[Vision2020] Meridian, Idaho Baptist U.S. Missionaries Charged with Kidnapping in Haiti

[Tom Hansen]

I have no online citation, merely comments made by Matt Lauer on NBC's
Today Show February 2, 2010 (Tuesday) and repeated by a member of the
organization being interviewed.

Care to share citations for your caims that "Silsby has a long history of
disregarding 'secular' law"?

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho


> Tom wrote:
> "Apparently this organization has a history of performing humane acts at
> vrious locations around the world."
>
> I'm confused, Tom -- this organization is new only dating back to
> November,
> according to the news reports I've seen, and as I just posted, Silsby has
> a
> long history of disregarding "secular" law.  Can you please cite a source
> for the above?
>
>
> Thanks,
> Saundra Lund
> Moscow, ID
>
> The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do
> nothing.
> ~ Edmund Burke
>
> ***** Original material contained herein is Copyright 2010 through life
> plus
> 70 years, Saundra Lund.  Do not copy, forward, excerpt, or reproduce
> outside
> the Vision 2020 forum without the express written permission of the
> author.*****
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
> On Behalf Of Tom Hansen
> Sent: Thursday, February 04, 2010 4:27 PM
> To: Wayne Price
> Cc: Moscow Vision 2020
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Meridian, Idaho Baptist U.S. Missionaries
> Charged
> with Kidnapping in Haiti
>
> What gets me, Ted and Wayne -
>
> I have been monitoring this for the past few days or so.
>
> Apparently this organization has a history of performing humane acts at
> vrious locations around the world.
>
> With such a history and experience, shouldn't they have dotted all their
> governmental "I's" and crossed all of their procedural "T's" before taking
> the children out of the country?
>
> Had this happened in New Orleans immediately after Hurricane Katrina, as
> Wayne suggests, I am certain they would have been arrested for kidnapping,
> or at bare minimum custodial interference.
>
> And for this to happen in a country where human trafficking is all too
> common, one can only imagine what the initial government suspicions
> concerned.
>
> Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
>
>> Ted,
>>
>> I agree with you that they must have had the best of intentions.....BUT!
>>
>> Could you imagine if some group went into New Orleans a couple of
>> weeks after Katrina and took out 33 kids? Surely one of the
>> missionaries  had to think there was some kind of paperwork needed to
>> get those kids from one country to another?
>>
>> Great intentions, BAD execution
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Feb 4, 2010, at 4:03 PM, Ted Moffett wrote:
>>
>>> I would not be surprised if some or all of those charged in this
>>> case had good intentions, but were led by their religious beliefs to
>>> make some very questionable decisions:
>>>
>>>
> http://www.ktvb.com/home/10-American-detained-in-Haiti-being-moved-8-from-Id
> aho-83558322.html#
>>>
>>> 10 U.S. Baptists held in Haiti charged with kidnapping
>>> by Frank Bajak
>>> Associated Press writer
>>>
>>> Posted on February 4, 2010 at 10:29 AM
>>>
>>> Updated today at 4:17 PM
>>>
>>> PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Ten members of a U.S. missionary group who
>>> said they were trying to rescue 33 child victims of Haiti's
>>> devastating earthquake were charged with child kidnapping and
>>> criminal association on Thursday, their lawyer said.
>>>
>>> Edwin Coq said after a court hearing that a judge found sufficient
>>> evidence to charge the Americans, who were arrested Friday at
>>> Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic. Coq attended Thursday's
>>> hearing and represents the entire group in Haiti.
>>>
>>> Group leader Laura Silsby has said they were trying to take orphans
>>> and abandoned children to an orphanage in the neighboring Dominican
>>> Republic. She acknowledged they had not sought permission from
>>> Haitian officials, but said they just meant to help victims of the
>>> quake.
>>>
>>> The children taken from the group, ranging in age from 2 to 12, were
>>> being cared for at the Austrian-run SOS Children's Village in Port-
>>> au-Prince on Wednesday.
>>>
>>> The U.S. citizens, most of them members of an Idaho-based church
>>> group, were whisked away from the closed court hearing to jail in
>>> Port-au-Prince, the capital. Silsby waved and smiled faintly to
>>> reporters but declined to answer questions.
>>>
>>> Coq said that under Haiti's legal system, there won't be an open
>>> trial, but a judge will consider the evidence and could render a
>>> verdict in about three months.
>>>
>>> Coq said a Haitian prosecutor told him the Americans were charged
>>> because they had the children in their possession. No one from the
>>> Haitian government could be reached immediately for comment.
>>>
>>> Each kidnapping count carries a possible sentence of five to 15
>>> years in prison. Each criminal association count has a potential
>>> sentence of three to nine years.
>>>
>>> Coq said that nine of the 10 knew nothing about the alleged scheme,
>>> or that paperwork for the children was not in order.
>>>
>>> "I'm going to do everything I can to get the nine out," Coq said.
>>> That would still leave mission leader Laura Silsby facing charges.
>>>
>>> State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington the U.S.
>>> was open to discuss "other legal avenues" for the defendants — an
>>> apparent reference to the Haitian prime minister's earlier
>>> suggestion that Haiti could consider sending the Americans back to
>>> the United States for prosecution.
>>>
>>> Several parents of the children in Callebas, a quake-wracked Haitian
>>> village near the capital, told The Associated Press Wednesday they
>>> had handed over their children willingly because they were unable to
>>> feed or clothe their children and the American missionaries promised
>>> to give them a better life.
>>>
>>> Their accounts contradicted statements by Silsby, of Meridian, Idaho.
>>>
>>> In a jailhouse interview Saturday, Silsby told the AP that most of
>>> the children had been delivered to the Americans by distant
>>> relatives, while some came from orphanages that had collapsed in the
>>> quake.
>>>
>>> "They are very precious kids that have lost their homes and families
>>> and are so deeply in need of, most of all, God's love and his
>>> compassion," she said.
>>>
>>> In Callebas, parents said a local orphanage worker, fluent in
>>> English and acting on behalf of the Baptists, had convened nearly
>>> the entire village of 500 people on a dirt soccer field to present
>>> the Americans' offer.
>>>
>>> Isaac Adrien, 20, told his neighbors the missionaries would educate
>>> their children in the neighboring Dominican Republic, the villagers
>>> said, adding that they were also assured they would be free to visit
>>> their children there.
>>>
>>> Many parents jumped at the offer.
>>>
>>> Adrien said he met Silsby in Port-au-Prince on Jan. 26. She told him
>>> she was looking for homeless children, he said, and he knew exactly
>>> where to find them.
>>>
>>> He rushed home to Callebas, where people scrape by growing carrots,
>>> peppers and onions. That very day, he had a list of 20 children.
>>>
>>> As they loaded children onto a bus in Callebas on Jan. 28, the
>>> Americans took down contact information for all the families and
>>> assured them a relative would be able to visit them in the Dominican
>>> Republic.
>>>
>>> The Americans' journey began last summer after Silsby and her former
>>> nanny, 24-year-old Charisa Coulter, resolved to establish an
>>> orphanage for Haitian children in the Dominican Republic. Coulter is
>>> among the jailed Americans.
>>>
>>> They began buying up used clothing and collecting donations from
>>> their Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian and in November,
>>> Silsby registered the New Life Children's Refuge Inc., the nonprofit
>>> organization coordinating the rescue mission. It listed the address
>>> of her now-foreclosed home in Meridian as its headquarters.
>>>
>>> Then the quake hit. Silsby and Coulter moved into high gear,
>>> gathering donations and assembling a team to go into Haiti and
>>> urgently take out children, the younger woman's father, Mel Coulter,
>>> told the AP from his home in Kuna, Idaho.
>>>
>>> The group packed 40 plastic bins of donated goods into a U-Haul
>>> trailer and drove to Salt Lake City on Jan. 22, where they took a
>>> flight to the Dominican Republic. They made their way to Haiti,
>>> where four days later, they were introduced to Adrien.
>>>
>>> Adrien, who had served as the go-between and translator for the
>>> missionaries, said he had no knowledge of the group's larger plans;
>>> villagers said they were told none of their children would be
>>> offered for adoption.
>>>
>>> A Haitian-born pastor who said he worked as an unpaid consultant for
>>> the group insisted the Baptists had done nothing wrong.
>>>
>>> The Rev. Jean Sainvil said some of the children were orphans and
>>> might have been put up for adoption. Children with parents were to
>>> be kept in the Dominican Republic, and would not lose contact with
>>> their families, Sainvil said in Atlanta.
>>>
>>> "Everybody agreed that they knew where the children were going. The
>>> parents were told, and we confirmed they would be allowed to see the
>>> children and even take them back if need be," he said.
>>>
>>> Sainvil stressed that in Haiti it is not uncommon for parents who
>>> can't support their children to send them to orphanages.
>>>
>>> Even Prime Minister Max Bellerive has said he recognized the
>>> Americans may simply have been well-meaning who believed their
>>> charitable Christian intent justified trying to remove the children
>>> from quake-crippled Haiti.
>>>
>>> Only minutes before the charges, the Americans' Dominican lawyer,
>>> Jorge Puello, had said he expected at least nine of the 10 to be
>>> released and said he was arranging a charter flight for them from
>>> Santo Domingo, the Dominican capital.
>>>
>>> After the Haitian lawyer's announcement, Puello could not be reached
>>> by telephone for comment.
>>>
>>> "I'm at the airport (in Santo Domingo) and we're getting the plane
>>> ready. We're just waiting for the green light," Puello said. "I
>>> spoke to a source inside the jail — a government official — who said
>>> nine would be released but one would be held for further
>>> investigation."
>>>
>>> ___
>>>
>>> Associated Press writer Greg Bluestein in Atlanta and Matthew Lee in
>>> Washington contributed to this report.
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
>>>
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>
> "The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
> and the Realist adjusts his sails."
>
> - Unknown
>
>
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>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
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"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown