topic Re: 60 Minutes Reporter And Crew Detained in Lebanon. in Community Spirit

60 Minutes Reporter And Crew Detained in Lebanon.

the_great_she_elephant — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 03:26:47 GMT

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/60-minutes-reporter-tara-brown-film-crew-detained-in-lebanon-filming-child-recovery-bid-20160407-go0cxw.html

I hope DFAT manage to get them released, but, reading the article, it is hard to feel much sympathy for them. I hope they are as frightened and bewildered as those poor children must have been

Regardless of the rights and wrongs of the father refusing to bring them home, there is no evidence these children were being abused or neglected, yet suddenly, they are swooped on at a busstop by four strange men physiclly snatched from their grandmother's side, bundled into a car and and spirited away to a secret destination. Imagine the sheer terror that must have caused them. And all this is being filmed - not to mention abetted - by a TV crew whose only motive is to provide sensationalist entertainment for TV viewers and boost ratings and advertising revenue for the TV channel.

Re: 60 Minutes Reporter And Crew Detained in Lebanon.

tasfleur — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 03:52:24 GMT

I understand what you are saying about this, but if I was that mother whose children had been taken to such a country for a 'holiday' and never brought back, there is nothing I would not do to have them returned to me if they had been taken under such false pretences.

If the truth is they have been abducted by the father , then that is a serious and appalling situation that has to be remedied as quickly as possible.

I've no idea why the Sixty Minutes people were involved and they probably shouldn't have been, so I agree with you totally there.

Re: 60 Minutes Reporter And Crew Detained in Lebanon.

azureline** — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 04:14:14 GMT

I can't understand a mother agreeing to send children that age to Lebanon without her.

That aside, the 60 min crew should have kept out of it, they have now risked the arrest of the mother.

Re: 60 Minutes Reporter And Crew Detained in Lebanon.

tasfleur — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 04:23:33 GMT

Perhaps the mother agreed because the father promised faithfully to bring the children back, and said he just wanted them to visit his family (their grandparents etc). Some women are simply too trusting.

Shades of "Not Without My Daughter". The mother went with the husband and child in that case though, however, he would still not allow the child to leave, but she could leave on her own, thankfully it was a happy ending and they both got out of Iran. In some countries, the father has 'ownership' of the children outright as their law, usually religious.

It's going to be a waiting game for all concerned in this case.

Re: 60 Minutes Reporter And Crew Detained in Lebanon.

the_great_she_elephant — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 05:19:03 GMT

Tas, it's not the mother's actions I'm so angry about.I n her place I might well have done the same thing. It's the fact that 60 minutes were tagging along behind her, filming the whole thing for the sake of a sensational 'story'. All their presence did was add to the risk of failure. To think of what must have been an nighmarish trauma for those children being served up as entertainment on our TV screens is just sickening.

Re: 60 Minutes Reporter And Crew Detained in Lebanon.

***super_nova*** — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 05:22:51 GMT

Maybe the mother needed the money to pay the rescue agents? I cannot imagine what other reason you would take a 60minutes film crew on such a sensitive operation. Hope she gets away OK.

Re: 60 Minutes Reporter And Crew Detained in Lebanon.

tasfleur — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 05:25:02 GMT

I totally agree with you about that, I too think they were interfering and taking advantage of what was going on. I am not sympathetic towards that TV crew, they should not have been there.

Hopefully, it will be resolved with a happy ending.

Re: 60 Minutes Reporter And Crew Detained in Lebanon.

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 05:52:29 GMT

Members of the child recovery agency have apparently also been detained.

maybe the mother wanted the

story to be told to create awareness.

Mr Elamine, who Ms Faulkner met and fell in love with while she was working as a flight attendant, told her their two kids “aren’t coming home to Australia, ever.”

Ms Faulkner and her children have reportedly gone into hiding until they can get out of Lebanon and back to Brisbane.

The young mother had previously appealed to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to help her retrieve the children and tackle the complex Lebanese court system. But Ms Faulkner said because parental child abduction is not criminalised in Australia, the government had shown no interest in assisting her or her family.

“It’s not just about me and my children, there are hundreds and hundreds of families that this has happened to,” she added. “They can’t really do anything. Some people spend over $100,000 that could have been spent on the children.”

Re: 60 Minutes Reporter And Crew Detained in Lebanon.

the_great_she_elephant — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 05:59:29 GMT

Did 'telling the story' have to include filming her children getting snatched off the street by four professional 'kidnappers'?

Re: 60 Minutes Reporter And Crew Detained in Lebanon.

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 06:47:21 GMT

All their presence did was add to the risk of failure.

how?

Did 'telling the story' have to include filming her children getting snatched off the street by four professional 'kidnappers'?

i didn't realise the child recovery agency

were 'professional kidnappers'.

child recovery australia assists the AFP

in recovering kidnapped children. they also

work with the hague convention.

i don't know if the story had to include

the whole operation. they obviously

wanted it to be recorded.

lebanese tv station released a footage

of the retrieval, who knows who else

was filming it.

Re: 60 Minutes Reporter And Crew Detained in Lebanon.

***super_nova*** — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 06:56:43 GMT

@*julia*2010 wrote:

The young mother had previously appealed to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to help her retrieve the children and tackle the complex Lebanese court system. But Ms Faulkner said because parental child abduction is not criminalised in Australia, the government had shown no interest in assisting her or her family.

Government can only act within the law. They cannot demand that other country takes child from one of its parents just because the other parent is an Australian and wants the child here.

@*julia*2010 wrote:

maybe the mother wanted the
story to be told to create awareness.

Awareness of what exactly? That she is going to go to another country and have gunmen snatch children and assault an old woman? I would have thought that she would want to have as low profile as possible. Having foreign film crew with you is not going to help getting away, will it....

Re: 60 Minutes Reporter And Crew Detained in Lebanon.

***super_nova*** — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 07:00:16 GMT

@*julia*2010 wrote:

lebanese tv station released a footage
of the retrieval, who knows who else
was filming it.

Maybe the police released the footage they confiscated from the Australian crew

Re: 60 Minutes Reporter And Crew Detained in Lebanon.

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 07:10:04 GMT

@***super_nova*** wrote:
@*julia*2010 wrote:

lebanese tv station released a footage
of the retrieval, who knows who else
was filming it.
Maybe the police released the footage they confiscated from the Australian crew

in that case, they were nowhere

near the children. it was filmed

from a distance and didn't appear

to be on the street level.

Re: 60 Minutes Reporter And Crew Detained in Lebanon.

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 07:34:52 GMT

i'd like to think that the child

recovery australia staff understand

how to best handle such situations

and would reassure the children

immediately.

(there are no rights and wrongs of

the father, there are only wrongs)

looks like these children want

to come home.

In November, Sally Faulkner made an impassioned plea to Foreign Minister Julie Bishop via video to bring her children home.

“My children were born in Australia and have lived with me all of my life,” Ms Faulkner said.

“I need you to do something to help bring my babies home.”

A petition on Change.org set up in October calling on Ms Bishop to bring the children home has received more than 33,000 signatures.

In 2015, Ms Faulkner said “things weren’t good with our marriage“.

“He travelled back and forth. We were able to get along. Things were amicable. There was little to no disagreement,” she said.

“He (Mr Elamine) was being so nice, accommodating and loving to the children so I agreed he could take them to Lebanon to see his family. He promised he would bring them back.”

On May 27 2015, Mr Elamine left Brisbane airport with their children, promising to return them home safely.

That was the last day Ms Faulkner felt the embrace of her babies.

Ms Faulkner detailed the distressing conversation she had with Mr Elamine after their children had left the country.

“He said ‘Sally, the kids aren’t coming home. Ever. They’re not coming back to Australia’,” she claims.

“I don’t want to name and shame him (as) being a bad person,” Ms Faulkner said.

“He is a good dad. I want everyone to know that he is a good dad. I also want people to know that what he’s done, regardless of whether it was a mother doing it or a father doing it, it’s not OK.

“And I mean that because for the sake of the children.

“I just want our children to be 100 per cent happy and they can’t be that if I’m hearing them on the end of the phone crying and saying they want to come home.

“Things went bad in our relationship, but that’s no excuse to keep them from their mother.”

While Mr Elamine works, Lahela and Noah stay with their grandmother who speaks only Arabic. The children can only understand English.

Ms Faulkner also recalls heartbreaking conversations where her daughter pleads with her mum to come home.

SALLY FAULKNER’S LETTER TO HER CHILDREN

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/60-minutes-tara-brown-detained-brisbane-mothers-story-of-lost-children/news-story/d6839494850da1a587e2c322bebb0205

Re: 60 Minutes Reporter And Crew Detained in Lebanon.

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 08:29:32 GMT

looks like it may have been from

a cctv

Re: 60 Minutes Reporter And Crew Detained in Lebanon.

the_great_she_elephant — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 08:56:15 GMT

i'd like to think that the child

recovery australia staff understand

how to best handle such situations

and would reassure the children

immediately.

This was not an Australian government agency. It was a private organisation - a group of hired mercenaries. If four strange men had snatched you away from your grandmother and bundled you into a car at the age of 5 or 7 how quickly do you think you would have been 'reassured.'?

In any case, as I said before, it is not the actions of either parent I am primarily concerned about - it is the actions of the 60 Minutes crew, who tagged along and filmed the whole traumatic operation.

Re: 60 Minutes Reporter And Crew Detained in Lebanon.

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 09:21:14 GMT

This was not an Australian government agency

i didn't say the child recovery agency

was a government organisation.

and what if the mum wanted

them there?

she used ch9 before to make a

public appeal.

Re: 60 Minutes Reporter And Crew Detained in Lebanon.

the_great_she_elephant — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 09:36:16 GMT

and what if the mum wanted

them there?

she used ch9 before to make a

public appeal.

There is a HUGE difference between a public appeal and a clandestine and illegal (in Lebanon) recovery operation. The mum may have wanted help from 60 Minutes but why would she want them filming the 'recovery' What purpose did it serve, other than to make a sensational piece of entertainment for TV viewers.They could have interviwed the children and their mum in the 'safe house' or if and when they made it safely back to Australia.

However justified the mother may have been in organising the operation, there was no justificstion for 60 Minutes filming it. They were using what must have been an horrendous experience for those poor kids purely for their own commercial purposes

Re: 60 Minutes Reporter And Crew Detained in Lebanon.

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 10:10:08 GMT

i don't know what purpose that was meant

to serve. i guess we'll find out after

the mum and her children safely return home.

they are currently at the australian embassy

in beirut and our officials have now been

able to make contact with the 60min crew

and are due to speak with them shortly.

Re: 60 Minutes Reporter And Crew Detained in Lebanon.

***super_nova*** — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 10:40:03 GMT

@*julia*2010 wrote:
@***super_nova*** wrote:
@*julia*2010 wrote:

lebanese tv station released a footage
of the retrieval, who knows who else
was filming it.
Maybe the police released the footage they confiscated from the Australian crew
in that case, they were nowhere
near the children. it was filmed
from a distance and didn't appear
to be on the street level.

I could not access the footage from the links provided above, so I do not know what was shown.

BUT it is totally irrelevant where the film crew was. Most countries demand that journalist apply for a media visa if they are entering to get a story. And many countries security then watch carefully what the crews are doing. So, coming into a country to commit illegal act with film crew in tow is not clever. I wonder if the 'rescue agency" knew about the film crew.

Why do you think that if the kids and their mother are now at Australian Embassy that all is well? Does Julian Assange ring a bell? it sounds like a real legal mess, with possible criminal charges being laid not just against the agency but also the mother who hired them.