Another addition to the category, "With friends like these, who needs enemies?"

[revwardoc]

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/2663074

Concerned about rifle replicas, Mexican soldiers interrupt funeral of U.S. Marine killed in Iraq

By WILL WEISSERT
Associated Press

SAN LUIS DE LA PAZ, Mexico -- Mexican soldiers carrying automatic weapons interrupted the U.S. Independence Day funeral of a U.S. Marine and demanded that the Marine honor guard give up ceremonial replicas of rifles they carried. Hundreds of friends and relatives packed a small cemetery for the funeral on Sunday of 22-year-old Juan Lopez, who was born in this sun-scorched farming town, immigrated to Dalton, Georgia, as a teenager and became a Marine. He was killed in an ambush in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, on June 21. Maj. Curt Gwilliam presented an American flag to Lopez's widow, Sandra Torres, who clutched a bouquet of yellow and white flowers while tears streamed down her face. While the funeral demonstrated the close human ties of Mexico and the United States, problems began moments after the start -- leading to an expression of outrage by the U.S. ambassador. Four U.S. Marines marched solemnly to the grave carrying an American flag and the colors of the Marine Corps. Two of the men had rifles that looked real, but could not be fired, strapped to their backs. Four Mexican soldiers blocked their path, asking the four Marines and six others who had served as pallbearers to return to the car that had brought them to the funeral. Several minutes of discussions by soldiers from both countries continued until a trumpet player began a rendition of taps and the funeral continued, despite the objections of the Mexican troops. When the ceremony was complete, all the Marines on hand returned to a U.S. Embassy vehicle and waited. Fourteen Mexican soldiers arrived to guard the premises. About 40 minutes later, apparently under orders from a superior officer, the Mexican soldiers allowed the van to leave. "I'm outraged that this would take away from the ceremony honoring U.S. Marine Juan Lopez Rangel, whose family requested he be buried in his town of birth with full military honors," U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza said in a prepared statement. A long-ago generation of Marines played a part in Mexico's deep suspicion of any foreign military force on its territory. The Marine Hymn's "Halls of Montezuma" refers to the 1847 capture of Mexico City. The Mexican Defense Department banned plans for a 21-gun salute by Marines because Mexico's Constitution bans foreign soldiers from carrying firearms here. Mexican soldiers at the funeral refused to comment, but U.S. Embassy spokesman Jim Dickmeyer said they likely saw the rifle replicas and mistakenly thought the Marines were planning to fire a salute anyway. "These are ceremonial weapons," Dickmeyer said. "We were told not to bring M-16s, we didn't bring M-16s. We were told not to fire in the air, we didn't fire in the air." Lopez's cousin, Octavio Lopez, called the interruption "a big mistake." "If carrying these rifles was part of the ceremony, a ceremony the family wanted, how could it have been anything but positive?" he asked. When U.S. Marines loaded Lopez's gray coffin onto a hearse earlier in the afternoon, a swell of local residents poured through the street and marched with the Lopez family past shabby brick homes. A mariachi band dressed in green sang, "Goodbye for ever, goodbye." The music never stopped during a somber 45-minute march across town. As church services began, about 300 people who could not fit inside listened over loudspeakers and sang along. An hour later, several hundred people marched about a kilometer (a half mile) to the ceremony to watch as Lopez's gray coffin was lowered into the ground. Even many of those who marched in Lopez's honor were not shy about voicing their opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq. "For a Mexican to go and die for a country that wasn't his own, it's too tragic," said Marciana Camacho, who runs a convenience store a block from the home where Lopez's wife lived with his parents. "Iraq is so far away from our little town. It doesn't make sense." Lopez met his wife in Dalton and the couple married in San Luis de la Paz in December. Earlier in the day, Oscar E. Lujan, attache for U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services at the embassy in Mexico City, presented her with Lopez's American citizenship, which he earned following his death.

[usmcsgt65]

I liked the Marine response. They put the rifles in the SUV and walked away. Letting the State Department and local police argue.

[Packo]

Just more crap outta one of our "neighbors and friend". Asses!

FROM THE HALLS OF MONTEZUMA! SAY IT LOUD!

Packo

[Arrow]

What Packy said...

Arrow>>>>>>>

[revwardoc]

http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/nation...se_040715.html

Foreign workers face abuse, torture in Saudi Arabia

NEW YORK - Foreign workers face abuse, torture and forced confessions in Saudi Arabia, according to a report by Human Rights Watch.

Its 135-page report is called, Bad Dreams: Exploitation and Abuse of Migrant Workers in Saudi Arabia.

"The abuses we found against foreign workers demonstrate appalling flaws in the kingdom's criminal justice system," said Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch.

Whitson pointed to the sexual abuse of female domestic workers, some of whom were serving sentences for "illegal pregnancies."

The New York-based group visited the kingdom in January 2003 after an invitation from Saudi officials. It then interviewed workers who had returned to their homes in India, Bangladesh and the Philippines.

The report said many workers who had been detained were forced to make confessions under duress and signed Arabic-language statements they could not understand. Some were executed without prior notice to their embassies or their families.

The report supports the story of Canadian William Sampson, who spent 31 months in a Saudi jail. Sampson was convicted of carrying out car bombings that killed a British man and injured several others. Sampson and five accused British citizens were released from prison last year.

Sampson said he was kept in solitary confinement most of the time, tortured repeatedly and forced to sign a guilty plea. He and six other men held in the prison are looking to sue the Saudi interior minister, the deputy governor of the jail where they were held and two guards they say tortured them.

Nayef bin Hashem al-De'is, a member of the country's Human Rights Committee in the Consultative Council, said his committee is reviewing new human rights laws.

Saudi Arabia has about six million foreign workers, most of whom work in the oil and service industries.