Jul 21, 2008 6:11 pm US/Central
Girls Possibly Kidnapped; Mom Asks Obama For Help
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
A local mother of four is pleading for her daughters to be brought home from the West Bank. The woman says the girls are being held captive there, by their own father.
As CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery reports, the Illinois woman hopes Sen. Barack Obama's trip to the Middle East will bring peace to her family.
All Colleen Davis Bargouthi has now are pictures of her daughters. The girls themselves, ages 4 to 12, are with their Palestinian-American father in the Middle East.
Davis Bargouthi claims her husband told her and the children they would visit the West Bank town of Ramallah just for a few weeks to see his ailing mother. A few weeks soon became forever.
"Almost immediately after we arrived my husband decided he did not want our family to return to America; he wanted the family to stay," Davis Bargouthi said.
Davis Bargouthi, a Christian, said after returning with her Muslim husband to his homeland, he announced he was going to divorce her, and planned to marry another, Muslim woman. He also threw her out of his family home.
"I was being abused physically and mentally by my husband, Davis Bargouthi said. "My husband put two guns to my head and told me that I could pick which gun I wanted to be killed with."
She said her husband and his family have chosen future husbands for all four girls. She fears he's now abandoned a previous promise to have his daughters grow up Christian.
The older two, Emily and Hannah, took lessons at Cedar Lake's Community Bible Church for years, where people still recall them.
"They were just sweet, well-mannered, good little girls," said Sue Wells, of the church.
Friends and family want Obama to intercede while in the Middle East this week.
His aides issued the following statement: "Our office will do everything in its power to ensure that the State Department gives this case the attention that it deserves and that the investigation is conducted in a time sensitive and thorough manner."
That appears to mean Sen. Obama does not plan to raise this issue during this week's trip.
A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department told CBS 2 privacy laws limited what they could discuss. But they did claim Ms. Davis Bargouthi has not signed a formal request that American diplomats personnel visit her children for a welfare check.
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