It appears now that Muslims are not the only ones expecting special treatment based on sharia precepts.
More information on this story: “Military Contractor Wants Sharia Law Applied In Soldiers' Deaths,” by Katie Melone for Courant, July 11:
In 2005, Jeanette McMahon, the widow of an Army colonel raised in West Hartford, filed suit against the civilian contractor hired to fly her husband and two other soldiers across Afghanistan. Lt. Col. Mike McMahon, a Conard High School graduate, died in the November 2004 crash when the plane slammed into a mountain. McMahon and the widows of two other soldiers killed in the crash say Presidential Airways violated safety regulations.Since the suit was filed, Presidential Airways Inc. has been trying to persuade the courts to dismiss the case. In the company's latest motion for dismissal, Presidential, which is owned by the parent company of Blackwater Aviation, asserts that because the accident occurred overseas, the federal court now hearing the case should invoke the "American choice of laws," a rule of law that would result in the application of Afghanistan sharia law.
Sharia law is Islamic religious law, based in large part on the Quran, which Muslims believe is the divine word of Allah as told to the prophet Muhammad through the angel Gabriel, and on the sayings and teachings of Muhammad.
Presidential contends that under sharia, it would not be liable for the actions of its employees.
"That is, to our mind, outrageous," said Bob Spohrer, McMahon's attorney, objecting to the idea that an American company being sued over the deaths of Americans in an American court would be subject to the law of Afghanistan.
Blackwater, a US company which is taking our tax dollars to ostensibly help American soldiers defeat the very practitioners of sharia law is now, to avoid responsibility for their error, hoping to be tried under the laws of their enemies.
Our enemies.
Contemptible.
Be careful where you go with this, there's precedent (no pun intended).
Lockerbie; PanAm, foreign terrorists, and Scottish law.
DaninVan, with respects:
More detail, please. I've misremembered.
The judge should just laugh at them and remind the company that they are in the US and AMERICAN law will prevail.
Are these people sure they want to face stonings, amputations, beatings and torture in Islamic jails? Are they willing to bet their lives on a not guilty verdict? Maybe this is the brutal example we all need to see. Reporter Steve "Kidnapped in Gaza" Centani of Fox News, and his cameraman, being forcibly converted to Islam while under duress just wasn't enough of a gruesome lesson.
Undaunted,
In a nutshell: The Pan Am 747 that was bombed by Libyan operatives in 1988 came down (in many, many pieces) over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.
After years of foot-dragging by the Libyan thug Mommar Q., he gave up the operatives, for trial, in the Netherlands, prosecuted under Scottish law(s).
They were found guilty; Libya paid up (mostly) to the victims' families.
That's the precedent here.
And it's disgusting in this case.
Thanks, boneshack. I see a nexus now.
And it's disgusting, yes.
I don't make the rules, Folks, I'm just pointing out that the country where the plane comes down seems to have a legal obligation. There's probably a lot more background on this at IATA(?).
In many instances that I recall, small nations have requested international help with their Transport investigations of accidents. For a foreign gov't to arbitrarily step in would be an act of aggression.
...But yeh, looking for justice under Sharia would be like asking Stalin to handle your murder trial.
Actually, come to think of it, why WOULD Blackwater want to risk retribution from their enemies? Doesn't make sense. ($$$$$$$$$?)
DaninVan,
You're thinking about the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). This is one of the few Useless Nations functions that is actually not dysfunctional.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is just an airline trade group.
Most countries are signatories to hosts of ICAO treaties. The level of participation varies on a scale of 0 to 100.
The question is this: Will Afghanistan treat this merely as an accident and leave it alone, or permit this farce to continue?