http://www.kpua.net/news.php?id=3456

Authorities investigate child trafficking in American Samoa


By Associated Press



PAGO PAGO, American Samoa (AP) _ The Supreme Court in American Samoa is forming
a task force to investigate whether children are being illegally sent
off-island for adoptions.

That's according to a memo from Chief Justice Michael Kruse to members of the
American Samoa Bar Association.

Kruse says the territory has a growing problem with child trafficking.

The memo said several Web sites advertise the availability of local children
for adoption and the court also had received reports of infants being taken out
of the territory for adoptions in the United States.

Kruse says the task force will investigate whether such adoptions are being
carrier out legally and devise legislation to correct any wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, the memo says pending adoption cases involving children being sent
off-island will be reviewed on a case by case basis, and future cases will be
closely scrutinized.

American Samoa is about 23-hundred miles south of Hawaii.



-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown