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Thwarted by a police officer in an earlier attempt 3 days before their arrests to export 40 *Other* kids- more on Silsby and the Scavengers

CNN has new details up tonight. Anderson Cooper AC360 also included a video segment discussing a new witness’s perspective on the actions of Silsby and the 9 other American missionary child scavengers’s actions,

Americans jailed in Haiti tried taking other kids, officer says

The group of American Baptist missionaries in Haiti who are facing kidnapping charges for trying to take 33 children out of the country last week made an earlier attempt at taking dozens of other children, according to a Haitian police officer.

The officer, who did not want to be identified for fear of reprisals, said he stopped the 10 missionaries, including group leader Laura Silsby, on January 26 as they allegedly tried to transport 40 children on a bus from Haiti to the Dominican Republic.

The officer says he stopped the group and ordered the children to get off the bus. He then directed Silsby to the Dominican embassy.

In the Anderson Cooper segment there was discussion of the officer having made it clear to the group that what they were doing was illegal and that they lacked proper paperwork. This, three days BEFORE they were arrested trying to take the 33 kids.

If this is an accurate retelling of the officer’s account, none of the 10 can possibly claim they were unaware appropriate paperwork was required. How many other attempts were made, and were any actually successful?

To continue to gather kids, this time from a different part of the city than their previous thwarted attempt, pretty much says it all.

They apparently knew, they continued on, and when caught, they played dumb.

***

I’ll work towards digging out more details in the morning.

Filed under: Uncategorized on February 9th, 2010


7 Responses to “Thwarted by a police officer in an earlier attempt 3 days before their arrests to export 40 *Other* kids- more on Silsby and the Scavengers”

  1. Baby Love Child Says:
    February 9th, 2010 at 3:15 am

    Here’s an earlier piece of AC360 video readers may want to watch.

    Missionaries’ case: lies     from Feb 4th.

  2. Baby Love Child Says:
    February 9th, 2010 at 1:11 pm

    Knew I had this somewhere, this is an earlier video segment from Feb 4th, Interpreters: Detained Americans met with cop, seeking kids’ passage.

    I do not know if this is the same officer mentioned in the article above or not, but if it is, that’s interesting in and of itself. It leads to an important question:

    Did he become a witness to avoid any culpability on his own part in trying to help the 10 get the kids out of the country?

    Ten Americans accused of trying illegally to take 33 children from Haiti had met with a Haitian police officer and a Dominican official the week before being stopped at the border, interpreters who worked with the group said Wednesday.

    One interpreter said the officer offered to help the Americans with the paperwork required take the children out of the country.

    and

    Around noon Wednesday, Haitian authorities took away for questioning a Haitian police officer who works at the Dominican Embassy, officials said.

    They said he would be asked whether he provided illegal paperwork to the Americans to facilitate their efforts to remove the children from the country.
    Three interpreters who had translated for the Americans told CNN that the Americans met last week at least twice with the officer — at the embassy and consulate.

    and

    One interpreter said representatives of the group met with a Haitian police officer on January 26. The officer told Silsby that her group couldn’t gather Haitian children as they were doing, but then offered his help, the interpreter said.

    “They met a police guy and he told them that he could help, and he was helping them with some paper,” interpreter Steve Adrien said. “We did not meet him in a police station, but in the street in a car.”

    The Americans met again with the man in Port-au-Prince on Thursday, near the Dominican Embassy, the translator said.

    “He was helping Laura [Silsby] to get in touch with the ambassador in the Dominican Embassy,” said Isaac Adrien, Steve’s brother and another of the interpreters.

    He said the group came away from the meeting with a document from the embassy that the Americans took with them to the border Friday.

  3. Baby Love Child » The 73 Haitian kids deserve genuine justice, not a premature release of the scavengers Says:
    February 14th, 2010 at 10:33 pm

    […] Thwarted by a police officer in an earlier attempt 3 days before their arrests to export 40 *Other* … […]

  4. Baby Love Child » Haiti fails its children, releases 8 Child Scavengers on nothing more than their (worthless) word Says:
    February 17th, 2010 at 6:51 pm

    […] Thwarted by a police officer in an earlier attempt 3 days before their arrests to export 40 *Other* … […]

  5. Baby Love Child Says:
    March 12th, 2010 at 6:49 pm

    This January 26 trip has formed the basis for Judge Bernard Saint-Vil ‘s new (March 12th) charge against Laura Sislby, “organization of irregular trips”

    See this article-
    http://goo.gl/M6ex

  6. Baby Love Child » Haiti- New Charge brought against Laura Silsby, “organization of irregular trips” Says:
    March 12th, 2010 at 8:33 pm

    […] wrote about that trip on February 9th, in my post Thwarted by a police officer in an earlier attempt 3 days before their arrests to export 40 *Other* …. The post and my comments contain links to the initial reporting I was able to find on that […]

  7. Baby Love Child Says:
    March 16th, 2010 at 1:33 am

    One other small detail has emerged relating to how the officer in question knew about the busload of kids:

    The officer thwarted the group’s plan after he was alerted by a concerned citizen about the bus loaded with Haitian children.

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