June 04, 2007

RICHARD RESPONDS--FREE SPEECH OR HATCHET JOB?


*You GO Richard!--Michelle



Sent to LA Times writer, Carol J. Williams
By Richard, Aruban Boycott Member


I have followed the Natalee Holloway case closely since it began. While free speech is to be encouraged, the tone of your article, which appeared online this morning, is so one-sided that I am forced to believe that your intention was to denigrate Natalee's family.



You say the Holloway Twittys have cast Aruba's "police force as inept bunglers." Well, let's see ... within 48 hours of Natalee's disappearance, Beth Twitty had arrived on the island, reviewed the videotapes at the Holiday Inn where Natalee had stayed, proved conclusively that the lies of the three suspects about returning her to the hotel were just that -- lies -- and had shown those same tapes to Aruban police.



Who had Aruba seen fit to arrest? The three people last seen with Natalee? No, two security guards who had never been seen in Natalee's company and who were singled out by the suspects themselves.



What was Aruba's reaction to Beth Twitty's proof? To do nothing for another week. Sterling proof of the quality of law enforcement on Aruba, wouldn't you say?



(Incidentally, your comment that "investigators no longer seem to be focusing on the three named suspects" has neither attribution nor logic: a court for the Netherlands Antilles recently ruled that the three remain suspects. The court also struck down damages that Paulus van der Sloot had claimed, saying that witnesses had placed him in Natalee's company on two occasions on the night that she disappeared.)



You speak about "the ill fate presumed to have befallen Natalee Holloway" and sneer at the "vigilante justice seekers." Obviously it's ridiculous to think that, simply because an honors high-school student with a full scholarship to medical school has been missing for two years, foul play could be responsible. Equally ridiculous is the idea that anyone seeking justice -- which the family has interpreted as simply wanting answers to their daughter's fate -- could be motivated by such things as belief that an American missing abroad is a matter of some importance. Why see a potential threat to other tourists? Why not do what Dennis Jacobs said to Dave Holloway (after asking how much money he had ... a normal response from a dedicated law enforcement officer, I'm certain): go to the bar and have a beer?



You seem to accept as fact Aruba's assertion that the damage from the economic boycott has ended. Were you interested, I could direct you to article showing that the decline is both more severe than Aruba has acknowledged (assuming that you trust Aruba's figures to begin with) and is continuing.


My understanding is that the Aruban government gave civil servants an afternoon, not a day, to join the search. And according to an AP article, participation was far less than Aruba put it.


The attorney for the Kalpoes, one of whom said on the Dr. Phil show that Natalee was a "slut" and dressed "like a slut," laments that his clients have had "this sword over their heads for two years now." The Holloway Twitty family has had a different sword over their heads for two years ... the agony of wondering what befell their daughter. I know which plight is more deserving of sympathy, in my eyes.


Perhaps you would care to detail the scores of lies that we have gotten from the three suspects. Given that Joran van der Sloot has given at least four explanations of how he got home from the beach where he said he took Natalee (though he also said he took her to his house), some people might think his actions merit suspicion. And given his father's now-famous phrase, "No body, no crime," those suspicions might be extended.



Your nearly page-long coverage of the "compassion for a desperate mother" that Julia Renfro is alleged to have felt omits a few facts. Such as Joran van der Sloot's statement that he had sex with Natalee while she was drifting in and out of consciousness. Some people might define that as rape.



And Renfro's speculations about what Natalee might have done conveniently try to take the focus off the three suspects ... whom former Chief of Police Gerald Dompig has said are "guilty as hell." A drunken Natalee, left on the beach, is going to swin to one of the nearby boats? No writer for a sixth-grade newspaper would let such an absurd claim go unquestioned.



I am not going to discuss my ideas of what happened to Natalee Holloway. But I might suggest that you balance your pro-Aruban account with a little background.



Such as: the FBI agents sent to Aruba were outraged that they were being slighted, not allowed to do anything useful, and were kept out of the picture.


Such as: far from being sympathetic, the Aruban government lied about the support it was giving the family (Dave Holloway is on record as denying the free rooms and other benefits).

Such as: a water search was on the verge of being launched, and all that Aruba had to do was contact the FBI. It refused to do so.

Such as: the Aruban government's sympathy did not extend to Beth Twitty, whom it told would have to apologize for her statements or it would stop its investigation.

Such as: Arubans demonstrated in the street against Beth Twitty. (Did your self-commiserating Arubans, sad at the impact of this tragedy on their businesses, see fit to mention this?)

Such as: an unqualified, specific promise from Steve Cohen, one of the many functionaries who tried to represent the Aruban government, that the three suspects would be re-questioned. It never happened.


I could cite dozens more issues. But why bother?
I do not speak for the Holloway Twitty family. But your totally one-sided article leaves me doubting that they would speak to you.


I appreciate your attention and assistance on this matter.



13 comments:

Anonymous said...

KUDOS to you, Richard!

It's high time folks in our media starting doing their job!

Whatever happened to reporting the facts?

Whatever happened to investigative reporting?

Apparently that all went out the window and in flew sensationalism, a lack of fact checking, and poor (if any) editing.

Is it time to BOYCOTT THE LA TIMES?

SOMETHING has got to wake these people up to the fact that the American citizen isn't obtuse, that we can see their lack of integrity - and that we ain't gonna take it no more!

Anonymous said...

I still believe that if the focus was on Natalee and not Beth, that Natalee would be found alive somewhere. Think about what Natalee was saying the day before, and the night that she disappeared. "Do you live in a big house?" "I don't want to go back to Alabama." "My mother is a 'Hitler type." The scene the night of her disappearance was a concert on the beach - a party boat nearby - a brother-in-law with a hut nearby the beach and the hotel where he sold drugs to locals and tourists. There is a son of Monsur's gardener, who is illegally in Aruba, trolling the beach "looking for a fan" because he is hot. You have a Croes (who worked on the party-boat nearby where Natalee was left on the beach) who coyly tells Greta that when he told the police that he corroborated the Kalpoe brother's story about the security guards, that "maybe I was trying to help somebody out." Who was that somebody - Natalee? Was she mortified that her mother arrived on the island of Aruba, bringing the entire world looking at her actions, before she even had time to sober up from the drinking and partying and having somebody drink jello shots out of her navel? Natalee was and probably still is embarrassed as heck of her mother's actions. She probably hid out temporarily at first to avoid the spotlight and then got the heck out of Aruba entirely. There is no trace of her in Aruba, people need to concentrate on Natalee, not Beth, and she will surface somewhere, some day, alive.

Michelle Says So 2.0 said...

If you honestly believe all those "stories" about what Natalee SUPPOSEDLY said you are seriously obtuse. Those stories came from Joran, the ADMITTED compulsive LIAR.

Anonymous said...

Well said, Michelle.

They came from Joran, and they were seized upon by the Aruban yes-men:

Rosalie Klien (scubajap)

Julia Renfro ( Glenda/Bondia/scoop, etc)

Angela Munzenhofer (MF??)

They then spread those lies as far and wide as they could - pushing the Aruban agenda of trying to cast the blame right onto the victim herself.

After all - a kidnapped, raped, and murdered American tourist was simply an unacceptable solution for them. Could you just imagine what that would do to their image? To their tourism industry?

No - much better that they send out their minions to exercise their keyboards casting doubt on the victim's character, that of her family, and distancing the van der Sloot's from blame.

Utterly disgusting.

Great decision making by the "powers that be", Aruba!!

And you really wonder WHY your island is being boycotted?

Folks like the anonymous aobve need to grow a pair! The rest of us can see the lies these people have been spreading since the beginning - why can't you see it?

Perhaps re-evaluating the factual information that has come out, and putting it up against the crap those minions have been telling you for two years might be a good idea.

You might just be surprised by where forming your own opinions will get you.

For God's sake - Nelson Oduber himself admitting to having such a group of people who have been "behind the SCREENS" since the very early days doing exactly that! Trying to keep Aruba's image from being tarnished by this horrible crime.

BOYCOTT ARUBA!! JUSTICE FOR NATALEE!!

Anonymous said...

I agree with Grace. Yes, maybe she accepts certain stories from certain people to be the truth, but so do you! And some of these people, like Beth Twitty, have also been proven to lie on many occasions.

It just depends on which liar you chose to believe, I guess!

Anonymous said...

Good job Richard. Well written. You would be wise to send it to the editor. Or editorial department.

Anonymous said...

It is sad that Grace, JR, etc just can't seem to
recognize that a dog-ate-my-homework excuse
just doesn't cut it in the context of a missing and
presumably raped and murdered teenage girl.
Even Joran hasn't attempted anything this pathetic.

Anonymous said...

"Anonymous" asserts that this article is an honest look at what might have happened.

What "Anonymous" neglects to say is that Joran's own lawyer told prosecutor Karin Janssen that his client was heavily involved in Natalee's disappearance.

Would any sixth-grader believe that Natalee, IF she were abandoned on the beach while under the influence of too much alcohol (if they ever went near a beach), very probably a date-rape drug (which leaves one physically uncoordinated, I have read), and by Joran's own admission the victim of a sexual assault (if not more; remember, Deepak Kalpoe said that all three had sex with her) ... with all of this, that she would come to her senses on a beach in a foreign country and suddenly decide to go for a swim?

This typifies the imbecilic actions of Aruba from day one. Not only have they been trying to cover up the whole saga, their attempts to do so are both obvious and inept.

Aruba seems used to functioning out of the spotlight. Corruption and chicanery fare best where things are done sub rosa, and Aruba's sorry excuse for a government is used to that.

The legacy of Natalee Holloway's case is that Americans now have no excuse for not being aware of the darkness that lurks beneath ... and not too far beneath ... the facade of the "one happy island." The gilded hotels and casinos on Aruba's beaches mask the vast charnel house that it really is, and that travelers into the arid interior see in the packs of stray dogs and the ramshackle huts of the "chollers."

It's time for Aruba to face its destiny, unpleasant (for Aruba) though that may be.

Anonymous said...

My comment was supposed to go on the other thread from Michelle's post... Sorry

Anonymous said...

Richard, that is a remarkable post my friend. Thank you!


Grace Wessel,

We've kept up with everything that came out of Aruba. Not sure where you are getting your info. Take a seat and read Michelle's site. HERE, you will find the truth.

See, Joran is a liar. He admitted he is a liar. So, who are you to make this post? Are you covering up for Aruba too? Are you Julia or her friend? Think ANYONE believes what you have written? ROFL-


When you get ready to write about the truth. Research Michelle's site. You'll find a lot of information here useful.

WE'RE NOT GIVING UP ON NATALEE TO SAVE ARUBA SO GET OVER IT!!

ARUBA ALE knows where Natalee is and what happened and covered it up. You can blow smoke all day but it will get you NOWHERE!!

Anonymous said...

Hmmmm, grace weasel - oops sorry, I meant wessel. Your post sounds just like something Julia would say. You sure your name is Grace?

Anonymous said...

ummm. paragraph 3 is not true. should I read the rest or just stop there? those 2 particular guards - nope not true.
Does anybody tell the truth anymore? Heck, even John Ramsey lied the other day. Well, he covered up the murder of his daughter so I guess that not all that shocking.

Michelle Says So 2.0 said...

What is shocking is that there are people like you out there.

Go spew your pro-Aruba propaganda elsewhere. You won't be commenting here ever again.