Judge dismisses the lawsuit faulting Royal Caribbean for its handling of George A. Smith IV's disappearance a year ago

http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/local/scn-gt-a1smithoct20,0,3693153.story?coll=green-news-local-headlines
By Hoa NguyenStaff WriterPublished October 20 2006
"It's a setback, of course, but it's not the end," maritime lawyer Brett Rivkind said yesterday. "The Smith family isn't discouraged. Whether the Smith family won or lost, the issue is going to be decided in an appellate court."Smith disappeared from the Brilliance of the Seas while on a honeymoon cruise in the Aegean Sea on July 5, 2005. His body was not recovered, though bloodstains were found on an awning underneath the newlywed's cabin balcony.His disappearance became one of the most publicized cases of a missing passenger aboard a cruise ship, spawning a set of congressional hearings on maritime security and a federal bill requiring cruise lines to report cases of missing passengers and crimes to the Department of Homeland Security. The FBI is still investigating.

Smith's parents and sister believe the 26-year-old town native was murdered, and allege in their lawsuit filed in June that the cruise company tried to cover up the incident to avoid liability and negative publicity. Their complaint charges the cruise line with "intentional infliction of emotional distress" and "invasion of privacy."

More Evidence of Cruise Line Influencing Peddling and Media Manipulation?

the honeymoon cruise mystery.blogspot.com

The powers that be have decided to delete George Smith's entry in wikipedia (why, that's a good question). I found this information to be a very straightforward account of what is 'known' about what happened to George Smith IV. So I am reprinting it below before it is lost forever to the caverns of the Internet. The information needs to be out there...

Brilliance of the Seas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from George Allen Smith)

Did Wikipedia bow to pressure from the Cruis Lines?
The pattern of intimidation by the Cruise Lines contiues...

(More information to come in the near future)
In an ongoing effort to avoid regulations, taxation and negative publicity, the Cruise Lines continue to wage war against the government and the media. They have used lobbyists related to the Abramoff scandal to spend millions of dollars lobbying Congress. cruiselinelobbyistrelatedtoabramoff.blogspot.com/ They and their employees contribute millions of dollars to the same candidates. safecruise.blogspot.com/2005_12_01 They keep information and statistics secret concerning crimes, assaults, deaths, accidents, and disease from the government and victim's families. They incorporate and flag their ships in poor third world countries to avoid health, safety, security, and envirionmental rules. The worst being Royal Caribbean whose fees paid to Liberia helped finance Dictator Charles Taylor's Reign of Terror and mass murder. safecruise.blogspot.com/2006_04_01

Now it appears they have used their advertising dollars to limit freedom of the press and pressure the media to stop covering their serious safety and security problems. The New York Post September 13, 2006 by Keith Kelly

64 people overboard since the year 2000. Hundreds of sexual assaults, most not reported and few if any prosecuted. Will Congress and the media continue to allow this type of cover-up, sit on the evidence and ignore the red flags like they did with the Mark Foley page sex scandal? The lives of cruise ship passengers are at stake as well as the mental and physical health of the hundreds of women who have been or will be assaulted on cruise ships whether as passengers or crewmembers. If they back down and bow to the pressure of the cruiselines like Mort Zuckerman at the New York Daily News, our wives and children and female crew members will never be safe on a cruise vacation.

Montel Williams Interviews Victims of Cruise Ship Crime and Members of International Cruise Victims Organization

Montel Williams Show for Monday October 16, 2006

We’ll meet people who say they were on their dream trips when tragedy struck…and their lives will never be the same. We’ll meet Laurie, who says she was raped on a cruise ship while on vacation. We’ll talk to Sue, Ron, and Katie, a family left with many unanswered questions after their son (Katie's brother) Daniel went missing from a cruise ship. Daniel was on his first week-long vacation with his friends when he became sick one night while alone on the ship's deck. He was leaning over the railing of the cruise ship and suddenly fell overboard. Kimberly Dean-Edwards, a legislative board member for International Cruise Victims will also join us to talk about her work with Congress to try and get a bill passed that will hold cruise lines more accountable for crimes and missing person cases at sea.

Woman may have jumped during cruise but foul play has not been ruled out

http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/articles/4400941.html
By Donna Littlejohn 10/14/2006
Body thought to be that of the missing passenger is found off coast of Mexico. FBI boarded ship upon its return to Port of L.A.

Norwegian Cruise Line passenger reported missing after LA-Mexico trip

http://www.dailynews.com/ci_4488799
LA Daily News 10/13/2006

LOS ANGELES - The FBI said Friday it was investigating a report of a passenger missing from a cruise ship. The passenger was reported missing after the Norwegian Star docked at the Port of Los Angeles early Friday, said Ken Smith, FBI spokesman.
The Norwegian Cruise Line vessel had been on a trip to Mexico, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said. No further details, including the gender of the missing passenger, were immediately available, Smith said.

Are Cruise Lines Using Advertising Dollars to Limit Freedom of the Press & Bribe the Media into Not Covering Security Problems

In an ongoing effort to avoid regulations, taxation and negative publicity, the Cruise Lines continue to wage war against the government and the media. They have used lobbyists related to the Abramoff scandal to spend millions of dollars lobbying Congress. cruiselinelobbyistrelatedtoabramoff.blogspot.com/ They and their employees contribute millions of dollars to the same candidates. safecruise.blogspot.com/2005_12_01 They keep information and statistics secret concerning crimes, assaults, deaths, accidents, and disease from the government and victim's families. They incorporate and flag their ships in poor third world countries to avoid health, safety, security, and envirionmental rules. The worst being Royal Caribbean whose fees paid to Liberia helped finance Dictator Charles Taylor's Reign of Terror and mass murder. safecruise.blogspot.com/2006_04_01 Now it appears they have used their advertising dollars to limit freedom of the press and pressure the media to stop covering their serious safety and security problems. 62 people overboard since the year 2000. Hundreds of sexual assaults, most not reported and few if any prosecuted. Will Congress and the media continue to allow this type of cover-up, sit on the evidence and ignore the red flags like they did with the Mark Foley page sex scandal? The lives of cruise ship passengers are at stake as well as the mental and physical health of the hundreds of women who have been or will be assaulted on cruise ships whether as passengers or crewmembers. If they back down and bow to the pressure of the cruiselines like Mort Zuckerman at the New York Daily News, our wives and children and female crew members will never be safe on a cruise vacation.

The New York Post September 13, 2006 by Keith Kelly

Earlier in June, there was a 13-person downsizing that included people from virtually every department, including Caitlin Kelly, a published author and feature writer. She had clashed with editors when a feature on deaths and disappearances aboard cruise ships was killed by higher-ups fearing offending advertisers. Departures from the features department were no rarity, although many seemed to be getting fed up and leaving on their own.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1011Cruise-Ship-ON.html
LOS ANGELES - A retired police sergeant and former television reporter was charged with having a sexual encounter with two 12-year-old boys in a cruise ship spa, authorities said. Roderick Bernsen, 58, was arrested at the Port of Los Angeles Saturday by FBI agents investigating a complaint by the mother of one of the boys, authorities said. He is charged with one count of abusive sexual contact. Bail was set at $850,000 Tuesday during his first appearance in federal court.

www.internationalcruisevictims.org joined Congressman Christopher Shays (R-CT) in Washington, D.C. as he announced the introduction of the Cruise Line Accurate Safety Statistics Act (CLASS Act), which seeks to improve the reporting and handling of cruise ship crimes. We all should contact our congressional delegation to ask for their support of this important legislation known as the Class Act (HR 5707).

Write to your Senators and ask them to support HR 5707

Contact your Congressman and ask them to support HR 5707

CRUISE SHIPS – Living Hell below the Decks

www.goacom.org

Despite the fact that the top three cruise ship companies earned over £8.5 billion in 2001, long hours and low pay are the norm for workers. A third of cruise ship staff work 12 hours a day, with bar waiters earning as little as US$50 a month. Contracts are short and insecure, with sexual harassment and racism rife onboard. In 1999, a law suit forced Carnival cruises to disclose the nearly 100 accusations of rape and sexual harassment against crew members between 1993 and 1998 – all ignored by the company.

The anti-poverty UK charity War on Want has launched a new campaign together with the ITF exposing the appalling conditions of Third World workers on some luxury cruise ships. Researchers found seafaring families in India left more indebted, in greater poverty than when they started. This is because many crewing agents illegally charge workers fees just to get the job. The money often has to be borrowed at high interest rates and, if anything goes wrong with the contract, the cruise ship worker and their family are left in a spiral of mounting debt.

In Sept 2002, the War on Want in conjunction with ITF has produced a scathing 30-page report called “Sweatships – what it’s really like to work on board cruise ships”. It can be downloaded from their website http://www.waronwant.org/.

Video of cabin for Carnival crew members as seen on youtube

Cruise line crime: Too much secrecy, too little concern for passengers

DAYTONA BEACH NEWS-JOURNAL
October 5, 2006
It's a travesty: Cruise ships don't routinely report crime and most passengers don't know their rights or the jurisdictions that apply. Nor do cruise lines go out of their way to make the information available.

September 30, 2006
How safe are you on the high seas?
Advocates push cruise lines for tougher crime-reporting standards By M.C. MOEWE Staff Writer

FBI Rules Cruise Ship Death a Suicide

www.khou.com October 2, 2006
Associated Press
GALVESTON, Texas -- The FBI has ruled that the death of a woman on a Carnival cruise ship was a suicide. A 48-year-old woman died from a fall on a cruise ship, the company said. The woman, whose name was not released by the cruise line, was seen jumping from one of the ship’s upper outside decks and landing on a cabin balcony Saturday, the Miami-based company said in a news release. The ship, called the Carnival Conquest, was concluding a seven-day Caribbean cruise that made stops in Montego Bay, Grand Cayman and Cozumel. It returned to Galveston on Sunday. The company said the woman was traveling with her spouse.
Carnival did not provide any other details. Cruise passenger John Bayer, of Purmela, said he could see the woman lying three levels below where he was on the ninth level. He said he did not see the woman’s fall, which he said occurred about 3 p.m. as the ship was entering the Gulf of Mexico. Carnival said it has notified authorities. The U.S. Coast Guard did not immediately return phone calls seeking details of its investigation.

Woman dies after falling from Carnival cruise ship

heraldtribune.com Oct. 1, 2006
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
GALVESTON, Texas -- A 48-year-old woman died from a fall on a cruise ship operated by Carnival Corp., the company said.The woman, whose name was not released by the cruise line, was seen jumping from one of the ship's upper outside decks and landing on a cabin balcony Saturday, the Miami-based company said in a news release.The ship, called the Carnival Conquest, was concluding a seven-day Caribbean cruise that made stops in Montego Bay, Grand Cayman and Cozumel. It returned to Galveston on Sunday.The company said the woman was traveling with her spouse. Carnival did not provide any other details.Cruise passenger John Bayer, of Purmela, said he could see the woman lying three levels below where he was on the ninth level. He said he did not see the woman's fall, which he said occurred about 3 p.m. as the ship was entering the Gulf of Mexico.Carnival said it has notified authorities. The U.S. Coast Guard did not immediately return phone calls seeking details of its investigation.