Just A Few Items

Waiting on some additional developments but did want to mention a couple of things.

I was able to confirm through another independent party that there was an individual who spent the night at Joran's apartments the night of Natalee Holloway's disappearance - and he has been questioned a number of times.

Also, you really do have to parse information coming out very carefully. It is very likely that there were only three serious story changes for the primary suspect, perhaps the second more troubling than the first.

It is possible that the first story change was from claiming that Natalee was dropped off at the hotel, to Joran Van der Sloot leaving her on the beach. It is also possible given the evidence of time records and such, that it will be determined that Deepak and Satish Kalpoe did lie for a friend by going along with the first story when it wasn't true - taking Joran at his word that Natalee would show up.

Where things get more complex would be the second story of how Joran arrived home. You would think that the first scenario might be understood as some boys covering for one another in what they thought was an innocent event. But a further lie, or confusion as to the journey home seems to me to be a bit harder for Van der Sloot to explain. If nothing else, we can assert that he is capable of repeatedly lying to authorities while a young girl he was seen with last is missing. That's difficult to rationalize as anything but guilt.

However, the statement that Jossy Mansur brought forward is clearly a sham and more an interrogation technique than a confession of any kind. Yes, the interrogators wrote up a narrative in which Van der Sloot appeared to have blamed everything on Deepak.

But a lack of his signature and only the signatures of the interrogators suggests this was more ploy than plea. It also proved ineffective when show to Deepak Kalpoe - which suggests he may really not know anything. If he had, and Joran was the primary perpetrator - it's hard to imagine he wouldn't have given him up right there ... or even now for a reward. That didn't happen, so far as we can be ascertained. If phone records show the Kalpoes at home by 2:30 or so without going back out - it is hard to see how they were involved.

Another note - I have seen a document purportedly from NBC for circulation which states that Beth Twitty took the video tape when confronting Deepak at the Internet Cafe and later provided it to NBC. I have not written NBC's public relations area to ascertain the validity of this statement. I'd encourage someone to do that if they are interested in that specific bit of information.

Certainly, if the new witness who now claims to have been raped and possibly drugged by Joran holds up, obviously that would begin an entire new investigation and likely a new arrest, even if there was a ruling to release him in the matter of Natalee Holloway's disappearance. But personally I'm going to wait and see if this witness has a little more credibility than some of the others Jossy Mansur has produced to date. And his claim of there being two unidentified and unidentifiable other girls potential charges against Joran Va der Sloot - girls who can not come forward and he cannot name ... amounts to little more than character assassination until they are produced, or disclosed.

Fox, MSNBC, or whomever is not really doing much for the tradition of good journalism by continuing with some of that charade. Also undisclosed, but apparently true in part - is that the Dutch Government did name two Mansur's as linked to gun and drug smugglers, as well as money laundering activities in a leaked, Top-Secret report - for which Mansur filed a Human Rights complaint.

2.2 Under a Royal Decree of 22 October 1994 the Interim Head of Aruban Security Service, A. Koerten, was instructed to carry out an investigation into the security and integrity of Aruba. A report on this investigation was produced on 20 April 1995, entitled Security and Integrity of Aruba: Context and Perspective.

2.3 The report was issued as top secret and was sent to a limited number of state officials and institutions, named in the report.

2.4 The report draws a picture of security in Aruba and mentions that foreign services fighting crime in the region are (sic)Aalmost unanimous in their opinion that the predominant image of the Aruban business community is one of joint services towards (laundering specialists of) regional drug cartels. The report mentions the authors by name and portrays them as criminals who were associated with criminal organizations involved in drugs trafficking, gun trafficking and laundering money obtained from criminal activities.

2.5 Despite the fact that the report was classified as top secret it was leaked to the press and its contents became public. It is not clear who leaked the report. An investigation of the leak was carried out by the Dutch Internal Security Service in which it was supposedly found that the leaked photocopy was not made from a copy in the hands of the Minister of Dutch-Antillean and Aruban Affairs or another Dutch official. The investigation report did not state of which copy the photocopy was made.

Lastly, it is believed that Paulus Van der Sloot participated on a panel which agreed to extradite two relatives of the Mansurs to the US under serious charges some years back. One cannot be fair and balanced without at least mentioning that your primary source of information in this case may well have an agenda against, not only the Dutch in a political sense, but also Paulus Van der Sloot directly.

Nothing in this case seems simple, or beyond a shadow of a doubt - excepting clear statements from everyone that the first few days, always so important to this type of investigation, were significantly flawed, at best.

Comments

[diamondback]

Whatever "good" Jossy did for Beth you can be sure he had a hidden agenda. He's had it in for members of the judicial system and this was his chance. He's very likely holding a threat over Joran and Paulus' head (or some of his evil cronies) there's alot of evidence out there to find what a "fantastic" character he is. What Dan printed is only a part.
The problem is that there seems to be a "Three Monkeys" attitude in Aruba. When any bloggers dared mention corruption and cover-up they were quick to yell. Maybe a good many islanders are inadvertantly working for organized crime, who knows. Look at the maps with illegal trade routes and where they channel through. Aruba has good surveillance, my foot.

[shonane]

I don't care if Jossy can't stand the way Paulus chews his food, or has an agenda to beat all agendas. Jossy Mansur consistently helped the Holloway/Twitty families, and he's the only one.

The first newspeople on the scene feigned sympathy for the family's plight, but we all know Renfro et al just wanted their mugs on television and a scoop. It was as tho they got bored with the story and remembered Aruba's their kind of town with all the drugs, vulnerable touri$t$ and Happy Island free-for-all festivities to write about.

Jossy Mansur has kept his word with the Holloway/Twitty's and that's all that matters. Jossy's a hero in my book.

Posted by: vincent | Aug
==========================
Maybe he is a hero, and maybe he is not. That is the point of Dan's blog post about Jossie's family's previous history with the Aruba law officials, and specifically with PVS. Jossie doesn't like PVS or the political party in control in Aruba - at least the information posted would lead one to conclude that he does not.

So far, Josise's witnesses initially appear to offer something which might be helpful to the case, but then in the end they turn out to be of no use. Take the questionable land fill lead. You have a witness, who is a homeless man, who makes his living searching the dump, who looks high on TV, tells a wild story where there are some conflicts with other known information, and who severly fails a lie detector test. The other so called land fill witness, who was driving the truck, is committed to a Aruba mental hospital. Some help.

The Aruba PI say they looked at the landfill in the beginning, and if the location where dumps were being made is carefully controlled, they would have known exactly where to look. I don't thing the API think she is there and they just didn't want to spend any more time or money. Maybe the landfill adventure has just been a costly and painful detour.

And all the things Jossi has brought out, make those in control look bad - all the better for the political party and the other people he may support in this election to defeat them in the upcoming election. Is he doing this for the Hollaway-Twitty's (maybe?)- or is he doing this for other reasons. And, has he REALLY been helpful after all. That is the $ million dollar question.

[shonane]

The Devil Paulus, having first been found guilty of environmental activism, is now seen to show cowardly resistence to the spread of organized crime on Aruba!

Posted by: clintcarter | Aug 26, 2005
====================
That was really good clintcarter.

[shonane]

The Aruban authorities were suppose to move Joran out of the juvinile section to the adult section of the prison when he turned 18! Now the MSNBC fiasco shows that Joran is still in the juvinile area. Special treatment?

Posted by: kathy
=====================
I think his turning 18 just meant the rules changed regarding how often he could have visitors. He hasn't even been charged with anything and there are obligations for protecting people who are incarcerated. I don't imagine their is much capacity in their jail. In the US, there are convicted juveniles in juvenile facilities until age 21, unless they were direct charged as adults and moved into the juvenile system. The age of when a person committed a crime, under 18 or over, determines whether they are charges as an adult or juvenile (again unless direct filed as an adult) - in the US.

[shonane]

moved into the juvenile system.

Correction of phrase above - "moved out of the juvenile system."

[Wrangler]

Hello, Dan,

Have any of the Mansurs been convicted of anything? How about Alex and Luis who were extradicted on the Puerto Rican indictments?

If they weren't convicted, I find it slightly misleading to mention the indictments inasmuch as indictments are not difficult to achieve, generally speaking, inasmuch as the justice system of Puerto Rico resembles our own (U.S.).

I appreciate your commentary.

[Wrangler]

Kathy, the suspects can remain in juvenile housing until age twenty-three, according to Aruban lawyer Arlene Ellis-Schipper.

[Wrangler]

"Whatever "good" Jossy did for Beth you can be sure he had a hidden agenda. He's had it in for members of the judicial system and this was his chance. He's very likely holding a threat over Joran and Paulus' head (or some of his evil cronies) there's alot of evidence out there to find what a "fantastic" character he is. What Dan printed is only a part.
The problem is that there seems to be a "Three Monkeys" attitude in Aruba. When any bloggers dared mention corruption and cover-up they were quick to yell. Maybe a good many islanders are inadvertantly working for organized crime, who knows. Look at the maps with illegal trade routes and where they channel through. Aruba has good surveillance, my foot."

diamondback,

It appears to me that anybody who has it in for the Aruban legal system is on the right track. Innuendo about Jossy Mansur notwithstanding, I'd say that it is the Aruban law enforcement system and staff that have mangled this case from the beginning. Or do you think Jossy Mansur had a hand in that as well?

Chief Van Der Straaten failed to start the correct wheels into motion, deliberately, in my opinion, due to his close relationship with Paulus Van Der Sloot, both of whom were clearly part of the established justice system of Aruba.

If Jossy Mansur has a hidden agenda, what difference does it make if he facilitates it while helping the Twitty-Holloway family? It seesm to me that if his agenda is adverse to the machinations of the Van Der Sloot and Van Der Straaten contingent, that's a good thing, whatever his family's past.

[Wrangler]

It occurs to me that the Dutch investigation into the security and integrity of Aruba would necessitate inquiries of the Aruban justice department/Ministry of Justice. Perhaps that was the source of the information about the Mansurs. If so, I would question its reliability in the first place, given what we're seeing in the Aruban justice system. If the information is untrue, then the Mansurs have good reason to be upset and to have a grudge against the Ministry of Justice if they participated in disseminating untrue or unverified information. To my understanding, Jossy has never been convicted of a crime, so it seems likely the information provided may have been flawed. After all, if Jossy was a criminal, why hasn't he been convicted or at least indicted for something?

I can only conclude that the implications about Jossy and his relative were probably deliberate smears and, at any rate, the Human Rights Commission found in the Mansurs' favor.