Human Predators Stalk Haiti's Vulnerable Kids

[Missizzy]

I have no idea what's going on with Eric Evans but I do know contracting as that's our family business. It sounds to me like Disaster Kleenup put a construction lien on a house Evans built and Silsby bought. It's odd that the title company wouldn't have alerted her to the fact that this bill wasn't paid as that's the title officer's job. Is this house the one which was foreclosed on or another one? My husband brought up the question of whether she purchased the house outright (every contractor's dream) with donated funds. That could have co-joined them in a lien/suit.

I wouldn't be surprised at all to learn that they have no real connection to one another. If that's so, the WSJ has some explaining to do. I also wouldn't be surprised to hear that they had discussed some vague plans which he didn't take too seriously. Contractors are always being "talked up" by people who have grand plans. And Silsby has grand plans.

Is it just me, or does this woman seem to be playing up some sort of odd provocativeness? I've seen her do the "angelic" look but she was literally vamping with the guards and the press. That is just really off. I can see her doing this same thing with a contractor and the elders of the church and so on and so on.

 

[Texas Mist]

<snip>

Pastor Clint Henry has kept quiet since Monday, as families of the Americans, mostly from Idaho, met behind a locked down Central Valley Baptist Church.

Henry didn't take questions from the media, but in a statement thanked the U.S. congressional delegation for their work in helping the detainees.

He apologized for shutting out the media, but said the families, many of whom were strangers last week, needed time to cope together.

"We believe that the very best thing that could happen, not only for our loved ones, who we miss dearly, but also for the people of Haiti, is for their government to release them as quickly as possible," said Henry in a prepared statement Friday, "allowing the world's attention to be focus where is should be, helping a nation that experienced a devastating earthquake."

The church has set up a fund for the families of the detainees. It's called then "Ten Americans Support Fund" and can be donated to at any U.S. Bank.

more here

http://www.fox12idaho.com/global/story.asp?s=11943134


If their fund for the families was "Nine Americans Support Fund" I might donate.


ETA- another article

Baptists concerned Haiti arrests may hurt image

Nashville, Tenn. — Officials at the Southern Baptist Convention have appealed to President Barack Obama to help get medical treatment and spiritual counseling for 10 Baptists arrested in Haiti.

A letter to Obama from three top SBC officials on Friday asks for the president to "arrange for a representative from their churches or from the Southern Baptist Convention, or both, to visit them in Haiti as soon as possible."

The group, comprised mostly of Southern Baptists, was acting independently when its members, one of which is Topekan Drew Culberth, were arrested on Jan. 29 while trying to take 33 children out of Haiti. Even so, Vice President of Convention Relations Roger Oldham said there is concern the faith's long history of relief efforts could be tainted in some people's minds.

http://www.ktka.com/news/2010/feb/05/baptists-concerned-haiti-arrests-may-hurt-image/

 

[i.b.nora]

Anderson Cooper reports the 10 kidnappers have been split up and sent to other "prisons" and not to the jail where they have been housed. The women to a place in Petionville, and the men to the penitentiary in PauP, the one that collapsed and all the prisoners escaped. They will have hearings again on Monday.

Laura spoke to CBS today, but would not speak to Carl Penhault of CNN. Carl showed a copy of a DR legal document that Laura applied for and got 6 days after the earthquake declaring her New Life Children's Refuge as a non-profit organization / orphanage with plans to hold adoptions. It was a Dominican Republic document I believe, not the one from the State of Idaho. Carl noted that the document was signed by BOTH Laura Silsby and Charisa Coulter. Charisa knew and knows what the plans were. She is as guilty as Laura if you ask me. She needs to come clean.

Oh, and tonight, Charisa was described as Laura's personal assistant/nanny.

My source for the Laura kid info is me. I am 99% sure, but haven't found anything or info that would help us understand or that would play into this case. I have been googling, peekme-ing, facebooking, pipling, Idaho State Repositoring, peoplefindering and deducing.

I did deduce earlier that the third name on the Incorporation Board of Directors was Laura's sister, and two days later, the newspapers reported exactly that. I have no special powers.

 

[i.b.nora]

Oh, those Baptists! The church has set up a fund for the families of the detainees. It's called then "Ten Americans Support Fund" and can be donated to at any U.S. Bank.

So, its a fund for the families not for the detainees? To do what? Are all the detainees the breadwinners of their families? Insane.

 

[i.b.nora]

The latest WSJ article:

Silsby's Family Speaks Out: She Felt 'Burden' for Mission Work

FEBRUARY 5, 2010, 10:43 P.M. ET
By JEFFREY BALL

TWIN FALLS, Idaho -- "Laura Silsby, raised in a family steeped in religious missionary work, has led a life of big dreams and hard realities.

"Laura was raised in a missionary's home and just felt the burden for mission work," her father, John Sander, said in an interview Friday. "It's not the big, fancy, fallutin' churches," he said. "It's the mission work.""

Talks a little about early life, family following the father around the US. Her brother and her sister.

"Ms. Silsby's ambitions, however, led her to grander pursuits in business and beyond. She left Idaho for college, graduating in 1991 from Washington State University with a bachelor's degree in business administration. After moving back to Idaho and getting married, she worked for several years for Hewlett-Packard Co., a job in which she traveled frequently, her father said.

Later, she founded an Internet personal-shopping business, Personal Shopper Inc., which is now housed out of two suites in a Boise office park. She created the business in part using computer skills that she had gained at Hewlett-Packard, said Steve McMullen, a longtime friend of the family who lives in Meridian, Idaho, a Boise suburb."

I think there is a Steve McMullen 56, of Twin Falls that is part of the men's team of kidnappers. I would guess they are related?

"In 2008, after getting divorced, she and two of her three children – the oldest is an adult – moved with their live-in nanny into a comfortable two-story house in a new subdivision in Meridian."


So, anyhow, the article goes on and on. I am sure people will find interesting stuff in it.

In the meantime, as a means to sort of contrast, I found a couple of other current Haiti articles that are certainly worth reading. The Baptists that are soliciting funds for the "families" really should read these articles:

Bill Clinton, in Haiti, Emphasizes Urgent Need for Sanitation and Health Care

"PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Former President Bill Clinton, who is the United Nations special envoy to Haiti, returned here on Friday to meet with government and aid officials, visit a health clinic and deliver medical supplies, computers and generators."

+

"Mr. Clinton praised the progress being made in the relief effort, especially in addressing the need for food, shelter and security, but he expressed a growing sense of urgency about the country’s requirements for sanitation and health care."

"Dr. Paul Farmer, the deputy special envoy to Haiti who toured the clinic with Mr. Clinton, said: “For sanitation and health, the key is going to be to create community-based solutions, which basically means hire Haitians and lots of them to begin tracking infectious diseases, doing follow-up on treatments, as well as building latrines and water infrastructure. It shouldn’t be seen as some radical notion that we need to inject the money into the Haitian population, because they are the ones who can actually do the follow up.”"

+

"At a sweltering encampment on Toussaint Louverture Boulevard, about a mile from the Port-au-Prince airport, Pierre Toutiane nodded in agreement about the need for more latrines. He stood in his shanty, which is crowded on three sides by other shanties and which opens on the fourth side onto a gulley flowing with human waste.

Just inches from the gulley, Mr. Toutiane’s 3-year-old son, Christian, lay on the shanty’s dirt floor.

“Every day that trench gets wider and closer to us,” Mr. Toutiane said. “But we have no place else to go.”"


Haiti Hospital’s Fight Against TB Falls to One Man

By IAN URBINA
Published: February 5, 2010

"PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — At a fly-infested clinic hastily erected alongside the rubble of the only tuberculosis sanatorium in this country, Pierre-Louis Monfort is a lonely man in a crowded room.

Haiti has the highest tuberculosis rate in the Americas, and health experts say it is about to drastically increase.

But amid the ramshackle remains of the hospital where the country’s most infected patients used to live, Mr. Monfort runs the clinic alone, facing a vastness of unmet need that is as clear as the desperation on the faces around the room.

“I’m drowning,” said Mr. Monfort, 52, flanked by a line of people waiting for pills as he emptied a bedpan full of blood. All of the hospital’s 50 other nurses and 20 doctors died in the earthquake or have refused to return to work out of fear for the building’s safety or preoccupation with their own problems, he said. Mr. Monfort joked that the earthquake had earned him a promotion from a staff nurse at the sanatorium to its new executive director."

much more . . .

Something about when the Baptists complain about mattresses on the floor, no air conditioning, no electricity, I just can't garner a lot of sympathy for them.

 

[Melly53]

I have to agree with some others here that her assistant/nanny Coulter is probably in it as deep as Silsby is. She is the only one that went with Silsby on her previous trips to Haiti and it is her name that appears with Silsby's on the documents both in the U.S and the D.R. so she had to have known at least some, if not all, of what was really transpiring. I have no sympathy for either of them. It is the other 8 that I feel sorry for because I think they were kept in the dark about how things were being "taken care of".

Every time Silsby is confronted with real FACTS by reporters, (like the D.R papers that CNN had today) that contradict her claims of innocence, she has the group sing hymns and pray rather than deal with their questions. Huge mistake in my opinion because it only makes them ALL appear guilty. Appearing to hide behind their religion is not helping any of them at this point in time IMO.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/05/eveningnews/main6178839.shtml

"We have in no way wanted to disrespect the Haitian government," Laura Silsby told CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker. "We have tried our best to comply with all that they have asked us to do. We have faced a very challenging and confusing legal process here."

"We have not in any way trafficked or kidnapped children. We came here out of love in our hearts for these children and have done our best to help them," Silsby said. "Once we were asked at the border to provide an additional piece of paperwork for the Haitian government, we willingly complied.

"I was willing to come back the very next morning at 6:00 a.m. to complete it and the children were going to remain there until I returned. But instead, they came with [an] armed guard and took us to the police station for interrogation and held us on charges &#8230; on false charges."

Sorry but from what I have seen Silsby seems to be the one that got them into this mess along with Coulter possibly, so she or the two of them, need to step up and take responsibility so the innocents ones can be freed to return to the U.S. Or at least that would seem to be the honest, moral, Christian thing to do IMO.

 

[Missizzy]

Good Lord. I wish people would send their donations to reputable charities--Doctors Without Borders, the Redcross, etc.--instead of to a fund to rescue a group of child traffickers. Ms. Silsby is acting like a spoiled brat teenager and showing extreme disrespect for a foreign country is the midst of a crisis of massive proportion. The others are guilty by their continued support of this wacked out plan.

I grew up Baptist and I happen to have a little inside information. These people were taught that it is a sin (say that again, sin) to lie while they were still in the nursery at church!!

I really think we need to look harder at the men who went along with this plan. I'm quite surprised that several working men (one a firefighter) would just up and go to Haiti for an extended sojourn all because a Baptist lady said, "Let's go build an orphanage". Did these people even spend the time to go to their doctors and get the required vaccines or put their affairs in order in case something went awry. What about their wives and families?

This group went into the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere at a time of total devastation. God does call. Believers do respond. I believe that down to my toes. But this is not all about God, I'm very afraid. The church, the families, the Baptist 10 can do all the spin they want but I'm not buying the "good intentions" line.

 

[pinkpuddytat]

Wading into murky waters here. Do we have any posters who lean strongly to the right and listen to Rush, Glenn and other news sources of this sort (can you tell I was raised to be a gracious and respectful girl?). Anyway, if so, what is the word on the street?

I lean strongly to the libertarian right an participate in some forums that are heavily populated by the religious right. Mixed bag. When the first reports came out about the group's arrest, there were a good deal of knee-jerk crap posts about "the US government shouldn't give one more penny to Haiti until those missionaries are released", "obviously they were just trying to help", "they're just being persecuted because they're white Christians", etc. But there were also some voices of reason, pointing out that this didn't sound like anything legitimate missionaries would do, and a couple of people who've adopted internationally who were instantly outraged at the stunt this group pulled.

As more and more dirt poured out on Silsby, and as her own claims kept changing, most posters figured out this was no regular missionary group and that the Haitian government was well within its rights to arrest them and toss them in a filthy un-airconditioned cell with mattresses on the floor. There are always a few who are hopelessly clueless and would probably write a check to a Laura Silsby Defense Fund today . . . if only there was one. As far as I know, Rush and Glenn have steered clear of this -- they both have staffs that can run a Lexis-Nexis check in seconds, and Silsby would have flunked that test badly. Can't think why they would bring it up once they knew she was a shady character -- wailing about the gullibility of conservative religious folks wouldn't be good for their ratings.

Me, I keep wanting to pop down to Haiti and kiss her Haitian lawyer. The one who keeps telling the global media that she's guilty! My impression of the Haitian legal system has gone way up this week. If only we had lawyers like that here in the US (only reason we don't is that our legal system would disbar them immediately if they told the truth about a client like Silsby). But I'm pretty happy with US government officials, who keep telling the media it's entirely up the Haitians to figure out what to do with them, and who keep studiously ignoring little details like the fact that they've been assigned a lawyer who keeps telling the whole world Silsby's guilty and readily admits he speaks almost no English. It's sending absolutely the right message to both scam artists and stupid people likely to follow scam artists into something like this. In reality, I think there are some behind the scenes talks underway to get everybody but Silsby and Coulter out (and possibly even Coulter, on medical grounds), but it will be made to look like entirely the Haitian government's decision.

New article out this late Friday evening from Idaho's KTVB.com has pastor Clint Henry of the Central Valley Baptist Church clearly grasping what happened. He's shifted to "us/them" language in referring to church members vs Silsby and Coulter, who he notes haven't been members of the church for very long. http://www.ktvb.com/news/Laura-Silsbys-background-called-into-question-83697722.html By tomorrow afternoon, I think Silsby defenders will be an extinct species even on lunatic fringe Christian right-wing sites. Probably plenty of people who can identify with the gullible people who joined her, though, and I have a certain amount of sympathy for them myself -- they saw information about this "mission" in the official websites and publications of legitimate churches that are affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention and reasonably figured some checking had been done by their church leaders. Both these churches may find themselves facing liability suits from members who got sucked into this and ended up in a Haitian jail.

 

[Missizzy]

One of the most "under-reported stories" of 2008. No wonder I hadn't heard of it. So what are the Baptists wanting to hide:

http://www.abpnews.com/content/view/3719/53/

"Facing calls to curb child sex abuse within its churches, in June the Southern Baptist Convention -- the largest U.S. religious body after the Catholic Church -- urged local hiring committees to conduct federal background checks but rejected a proposal to create a central database of staff and clergy who have been either convicted of or indicted on charges of molesting minors," the magazine noted.

"The SBC decided against such a database in part because its principle of local autonomy means it cannot compel individual churches to report any information. And while the headlines regarding churches and pedophilia remain largely focused on Catholic parishes, the lack of hierarchical structure and systematized record-keeping in most Protestant churches makes it harder not only for church leaders to impose standards, but for interested parties to track allegations of abuse."

 

[Missizzy]

Thank you Pink, for a great post. Just as I imagined, Silsby doesn't have a friend left. That's what happens when you scam everybody. She's worn everybody out. I'm torn between having sympathy for her cohorts and wanting to shake them for being so stupid.

I, too, have been strongly impressed by the Haitians ability to show some grace under pressure. Their demeanor should be duly noted by Silsby. I wish she'd show a little grace.

 

[Texas Mist]

I lean strongly to the libertarian right an participate in some forums that are heavily populated by the religious right. Mixed bag. When the first reports came out about the group's arrest, there were a good deal of knee-jerk crap posts about "the US government shouldn't give one more penny to Haiti until those missionaries are released", "obviously they were just trying to help", "they're just being persecuted because they're white Christians", etc. But there were also some voices of reason, pointing out that this didn't sound like anything legitimate missionaries would do, and a couple of people who've adopted internationally who were instantly outraged at the stunt this group pulled.

As more and more dirt poured out on Silsby, and as her own claims kept changing, most posters figured out this was no regular missionary group and that the Haitian government was well within its rights to arrest them and toss them in a filthy un-airconditioned cell with mattresses on the floor. There are always a few who are hopelessly clueless and would probably write a check to a Laura Silsby Defense Fund today . . . if only there was one. As far as I know, Rush and Glenn have steered clear of this -- they both have staffs that can run a Lexis-Nexis check in seconds, and Silsby would have flunked that test badly. Can't think why they would bring it up once they knew she was a shady character -- wailing about the gullibility of conservative religious folks wouldn't be good for their ratings.

Me, I keep wanting to pop down to Haiti and kiss her Haitian lawyer. The one who keeps telling the global media that she's guilty! My impression of the Haitian legal system has gone way up this week. If only we had lawyers like that here in the US (only reason we don't is that our legal system would disbar them immediately if they told the truth about a client like Silsby). But I'm pretty happy with US government officials, who keep telling the media it's entirely up the Haitians to figure out what to do with them, and who keep studiously ignoring little details like the fact that they've been assigned a lawyer who keeps telling the whole world Silsby's guilty and readily admits he speaks almost no English. It's sending absolutely the right message to both scam artists and stupid people likely to follow scam artists into something like this. In reality, I think there are some behind the scenes talks underway to get everybody but Silsby and Coulter out (and possibly even Coulter, on medical grounds), but it will be made to look like entirely the Haitian government's decision.

New article out this late Friday evening from Idaho's KTVB.com has pastor Clint Henry of the Central Valley Baptist Church clearly grasping what happened. He's shifted to "us/them" language in referring to church members vs Silsby and Coulter, who he notes haven't been members of the church for very long. http://www.ktvb.com/news/Laura-Silsbys-background-called-into-question-83697722.html By tomorrow afternoon, I think Silsby defenders will be an extinct species even on lunatic fringe Christian right-wing sites. Probably plenty of people who can identify with the gullible people who joined her, though, and I have a certain amount of sympathy for them myself -- they saw information about this "mission" in the official websites and publications of legitimate churches that are affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention and reasonably figured some checking had been done by their church leaders. Both these churches may find themselves facing liability suits from members who got sucked into this and ended up in a Haitian jail.

ITA -- great post.

So what's up w/ the church back-pedaling??

"So our church is not a key player in making the orphange happen, that is, that is, everything they have done," the Pastor said.

I thought they were behind Silby's plan and supported it....did I just imagine reading that? Or was that one of Silby's halftruths/mistruths??

If I didn't imagine that - wow...throwing Silsby & Coulter under the bus big time.

 

[Missizzy]

I'm a little bleary eyed here but I don't think I ever read of the SBC actually backing the group. They might have made a little bit of the right noise in the first few days. I imagine, though, that they have their PR guys on this like syrup on pancakes and they are backin' up the bus. If these particular churches involved stay committed to this crazy-woman, I'm afraid they'll be looking at losing their affiliation.

The Southern Baptists have had a rough go of it lately. They've had a number of nasty scandals and they are losing members right and left to the far more evangelical monster non-denominational (yeah, right) fellowships.

This sounds disrespectful, but bare with me. I've taught so many hours of Vacation Bible School (and drank so much cherry Kool-aid) that I'm going to go out on a limb. Jesus knows I love the Baptists. When I look at the religious landscape (Protestant division) of our country right now I see lots of Big Box stores and a lessening of the smaller more traditional Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Lutheran "mom and pop" shops.

I love church. I really do. Some great people and great fellowship but it's gotten way too smooth and slick for me. In fact, a lot. I think the SCA is trying to maintain the status quo/tradition while competing with the bigger guys. And then along comes Silsby and sets back the Baptists fifty years. And I think they were just about ready to let people start dancing. Darn.

Disclaimer--I grew up American Baptist, the "liberal" Baptists. We danced and sang slightly naughty songs and learned how to play poker at Baptist Youth camp. We were also the champs of the Bible Drill (three year champion over here). I visited in Southern Baptist Churches when I'd visit in Texas over the summer. When I moved to small town Liberty Hill, the Southern Baptist was the only flavor available. I know how to fit in. I'm sure the church ladies are not pleased with Ms. Silsby. Baptists don't like to be embarrassed.

 

[Isabella]

I
Leave the children in Haiti and bring the group back to the US to sort it out and let's move on. There are always spoilers who end up taking the attention away from those who are doing good.

The crime happened in Haiti. Therefore they should be dealt with there and not in America.

 

[Isabella]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Wo...th_Child_Kidnapping_Permission_To_Return_Home

 

[i.b.nora]

I am really wondering what CBS offered Laura Silsby in return for "an exclusive interview" when the culprits left their hearings yesterday?

Did CBS offer money? Did CBS offer to get her an English speaking lawyer? Did CBS offer to communicate with her loved ones at home?

It had to have been something because Laura would not talk with CNN's Karl Penhaul at all.

I wish CNN would post a readible, legible copy of that travel brochure, er, um orphanage brochure, that Laura and Charisa Coulter were passing out to the parents of the 'orphans'.

 

[Missizzy]

Anybody turn up anything on the guys? I'm not finding much. They all look to be in their 30's to middle aged. Do they have families? How did they connect with Silsby? Were they taken along to actually set up and build the orphanage or to just help with the gathering of children? Doesn't that seem odd? You'd think if this were truly a "real" plan, two or three people would go down in a few months to start setting something up. They'd get the necessary paperwork done, buy property, get permits, start construction, hire employees, have inspections and THEN open the doors to appropriately needy kids. So just what was the role of the men? I wonder if there's a "Baptist missionary forum" we've missed where they discussed these plans.

Thanks for the mention of TB. It is endemic in Haiti, I'd forgotten. All the kids we dealt with were put on the 10 month oral treatment for it. I hope the Baptist 10 got their shots. One girl (is it Charisa?) is diabetic. I'll bet her doctor could kick her bunnies for going to Haiti. So where's she planning on getting her extra needles and insulin? As if there aren't people who need those meds more than she does. I wonder if she's checked off the special "Diabetic-friendly Meal" on her menu card which they pass out each day to prisoners?

Wait....you mean they don't? Grrrrrrrr.

 

[i.b.nora]

I think we have all been wondering how are these people all connected?

What I have determined is the following:

Laura Silsby, 40 Meridian, and Kuna, ID President of New Life Children's Refuge, Inc. Once employed by Hewlett Packard.

Charisa Coulter, 24 Meridian, and Kuna, ID Personal Assistant and Live-in Nanny for Laura Silsby Vice President of New Life Children's Refuge, Inc.

Notes:
&#8226; Laura's sister is listed as the third Board of Directors. She has a business in Kuna and likely knows the Coulters.
&#8226; Both Laura and Charisa are listed in the Incorporation papers in Idaho. They are listed as founders and as two of the three Board of Directors.
&#8226; According to Karl Penhaul of CNN who showed on TV the New Life Children's Refuge papers they applied for and issued in the Dominican Republic, six days after the earthquake, their intentions to run an orphanage and to do adoptions were outlined and both Laura and Charisa signed the papers.

Carla Thompson, 53, of Meridian, ID is listed as the Missions Coordinator for the Central Valley Baptist Church.
"God is our provider and God gives us strength and comfort," said group member Carla Thompson. "We are having a great time. We have our Bibles and we are OK."
Not sure if she is somehow related to Paul Thompson, or not.

Corinna R. Lankford, 43, Mother of Nicole
Corinna along with her daughter Nicole and Carla Thompson, went on a Central Valley Baptist sponsored mission to Ecuador in July - August 2009.
Her husband Sean Lankford works for Hewlett Packard as a Business Applications Developer. He has been interviewed in the media.

Nicole Lankford 18, Middleton, ID Daughter of Corinna

and

Paul Thompson, 44 Twin Falls, ID Originally from Amarillo, TX Became Pastor of Eastside Baptist Church, June 2001.
Might be related to Carla Thompson.

Jim Allen, 47 from Amarillo, TX He is a cousin of Paul Thompson.

Drew Culborth, 34 Topeka, KS A fireman and a youth pastor at Bethel Baptist Church, Topeka, KS. His sister Renee is married to Paul Thompson.

Silas Thompson, 19 Twin Falls, ID Son of Paul Thompson

Steve McMullen, 56, of Twin Falls, ID A member of the Eastside Baptist Church.

Note: There is a Steve McMullen of Meridian, ID who in a WSJ article was said to be a longtime friend of Laura Sander Silsby's family, meaning the Sanders family of Buhl, and Twin Falls. I theorize that he is the son of the Steve McMullen that is one of the accused kidnappers.

 

[pinkpuddytat]

Every time Silsby is confronted with real FACTS by reporters, (like the D.R papers that CNN had today) that contradict her claims of innocence, she has the group sing hymns and pray rather than deal with their questions. Huge mistake in my opinion because it only makes them ALL appear guilty. Appearing to hide behind their religion is not helping any of them at this point in time IMO.

This is what's making me hesitate to believe they're all innocent except Silbsy and Coulter (and Coulter is only 24, was employed by Silsby, and probably under pressure to go along with what Silsby asked her to do in order to keep getting paid, so she's less guilty than Silsby IMO). But these media interviewers have had access to all of the jailed group, and yet they all just let Silsby do all the talking, and when she decides to break into a hymn when asked a difficult question, they join in.

I realize that they don't have access to all the information we do -- they don't exactly have internet service and cable TV in their jail cells -- but they've had access to US consular officials, and the lawyer who's representing all of them is telling anybody who'll listen that Silsby is the lying scammer who lured the rest of them into all this. Plus they've HEARD her tell a bunch of conflicting stories to the media interviewers, because at least some of them have been present for most if not all of these interviews -- they didn't need a TV to see/hear this. I just don't see how they can STILL not get it. Why the heck don't some of them interrupt her when she's lying to an interviewer and shout out "This woman lied to us to get us to participate in her scam!" I'm starting to think they should all be forced to undergo psych exams when they get back to the US, to establish if they're mentally competent.

 

[Missizzy]

Not a whit of humor or sarcasm in this story, I'm afraid. It's a real concern of mine that the female members of the Baptist 10 stay safe. I wish them no personal harm. This article reminds us what the female and child survivors of the earthquake are having to endure as they struggle to live in a country with no infrastructure. These are the articles which need to be front and center. A must read--compelling but heart-wrenching.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100206...DeW5faGVhZGxpbmVfbGlzdARzbGsDaGFpdGlhbndvbWVu

Haitian women become crime targets after quake


"Bernice Chamblain keeps a machete under her frayed mattress to ward off sexual predators and one leg wrapped around a bag of rice to stop nighttime thieves from stealing her daughters' food.

She's barely slept since Haiti's catastrophic earthquake Jan. 12 forced her and other homeless women and children into tent camps, where they are easy targets for gangs of men.

Women have always had it bad in Haiti. Now things are worse........"

 

[pinkpuddytat]

Anybody turn up anything on the guys? I'm not finding much. They all look to be in their 30's to middle aged. Do they have families? How did they connect with Silsby? Were they taken along to actually set up and build the orphanage or to just help with the gathering of children? Doesn't that seem odd? You'd think if this were truly a "real" plan, two or three people would go down in a few months to start setting something up. They'd get the necessary paperwork done, buy property, get permits, start construction, hire employees, have inspections and THEN open the doors to appropriately needy kids. So just what was the role of the men?

One of the troglodytes on a conservative forum I participate in posted a comment about how the whole mess happened because these churches aren't following God's law and allowing only men to be in charge.