Good to be free !

I think that after a week of absolutely perfect health condition and intense work schedules the story is now completely not believable.

Conspiration theories accuse the media of deception but here it is not the case. You don't have to be clever or pessimistic to detect lies. You just observe your own health condition and you see that it is inferior to hers.

It is not deception it is a fairy tale.

The media were trapped in a contradiction, between the necessity to describe her as a victim, and the necessity to show her as bright and appealing as a celebrity on photographs.

But if you have been a victim for that long you must necessarily appear a bit ugly on photographs. Like a tooth missing, or a limp, or things like that.

One commentator said that in the jungle parasites are so systematic that if you cannot wash properly, you need to cut your hair short. But Ingrid needed long hair to keep her karma.

Even the short movie showing her thin and weak in the jungle a few months ago was in itself an absurdity. Some mate would at least have cut her hair. Allowing her to keep such long hair would have been malevolence.

So where was she, what was she doing - and is the story about the infiltration of the FARC camp a fairy tale too? And why now? I agree that it seems peculiar.

What do you (or other sceptics) think has really happened?

cactus flower wrote:

arnaudherve wrote:

We are facing an avalanche of pathos from the unanimous media here.

I'm still in the mood of communion over a common subject from referendum's time. I'll be more considerate over country differences from now on.

Well here I am in Paris, and looking forward to picking up a Paris Match or Canard Enchaine to check out the latest gossip on all this. Please maintain the mood of communion - whilst we may not pick up all the nuances, we are avidly absorbing the French perspective: please don't want to water it down.

Colombia's Human Rights record (torture and murder of trade unonists)is so bad that even the US have complained - although they have a free-trade arrangement, buy virtually all of Colombia's exports and provide all kinds of assistance. Most reputable politicians don't want to be seen alive or dead with Ulribe or his men - hence -

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/11/colombia.humanrights

Paris is looking good - with quite a few of those little bikes around: met some 'sans papiers' yesterday who were also members of a new trade union. They seemed to be mostly Senegalese graduates.

I'm keeping my eye open for Ms. Betancourt - anything anyone wants me to ask her if I see her ?

Pronsias de Rossa walked past me at the airport and I was anxious to speak to him about his curious anti Irish position in the EP, but I was in the middle of having a back and shoulder massage and couldn't get out of the chair quickly enough.

Sure enough, there is a 40 page special edition of 'Paris Match' with "Mes Six Années a l'Enfer" on the front of it. Couldn't bring myself to part with money for it, so I can't tell you any more. The Canard Enchainé has such convoluted histoires of fatal triangles between Sarhozy, Ulribe and IB that it will take me the night to get my head around it. Ms Betancourt looks very chic on the front of PM in her combat fatigues with the arms hacked off, but she clearly did not have access to eyebrow tweezers for the six years. I think arnaudherve should concede that the woman has really suffered.

I don't know, I'm not a doctor. I'm just observing that today she went on from official ceremony to official speech and official visit and so on, and there is no sign it will stop in the weeks to come.

Since she is invited to stand next to the president during the national feast on 14 of July, she just declared in the press that during her captivity, although she was a Columbian senator and a Columbian presidential candidate, she felt soooo French that she celebrated every 14 of July in the jungle by wearing "a white t-shirt, blue trousers and red socks".

I don't know why but some muscles in my face are twitching.

By now she has seen the president, the government, the former prime, the national assembly, the senate, the former president, the mayor of Paris... I don't know what she's doing tomorrow.

arnaudherve wrote:

I don't know, I'm not a doctor. I'm just observing that today she went on from official ceremony to official speech and official visit and so on, and there is no sign it will stop in the weeks to come.

Since she is invited to stand next to the president during the national feast on 14 of July, she just declared in the press that during her captivity, although she was a Columbian senator and a Columbian presidential candidate, she felt soooo French that she celebrated every 14 of July in the jungle by wearing "a white t-shirt, blue trousers and red socks".

I don't know why but some muscles in my face are twitching.

By now she has seen the president, the government, the former prime, the national assembly, the senate, the former president, the mayor of Paris... I don't know what she's doing tomorrow.

The use of eyebrow tweezers is not a surgical procedure.

Could the unending energy be anything to do with passive inhalation of Marching Powder?

She should have got Hancock to go in and rescue her.

No tweezers for six and a half years. Wow. There must have been parakeets nesting in her eyebrows.

Blue, white and red ones, obviously.

And now she is going to appear in several music festivals throughout the month of July...

Kate P wrote:

She should have got Hancock to go in and rescue her.

No tweezers for six and a half years. Wow. There must have been parakeets nesting in her eyebrows.

Blue, white and red ones, obviously.

The lack of the vestige of a moustache seemed to me to be the most suspicious thing

Females watching females. Absolutely frightening. Gives me the shivers

This thread seems like a good place to keep a watch on people who are in prison, as well as people who are freed.

Link
Aafia Siddiqui appeared in court last week. She disappeared with her two children in Pakistan in 2003 and hadn't been seen since. The US government claim that they have only just detained her and that she attempted to shoot a US soldier.

Other sources suggest she has been detained since 2003 and has been tortured.Link

Link Aafia Siddiqi denies all charges

The US Congress must investigate Dr. Afia's case
A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission - August 07, 2008
The United States and its security organisations including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a statement confirming that Dr. Afia Siddiqui is in their custody since her so-called arrest from Afghanistan on July 17, 2008. Dr. Afia was reported missing along with her three children since the past five years. From the day Dr. Afia went missing, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan was suspected of being responsible for her disappearance.
The admission of the US and its intelligence agency that Dr. Afia is in their custody and that Dr. Afia was arrested on July 17 outside the governor house in Ghizni province in Afghanistan at least serves the minimal purpose that the ISI and the US administration is behind the disappearance of Dr. Afia, a Pakistani citizen bound to be protected by Pakistani law.
However there is overwhelming evidence demonstrating that Dr. Afia and her children have been missing March 2003. The admission by the FBI about the arrest on July 17, 2008 appears to be a ploy to detract attention from this long-term disappearance and their responsibilities for it.
An Urgent Appeal issued by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) on July 24, 2008, called upon the authorities in the US, Pakistan, Afghanistan and other UN agencies to immediately intervene in the case. The Appeal and a follow-up statement issued by the AHRC demanded a probe into the disappearance of Dr. Afia and her children.
According to Dr. Afia's sister who gave a press conference in Karachi Dr. Afai's family has been threatened to remain silent and not to talk to media on this matter. It is widely presumed that the action of the Pakistan authorities has been done at the behest of the US authorities.
It is reported that when Dr. Afia disappeared in 2003 she had three children of which the youngest was an infant. However when Dr. Afia was produced in the court she had only one child in her possession. While the whereabouts of her other two children are not known, there are credible reports that of the two missing children one child had died in custody. The circumstances that led to the death of the child is not known and the authorities having custody of Dr. Afia and her children has thus far remained silent about it.
Dr. Afia's physical and mental state when she was produced in court on August 5 is suggestive of the treatment a detainee like Dr. Afia receives in custody. Dr. Afia was reportedly not in a position to speak or even able to verbally respond to the court. Such physical and mental state of a detainee is also an indicator of the condition in which a suspect is detained and interrogated by the authorities responsible for this case.
While Dr. Afia's involvement with anti-democratic forces is still being debated, what is apparent in Dr. Afia's case is the simple fact that there is no possibility within Pakistan to determine such an issue independently. The limited scope for such an enquiry and also the use of the existing justice mechanism in Pakistan is denied by foreign interference. An external interference to such extent is only possible in a state where the domestic legislative and legal frame work for justice dispensation has collapsed considerably.
In these circumstances the AHRC calls upon the international community including the UN to ensure the following:
1. Immediate enquiry must be held at the highest possible levels of the US military and the US Congress into Dr. Afia's case;
2. Dr. Afia must be provided immediate access to the lawyers of her choice;
3. Dr. Afia must be provided with immediate and adequate medical care;
4. That the whereabouts of her two missing children be revealed to the public;
5. Free access to be given to the media to interview Dr. Afia;
6. The human rights and civil society organizations in the US must form a special committee to investigate into Dr. Afia's case
7. Dr. Afia must also be released from custody on bail pending enquiry into her case
The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.Link

The stories of the US government and of ex-prisoners and family members are completely contradictory: it is to be hoped that the truth will be established soon. The question of where her three children are doesn't seem to be accounted for by the US or Pakistanis.