An American Retiree, Jailed In Morocco For 13 Months, Shares His Story

GlobalPost:

RABAT, Morocco -- When Moroccan guards came to release Illinois retiree James Douglas Willson from prison, he believed that they'd come to shoot him.

Read the whole story: GlobalPost

Comments

[Wozzeck]

The author paints Willson as a church-going Cub Scout leader who was an innocently involved in a sightseeing lark gone bad. There are a few holes in Willson's tale:

1. a chance meeting in Spain with an old time friend, Clyde O'Connor

2. The Willson family required "an investigation document" to learn that Willson's old time friend, Clyde O'Connor owned a plane that crashed the year before with tons of cocaine aboard. Surely this is a fabrication, since it was public knowledge in 2007 that O'Connor was involved in the drug trade:
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/10/31/chicago-pubic-radio.html

3. Willson goes up in a plane with an unknown pilot with whom he cannot communicate.

4. The plane has mechanical difficulties, but is still able to land on an asphalt strip conveniently located near a highway ( where Morrocan police coincidentally nab men in a car full of drugs.)

5.Willson doesn't realize that the plane has landed in Morocco.

6. Look at a map of Morocco and find Kenitra, where Willson landed. It's not just a hare into Moroccan air space.

7. Willson filed a flight plan in Malaga. Pretty good for someone who can't communicate in Spanish.

8. Two Moroccans involved in the case were sentenced to six and four years in jail

.

[whitegayrepublican]

why do we care? If you're in a different part of the world, then perhaps you may want to check what the laws are in the visiting country. The worse thing about Americans is when we travel abroad, we take us along and expect everyone else to step aside.

This continued pompous behavior will certainly be our downfall in the end.

[chaya]

I'm not at all convinced that he wasn't involved in transporting drugs. I don't particularly care how nice and ordinary and average and respectable he seemed. As we've seen again and again, that doesn't matter. Being a middle to upper class white guy from the Midwest doesnt' make you any less likely to commit crimes than being a black guy or hispanic from the city.

[Morocco]

This Moroccan American is not too happy with the Moroccan authority. Even if he was caught with drugs he should not spend one minute in jail. Hey, Morocco! don't mess with my American comrades.

[davidwayneosedach]

There were no protests in the US press including Huffington Post that I heard of. Not like Foxy Knoxi, etc. Obviously, no one cared.

[Josie Gates]

how does it feel, dude? I wasnt even accused of anything but spent months in a US gulag..

cost to you 750K and rising,a nd I didnt even file the lawsuit yet..thats what they spent trying to fidn something to make me guilty of...

http: //josieg6. wordpress. com