# 92 Questions raised about APLE's modus operandi 9 years ago. From Tom Selig

This is Part One of a comment (a very long comment) sent to this blog by Tom Selig. It was then mostly removed by a hacker who has found a way of getting into this blog and deleting certain comments.

Nine years ago concerns were raised about APLE’S modus operandi that are, you will see, identical those raised today.

It seems to me that the only reason some anonymous bloggers here are desperately fighting against David Fletcher ever having a fair trial is to protect their own source of income - which necessitates the victimizing of people. These poor souls that couldn’t make it into the upper ranks of their homeland police remind me of the special forces combatants that once they return home after service they found themself ostracized by their own society - which often enough consider them mass murderers or simply a danger.

The mercenaries of the child protection industry in Cambodia are an equal danger to society since they draw their meager existence on stalking and vigilantism drawing a monster (the white male) on the wall that pretty much resembles themselves.

The comments of the Khmer440 bottom feeders and APLE volunteer assassination gang sound like you are talking to a lynch mob as one khmer440 blogger said some time ago. The mere fact that these people blog under Anonymous means that they got a lot to hide. They are possibly not as liliwhite as they try to portray themselves and their main concern is to loose their source of income from being a snitch - hanging around girlie bars in Phnom Penh etc. feeding the APLE Machine.

In all this debate one tends to forget who created this PROTECT Program in the first place. No other than French national Thierry Darnaudet, a suicidal (July 27 in Calcutta 4 star hotel) backpacker with no background other than being a frustrated librarian on a search for a reason to live. Thierry Darnaudet’s PROTECT Program was largely financed and supported by Spanish globalhumanitaria.org – run by his buddy Andres Torres.

I was not surprised to see the US Government immediately take a liking in this program and adapted it into US Law. The NSA must have been extremely grateful to Darnaudet since they sent the US Ambassador to pay a visit to APLE. Even Bill Clinton was not too far off when he visited Villagefocus.org 's Phnom Penh  Office (a financial support NGO of the

first day's of APLE).

To get all this into the perspective of what happened in the past 10 years here is an old email exchange between Canadian Aid worker and Aple's Katherine Keane (operating in Sihanoukville) in 2006.

From APLE's ex-Country Director Katherine Kaene to James Dunsmore after a mobile phone text message.

Dear James,

I write in response to your text message of today:

“I am your informant putting myself and my future Charity work at risk by helping you carry out your mandate. I call your dedication to this management of sensitive volunteer field assets into question and request an official appointment with your agency's National Director at your earliest convenience. I will travel to the capital to facilitate this if that is necessary. RSVP ASAP.”

I feel that it is best that I reply to this text message via email.

First, no appointment with our National Director is necessary as I personally am taking over that position in two weeks and will be handling all such matters.

Second, myself and other APLE staff are extremely busy handling a multitude of responsibilities and tasks and as such must make time-management decisions based on carefully considered priorities.

It is not practical that we respond to every demand for an immediate appointment made by someone claiming to have urgent information. Your insistence on meeting during my personal time on Wednesday night for a matter which you claimed was urgent (but in fact was not) is an example.

Third, as you can imagine we do not hold meetings with people providing us with information in our office as the location is best kept quiet and our office contains much sensitive information. We have undercover staff

working for us and as a result must respect their privacy. Instead, we choose other options for communication:

- meeting in various locations in town which we know to be safe, friendly places where we can discuss sensitive matters in private (i.e.Starfish Cafe or small Hotel)

APLE respects the confidential nature of all information and the privacy of all those who provide us with that information.

I must admit to finding your insistence that a telephone is not a

'secure channel' for discussion in Cambodia a little strange. Your refusal to email me the information you claim to have today rather than meeting in person is also troubling considering your apparent great concern for being seen in public with APLE personnel.

Fourth, I find it a troubling allegation and do not understand your claim that providing APLE with information places your future charity work at risk. My understanding is that you are working part-time as an English teacher at a school for Cambodian children. APLE cooperates with many child-rights organizations working in Sihanoukville and experiences

no problem in this regard.

If your concerns of our 'dedication' are indeed so great then I would recommend that you simply choose in future not to contact APLE staff. APLE will of course maintain the confidentiality of any information provided with you to this date.

Yours faithfully,

Katherine Keane

Technical Advisor

Action Pour Les Enfants

Sihanoukville, Cambodia

James Dunsmore's reply:

Dear Ms. Keane, 16/09/06

Thank you for your email reply and I apologize for the garbled text message you received, apparently it's a Khmer cell network issue.

You must appreciate that by me acting on the children’s behalf by providing credible information on potential imminent threats to their safety to your organization puts me in a position where people can get suspicious as I circulate in groups you could never circulate in as everyone knows you and your mandate.

To be seen more and more in your presence creates rumors and my well being can be compromised as a Snitch if word gets out. If my well being is compromised I will not be acting as a Volunteer for my charity here so my future plans will be compromised as well, to the detriment of the children we are both here to help.

I now understand the matters of security of meeting you or members of your staff, I'm sure you can appreciate mine. I don't have an organization protecting me.

I have been approached and congratulated by unknown local Khmer that have intimate knowledge of the sensitive information I passed on to you so as far as you claiming to honor standards of confidentiality for information, I beg to differ.

The information provided to you the other night was dismissed as not “urgent” maybe so in hindsight but it was not irrelevant. I was surprised at your ignorance at hearing that the stretch of beach where the French national was murdered is a known pedophile child procurement zone.

I thought the possible connections that were time sensitive at that time may have helped you in some way. Hopefully you can add that area to your watch list in the future as it is highly active.

The crux of what I was hoping for clarification on was involving the Oceans Hotel. When I heard you actively suspect the hotel of providing under-aged prostitution services and engaging in human trafficking, I wondered why you would not have alerted me earlier to that fact as you knew I was living there. I have a reputation that I take extra care to avoid even the presence of wrong doing and have gone out of my way to

help you. Did you have designs for my possible Entrapment to boost your numbers in a raid? Absolutely callous by any moral standard and Illegal.

As far as your information, I have been living at the Hotel as the only resident besides the family and small staff for the last 7 weeks. It has never been used for the purposes of prostitution and there is no intention to do so now or in the future.

It is an 8 room, full service hotel complete with restaurant and bar, no more no less. I know because upon hearing your allegations I investigated personally to determine if my patronage of the Hotel would continue or not. It has and it will.

It seems in the instance of the Oceans Hotel, you have prejudged the owner and his business on what facts I won’t comment. I strongly call into question your “bush league” investigative techniques in verifying what information comes your way from what ever source, to ensure its validity.

You know as well as me that any allegation regardless of fact or fiction has the potential to destroy reputations no matter what the final outcome.

You have a duty of Responsibility. A duty you are negligent of in at least this case.

I'm on your side as a humanitarian Volunteer in the field of helping the children of Cambodia and I felt very slighted as I thought I had earned your trust with the information provided and the official documents for you to verify my identity.

I've nothing to hide but feel that by my association as a guest at the hotel, I may have been put under scrutiny as well, for no legitimate reason, thus potentially violating my rights as well in your ongoing, baseless fishing campaign.

I have heard from local sources that your techniques are being perceived as increasingly unethical, unsound and in any first world country would be deemed illegal on the grounds of an illegitimate invasion of privacy.

As far as your comments about the owner Ron Haswell, the use of the term Human Trafficker is malicious, spiteful and could open your Organization to increased public scrutiny and/or legal proceedings as your tactics are widely seen in the community as a vindictive smear campaign against mostly honest Caucasian men.

If your misdirected suspicions of activities going on in the Oceans Hotel are any indication, your allegations of Ron being a human trafficker are completely unsubstantiated and you're acting on pure, uninvestigated rumors and innuendo.

Any amount of time spent in investigating your information related to Ron would confirm the fact he is not engaging in any wrong doing but you have obviously not even attempted to do this as your time in Sihanoukville is drawing to a close in favor of your promotion to the Capital and you seem to be more interested in accruing political brownie points than engaging in responsible investigative techniques.

Were you aware the Oceans Hotel is now possibly the only establishment in the Kingdom of Cambodia that voluntarily enforces a strict policy of verifying every Patron’s identification prior to admittance? Or that Mr. Haswell has also pledged a portion of the hotel’s profits directly to

the Goodwill School Charity? I thought not.

The credibility of your organization and you and Zelda (Hunter) personally are now being openly questioned in the community and the benefit of the doubt in other investigations against others will equally lose merit due to your acknowledged tactics thus allowing genuine sexual predators a

freer reign than if you had acted professionally from the outset instead of chasing honest shadows in the dark.

Your credibility has been damaged in my eyes as well due to the cavalier attitude you both displayed the other night over your complete lack of respect for an innocent man’s personal and professional reputation. I thought about what you said and felt I had misunderstood you so I asked for clarification on Friday.

Without clarification on these points, I can only speculate you have an agenda against American citizens from the Philippines (as you described at our meeting that that was your main reason for suspecting Ron) and are drawing parallels from the American from Tramps Palace who was

recently exposed for debauchery for imprisoning minors by another NGO which I believe is one of your rivals.

It is slander to paint an innocent man with the same brush as a known felon but that fact seems to have no bearing on your agenda to score career points for yourselves.

It’s called Defamation of Character which is Illegal in anyone’s books.

Any allegations of impropriety targeting the Oceans Hotel would directly impact on me, being the sole guest, so indirectly, judgment would be passed by the court of popular opinion by your vicious gossip without proper investigation, charges laid or trial against me so I could defend my impeccably good name as a Volunteer.

The last point of which I sought clarification is the comments made about the Khmer Police and other Civic Authorities that will benefit from my volunteer teaching of English to facilitate liaisons with western law enforcement agencies currently being deployed to Cambodia to reduce the dependence on Non Police, Non Government Organization personnel who though their heart may be in the right place, have neither

the training, diplomacy or tact to do any progressive work.

The comment put to me was "Why would you want to help the Police here?" My question as a law abiding citizen is “Why would I not volunteer to help the recognized authority of the land in combating pedophilia if I could?”

What possible reasons could there be that Zelda (Hunter) does not want to entertain or foster cooperation with the Police by aiding in every possible way, unless she has a vested interest in her own position and the continued justification of your organization's operational budget?

It seems you have either poor or non existent relations with the authorities here, are seemingly trying to falsify evidence and are actively propagating rumors to justify your mandate and thus, your global budget. Or is it that you at Action Pour Enfants believe that you are above the law in Cambodia and elsewhere in the 3rd world?

Very interesting, troubling and deeply thought provoking.

I believe more clarity is needed between your organization’s role and the public of your host countries in general, Sihanoukville’s community in particular as they have been repeatedly victimized with no basis during your tenures here.

From my limited understanding, you are neither a Police Officer or a Government Organization so please help me understand the source of your authority here in Cambodia to target innocent, law abiding residents with unsubstantiated rumors.

It seems to many, you are operating with a pseudo Vigilante mentality that could be easily construed as nothing more than a orchestrated campaign of male harassment in the eyes of legal professionals anywhere there exists the rule of Law.

I and others here would very be interested to formally examine your Organization’s mandate, mission statement and employee training standards prior to engagement for it’s Members because it either needs modification to comply with basic human rights or you are not acting in accordance to it's guidelines in the pursuit of your own hidden personal

career agendas.

There is no way your current, unethical tactics are sanctioned by your headquarters but if they are, there is even more reason for public debate on who is allowed to operate in the 3rd world unchecked as the innocent of all walks need protection from foreign abusers operating beyond the reach of the law in their own opinions.

These are some of the reasons I made a legitimate request to arrange a meeting with your Director, Thierry Darnaudet, as it seems you have every intention of operating by your own rules unsupervised here in Sihanoukville and wishto keep this abuse of authority quiet until you assume your new position in the Capital where you will have more authority to continue the cover up your past improprieties in our community and possibly propagate more with your expanded powers throughout Cambodia.

I believe there should be an transparent, open to the public debate into the very legitimacy of your organization based on you and Zelda’s operating procedures and prejudiced belief system that I and other innocents have experienced firsthand.

Ma’am with all due respect, you two personally need more operational controls, checks, balances and accountability for your indiscretions, not more power.

If your organization’s position is to not be forthcoming on these legitimate requests from the concerned, respected members of the Sihanoukville community, I'm utterly speechless.

I ask again for there to be a meeting with your Director as it's even more important now as you seem to be actively blocking attempts to expose the truth by stipulating a meeting is not necessary. In your opinion, of course it’s not but there is a much more ominous, growing concern than your personal career enhancement goals.

I believe the community you serve should have some say.

Would the National Director's office not be suitable forum to start?

I mean no personal ill will in this letter and hope we can work

productively to continue serving the community but there seem to be too many questionable practices ranging from my confidentiality being breached by you directly or someone in your organization, your vigilante like zeal to harass legitimate business owners without proof, a non

cooperative attitude toward the legitimate Authorities of Cambodia right up to the feeling that the possibility of any allegations of wrong doing not be brought to the attention of your outgoing National Director.

As your Director, Thierry Darnaudet, is ultimately accountable for all of your actions, I'm sure he wouldn't be adverse to a meeting to address the misunderstandings your ladies unfounded and malicious allegations have raised and to help quell the furor simmering in the community against your organization’s indiscretions before he leaves Cambodia charging you to suppress the fall out of the folly of their rein as Director here in the Kingdom of Cambodia.

There is no reason at this point not to keep this all in house, but if attempts are made to shirk your responsibilities to the community you’ve repeatedly and recklessly attempted to violate, I'm sure there are other organizations that would be happy to bring this to a broader arena, one that you yourselves are so adept at manipulating for your organization’s continuing budget…the court of popular opinion.

I seek confirmation of the receipt of this correspondence by someone senior to yourself for obvious reasons to discuss when these issues can be addressed.

If the Cambodian head office’s position is to continue to operate in bad faith, we will have no option but to advise the recognized authorities in Bolivia, Columbia, Guatemala, India, Nepal, Nicaragua, and Peru that your organization operates outside the realm of ethical, accountable, law abiding behavior in Cambodia and should be fully investigated in

these impoverished, open to exploitation areas of the world as well.

I’m sure your collaborating companies, organizations and donor base would appreciate knowing who they have affiliated themselves with so they, like I at the Oceans Hotel can make an informed decision whether to continue affiliations with your organization or not. You, unlike the Oceans Hotel and Ron Haswell have engaged in activities of which a cover

up we believe will go ahead the moment you assume your new, expanded duties in Phnom Penh in less than two weeks.

Thank you for your time.

Myself and many others involved parties eagerly await your

Organization's official reply in this matter with ever increasing

interest.

Regards,

James Dunsmore BSSc Tech SP, Volunteer Educator

...to be continued...