Van Zandt: Why some say Natalee may still be alive - Profiler's Perspective

msnbc.com

Clint Van Zandt is a former FBI profiler and hostage negotiator who runs a private consulting firm and is a consultant for MSNBC. He makes an important revelation in this article that people need to know. Here is an excerpt from my email to him.

Hello, Mr. Van Zandt
--snip--

Your article seemed to indicate that there's no one who could or would look into a case like [the Natalee Holloway case], or like Amy Bradley's. I saw those pictures - if that's not her, she has a twin. If there's no agency to follow through on cases like this, shouldn't Americans be warned about it before they travel abroad? We think we're living under a blanket of protection that doesn't exist. They say there are probably more slaves in this country now than there were before the Civil War. Why isn't that more of a priority for law enforcement? They waste millions locking up pot smokers and do nothing for women and children who are sold into slavery? That's obscene.

Thank you for writing this article. I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to publish this on my blog - people need to know that if they leave or are taken out of the country, they're pretty much on their own.

Sincerely,
Morgaine Swann

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And now, I'm going to rant a while:

If you watch a lot of TV dramas, you get the idea that if you are kidnapped in a foreign country or here and taken elsewhere, that someone will come looking. According to the linked article, that's not true. Law enforcement here in the U.S. will contact an agency in another country, but then it's left to them whether to pursue the case or even if they do anything about it at all. When you go outside the United States, you are virtually unprotected. Nobody is going to come looking for you unless someone you know has the money and the inclination to amass a private rescue force as Ross Perot did for two of his employees who were taken hostage in Iran in 1979.

I mentioned Amy Bradley above. She was on a cruise ship with her family when she disappeared in 1998. There have been at least three photos of a woman they think is her, and people have reported seeing her, but no agency is out there actively looking for her. This woman has been missing 9 years. Can you imagine what her family is going through?

What exactly is our government doing? I know we've got people in there right now who don't believe in government, so they do less than usual, but this is a flaw in the very structure and purpose of what government should do for its people. We live in a global community and that community is trading slaves on a scale never seen before. Shouldn't the ACTUAL physical security of its citizens be top priority for our law enforcement entities?

The incompetence and the waste astounds me. They spend billions on a War on Drugs, yet they can't even keep them out of the prisons, let alone the country. Slavery exists, right here, right now, and instead of focusing on that, Homeland Security (yeah, right) is locking up undocumented workers and their children, many of whom are American citizens. Immigration and slavery are intimately connected, of course, but we are victimizing the victims all over again with our policies instead of dealing with the criminals and making sound policies that address the real needs of people and business in this country.

When do the adults take charge again? The government we have right now is run by greedy corporate tools that have long since abandoned the will of the people. It's time for the people take charge of this government again and make it work for all of us, not just the richest one per cent.

All of this can't be blamed on the Bush Administration. They've taken corruption and incompetence to completely new levels, but it didn't start with them. Bill Clinton was president for the first 2 years of Amy Bradley's disappearance. We had a great FEMA in those days, but our government still wasn't able to help the family of a girl who disappeared from a ship. How many suspects could there be?!

I'm sick of this. I'm sick of all the political bullshit keeping women down. We're the targets of religious radicals who haven't read their own bible, which is rife with instructions to "tear up" pregnant women and dash babies' heads against stones, who'd rather we bleed to death than terminate a clump of tissue that may or may not have been alive at some point.

We aren't safe on the streets of this country, but we're one step away from martial law. Women and children are controlled with violence and poverty throughout this culture, and yet we think we're better than countries that have free health care and almost no violence. The disconnect between reality and the American sense of self has to end. We have to wake up to these problems and demand that the people in charge actually do the things they are hired or elected to do.

We don't need new laws in this country - we need someone in positions of authority that understand and actually DO their jobs. In the mean time, think twice before you leave the country. It's every woman for herself in this world - this world that is built on the backs of women, who raise the children, who do most of the work, get little of the money, live in the greatest poverty and in the greatest danger of violence everywhere.

And people ask me why feminists are so angry? If you aren't angry, you need to find out what's going on in the world. Even if your little corner of it is safe, your sisters are being tortured, mutilated, whipped and murdered with impunity. Your government doesn't think this is a priority.

It's time for change, and that change is going to have to come from women. We've seen what having men in charge has gotten us. Does this mean I'm supporting Hillary? No. Hillary is part of the same old establishment. If she gets the nomination, she'll be the lesser of two evils, but still an evil. I'll vote for her if she's the only choice, and I'll know nothing will change.

We have to raise our voices in meaningful ways. Go sister to sister, talk to the women around you, let your elected officials know what you think. They aren't going to come knock on your door and ask your opinion. They won't make change unless change is demanded. Don't let them get comfortable, don't give them time to come up with an "official story" or a policy that doesn't address the real issues we're facing.

If you can, get involved on a local level. That won't work where I live, but I'll cover that in another post n the next day or so. There are meet-ups forming all over the country about the next election, about impeachment, about individual candidates and programs. Get out there. Use your voice. Or take a cue from the Freeway Blogger and make a sign. Wear a t-shirt - make one yourself with a magic marker, or buy one to support a cause you believe in.

I'm frustrated, you're frustrated, we're all just numb with disbelief at the state of the world right now. We have to dip into the never-ending source of life for the energy and the anger to carry on. We have to be that source for each other.

"Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Mead