Hi, SuziHawk, I'm not responding to this, but to the reply to me that you thoughtfully took the time to write about the Van Der Sloot on a previous thread.
I was wrong about the duration between Joran's Greta hoax and Paulus's death, but the time was much closer to one year than to two. I must admit though that I am a bit staggered by the idea that Paulus should be somehow be expected to announce to the media his disapproval of something his own son had done. (Do we really think that he supported Joran's portrayal of him as a white-slaver?) At this point, the family (including two young sons) were attempting to return to some level of privacy. Frankly, I think that we media watchers somehow imagine that individuals in the news have some responsibility to bare their souls to Greta and Nancy Grace and the rest of the ratings hounds.
There's nothing mysterious about Paul not getting a plum judge's job. He applied for a job and like most applicants, he didn't get it. Dutch legal standards are high; they are recognized as among the best in the world. What it does indicate is that whether as a failed judge-in-training or a middle-level lawyer, Paul didn't wield much clout in Aruban legal circles.
As for Van Straaten and Paul, no one is disputing that they were friends; what was at issue was the knee-jerk repetitions of "best friend and godfather," both of which have been disputed by people close to the family. Just as relevant is the question about why we would assume that such friendships would mean that professionals who valued keeping their jobs would subvert the law: One of my lawyer friends frequently lunches with opposing counsel and Anthony Scalia is reportedly great pals with Supreme Court justices who oppose him vigorously on nearly every decision. Ted Kennedy and Orin Hatch were long-time close friends, but I don't think that influenced their positions on any major issues. And if the motive for supposedly intentionally scuttling a prosecution was, as you suggest, tourism, the Arubans could have hardly created a more lamebrain strategy: By extending and reextending and reextending the investigation instead of throwing nonentiety Joran to the dogs, they hurt their main source of island income for years.
As all the inane talk now of Joran being framed now by Beth and the FBI proves, conspiracies are easy. You just pick a culprit and fill in any missing connections with your own dots.
