Beyond Surreal

Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ.

The real horror here is that you know she is just the tip of the iceberg. You have to put a multiplier on her – (Iman times ten? Iman times one hundred? Iman times one thousand?). It is only because of her unimaginable bravery to run into a room full of Western journalists and demand her story be heard with the consequent/accidental production of compelling video that her story is being faced squarely. If it was two lines of text in an NYT article “woman claims to be gang raped by Khadaffi guards at checkpoint” it does not even make the evening news. How many stories have we read about the thousands of rapes under military/gang occupations in Somalia, Rawanda, Darfur, Bosnia on and on?

I don”t hold out much hope for Iman al-Obeidi. The only thing to cling to is – ironically – stories like this post. If the regime feels the need to concoct insane rationalizations like this, it at least shows an awareness that she has the world’s attention and an apparent unwillingness/fear to treat her with complete impunity. Her best hope right now is with Anderson Cooper (who has kept a large percentage of CNN airtime on her plight), and – I suspect – Hillary Clinton. I just get the feeling that Hillz is off the reservation on this -not waiting but setting policy – and making it perfectly clear under the diplomatic radar what happens to Qoadaff and sons (yes – I am spelling it differently every time) if Iman disappears.

Pretty much what you’d expect from an autocratic, dictatorial regime… actually I’m surprised she wasn’t just “dissappeard.”