US prosecutor fires back over arrest of Indian diplomat

What kind of country is this where strip searches are 'standard procedure?'

reply to post by Xcathdra


Right, i doubt i will respond though....i have been arguing in a different forum for about 100 pages.... am a bit tired of this topic....

US diplomats who got away with abuse

US double standards in diplomacy are common enough and pretty familiar to foreign office officials of countries which host embassies and consulates of the US. But what might be not so well known are the specific cases of US diplomats not only underpaying their domestic help but also physically abusing them, and how they got away lightly in most such cases.

In 2011, an Ethiopian national, Jan Doe, filed a case against American state department employee Linda Howard accusing her of forced labour, involuntary servitude and human trafficking. Doe said that Linda Howard hired her during her assignment in the US embassy in Yemen. In late 2008, when Howard was reassigned to Japan, Doe agreed to move with her and continue as her housekeeper. Her contract promised $300 a month, time off each week, health insurance and a safe place to live and work.

However, in Japan, Doe was forced to work more than 80 hours a week for less than a dollar an hour. The minimum hourly wage at the time of Jane Doe's employment was $6.55. Doe was even raped and forced to engage in sexual acts with Linda Howards's husband, Russell Howard, who threatened to deport her. When she finally escaped and complained, Linda Howard was removed from her post in the US embassy in Tokyo but returned to the US and continued to work for the state department.

By the time the Virginia court found the Howards guilty and awarded Doe over $3 million in damages in November last year, the Howards had fled the country. No effort seems to have been made by the US to track down the Howards who committed felony on federal property.

In a similar case, in July 2006, Harold Countryman, a former state department agent, and his wife, Kimberly Countryman, a realtor in northern Virginia, were found guilty of abetting visa fraud, forced labour and underpaying a Cambodian woman they had hired during their posting in South Korea and brought to the US. Kimberly Countryman admitted that she withheld a portion of the woman's pay, took possession of her passport and physically assaulted her. Though they had to pay the Cambodian woman $50,000 in restitution, Harold Countryman, the diplomat, only received probation. Visa fraud carries a statutory maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment and a maximum fine of $250,000. The maximum sentence for involuntary servitude is a 40-year jail sentence.

In a much older case, in 1993, a US diplomat Thurmond Borden and his Filipino wife hired a domestic help from Manila offering to pay $300 to her to work for them in Japan. To comply with Japanese immigration regulations, they made a contract stating that they would pay her $1,500 to work six days a week for eight hours a day with overtime pay of 125%. The contract was submitted to both the US embassy and the Japanese immigration bureau.

Lucia found that she was forced to work from 6 am to 10 pm and not allowed to take a break even on Christmas or New Year. When she complained, her air ticket and alien registration certificate were confiscated. Lucia managed to escape after complaining to the Japanese police. When she tried to sue the Bordens, the US state department claimed diplomatic immunity for them and the Japanese legal system was forced to drop the case. Borden is now consul general Jakarta where among others tasks he will also be responsible for issuing maid visas to domestic help for US diplomats headed for the US.

These and many other cases have been put together on a blog, The Dissenter, by Peter Van Buren. Van Buren is a former US foreign service employee who turned whistle blower with his book criticizing American reconstruction efforts in Iraq. He now writes blogs and columns on American foreign policy especially on the working of US consulates, embassies and the foreign office.


Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com...

local news channels are reporting U.S consulates who enjoyed full immunity will now be liable for arrest for violating Indian laws after their ID's would be replaced ...

Also i heard in the news that U.S will grant limited immunity to the diplomat as long as she works in the U.N,( does that mean she can leave U.S ? )

Why do i feel there is something more substancial behind all of this....
It's a hell of a hoo haa over something that could have been done through diplomatic channels...maybe India and the U.S. have an axe to grind over something.

reply to post by jimmyx


For your information Devani is a dalit which is very low in caste system(as u say)

realworld
A few points that maybe should have been pondered by somebody BEFORE the clusterfu#k arrest that has the potential to reshape the future drastically at least as far as the united states is concerned.

1. The Indian Diplomat herself does not receive minimum wage. I repeat, because perhaps somebody in Obama's government should lay off the stupid pills, the Indian Diplomat herself does not receive minimum wage!

2. The Diplomat is from the lowest caste! The maid is from a higher caste! how exactly were the geniuses at the state department going to spin this in India?

3. The real world is not an episode of Law and Order, any government can justify anything legally if they want to--the point being that everybody has agreed that governments will not engage in such activity in the context of Embassy personal, ALL OF THEM. Any legal action taken against Foreign embassy personnel is taken as a diplomatic message, are we all going to pretend that whatever political message was being sent to India is really a domestic wage dispute? Indians will believe this? What in Gods name was the Obama administration thinking? This level of incompetence is right up there with wmd's in Iraq and Abu Ghraib.

4. India, nuclear armed India, has recently used their 'mars space program' to test payload delivery using the earths gravitational field, giving them global wmd range--how much longer is US policy going to be justified using comic book stories? India should have been a natural ally, it was the most pro american population on the planet, but we cant have anybody like us can we? For Gods sake, do we have to piss off everybody?

He is the only sane american i encountered in this tread, he is right we are very pro american and most of the time like america and most of us want to be like our nation to be like america


but how we can tolerate your pissing on us

vishantchaudhary
but how we can tolerate your pissing on us

Take from a Brit, you get used to it. Or ask a Frenchman. Or a German. They seem to do it quite a lot, but they can get away with it being the big kid on the block.

reply to post by stumason


Yes you may be right in case of child but when he will become stronger he may cruse the nuts of man who is pissing.


And take the example of brits relation with india.

maddy21
reply to post by Xcathdra

 

Right, i doubt i will respond though....i have been arguing in a different forum for about 100 pages.... am a bit tired of this topic....

Then I wont worry about responding..

This is not the first time the Indian embassy in question has had these issues. There are at least 2 more documented incidents dealing with this exact issue.

The Family was brought to the US because they were receiving threats and their safety was in question.

Her transfer to the UN staff is not retroactive, meaning even if she has A-VISA will not prevent her from being arrested / tried on the charges that occurred prior to the change. Secondly the US has to agree to the VISA status change, which takes a few weeks.

The Diplomat in questions does not have immunity and her search was consistent with law. Before you guys throw a fit over a body cavity search how about you actually learn what it is and why it is done under US law.

As I have stated several times now.. Your entire argument is based on erroneous / incorrect information. after reading several pages in the other thread I see why you want to stick to that thread... Its full of the same nonsense others have tried spewing in this thread.

Respectfully, you and the others really need to learn / research before entering a thread and making claims that you cannot support.

reply to post by Xcathdra


There is a leaked video on youtube on the Cavity search and abuse of the diplomat , there is nothing which can be done to justify that..I won't link it , if you want to see it as proof, PM me ..AM just Sick right now

Xcathdra

maddy21
reply to post by Xcathdra

 

Right, i doubt i will respond though....i have been arguing in a different forum for about 100 pages.... am a bit tired of this topic....

Then I wont worry about responding..

This is not the first time the Indian embassy in question has had these issues. There are at least 2 more documented incidents dealing with this exact issue.

The Family was brought to the US because they were receiving threats and their safety was in question.

America has absolutely no jurisdiction over Indian judicial matters , and no ,it is a blatant lie that they were under threat ..... Indian supreme court is not a Kangaroo court ... Its a breach of laws and your attorney can be charged with aiding and abetting an escape of a criminal .

Diplomats Lawyer claims there was no Visa Fraud and it was a mistake on the part of the person who made the case .. $4500 listed is that of employers salary not her salary ....

I was mistaken , I expected American consulates and Indian consulates were treated equally, apparently American consulates had full immunity while Indians did not . well...that has been fixed now though..

reply to post by Xcathdra


I see that you are making a point about 'visa fraud' in your post.

What others in consulate did is a separate issue at the moment.

Please go ahead and tell us the exact detail of the case, as we are ignorant.

If there are other points, please bring that out too in a specific and clear language.

The further discussion will follow that.

I respect your intellect and I hope you respect other too.

So we should refrain from taking it personal.

www.ndtv.com... stories

"He erroneously and disastrously believed that the USD 4,500 per month salary entry on the form was Richard's expected salary when, in fact, it was clearly a reporting of the base salary to be earned by the employer, Khobragade, in the US," he said.

The lawyer said Ms Khobagrade's base salary figure of USD 4,500 per month was required and appropriately reported on the DS-160 form, which is the online non-immigrant visa application required to be submitted by those seeking US visas.

It was submitted so that US Embassy officials in New Delhi could determine that Ms Khobragade would be earning enough money to afford to pay Ms Richard the USD 1,560 per month (9.75$/hour for 40 hours a week) which had been agreed to according to the contract between two

So...the U.S Official has issues with reading simple English :, which lead to all the strip search , cavity search and an economic blow back(India bypassing Dollar with 23 countries including several oil producing countries)