Letters to the Editor
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This author deserved to be detained
What he did was scary and it warranted an investigation. It’s easy to look back at the situation and say ‘he was just tipsy’ or ‘the flight staff over-reacted’ or ‘if they’d have only know about his medical condition’ but at the time I’m sure Kurth had an entire cabin full of people scared shitless that he was going to rip open a hatch over the Atlantic or something.
Screaming and yelling obscenities and walking around when he should be in his seat with no explanations? No one in good conscience could let this person back on a plane, or even loose on the streets of London, before he’d been looked into. It sounds like the air staff and the police on the ground did just what they should have done.
The author’s treatment while he was detained was horrendous: not even actual terrorists deserve that. For me that's the story - his treatment in prison. Had his time in prison been a safe, decent experience the whole story would have, for me, been a non-issue.
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p.s. to previous posting by Adie Mahony just minutes ago
Please correct Mr. Kurth's name's spelling in last sentence of my posting of just minutes ago
Gratefully,
Adie Mahony
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On the Karmic Front...
Sometimes bad things happen to bad people.
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A deserving case?
I have gone on the record as saying that Kurth got what he deserved.
By that I don't necessarily mean that I think that the exact number of days he was confined was a punishment that precisely fitted the crime, or that he should have been anally raped for what he did.
A few days and a hefty fine would have been enough, except that he was apparently indigent. I am not sure that keeping him overnight and letting him go would have had the same deterrent effect.
What I mean is that when you travel to any foreign country, you cannot expect to be treated the same way that you would in your own country. For example, if you are arrested and jailed in the Dominican Republic, you do not get meals provided. Your family or friends have to bring food for you. No friends, no food. Fair? Maybe not, but that is how it is in that country.
If you insult the King of Thailand, you can end up locked up for 10 years. Is this fair? No, but...
So when you choose to fly on a foreign airline, and then insult that nation and the employees of that airline, refuse to follow directions, etc., then you are taking your fate out of your own hands--and you deserve whatever comes to you.
Some people say that he did not endanger the safety of the flight, but I think it is obvious that if all the passengers refuse to follow directions, then the safety of the flight is endangered--and there are laws that tell you you must do what you are told, whether it be fastening your safety belt, not smoking, staying in your seat, and so on.
Of course you can feel sorry for him to some extent. We all experience a spot of schadenfreude when we hear about someone being homosexually raped in prison--something which most of us would rather die than endure, and I certainly would rather die than survive it and write about it, so there is some bravery on his part.
But in the end the sentence has been rehabilitative. Kurth does not seem to have suffered severe injuries and he is unlikely to repeat the offense, but more important, and perhaps this is why Salon published the piece, thousands of people who have read his article will be discouraged from following in his footsteps.
So it is all for the good.
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A question to the editorial staff
Mr. Kurth's harrowing account of his ordeal is truly disturbing on many levels. Although I agree that his behavior on the flight was despicable, he certainly did not deserve the perverse miscarriage of "justice" that he describes in his article. I am truly outraged and frightened by the ease at which so-called "free societies" can completely disregard the civil liberties of citizens and foreign visitors.
With that said, however, given the recent controversy regarding James Frey and the liberties taken by several other "memoirists", I feel I need to ask an extremely uncomfortable question. To what extent, if any, did the editorial staff of Salon vet this piece? Perhaps I am being too cynical, but Mr. Kurth betrays a narcissistic streak in some of his writing that can easily lead to embellishment and self-aggrandizement. I don't doubt that he was imprisoned and treated badly, but some of his journal entries seem rather incredulous. For example, he writes that a woman from the embassy had him "sign a release forbidding any information about my case or situation to be given to the press."
Why would anyone, particularly a journalist, sign such a release, knowing that it essentially renders their case invisible to public scrutiny? And more importantly, why would the U.S. embassy endorse a policy that makes it impossible for its citizens to receive due process? I've read about numerous cases of U.S. citizens who were falsely imprisoned in foreign countries, and the families and friends of these individuals were always extremely vocal in the press and thus instrumental in garnering their release. Did Mr. Kurth have no family or friends to advocate for him? He writes that his friend in London knew of his situation, but then left the country on business. Did this person alert Mr. Kurth's colleagues and friends to his predicament? Where was the outcry?
Mr. Kurth's allegations of rape are certainly plausible, and if true he deserves restitution from the British government for their abysmal failure to provide him basic security, especially given his HIV status. But again, I am curious as to whether or not Mr. Kurth reported these incidents to his solicitor, the American Embassy, or the prison medical personnel? Do they have no procedures for dealing with prisoners who are "contagious", as they referred to him on his chart?(By the way, how did he happen to see his charts?)
I will admit that I debated whether or not to raise these questions. If true, what happened to Mr. Kurth was truly horrible and should be discussed well beyond the pages of Salon. I truly apologize for my skepticism, but six years of the Bush administration's lies and manipulation of the media has made me wary of accepting anything on face value, even from Salon.com