

exempt from the usual, customs, passports type things you do when you enter a country. Like when Edward Snowden was in the Moscow Airport transit zone before he was admitted to Russia. Of course Moscow is in Russia, but it's something that is agreed to.

[TorchTheWitch]

19. She entered Egypt to MEET UP with people

She said so herself. And how would airport officials know she was there if she didn't try to enter the country? If she was in any way illegally detained why the hell did she not call on US officials for help instead of making unfounded accusations to her Twitter page and selected journalists and all without providing one single bit of proof of her allegations? She contacted no one in the US that had any power to help her. Come on, your illegally detained in a foreign country, physically abused and denied any medical treatment yet you're NOT going to call anyone that could actually help you and instead go on TWITTER and make totally unfounded accusations and then contact friendly journalists with your unfounded accusations?

Sorry. I think she's full of it.

[Cleita]

20. That's your prerogative, but like Lara Logan she's an American citizen who was abused

by the nationals of a country she was no threat to and frankly our diplomatic corp doesn't seem to care. If it was the CEO of GE I'm sure the results would be different.