LAURA SILSBY LOSES HER GRIP ON THE GANG; DID THE CON GET CONNED?

This is the first part of a 2-part blog, which was becoming too long for comfortable consumption. Part 1 is limited to the latest story coming out of Haiti on the break-up of Silsby's onsite New Lifers and allegations of attempted court bribery last week.

The Laura Silsby child lifting case just keeps getting stranger.

MSNBC reporter Kerry Sanders reported Saturday that one of Laura Silsby's "missionaries" slipped a note to his producer Don Wood during an off camera interview. Signed by eight of the 10 prisoners, the note said the detainees feared for their lives. And seemingly feared Silsby.

The 3 minute broadcast is below.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Here are the relevant parts:

• We fear for our lies here in Haiti. There is corruption and extortion.

• Laura wants to control. We believe lying. We are afraid.

• Please you must listen. We have no way to call. Court will not let us have a say about truth for us We only came as volunteers. We had nothing to do with any documents. We have been lied to.

******

The Associated Press picks it up from there, reporting Sunday morning (Feb. 7) that Edwin Coq, the Haitian lawyer representing the group in court last week, has been fired by Jorge Puello, the Dominican attorney retained by the detainees' relatives, after they rejected the lawyer recommended to them by US Consular Services.

Puello in turn, hired Coq to work the Haitian end. Puello, the guy who a few days ago complained to CNN about living conditions in the jail, claims (and what's left of the Haitian government isn't denying it so far) that Coq tried to bribe Silsby & Co out of jail and out of the country with $60,000 he'd requested from the families for his fee, even though he told the AP on Friday that he was taking no fee. (No mention on Puello's fee, if he has one).

In another story from CNN Sunday, Coq claims he was actually hired by Eric Thompson, husband of detainee Carla Thompson, and had quit the case, not been fired as Puello claimed.The London Sunday Telegraph reported that Coq was preparing to resign anyway because he had not received money promised him by the families of this clients.

Puello has a different story. He says:

Coq initially requested a $10,000 fee, but kept asking for bigger and bigger amounts. He said that when Coq reached $60,000, he said he (Coq) could guarantee it would lead to the Americans' release. Coq orchestrated "some kind of extortion with government officials" that would have led to the release of nine of the 10 missionaries...He had some people inside the court that asked him for money, and he was part of this scheme."

Despite Coq's earlier claim of pro bono work, he does not deny he had the money (or at least some of it) , now claiming it was his fee (that didn't exist on Friday), not a bribe.

I have worked for 10 people for four days working all hours. Look at what hour I'm working now responding to these calls. I have the right to this money.

The story gets more interesting since both Puello and Coq have thrown Silsby under her own bus. At the Friday hearing, pleading for provisional release of all but Silsby (bail where bond is not required, which would permit the prisoners to return to the States until trial), he told the court that in his opinion the nine had been well-intentioned but naive volunteers duped by their leader who had lied to them that she had the legal documents to transport the children to DR. Puello agrees that Silsby lied to everyone else. He seems to have little interest in defending her.

The God that failed. The bribe that failed.
The story is so confusing. Silsby is so slippery. The other defendants so ignorant. To make things more complicated, Coq speaks Creole and no English, and has been working with Silsby through interpreters whose language skills seen to be questionable. Thus, we have a story full of questions, inconsistencies, conjectures, and holes making it difficult to offer sane observations. So far, MSM has not investigated the bribery allegations, instead taking them at face value. I can't decide without more information, though I can easily see the the morally deficient Silsby trying to buy her way out of her jam--with somebody else's money

These are some of my random meandering thoughts from the last 24 hours. I keep running them around in my head. They tend to change, so tomorrow I may have a whole set of new observations and conjectures, especially if and when new information is released.

• Why would the families or Puello hire an attorney who doesn't speak English or have decent translators? Surely there are better choices, even in the midst of Haiti's chaos. After all, Consular Services suggested a lawyer (who presumably spoke English). Why was this lawyer rejected?
  

• Were funds transferred to Coq, and if so, how much?

• Did Coq, in fact, have $60,000 in hand and did he want more? The report that he planned to resign from the case because he'd not received the funds promised suggests he didn't have the $60,00, the last amount the Puello mentioned, or that he wanted even more.

• Were, in fact, bribes offered to the court, or is this just a lawyer smackdown? If so, how much was offered and to whom for what? Since the Haitian government with its history of corruption has much bigger things to worry about right now, I don't expect this to be pursued, unless it's linked to something bigger. The Haitian and US governments just want this to go away.
  

• Was Laura Silsby aware of the bribe offer? As the "spokesperson" and self-appointed group herderm did she, in fact, suggest it under that self-made privilege she likes to throw around while the rest of the group sat on the floor singing praise songs? Reflecting on Silsby's murky financial history, lack of ethics in Idaho and Haiti, and her long failed history of rules-are-for-other-people lifestyle--what I call Silsby exceptionalism--it is almost inevitable that she would try to toss her trick bag stuffed with other people's money into a Haitian judiciary sinkhole and then credit God with their release--a release that only the delusional psychic grifter and her followers (maybe) could actually believe would happen. Though Silsby has complained she couldn't communicate well with Coq, would that prevent her from entangling him in her latest scheme through some other source?

• If Coq offered a bribe independent of Silsby, did Silsby know about it at some point?
  

• No matter where the bribe initiated, (if it did) did the other prisoners know about it? The group's specific reference to "Laura wants to control. We believe lying. We are afraid" tells me that they believe that Silsby not only lied about their rescue mission, but continues to lie to authorities and themselves; thus, putting them in some kind of danger. Would a failed bribe attempt (or rumor of attempt) fueled by their baby stealing plot be enough for them to fear retribution from people who didn't get the pay-off? Or do they actually fear Silsby?
  

• If there was an attempted bribe, who dropped the dime on Coq?

• Is Silsby expendable? Obviously she's the loony ringleader that can't stop mugging for the press, but beyond that, she offers no financial incentive to acquit. While the other nine have families to at least somehow support their attempt to repatriate Silsby has nothing but a foreclosed home, a failed business, lawsuits, a ruined reputation, and a lot of disillusioned churchies who won't be eager to donate to her defense fund.

• Was the whole thing a con? Did the con get conned?

I am particularly struck by Silsby's performance (and this is indeed performance) before Friday's court appearance. News videos, some of which can be seen in the above video, show a blissed out Laura Silsby leaving for court, patronizing smile on her made-up face, explaining patiently to her dumbo audience, that God will set them all free. She and her crew, in fact, took their packed bags with them to court, expecting to fly out of Port au Prince later in the day. Was her confidence based on her incessant phone conversations in her head with God or did she believe throwing around money would make the problem--and them--go away? I've been around a lot of evangelicals and fundamentalists over the years, but I can't remember anyone this jazzed on her personal interpretation of God' will. The woman just isn't plugged in.

Instead of the walls of Jericho falling at God's proxy commando, the ten prisoners were officially charged with child abduction and criminal association and remanded to new jails: the men to the severely damaged national penitentiary (all the prisoners escaped after the earthquake); the women to a women's prison in Petionville. Since Haitian law is based on the Napoleonic Code, anyone charged is considered guilty until proven innocent. The court has up to three months to decide the next move.

Incredibly, after the bad news that they might sit in jail for another three months, Silsby, enjoying her 15 minutes of fame overtime, gave a thumbs up to the press, (see above with her nanny Carissa Coulter) telling the press, "I feel good. I'm trusting God." Two days later her "missionaries" sent their note: "Laura wants to control. We believe lying. We are afraid."

"IT JUST SMELLED LIKE CHILD TRAFFICKING TO ME" -- US ORPHANAGE DIRECTOR SAYS OF SILSBY & CO

This nugget slipped through my fingers earlier this week. As far as I know, no one has picked up on the significance I think it has.

Haiti judge quizzes US missionaries over child case was published February 3, 2010 by the BBC. The article includes an interview with Hal Nungester, director of HIS Home for Children which underwent a babylift I wrote about earlier. (You need to see the video from the link above. The full length article that you click on at the bottom of the video has a greatly edited version that excludes Nungester as does the article.)

BBC: The director of this orphanage was contacted by the American missionaries but was suspicious.

Nungester: We're very cautious about anything that could even appear like traffiicking--child trafficking--and it just smelled like child trafficking to me.

The same day CBS News correspondent Bill Whittaker also interviewed Nungester:

CBS News has learned the Americans contacted at least two orphanages in Port-au-Prince after the quake. The director of this one turned them away and warned what they were doing was wrong.

"They were looking for 100 orphans to take to the DR, the Dominican Republic," Hal Nungester, with the H.I.S. Home for Children told CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker. "They had no paperwork. They had no authorization from the U.S. government, from the Haitian government, or from anyone involved. They were just taking kids. That fits right in with what I would classify as child trafficking."

We have heard stories that the team went orphanage to orphanage looking for children to collect for their mismanaged, ill-thought social experiment, but unless I missed it, this is the first time I've seen an American orphanage director and fellow missionary come forward publicly with his suspicions. I'm sure the interviews were longer than this, and I'd love to see them.

Also note in the opening of the video, Laura Silsby, when asked if she believed she owed the government of Haiti an apology, she says, she doesn't and goes on to say things are working out with God's help. This was before the was were remanded back to the slammer.

******

I am currently working on two new blogs, but am stuck with some fact checking. I hope to have one or both up soon.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS: NEW LIFERS ON A MISSION FOR GOD AND ADOPTION

My original blog, from which this is taken, grew and grew, so I'm splitting it up. Part 1 is Laura Silsby, and Chaissa Coulter and others in their own words. Part 2 are the voices and narratives of the children and parents exploited by the Idaho christo-suburbanites. If the blog continues to grow I'll split it some more.

Last night KTBV Boise aired an interview with Silsby. You can see the video and read the transcript here

Below are some excerpts from the interview which show clearly that Silsby still doesn't comprehend that she cannot just pick up kids off the street and ship them off to another country, even if God told her to do it. " (This audacious claim will be discussed in a later entry).

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.

and

Silsby called it all a mix-up and said the group is not guilty of any crime. We did have documents we had approval from the Dominican government to go over to, to take these children over to the Dominican Republic. We had we believe that we were getting conflicting information on what was required and we understood that Pastor Sandil wrote us a statement and then indicated that he...,"

This is from CNN, American Morning, CNN transcript, February 1, 2010:

LAURA SILSBY, DETAINED IN HAITI: We believe that we have been charged very falsely with trafficking, which, of course, that is the furthest possible extreme, because our hearts here, we literally all gave up everything we had, income and use of our own funds to come here and help these children.

CARLA THOMPSON, DETAINED IN HAITI: God is the one that called us to come here, and we just really believe that this was his purpose.

From CNN, For Haitian Parents Giving Kids to US Group Backfires Painfully, February 2, 2010

Haiti's government requires documentation stating approval for children to exit the country Silby acknowledged she had none.

From the New York Times, February 1, 2010, Case Stokes Haiti's Fear for children, and Itself:

Laura Silsby: "God wanted us to come here to help children, we are convinced of that."

and

"We intended to raise those children and be with them their entire lives, if necessary," she said, standing behind a door of thick metal bars in pedal pushers, sandals and a blouse printed with palm trees "These kind of children are sold across the border for the price of a chicken We wanted to give them lives of joy and dignity in God's love."

A records check, I made this evening, however shows that incorporation papers for New Life Children's Refuge were only filed with the Idaho Secretary of State on November 25, 2009, and that international adoption is the organization's mission. In part, the papers read:

A. ....The Corporation shall hold and manage funds for the establishment of a Children's Refuge designed to provide a loving Christian environment for abandoned and unwanted children. Plans include orphanages, schools, medical clinics, and villas for adopting parents. The Corporation plans to provide opportunities for adoption as well as a sound education for life skills...

New Life's Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission agenda, (which I'll write about in another blog) admits that it has no orphanage or any other facility outside of a rental hotel that God directed them to, but again, makes clear that its mission is international adoption:

Seaside Villas at Playa Magante: Villas for adopting parents to stay while fulfilling requirement for 60-90 day visit as well as Christian volunteers/vacationing families. Provide opportunities for adoption through partnership with New Life Adoption Foundation which works with adoption agencies in the U.S. to help facilitate adoptions and provide grants to subsidize the cost of adoption for loving Christian parents who would otherwise not be able to afford to adopt.”

But... there is no New Life Adoption Foundation registered with the Idaho Secretary of State. It is not listed as a licensed adoption agency in the state, and obviously is not an accredited international adoption agency with the US State Department. It is probably safe to say that now, it never will be accredited, if and when it rises from the rubble.

Adoptions to the US from the Dominican Republic are rare According to State Department figures, since 1998 there have been a little over 200. In 2009 there were 11. (link is a little wanky.) How the New Lifers thought, without accreditation, they were going to adopt out undocumented Haitian citizens from their group's DR hotel is one of the great mysteries only they--or God--an answer.

******

But there's more!

Earlier today the Associated Press posted a video of Chaissa Coulter, VP of New Life Children's Refuge, guarded by two Haitian cops in a University of Miami field hospital, as she's treated for either severe dehydration or the flu. Lying in bed, she looks and sounds pretty miserable. IRL, Coulter is Laura Silsby's live-in nanny. The link is now gone. I did, however, copy down her short interview. Coulter told the AP:

I am really praying that we'll be able to take these kids out and we will be able to provide a safe and loving home for these kids who have nothing and the charges will be dropped and they'll be able to see our hearts.

Coulter's father, Mel Coulter, an Idaho Department of Transportation spokesperson, has gone to the press to build up sympathy for his daughter and her colleagues. "Outrageous" he declares of the charge that she and her nine companions attempted to traffick or kidnap 33 children."When you are called by God to do something, you cannot say no if you are truly committed to following him." (You can see a picture of Coulter at the hospital in this article.)

******

Now comes Jorge Puello, an onsite attorney retained to represent the alleged traffickers complaining in the CNN American Morning link above, that the prisoners are living under unsatisfactory conditions:

There is no air conditioning, to electricity. It is very disturbing.

No! Yes! Really!

Would I make this up? He really said this while tens of thousands of Haitians have been left with nothing, living in the streets, or are dead. I bet there's even some homeless Haitians who would would be thrilled to have a roof over their heads at the jail. I'm waiting for Puello to suggest that the suburbanite New Lifers, in deference to their specialness, be held in beach houses at Labadee with meals catered by Royal Caribbean International.

In a phone interview with Fox News' Greta van Susteren, Puello complained that he has been able to meet with only one of the prisoners since no one in authority is handy to give permission to speak to the others. Perhaps the police have better things to do than jump when Americans and their surrogates with special needs say jump.

We get to the police station and we ask to see them and they say we need permission from the director general. When we asked them where is the office of the director general, they keep telling us they don't even know, that the building collapsed and there's no one there and they are just giving us the run-around.

Followed by this exchange between himself and van Susteren:

VAN SUSTEREN: Do you know what your clients intended to do with those children? Was it just to bring them to the Dominican Republic or to the United States?

PUELLO: There was no intention to bring them to the United States. They were only trying to take them to a temporary facility so they can be taken care of. A lot of these kids don't even know that their parents have died. They need psychological help. And it doesn't make any sense when at the border they are not asking for any papers. But Haitians cross over to the Dominican Republic and the Dominican government is not asking for passports or any ID to cross over.

VAN SUSTEREN: Where did they find these 33 children? How did they get these children?

PUELLO: There was an orphanage that collapsed in Haiti. It was called friends of the orphans of Haiti. And there was somebody over there that told them that the orphans had no place, no room to place them. And these people that came to Haiti to help these kids were trying to do a job that nobody is doing right now. There's too many kids in the streets. There's a lot of people starving to death in Haiti. And they were just trying to help them. There was no intention to do anything illegal.

******

Joining the pity party we have Sean Lankford, husband and father of two of the women being held, (Corinna and Nicole) accusing the Haitian government of not furnishing customary post-quake amenities. Lankford is a business applications developer for Hewlett Packard, Silsby's former employer.

From AEP, Parents "Reclaim Children in Haiti Abduction-Adoption Row

He said he had not been able to speak to them since their arrest and was concerned that they had not received better treatment in detention.

"First off, you know, I think they were required to give them food and water. I mean, the basic essentials for life. And they were to help them to contact counselors on their behalf -- at least to give them the ability to do that. They were late in doing that," Lankford complained. "I appreciate everything they have done. I know that it took them a while to find them first off. I know also that there's a lot of needs that are happening in Haiti," the Meridian, Idaho resident said.

******

The New Life media blitz so far has been a fizzle. Outside of a relative few supportive comments on the numerous articles and blogs I've read, the New Lifers are being soundly condemned for their actions.

Laura Silsby sitting--or rather standing from the pictures of seen--in her Haitian jail cell, continues to yatter on about good intentions, misunderstandings, and God's work. She hasn't grasped that "permission from the DR government or Pastor Sandil (I'm just beginning to research him) doesn't mean squat. As I wrote earlier, I've given my readers permission to stick up the convenience store of their choice. I trust they are not gullible enough to think that my permission exempts them from the long arm of the law. Now, I'll up the ante. I hereby give permission to all my readers to order online purchases from Silsby's homeshopper.com with fraudulent credit cards. Hey, it's OK. In these hard times my readers are desperate for Fendi clutch wallets and Balmain fuck-me booties. God told me so.

I've been working over the question of intent and organization. One one hand I believe they knew exactly what they were doing, since they wrote about and fund raised it all over the 'net before they left. On the other hand, since they were not hooked into any established missions or aid groups who actually know the rules of engagement. Instead, they listened to the voices in their head, which apparently had no clue either. (I'll be writing about that later, too.)

Silsby's story remains full of holes...and she and her lawyer can't shut up. Rule 1 if you're accused of a crime: Don't talk to the media. And don't let your lawyer talk either. For a award winning entrepreneur (with endorsements from Joan London and Dr Phil) she sure is stupid. Or a liar. Or both.

I don't know if I'll put up anything tomorrow outside of adding links.

Addenda: Also read The 10 Arrested Christian Scavengers Had an Adoption Centered "Mission" For the Kids They were Caught Trying to Remove Illegally

TILA TEQUILA WANTS TO ADOPT HAITIAN ORPHANS

I know this is not serious Haiti news, but I just had to comment.

As if things can't get any worse in Haiti, now comes attention whore and obsessive tweeter Tila Tequila announcing she intends to adopt two (or three) Haitian "orphans." Of course this wouldn't happen even if hell freezes over.

Numerous sources report that Tequila, apparently recovered from her suicidal tendencies over the December death of so-called fiancee Casey Johnson and her thwarted "attempt" to adopt Johnson's adopted daughter (another hell freezes over impossibility) tweeted her orphan saving intent yesterday. Last month I wrote about the Casey Johnson adoption scandal here.

My favorite headline is Hollywood Gossip's Tila Tequila Threatens Haitian Orphans with Adoption. Her tweets include (original spelling)

I will adop 2 children from HAITI....I'm going to try to do that ASAP! Those poor babies ! Mommy is coming to rescue u my Angels! xoxox.

I am going to have 2 biological babies of my own, then adopt 3 other babies who need a home! TILA FOR PRESIDENT!!!!For real

4 real Im filing papers now to adopt a child...a boy around 2 years old!! I'm sooooooo excited! AHHH oops! I wasn't supposed 2 tell u that!"

Aceshowbiz reported another tweet:

"I'm in the middle of filing papers to adopt another child right now! While I have my own, I want my baby 2 have a bro or sis 2 play with!,"

Yesterday, Tequila posted the following message on her official webpage Tila's Hotspot and her My Space blog

Hey everyone!

Even though I am already pregnant right now, I have always wanted to adopt at least 2 or 3 more children of my own. Right now with all the horrible things happening in Haiti, I have decided to go file some papers to see if I can at least save 1 baby from Haiti and bring he/she to America and provide a nice, loving, home for my adopted child and save the baby from the tragedy going on in Haiti right now!

Love,
Mama T

Ace also says that in the middle of making her Haitian adoption plan Tequila asked for volunteer sperm donors for the second baby, she plans to make immediately after the birth of the first.

I wanted to go back and look at her tweets myself to see if there were any more, but Tequila has deleted her Twitter account. (Maybe hell did freeze over!) As I was finishing this entry, for some insane reason I looked around and found an archive them here, (pages 4-6.) Interspersed with dozens of inane obsessive chatter about herself, her alleged baby, her "business" plans, Casey Johnson, and all around public masturbation, you'll see this:

I am the virgin Mary, and my child will be born Jesus Christ. I am the second Coming.......God told me so. I shall save all good people

You will also see several claims that "the Ambassador" (unnamed) supports her adoption plans.

Just got done talking 2 Ambassador! Hes gonna help me adopt a child from HAITI! Im so blessed! Ok guys thats all 4 twitter. I got work 2 do!

and

I swear this is wut the Ambassador emailed me in regard 2 adopting a baby frm Haiti "God Bless your heart you are truly one of God's angel!

It would be nice to think the Twitter account was nuked because her family staged an intervention, but they didn't. She promises us a new "celebrity blog" soon.

Now I'll return to real Haitian news.

POLITICAL ARMTWISTING IN PORT AU PRINCE: IT'S STILL ALL ABOUT ADOPTION, IT'S STILL ALL ABOUT US

I've been meaning to post this addition to the Very Important Person Hall of Fame.

On January 29, ABC 4 in Salt Lake City reported a baby lift story that involves Very Important Persons in Utah and beyond. The Very Important Person Magnet is Stephen Studdert, (a VIP in his own right) an adviser to Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush. You can read his bio on his Studdert Group webite.

According to the ABC 4 report Studdert started the Utah Hospital Task Force and negotiated the "release" of 125 "orphans (the figure was later corrected) bound mostly for Salt Lake City and presumably nice Mormon homes.

As a former mission president for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Studdert started the task force with a call to all former L.D.S. missionaries who served in Haiti to return in the aftermath of the earthquake to serve again, this time as volunteer interpreters. The task force was expanded to also include medical teams, construction workers and security personnel.

The Task Force doesn't have a webpage, but it does have a blog and a Facebook page. It is working with Healing Hands for Haiti International Foundation, 501(3)(c), which seems to be an L-d-S organization, founded in Salt Lake in 1998. Its mission is fostering the expansion and quality of rehabilitation services for the benefit of physically disabled adults and children in Haiti. The Healing Hands facility in Port au Prince was severely damaged in the earthquake. Dr. Jeff Randle, founder and Chair of the Healing Hands Governance Committee has just returned from a week in Haiti. His blog is here.

According to ABC 4, the "orphan" evacuation had been "up in the air" for a week. On the 28th it was called off again when the adoption agency handling the children said that the Prime Minister of Haiti (why is it that US reporters can't actually write his name?) Jean-Max Bellerive, had left the country without signing the releases. The Deseret News pouted, "The Haitian prime minister had run off to Canada." The same article parenthetically informed us: "he was reportedly in Canada." (NOTE: Google is your friend).

Bellerive, in fact, was in Montreal attending a conference with US Secreatry of State Hillary Clinton, Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper and others to "review and improve the delivery of short-term aid as well as chart a course for long-term recovery"--hardly as important, of course, as expeditiously sending off a few dozen adoptables to be Mormonized and Caucasianized. The Miami Herald reported that after the Montreal trip Bellerive went to the Domincan Republic, presumably on business, not to live it up at someplace like Villa Castellamonte to spite USA paps.

On Thursday evening, around the time Studdert's "rescue plane" landed, agency reps said they were informed Bellerive was returning to Port au Prince, but would not be available until some time Friday to finalize the authorizations. The "rescue plane" might be forced to return without its human cargo.

Then, like Jones, along came Studder. ABC 4 reports: (my emphasis):

The jet (Studdert's plane) landed in Port au Prince late Thursday night with a task force of 110 Utah volunteers.

ABC 4 News has learned Stephen Studdert, the task force leader, went immediately into negotiations with both U.S. and Haitian officials on the fate of orphans from the Foyer de Sion Orphanage -- 70 of whom already have adoptive parents waiting for them in the United States.

These negotiations continued through the early morning hours of Friday while the task force's charter jet remained on the runway at the Port au Prince airport in violation of rules requiring relief aircraft to depart within 90 minutes of arrival.

Aid planes were delayed or diverted, so Steve Studdert could bring home the bacon to Utah.

On January 29, at 8:48 AM the Healing Hands blog posted a text message that the organization had negotiated the release of 125 "orphans" who were headed to Miami.

We have negotiated the release of 125 orphans bound for SLC and are on ramp in Haiti. Steve Studdert and Executive team along with full support from US Military and US Customs and ICE Agents made it happen. It is truly a miracle.

According to ABC 4, 70 of the "orphans" were going to adoptive parents waiting for them in the US. As usual, reporting was fuzzy and incurious with universal claims that the children had been adopted pre-earthquake, though it is more likely they were in the pipeline. Maybe.

The adoptions went through For Every Child. Here is its Haiti Adoption page. Agency rep Lori Timmerman told ABC 4 that the agency was scurrying to arrange for host families though social service agencies if "extra children do in fact make the trip to Utah."

Extra children??? And how might they get through?

But wait! There's more! Watch this video from the SLC Fox affiliate where we learn that the "release" was pushed through by Utah Senators Orrin Hatch (right), Bob Bennett, two other unnamed US Senators, the US Ambassador, and two unnamed former White House officials. Here is Hatch's press release. In an entry dated Jaunary 29, 8:15 PM, the task force blog acknowleges assistance from Hatch and Bennett.

And we can't forget God who created this massive orphan migration for his greater glory and to make the American middle class feel good about itself. Lori Rosenlof, a pap in waiting of two and Port au Prince orphan herder told the Deseret News, "God has had his hands all over this."

Foyer de Sion publishes blog updates here and also mentions Hatch.

The number of children supposedly sent to the US varies greatly. Initially, the Utah Task Force said 150 would be taken out. The number has varied due to paperwork problems, final release authorizations, last minute changes, misstatements, and misreporting. 150 was downgraded to 141, 125, 70, and finally 66, a figure the task force says is correct. Other children reportedly will be airlifted by other aid agencies when the US government approves entry.

Jason Glen Taylor, a volunteer with the Utah Hospital Task Force hit the public's panic button when he begged, during the Fox video, "These babies will not survive here. There's babies dying in the streets. Let us take these babies home."

But those babies are not dying in the streets--not those with a troop of task force nannies taking care of them. Instead babies are dying in streets, hospitals, and camps due to lack of medical supplies and other aid while privileged politicians, their cronies, and "desperate" US paps hog air space and tarmacs, twist arms and play Great White Hope.

It's all about adoption! It's all about us!

SMALL UPDATE IN HAITI: "CHRISTIAN" CHILD LIFTERS IN HAITI "DIDN'T UNDERSTAND" BLAH BLAH BLAH

It's only mid-afternoon, but it's become clear I won't finish my follow-up on the New Life 10 today, though I'm working on it. There is so much material to wade through.

In the meantime, I recommend that you read Mike Doughney's latest blog, Personal Shopper.com CEO Arrested While Returning from Free Child Shopping Trip to Port au Prince. Also read his previous blog below it. This is very important stuff. I have linked them both under "Featured Blogs" on the right sidebar.

Here is an excerpt:

Looked at from the point of view of an entrepreneur, what are these things? First, establish a warehouse for the merchandise, and processing facilities to make the merchandise suitable for the customer. Second, expedite the process of governmental approval which customers must obtain, making them as comfortable as possible while they fulfill the government’s mandate of a 60-90 day stay. Third, provide financing for the customers. Fourth, provide food and refreshment to the customers, which along with the lodging provides a “bubble” in which customers need not interact with the locals.

But as a business plan, there’s nothing to it, if the people putting it forward can’t seem to grasp the basic illegality of its initial premise. The children of Haiti are not theirs to process and export, to satisfy the endless demand for adoptable children without history, a demand their mythology creates.

Also go to the Baltimore Sun site for an AP video of the baby lifters trying to explain it's all a "misunderstanding"...they need God's love." According to raid commander Laura Silsby, IRL, the CEO of Personal Shopper.com, they "did not understand that there was additional paperwork required." Quite a big different from her quote in Reuters (and other articles) last night "I was going to come back here to do the paperwork."

Yeah, Laura. Trafficking children across national borders is a bit more problematic than selling leopard print pajamas over the Internet.

Later today I will be posting another Very Important Persons entry that I had started before the New Life baby raid.

BREAKING NEWS: DO-IT-YOURSELF EVANGELICALS POPPED ATTEMPING TO REMOVE "'ORPHANS" FROM HAITI ILLEGALLY

Reuters and other news sources are reporting that a band of 10 US evangelicals with Idaho-based New Life Children's Refuge were arrested at the Malpasse border crossing (above picture in better days) trying to take 33 undocumented Haitian children into the Dominican Republic. The five women arrested were from the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, and the five men from the East Side Baptist Church in Twin Falls (new reports indicate a couple men were actually from out-of-state). The 10 are currently housed in what I assume is the extremely unpleasant Haiti Judicial Police headquarters.

I have pulled quite a bit of information on New Life and the child smugglers, and intend to write about this incident at length tomorrow. I don't want to put out wrong information so, I need to clarify some of the documents I've collected. In the meantime, I've thrown a little bit together to get the word out. Here are the relevant parts of the story as published so far (my emphasis):

Authorities said the Americans had no documents to prove they had cleared the adoption of the 33 children -- aged 2 months to 12 years -- through any embassy and no papers showing they were made orphans by the quake in the impoverished Caribbean country.

"This is totally illegal," said Yves Cristallin, Haiti's social affairs minister. "No children can leave Haiti without proper authorization and these people did not have that authorization."...

...But Laura Sillsby [sic] from the Idaho group told Reuters from a jail cell at Haiti's Judicial Police headquarters, "We had permission from the Dominican Republic government to bring the children to an orphanage that we have there."

"We have a Baptist minister here (in Port-au-Prince) whose orphanage totally collapsed and he asked us to take the children to the orphanage in the Dominican Republic," Sillsby [sic] added.

"I was going to come back here to do the paperwork," Sillsby said. "They accuse us of children trafficking. This is something I would never do. We were not trying to do something wrong."

NOTE: I wonder if Silsby (her name is incorrectly spelled in the news report) tells the judge when she's popped for driving without a license, "I was going to get it next week." And what about the part where she says she had permission from the orphan master in Port-au-Prince to traffick the kids across the border. Bastardette hereby gives her Dear Readers permission to stick up a convenience store and to use her permission as your defense.

But back to the news.

The Associated Press reports further:

Silsby said they had documents from the Dominican government, but did not seek any paperwork from the Haitian authorities before taking 33 children from 2 months to 12 years old to the border, where Haitian police stopped them Friday evening. She said the children were brought to her by distant relatives, and that the only ones to be put up for adoption would be those without close family to care for them...

Sean Lankford, the father of one of the US detainees told the AP (my emphasis)

The plan was never to go adopt all these kids. The plan was to create this orphanage where kids could live. And kids get adopted out of orphanages. People go down and they're going to fall in love with these kids, and many of these kids will end up getting adopted.

According to CVBC's latest newsletter, which includes an itinerary of their child snatch mission, New Life is:

in the process of buying land and building an orphanage, school and church in Magante on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic...He (God) has provided an interim solution in nearby Cabarete, where we will be leasing a 45 room hotel and converting it into an orphanage until the building of the NLCR is complete.

And a prayer request:

NLCR is praying and seeking people who have a heart for God and a desire to share God's love with these precious children, helping them to heal and find new life in Christ.

As we suspected, God caused the earthquake and the deaths of tens of thousands of Haitians so old and new-made "orphans" could not only be reborn as cornfed adopted Americans, but reborn in Christ through the good services of New Life Children's Refuge and others of their ilk and trade. Isn't that the same thing?

There are growing reports of children missing from orphanages and hospitals, but this is the first solid report we have of do-it-yourself baby lifters caught attempting to remove children from Haiti illegally--for the good cause of adoption and redemption, of course.

I suspect due to the chaotic circumstances in Haiti, the US Embassy, which has its hands full already, will lift the traffickers visas and kick them back to Idaho, but I'd really really really really like the Haitian authorities to prosecute them for child stealing.

I'm sure that by tomorrow morning we'll hear the bellowing of the missionaries slithering their way through Haiti: "Christians are being persecuted--for the children"

This is a significant story. These people just weren't spur-of-the-moment stupids They planned and publicized their raid. I hope the incurious press doesn't let it die.

Here is a picture of 8 of the 10 New Life child stealers with text from the AP:

American citizens pose for a photo at police headquarters in the international airport of Port-au-Prince, Saturday, Jan. 30, 2010. Ten Americans were detained by Haitian police on Saturday as they tried to bus 33 children across the border into the Dominican Republic, allegedly without proper documents. In the front row from left to right are Carla Thompson, 53, of Meridien, Idaho, Laura Silsby, 40, of Boise, Idaho, Nicole Lark Ford, 18, of Middleton, Idaho, and in the back row from left to right are Steve McMullen, 56, of Twin Falls, Idaho, Jim Allen, 47, of Amarillo, Texas, Silas Thompson, 19, of Twin Falls, Idaho, Paul Thompson, 43, hometown unknown, and Drew Culborth, 34, of Topeka, Kansas. The names of the two Americans not pictured are unknown

The New Life 10 are scheduled to appear in court on Monday.

Thanks to Luanne Pruesner-Van de Velde and anon guy

MY NEW BLOG SITE; END CHILD EXPORTATION AND TRAFFICKING IN HAITI

I have launched a new blog site: End Child Exportation and Trafficking in Haiti. It is not affiliated with Bastard Nation.

The unethical and often illegal removal of children from Haiti and subsequent identity erasure under the guise of "humanitarian aid" to serve small special interests is unprecedented in US child welfare history and policy. It is directly related to adoption secrety and control of information. The bastard and adoptee voice is being heard , but not loud enough.

Here is a description of the blog:

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 writers.

Please visit and support it!

GOOD NEWS: CAL AND JERSEY BAD BILLS DIE

For once we have some good news!

California AB 372 is officially dead! The January 22 deadline for it to pass out of committee and on to the Senate floor went by with no action. Although nothing official has come from sponsor Sen Fiona Ma, her office told CalOpen that the bill would "will not be pursued."

Astoundingly, CARE (California Adoption Reform Effort) as of tonight, has not seen fit to announce the demise of their bill on its website. It's last update is dated May 28, 2009. That's what we've come to expect, though, from fake reformers who scrub their website of their own history and embarrassing documents, dismiss an ideology of rights. embracing instead "non-emotional" wishes and desires", (whatever that means), and posit that adoptees need to be "navigated by professionals" rather than ourselves. Veteran grassroots bastard activists who have actually gotten clean bills passed were ordered to take a hike by the dilettantes of CARE.

We're sure CARE, like herpes, will come back. Jean Strauss and CARE are all over the March 18-21 AAC conference in Sacramento.

CalOpen and Bastard Nation continue to hold the line in California. There is much work to be done there, and it needs to be done by real bastards, not those of the Benedict sort, who (sorry to be trite), throw the baby out with the bathwater. If you're from Cali and would like to help, drop CalOpen a line.

On the New Jersey front, the veto-laden S611/A752 never made it through the year end process. It's dead.

Unfortunately, it's risen from the dead in the form of S799 and A1406, similar if not identical to last session's throw-away-our-rights-for-favors-for-some. What is this: Year 29 trying to get to bill passed, first clean and then pieces-a-crap? I feel bad for those people.I know some of them and like them. Really. But, as BB Church likes to remind us, if this were a job, they'd have been fired a long time ago. I fear the adoption-happy ACLU, crotch obsessed RTL Marie Tasy and her croaky bishops will just have to croak before rights are restored in Jersey.

There are some other bills pending, but at the moment reside in a state of confusion. Once they straighten up, well let you know.