Haiti parents testify they gave kids to Americans

[JEDIYoda]

Please do not post anything in this thread that you cannot back up with links!
So many lies and peoples convoluted false opinions have been expressed that I am sure there will be those who say the parents of these children are lying or have been paid to say these things!!

For what it`s worth.....
It really would be nice to at least see these people able to come home!!

Peace!!



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100210/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_haiti_americans_detained

By KIRSTEN JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer Kirsten Johnson, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 28 mins ago
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Parents of some of the children who 10 U.S. missionaries tried to take out of Haiti after its catastrophic earthquake told a judge Tuesday that they freely handed over their kids, the Americans' lawyer said.

The parents' testimony means no law was broken and "we can't talk any more about trafficking of human beings," attorney Aviol Fleurant told reporters.

He said he was confident the judge will dismiss the case.

Nine of the Americans, most from an Idaho church group, have now been interviewed by the judge, who is to decide whether they will stand trial. The judge did not speak with reporters.

Flaurent said the Americans would be back in court Wednesday. One of them, Jim Allen of Amarillo, Texas, was represented by a separate lawyer Tuesday.

The Americans were charged with kidnapping and criminal association last week for trying to take 33 children into the neighboring Dominican Republic on Jan. 29 without proper documentation.

The Baptist missionaries say they were heading to a Dominican orphanage following Haiti's devastating quake, and had only good intentions.

Their leader, Laura Silsby of Meridian, Idaho, told The Associated Press the day after their arrest that the children were obtained from orphanages and distant relatives.

However, the parents of some of the children told the AP last week that they turned their youngsters over to the group. The parents said did so willingly after the missionaries promised the kids would be educated and relatives could visit them.

Silsby was the only American not to appear in court Tuesday.

The lawyer who represented the missionaries until last week said that Silsby deceived the rest of the group about having proper paperwork and that everyone but her should go free.

The Americans' original Haitian lawyer was fired late Friday. The Dominican attorney who had hired him claimed the Haitian attempted to bribe the detainees' way out of jail without their knowledge. The Haitian lawyer denied that.

 

[sportage]

I've said it before and I'll say it again...
Why did they not try this in America during Katrina disaster in New Orleans 2005?
Be-cAuse they know they would have went straight to fukin jail !!!! Probably for life.
As they should in Haiti.
As to the parents... those parents (if in America) would have spent jail time too.
One just does not traffic children, for any so called just cause.
Be it the parents, missionaries, or whom so ever.
Believing in anything of that nature to be "ok" is very twisted thinking indeed.

 

[JS80]

I've said it before and I'll say it again...
Why did they not try this in America during Katrina disaster in New Orleans 2005?
Be-cAuse they know they would have went straight to fukin jail !!!! Probably for life.
As they should in Haiti.
As to the parents... those parents (if in America) would have spent jail time too.
One just does not traffic children, for any so called just cause.
Be it the parents, missionaries, or whom so ever.
Believing in anything of that nature to be "ok" is very twisted thinking indeed.

lol you are a sick fuck

 

[JEDIYoda]

I've said it before and I'll say it again...
Why did they not try this in America during Katrina disaster in New Orleans 2005?
Be-cAuse they know they would have went straight to fukin jail !!!! Probably for life.
As they should in Haiti.
As to the parents... those parents (if in America) would have spent jail time too.
One just does not traffic children, for any so called just cause.
Be it the parents, missionaries, or whom so ever.
Believing in anything of that nature to be "ok" is very twisted thinking indeed.

Did you even read the post???
You have no buisness posting in my thread if you are not going to read the post and understand that there is truth with the link I posted. I find no links or truth other than the same propaganda that you quite honestly believe!

I even asked nicely -- Please do not post anything in this thread that you cannot back up with links!
So many lies and peoples convoluted false opinions have been expressed that I am sure there will be those who say the parents of these children are lying or have been paid to say these things!!

 

[Dari]

Why does this even matter? Does it make it legal? All your link shows is that the parents put their trust in these kidnappers. Neither party followed the law, hence they are both liable to be charged. You're not bringing anything new to the table because it does not exonerate them legally.

 

[alphatarget1]

The parents aren't stupid and know that their kid would have a better chance to live/thrive in America than in Haiti. While I agree that proper procedures should've been followed, Haiti's government was/has always been in shambles and I honestly don't see why liberals have a hard on wanting to throw these missionaries in jail.

 

[Dari]

The parents aren't stupid and know that their kid would have a better chance to live/thrive in America than in Haiti. While I agree that proper procedures should've been followed, Haiti's government was/has always been in shambles and I honestly don't see why liberals have a hard on wanting to throw these missionaries in jail.

Obviously they weren't in enough shambles to not see this kidnapping. Worse, that should not be a legal excuse for kidnapping.

 

[alphatarget1]

Obviously they weren't in enough shambles to not see this kidnapping. Worse, that should not be a legal excuse for kidnapping.

I'm not saying it was a "legal excuse" for "kidnapping". I'm sure their country has a lot of other things to worry about than to try these missionaries for kidnapping.

 

[Dari]

I'm not saying it was a "legal excuse" for "kidnapping". I'm sure their country has a lot of other things to worry about than to try these missionaries for kidnapping.

Actually they don't. The children are their future. Letting shit like this slide will only invite other criminals...

 

[HumblePie]

Sigh...

I said this once but I'll say it again. There are laws and documentation for a reason. While the intention "may" have been good an honorable, the simple fact was they broke the law. The reason those laws are in place is because people in the past HAVE used the guise of honorable intentions to traffics kids into the slave or sex trade across the globe. While I am NOT saying that would have been the end result for these kids from Haiti in particular, I am saying it has happened before on numerous occasions all over the world and continues to happen to this day.

Another thing, is that the consent of these parents don't matter unless they go through proper channels as well. Once the proper documentation has been done, and people know how exactly the children are to be treated and cared for, then the parents have a right to give up their children. Even here in America, there is NO Constitutional right to give up your child. I dare you to find me that Amendment. Many of these parents give up their kids because they don't want the burden of doing so themselves. They would rather pass that burden on to others, which is not right.

As for the missionaries themselves, I am in agreement that the 9 out of the 10 should get a much more lenient sentence if they can prove that the 10th member duped them all into thinking they had the proper paperwork. Perhaps a fine at most and any time they've already served. The 10th member needs to be nailed to the wall if that is the case though for lying, fraud, and a few other broken laws even in Haiti.

I will spell it out again. Ignorance of the law does not protect you from the law.

 

[DesiPower]

Desperation makes you do unimaginable things... but IMO its better to keep your kids with you in despair rather than handing them over to pedos...

 

[HumblePie]

I will also point out that if these missionaries TRULY had the best interest of the kids at heart, they would not take them away from their parents. They would help rebuild their homes, rebuild their communities, rebuild schools. They would help educates and better the lives of parents, kids, and everyone in that community. They would take whole families to temporary shelters and seek ways to provide true support to EVERYONE since helping all inherently helps the children better in the long run.

 

[ayabe]

The fact that some of the parents did doesn't change anything.

The leader of this group lied to the other members about having the proper papers, so I do feel for them, they were duped by someone they trusted.

Again, the ends do not justify the means, even if every parent agreed, it's just not legal, there's no Jesus exemption for breaking the law.

 

[JEDIYoda]

They would take whole families to temporary shelters and seek ways to provide true support to EVERYONE since helping all inherently helps the children better in the long run.

You see things could have been done a different way.
But the reason I posted this article was due to all the idots out there who said these people were trafficking children or that these poeple stole these children without the consent of the parents.

Then we have those who feel the people should be thrown in jail for breaking the law.

Then we have HumblePie who says if the missionaries really cared they should be rebuilding the Haitian Society.

Then HumblePie says--"I will also point out that if these missionaries TRULY had the best interest of the kids at heart, they would not take them away from their parents. They would help rebuild their homes, rebuild their communities, rebuild schools. They would help educates and better the lives of parents, kids, and everyone in that community."

In light of the fact we know that we cannot rebuild Haitian society, the parents of the children realized that in the US their children would have a better chance to live and succeed!

The bottom line really is the people who talked smack in other threads are eating crow now....but they still insist that even with the parents consent the missionaries were still participating in kidnapping???trafficking??human slavery...

Lets hope this ends happily regardless.
I just hopoe that some of you don`t go over the deep end if these people get off without jail time!!

 

[rudder]

Prior to the earthquake there were around 380,000 Haitian orphans. I would be curious to know what percentage of there were simply abandoned.

I doubt the Haitian authorities really cared... other than to extort some money and it all blew up media wise.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

This whole story makes me ill And I can't imagine why some people find it necessary to defend these so called missionaries. These people are NOT missionaries, this was a band of misguided dimwitted self righteous wingnuts lead by a women with more credentials as a con artist than anything else. I won't question their motives which were fishy at best, but their actions were definately criminal.

And for all those saying 9 of them are innocent because the woman leader lied to them, thats just BS. If you are stupid enough to follow someone like this into something as serious as going to another country and transporting children across borders and trust that she has taken care of all the documentation and legalities, you deserve what you get.

I have no doubt that at some point ALL of these people knew what they were doing was wrong and decided that their personal motives were more important than following the rules.

 

[HumblePie]

Uhhh... JEDIYoda I am confused. Are you agreeing or disagreeing with what I said?

 

[Thump553]

The sad thing about it is those religious zealots' stunt now has everyone running scared. I was watching NBC evening news last night and they reported that there are next to no private airlifts of injured children anymore, because noone will touch anything unless the paperwork is perfect. Even the military airlifts out are way below expected levels, and kids are actually dying waiting for their paperwork.

Haiti is extremely sensitive to the issue of human trafficing, especially with children, for very good reasons.

 

[Orignal Earl]

In light of the fact we know that we cannot rebuild Haitian society, the parents of the children realized that in the US their children would have a better chance to live and succeed!

Can you point out where in your article it says anything about these children going to the US?
I keep seeing people post this *fact* but I don't see it in any of the articles

I see they were takiing the children to DR, where Haitians are treated like second class citizens
Sure an American *might* adopt them, but so could a DR sugar cane plantation owner

 

[JS80]

What good is the law in a lawless shithole? God bless those people for actually caring, not pretending to care by posting some stupid shit fb or donating $5 to red cross.

 

[AreaCode707]

It sounds to me like the system works, surprisingly enough.

Not allowed to take kids out of the country without paperwork because of potential trafficking
One person lied to 9 other people about having proper paperwork, maybe intending to traffic the kids
Kids were stopped from leaving the country, preventing them from being trafficked

That's exactly what's supposed to happen, so good for the officials. The time and hassle currently spent by the nine people in jail is unfortunate but it's a reasonable penalty for not having chosen a good and honest representative for their group. It's entirely possible that their honorable intentions were leading this kids into a bad situation because of this one dishonest guy and they never would have known about it.

Good for Haiti. If we want to help out down there we need to do it within proper structures.

 

[ChunkiMunki]

why didn't they just help out the ENTIRE family ,instead of stealing the children? effing arrogant religious nutbags doing gods work, busy "saving the children"

 

[sportage]

And so the plot thickens...

I won't say I told u so, but I told u so.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35362526/ns/world_news-the_new_york_times/

 

[Dari]

And so the plot thickens...

I won't say I told u so, but I told u so.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35362526/ns/world_news-the_new_york_times/

Interesting. Where is the OP to defend this scumbag? Perhaps he's just misunderstood as well, right?

 

[Orignal Earl]

Interesting. Where is the OP to defend this scumbag? Perhaps he's just misunderstood as well, right?

I seen Yogi post last week that he was in American .mil intelligence for 6 years. ( yes shocked me too, but in a way made sense)
He knows better not to let personal stuff cloud the facts
heh