Baptist Group Accused of Child Trafficking

I am happy to hear these people were arrested.

jallman said:

What does he think these baptists were doing? Fulfilling their master plan to run their very own Dominican orphanage by repopulating it with Haitians?

That's just dumb.

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Actually, that appears to be exactly what the leader of this "rescue group", Laura Silsby had in mind.

She had already established a non-profit organization in Idaho for the purpose of setting up and constructing a Haitian Child Refuge center in the Dominican Republic.

She also had plans for an adoptive parent center for Americans coming to the Dominican Republic, as it takes some 60 to 90 days of the prospective parents to be in the country, in order to adopt a child in the DR.

It seems that Silby moved up the timetable considerably because of the earthquake, and began recruiting members of two churches in Boise to go with her.

Now, with the children she had with her at the time of the groups arrest, 22 of the 33 had parents in Haiti, and Sillby had made promises to them of allowing the parents to see their kids regularly, and to have in the DR for as short a time as possible. But, that's not what she told authorities and reporters, immediately after the groups arrest:

Their plan was to take Haitian children from Port-au-Prince across the border to the Dominican Republic where a place had been set up to get them adopted, possibly even to the U.S.

"We came here to help the children who had no one else, children that kind of were on the streets or in orphanages that were not in line really for other types of aide," Silsby said.

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Laura Silsby speaks from Haitian jail cell | Idaho News from KTVB.COM | Boise news, Idaho weather, sports, traffic & events | Home

If that were truly the case, why go to ravaged villages, and convince the parents to give up their children to them, promising a safe return of their children when things in Haiti got better?

And if some of the children were already in orphanages in Haiti, why move them to the DR?

Then there is the investigative reporting done by the Idaho Statesman newspaper, that found troubling financial and legal problems surrounding Silsby:

We have now read an investigative report published by the Idaho Statesman, a Boise newspaper, and, frankly, we don’t know what to think of Laura Silsby. The Statesman examined the public record, as it obtained to Silsby, and it turned up a trail of unpaid debts, civil lawsuits and foreclosures.

The newspaper found that 14 claims of unpaid wages had been filed against Silsby’s personal shopping company. Nine of them were upheld by the Idaho Department of Labor. A wrongful termination suit is pending against the company. A law firm is suing her for nonpayment of fees. Several retail businesses have sued her for nonpayment for goods or services. Her $358,000 home was foreclosed on in December.

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The strange case of Laura Silsby | Denton Record Chronicle | News for Denton County, Texas | Opinion: Editorials

I said it in the other thread on this subject, and I'll say it here. The recruits from the Baptist churches in Idaho are most likely guilty only of getting caught up in Silby's stories of aid to the Haitian children, and should be released with a ticket on the first plane out of Haiti.

Laura Silsby, however, the more is known about her, appears to be nothing more than a scam artist and con-woman, and deserves to have the brunt of the charges fall directly upon her head.

A bunch of gullible sheeple led astray by a charismatic leader. Who could have predicted that?

After listening to the Haitian ambassador interviewed on NPR, it sounds like the main motivation for prosecuting these people is to reestablish a sense of National Sovereignty to the Haitian people. The interviewer asked him why the government isn't doing that by enforcing law and order on the streets. The ambassador replied that they were establishing their sovereignty, by arresting these missionaries.

It sounds like they are opportunistically using this for political purposes. It's a matter of pride. The Haitian government has basically been humiliated and emasculated by this disaster. The targets are easy, being White and American. I'm sure it's popular amongst the population. It's a good diversion, even while the government is basically impotent and has handed over real control to foreigners, with Americans taking a lead role.

That, I believe, it the real motivation for arresting these blundering but well intended missionaries. If I can find a link to the interview, I'll provide it, but I don't want to spend all day searching for it. It was very telling.

NiteGuy said:

Actually, that appears to be exactly what the leader of this "rescue group", Laura Silsby had in mind.

She had already established a non-profit organization in Idaho for the purpose of setting up and constructing a Haitian Child Refuge center in the Dominican Republic.

She also had plans for an adoptive parent center for Americans coming to the Dominican Republic, as it takes some 60 to 90 days of the prospective parents to be in the country, in order to adopt a child in the DR.

It seems that Silby moved up the timetable considerably because of the earthquake, and began recruiting members of two churches in Boise to go with her.

Now, with the children she had with her at the time of the groups arrest, 22 of the 33 had parents in Haiti, and Sillby had made promises to them of allowing the parents to see their kids regularly, and to have in the DR for as short a time as possible. But, that's not what she told authorities and reporters, immediately after the groups arrest:


Laura Silsby speaks from Haitian jail cell | Idaho News from KTVB.COM | Boise news, Idaho weather, sports, traffic & events | Home

If that were truly the case, why go to ravaged villages, and convince the parents to give up their children to them, promising a safe return of their children when things in Haiti got better?

And if some of the children were already in orphanages in Haiti, why move them to the DR?

Then there is the investigative reporting done by the Idaho Statesman newspaper, that found troubling financial and legal problems surrounding Silsby:


The strange case of Laura Silsby | Denton Record Chronicle | News for Denton County, Texas | Opinion: Editorials

I said it in the other thread on this subject, and I'll say it here. The recruits from the Baptist churches in Idaho are most likely guilty only of getting caught up in Silby's stories of aid to the Haitian children, and should be released with a ticket on the first plane out of Haiti.

Laura Silsby, however, the more is known about her, appears to be nothing more than a scam artist and con-woman, and deserves to have the brunt of the charges fall directly upon her head.

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True, if that was Silsby's plan, that's on her. I dont believe these missionaries were making any such an attempt at skirting the law. I think they were just trying to help.

jallman said:

True, if that was Silsby's plan, that's on her. I dont believe these missionaries were making any such an attempt at skirting the law. I think they were just trying to help.

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I believe so as well, which is why I said the church missionaries should be set free. The were scammed by Silsby too.

Silsby, though? Not so much.

Manc Skipper said:

A bunch of gullible sheeple led astray by a charismatic leader. Who could have predicted that?

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NBC News tonight showed a handwritten letter that was slid to one of their reporters meeting with the people in jail which was signed by 8 of the 10 in prison... they basically said that they had trusted their leader who was speaking for all of them without their approval, and that she had told them that she had all the proper paperwork.

It's getting more interesting, that's for sure.

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