Human Predators Stalk Haiti's Vulnerable Kids

[i.b.nora]

Alright, just one more Jorge Puello aka Jorge Torres before the day comes to an end. This one is from CNN, Karl Penhaul. He talked with Jorge's Mom and Stepdad today, Soledad Puello and Franco Ceminara.

Legal adviser for Americans in Haiti facing his own charges

Some tidbits:

"An international arrest warrant was issued Saturday for the legal adviser on sex-trafficking charges."

"In a phone interview with CNN on Sunday, Jorge Torres Puello acknowledged he is the same man wanted by Salvadoran authorities. He denied the charges against him."

"Torres Puello, who said he was born in Yonkers, New York, in 1977 to a Dominican mother and a Puerto Rican father, also said he is wanted in the United States on charges of smuggling people between Canada and the United States, which he also denied.

He said he spent 18 months in a Canadian jail pending what he called an unsuccessful extradition request by U.S. authorities.

He has served jail time in the United States before, he said -- one year in 1998 for handling funds related to a drug-trafficking operation, and he was jailed again briefly between late 2001 and January 2002 for violating parole. He denied the drug charge.

Both his mother and Torres Puello say he served briefly in the U.S. Army in a military intelligence unit, and Torres Puello said he also worked undercover with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.

A family photo shows Torres Puello in a military uniform alongside a truck with the words "U.S. Military" printed across the bumper."

Oh brother!!! LOL!!!

 

[Missizzy]

Melly, I wondered that too. I couldn't decide if Rob was referring to a life partner or a business partner. His wife, a D. Chenvert, comes up on several sites. Check the bottom of this page:

http://sunsetvalleydr.com/SSV_Real_Estate/tistimonials.html

And yes, he does indeed do a testimonial on himself.

She's obviously in business with him but it seems that he would refer to her as his wife and not a "partner". She's also found complaining on a forum about Nissan problems in the DR.

So, yes, who is this partner? I'm dying to know. And Rob sure seems defensive about his new friend of eight months, Laura. Doesn't he? And by golly, he'd better not log on here and call me on the carpet on this issue as I've been there. I've lived this life and done my time. He's ranting about the armchair critics. Yes, that would be us...the ones writing the checks to established charities and trying to make some sense out of the debacle that his new friend has whipped up.



So you don't even think Torres/Puello/Boyd is a Jew, i.b.nora? Could he pull off all the cultural things that one would expect if he wasn't? He was born in Yonkers, so it's a possibility. Heck, anything's a possibility. He's probably having a sex change operation is Uruguay and converting to Scientology as we write this. When you consider the fact that had he not chosen to take food and medicine to the group with his henchmen and the video cameras rolling, none of us would have ever known about him. A bit of attention seeking behavior, I'm afraid.

I really think that LogicalMinds has a great word for this mess, a romp. And "Where's Waldo" Demara referring to the rascality of it all. That's it. The problem is that these shenanigans are hurting real people and we're not even through the first chapter yet. You really have to stop and read again from the beginning. More twists than a dimestore historical romance novel.

LM, I am so sorry to hear of the loss of your friends and acquaintances. There is some fine work being done right now in Haiti and sadly it's being eclipsed to a large degree by a group of Baptists and their buddies. We're in touch with Burners Without Borders and I'm so impressed at how much is getting done under the most abysmal circumstances. So many good people have lost their lives.



I noticed in one of the articles I read today that one of the group was kind of an after thought:

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/haiti/story/1475891.html


"A Dallas attorney for Jim Allen, Hiram Sasser, told the AP that his client was recruited just 48 hours before the group left last month for the Dominican Republic on what Silsby termed an emergency rescue mission.

"He did not know many of the other people who were on the mission trip, or what other people were going to do, or about paperwork," Sasser said."



Couple of questions here. How do you get your paperwork and passport in order so quickly? How do you put your affairs in order? How do you follow even a modicum of the directions on the CDC site which describes how to medically prepare for Haiti---all in 48 hours? What do you tell your family and your boss? Who pays for your ticket? I've read that his wife and other church members describe him as a welder (and thus knows all too well about paperwork) and that he hoped to help build and fix things. That's applaudable but why Silsby's group?

Just wondering as it sounds quite odd to me for fine, upstanding, church-going men to take off like a house afire. It's not as if they weren't all aware of the highly trained rescue missions on the ground. They weren't rushing off to pull people from the rubble or to feed the masses of starving victims. They weren't staying in their pulpits and exhorting their flocks to raise massive amounts of funds for those (most likely numerous Baptist groups) on the ground. No they were participating in an "emergency rescue mission". Emergency rescue mission....let's not forget those words.

They were pulling off some hurriedly cobbled together "mission" to use this once in a lifetime opportunity for some sort of yet to be announced gain. JMO

 

[Missizzy]

Final words tonight.......tune into tomorrow, for the next exciting chapter.

 

[Missizzy]

I can't help myself. I didn't see your post, i.b.nora until mine posted. Did his Mami mention if former Vice President Dick Cheney was driving the military truck? Maybe they were going duck hunting together.

That's all.

 

[pinkpuddytat]

Re Jim Allen, welders are often self-employed, and in the current economy are likely to be unemployed or underemployed. Taking off on short notice would be easy for many of them. And if he's done any previous international travel, he'd probably have a passport on hand.

 

[jeriwho]

As of Saturday (two days ago) the judge in the case was saying he sees no tie between the Puello case and the missionaries that would make them one case:

http://www.idahostatesman.com/235/story/1079244.html

So far, nobody has found any link between him and Silsby prior to his contacting Central Valley Baptist Church and offering to find them Haitian lawyers for the so-called missionaries. If he is a child trafficker, he may have just been attaching himself to a source of children that he knew would be in the charge of people who would not be tracking them.

 

[Annie Mouse]

Judge Bernard Saint-Vil, who is presiding over the case in Haiti, recommended on Friday that the group be released while the investigation continues. Hopes by the missionaries that they may be set free today could be set back by the questions surrounding Mr Puello.

“I plan to get to the bottom of this right away,” Judge Saint-Vil told The New York Times. “I am working as fast as I can, but I must first understand Mr Puello.”

This suggests the link between Silsby and Puello will be fully examined before anyone is released. That's almost certainly a good thing.

 

[jeriwho]

This suggests the link between Silsby and Puello will be fully examined before anyone is released. That's almost certainly a good thing.

You're doggone right about that. The Southern Baptist Convention could take a lesson from such a process. If they had checked Silsby's credentials and legal and financial history (which the Bible does command) before letting her take a team down there, this entire catastrophe could have been averted. I wonder if anybody in the SBC has yet apologized for calling the Haitian authorities "Satan"?

 

[i.b.nora]

Power outage may delay release of Americans

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — "Haiti's creaky, quake-damaged electrical system has delayed a ruling on whether 10 Americans charged with child kidnapping can be released.

Prosecutor Josephe Manes Louis says he has written his recommendation, but a power outage Monday kept him from printing it out and giving it to the judge."

 

[i.b.nora]

Bail decision delayed for 10 Americans in Haiti

CNN - February 15, 2010

"Officials said the decision would likely be delayed until Wednesday."

 

[pinkpuddytat]

You're doggone right about that. The Southern Baptist Convention could take a lesson from such a process. If they had checked Silsby's credentials and legal and financial history (which the Bible does command) before letting her take a team down there, this entire catastrophe could have been averted. I wonder if anybody in the SBC has yet apologized for calling the Haitian authorities "Satan"?

The Southern Baptist Convention had no knowledge of this "mission" before the group's arrest hit the news. SBC-affiliated churches are independent entitities. The SBC has a couple of mission boards and recommends that affiliate churches "coordinate" their mission activities with one of these boards, but there's no requirement that they do so, and neither of the SBC-affiliated churches which allowed Silsby to use their websites for promotion, fundraising, and recruiting, had any contact with either of these missions boards about it. I imagine that policy will be changing for these two churches, but SBC-affiliated churches in general will remain very independent.

 

[Melly53]

Melly, I wondered that too. I couldn't decide if Rob was referring to a life partner or a business partner. His wife, a D. Chenvert, comes up on several sites. Check the bottom of this page:

http://sunsetvalleydr.com/SSV_Real_Estate/tistimonials.html

And yes, he does indeed do a testimonial on himself.

She's obviously in business with him but it seems that he would refer to her as his wife and not a "partner". She's also found complaining on a forum about Nissan problems in the DR.

So, yes, who is this partner? I'm dying to know. And Rob sure seems defensive about his new friend of eight months, Laura. Doesn't he? And by golly, he'd better not log on here and call me on the carpet on this issue as I've been there. I've lived this life and done my time. He's ranting about the armchair critics. Yes, that would be us...the ones writing the checks to established charities and trying to make some sense out of the debacle that his new friend has whipped up.



So you don't even think Torres/Puello/Boyd is a Jew, i.b.nora? Could he pull off all the cultural things that one would expect if he wasn't? He was born in Yonkers, so it's a possibility. Heck, anything's a possibility. He's probably having a sex change operation is Uruguay and converting to Scientology as we write this. When you consider the fact that had he not chosen to take food and medicine to the group with his henchmen and the video cameras rolling, none of us would have ever known about him. A bit of attention seeking behavior, I'm afraid.

I really think that LogicalMinds has a great word for this mess, a romp. And "Where's Waldo" Demara referring to the rascality of it all. That's it. The problem is that these shenanigans are hurting real people and we're not even through the first chapter yet. You really have to stop and read again from the beginning. More twists than a dimestore historical romance novel.

LM, I am so sorry to hear of the loss of your friends and acquaintances. There is some fine work being done right now in Haiti and sadly it's being eclipsed to a large degree by a group of Baptists and their buddies. We're in touch with Burners Without Borders and I'm so impressed at how much is getting done under the most abysmal circumstances. So many good people have lost their lives.



I noticed in one of the articles I read today that one of the group was kind of an after thought:

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/haiti/story/1475891.html


"A Dallas attorney for Jim Allen, Hiram Sasser, told the AP that his client was recruited just 48 hours before the group left last month for the Dominican Republic on what Silsby termed an emergency rescue mission.

"He did not know many of the other people who were on the mission trip, or what other people were going to do, or about paperwork," Sasser said."



Couple of questions here. How do you get your paperwork and passport in order so quickly? How do you put your affairs in order? How do you follow even a modicum of the directions on the CDC site which describes how to medically prepare for Haiti---all in 48 hours? What do you tell your family and your boss? Who pays for your ticket? I've read that his wife and other church members describe him as a welder (and thus knows all too well about paperwork) and that he hoped to help build and fix things. That's applaudable but why Silsby's group?

Just wondering as it sounds quite odd to me for fine, upstanding, church-going men to take off like a house afire. It's not as if they weren't all aware of the highly trained rescue missions on the ground. They weren't rushing off to pull people from the rubble or to feed the masses of starving victims. They weren't staying in their pulpits and exhorting their flocks to raise massive amounts of funds for those (most likely numerous Baptist groups) on the ground. No they were participating in an "emergency rescue mission". Emergency rescue mission....let's not forget those words.

They were pulling off some hurriedly cobbled together "mission" to use this once in a lifetime opportunity for some sort of yet to be announced gain. JMO

Can anyone read the name of the lawyers on the door of this shop from the Sunset Valley site? Are they any of the ones connected to this case? (click on the link and then go to "Shops" to see the picture I am asking about.)

http://sunsetvalleydr.com/Template_FL/index.html

 

[i.b.nora]

I don't think they are connected to this case. Erick L Urena (Cid?) and Carlos E Olivares, of Urena & Asociados

 

[jeriwho]

The Southern Baptist Convention had no knowledge of this "mission" before the group's arrest hit the news. SBC-affiliated churches are independent entitities. The SBC has a couple of mission boards and recommends that affiliate churches "coordinate" their mission activities with one of these boards, but there's no requirement that they do so, and neither of the SBC-affiliated churches which allowed Silsby to use their websites for promotion, fundraising, and recruiting, had any contact with either of these missions boards about it. I imagine that policy will be changing for these two churches, but SBC-affiliated churches in general will remain very independent.

Yes, the shame and the duplicity lie in the fact that the SBC claims that their system of church polity is Biblical, and a single reading of the book called Acts of the Apostles shows you that it is not. The SBC is a big engine that churrns out both sincere and corrupt agents onto an unsuspecting public, all without due review and certification from an eldership that is, in itself, accountable to the entire assembly. The porous nature of the SBC is one, a contradiction of what the New Testament canon shows as the model of church government, and two, the very engine that will allow Laura Silsby to simply set up shop again in another SBC church. She will never face church discipline. She will never be restrained by the SBC from setting up another fake mission someplace else.

 

[i.b.nora]

"Sean Lankford, husband and father of two detainees, said in an interview Sunday that the families felt they checked out Mr. Puello "thoroughly." Still, he said, "The world must think we're the stupidest hicks in the world.""

Er, um, well, I dunno if the WHOLE world thinks that, but I would guess some people do, you betcha!!

Anyhow, from a new WSJ article, with more up to date information, especially on Jorge Puello:
Dominican Probed In Missionary Case Admits Prior Charges

"Chiller Roy, a lawyer for Ms. Silsby, said he spoke to her on Sunday and "she was categorical," he said. "She never met Mr. Puello before she was arrested in Haiti.""

Unusual name for the attorney.

"Mr. Puello said he offered his services to the missionaries for free and has used his own money to pay $18,000 for the legal bills of Haitian lawyers, $4,000 to rent a plane to fly in evidence the missionaries needed in Port-au-Prince, and $2,000 in food and medicines Mr. Puello said he bought for them.

Mr. Puello said the Idaho group has sent him a total of $11,000 to his account in the Dominican Republic, but added he hasn't been to the bank to retrieve the money because he has been keeping a low profile since his own legal problems surfaced."

"Mr. Puello said the alien smuggling charge arose when he was investigating alien trafficking routes undercover for the U.S. "I was working for the Department of Homeland Security investigating people smuggling – Pakistanis, Moroccans, Costa Ricans," said Mr. Puello, "so they could stop them and put them in prison on the U.S. side of the border.""


A whole lot more ...

 

[i.b.nora]

This is the newest Associated Press article. Has a bunch of info on Jorge Puello, aka Jorge Torres, aka Yoram Torres and aka Jorge Migdal.

Adviser to Americans admits link to Salvador case

By BEN FOX (AP)

"The man who served as legal adviser to 10 American missionaries jailed in Haiti on charges of child kidnapping acknowledged Monday that he is the suspect wanted in El Salvador on human smuggling accusations.

In a call from an unknown location, Jorge Puello told The Associated Press he was innocent of the accusations and that he and his Salvadoran wife had taken in young women from the Caribbean and Central America who had been abandoned by smugglers."

and

"Puello's recent behavior has only stoked doubts about his identity and other aspects of his life.

He falsely portrayed himself as a lawyer in the Dominican Republic. He wrongly claimed to be the leader of the country's Sephardic Jewish community. And he initially told reporters he had never been to El Salvador, but now says he has deep connections to the Central American country, including five children there."

"Arrest warrants identify him as Jorge Anibal Torres Puello. Around Santo Domingo he was also known as Jorge Torres, Yoram Torres and Jorge Migdal."

"Puello said he served in the Army from 1996-2000 but gave no further details."

and

"About four years ago, he emerged in Santo Domingo saying he wanted to establish a Sephardic Jewish community. Cerminara and Ana Puello said everyone in their family is Catholic and that Jorge Puello's converted on his own. "He is Jewish by conviction," she said. "He practices the religion and believes it in his heart.""

and

""This guy has nothing to do with our community," Lalo said. "Sephardic Jews don't just set up a community out of the blue.""

more ... a little something for everyone.

 

[Melly53]

"Sean Lankford, husband and father of two detainees, said in an interview Sunday that the families felt they checked out Mr. Puello "thoroughly." Still, he said, "The world must think we're the stupidest hicks in the world.""

Er, um, well, I dunno if the WHOLE world thinks that, but I would guess some people do, you betcha!!

Anyhow, from a new WSJ article, with more up to date information, especially on Jorge Puello:
Dominican Probed In Missionary Case Admits Prior Charges

"Chiller Roy, a lawyer for Ms. Silsby, said he spoke to her on Sunday and "she was categorical," he said. "She never met Mr. Puello before she was arrested in Haiti.""

Unusual name for the attorney.

"Mr. Puello said he offered his services to the missionaries for free and has used his own money to pay $18,000 for the legal bills of Haitian lawyers, $4,000 to rent a plane to fly in evidence the missionaries needed in Port-au-Prince, and $2,000 in food and medicines Mr. Puello said he bought for them.

Mr. Puello said the Idaho group has sent him a total of $11,000 to his account in the Dominican Republic, but added he hasn't been to the bank to retrieve the money because he has been keeping a low profile since his own legal problems surfaced."

"Mr. Puello said the alien smuggling charge arose when he was investigating alien trafficking routes undercover for the U.S. "I was working for the Department of Homeland Security investigating people smuggling – Pakistanis, Moroccans, Costa Ricans," said Mr. Puello, "so they could stop them and put them in prison on the U.S. side of the border.""


A whole lot more ...

I loved this quote from the Dept. of Homeland Security in the article:

A DHS official said Mr. Puello has never worked as a confidential informant for the agency. U.S. officials pointed out that the department didn't exist at the time Mr. Puello allegedly committed his alien smuggling offense.

 

[pinkpuddytat]

"Sean Lankford, husband and father of two detainees, said in an interview Sunday that the families felt they checked out Mr. Puello "thoroughly." Still, he said, "The world must think we're the stupidest hicks in the world.""

Well, I was about to say yes, but . . .

"Mr. Puello said the alien smuggling charge arose when he was investigating alien trafficking routes undercover for the U.S. "I was working for the Department of Homeland Security [which didn't exist then, and which has already said publicly that it's investigating *him*] investigating people smuggling – Pakistanis, Moroccans, Costa Ricans," said Mr. Puello, "so they could stop them and put them in prison on the U.S. side of the border.""

If Puello, or whatever his real name is, thinks anyone is going to believe this for a second, he's way stupider than Mr. Lankford, who at least seems to be starting (finally!) to acquire some reality-based perspective on all this.

"Chiller Roy, a lawyer for Ms. Silsby, said he spoke to her on Sunday and "she was categorical," he said. "She never met Mr. Puello before she was arrested in Haiti.""

I can't think of any more reason to believe anything coming out of Silsby's mouth, than to believe anything coming out of Puello's mouth. Pathological liars, both of them.

 

[Missizzy]

But....wait, I've got a question. How can Mr. Puello leave the country? He told us he didn't have a passport?

 

[Missizzy]

Does anyone else think it's of interest that his mother, who is only 49 (must have been 17 when he was born) runs a preschool in the DR? And Jorge has five children in El Salvador--does he have birth certificates for those kids? He sure does seem to want to help children, doesn't he? He's been a busy man to get all these things accomplished by the young age of 32.

Let's not forget about Martha, the wife in Florida. Remember, they're getting a house foreclosed next month in Broward County. How'd he have time to do that, with the Army, the Homeland Security, the legal work, the other wife--Valerie, working as a receptionist, being the President of the Sephardic Community, having babies in El Salvador, helping teens, spending time in Federal Prison and visiting in Canada. No passport....my bunnies. Possibly, some foreign government seized it!!

And he was raised Catholic and converted and the Jewish community hardly knows him. This makes me think it very probable that he knew Duarte, the Catholic priest from Canada who hung out right down the beach in Puerto Plata after spending time on the north coast of Haiti with little boys:

http://www.windsorstar.com/news/Win...+alleged+child+abuse+Haiti/2129327/story.html

"He helped take a badly burned infant across the mountains to hospital in Cap Haitian. The child died overnight and Duarte brought the tiny girl home, prepared the body for burial and presided over the funeral that afternoon."

and

"Duarte, his close-cropped hair dyed a brassy blonde at one time and sporting tattoos and a nipple ring, worked tirelessly for the poor in Haiti, according to charity workers."

Read the full description of Duarte--the conflicting descriptions. There's no way these two didn't cross paths.