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Feb. 27, 2006 On one of Beth Reynolds Holloway-Twitty’s (the media-maven-loving mother of the missing-from-Aruba Natalee Holloway) most-recent nightly appearances on the cable entertainment networks, she stressed, most curiously at this late point in time, that the reward was still up there. Curiosity piqued by that ‘still up there’ phrase (and with industrial-sized bottle of No Doze near at hand), I settled in for what I figured would be an arduous evening of visiting the myriad sites that are linked to each other by that “Hope for Natalee” click link. Starting from the bottom (at the smallest, most-picayune amount), I quickly came across the $250,000 reward offered for the information which leads to the solving of the vanishing. This amount was put up, either wholly or partially, by that Philadelphia-area philanthropist-cum-poultry-products-distributor, Joseph E Mammana. Public records peg his on-the-hook pledge at somewhere between $100,000 to $250,000, but this is a pledged amount only, not cash on deposit: he has not, since he started offering reward pledges six or so years ago, had to make good on any claim. Another $1-million reward, linked to the AmSouth Bank’s corporate website and giving explicit instructions as to which one of the many AmSouth Bank branches should be graced with the dutiful donors’ contributions to the fiscal well-being of HMI, can be accessed at http://www.companywebserver.net/natalee.htm. This webpage, which references the aforementioned quarter mil, doesn’t give much in the way of pertinent information but does speak well of the vanished (it is like a supplication for the beatification of the now-revealed-as-normal Natalee Holloway, the beautiful, missing-from-Aruba, Alabama semi-honours student who, according to various HMI websites, was awarded a portion of an eight-year, bus pass-endowed, full-ride scholarship for a four-year premedicine degree at the University of Alabama). Out of nowhere and unheralded even by the entertainment networks, a mysterious high-roller (www.welovenatalee.com/HomePage.html) seemingly out of Atlantic City, NJ, is now offering yet another huge reward: “There is a reward of $2,000,000 for information that will break this case wide open, and lead directly to the arrest of those responsible for this crime. The reward will be funded entirely by pledges, and it will be paid after all those responsible have been successfully prosecuted. Pledges will be accepted in any amount, starting at one(1) dollar. All pledges will be accepted directly by the Bank, and should be sent within thirty (30) days of being notified.. The reward money will be held by the Bank until the trial is over, and those responsible are safetly (sic) locked behind bars! Please make your pledge payable to the 'Pledge for Natalee Fund' to the Bank listed below. You will be contacted when a valid claim leads to an arrest in the case. Let us show the world not only will we fight for America, we will fight equally (sic) as hard for every American. Thank you for your support! “ Whew!! There it is. In total; $3.25-million in cash, pledges and moral obligations offered for the return of Natalee Holloway. Two-and-quarter-million dollars for solving the mystery, and an additional $1-million anted in by way of the weasel-worded “For Information Leading To The Safe Return of Natalee Holloway” (however, my go-to guy figures he could crack that “safe return” clause wide open in a NY minute, as long any remnant of Natalee could be safely submitted to wherever one goes to claim the reward). Which does lead into the subject of how to make a claim for any or all of the offered rewards--and that is a completely different kettle of fish. Not one of the linked websites offers an address where one can submit a claim. Ask at any AmSouth Bank customer service wicket and I’m fairly sure that all an aspiring applicant could get would be a polite but puzzled stare. AmSouth will accept your money, permits its logo and corporate website to be linked to a host of unrelated websites through the willy-nilly linking of the “Hope for Natalee” click link, yet it is highly unlikely that AmSouth would be able to assist should a would-be claimant step up. This does not seem kosher! There is a the multitude of filth-filled Internet sites containing live links which, when clicked, take one to dubious web pages displaying AmSouth Bank information and then allow viewers to upload to the AmSouth Bank web page (arubanboycott.blogspot.com click on Hope for Natalee ribbon) or else display the AmSouth Bank corporate logo and link directly to AmSouth Bank’s website (www.anation4natalee.com/) Arubaboycott is a website apparently set up to promote a boycott of Aruba and to act as a venue for those individuals who need to vent their lies about residents of Aruba (one such resident is a practicing lawyer in Aruba) and Aruban government officials. It is linked to another site, arubadirtypolice, displayer of a particularly offensive article on Jan., 2, 2006, which defamed the Honorable Spencer Bachus, the Republican Chairman of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit (http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/06jan/article140.html). All of the above sites are linked to AmSouth Bank through a ‘Hope for Natalee’ blue-ribbon click link (home.comcast.net/%7Ells-fm1/nhwebpage.html) and by clicking the referenced website, a plethora of other linked sites opens up. AmSouth Bank would not knowingly be associated with websites which promote hatred, slander, libel and defamation; however, in all probability there may be hundreds of these linked sites and it will be a daunting task to have them tracked down and then disassociated from AmSouth Bank’s good name and sterling reputation. If it is so easy to establish a live link to donate, should it not be just as easy to set up a link to a site which would state how much there is on hand in cold, hard cash ($3.25-million is a lot of money in pledges, right?) and set out the claims criteria and process? “Trust me” just doesn’t cut it when there either is or isn’t $3.25-million on deposit, and the public’s unease must be assuaged. It is imperative that this be addressed quickly. In this made-for-the-media mystery, another rumour is now making the rounds of the Internet: a rumour that the discovery mentioned in the recently filed court case is a Land Rover Discovery, and that Matt is tired of his no-longer-new $37,000 Toyota Tundra. ------------ About the author: Dayo Gould is a frequent visitor to Aruba, and is a volunteer ESL teacher in a Christian school. Email: ed_asp@hotmail.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. 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