David Dreier's Constituent Service-- A Horrifying Report From A Parent Of Two Kidnapped Children

The other day I had a call from an old friend, Russ Warner, who I know as a family man and as a father as well as the progressive Democrat running for the seat in a neighboring district currently held by David Dreier, aggressively not a family man. Russ introduced me to Andrew Ko, a neighbor and distraught father whose two 10-year old twin sons, Christopher and William, were abducted to Singapore by his ex-wife. Once his sons were spirited out of the country Andrew went to David Dreier, his congressman. Dreier was unhelpful... even insulting, sending him a letter address to Dear "Mr. Yo" and telling him to "have a nice day." Andrew wound up taking out an ad (left) in the L.A. Times. He also talked with Russ who personally delivered his paperwork to Senator Boxer, who is now working on the case. I asked Andrew to write a guest post to explain what he's been through. I mean, he's actually a Republican and that ad must have cost him a few thousand dollars.

My ex-wife, Yuxin Mei Wang, is a Singaporean. She violated the July 2008 Custody Order and disappeared with the boys on August 31, 2009.  A “Find and Retrieve Order” was issued by the Los Angeles County Superior Court on September 4, 2009, just over a year ago. 
 
Yuxin Mei Wang was able to obtain new Singapore passports for the children from the Singapore Consulate in San Francisco without my authorization or knowledge.  When the children first disappeared, I contacted the Singapore Consulate.  A consular officer, Lea Chan, told me in no uncertain terms that they DID NOT issue passports for the children. She will have to check with the authorities in Singapore to see if the passports were issued from Singapore. 5 days later, she called and said San Francisco actually issued the passports. So much for record keeping.
 
There is a 4-count felony arrest warrant from the State of California and an FBI warrant. An Interpol Red Notice was diffused on November 25, 2009 and Singapore is a member of Interpol. A former Singapore Police Commissioner, Khoo Boon Hwee, is current president of Interpol. Repeated inquiries by the Los Angeles County District Attorney on the status of the Red Notice for arrest of the abducting parent continues to go unanswered.
 
I bring you back to the case of American teenager Michael Fay who was sentenced to 5 strokes of the cane in Singapore back in 1994 for vandalism. 24 US Senators and President Clinton appealed to the Singapore Government to spare Fay, claiming the punishment does not fit the crime.  Here is a link to a few Singapore newspaper articles about this case. The response is that the U.S. does not have to agree with Singapore laws, the U.S. only has to respect them.

The Interpol Red Notice was issued because the abducting parent broke U.S. laws.  No one is saying she broke Singapore laws. Singapore does not have to agree with U.S. laws, Singapore only has to respect them.
 
In April of this year, the Singapore Foreign Ministry released this statement regarding a Romanian diplomat involved in a car accident. Singapore requested Interpol to issue a Red Notice for the arrest of the Romanian diplomat. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, George Yeo, said Romania has a "clear moral obligation" to persuade the diplomat to return to Singapore to stand trial.  Why is it when Singapore wants to arrest someone, the country providing safe haven has a "clear moral obligation" to return the fugitive; but when the U.S. wants to arrest a Singaporean wanted for crimes in the U.S. Singaproe tells the U.S. to go "pound salt."
 
At the 78th General Assembly of Interpol held in Singapore in October 2009, Singapore Minister of Law Mr. K. Shanmugam gave a speech commending the progress made by member countries of Interpol. He highlighted the apprehension of Singaporean fugitive lawyer Tan Cheng Yew by the German authorities after Singapore Police issued an Interpol Red Notice.
 
When the U.S. issues an Interpol Red Notice, Singapore ignores it completely and offers safe-haven to a wanted fugitive.
 
The U.S. trains the Singapore Air Force at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona and Mountain High Air Force Base in Idaho. The Luke AFB training costs $325 million dollars and... who pays for this??

Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-4) has a bill in Congress HR 3240 that will put pressure on countries to prevent child abduction and facilitate the children's return.  Let's amend this bill to say that countries like Singapore, Japan, and Philippines who knowingly ignore valid US requests to return the children will have military and economic assistance suspended until the children are returned. If you want to benefit from the relationship with the U.S., you have to respect our laws whether you agree with them or not.
 
Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont has written to the Singapore Ambassador but the response was not encouraging. Sen. Leahy then wrote to Secretary of State Clinton. My Congressman, David Dreier, has not done much except to forward my letters to a few parties. Singapore's response is that they did not know. They did not know because they did not check and ask some basic questions when a single parent is applying for passports for minor children.
 
The Department of Justice refuses to issue a formal extradition request to  Singapore citing different "interpretation" of the extradition by Singapore. Treaties are not subject to re-interpretation after they are signed according to the Vienna Convention.
 
Another interesting response is from the Singapore Ministry of Education.  They refuse to provide me information regarding the children.  The latest letter asks for a court order. My name is on the birth certificate and the Ministry of Education accepted this as an enrollment document but refuses to provide me information on my children. My lawyer in Singapore has now gone back to the Education Ministry to ask what aspect of law are they basing the requirement that a parent needs a court order before obtaining information on their children. Is this a requirement for all parents or just the left behind parent when their children have been abducted to Singapore? 
 
None of the elected officials I contacted called me regarding my case. I ran the ad above on the 1 year anniversary of the abduction on August 31, 2010 in the L.A. Times.  I even wrote the People's Republic of China Ambassador in Washington DC and their Consulate in Los Angeles asking if they might be able to help as they have a good relationship with Singapore. Guess what? I received a call from a consular officer, Mr. Yang from Los Angeles, within 10 days of my letters. He listened and offered some advice. But at least someone from the Chinese Consulate called; unlike my own elected officials.

Another compelling reason to Dump David Dreier, whose too busy working for Special Interests and galavanting around the globe with his lover/chief of staff to give proper assistance to an American citizen/constituent. Interpol Red Notice: