60 Minutes Reporter And Crew Detained in Lebanon.

[the_great_she_elephant]

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/60-minutes-reporter-tara-brown-film-crew-detained-i...

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. 

[***super_nova***]

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@*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.

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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.   

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@*julia*2010 wrote:

maybe the mother wanted the 

story to be told to create awareness.

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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.... 

[***super_nova***]

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@*julia*2010 wrote:

lebanese tv station released a footage

of the retrieval, who knows who else

was filming it. 

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

[Anonymous]

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@***super_nova*** wrote:

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@*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. 

[Anonymous]

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.

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-...

[Anonymous]

looks like it may have been from

a cctv

[the_great_she_elephant]

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.

[Anonymous]

This was not an Australian  government agency

i didn't say the child recovery agency

was a government organisation.

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.

and what if the mum wanted

them there?

she used ch9 before to make a

public appeal. 

[the_great_she_elephant]

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

[Anonymous]

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.

[***super_nova***]

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@*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.