She Went to Aruba- Will You?

"She" is, of course, Natalee Holloway, the Alabama honors high-school graduate who went to Aruba in May 2005 on a class trip. On the last night of the trip, she and other students went to Carlos 'n' Charlies, a bar where Aruban police say drugging of drinks is known to occur. She left with three Aruban residents. One, Joran van der Sloot, had spent days with her tour group, falsely saying he was a visiting Dutch tourist. (A hotel manager later identified him as a known predator who targeted American tourist girls.) He and his companions, Deepak and Satish Kalpoe, drove Natalee away, alone.

Natalee's disappearance, and her family's quest for the truth, have drawn media coverage and
worldwide interest ever since. The case was revived in January, when a series of 'sting' videotapes by a Dutch TV crime reporter showed Joran confiding that he was with Natalee when she suddenly passed out on the beach. He said he panicked and, without knowing if she were still alive, called "Daury," a "friend" who dumped her body at sea.

Joran said he wasn't bothered by what happened.

"I was even able to sleep that night. I just went home and went to bed." He later said his story was a lie given under the influence of marijuana. On February 15, 2008, an appeals court of three judges upheld an earlier ruling that the tapes did not provide enough new evidence to re-arrest him, even though this was the first time that he acknowledged knowing about Natalee's fate.

Joran and the Kalpoes have given well over 20 versions of what happened. Their first story --
they dropped Natalee off at her hotel and saw two security guards take her away -- was disproven by Beth Holloway. The guards, who were never associated with Natalee in any way, were swiftly arrested on no evidence except this lie from the three people last seen in Natalee's company. The three were not arrested until 11 days after Natalee vanished. Aruba police had a warrant to search the entire van der Sloot property, but Dutch judge Bob Wit met them and limited the search to Joran's apartment. On June 10, 2005, Aruba officially announced that Natalee was dead and that one suspecthad confessed ... only to withdraw the announcement
and cite "a disinformation campaign."

Why should Americans avoid Aruba?

Paulus van der Sloot, Joran's father, a lawyer who aspired to be a judge, is believed to have used his contacts in Aruba's government and law enforcement to destroy evidence and obstruct the investigation. In her book, Beth Holloway Twitty quoted a former head of Aruba tourism as outright admitting that there was a cover-up. More evidence supports this argument than
we can put here. After nearly three years, there are no answers. Will you visit a country that winks at the disappearance of American tourists, even though our tourism provides 80% of its income? Do you want to prop up this banana republic with your money?

How can I learn more about this case?

The Natalee Holloway mystery may be the most intensively covered missing-person case in history, and is abundantly documented. Even a basic timeline would require not a handout, but a volume. People interested in doing more research into the case, reviewing the timeline, or just following the news and comments on it are invited to visit these Web sites. There are many more, but these are some of the key ones and offer links to others:

www.scaredmonkeys.com
www.arubanboycott.blogspot.com
www.arubassilence@bravehost.com
www.therealarubatruth.blogspot.com

The two books by Natalee's parents are Dave Holloway's "Aruba: the Tragic Untold Story of Natalee Holloway and Corruption in Paradise," and Beth Holloway's "Loving Natalee." These are
indispensable reading. Also see the blog of Dutch crime reporter Peter deVries:
http://www.peterrdevries.com/

Texas Equusearch, a volunteer search and rescue group, has been searching the waters off Aruba for Natalee's body since mid-November 2007. The search relies on volunteer help and is financed by private donations. Aruba and the Netherlands provide no funds for this search, which costs an estimated $50,000 a day.
Read about it on http://www.nholloway.blogspot.com/

What can I do to help this victimized family?

Nelson Oduber, prime minister of Aruba, recently admitted on Dutch TV that his country has lost tens of millions of dollars in tourist revenue owing to the boycott (Aruba previously denied any impact). The boycott is working, but Natalee's family still deserves the truth!
We are volunteers who want justice, and who believe the boycott is our best leverage on Aruba.
(We also think Natalee's case has revealed that Aruba is not a fit destination.)

Please consider these measures:

*Boycott Aruba. Heed our motto: "No justice for Natalee, no tourists for Aruba."
*Tell your views to:

Aruba Tourism Authority,
100 Plaza Dr., Secaucus, NJ 07094

*Embassy of the Netherlands, 4200 Linnean
Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20008

*Ask your legislators why our government will not speak out against Aruba, three years later.

*Join our e-mailing list at JusticeforNatalee@gmail.com to learn of future events.

If "we the people" do not demand justice, nobody will. Join our boycott of Aruba.

***

Folks, that text will be on flyers that we will be giving out at the Houston Travel Show held at the George R Brown Convention Center on March 29-30, 2008. I will definitely be there, and we should have plenty of media attention thanks to local stations that have been sympathetic to Natalee's case in the past.

New Protests Coming Up This Month

This time the protesters have anti-Aruba freebies to hand out: I'm told that totes, pens, and magnets will be available...and I do believe that the organizers will be handing out Boycott Aruba on Spring Break fliers, too.

The first protest will be at the Seaport Hotel and World Trade Center in Boston (200 Seaport Blvd) on February 22-24, 2008. The second will be in New York City at the Jacob. K. Javits Convention Center (655 W. 34th Street) the following weekend.

Please note that the ATA is a presenting sponsor of the Boston show. It is very important that we embarrass them in Boston!

Let me remind people of a few things, both in the U.S. and Aruba:

~ Nobody can stop us from protesting, not today, not ten years from now. Unlike Aruba, where polis dispersed a labor protest just last year, the U.S. is a free country where peaceful demonstrations are commonplace and a protected right;

~ Nobody can make Americans come to Aruba as opposed to the many other Caribbean islands that are exactly the same as Aruba (except those other places are cheaper and less desolate);

~ Joran may be persona non grata in Aruba now, and his father may possibly lose a lot of his
"Dutch privilege" committee positions in Aruba, but that doesn't help Natalee's family;

~ the Aruban people have still fail to hold their government responsible for the fact that corrupt, privileged Dutch scumbags still run the country and are still doing their part to protect their equally corrupt Dutch friends;

~ In fact, nothing has changed in Aruba. The same corrupt Dutch and the same corrupt MEP
are in charge, and the short-sighted and failed 'status aparte' treaty with Mother
Netherlands still allows for this corruption to continue unchallenged;

~ Aruba is still a hub for drug trafficking, offshore money laundering, and human trafficking;

~ Aruba's ruling party, the MEP, is still politically close to Venzuelan 'President' Hugo Chavez, the most outspoken anti-American Communist dictator in South America;

~ Key people who were aware of Natalee's disappearance in the first 48 hours, namely Gerold
Dompig, Dennis Jacobs, and Jan van der Straaten, have never been questioned by Dutch
authorities or investigated for any wrongdoing;

~ All of this has harmed the average Aruban far more than the fatcat hotel and casino owners,
the politicians, and the Netherlands. And yet the people who have the most to lose are still too blind to realize how crappy their elected officials are, and unwilling to do anything but cry, cry, cry;

~ We still don't know what happened to Natalee, by whose hand, or if it is even possible
to find this out and provide meaningful justice.


Finally, I have a message for poor, suicidal little innocent as a newborn weasel Joran: if you're not man enough to own up for what you did, at least to Natalee's family for their sake, then maybe it would be best for everyone if you weren't here....

Get Used to Zero Growth, Aruba!

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20071220/D8TLBQ9G0.html

What a sham by the so-called 'professionals' the Dutch sent. The Dutch have no problem lying to the family and Americans, either. "We can prosecute without a body! We can prosecute without a body! We can prosecute without a body! Oh, no...we really can't" But I guess we shouldn't have expected the apple to fall far from the tree... why should the Netherlands care when they have status aparte to hide behind? "Not our fault. We can't help. Status aparte, sorry!"

Guess what, Aruba? The damage has been done by your own government's ineptitude and your own indifference. But if you want to keep blaming the media and the family, then go right ahead and dig your grave deeper. Show Americans what whiny, irresponsible, heartless crybabies you are. You're not the victims- Natalee Holloway, her family, and justice are.

The damage is done, Aruba. This one's gonna hurt you for a long, long time...and for choosing the almighty dollar and not justice, you deserve it. For never forcing the government you re-elected months after Natalee disappeared to a higher standard, you deserve it.

You chose to sleep with the Devil- now live with it. And pray that someone does the right thing and brings closure, or at least vengeance, to this family.

As for the boycott efforts: we're mad, we're dedicated, and nobody can stop us. And one of the men who supported the boycott formally is running for President....

Holloway Investigation Closed- But They're REALLY Sorry About This!

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20071218/D8TJVTTG0.html

They have not exhausted their resources, of course. They have not started a new kidnapping investigation. They have not turned over evidence to the FBI or included the FBI in any meaningful way. They have not included 'third parties' in the investigation that the suspects implicated (according to Mos himself). Until we get these things- the boycott marches on!

Sadly for Arubans, the gov't will not do any of these things. Here's why...

The FBI would soon see that the so-called evidence is bogus and amounts to one person's word against another's- no forensic evidence, no electronic evidence, no evidence that isn't highly suspicious if it exists at all. I bet if Dave were to ask those same FBI agents that told him Natalee was probably dead what they thought now, they would have something much different to say. These third parties Mos mentioned then conveniently forgot about are all protected by the corrupt officials as well- and they are the real keys to solving this, not the three delivery boy scapegoats. And the real culprits are way more influential than J2K. A kidnapping investigation would not only be way too close to the truth for comfort, but it will also prolong negative publicity. Think this couldn't have happened to Natalee? Let me remind you that one island over on lovely and equally crime-ridden Curacao, Amy Bradley disappeared almost 10 years ago. Funny how a girl who fell overboard a cruise ship to her death is still on the FBI's missing persons list, and has been spotted in brothels across the Caribbean since then... its funny that she is known to have been accosted by Arubans who invited her to C&Cs before she disappeared.

And we have to ask ourselves, why did the gov't think a negative economic growth in 2006 was worth the risk to protect the suspects, when they could've let Natalee's family find her, take her home, and everything would blow over and be forgotten? Folks, I urge you to look up 'Rebecca Middleton' and examine her case with this one- and look at the differences.

This in no way absolves Aruba or stops the boycott. There are other things Aruba is fully able to do according to Dutch and international conventions- such as sharing evidence with the family (possible now that the case is closed; the family simply needs to petition for access in international court). The U.S. State Department is also authorized to- and must by law- get involved if as few as 5,000 American citizens petition for this. And our boycott efforts are not dependant on Dave Holloway or Beth Reynolds in any way whatsoever.

I e-mailed all my boycott supporters and organizers, saying that it is high time we got organized and planned a long-tern boycott effort. In 15 minutes they all answered back with a resounding "Hell yeah!" So, as a start, look for my bogus Aruba Travel and Tourism blog to be up soon- and look for an official boycott website by others as well.

D-Day Letter to Aruba

I sent this to Diario Aruba as a response to Jossy Mansur's 11/30/2007 editorial. I do not expect it to be published simply because the Aruban government finds ways to make it hard on the press when it publishes anything critical:

“Hello Jossy,

Let me assure you of a few things as an American, as one who is very well-informed about the Holloway disappearance, and is a tourism professional with a degree in recreation and tourism:

First, as much as Arubans loyal to the government (among others in the world) like to think, Americans are not stupid. We know that Joe Tacopina is just another sleazy defense lawyer, and that he is paid to make guilty men look innocent. Your readers may not be aware of this, but in America lawyers are almost universally hated- especially defense attorneys. When he or his Aruban counterparts paint Joran to be some kind of innocent victim, he is only hardening our hearts against Joran and the island that sheltered him.

Second, regardless of what evidence the prosecution has or will present to the judges for a trial, Americans expect justice. I do not blame anyone but the suspects for failing to come clean and allow Dave Holloway to at least find his daughter for closure’s sake, but as a travel and tourism professional I can tell you that Aruba must provide justice for this family and for the missing girl. If it does not, the ATA may as well write the U.S. and Canada off as a loss, and start courting the Venezuelan tourists that Nels Oduber seems to hold so dearly. Sadly, the average Venezuelan have nearly as much disposable income as the average American…

This is the American attitude: we do not owe Aruba anything. We feel betrayed that we provided so much of our income to Aruban families and the government, and yet that government cannot thank us with even one prosecution. One betrayal like most Americans feel over this issue is enough to erase any number of years of safe tourism to the island. I am not saying that is fair- but that is how things are in the typical American mind. I know that Dave Holloway does not support a boycott and does not wish to harm innocent Arubans, but we do not take orders from Dave Holloway. We make our own decisions to stay away from Aruba.

Mr. Mansur, I will make a prediction: if there is no conviction handed down from Aruba’s courts regarding the missing Holloway girl, Aruba’s tourism will not return to 2005 levels for at least 10 years, and I cannot hazard a guess as to if it will ever grow much beyond that. There are many other factors that make this negative publicity even worse, such as rising fuel prices, tightening travel and restrictions in the U.S. (the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico are already advertising ‘no passport fees’ on their television ads), and the very competitive nature of Caribbean tourism. In the last three issues of two prominent travel magazines, Travel Age West and Travel + Leisure, I found only two very small ads for Aruba. I see one airing of Aruba commercials on the Travel Channel per night, on most nights.

The interest just is not there anymore, and these travel and tourism outlets have no interest in advertising what travel agents aren’t selling.

Of course the Aruban government is lying about the losses to sedate the voters, but local newspapers and international groups have figures that reveal these lies for what they are. We will see how much tourism has really dropped before the next elections- I am sure the MEP’s opposition will gladly share all of the truth with voters then.

I am sorry, but the truth is Aruba must provide justice for Natalee Holloway. Americans are simply sick and tired of excuses and mistakes, and ‘Sorry, we did our best’ will not be enough ot bring us back. Honestly, I’m not sure if we ever will come back.

Your Friend,

Dan in Tx”

Pennsylvaina Boycott Protest

Two of the Boycott Aruba faithful sent me this report of the recent Pennsylvania protests. I quote e-mails verbatim (with permission):

"

We had six participants at the maximum. Four of us post on Scared Monkeys as follows: 10061906, NM, Elaine, and Richard. JusticeforNatalee and her husband dropped in; she had taken part in the "original" Boston protest, and we were all pleased that she joined us. None of the rest of us had ever met, but we all worked together effectively.

Arrangements had been made with security, who gave us a place to stand near a main entrance to the convention center. This place had a huge parking lot, so it wasn't like the Boston event, where everyone had to pass by us. As there was at least one other main entrance, a number of people might have not seen us.

Also, the traffic pattern in the huge parking lot was chaotic at the best. Anyone who pulled over to take our pamphlets, read our signs, or to just take a look risked incurring an accident. I think that a post in front of an entrance would have been safer for everyone.

Still and all, these were the arrangements that security at the event gave us. As in Boston, we were not allowed to hand out literature within the convention center, or to wear "protest clothing" inside.

Thanks to Jamie of Alabama, we had received a number of her beautiful signs and sweatshirts. Vicki in Florida deserves lots of credit for supervising all of these things with her usual efficiency and spreading the word to everyone.

The main point that's worth making is that (as far as I know) we heard NOT ONE PRO-ARUBA COMMENT. Not everyone who came to talk with us criticized Aruba, but many did. A number of people signalled their support of us, and (I think) more people here, than in Boston, took some trouble to tell us that they agreed with us in wanting to boycott Aruba.

We also heard some interesting remarks. One woman said that she goes to this same travel show every year to tell Aruba that she had no plans to return. She said that he had to cancel one planned trip, and had to forfeit a deposit of $150. When she called to ask if she could get it back, she said, Aruba began a pattern of what she called harrassment ... making nuisance calls to her from Aruba, threatening, and being generally offensive. She said that she had complained to the FBI about it.

Five or six travel agents took our literature and expressed sympathy. Two of them told us that the Aruban 'delegation' was annoying all of the other participants; they were loud, noisy, and generally were unpopular and clashed with the others there.

Some of us went into the travel show arena (in 'civilian' clothes, of course), and their reports confirmed what we were told by some other people: Aruba had more floor space than any other delegation at the event, and yet its booths were getting very little interest. This is a subjective opinion, of course, but the consensus was that almost nobody seemed interested in finding out information on Aruba.

One woman who had taken our literature earlier in the day told us that the Aruban booths were nearly deserted, and that she was there when one couple wandered over. One of the workers there began giving them 'sales talk,' and she intervened, telling the couple "Don't go to Aruba, it isn't even safe. Go ask those people outside (meaning us), and they'll tell you all about it."

She said that the worker for Aruba just gaped at her. Later on, she said, the couple went over to her privately and said they had decided not to go to Aruba.

(Incidentally, except for two or three 'exotic dancers,' the staff at the Aruban booths were not Aruban. They appeared to be from a U.S. travel agency. One of us, 10061096, said he thought that even the dancers seemed to be depressed by the lack of activity at the Aruban exhibit.)

Yet another person said she had a timeshare in Aruba but would never use it again.

One woman and her daughter strolled over to us, said that they had heard about Natalee, and on the basis of what they heard would never go to Aruba.

As in Boston, some people asked whether Natalee had been found yet. But I think that most people who reacted to our signs and literature remembered the case, and many said they thought there had been some sort of cover-up. Certainly the broad details were remembered, and many recognized Natalee's picture. We got quite a number of gestures of support for our cause, and most people who responded seemed to agree that a boycott was a good idea. Some of them mentioned that they had read the book by Beth, Dave, or both.

At the Valley Forge protest, we received at least three offers of donations. One woman who drove up in her car pulled over to see what we were about, scanned the handouts, pulled out a $5 bill and thrust it at us! (In about 20 seconds after pulling over.)

We were startled, or at least I was, but we decided to decline all donations to avoid any imputations of "impure motives."

Some people asked if we were related to Natalee's family. We said (as we did at Boston) that we were not affiliated with the family in any way ... were not paid by them, or even asked by them, to appear at these events, and did not speak for them or represent them.

We said that we were simply regular Americans who were irate at what Aruba has done (and not done), disgusted that our government has not stood up for Americans abroad, and that we are simply doing what we think is both prudent and morally right ... urging people not to go to Aruba, and to spread Natalee's story.

Finally, one more thing. There has been a lot of talk that the publicity given Natalee's case represents a kind of "rich white girl syndrome." Without addressing this, let me say that from what I saw, many of the people at the Valley Forge event who expressed support, and who praised us, were black. I hope that settles that issue.

(Many of them also were travel agents. As I said before, two travel agents who took part in the actual travel show said that the people representing Aruba left a bad taste in everyone's mouth, so to speak.)

Think of it: Aruba had six booths, representing more floor space than any other participant ... and yet, from what we were told and from what some of us saw, they were getting NO INTEREST."

ALERT: Scam in Progress

One of the Boston Five (the people who organized the first protest against the ATA in Boston, and incidentally are still planning protests for the six other conventions Aruba will be at this year) had an e-mail contact account that was hacked less than a week ago. The scam message coming from this 'hijacked' e-mail reads thus:

"How are you doing today? I am sorry i didn't inform you about my traveling to Africa for a program called "Empowering Youth to Fight Racism HIV/AIDS, Poverty and Lack of Education, the program is taking place in three major countries in Africa which is Ghana , South Africa and Nigeria . It as been a very sad and bad moment for me, the present condition that i found myself is very hard for me to explain. I am really stranded in Nigeria, because I forgot my little bag in the Taxi where my money, passport, documents and other valuable things were kept on my way to the Hotel am staying, I am facing a hard time here because i have no money on me. I am now owning a hotel bill of $ 1550 and they wanted me to pay the bill soon else they will have to seize my bag and hand me over to the Hotel Management., I need this help from you urgently to help me back home, I need you to help me with the hotel bill and i will also need $1600 to feed and help myself back home so please can you help me with a sum of $3500 to sort out my problems here? I need this help so much and on time because i am in a terrible and tight situation here, I don't even have money to feed myself for a day which means i had been starving so please understand how urgent i needed your help. I am sending you this e-mail from the city Library and I only have 30 min, I will appreciate what so ever you can afford to send me for now and I promise to pay back your money as soon as i return home so please let me know on time so that i can forward you the details you need to transfer the money through Money Gram or Western Union.

Really hope to read from you soon"


Folks, THIS IS A SCAM. None of it is true, and in fact the same message is probably used to swindle money through a variety of hacked or bogus accounts.

The owner reported that the account had been taken over by hackers and the password changed to Google and the appropriate authorities. DO NOT respond or even open anything from volunteersfornatalee@gmail.com!

As soon as the boycotters have an alternate contact I will post it.