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Text Box: documentary see page 6 of PACT's November 2003 newsletter. The newsletter is available on the Internet at the following URL: http://www.pact-online.org/pdf/actionpact_issue3.pdf

Text Box: On the evening of April 27, 2004 the Department of State duty officer learned that a mother had just flown from a U.S. airport with her two young children, bound for the Middle East via a European country. In consultation with the Office of Children's Issues, the duty officer alerted the U.S. Embassies in both the transit and destination countries. Embassy officers, working tirelessly through the night, approached their respective host governments asking them to deny entry to the abducting parent and children. By morning, when the overnight

Text Box: flight landed in the transit country, the destination country had agreed to refuse entry to the mother and children, and had instructed its national airline not to board them on their connecting flight. The government of the transit country similarly denied the family entry, and placed the mother and children on a return flight to the United States. Meanwhile, the father's attorney obtained emergency court custody and pick-up orders and faxed them to the Office of Children's Issues. Our case

Text Box: manager faxed the orders on to the FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials at the airport and stayed in close contact with those officials, airline personnel, and the father's attorney to coordinate the arrival of the children in the U.S. With help from family members and law enforcement, the children were returned to their father's care on April 28th. This was an amazing example of many people from different agencies, each with their own area of expertise, working efficiently together to bring our children

Text Box: develop highly specialized expertise over many years in their area of responsibility. Foreign Service officers serve usually 2 or 3 years in an assignment abroad or in Washington before taking a new assignment. Foreign service officers serving in the Office of Children's Issues have experience assisting American citizens abroad, including parents and children involved in parental child abduction. When they come to work in our

Text Box: The Office of Children's Issues, created in 1994, combines the talents of employees in both the Civil Service and the Foreign Service. In general, Civil Service employees work in domestic offices of the U.S. Federal Government. Foreign Service officers, on the other hand, are part of the U.S. diplomatic service and serve primarily at our embassies and consulates abroad with occasional tours of duty in the United States. Civil Service employees

Text Box: office, they bring experience with them of working with foreign officials and policy makers that we combine with the Civil Service employee's experience of working the same issues from Washington. It is an excellent combination of experiences that gives us an edge in helping left-behind parents seek the return of their children.

Text Box: Working on behalf of the organization Parents and Abducted Children Together (