Masha Allen Congressional Transcripts Available

The transcripts of the congressional testimony in the Masha Allen case are now available in the public record.

For those who don't know, Masha Allen is a teenager who was adopted at the age of 5 from Russia into the US by a single male pedophile. Masha was sexually abused for five years and also became the subject of child pornography.

For many years law enforcement officers saw her photos circulate on the internet (they watched her grow up in these photos but were unable to locate her to rescue her).

At one point they removed her from one of the photos (where she appeared
to be in a hotel room ) and posted the photo on the internet hoping that someone could identity the place. The place was identified as Disney World and from then on the little girl became known as the "Disney World Girl."

The break in the case came when a law enforcement officer, posing as a pornographer, engaged a child pornographer on the internet. Through this contact, law enforcement officers were able to trace a location for what they thought was just another pornographer. However, when FBI agents arrived to arrest him, they were astonished to find not just the pornographer, but also the child they had sought for so long--Disney World Girl--Masha. They were also astonished to find that Masha had been internationally adopted by this pedophile through normal, legal adoption channels.

Masha, who was subsequently readopted by another family and who is now a teenager, has been bravely speaking out for several years now.

Masha's case has been before US Congressal committess on at least two separate ocassions. The first time, Masha herself testified against child pornography as a child victim. In the process of these hearings, the part that the negligent adoption industry played in her victimization was revealed. The committee was so disturbed about the way that Masha fell into the hands of a pedophile--through the normal international process--that they determined to hold a separate hearing on just that issue.


Subsequently, the US Congressional committee brought everyone involved in Masha's adoption to a committee hearing--a hearing to specifically determine just how this little girl could have been placed with a single male pedophile, to determine why the post placement visits (and reports) that Russia requires for all adoptions, never happened (well, OK, someone called Mancuso on the telephone and based on that phone call a report was filed assuring theRussian government that Masha was in a "warm and loving" home...ugh...), and finally to determine if Masha's adoption placement with a pedophile was simply a freak accident or whether something was lacking (and could be fixed) in the adoption process and procedures themselves.

The transcripts of the hearing represent the testimony, the questioning and the answers of those in the adoption industry that were involved in Masha's adoption, as well as the testimony of those who could shed light on what went wrong and what could be done to change the system to safeguard adoptive children.

They make for pretty damning reading in regard to the way the adoption industry works. (Or should I say fails to work...to protect children).

You can access the transcripts of the Congressional testimony on these sites:

1) The first site takes a LONG time to load as it is a pdf of 191pages. It includes a LOT of supplementary documents:

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=109_house_hearings&docid=f:31471.pdf

2)The second site loads much quicker. It isn't as well formatted, however, and doesn't contain any supplementary material:

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=109_house_hearings&docid=f:31471.wais

Read and be disturbed.

But most of all read and be educated as to the "quality" and "safeguards" of current adoption practice.

And think about the awful, five year long nightmare that one little girl lived as a direct consequence of poor, sloppy adoption practice.

Oh, and BTW, because there is really no effective way to completely remove any particular child porn image from distribution once it has multiplied on the internet, Masha's child porn photos are still out there, circulating in the internet underworld of pedophiles. According to one law enforcement officer, they find at least one photo of Masha among the child porn photos in about half of the child porn arrests.

The legacy of poor adoption practice is something that will haunt Masha one way or another for the rest of her life.

Desiree