Where is the Official List of Missing & Lost Americans?

[Stephanie]

This woman from the State Department is on the Newshour talking about the Americans killed and missing in the disaster. But where is the list?

Here is their info page:

http://www.state.gov/p/sa/tsunami/index.htm




*edited thread title for specificity*

[Robbien]

1. the CNN reports today said the 5000 reported missing is down to 4000

reported missing. The State Department is not releasing a list of missing until they can confirm all the reports.

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/04/tsunami.americans/

[amazona]

2. if you are seeking someone...

...you can post or read here for information:

http://thorntree.lonelyplanet.com/categories.cfm?catid=68

[Stephanie]

4. I'm not seeking anyone, I'm just wondering

I'm wondering why the U.S. doesn't have it's act together. If it's true as reported that 5000 Americans are unaccounted for, it's appalling that there is no official list to refer to, even if it's incomplete as of course it would be.

[Stephanie]

6. that's a heartbreaking message board at your link

But I want to see something official from the U.S. government. It's over a week and we have no such list?

[Stephanie]

3. Maura Harty, assistant secretary of state for consular affairs

Unaccounted for Americans

Maura Harty, assistant secretary of state for consular affairs, joins Margaret Warner to discuss the uncertainty surrounding the number of missing Americans in South Asia.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/newshour_index.html#tuesday

[tuvor]

5. I heard the Red Cross has a list, but

apparently the law in most countries is that it's up to the families to decide if they want their kin on such a list.

I could be mistaken. Heard something like this on the commute home.

At any rate, I guess check the Red Cross website, whatever that may be.

[Stephanie]

7. After 9/11 we had many lists

Now it's a week later and no such list? And we may have many more lost than in 2001. Why is no attention paid to this? Where are the families? What is the story?

[Stephanie]

8. Okay, it's kind of inconceivable to me, that I could go overseas

Show my passport, go through customs, especially post 9/11, and there are no coherent records of my travels? How much time should the State Dept have to put together a list? A preliminary list, of any kind, would show they're on the case. It's been over a week.

[amazona]

12. because you don't show your passport until you return

It isn't inconceivable to me at all. US Customs doesn't look at your passport until you return from the nation in question. Amazing as it may seem, no, there is no coherent record of your outgoing travel until you return. The other nation(s) may or may not look very hard at your passport when you enter. Sometimes they just put a stamp in your passport. Sometimes they want you to pay a few bucks for a Visa. Nations as diverse as Mexico and Holland have allowed me through customs without so much as glancing at my passport. No, not every time, but often enough that you can't assume that the nation you're visiting is interested in keeping track of you.

I don't see any way that State Dept. could document all of the possible U.S. missing in only one week in a disaster of this size.

It can take weeks, or months, for it to become clear that one American has vanished when traveling overseas. We won't know the full report until families realize that their loved ones have not returned from the CHristmas holidays.

[Stephanie]

15. I don't expect them to have ALL the names

But they have not released any.

[Stephanie]

9. kicking because

I'm wondering if this is deliberate. Bush won't lift a finger, won't leave his vacation, for the first week of the disaster. Now we are hearing that 4000 Americans might be missing but there is no list available. Why not?

[Turley]

10. Not sure if this fits but

the Europeans were very aggressive getting lists out. Then thieves came and broke into the homes and cleaned them out.

There were also instances of prank calls where someone called the family and claimed to have found a head or other body parts. Very stupid, very hateful, but there are a lot of nuts out there.

[Stephanie]

11. Where did you hear that?

First I have heard of it. Regardless, I don't think Team Bush would have thought that far ahead to worry about something like that.

[Turley]

14. Here's one link

http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.asp?ID=IEH20050103114759&Title=Top+Stories&Topic=-367

Google around, you'll find more.

[Stephanie]

16. I just keep thinking of 9/11

And the lists in the paper every day, and the missing posters everywhere. We gradually got all the names. This time we have none. I see your point but I don't think that's the reason there's no U.S. list.

From your link, thanks:

SWEDEN HARD HIT: Sweden is the hardest hit country outside the tsunami region with more than 2,500 missing and 52 confirmed dead. But it kept their names secret after some homes were targeted by thieves.

"It is unfortunately a reality that people who are known to be missing ... have had their homes gone through and partly emptied," State Secretary Lars Danielsson told local radio.

Swedish police could not give details of such break-ins but said similar incidents of looting had occurred after the 1994 sinking of the Estonia, which killed 551 Swedes.

"That is the reason that we are now so careful about distributing the names this time," a police spokeswoman said.

[amazona]

13. oh yeah this happened in Sweden

Also some of the families received emails telling that the missing were found dead. One hoaxer has already confessed and been arrested. I think the Swedish list has been withdrawn until the homes can be secured.