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. 

[Anonymous]

i didn't say i thought all was well.

they are safe atm and while i have no

idea how they will get out of the country,

i am hopeful they will be home soon. 

i don't blame the mother for taking the risk,

i would have done the same.  

BUT it is totally irrelevant where the film crew was. 

its relevant when there have been claims

made on this thread about the crew tagging

along behind her adding to the risk of failure.

[Anonymous]

from a lebanese newspaper:

The Brisbane mother of the children reportedly involved in the filming has said their Lebanese father took them for a holiday and then allegedly refused to return them to Australia, Fairfax Media reported.

[Anonymous]

They were using what must have been an horrendous experience for those poor kids purely for their own commercial purposes.

tara brown has two young children

as well. i want to believe she was there

for more than just sensational piece of

entertainment.  maybe i'm just being

naive. 

i dont get how the children's grandmother

would be ok with the kids being taken

away from their mum 

[Anonymous]

they are now back with the father ??

[***super_nova***]

What I heard on the news this morning was that the whole operation was facilitated by channel 9.  Yes, you were right the footage published was from security camera.  BUT that does not mean that the TV crew was not near; do you really think they paid for the story and went to Lebanon and were not filming it?    And as I said before, just being in the country would be enough to attract attention. 

My heart goes out to this woman, but who am I to say if the kids are better off with her or their father?  Unless the kids were in immediate danger, kidnapping by 4 thugs is not the way to deal with the situation. 

[Anonymous]

there have been many conflicting

reports so far.

but who am I to say if the kids are better off with her or their father? 

as far as i know she has full custody

he took the kids for a holiday

and decided they were never coming

back.

the kids cry on the phone wanting their

mum.  they need both parents, that was

why the mum agreed to let them spend

time with dad and his family.

imo there is no question here what is best

for the children.

[Anonymous]

Unless the kids were in immediate danger, kidnapping by 4 thugs is not the way to deal with the situation. 

i doubt she had any other options.

not like he was going to let them

go on a holiday.

lebanon is not on the list:

The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction is in force between Australia and the countries listed below:

• Albania
• Argentina
• Armenia
• Austria
• Bahamas
• Belarus
• Belgium
• Belize
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Brazil
• Bulgaria
• Burkina Faso
• Canada
• Chile
• Colombia
• Costa Rica
• Croatia
• Cyprus
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Dominican Republic
• Ecuador
• El Salvador
• Estonia
• Fiji
• Finland
• France
• Georgia
• Germany
• Greece
• Guatemala
• Honduras
• Hong Kong (China)
• Hungary
• Iceland
• Ireland
• Israel
• Italy
• Japan
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg

• Macau (China)
• Malta
• Mauritius
• Mexico
• Moldova, Republic of
• Monaco
• Montenegro
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Nicaragua
• Norway
• Panama
• Paraguay
• Peru
• Poland
• Portugal
• Republic of Korea (from 1 June 2015)
• Romania
• Saint Kitts and Nevis
• San Marino
• Serbia
• Singapore
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• South Africa
• Spain
• Sri Lanka
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Thailand
• The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM)
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Turkey
• Turkmenistan
• Ukraine
• United Kingdom
• United States of America
• Uruguay
• Uzbekistan
• Venezuela
• Zimbabwe.

and even in cases where a country is a

signatory, child recovery agencies are often

used to speed up the recovery process.

the father said he wasn't going to press

charges because he understood why she

did it, and he would have done exactly

the same. 

[Anonymous]

Ibtissam Berri was taking her two Australian-Lebanese grandchildren to school when she saw a car parked on the street and a cameraman filming them. Once they came closer, two men jumped out, pushed her and a domestic worker away and whisked the boy and girl off in the car.

Berri said she is a cousin of Lebanon's powerful Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and the family name is well known.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/australians-detained-lebanon-kidnapping-suspicion-3821...

[the_great_she_elephant]

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/mother-in-60-minutes-beirut-child-snatch-...

60 Minutes is refusing to comment on the situation or claims published in the Daily Mail that the program paid $120,000 to fund the snatch operation, which involved a controversial child recovery agency that has been linked to several bungled recovery attempts.

Efforts to contact Mr Elamine have been unsuccessful, but Lebanese media have reported he claims that his ex-wife was comfortable with him taking the children to Lebanon and demanded their return only after he stopped making maintenance payments.

[***super_nova*** · Accepted solution]

Reporters suppose to report, NOT stage stories.  This debacle just shows that what ever story 60minutes "covers" there is a high likelihood that some of it, if not all, has been either provoked or staged, with bits of misinformation thrown in to spice it up even more.  That is why I do not watch these sorts of programs.