By It looks like my prior research into who Aijalon Mahli Gomes is, has now been confirmed to be true:
A Boston man facing trial in North Korea for illegally entering the communist country “is not a terrorist” but a deeply religious English teacher dedicated to his students, a friend told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Aijalon Mahli Gomes attends church every Sunday in Seoul and refuses to quit his teaching job in South Korea despite the stress of being in a foreign country, Marshalette Wise said in a telephone interview from that country, where she trains English teachers.
“Aijalon is not a terrorist,” said Wise, a Tuskegee, Ala., native who met Gomes in 2008 while both were teaching English in South Korea. “He is very professional. He’s here to teach English.”
North Korea announced two months ago that an American was detained Jan. 25 for trespassing after crossing into the country from China and was under investigation.
On Monday, state-run media identified the 30-year-old Gomes as the detainee and said “his crime has been confirmed.” The brief Korean Central News Agency dispatch did not say when he would stand trial.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters Tuesday that the United States had not been formally notified by North Korea about charges against the American. Crowley said Swedish diplomats have had four recent meetings with him. In the absence of formal U.S.-North Korean diplomatic relations, Sweden represents the United States in the North.
Thaleia Schlesinger, a family spokeswoman, said Gomes grew up in Boston and graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine before going to South Korea to teach English. Schlesinger said Gomes had been in South Korea for a couple of years.
Wise, 33, said she last talked to Gomes in mid-December and had no idea he was the detainee until she was contacted by The Associated Press.
She described Gomes as “very friendly” and so “socially conservative” that he didn’t even have a Facebook account. Wise said she saw Gomes wear only slacks, dress shirts, and bowties. [Associated Press]
Read the rest at the link, but it does appear this was a religiously motivated crossing into North Korea. The only thing that hasn’t been confirmed yet is whether Gomes knew Robert Park or not as a prior commenter mentioned in my last posting.
Donald Kirk writing in the Christian Science Monitor also looks into who Aijalon Gomes is as well. In the article Kirk asks Aidan Foster-Carter what he thinks about this:
“He sounds like he’s another slightly unhinged Christian like Robert Park,” says Aidan Foster-Carter, honorary fellow at Leeds University and a longtime analyst of the Korean scene. Gomes’s given names, Aijalon Mahli, come from a biblical name and a locale. [Christian Science Monitor]
Foster-Carter also said that he believes that Gomes will likely be released in the near term. Kirk does make a good observation that it is interesting that the North Koreans released Gomes name right before Jimmy Carter’s visit to South Korea. He believes the North Koreans may be trying to get Carter to come to Pyongyang and pick him up, which would be yet another propaganda coup for the regime.
4:23 pm on March 23rd, 2010 1
Maybe Jimmy Carter will head up north and kill Kim Jong-il like he did his father.
5:51 pm on March 23rd, 2010 2
"Aijalon Mahli Gomes attends church every Sunday in Seoul and refuses to quit his teaching job in South Korea despite the stress of being in a foreign country, Marshalette Wise said in a telephone interview from that country, where she trains English teachers."
"… despite the stress of being in a foreign country" What the f…?
South Korea is stressful, but he is willing to venture off into North Korea?
I know some religious people who have the basic survival skills to make it through the most dangerous places and situations, but first among those skills is the common sense to not place themselves in those situations in the first place.
Every time I hear about these gullible, blind faith, fodder for cults, naive tools, I have no sympathy for them. Suffering is good for the soul. Let'em suffer.
7:02 pm on March 23rd, 2010 3
How big a cult are we talking about here?
8:18 pm on March 23rd, 2010 4
This cracks me up.
The world cracks me up, actually… but this just had a lot of lines to read the funny content in-between.
"…and refuses to quit his teaching job in South Korea despite the stress of being in a foreign country,"
Oh… much like the other 50,000-plus teachers who continue showing up to work every day?
…pretty exclusive club…
Although, technically, they are still at work… and he isn't.
"Aijalon is not a terrorist,"
That's certainly good to know. I'm not sure the thought, that he ever was a terrorist, actually crossed anybody's mind at any point.
Usually a terrorist has a plan designed more to "create" terror, not bring it upon themselves.
He's more like an anti-terrorist… or maybe a "terroristee" in this case.
"He is very professional. He’s here to teach English."
No. He WAS here to teach English. Now he is THERE to get his azz beat by North Koreans. Azz-beatee is somewhat less of a profession.
"She described Gomes as “very friendly” and so “socially conservative” that he didn’t even have a Facebook account."
…because the litmus test of social conservatism is you Facebook and Twitter status? What kind of stupid statement is that? For funk's sake, Rush Limbaugh has a Facebook account.
If you parse this woman's statement carefully, you can be pretty sure she really doesn't know him all that well and doesn't want to say anything bad… kinda like calling the fat girl "nice".
"Wise said she saw Gomes wear only slacks, dress shirts, and bowties."
When I first read it, I somehow read "slacks" as "socks". WTF? That got my attention.
P.S. Unless your name is James Bond, bow ties may be slightly less professional and substantially more geeky than one might immediately realize.
BTW… Aijalon Mahli Gomes' first photo from captivity in North Korea has been posted on the Internet.
http://therealestshitever.files.wordpress.com/200…
4:56 pm on April 6th, 2010 5
"He sounds like he’s another slightly unhinged Christian like Robert Park,”"
if you consider risking your life to help your fellow man "slightly unhinged."
I guess it is awfully unusual these days.
7:55 pm on April 6th, 2010 6
Marie,
Setting achievable goals and then investing time, money and effort with a clear strategy to meet them helps your fellow man.
Stumbling across the boarder with no real plan is somewhat less helpful… and might even be counter-productive to helpful…
…except to the soldier who caught you… who might get a Dear Leader Shiny Ribbon of Recognition Award…
…and maybe the North Korean government who can parade you as a captured spy or someone who has come to see the World Famous Shining Light that is North Korea… depending on the mood of the people.
His intentions may very well be good… but good intentions coupled with foolish actions loudly screams, "Unhinged!"
10:23 am on April 7th, 2010 7
BTW,
Tried… convicted… eight years of hard labor.
It looks like we will be seeing him come home soon.
Be it defecting GIs, self-promoting journalists or unhinged Christians, North Korea is very good at completing a thorough investigation and getting rapid, heart-felt confessions and apologies from these shameless scofflaws.
Further, their efficient court system brings about a speedy trial with a high conviction rate that is the envy of today's American judicial system and only the dream of the parallel extrajudicial system of extraordinary rendition camps and indefinite confinement.
North Korea's problem is that they are just big, ol' softies down deep inside. Regardless of the sentences, their revolving-door justice system always seem to let these criminals free with a simple slap on the hand.
But, in the Democratic People's Republic, that's what happens when you have Republicans trying to keep order while bleeding-heart Democrats sabotage the effort.
10:50 am on April 11th, 2010 8
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