Posted on 02/09/2010 8:48:02 PM PST by ETL
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Parents of some of the children who 10 U.S. missionaries tried to take out of Haiti after its catastrophic earthquake told a judge Tuesday that they freely handed over their kids, the Americans' lawyer said.
The parents' testimony means no law was broken and "we can't talk any more about trafficking of human beings," attorney Aviol Fleurant told reporters.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Hillary Clinton, as secretary of state, you should be working for the release of these folks NOW based on the testimony. They apparently did more good than your “Smart Power.”
Even if these folks did break the law, I’d hardly put them in the same league as child traffickers. It seems to me motive should be a major consideration.
Praying for them. Even the leader who seems to be the only questionable one.
The other shoe drops, seemingly. It looks like the scandal is about to go away.
But. I thought these were orphans? How do you get parental permission for an orphan?
From the article, “Parents of some of the children who 10 U.S. missionaries tried to take out of Haiti after its catastrophic earthquake told a judge Tuesday that they freely handed over their kids, the Americans’ lawyer said.”
The missionaries tried to take 33 children out of Haiti. These “parents” that testified....how many were there? How many of the 33 children were related to these parents? Also, did the missionaries have, or not have, the required paperwork for some, or all of these children?
It might be true, by extension, that surviving custodial adults were all asked permission and all granted it. I hope it is true.
It takes much more wisdom than compassion to really help people.
One investigative reporter in Haiti following up on this situation said he could only find one family that would _not_ consider giving up their kids (and they were talking adoption, not this situation where the kids could return), if it promised them a better life. And some of the parents of the kids involved in this case said they wouldn't be able to care for the kids if they were forced to take them back. It's a very difficult situation.
From the article, “The parents’ testimony means no law was broken and “we can’t talk any more about trafficking of human beings,” attorney Aviol Fleurant told reporters.”
From what I read in that article, only SOME of the parents said they gave permission. So how does that jive with what this attorney is saying? Just because SOME of the parents gave testimony doesn’t necessarily mean that “no law was broken” in the attempted taking of 33 children.
And before anyone gets all riled up at my question, I am NOT saying these folks were into child trafficking, etc. But it sure seems to me that someone did something wrong, or these folks wouldn’t be in the mess they’re in. And why hasn’t our government come to their aid?
Let’s see: Idaho, Republican, Caucasian.......OK, I get the picture....Hill and Barry don’t give a rats rear.
I hope these folks had their hearts in the right place too, and that they’ll be o.k. Well, except for that one gal. Sounds like she needs to have her head and heart checked.
Hey, that’s like the liberals saying the reason we didn’t do something more in Darfur was because of the color of their skin. I say that because some loony-lib actually accused Bush of that. That he didn’t care about them because of their color.
Just tryin’ to keep it real lest I sound like one of the idiots on the left.
Some of them were not orphans at all. Think about it. You’d give your kids away - gladly - if you thought they’d have a better life with white folk. I think this stinks to High Heaven. I think they took advantage of the parents right in the worst catastrophe of their lives. They were vulnerable. I’m not saying I think these Christians should go to jail or anything. But I am saying there are consequences to dumb stupid ignorant behavior.
Here is the scam. The orphans go to America and then the parents are miraculously found alive! Praise the Lord! The parents can come to America and get ENDLESS freebies. So YOU American suckers can pay for it.
Keep it up and bankrupt your America kids future you idiots! Haitians and other illegals have ruined FL schools. Your American child can now learn Creole which is pidgin French.
Lock these Baptists up so they can do a prison ministry in Haiti instead of bringing Haitians back to America to bankrupt FL and America.
Well make up your mind who was “dumb stupid ignorant.” The parents/guardians or the Christians.
It sounds like you have never spent much time in third world countries, where corruption is rampant. In most of those places you need to have a wad of cash in your pocket at all times to fix any "misunderstandings".
Put another way, you can assume that essentially everything that has been done to aid Haitians has violated one or more laws there. For instance, do you think all of those doctors and EMTs who rode across the border from the Dominican Republic and saved thousands of lives were licensed to practice medicine in Haiti? Did any of them have work visas? Of course not, and what they did was almost certainly a violation of the law. Even the folks handing out food in many cases lacked the necessary permits, etc.
During the first few days the locals were pretty much stunned, and among other things the normal corruption was on hold. After a few days it came back to life, and pretty soon they were back to their old ways.
Anyone considering trying to help out in Haiti should use great caution now, and even if you are considering donating money or supplies be very sure they aren't just going into somebody's Swiss bank account.
It does stink to high heaven. We have 300,000 + Haitians in FL and most are on every govt beneit plan you can imagine and about 10 you cannot believe exist. Send the 300,000 Haitians to Idaho with these Baptist do gooders. Let them bankrupt Idaho.
Haitian parents willing to give away children does not make anyone interested in taking them able custodians.
they weren’t tryint to bring those kids to the US. they were takinbg them to another orphanage on the same damn island
No other group working in Haiti is complaining about harrassment and many of them are Christian.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.