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

Corruption Item 19: Legislative & Executive Helps

19) Work for Legislative and Executive Remedies

--Pool your resources with organizations like Ethica http://www.ethicanet.org to do things like write and lobby for badly needed legislation and executive remedies for problems that allow child trafficking and bad adoption practice to flourish.

--Analyse, discuss,and comment on proposed legislation.

Corruption Item 18: Network & Use Your Talents

18) Pool your resources and use your unique talents

--Support organizations like Ethica with your donations and your time and talents.

--Attempt to interest already existing organizations in working on aspects of adoption corruption. (National Center for Missing &Exploited Children, women's groups, human rights groups, thoseagainst globalization, etc. as you see fit)

--Use any contacts you may have with those in the media who can put the spotlight on unethical practices.

--Befriend those pushing for adoption reform in the domestic arena. Many issues overlap, but the two camps often operate independently.

--Use whatever talents you have, your profession or job skills, and your unique position in ways that will further the cause of adoption ethics and reform. Be creative.

--Network. Join forces with others.

Corruption Item 17: Tell the Bad Stories

17) Tell the bad stories.

--If you have you have been a victim of adoption fraud or corruption, don't be silent. Tell your story.

--If those further along on the path had told you, you might have been spared the bad experience. How can you be silent and know that your silence will cause other AP's and PAP's to fail to be warned and likewise be hurt? How can you be silent knowing that your silence will cause other children and first families to be hurt?

--Change will come ONLY if we care enough to share. Keeping bad deeds secret only causes more people to suffer and delays needed reforms.

--Allow your own story to become a part of the public record in a way that allows corruption to be documented.

--Encourage others to tell their stories and encourage them to allow their stories to be documented in the public record.

--DO file complaints with officials if you have been a victim ofadoption fraud or corruption. Persist when such complaints appear todisappear into nothingness and you are not even given the minimal courtesy of the acknowledgement of their receipt.

--Think about what your case would be if the word "adoption" were not attached to it to launder the crimes. Personally accord it the same appropriate level of seriousness.

--Think about the relative importance of your case if everyone involved were white home-grown, middle class compatriots. Appropriately accord it the same level of seriousness.

--"You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation."
-Marian Wright Edelman.

Be a flea biting.

--Do something. All it takes for injustice to flourish is for good people to sit by and do nothing.

Corruption Item 16: Educate PAP's

16) Speak to PAP's formally and informally about finding ethical agencies.

--David K's: http://www.adoptionagencychecklist.com/ is a good placeto start

--Encourage PAP's to join Adoption_Agency_Research: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Adoption_Agency_Research/

--Don't let PAP's wander into danger with their rose-colored glasses on. Do your best to show them a more balanced, more mature view of adoption. Do your best to warn them of the problems in the country from which they intend to adopt. Warn them to avoid countries where corruption problems are rampant or those countries where problems are "coming to a head."

--Commit yourself to PAP education more broadly. Be patient. Remember the goal. Be persist and be kind. Remember yourself when you were a PAP.

Corruption Item 15: Speak Up

15) Speak up.

--Be the voice crying in the wilderness or a flea on the adoption support groups of which you are a member

--Write letters to the editor

--Write articles

--Talk about what you've learned to friends, neighbors, acquaintances, etc. especially those who are contemplating adoption.

Corruption Item 14: Help Mature Adoption Beliefs

14) Work to Mature the Way Adoption is understood in Our Society.

--Much of our inability to believe adoption corruption exists begins with our society's simplistic, AP centered, and mythic understanding of adoption. Adoption is mythically considered an always and absolute good. When adoption is seen in more mature, realistic, and balanced ways, our society will start to realize that adoption, like almost everything else in life, can be used for good or ill (to help or to exploit and harm). Adoption is a good only when used and practiced responsibly with an understanding of what it is and what is it is not; the good that it can be, but also the real inherent losses that it causes.

--As in all things, educating yourself is first. Seek to understand adoption as an elephant surrounded by blind men. Our society believes and acts as if the only valid perspective on adoption comes from the blind man standing in the position of adoptive parent. That blind man is given a megaphone and all others (very valid others who stand around the majority of the elephant) who have different perspectives are ignored, greeted with skepticism, and/or silenced. Learn to see adoption from the perspective of other blindmen-adoptees, birth families, those hurt by adoption, the big picture, the historical perspective, etc.

--Join the online adoption support list called International Adopt Talk (IAT)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/International-Adopt-Talk/
and encourage others to join; listen and learn. there. Be willing to change and mature your perspective.

--Read adoptee memoirs, blogs, and stories

--Read books on adoption history and practice

--Read criticisms of intercountry adoption including those that see intercountry adoption as a continuation of neocolonial practices and an outgrowth of the evils of globalism; seek to understand the racial aspects and the first world/third world power inequities of intercountry adoption.

--Read first mother and first family blogs, accounts, and stories.

--Seek out stories that show other sides of adoption

--From all of these form a more realistic understanding of adoption.

--Remember this: It is always easy to recognize the injustices of another time and place; the hard thing is to recognize the injustices of your own time and place. In every time and place where injustice has been condoned/ignored/allowed to thrive by society there has been a worldview and a simplistic uni-blind-man mythology that makes injustice look just, especially for those who benefit from it. It is easy to shift blame, make problems into non-problems, injustices into non-issues, and ignore massive problems. It is harder to take a stand against the zeitgeist and be a flea or a lion biting against injustice. Reform begins with understanding the view from somewhere other than society's single approved blind man. It starts when people begin to recognize that there are other human beings involved---people as human as themselves. People who have the same emotions, the same hopes, and the same dreams--and who feel pain in the same way and for the same reasons as they themselves--when we start to care about the way the world looks from the perspective of those other equally human beings. Not just the way WE think the world looks from their perspective (in our minds), but the way it IS from their experience and perspective. When we GIVE THEM VOICE and LISTEN TO THEM.

--Whenever you see adoption being portrayed in a simplistic, AP centered, uni-perspective, mythic sort of way, speak up and share a different perspective.