Activist back from Egypt, hurting from injuries and sore at the State Department

[Jesus Malverde]

Bay Area peace activist Medea Benjamin is back in the United States, still in pain from rough treatment by Egyptian police — and still wondering why her calls for help from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo went unanswered.

“It’s a big mystery to me, because during my 17-hour ordeal I never once heard from the embassy,” the co-founder of Code Pink said Friday from Washington, D.C., where she flew after her forceful deportation from Egypt earlier in the week.  Benjamin said she has a dislocated shoulder and torn ligaments and has been told she’ll need about a year of therapy.

Her case has become a touchy subject for the State Department, which initially said consular officers had contacted Benjamin in Egypt and provided “all appropriate consular assistance.” On Friday the department backtracked and said it had tried its best to help her.

Benjamin was part of an international delegation of about 100 women who traveled to Egypt in hopes of being allowed to cross the border and enter Gaza. Benjamin said she’d been in contact with the Egyptian government for months and had been assured that they could proceed to Gaza if conditions were safe but in any event would be allowed into Egypt.

But when Benjamin landed at the Cairo airport Monday night, she was held by police and kept in jail overnight. The next morning, she said, five men dragged her out of her cell, knocked her down, jumped on her, tightly handcuffed her wrists behind her back, and yanked her left shoulder out of its socket. Later, she said, they stuffed a scarf into her mouth to stop her from screaming, and threw her onto a plane for Turkey — fortunately, on a flight where another passenger was a physician who was able to help her. She said the men who detained and beat her never gave her an explanation.

Read More: http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/2014/03/07/activist-back-from-egypt-hurting-from-injuries-and-sore-at-the-state-dept-epartment/

[Scootaloo]

1. The US' ongoing partnership with illegal fascist regimes begins a new chapter

HURRAH!

[sabrina 1]

2. Didn't know she had been treated like that. She hasn't learned, obviously, that anyone

who wants to promote peace, is the enemy. Imagine eg, anything like that happening to a Right Wing 'activist' and what the response would be?

Actually that was a silly statement by me, that would never happen to a Right Wing 'activist'.

[2banon]

3. Medea of all people should know the State Department is run by the Neo Cons

All Bush hangovers who hate her guts. I can just hear and see them pleasuring themselves in sadistic ecstasy knowing full well what was happening to her. That'll teach her for speaking out against U.S. policies on torture, illegal wars, and especially for the temerity of going to Gaza against Israeli / U.S. edicts.

[proudretiredvet]

4. I'm not trying to justify this or rationalize it.

#1
Those who are in charge in Egypt is evolving and has not been static over the last year.
#2
You have full rights and protection of our laws when in the USA, not one inch outside of our borders.
#3
Welcome to the islamic world. You are a woman in a harshly male dominated world. You are there without a man to speak for you or to act in your behalf. It is their world and their way, only. To expect them to see things differently because you are American is not too smart. Refer to and reread #2.

What happened to this woman was wrong but should not have been unexpected. If you as a foreigner do something that upsets their way of life, intentionally or unintentionally, you will be dealt with quickly and harshly and you have no rights and no say in the matter.

This is about incorrect expectations, hers.

What they told her, and who knows who told her, carries no weight. They saw her as a arrogant American woman flying into their country for the sole reason of causing problems.

I have lived in that area of the world. How they treated her does not surprise me at all.

It would be interesting to see what the state department has to say about traveling to egypt right now.