FBI has "expanded role" in Aruba disappearance..WTF?

[SoCalDem]

Live on CNN just now, so no link yet..

Shouldn't our FBI be doing other things?

Does ANYONE on the planet think that this girl:

1. is alive
2. will ever be found


Should FBI (for US investigations until recently) even be deployed to a foreign/sovereign country to "investigate" a crime that was obviously committed on their soil?

The case will ultimately be handled in Aruba, or will they somehow manage to petition courts in the US, and drag the litigation part out as well..

I feel very sorry for the parents of that girl and for her, but this whole thing falls under the category of "shit happens, and sometimes the bad guys get away with it".

What if an Aruban girl disappeared while on vacation to the US? Would our law inforcement welcome/even allow the Aruban equivalent of the FBI to just land here, en masse and start their own investigation? Would we allow their airforce (do they even have one?) to fly planes over our coastline, looking for her body?

Would we ?? Should we?

I know her parents are beside themselves with grief, and I fully understand their desire to do anything they can, but sometimes there just are no "good outcomes".

[BornLeft]

1. The arrogance of my country is embarrassing. n/t

[rodeodance]

2. the FBI would not be involved except for the visibility Fox/etc. has

given this case.

[SoCalDem]

3. Exactly.. I wonder how many Americans go "missing"

in other places around the world. Even as long ago as when i was a travel consultant in the 70's, we always told our clients that once they left the US, they could NOT count on anyone in the US to come to their assistance if something happened overseas. They even signed a waiver for trips abroad, absolving our agency of any responsibility if something DID happen to them..

Parents need to be smarter when it comes to sending their teens abroad for 'fun in the sun'...and they need to be reminded that plain old common sense is their teen's guardian angel when they are not around. What happened to Natalee could have just as easily happened in the US, but somehow tourists feel as if their being on "vacation" somehow protects them from anything bad happening..

[wli]

8. we're more like refugees abroad these days

I'd be considerably more concerned about getting "disappeared" within US borders considering the slimeballs sitting in the White House.

[Spider Jerusalem]

4. The FBI has no business being involved...

unless at the request of the Dutch government.

The girl is dead, she's not going to be found, the best they can hope for is admission of guilt from one of the suspects in custody...and the Aruban police and Dutch courts are, I'm sure, quite competent to do that.

[CottonBear]

5. Someone should have an internvention and take Mrs. Twitty home to Alabama

The daughter is most likely long since dead. She's fish food. Sad to say but probably true. The big question is why parents would send new High School graduates (sheltered and pampered upper middle class Southern girls - I was one too) to a place where, un-chaperoned, they could go out and drink and party all night long. Why would they not send the children to a US resort where they could not drink or go to nightclubs? When the kids are in college, then they could travel to these type of places. I traveled to Mexcio (Cozumel) with my high school Spanish teachers. We had absolutely NO opportunity to party or drink nor did we even consider it.

Caribbean Net News (Online) has been publishing letters received regarding this girl. (Click on Netherland Antilles to see the letters.) The letters from the Americans are beyond embarassing. 95% of the American letter writers are absolute idiots.

[LisaL]

10. I seriously doubt kids would be any safer in US resorts.

It's not like Aruba is a high crime place. I am sure the parents thought the girl would be perfectly safe there. After all, murders are very rare in Aruba (unless they cover them all up).

[SoCalDem]

11. Kids with lapses in common sense and excesses with booze

are vulnerable EVERYWHERE.. THAT's the "talk" parents should have with every kid.. male or female:(

[LisaL]

13. Isn't that the truth.

The way this case is going, one would think there is no crime in the US.
What a joke!
There are plenty of people missing right here in the US.
Why doesn't FBI investigate these cases?

[ugarte]

6. The Twittys are white and have some money,

therefore influence with their Congressmen who probably leaned on the FBI to get involved. As far as I can tell, the FBI did not particularly want to get involved. If the victim were poor and black, you can bet the FBI wouldn't be coming in.

[walldude]

12. Yup.. wouldn't be on the news either... n/t

[wli]

7. gross violation of sovereignty

I have no idea why foreign countries put up with this crap.

[SoCalDem]

9. Because they fear retribution

from the thugs running our government

[Liberal In Texas]

14. We have no jurisdiction. Aruba is not a colony or territory.

This is bullshit.

I too, sympathize with the parents, but this is a foreign country.

[SoCalDem]

15. The thing that gets me is this.

We hear daily that we need every bit of expertise we can garner to "fight terror", and yet SOMEONE approved the fighter jets to patrol the coast and SOMEONE approved the FBI people to go to Aruba for what? a month or more now?..Who's paying their expenses? I'm sure they are not treating it like a Caribbean vacation, but there's a principle here.. The FBI are not to be used by private citizens or governments like a Magnum PI operation..

They have better things to do,.

If this had been the abduction of *²'s kid or a government official, I could understand it..

But this is NONSENSE.. No amount of reward will "return the girl" dead or alive..

Someone or some people in Aruba killed her.. That's a given. They may or may not be found and prosecuted and found guilty. What if they ARE, and the girl's family does not "agree with" the eventual sentence.? Will they ask for a new trial in Texas, so that the perpetrator can be executed?

[Swamp Rat]

16. Hey FBI! Where the FUCK are the anthrax terrorists?!?

I'll give you a hint on where to begin looking: The anthrax terrorists work for Bush.

[SoCalDem]

17. They sure aren't in Aruba

:)