It sounds like Mr. Allen has the experience and credentials to speak out, regardless of any insider information he may have been given. I didn't interpret the OP or the article to suggest that he had been briefed by LE on Kyron's case.
http://www.icmec.org/missingkids/servlet/PageServlet?LanguageCountry=en_X1&PageId=1366
Ernie Allen is President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children. Through his leadership, NCMEC has played a role in the recovery of 74,000 children, with NCMEC’s recovery rate climbing from 62% in 1990 to 94% today. He has also taken NCMEC’s programs and services to a global audience. Today, ICMEC is building a global missing children’s network that already includes fourteen nations. An attorney in his native Kentucky, Ernie Allen came to NCMEC after serving as Chief Administrative Officer of Jefferson County, Director of Public Health & Safety for the City of Louisville, and Director of the Louisville-Jefferson County Crime Commission
http://www.copacommission.org/meetings/hearing1/allen.pdf
ERNIE ALLEN
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Ernie Allen is President & Chief Executive Officer of the National
Center for Missing & Exploited Children. He was co-founder of the
private, nonprofit Center, which has helped recover 50,000 children,
while increasing its recovery rate from 62% in 1990 to 93% today.
Allen has brought technology and innovation to the Center, including
computerized age progressions of long-term missing children; an
award-winning Internet website that handles 3 million “hits” per day; a
CyberTipline called “the 911 for the Internet;” and a new International
Centre to expand services worldwide.
Under his leadership, the Center has grown from a $3 million
organization in 1989 to a $38 million organization today with offices
in six states and the United Kingdom.
The Center is one of only ten
national charities graded “A+” by the American Institute of
Philanthropy.
Ernie Allen is an active spokesman for the cause, having made
numerous appearances on Oprah, The Today Show, Good Morning
America, Larry King Live, and many others. He was named “1998
Communicator of the Year” by the National Association of
Government Communicators.
Ernie Allen came to the Center following public service in his native
Kentucky, where he was Chief Administrative Officer of Jefferson
County, Director of Public Health & Safety for the City of Louisville,
and Director of the Louisville-Jefferson County Crime Commission.
He is an attorney and member of the Kentucky Bar; and a teacher,
having held faculty positions at the University of Louisville,
University of Kentucky, and Indiana University.
He has been honored by his alma mater, the University of Louisville,
as Distinguished Alumnus of the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law,
and Outstanding Alumnus of the College of Arts & Sciences.
------
TESTIMONY OF ERNIE ALLEN
President & CEO THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN
for the
UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY SUBCOMMITTEE ON CRIME, TERRORISM AND HOMELAND SECURITY
As you know, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is a not-for-profit corporation,
mandated by Congress and working in partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice. NCMEC is a public-private partnership, funded in part by Congress and in part by the private sector. For 25 years NCMEC has operated under Congressional mandate to serve as the
national resource center and clearinghouse on missing and exploited children.
This statutory mandate (see 42 U.S.C. §5773) includes 19 specific operational functions, among which are:
• operating a national 24-hour toll-free hotline, 1-800-THE-LOST® (1-800-843-5678), to intake reports of missing children and receive leads about ongoing cases;
•
providing technical assistance and training to individuals and law enforcement agencies in the prevention, investigation, prosecution, and treatment of cases involving missing and exploited children;
•
tracking the incidence of attempted child abductions;
•
providing forensic technical assistance to law enforcement;
• facilitating the deployment of the National Emergency Child Locator Center during periods of national disasters;
• working with law enforcement and the private sector to reduce the distribution of child
over the Internet;
• operating a child victim identification program to assist law enforcement in identifying victims of child
;
• developing and disseminating programs and information about Internet safety and the prevention of child abduction and sexual exploitation;
• providing technical assistance and training to law enforcement in identifying and locating non-compliant sex offenders; and
• operating the CyberTipline, the “9-1-1 for the Internet,” that the public and electronic service providers may use to report Internet-related child sexual exploitation.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/42/usc_sec_42_00005773----000-.html
http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/pdf/Allen090310.pdf
Given the alleged credentials of some of the talking heads I've heard on this case, Mr. Allen leaves 'em in the dust. IMO, I doubt his statement was simply pulled out of thin air just to give the media it's Quote Of The Day.
