Human Predators Stalk Haiti's Vulnerable Kids

[truckbomb]

Jeff says: Third, I believe Silsby's bus never even made it to the DR side. She was stopped on the Haitian side. Just like she was stopped by police with her first "load" (pardon the expression) of 40 kids. Hence the issue if there was any document or not and/or need for a bribe to get into the DR never came into play.

Jeff, perhaps I didn’t make myself clear. I agree that Silsby didn’t make it to the DR side. Under my theory, Silsby got to the border on the Haitian side and then had to produce the bribe money to an intermediate. When she could not produce the money, the involved guards sensed trouble (i.e. they would not get their cut) and she was turned away. As I said in an earlier post, the cockroaches over on the DR side then scattered at this point. Silsby left to return to the DR Consulate in PAP to try to “clear up the problem” only to find the DR Consulate not willing to assist. Silsby returned to the border again empty handed and then was arrested.

As to the involvement of the Lady Lawyer + General, probability suggests that two higher ups in the DR who enjoy a suspicion of involvement in various kinds of trafficking (one wanted by the U.S. federales in Manhattan) both identified by Puello, are a strong red flag. Jeff, there is no way, repeat no way, anyone is going to cross that border with the heat turned up (on orphan crossing) to blazing hot without paying a bribe to someone.

As to the mere failure to pay the woman lawyer for small incorporation fees, that could well be the case but the facilitating crossing fee was the main default.

Jeff, this mess could wind up in the DR President’s office as a major scandal prior to the DR elections coming up. DR Prez is already taking heat for his apparent involvement with the Manhattan drug case. You are a fine sleuth. All of this is out there albeit in Spanish.

Bottom line. Silsby is not going anywhere until this mess is straightened out by the judge.

 

[Lambada]

Jeff, this mess could wind up in the DR President’s office as a major scandal prior to the DR elections coming up. DR Prez is already taking heat for his apparent involvement with the Manhattan drug case.

truckbomb, I think the President is pretty close with the General & has been for many years. Each time the General gets removed from office, the President reinstates him. In 2005 when the General was Head of the DNI he was replaced because of alleged ties to Quirino Castillo, then in 2008
scroll down to 'Florentino reinstated to government' (in English).

The General's wife is the interior decorator who refurbished the new Supreme Court (there was a bit of scandal about that, too)
R. Dominicana: El cártel "Milenium Morado" asaltó obras públicas
Bear in mind that was written by Narciso Isa Conde (who isn't exactly 'neutral') in 2006.

Picture of the couple here:
Tienda Margarita Gómez, de Navidad

Fast forward to 2010 & the US asks for a number of extradictions, the General allegedly being one of them
9 of the retired generals to be extradited to USA

Lawyer reveals names of officers, civilians allegedly sought by the U.S. (published Sept. 2009)

The General denies he is on the list. Meanwhile everyone in DR is supposedly looking for the escaped Puerto Rican trafficker, Figueroa Agosto, and rumours abound that the General's wife did some decorating work for him. And that possibly the President's daughter was involved in this work
Nicole Fernández, hija del Presidente y Margarita Gómez, "la decoradora", mencionadas por periódico digital en litis con fiscal

And once again in 2010 the General gets reinstated as military adviser to the executive branch viz. the President. And THEN...........the Torre Atiemar scandal breaks
Ritzy building to be seized, others in Dominican prosecutor’s crosshairs

El Presidente Fernández Reina en el centro de la " Torre Atiemar" y del Narco-Estado Dominicano

So, given all this happening, I'm not sure that even if the General could be linked with Silsby, it would make much difference to the President. I totally agree, however, that Silsby was not wise to accuse someone so close to the President.

 

[truckbomb]

Lambada reports: So, given all this happening, I'm not sure that even if the General could be linked with Silsby, it would make much difference to the President. I totally agree, however, that Silsby was not wise to accuse someone so close to the President.

I also don’t think a link to Silsby will make a difference to the General’s exposure. What will make a difference is his protective Prez, during an election year, having to deal with an extradition of the General and the others to the U.S. Federal Court in Manhattan. If Prez is out, so will be the General.

Meanwhile, Silsby rots in jail while prosecutors in four countries sniff around the DR administration’s possible involvement in the drug cases while the Haitian judge hopes to find out how all of that mess is going to affect his Silsby case.

Thanks for the most accurate research on the General. Do you have anything as detailed about Lady Lawyer?

 

[Lambada]

What will make a difference is his protective Prez, during an election year, having to deal with an extradition of the General and the others to the U.S. Federal Court in Manhattan. If Prez is out, so will be the General.

But the Prez won't be out. It isn't a Presidential election this year, not until 2012. What we have in May 2010 are municipal & congresional elections only. We have this circus every 2 years; wall-to-wall elections, as soon as the counting of one is over, the propaganda for the next one starts: the motor caravans, the throwing of salami from helicopters, the turning up on the high street of 2 competeing caravans for 2 different parties........... (all elaborated in my next book......)

Fortunately, under the new Constitution starting in 2016 both sets of elections will be in the same year. But not on the same day. Oh no, nothing as simple as that. :banghead:

Thanks for the most accurate research on the General. Do you have anything as detailed about Lady Lawyer?

No I haven't had time to look into her yet. She was the Fiscal of San Cristobal, yes? Tell me, truckbomb, is she known by her single name, Maria Asuncion Santos, or her married name Maria Asuncion Santos de Lara?

 

[truckbomb]

Thank you, Lambada, for your correction. You and Jeff have been very helpful in providing essential background.

I don't know if she is better known by her married name or otherwise. She shouldn't be too hard to find there in the DR.

If the Manhattan prosecuters get their way to secure the General's extradition, things will really heat up in your local. Sometimes governments are brought down by serious scandals without an election. Lets remember Nixon.

 

[jeff_jones]

Truck - here's a note I made about the SINNoticias story:

“The interview took place while judge Saint-Vil was questioning César Cuevas Pérez, Minister-Counselor at the DR Embassy in Haiti. Who said Silsby came to visit him three times asking for an authorization to bring kids to the DR. He turned her away at each occasion. The third time she came accompanied by a Baptist pastor who said he was in a position to give him a document guaranteeing that the kids could leave Haitian territory.
Cuevas Pérez added that she also visited the DR Consulate several times, where she met Carlos Castillo, the Dominican Consul-General. The judge plans to question Mr Castillo as well.”

Castillo was the first to alert the media that he warned Silsby not to try to cross the border.

On a side note, Carlos Antonio Castillo Almonte is an interesting man. He owns one of the largest avocado growing and export companies in the DR - but has also been C.G. in Port-au-Prince for the past 10 years. Unlike diplomats at the Embassy who keep rotating. He's now running for senator from Ocoa for the PLD (the president's party). Sometimes he is referred to as Carlos Castillo Pimentel, after his father, who started the avocado business in San José de Ocoa and was a prominent general.

If we believe the Florentino connection (which would match her telling d'Adesky that she was covered by a “minister” in the DR), why did she bother to visit the Embassy and the Consulate and attract so much attention? She should have just gone straight to the border.
Then again, perhaps she picked the wrong crossing. Maybe the “papers” (or the right contact for the bribe) were in Belladère, or in Ouanaminthe (aka Juana Mendez)?

Truck - your label for Silsby as “village idiot” is totally accurate.
And I'm giving up trying to understand! I just hope the judge keeps digging.

 

[jeff_jones]

No I haven't had time to look into her yet. She was the Fiscal of San Cristobal, yes? Tell me, truckbomb, is she known by her single name, Maria Asuncion Santos, or her married name Maria Asuncion Santos de Lara?

Lambada - I haven't found anything about her, but the one mention in a 2007 State Dept paper. Which lead me to think originally, when Puello became so eager to "spill the beans" to anyone who would listen, that he simply made it up (like hundreds of other stories), so others would run with it.

Remember, one day he was a direct descendant of Luis de Torres, another day his Jewish heritage came from a Swiss grand-aunt. The DEA duped him, but his new building in Santo Domingo would be built "by the prestigious US development company, Empire State Development"!
You have to give it to the guy, his imagination is endless.

But maybe you'll find out more about the lady, being on the spot.

 

[believe09]

I thought we had a seperate thread on Silsby and her group...hmm my bad!

The person providing her with legal advice has just been arrested for...wait for it....human trafficking. He and his wife have also been accused of running a brothel out of their home...

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/19/haiti.baptists.adviser/index.html

Forgive me if this story has already been linked....

 

[truckbomb]

When the judge said he wanted to interview the General, Silsby’s fate and this thread became linked with the external international drug investigation by prosecutors in four countries. It was Silsby’s bad luck to have wandered into the hornet’s nest by her zeal in the mission to collect children under the cover of the post earthquake chaos in Haiti.

This comes about whether she hired the woman lawyer to lease the DR temporary quarters and/or her church accepted the representation of Puello.

I think that Puello informed Silsby while she was first jailed his discovery that the woman lawyer’s name was on papers Silsby held and then told her about his theory about the involvement of the General (Who else having contact with the jailed Silsby would have told her?).

Now the judge in Haiti has to deal in teh environment of all of this external mess before he can be comfortable in releasing her. His best choice is to let Silsby go to trial. Now we are likely talking months more here

 

[Lambada]

Lambada - I haven't found anything about her, but the one mention in a 2007 State Dept paper. Which lead me to think originally, when Puello became so eager to "spill the beans" to anyone who would listen, that he simply made it up (like hundreds of other stories), so others would run with it.

But maybe you'll find out more about the lady, being on the spot.

Oh I remember that case well - caused a huge stir at the airport in SD. But it wasn't a trafficking case so much as extortion by a member of the Fiscalia staff, a secretary called Farconelis de los Angeles Rivera Santana, who promised people documents to be able to leave the DR & work in Spain. You can read about it in English from DR1 News 29th May 2006. Scroll down to
Huge travel bunko at Las Americas

María Asunción Santos de Lara, the Fiscal of San Cristobal, always maintained that this was nothing to do with the Fiscal's office but a private entrepreneurial endeavour by Farconelis de los Angeles Rivera Santana, who had worked at that office for 20 years.
Grupo estafado con falso viaje trata de linchar mujeres
It was memorable because those who had been defrauded (some 250-260 people) tried to linch Farconelis de los Ángeles Rivera Santana and Gina Pellestier de León when they came to Court.

Explican estafa del viaje

And in case you think history doesn't repeat itself, in April 2009 another San Cristobal Fiscal by name William Lara, was suspended for granting bail to a known dealer Rolando Florian Feliz
Destituyen procurador adjunto de San Cristóbal que favoreció a Florián Feliz

Florian was later assassinated Florian buried as a "hero"

María Asunción Santos de Lara was originally appointed by Presidential Decree (President Fernandez) back in 1999. Scroll down to Decree 499-99, Pp 117-8
GACETA OFICIAL

And in case you think I'm being anally retentive over giving sources it's because I live where I do and I do know the law about defamacion injuria.

 

[pinkpuddytat]

However, it should not have been hard to contact at least one of them through the State Department. I think they didn’t even try to call the legitimate lawyers when they were contacted by “free lunch.” What beats “free?”

What I recall reading was that they had tried to contact all three, and were unsuccessful in either reaching the person or securing their services in each case. Remember this was in the immediate aftermath of the quake. The State Department was busy, communications were a shambles, and this band of idiots was hardly a priority for either the State Department or any legitimate Haitian lawyer. Getting injured people out from under rubble was a priority. Figuring out how to get cargo planes in and out and get their cargo of food and medical supplies and rescue teams unloaded and distributed was a priority (there was a colossal air traffic back-up because the only operational runway was covered with planes that had landed and been unable to unload their cargo -- other planes loaded with relief supplies were being turned back after arriving in Haitian airspace, because there was simply no place for them to land).

If I'd been a legitimate Haitian lawyer, and my phone had miraculously still been operational, I wouldn't have returned any calls regarding these idiots. Do you realize how hard it was to find electricity to charge a cell phone in Port-au-Prince around that time? And I don't think anybody at the State Department gave a crap whether these idiots found a legitimate lawyer soon or ever -- they gave their goofy families and pastors three names and phone numbers, crossed that nuisance task off the to-do list, and moved on to more important things.

It must not have been hard to catch him. Directly using the internet whilst on the lam is not what a bin Laden would do.

I suspect authorities have known exactly where he was for quite a while, and were giving him rope, so to speak, by allowing him to continue his imprudent internet activities.

 

[pinkpuddytat]

In her best conniving Nixonian reply, Silsby confirms, “$12,000? I can get that. No Problema.” Of course she has no ability or intention of gathering that sum relying on her ecclesiastical authority and mission to get her past that minor requirement so she can cross the border with proper documents and carry out her objective. Nobody ever said she was smart. So Silsby got caught having no bribe money and was arrested when she betrayed the illicit conduit. Not smart. These are unforgiving folk with very long memories.

It's pretty clear that Silsby has spent the last decade in the US stringing people along with promises that "the money is coming", to the tune of millions of dollars. She's even managed to get away with this after court judgements ordering her to pay. I guess it was a shocker to her that in the third world, a demand for payment has to be met Right Now, Or Else . . . She didn't pay, and so for the past several weeks, she's been experiencing "Else" (and as you've pointed out, this may well be the mild version of "Else" with the serious stuff yet to come). Third world justice is what she's got coming IMO, and I hope she gets it.

 

[truckbomb]

Jeff says: Thanks for your extensive scenario, but I've had my doubts about the "lady lawyer + general" connection from the start.

First, because it came from Puello, who's a compulsive liar, and desperate to distract his audience. "Look, there are big crooks involved!"

Jeff, Pullo must have told Silsby the name of the General before he was arrested because Silsby could not have learned the name from Puello or anyone else after he went to earth. Silsby revealed the name to the Haitian judge who then increased his curiosity about the General’s possible involvement.

Puello’s credibility may well deserve question based on his Curriculum Vitae as a compulsive liar. I could understand a question of his credibility on this point post arrest as a means of deflecting blame by distracting his audience and making it up on the fly to Haiti Vox. However, I don’t see an ulterior motive to tell Silsby the name before he went into hiding.

Right now, I suspect that the Manhattan prosecutors already have their investigators sitting down with Puello in his new DR quarters and listening carefully to his canary singing before he gets a free ride to Salvador.

 

[truckbomb]

Lambada, thank you for the thorough research and citations. I read the articles in the original Spanish and have come to some disturbing conclusions. I refer to the incident where a number of people were bilked of their money by the person in the Lady Lawyer’s office to get ordinary air travel to Spain. It seems they were to be escorted to Spain by someone connected with the Mafia. If the Lady Lawyer was so innocent why did she get sacked? Mere supervisory incompetence? More likely a failure of sufficient direct evidence.

Then I read the similar case of bureaucratic corruption on the part of Feliz, who held a position very much like the Lady Lawyer. His downfall occurred because he wrongfully bailed out a drug dealer, most likely for cash.

The later assassination of Feliz connected with a drug dealer suggests people who get involved with illicit trade who know too much end up very dead. As for the Lady Lawyer, the Mafia as a travel coordinator organized by a subordinate right out of her office is a very disturbing connection where Puello identified the Lady Lawyer as involved with Silsby’s travel plans with the children.

Sleep well, Laura and pray your escort to your departure plane someday is the U.S. Consulate in Haiti.

 

[jeff_jones]

Video clip:

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/35981371

 

[Lambada]

truckbomb, it would be normal practice to fire the Fiscal after the secretary was prosecuted. Plus in 2006 there was a change of Attorney General from the previous one, Francisco Domínguez Brito, to the current one, Radhamés Jiménez Peña . Maybe the new AG wanted to clear the decks and start again?

With regard to Florian Feliz, he was a known dealer with a rap sheet as long as your arm. I never heard of him holding a Fiscal's position!! He did achieve urban legend status, though.

I think what everyone is skirting round is whether or not there was already in existence a well organised trade in the trafficking of either adults or children, into which happened the Silsby team, blowing the public profile wide open. I don't know the answer to this. If there was you can be fairly certain that damage control will have taken over as parties protect their rears.

NBC interviewed Silsby this morning, video & article here:
US Missionary Hopeful After 2 Months in Haiti Jail

oops, just seen jeff's post. Slow computer today (we had a little earthquake last night).

 

[truckbomb]

Lambada, thank you for the important correction re Feliz.

After viewing the video I see that Silsby confirms Puello’s statement that he contacted the Idaho church after they were arrested. I will accept that as interesting and maybe true but not yet verified independently.

And you are right that the traffickers have faded into the woodwork IMO like cockroaches not to be seen again. Maybe Puello will rat them out in hopes of a deal. But he better have some real evidence of higher up involvement.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a thread populated by very well informed and incisive people. I especially name Jeff, Pink, and Lambada who has access to very good source material. Great work and very helpful Folks.

Silsby still thinks the Diety will cause her release. Maybe so, but from her statement she appears to have learned nothing. Given the same circumstances she would harvest the children again.

 

[i.b.nora]

Interview with Steve McMullin, the Baptist.

Freed Idahoan missionary had no knowledge of jail cell note

by Scott Evans
Idaho's NewsChannel 7
Posted on March 20, 2010 at 10:28 PM
Updated today at 6:52 AM

snip

"From the beginning it's been clear that this mission trip to Haiti was led and organized by Laura Silsby.

What hasn't been clear is exactly how much others in the group knew.

For Steve McMullin, he said he was kept out of a lot of the dealings.

"I was told by other people that they had no parents, that those parents were dead," said Steve McMullin.

Steve McMullin is talking about the 33 Haitian children he's accused of kidnapping and trafficking.

The group got the children on January 27, three days before they were arrested.

"That night, we spent the night on the street, we got the kids and then we spent the night on the street in the bus, because we had no place to go," McMullin said.

The next day they tried to get them out of the country.

"We spent a lot of time going from agency to agency to agency to agency, looking for the documents, getting documents,” he said. “I never did see any documents.”

The lack of those documents led to their arrest.

"I figured it would be just a big misunderstanding and that we would be out in a couple days," he said."

Talking about the 'note' slipped to the NBC producer: "“I have no idea what the note is,” McMullin said. “I never saw the note. I saw it on TV after I got home, but that's the only knowledge that I have of it.”

McMullin said that he had talked to others about the note. He said they didn’t know about it and that he had no explanation about where or who the note might have come from."


Above is part of the written article, but there is a video interview in three parts. For me, the sound in the videos is barely audible, so if anyone else can hear anything important, please let us know.

 

[pinkpuddytat]

Talking about the 'note' slipped to the NBC producer:[/B] "“I have no idea what the note is,” McMullin said. “I never saw the note. I saw it on TV after I got home, but that's the only knowledge that I have of it.” McMullin said that he had talked to others about the note. He said they didn’t know about it and that he had no explanation about where or who the note might have come from."

The note *listed* all the arrestees except Silsby and Coulter, but was signed only by Carla Thompson. My recollection is that at the time the note was passed, the men had been sent to a different prison, so only the women would have been physically present when the note was written, and they wouldn't have had any way of conferring with the men. It's actual content was minimal, and basically just conveyed the message that "we've been lied to" (and that's how "we" got into this mess), and the main point seemed to be to spell out that "we" consisted of everyone in the group except Silsby and Coulter.

It doesn't sound like McMullin has talked to Carla Thompson or Corinna Lankford about the note. Apart from Silsby, Coulter, and 17 year old Nicole Lankford, they were the only women present in the jail cell when the note was passed. It's possible that Carla and Corinna have been advised by counsel not to discuss the note (or anything else), but its content was so innocuous that I'm hard-pressed to believe they wouldn't at least acknowledge to McMullin that they (or at least one of them) were responsible for it.

 

[Melly53]

I am a bit confused by this man's interview. He says that they only took children given to them by Orphanage Leaders. So who was the leader(s) and from what orphanage(s)? Also said regarding their supposed agency to agency quest for documents that he thought at least some of the documents had been prepared ahead of time, but he never saw any of the documents himself.