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Last week was a shameful one for American journalism. While the national press corps collectively wrung its hands over the mistreatment of American Taliban John Walker Lindh, shed crocodile tears for recently captured al-Qaida kingpin Abu Zubaydah and chastised government officials for the inhumane conditions imposed on the hundreds of terrorists being held at Guantanamo Bay, the plight of Frank and Margaret Pepe went unnoticed.
The Pepes took a day off last week from nursing their son, Louis, in order to attend a court hearing in Lower Manhattan. No one interviewed them, and it seems doubtful that any of the beat reporters there even knew who they were. If they had, they might have asked the elderly couple sitting at the rear of the courtroom what they thought about the treatment the Arab fanatics are receiving.
Prior to Nov. 1, 2000, Louis Pepe was a highly respected senior corrections officer with the federal Bureau of Prisons, assigned to the Metropolitan Correctional Facility in New York City. He worked the maximum-security cellblock known as 10 South, where Mafia dons mingle with mad mullahs bent on the destruction of the Great Satan.
Pepe was known for his simple acts of kindness, such as not interrupting the Muslim prisoners while they were praying. He occasionally bent the rules by escorting prisoners without shackling them. For these and other sins, he would pay dearly.
Four of the prisoners under Pepe's watch were members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, captured by German authorities and turned over to the United States in connection with the August, 1998 bombings of two American embassies in Africa that killed 231 people.
Two of the terrorists, Mamdouh Mahmud Salim and Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, had an appointment that dreary Wednesday afternoon with their court-appointed defense attorneys. They also had a plan to take over the jailhouse, take hostages and win the release of other imprisoned muhajadeen.
The only thing that stood in their way was Louis Pepe, whom they vowed to kill despite -- or perhaps because of -- his kindness.
It all happened in an instant. As he escorted them back to their cells, Salim and Mohamed sprayed Pepe in the face with a homemade brew of pepper sauce and vinegar. Then, as Mohamed held the disabled guard down, Salim plunged a sharpened comb into Pepe's eye with a blow so vicious that the hard plastic penetrated three inches into his brain.
The rebellion was quickly put down by other guards, and Salim and Mohamed returned to their cells as Pepe fought for his life. As a result of his injuries, he suffered a stroke and then a coma. To this day, one side of his body remains paralyzed, he has difficulty speaking or understanding what is being said to him, and he is blind in one eye.
Salim, believed to be the highest-ranking al-Qaida member to be held in the United States, complained bitterly to U.S. District Judge Deborah A. Batts about the harsh treatment he received from other guards in the wake of the attack. His accomplice, Mohamed, cried like a girl when he received a life sentence for his involvement in the embassy bombings.
Last week, Salim pleaded guilty to the attack on Pepe. He faces a sentence of life in prison plus 20 years at his Aug. 5 sentencing, though his attorney said the plea agreement would allow Salim to serve as little as 18 years.
He has yet to be tried in the bombing case.
Aside from a brief item sent out over the Associated Press, the Pepe case received no media coverage at all. The CNNs and New York Times and Washington Posts of this world were all too busy worrying about the care and feeding of those who would destroy us.
Are the al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners in U.S. custody being treated too harshly?
Are the American efforts to secure these animals and keep them from hurting anyone else inhumane?
Go ask Frank and Margaret Pepe.
You could try asking Louis Pepe too, but he probably couldn't answer you.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | April 9 2002 |