Want something fun to do this morning if your agency is among the 46 that have not yet gotten accreditation to handle adoptions in Russia? Call Martin Renkiewicz and ask him why his agency is holding things up. No, this is not an overseas call. Mr. Renkiewicz's agency is right down in Washington, D.C.

Yes, you read that right. It looks as if the fault for the slow pace of accreditations lies not with Moscow, or with late post-placement reports, but with an obscure American bureaucracy that goes by the name of the U.S. National Central Bureau of Interpol.

The USNCB, as it is known, is the United States' representative to the international police cooperation agency Interpol. And its relationship to the adoption triad is that it was asked to coordinate the delivery of background checks on U.S. adoption agencies to the Russian Ministry of Justice. Which it did for the first 13 agencies that got accredited. And then it stopped.

In early October, I told you about the headaches caused by USNCB's handling of those background checks. At the time that I published, I had assurances from a source high up in the adoption world that USNCB was back to business.

Except that it wasn't. Within a few days, I had proof that whatever USNCB had told my source was a load of hot air, and yes, I am striving to be polite.

The mission statement on the USNCB's Web site lists this as its first "major function":

Transmit information of a criminal justice, humanitarian, or other law enforcement related nature between National Central Bureaus of INTERPOL member countries and law enforcement agencies of the United States.

Well, maybe it's just me, but I can't think of anything that fits more squarely under the heading of "humanitarian" than adoption.

More…

Image credit: Morguefile.com