Wow... I hope everything stays okay with her family. I mean, there's almost no chance they'll work things out and accept her again, but I mean, I hope they will at least stay away... I've heard some pretty crappy stories along those lines... ------------------ "There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and STATISTICS..." - Mark Twain -
Did the Marine serve time? Forging documents is kind of serious. ------------------ The death penalty SUCKS.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/nation/952710 Princess finds a happy ending Long after eloping with U.S. Marine, she has no regrets By ANGIE WAGNER LAS VEGAS -- It seems so long ago to the Bahraini princess -- that night she left behind her homeland for forbidden love with a U.S. Marine. A year and a half later, she has traded prestige and honor for marriage to an American and a Las Vegas apartment. Meriam Al-Khalifa, 19, has not spoken to her parents since her secret rendezvous with Jason Johnson, who spirited her away from Bahrain late one November night using forged documents and the help of some friends. Bahraini Princess Meriam Al-Khalifa ran away to the United States to marry former Marine Jason Johnson, at right, in November 1999. Al-Khalifa has not spoken to her parents since that time. Sometimes, she is still not sure how it all happened. But she says she is happy with her new life. "I just think it was something I wanted bad enough and that's where you get the courage from," she says. Their story is the stuff movies are made of -- a princess who defies her family and a Marine who risks it all for love. Indeed, a TV movie was made about them and a book is due out next year. But the couple, relaxing this day in Las Vegas -- she in her jean skirt with "Angel" written on the back pocket and he in his red polo shirt -- do not believe their story is all that remarkable. "We don't think, oh, the princess and the Marine. It's just us," Al-Khalifa says with a shrug. Bahrain is a small island off the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia and the regional base for the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. Johnson, now 26, was assigned to a unit providing security for Americans there. Al-Khalifa is one of five daughters of Sheik Abdullah bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa, a distant relative of Bahrain's ruler Sheik Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa. As a Muslim she was forbidden to marry a non-Muslim. She was expected to marry within an elite circle. Being alone with a boy wasn't allowed. But Al-Khalifa, then a senior at an all-girls school, and her friends would meet U.S. Marines at a shopping mall. She and Johnson met there in January 1999. He thought she was pretty; she thought he was funny. The two began talking on the phone and meeting at the mall with their friends. They talked about how even though Johnson is Mormon and Al-Khalifa is Muslim, they have similar morals. Their first kiss was in a movie theater. "He leaned over and whispered, `When are you going to call me tonight´ and I kissed him," she says. That night, someone saw them. Al-Khalifa's family found out, and ordered an end to the romance. A month went by before Al-Khalifa sneaked in a call from a pay phone. "I was thinking about her all the time," Johnson says. In August 1999, the two found a way to communicate. They would write letters and, through a store employee, exchange them at the mall. "I wrote 12 letters in one week," Johnson says. "I'd write four a night." But things were about to get tougher: Johnson was to return to the United States on Nov. 1. So he started devising a getaway scheme. Al-Khalifa got her picture taken at a mall photo booth and Johnson arranged for a new identification card showing her as a U.S. Marine lance corporal. He convinced a woman who handled plane tickets for the Marines that he needed a ticket for his stepsister who was flying home with him. On Nov. 1, Johnson and three other Marines rented a Lexus "to fit into the neighborhood" and waited for Al-Khalifa in an alley. Forty-five minutes passed. She didn't show. Something must have happened, Johnson thought. "I was just having second thoughts," she says. "I just thought the whole thing was just crazy, that I couldn't leave my family." Finally, she grabbed her backpack -- stuffed only with clothes and the letters Johnson had written her -- and jumped over the wall surrounding her family's home. Johnson pulled her into the car and they drove away into the night and into a new life. The two made it out of Bahrain, and through customs in London. Al-Khalifa, wearing a white shirt with a small American flag on it and a New York Yankees cap, kept her head down to avoid security cameras. The escape unraveled in Chicago, where immigration officials were waiting for them. Al-Khalifa requested political asylum, telling immigration officials she feared persecution if she returned to Bahrain. The Immigration and Naturalization Service granted her request for a hearing. In the meantime, the couple married in Las Vegas on Nov. 16, 1999. Johnson was court-martialed and demoted, and was discharged from the Marines at his request in October. In May, Al-Khalifa Johnson was given a permanent visa because she is married to an American. Now they have settled in Las Vegas, where some of Johnson's family lives. They rent an apartment and live off the money they made from the movie. They plan to attend college and start a family in a few years. "I don't regret it," Al-Khalifa Johnson says of leaving her country. "I just regret running away. I wish I'd done it another way." She has not spoken to her family but communicates with her sisters through e-mail. She hopes one day to reconcile with her parents but knows nothing will ever be the same. The couple have formed a nonprofit organization with the author of their book, Jean Sasson, to help elevate oppressed women through education and business start-up loans. Does this story about a princess have a fairy-tale ending? "For the longest time we didn't think that," Al-Khalifa says, glancing at her husband. "I think it has a happy ending." ------------------
Just like "Coming to America", but without the all-star cast. ------------------ Ceo of the Walt Williams and Lisa Malosky fan club. My Mockumentary atheistalliance.org
the money will run out soon, they'll get divorced and she'll go back to Bahrain where she'll probably be be-headed for defying muslim law. and they lived happily ever after. rH ------------------ visit: groovehouse.org
this story was a TV movie on NBC a few months ago, called "The Princess & The Marine" starring Mark Paul Gosselar (Zack from "Saved By The Bell"). ------------------
