Tonight CNBC will broadcast Escape from Havana: A Secret Flight to Freedom, an original documentary on Operation Pedro Pan, which I wrote about earlier. Under Pedro Pan, between 1960-1962, a little over 14,000 children, were airlifted out of Cuba and sent to the US to "save" them from communism. The Secret Escape to Freedom covers the stories of six Pedro Pan evacuees .
I admit I'm not impressed with the show's description:
It was at the height of the Cold War when Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba. It was supposed to be a democratic revolution, but Castro soon turned to communism and dictatorship. Rumors began to spread among the elites and middle class that Castro would take their children away. Throughout the island, parents panicked. Then, the U.S. offered a way out: it would conduct a secret airlift of Cuban children and bring them to America – without their parents. It was an unbearable choice between raising their children in the oppression of Castro’s Cuba, or setting them free to live in the land of freedom, never knowing if they would reunite.
which fails to mention that Pedro Pan was a component of Operation Mongoose, a covert CIA operation designed by the JFK administration to undermine the Castro government. It included using refugees, particularly children as propaganda objectives. In this case, CIA operatives in Cuba created forged documents clandestine radio broadcasts, rumours to spread fear amongst anti-Castro Cubans that the government planned to terminate their parental rights and send their children to Soviet work camps. Ostensibly run by the Miami Diocese, the Pedro Pan childlift was, in fact, a joint effort of the Catholic Church and US government to purposefully break-up thousands of Cuban families to undermine Cuban culture in a PSYOP against communism. That's the real story.
The inclusion of Maria de Los Angeles Torres, childifted by Pedro Pan at age 6, suggests we'll get some of that real story. de los Angeles Torres, a political scientist and director of the Latin American and Latino Studies Program at the University of Illinois, Chicago is the author of The Lost Apple: Operation Pedro Pan, Cuban Children in the US, and the Promise of a Better Future. She has been in a prolonged legal fight with the CIA over release of documents and is highly critical of the Pedro Pan evacuation.
A Secret Flight to Freedom will air tonight at 10:00 pm edst.
Laura Silsby is scheduled to return to Boise around 2:00 PM today. She was released from the Haiti Hilton yesterday after being convicted of "arranging unlawful travel" and sentenced to time served. Obviously, the Haitian government just wants this albatross off its neck and around the necks of the Idaho courts where her ever-expanding business and personal problems have roosted. Better Idaho than us.
As much as I'd like Silsby to spend a lot more time in the slammer, I am not surprised at the release. After all, the Haitians have more dire things to worry about than Bible Barbie. What did surprise me was Charissa Coulter's appearance in court with Silsby. I had to play the tape back to make sure I heard right.
One of Silsby's other partners-in-crime Jean Sainvil, a Haiti-born "pastor" in Atlanta is being tried in absentia, and his status is unknown.
Silsby (showing some leg in court) told the AP "I'm praising God" and apparently made no further comment until she was interviewed at the Port au Prince airport before clearing security. Megan Mattson, spokeswoman at the U.S. State Department, told the press Silsby was looking forward to returning home to her own children. Is that's what known as a "Freudian slip?"
Central Valley Baptist Church is supposed to release a statement, but I can't find one so far.
I don't have any time this morning to comment further, but the video below from KTVB-TV (aka the Official Laura Silsby Fan Club) says more than I could write in the next 12 hours.
Once the legislative season is over, I'll have more to write about Team Silsby and Yoram Puello. I have a lot of material I've not been able to put together. It will be fun. And maybe a partial antidote for the miserable deformist crap that passes for "adoptee rights" we've seen so far this year.
Laura Silsby neared the three month mark this weekend, and the Central Valley Baptist Church wants to make sure you know it.
Saturday afternoon they threw a We-heart-Laura rally at the Idaho Statehouse. About 100 attended, including her local gang of electric Kool-Aid (minus the acid, we think) testers. A Northwest Cable News-KBTV video of the event is posted at the bottom of this entry. Be sure to watch Nichole Lankford prostrate herself in prayer. Fellow pranksters Paul Thompson and Charisa Coulter are seen or interviewed and more TeamSilsbys were spotted. Coulter, ever loyal to her boss, declared:
She is always on mind. It's a roller coaster. You have highs and lows but our hope is not in government and officials. It is in God.
But so far, God seems perfectly happy to keep Silsby in her own private Haiti Hilton.
"We want people to know that there still is support for her, organizer.'"Randy Jackson said. "If you pay attention to the media, sometimes it seems like there's a lack of support for her. There's still la lot of people who support her and want this whole ordeal to be done and for her to be home with her family. (NOTE TO RANDY: Supporters are not posting many supportive comments in the Statesman.)
Charisa Coulter's best friend and avid Silsby fan Sue Pearce gave us the QOTD:
Laura is a mother. She has three children. She needs to come home and I can't wait to go meet her at the airport when she does."
We have no memory of Silsby evincing concern for her children since her arrest. If she had, she might have come across a tad more sympathetic. Silsby, in fact, didn't show much concern for her children before her arrest either as reflected in her financial and business shenanigans and her dream trip to Haiti.
Speaking of Silsby's children...another Silsby lawyer has thrown in the towel.
TheIdaho Statesman reports that Robert Williams, who's been representing her in "child custody issues" filed a motion to withdraw. He joins Gerald Husch, Silsby's Personal Shopper attorney who bolted in March. Williams says he has been unable to communicate with his client. He probably wouldn't have gotten paid anyway. Silsby's ex-husband Terry Silsby (right) has sued for custody of their two children, living with him since the ex's trip south. She has an adult son who is married.
There are few details, but the Statesman reports that Judge David E. Day ruled on several custody-related issue brought by Terry Silsby. Mr. Silsby asked that the court hold the children's passports out of concern that Laura would take the children out of the country if and when she ever makes it back to Idaho. Day ruled that Mr. Silsby's lawyer Matthew Bohm should hold the passports for now. He also granted Terry authority to register the children for school in his own school district.
Mainstream media reported Thursday that charges against nine of ten TeamSilsby members have been dropped. Then the Haitian Attorney General said, hmmm...no, they haven't.
You'd think by now the State Department would figure out its not the arbitrator nor interpreter of Haitan law. Since MSM, does believe State is, however, reporters failed to follow a very basic rule: verify verify verify. And so did TeamSilsby and its legal team who rushed to their keyboards with the great news.
BLC's blog includes a link to Topeka Silsbyite Drew Culberth's 14 minute TV interview made after he got the good news, but before he got the bad news. The interview doesn't reveal anything new about the group's venture in Silsby's heart of darkness, but it is valuable in detailing their jailhouse life.
Culberth still doesn't "get" that the group did anything wrong. They just wanted to give "orphans a better life." Still drinking Silsby'skool-aid, Culbreth says there will be no closure until Miss Laura, who "deserves to have her name cleared" is released.
No regrets. No questions about the note slipped to MSNBC; No opinion about Silsby's stateside "problems." But nobody really asked either.
I'm in the middle of real Work Hell at the moment and am weeks behind on my Haiti work. I did want to post this recent quote from Silsby, though:
God will release me. I'm confident that God will overcome all of this and ultimately enable me to be released," Silsby said during the interview that was taped several days before Easter.
So what does this do to Silsby's faith if God doesn't "overcome all of this?" Does this mean that Judge Bernard Saint-vil and the Haitian courts, even in shambles, are more powerful than God? Or will she blame it on Voudou?
The last few days, I've been having difficulty writing about TeamSilsby. The subject has grown cumbersome, and any subset soon takes on a life of its own, then collapses in its own immensity. As a result. I've got several disjointed pieces that go together in some way, but have no logical transition, and grow more complex each time I try to de-complex them. It's enough to give me writer's block.
So, I'll take the easy way out for now and just throw some thoughts out. I'm still working on Part 2 of Haiti Earthquake Glorifies God; Also a piece on the Pickett family. But for now, here's a bit on Charisa Coulter's return.
Charissa Coulter has returned to Boise (via Miami) tearful and Jesused-up. According to news reports she was met by about 30 adoring fans at the airport, including five of her six Idaho cellies (Paul Thompson went missing). Central Baptists and friends after a brief prayer huddle burst into Amazing Grace upon her arrival. Of course, the real welcome will be for Mrs. Silsby. From the looks of the comments in the Idaho Statesman, though, (any article on TeamSilsby will do), when and if she's released, CVBC will be forced to use more than a choir to fend off locals wielding pitchforks and torches. Curiously, the latest version of the church's webpage makes no mention of its wandering member.
Coulter's statements to the press on her arrival in Boise are disturbing. She showed an incalculable amount of arrogance, ignorance, and selfishness about TeamSilsbly's "orphan" mission, the group's flaunting of Haitian law, and the hideous consequences of their actions. Not to mention how the average person anywhere in the world feels about them. Coulter’s “it’s all about loving children” translated into "it's all about me." But as long as it’s "me" that God is calling, it's OK. I guess.
And what about those 33 + a possible other 40 kids you were busy moving around during your phone calls with The Diety? Any care about them and their families?
Several news videos are up of the homecoming. ThisKTVB-TV report is the most detailed.
Unfortunately, it replaces an earlier video that captured some "interesting" comments from Coulter that were disappeared in the update. Luckily, I transcribed the most egregious parts of the unsanitized version (some of which remain in the current video) below.
Q: What’s your take on what’s going to happen? Any idea at this point?
CC: No, it’s all in God’s hands. I don’t know. We’re just gonna sit back and we’re going let him do his job. and when he wills she’ll be back. She’ll be here with us. Q: Are you worried about the charges at all?
CC: We don’t have to worry. It…it’s, ’s like I said, it’s in God’s hands and he wants us to trust him. We are 10 Christians who obeyed God’s calling. And we went to help the nation of Haiti and their children and for reasons unknown to us, it did not go the way we planned, but we realize that God is in control, and that this was what He wanted. It’s hard to understand there’s so much…there’s so much going on that we can’t see.
Q: Do you have any idea of the timeframe of when Laura will come back.
CC: No. I’m not going to speculate. It’s, their processes is different that ours and so we’re just going to let the judge and all those involved work it out
Repeat: We are 10 Christians who obeyed God’s calling. Apparently:
*** coercing poor, traumatized and desperate parents--survivors of the worse earthquake in modern history--out of their children with promises of child resettlement to upscale living quarters, a pool, soccer field, and school (none of which exist except in TeamSilsby's head) and parental access to the kids via the Internet (!) ; that is, until the kids are adopted and spirited away by total strangers in the Great White Protestant North.
*** sneaking through back alleys and banging on orphanage doors with an entrepreneurial sociopath who can't even pay her own employees and mortgage;
*** lying to Haitian, Dominican, and US government officials about your activities;
*** collecting money through legally questionable fund raising procedures back home;
***diverting attention and funds from a massive humanitarian crisis to feed your specialness;
***and mucking up genuine material aid and medical treatment for thousands of homeless and injured and dying people
qualifies as "God's calling."
Repeat: And we went to help the nation of Haiti and their children and for reasons unknown to us, it did not go the way we planned...
Incredibly, Coulter told KIVI-TV's's Jackie Orozco that she hopes to return to Haiti to "to help in the future."
KTVB-TV has disappeared one of the videos I embedded in the blog I'm finishing right now. While looking for it, I found this BONUS VIDEO: a February 9 interview with Charisa Coulter's father, Mel and Eric Thompson, husband of detainee Carla Thompson. A serious luv fest for Haiti.
Thompson assures us that he loves Haiti--or rather "those people"-- and prays for the government every day to do the right thing by his wife who only wanted to "help children." Nothing about praying for the families his wife helped break up or mention of the illegal activities she engaged in to do it.
Coulter opines that it's "unethical" to separate Silsby/Coulter from the other eight since the lawyers were hired to represent all of them. They went in "ten as one" and they need to come out as one. Gee, funny how Jim Allen claims those lawyers never represented him. And he got out "as one" while the rest of them were left to stew.
Reporter Ysabel Bilbao closed her report saying the men believe that "the country is better because of the group."
I've played the tape several times and don't hear them say that, but it sounds like something they'd say. Or maybe Bilbao was getting her own snark in. If anyone wonders how the Haiti earthquake could have been made any worse than it was, the answer isn't far way.
Looks like Laura Silsby won't be coming some soon. No details yet, but according to the Associated Press:
Judge Bernard Saint-Vil says Laura Silsby has been charged for a newly discovered, alleged attempt to bus child earthquake survivors to the Dominican Republic on Jan. 26.
She already could face trial on kidnapping and criminal-association charges from her group's attempt to take 33 children across the border without permission three days later.
Saint-Vil has added the new charge of "organization of irregular trips," from a 1980 law restricting travel out of Haiti that was signed by then-dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier.
Could this be the 40 kids who went missing on the earlier aborted attempt?
Or were there other attempts we don't know about yet?
How much you wanna bet CVBC and its minions play this: God has placed Mrs. Silsby in her cell of affliction as a witness of His love for the Haitian people, to harvest their souls for His glory. Or this: she's taking Haiti's sin on to herself; Haiti's suffering is her suffering. Or some variation.
A little administrative note: those who join this group with their own personal axes to grind will not be accepted. Those who post strong negative comments will have their comments removed. This goes against the mission purpose of this group...a positive prayerful supportive group for Laura, Charisa, and their families. There are plenty of opinions surrounding this case. The negative opinions and statements don't belong here. By joining this group you are agreeing to abide by the above statements. Thank you.
That means most of the world isn't welcome to their Kaffeeskltsch (or is that Tea Party?) As of this writing, they've gathered only 129 Friends. One dropped off while I was writing this.
FB Friends include former detainee Paul Thompson (private page), his wife Renee Culberth Thompson (private page) and a few people who might be relatives. Also Silsby's sister and fellow New Life Children's Refuge incorporator, Kim Barton (private page).
All comments are valentines to Miss Laura or ponderous scripture. Here, for example, is the latest posting from page creator Esther Hardman, in which she frames Silsby's incarceration as a sacrificial conversion technique (my emphasis):
Lord, we don't know what's going on in Haiti the last couple of days, but you do. Please care for Laura, send her encouragement. Help expedite the court proceedings. Please move in the officials' hearts. Help Laura and the other native Christians around her use this opportunity to glorify your Name. Please send her comfort, food, healing,wisdom, and encouragement today. Help Charisa, and both Laura's and Charisa's families today as they await further developments in this case. Encourage them as well, help them to feel your love in a special way today. In Jesus Name Amen.
Another FB Friend, not doing irony too well, posted:
"He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun." Psalm 37:6- Father God, I pray this over Laura.
No prayers yet for the children and families TeamSilsby exploited and coerced, the chaos the group created with legitimate relief efforts (including the possible deaths that resulted from their bad behavior) , the PersonalShopper.com employees and creditors Silsby stiffed, and her own left-behind children.
Another FB page: Pray for the 10 Americans in Haiti was set up a few days after the arrests. It has 533 members. No one has posted on its wall since February 19 when all but Coulter and Silsby were released. Go to the Friends List and you'll find many of the detainees with links to their FB pages. Do the comparative membership numbers between the two pages indicate suspicion or mistrust of Coulter and Silsby amongst a majority of Team Silsby FB supporters? Do they care?
NOTE: I'll be posting a second part to this shortly. It didn't mesh well, so I've separated them.
KATU-TV Portland (Oregon) reports tonight that Laura Silsby may be in for more trouble.
At first I thought this was a re-hash of Friday's's story, but unless I missed something, this is a new detail regarding the reason she continues to be held:
The judge is looking over new documents that could link the two women to possible illegal travel in addition to other allegations of kidnapping after the two led a mission to take 33 children out of Haiti to a Dominican Republic orphanage. Haiti's investigation determined none of the children were orphans.
One of Silsby's lawyers, Louis Ricardo Chachoute, denies there's a problem. "Our clients are innocent because the documents are real there is no criminal conspiracy, no kidnapping."
BTW, how many lawyers does this woman have, and who's paying or them? And who says this is about documents?
TeamSilsby's to-and fros on both sides of the island in the few days they were free to roam are confusing, and I don't even want to try to set out a scheme here. (I've considered trying to work up a timeline).
Anne-christine d]'desky outlines a lot of curious details involving Silsby and DR officials in her Special Report update. The "illegal travel" could be related to them--her suspected helpers in high places.
Or maybe more missing children. d'Adeksy mentions that Judge Saint-Vil was also investigating a separate case of the alleged movement of 200 Haitian children into the DR. I'm having trouble locating the original source on that, so I can't link it directly. You can find it in her report linked above.
And whatever happened of those 40 other children anyway? The ones Silsby picked up early on and was barred from taking into the DR? Where did TeamSilsby get them and where did they go? So far, the only people who seem to be interested in that answer are bloggers and web sleuths.
We'd sure like to know why the Criders, John Requa, Nancy Rodriguez and the anonymous Texans from the Andrews First Baptist Church got out of Dodge so fast. too.
There's enough mysteries here to keep Ellery Queen busy for the next six years.
It's pretty clear the Haitian government wants this mess to go away so it can get back to the real business of putting the country back together. But, I have this growing feeling that the delay in Coulter's release and the continued incarceration of Silsby is about much more than what Americans might consider the eccentricities of the Napoleonic Code and Haitian law. Are Saint-Vil and the prosecutor just sticking it to Silsby and Coulter, or are they playing good cop-bad cop dragging out the case while US authorities built a case stateside just in time for the release(s)? Certainly Silsby's involved in enough shady dealings to pique the curiosity of law enforcement and the IRS. Or maybe there's other reasons.
Reuters reported about an hour ago that Judge Bernard Saint-Vil signed a release order for Charisa Coulter' today, but will hold Silsby for "further investigation. "(No details yet. Maybe he's reading Baby Love Child or Haiti Vox or me!)
Unfortunately for Ms Coulter, an "administrative glitch" will hold her in Haiti until Monday:
Coulter was returned to custody on Friday because court administrators could not find an official stamp necessary to validate the judge's signed order, Sainvil said.
"I already signed the release order. All that is left now is to seal it but they cannot find the official stamp," he said.
There was no chance that Coulter would be released before Monday, chief prosecutor Joseph Manes Louis told Reuters.
"I returned the order to the judge becausethere is an administrative problem. Once the problem is solved I will proceed according to the law," he said.
KTVB-Boise reports that the two prisoners met separately with Judge Saint-Vil today for about two hours each and gives a few additional details.
Oh oh! You know you're in trouble when your own lawyer dumps you!
The Idaho Statesman reports today that on Monday Gerald T. Husch, Silsby's lawyer back in Boise who has been representing her and Personal Shopper.com in a civil suit filed by a former unpaid employee, has filed a motion to withdraw as counsel.
Husch has refused to comment on the move. I imagine a lot of straws have been piling up on that camel's back. Perhaps the delusional statement to the AP yesterday (see previous entry) from his morally and probably financially bankrupt client that she wants to return to Haiti and DR to collect more kids and build her orphanage while her stiffed creditors line up at court and the poorhouse, was the last one.
I know that as an officer of the court Husch (or somebody) has a fiduciary duty to defend even the most reprehensible, but how, with Silsby's finances tossed on the rocks, can there even be a defense at this point except to throw her on the mercy of the court and the kindness of her creditors and former employees?
It appears Silsby is indigent and near homeless. Missionaries of the Vodou persuasion from Haiti should come up to Meridian and take her kids off the street and and put them in an orphanage (with a swimming pool) where they can be adopted out and placed in a good homes in Haiti--or shipped off to India or Brazil.
According to records found in the Idaho Repository, Silsby is scheduled for three court hearings this month. something she just cant fiddle-dee-dee away, as much as the voices in her head tell her she can:
March 15, 2010: Silsby v Silsby (Case #CV-DR-2004-01902) Status hearing in contested child custody case
March 24, 2010: Bryan A Jack v Personal Shopper, Inc (Case #C2010-01997) Small Claims Robin Oliver v Personal Shopper, Inc (Case #CV-OC-2009-07234) Back Wages
Husch is Silsby's attorney of record in the Oliver case, and his motion for leave will be heard on the 24h.
This new episode in the Silsby Saga again brings up the question: who is paying for Silsby's defense in Haiti? Surely, nobody would believe your check is i the mail."
I'm having real problems right now articulating the total disgust I feel for this sociopath for God, her churchy associates and friends on so many levels. I thank my commenters on yesterday's entry (on the Daily Bastardette) for articulating these feelings for me.
A mistaken attribution fixed from Randy Bohlener to DownshoreDrift)
God continues to stick it to Laura Silsby and her combination cellie and live-in nanny Charisa Coulter. One or two more days in jail.
Various news sources (I'm mostly using AFP via Raw Story,Verdict on US missionaries in Haiti imminent: US official with a little backup from the AP's Haiti judge not ready to release 2 US missionaries), report that Judge Bernard Saint-Vil has heard testimony from his three unnamed witnesses (Why do we know who they are, but the MSM won't name them: Hildago, Chenvert and Sanvil?) and now needs only to send the evidence to the prosecutor general's office for a final go-over.
"The final decision is mine," Saint-Vil said. And from all accounts, the dynamic duo intend to be home soon. According to the AP:
The two women were in good spirits while waiting for the hearing, dressed in casual shirts, shorts and sandals, chatting with members of their legal team and eating sandwiches. Afterward they filled out U.S. Embassy and court forms before boarding a Haitian police truck that took them back to jail.
"We're waiting on the judge's decision and on our God," Silsby told reporters as they left.
Silsby, wearing her customary well-scrubbed and blissed-out exburban Baptist face, flashed her Bible to reporters, reciting Psalm 33:20: "Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and our shield."
Oh yes, both of us would come back to Haiti because there is so much need here, especially for the children," Silsby told an AP reporter at the airport-side police station where they are being held.
"We would definitely come back to help them once this misunderstanding or whatever you want to call it is sorted out."
Whatever you want to call it?
We realize that Silsby hasn't the amenities she's accustomed to at the moment, like Google. She might want to type her name in when she gets back to the US.
And, hold on to your hats:
The missionary said she wants to go ahead with setting up that orphanage, taking in both earthquake victims and the children of Haitian migrant sugarcane cutters in the Dominican Republic.
Those orphans and cane cutter kids will have to stand in line behind about $2 million worth of creditors and a lot of ungrateul former employees eager to steal the food out of the mouths of children. Those no-pays are probably a misunderstanding or whatever you want to call it.
I'd like to point you to Baby Love Child's Central Valley Baptist Church used its tax status for Laura Silby's New Life mission, too. Looks like there was a little misunderstanding or whatever you want to call it about the New Life Children's Refuge tax status and fundsraising practices. This is a big story we hope (dare I say it?) the IRS picks up. It could be just a matter of the church acting as fiscal agent, but why do I think it's more? BTW, why does Sean Lankford insist that he never paid Jorge Torres Puello a dime, when there is ample evidence to suggest that a lot of money was wired to DR?
******
I really feel for TeamSilsby's State Department handler, Charles Luoma-Overstreet, spokesman for State's Western Hemisphere Affairs, who is stuck with rationalizing the unrational and pretending he cares what happens to the "missionaries." Presumably he gets paid good money, maybe hazard pay, for this unpleasant task. Luoma-Overstreet removed the clothespin from his nose long enough Tuesday to tell the press:
We're looking forward to a decision from the judge. This is a sovereign decision of the Haitian government,"...We are in touch with the authorities here and we'll be looking for that decision, hopefully soon.
...There are complicated issues in play here"...
..."It's not an easy question when we're talking about minors and orphans, welfare and disasters...
...We need to be very actively involved in seeing that all the procedures that are in place to protect the welfare of minors are followed to avoid confusion and misunderstandings," he said.
Then, he really went into diplomatic overdrive:
He explained the media attention the missionaries' case had generated in the United States was educating the US public about the issues involved in adoption outreach in disaster-struck countries.
Unfortunately, instead of visiting the State Department's Adoption Disaster Teleclassroom, Team Silsby and hundreds of other DIY orphan savers took up the cross of disaster evangelism and have converged on Haiti since the earthquake, in person or vicariously via the Internet. Instead of doing something useful, like helping to keep a family together or building a bathroom, they spend a lot of their time blogging and tweeting about how UNICEF and its "anti-international adoption agenda," is not only responsible for TeamSilsby's arrest, but strongarms governments to keep their children at home when they would much prefer to export them to far away places with strange sounding names.
Of course, this really isn't about UNICEF and adoption (even if it is). It's about Biblical American hatred of the god-hating UN which, depending on how far you've fallen off the meter, is run by Communists, Jews, Muslims, atheists,Freemasons , bankers, the Illuminati, eugenicists, or worshipers of Zeus. Or a mixture. That's a topic for another time, but here is a random page of anti-UN blathering, and it's one of the saner ones. Here's one of the more insane.
There are a lot of adoption disaster busybodies clogging up bandwidth. Their adoption theology is complicated, goes beyond The Great Commission, and and difficult to grasp without a lot of history and context, which is beyond the scope of this blog. Without that context, I almost hesitate to post some of their Haitian thoughts, but I think it's important to read the mentality we are dealing with. I've downloaded a lot of their pontificals. Here's a few examples:
Doug Phillips: Doug's Blog. Doug manages (why not?) to link sound trauma treatment and best practice child welfare to abortion:
On the ground in Haiti, Christian orphan relief workers and missionaries are experiencing opposition from UNICEF, an international abortion provider, and formal opponent to American adoptions of Haitian children.
Step One in UNICEF’s anti-adoption strategy was to attempt to confound the huge outpouring of compassion and adoption interest by the international community, by voicing their concerns and opposition. Step Two was to politicize the capture of ten American missionaries transporting Haitian orphans over the border to the Dominican Republic, by mounting a media campaign to raise concerns about sex trafficking. Given the tremendous financial input of the United Nations, and their massive presence in Haiti, it is understandable why the Haitian government has often been in lock-step with UNICEF priorities.
Mommy Blogger and serial Haiti adopter Watching the Waters: Mrs. Waters moans over the Haitian requirement that each child scheduled to be shipped off for adoption needs her or his case investigated and then to be approved individually by the president, not shipped off on the next plane by collectivist roundup.
UNICEF continued to push their anti-adoption agenda on the Haitian government, until the government insisted they needed to approve each child on a case-by-case basis. Now, I am 110% in favor of ensuring that each child coming out of Haiti actually be eligible for adoption. But this is not what this is about. These families, who have now been sleeping on the floor of the US Embassy in Haiti with their children for days, have paperwork proving that they have adoptions in process. But UNICEF feels that Haitian children should stay in Haiti. That it is better for a child to stay in the country that they were born in, even if it means they are raised in an orphanage. And the Haitian government is being cowed by the pressure.
Randy Bohlender serial adopter, cultural imperialist, and intercessory missionary (i.e.,unemployed; please send donations) and founder of the adoption ministry Zoe Foundation (not to be confused with the other odious Zoe's Ark): Redeeming Orphans: (For a more extensive look at Randy go here.) Randy calls UNICEF's "anti-adoption" promotion nothing more than "nation pandering" and thinks Haitian and other Third World people are just too dumb to know what's best for themselves.
What would UNICEF do? In their perfectly ordered world, an orphan child would go through a process to verify that it’s an actual orphan. Then, they would try and match that child with an aunt, uncle or some other family member. If that fails, they look for another family in the country. If none shows up, they would look for a foreign national living in the child’s country of origin. If they can’t find a foreign national, then begrudgingly, they might be in favor of that child moving across a national border to a loving family.
I'm not sure what’s at stake here…the best interest of the child or the nation-pandering that UNICEF needs to engage in to keep this charade alive.
The UNICEF perspective is that children in poverty-stricken condiitions are better off if they stay in orphanages in their native culture than if they leave their native culture and go to families in other countries. You can debate this all you want, but that is what is behind the fact that Haitan orphans are not being allowed to leave right now. UNICEF saw an opportunity to spread their philosophy to Haiti and they have a lot of money that the Haitian government needs. At least that is the story that is being reported by people in Haiti who are in the know.
God, probably distracted momentarily by a same sex marriage announcement in the New York Times or a San Berdoo bastard's unsealed birth certificate, put scads of children in the wrong tummies, and now people like the above gang and Silsby have to clean up the mess. What would God do without his helpers?
******
Finally a short update on Paul Thompson, returned hero pastor of the Eastside Baptist Church in Twin Falls. Thompson (who I'll write about in a backburner blog soon) preached his first sermon since his return from jail, and it was covered by the Twin Falls Times-News. The important part of the article comes toward the end where Thompson frames the TeamSilsby arrests and incarceration as a stage for evangelism and conversion as in Rahm Emanuel's "You never let a serious crisis go to waste""
He spoke during prayer of a Haitian guard who approached the group, asking to be converted to Christianity.
Lord, that’s the kind of displays of our lives that we want to the watching world,” he said.
There is much more to write about. I've got several half-written entries, which I hope to get up soon. Of course, there's always new news pouring in.
Monday, March 1, 2010
This is not about Haiti, but it could be. Scott and Karen Banks and Focus on Children are just another example of the corruption that is international adoption. I seldom do petitions, but this story is so outrageous that I'm posting it here. The story needs to get out.The petition is circulated by PEAR: Parents for Ethical Adoption Reform
PLS SIGN THIS PETITIONMonday, February 22, 2010Call for Full Investigation into Amelya Frances Kirkpatrick's Adoption in Utah
According to a court document obtained by PEAR, on February 9, 2010, Scott and Karen Banks, former owners of adoption agency Focus on Children, were allowed to adopt another child, originally from China. The Banks were indicted on 135 Federal counts in 2007 for a fraudulent adoption scheme in Samoa. In 2009, they pled guilty to Aiding and Abetting the Improper Entry of an Alien in a plea deal made with the US Attorney's office in Utah. They were given a sentence of five years probation during which time they are forbidden to participate in the adoption business and are required to make payment into a trust for the victims.
The recent adoption occurred after evidence of their illegal activities with their Samoan adoption program were put on record in Utah courts. Also supplied was information regarding the Banks two previously adopted Romanian children.
According to numerous media sources and their now-adult Romanian daughter's own affidavit, this child and her sibling were flown to Samoa by Scott Banks and left without legal documentation in 2000, leaving these adoptees in a legal limbo. In addition, according to an affidavit given by their caregiver in Samoa, the Banks have had no contact with either child since their arrival, nor have they supported the children in any way since abandoning them in Samoa.
Furthermore, a third child of the Banks, suffering from cerebral palsy and also adopted from Romania, has been alleged in various documents to have been severely neglected in their home. This child was placed in a group home in Utah.
PEAR believes that anyone convicted of crimes involving children should be barred from the possibility of adopting any other children. We also believe that any parents convicted of or with a history of legitimate allegations of child abuse and neglect should be barred from adopting children.
PEAR opposes any practice that does not protect the rights of the child to live a life free from abuse and neglect with qualified and loving adoptive parents. To not hold these rights paramount in an adoption proceeding undermines every moral and ethical standard that each child deserves.
We are sponsoring a petition to be sent to the Governor of Utah asking his office to open an investigation into how and why this family was allowed to adopt another child given their dubious history. If you agree with the statements made please take a moment to sign the petition.
The petition can be found at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/utahadoption/
I didn't plan to post anymore on Team Silsby tonight, but then I got a couple news stories that just struck me as...well, you'll see.
Felicia Middlebrooks from WBBM-AM Chicago is in Haiti and tracked down Laura Silsby and Charisa Coulter in their inconvenient jail cell. Go here and listen to it. Much of Middlebrook's report is her own complaints about the conditions. Holy Jorge Puello! There's no air conditioning...and..and...and....it's 90 degrees...and...and...and... there's no eletricity...and...and...and...there's no plumbing or at least the kind American ladies and gentlemen use willingly.
Middlebrooks fails to mention that Team Silsby has a roof over its head, unlike hundreds of thousands of Haitians living in tents and streets. They have real homes to return to when they get out, even if Silsbuy's been foreclosed. Homes with air conditioning, electricity and plumbing
Then there's Drew Culberth, the Kansas firefighter and youth minister who got roped into child snatching by his brother-in-law Eastside Baptist Church pastor Paul Thompson who got roped into child snatching by Central Baptist Church patron Laura Silsby. Seems Drew, Pastor Thompson, and detainees Silas Thompson and Steve McMullin had a little party at the Bethany Baptist Church in Topeka before the latter three headed back home to Twin Falls, Idaho. The party was reported by their lawyer and hatchling right wing pol, Caleb Stegall who tells us:
they feasted on pizza and Mountain Dew, reconnecting and sharing stories as Drew Culberth's four children ran through the halls, happy and excited to be reunited with their dad.
EWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The fuel that youth ministries run on.
Here's a small update on Silsby and Coulter's newest hearing that I posted earlier. Reuters reported last night that the dynamic duo's hearing will drag on for a few more days, so it appears that the orphaholic martyrs will be buried in their well-deserved jail cell until midweek. Hopefully longer.
Investigative judge Bernard Sainvil said that before freeing Laura Silsby and Charisa Coulter he wanted witnesses that he had already examined in the Dominican Republic to give their testimony in Haiti. "The Americans will have to stay in jail while I hear those people ... the hearings will take place Monday and Tuesday, and they won't be released before I finish," Sainvil told Reuters.In case you haven't seen this video of Silsby and Coulter going to court the other day....note that Ms Coulter's lack of charm school training is showing.
No details yet, but the New York Times reported minutes ago that Laura Silsby and CharisaCoulter will not be released until next week. It looks like Judge Saint-Vil is trying to nail down Rob Chenvert, Jose Hildago, and Jean Sanvil. Does anybody know if Isaac Adrien has been called on the carpet yet?
My emphasis:
Judge Bernard Saint-Vil tells reporters that he has asked two real estate agents and a pastor from the Dominican Republic to testify in Port-au-Prince about property the missionaries rented to set up an orphanage.
That is expected Monday. If they do not show, Saint-Vil says he still expects to rule next week.
2/26/2010: Tiny Update: A report from the European Press Photo Agency (in Spanish) says that "persistent" comments by defense attorney AviolFleuernt regarding the the exact release date of Silsby and Coulter put Judge Saint-Vil in a "delicate position with respect to the release:
Sin embargo, fuentesjudicialessostuvieronquelaspersistentesdeclaracionesdelabogadoAviolFleurantsobre la fechaprecisadeliberacióndelas dos misionerasquepermanecendetenidas, colocóaljuez en una "situacióndelicada" con relación a sudecisióndeponer fin alproceso.
I've gotten behind in my reading. Has anyone heard from Larry, Curly and Moe recently? It sounds like Judge Saint-Vil doesn't expect them to show up. If they don't show, Silsby and Coulter should not be released. But then none of those so-called not-adopted pipeline kids should have been sent to the US and other points either.
A little R& R at the New Life Children's Refuge, Cabarete
Yesterday I wrote about four unnamed and heretofore unpublicized missionaries who stayed in the Dominican Republic to ready the orphan hotel while Laura Silsby and her child snatchers went into Haiti to gather up the swag (left). I have now identified the church: The First Baptist Church in Andrews, Texas.
My information is from the February 2, 2010 CBS 7 (Odessa) News, Andrews connection with American missionaries accused of kidnapping. Go to the right of the screen and click on the video (couldn't find a separate link) and check out old pictures of the luxurious hotel that is in real life is no longer luxurious. These pictures no doubt were used to spirit the kids away from their families. (I'm working on a separate blog on that)
The news report places the First Baptist Church, on the ground floor of Larua Silsby's pre-quake orphanage scheme. It also places Silsby's Central Valley Baptist Church as an active sponsor of the orphanage and the trip to Haiti , despite various church self-reportings to the contrary (my emphasis):
Pastor Jeff Donnell of First Baptist Church in Andrews says the Central Valley Church in Idaho contacted them well before the earthquake to build an orphanage.
The church contacted us needing help that was just a natural fit for us,” Pastor of First Baptist Church in Andrews, Jeff Donnell said. “We could do that, we could go.”
The earthquake however inspired a sense of urgency.
No missionary tourists are named in the newscast, and the church's webpage is clean of all Haiti/DR visits. This is what we learn of the "missionaries' activities from the report:
“While they were tending to the actual children we were going to ten [sic] the building to get it ready” Donnell said.
They left for the Dominican Republic last week to help turn a 45-room hotel into an orphanage unit. This unit was supposed to house 150 children, including the 33 children the Haitian prime minister claims was kidnapped.
“We never went into Haiti. Our friends did and they spent a week working with the authorities before the accusations were made” Donnell said.
The pastor says they thought everything was in the clear to receive the children.
“Its our understanding all the paper work had been done, that every had been in order.” Donnell said...
...Now the all church can do is pray for their friends in Haiti and children still with out a home.
“We've communicated to Central valley church,” Donnell said, “And gave our support and prayers for them.”
The First Baptist Church bills itself as a mission giving church, donating 11% of its budget receipts to the ultra conservative Southwestern and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminaries. The church has led missionary tours to Trinidad, Belize, and Armenia (which, btw, adopted Christianity as its state religion in 301 AD) and helps support fulltime missionaries Crystal and Chad Reynolds. Numerous photo albums of church and mission work are posted on the church's webpage, but none from the recent DR incursion. For those interested in evangelical arcana, check out the Joshua Project People Group flowchart and The Unreached People Group of the Day" on the front page of the church's homepage. This will take you directly to the Haiti People Group, which inexplicably, if I'm reading it correctly, features French Jews (or the French and Jews are lumped into one People Group.)
ABOUT END CHILD EXPORTATION AND TRAFFICKING IN HAITI
Stop Child Exportation and Trafficking is a collection of my blogs on Haiti published originally on my main blog, The Daily Bastardette. It is also a resource page for media, researchers, and the public interested looking for material and opinion on the ethics and legality of fast track adoption, babylifting, "humanitarian aid,"identity, historical and cultural erasure, and corrupt practices in international adoption, especially in the current Haitian earthquake crisis. It includes links to blogs, news articles, reports, and Haitian sources that are not available on The Daily Bastardette. We will publish occasional guest bloggers......................................................................... "Our human impulse to rescue is a profound one and an honorable one. But what we think of as a rescue can often compound the losses that children and cultures experience. Most societies, no matter how desperately poor, cherish their children and it is a huge loss to them to have their children removed."—Jeanne Howard, co-director, Center for Adoption Studies, Illinois State University
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Tonight CNBC will broadcast Escape from Havana: A Secret Flight to Freedom, an original documentary on Operation Pedro Pan, which I wrote about earlier. Under Pedro Pan, between 1960-1962, a little over 14,000 children, were airlifted out of Cuba and sent to the US to "save" them from communism. The Secret Escape to Freedom covers the stories of six Pedro Pan evacuees .
The inclusion of Maria de Los Angeles Torres, childifted by Pedro Pan at age 6, suggests we'll get some of that real story. de los Angeles Torres, a political scientist and director of the Latin American and Latino Studies Program at the University of Illinois, Chicago is the author of The Lost Apple: Operation Pedro Pan, Cuban Children in the US, and the Promise of a Better Future. She has been in a prolonged legal fight with the CIA over release of documents and is highly critical of the Pedro Pan evacuation.
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