Saturday, July 23, 2005

FBI Pushes for Access to Holloway Dossier

ORANJESTAD, Aruba -- Aruba's prime minister has urged investigators to give the FBI all documents related to the disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway, according to a letter released late Friday.

Prime Minister Nelson Oduber asked in the letter to Attorney General Karin Janssen that the bureau be allowed "complete access to the dossier, including transcripts, audio tapes or video registration of interrogations, plus all materials that are connected to this case, in as much as our judicial system allows."

FBI agents have been advising Aruban authorities in the six-week-old investigation but have not had access to case records, said government spokesman Ruben Trapenberg.

FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said the FBI has pressed for access to the documents.

Trapenberg said Janssen had not yet responded to the government's request. The attorney general could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.

Even when the Prime Minister gets involved, Karin Janssen stonewalls and obfuscates.

Why wouldn't Aruba want to cooperate with the FBI? It shouldn't be necessary for Oduber to intervene.

It makes absolutely no sense to me. Certainly, the Aruban officials are far less sophisticated and have dramatically less experience than the FBI. There's no shame in that. However, there is shame in impeding the investigation by keeping the FBI at a distance.

Unbelievable.

I don't see how they can blow off the Prime Minister's request.

Jannsen probably doesn't want to hand over materials to the FBI because they would reveal that she and Aruban authorities completely screwed up the investigation from the beginning.

I hope that the FBI's greater involvement will make a difference. At the very least, Natalee's family will know that the investigation into her disappearance is no longer in the hands of corrupt incompetents.

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