Liberal tree-hugging types just never learn to stay out of third world hellholes.
Posted on 11/28/2014 4:37:37 AM PST by Timber Rattler
Stacey Addison, DVM, 41, of Portland, Oregon, is in a Timorese prison after being arrested in early September while traveling abroad. A chance encounter—a cab shared with a stranger—led to her witnessing a crime, which kicked off a chain of events that has family and friends doing everything they can to bring her home.
Addison, a graduate of University of California-Davis, left her job of 10 years at a Portland veterinary hospital in January 2013 and set off on a year-and-a-half-long dream trip around the world to see wildlife. She had been planning the trip for two years.
Addison began in Antarctica, then traveled to South America, Borneo and Costa Rica, where her mother joined her for three weeks. In each location Addison focused on national parks and preserves rather than cities so she could view wildlife, says her mother, Bernadette Kero. She traveled on a budget, staying in hostels and using local transportation.
“She kept a journal of all the birds and animals and her Facebook page was loaded with hundreds of exotic animals—jaguars, sloths, orangutans, bats, caiman and on and on. She was disappointed that she didn't see an orangutan in the wild in Borneo, although she was able to see them at a preserve,” Kero says.
Addison’s dream trip turned into a nightmare in Timor-Leste, however. Timore-Leste, also known as East Timor, is an island nation that shares a border with Indonesia. It was colonized by Portugal in the 1500s, occupied by Japan during World War II, occupied again by Portugal, and eventually taken over by Indonesia before gaining independence in 2002. Its judicial system is still developing, experts say—as Addison is now experiencing.
According to Addison’s posts on Facebook, she crossed the land border from Indonesia on Sept. 5 and was one of two passengers in a private SUV acting as a taxi to Dili, the nation’s capital. The other passenger asked to stop at a local DHL office to retrieve a package on the way. When he returned to the taxi, police, acting on a tip that the package contained drugs, stopped the SUV and arrested everyone inside.
Addison says on Facebook that she, the other passenger and the driver were taken to a police station where her bags and person were searched, all personal medications were tested for drugs and a urine test was performed. All tests came back negative. She was released after an apology from the officers, who told her they had to search her because she was in the same car as the suspect, but now they knew she wasn’t involved. The officers then drove her to a hotel.
An hour and a half later, however, police returned to the hotel and arrested Addison again. She was held in the Dili Detention Center for four days, then released after a preliminary hearing. At that hearing the judge ordered Addison’s passport held until further investigation had been completed.
Without warning, Addison was arrested again on Oct. 28 and has been in prison ever since. According to media reports, the court detained her again because there was a warrant for her arrest, though the reason for the warrant remains unclear. Addison’s family has hired an attorney in Timor-Leste who has filed numerous petitions and appeals, but he has not received a response.
Kero says the arrest was illegal because of a lack of due process, as neither Addison nor her lawyer was notified of the warrant or impending arrest, which is required under Timorese law. The lawyer has also filed appeals based on human rights violations. “She is not charged with anything and has no court dates,” Kero says. “Under their law, she can be kept for one year without charge.”
The country has recently removed all its foreign advisors, Kero continues. The lawyer has told Kero that the prosecutor and judge in Stacey's case have both been removed due to gross negligence in an unrelated case and left the country. Before the second arrest Addison had been in contact with the U.S. embassy in Dili, she says on Facebook, but they could offer only limited assistance—the United States cannot interfere with the judicial process of another country.
A Facebook page, Help Stacey, has been created to garner support for Addison’s release, along with a Twitter account, @HelpOurStacey, and a Change.org petition. Dr. José Ramos-Horta, former president of Timor-Leste and a Nobel laureate, has visited Addison in prison and offered his help as well, according to CNN. Kero also suggests contacting state representatives and the U.S. State Department to ask them to offer their assistance in getting Addison released.
Liberal tree-hugging types just never learn to stay out of third world hellholes.
You are probably right. But it is possible to love animals, travel on a budget and be conservative.
I’ve done it myself.
Conservative religious missionaries have the same problem.
I don’t care about her politics right now. This young lady is in real trouble.
She needs our prayers desperately!
Only decades ago, we traveled freely across the globe.
It was standard to see, in third world countries, a bus packed to the roof with locals and scattered among them one or two Western youths, heedlessly wandering the backroads of the world.
In Africa, my wife and child and I traveled alone with strangers to explore hidden caves and mountains and deserts.
We walked at night through dark streets in Asia with no fear.
Americans--and the United States of America--were respected throughout the world.
Today, increasingly we are viewed with contempt--as much for the foolishness of our voting population and the weakness of our government and its leaders as anything else.
The American people have squandered their priceless heritage and allowed the greatest, richest, most powerful, and most just nation the world has ever known to sink into decadence, and the people of the world consider this with utter contempt.
I would not venture into those same places today.
VERY well said.
You may be right. My travel outside USA has been limited and a while ago.
But stories like this have been around for decades. Most of them, to be fair, involve Americans who in all likelihood were involved in drug smuggling or other illegal activity and thought they were untouchable because they were American.
Not.
Far as I’m concerned, if you travel abroad and get in trouble due to your own actions, that’s your problem.
This lady and the Marine in Mexico, probably an entirely different situation, of course.
Though it should be noted this story does not report the facts of the case, but rather what the young lady’s advocates have to say about the case. She wouldn’t be the first stupid young American “traveling on a budget” to try to enhance that budget by extra-legal activities.
I don’t know what her politics are but it’s not important. The main thing to take away from this is that it’s stupid to visit “third world hellholes” on your own. Period.
Foolish. Why help someone who’ll just end up crusading against us later?
You know, that’s just a crazy thing to say. There is nothing in this article that exhibits any inclinations either way.
Sure, she could be a lib. But right now she’s just a young woman who has strived and achieved a good profession, and self sufficiency and wanted to see the world. On her own dime apparently.
And sometimes help just has to rise above wild surmisings.
It’s a shame that after the first arrest, when the police took her back to her hotel, that she didn’t pack up and get out of Dodge. But then again, that could have been construed as her being complicit in the crime.
Another danger is encountering degenerate people, who may be skillfully disguised.
My wife and I befriended an American woman in India to the extent that we spent several days traveling together. She was attractive, but during our conversations, I began to realize that this woman was seriously sociopathic.
One confirmation came when the three of us visited a jewelry shop in Varinasi.
My wife bought a few things, and as we were leaving, the jeweler offered us seats in his salon.
He asked my wife and me if we would like to buy anything else. We replied: "No, thank you."
Then he turned to the woman and said: "What about you? Would you like to buy anything?"
She said: "No."
But he kept staring at her and said, "Are you sure?"
She said: "Yes," and then "Why?"
He said: "Because you are wearing one of my silver bracelets on your arm."
He had an assistant present, and I realized that it was his job to watch for thieves.
Obviously she had slipped it onto her wrist when she thought no one was looking.
She feigned surprise--not very effectively--and jumped up to return it to him.
As my wife and I, and perhaps the others as well, were aghast, she added: "I could have thought of a better way--if I had intended to steal it," as though she had absent-mindedly not remembered that it was on her wrist.
My instincts about sociopaths are keen.
I've had plenty of experience with these disgusting people.
Nothing else much happened. We traveled together to our destination, and nothing more was said of the incident.
However--even though I was armed with an understanding of this woman--she managed to borrow some money from me--money that I had spent all day, in downtown Lucknow, exchanging. Such is the manipulative power of sociopaths. I worried for two days that she would not pay me back. She did--finally. I don't know why.
After that, I distanced myself and my wife from her and never saw her again.
Some such people that we encounter in foreign countries can be dangerous.
Interesting story.
"Addison, a graduate of University of California-Davis". Biggest communist incubator on the west coast. But you believe what you want to believe...
She's a Veterinarian. Most states only have one Vet School, and most Vet Schools don't take out-of-staters, except under limited circumstances.
So if she wanted to be a Vet, she didn't have much choice what school she went to. For that reason, it's harder to get into Vet school than Med school.
And with her class load, I guarantee she didn't spend a lot of time at Communist's Rallies
What nonsense. UC Davis is one of the few schools on the West Coast where you can become a veterinarian (which this woman is). Some consider it the finest vet school in the United States. It’s harder to get into than medical school.
I’m a University of California grad myself — we’re not all Communists.
This woman needs and deserves help from the State Department.
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