Detained Americans appear in court, Haitian officials say

Ten Americans accused of illegally trying to take 33 children out of Haiti appeared in a preliminary hearing with a judge on Tuesday, court officials said.

A list of charges will be drawn up at the hearing, court officials said.

The missionaries say they were just trying to help the children leave the earthquake-stricken country, but Haiti's prime minister has said that the group was kidnapping the children.

Following Tuesday's hearing, the preliminary hearing judge will send the charges to a tribunal judge, court officials said, and the Americans will eventually appear before a tribunal.




Parents 'reclaim' children in Haiti abduction-adoption row

The 33 infants and children that an American Christian group tried to smuggle out of quake-hit Haiti are being reunited with their families, the US-based aid group now caring for them said Tuesday.

The children were picked up last week by members of an Idaho-based Baptist group called New Life Children's Refuge who tried to take them across the border to the Dominican Republic where they planned to establish an orphanage.

But some of the children are not orphans at all.

"The parents now are coming to the village to reclaim their children," Heather Paul, the CEO of SOS Children's Villages USA, told NBC's "Today Show". "We already hear that many are saying that we have parents

without farting around with a bunch of church ladies trying to feed some kids?

to people on the street telling they could provide a better life and taking children directly from the parents, saying they could provide a better life? They knew these kids weren't orphans...sounds fishy to me.

church group were trying to "save" them from Catholicism and convert them to some fundy nonsense, but I guess I'd expect US authorities to deal with that, if they'd try to smuggle the kids over here.

My consternation is that the Haitian government is spending time and effort on this, when they've got hundreds of thousands of homeless people to be concerned with. It has that smell of wanting to make sure all aid comes through them, so they can pinch off a bit of it for their Swiss bank accounts, that's all.

government is ensuring that its children are not stolen to be sold as slaves, trafficked as sexual objects or murdered for the sale of organs in developed countries.

Make an example of these criminals, shoot the next group on sight and see if they don't stay away. I only wish my ancestors had done that in West Africa a few centuries ago. They're really lucky I'm not in charge. All others with similar ideas would have been on their way back to the US by now.

do you think these goody-two-shoes (but ham-handed) fundies are going to do to the kids?

Hmmm, shoot them on sight, eh? I'll bet you don't feel that way about the underwear bomber, do you?

trying to make a buck.

the Haitian government has just made them martyrs, when they get back, they'll be able to go on the same book and speaking tour that Caribou Barbie did, proclaiming that their invisible sky-father kept them safe the whole time.

Unless they come back in boxes, then they're really martyrs. That should dry up Haitian aid from the Christians...

interference in the lives of the most vulnerable among us- at the very least.

What would YOU have happen to them if not punishment?

Instead of excusing their illegal, destructive action by saying there are *bigger fish to fry* how about addressing the crime they DID commit? They seem to think that they are above the law. You seem to support their foolishness.
:shrug:

at being so damned naive that they figured whatever ham-handed poorly thought out 'help' they wanted to bring was going to be welcomed with open arms by a Haitian government that makes sure it skims it's percentage off the top on all aid that's ever been delivered to that country.

I'd like to see a US attorney in Idaho investigate them, and turn up all of the stupidity they showed, put it on display for other would-be do-gooders who think that anything done in the name of Jaysus is automatically going to work. But having them either rot in Haitian jails, or facing a firing squad is just going to create another group of martyrs for people who fancy themselves as suffering for their religion, even though there's way more religious freedom in the US than any nation on earth.

At some point, pressure is going to be put on President Obama to do something about this, and he's going to have to expend political capital to get them out of the clink. I guarantee that if they get the firing squad, loud voices are going to try to make it his fault for not "saving" them. The time will come just that much sooner when the US officially forgets about Haiti again.

of KIDNAPPING.

And YES- I think the govt of Haiti has plenty to do without a bunch of self-appointed 'helpers' coming into the country thinking they can just gather up a bus load of children they have no legal or moral 'right' to.
Now these fools are using up precious time, effort, medicines and food that could be much better used by the citizens of Haiti.

:shrug:


did you forget your sarcasm tag?

I just don't automatically condemn them to either death or life in prison for being naive fools about the way they wanted to 'help'. I do question the motives of the Haitian government for not just simply turning them over to our military, and saying, "Get them the hell out of here!"

I suspect that the Haitian government wants to make it clear that all aid comes through their hands, and given the culture of corruption in that nation, it's not a mystery why they feel that way.

ten persons arrested. I'd love to have some background checks on these criminals.

Vultures are everywhere even when human beings are in pain. Those are the real terrorists on our planet.

year or so...they probably tried some other scams.

early this morning

in the stories that are coming out of Ms. Silsby.

Here is a link to some good info- click on the described on the website in the article for a PDF stating the plans for the New Life Childrens Refuge. troubling stuff.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/world/americas/02orphans.html?hp=&pagewanted=all

The UN calls for a two-year period after a disaster before claiming children are orphans. The grifter leaders of these 'orphanges' know this!

holier-than-thou religious groups who sweep in to save the "savages."

the children and anything else in sight. There are more criminals hiding among these religious groups than anywhere else on the planet.

Idaho and Haiti should raise an alarm.

to be despicable. Holier then thou or seedy creeps whichever have no right to prey on children, especially during tragic times. I am glad the Haitian government is on top of this.

try this in china

or Singapore.

if they hadn't been stopped at the checkout point, they might have taken these kids right out of their country and without any paperwork, they would have been lost forever.
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~snip-
Drew Ham, a pastor at the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho, where most of the group were parishioners, said last night: ‘From all accounts this is a paperwork issue. And the next thing our folks know, they’re being arrested.’




Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1247788/Haiti-earthquake-One-Haiti-orphans-kidnapped-American-church-group-parents.html#ixzz0eQ3dRo1O

"A ten member church team traveled to Haiti to help rescue children from one or more orphanages that had been devastated in the earthquake on January 12. The children were being taken to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic where they could be cared for and have their medical and emotional needs attended to. Our team was falsely arrested today and we are doing everything we can from this end to clear up the misunderstanding that has occurred in Port au Prince."

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Bolding was mine.