10 U.S. Baptists charged with kidnapping Haiti children

Two hours after being told they didn't have the proper paperwork and not to even attempt to leave the country they were arrested at the border.

Nine of the ten members didn't know what they needed and didn't know they didn't have the documents. Laura Silsby the leader knew that they didn't have the paperwork and continued to try to lead her group out of country. < :-)

An example of people with a good idea and intentions acting without regard to the law.

Yep.

Their cause or their arrogance or desire to go around the law period, maybe all three, got in their way. < :-)

OssanAmerica I agree. I do not think that they went there to make money or steal kids etc etc but out of concern for what they saw going on in Haiti. Perhaps somewhere up the chain of command there were bad intentions but I bet that the majority of the people were church members moved by a real concern to do good for the kids. They were used as pawns perhaps but let’s not equate the groups with slavers or other such nonsense I have read. In the end ignorance of the law is no excuse for why one violates the law and they should be punished but perhaps intentions should mitigate any punishment dealt out.

FYI Church goers don not equal good people necessarily...they tried to skirt the law...pay the price....

Charge them and give them their day in a Haitian Court.

trying to cross a border with 33 kids from another country...you might need a few things.

Just stupid really.

Nine of the ten members didn't know what they needed and didn't know they didn't have the documents

Google it!

Sounds like religious nut jobs who disregard the law for their own selfrighteous agenda.

If some did not know, then they should be released. But those who did should face charges, sentenced then sent home. I don't think long term prison makes sense because I do think their intentions were not wrong. Just misguided.

Ignorance of the law is not a defense and neither are good intentions. as in "we only smuggled the kids so that they could have a better life", in another country.

Why could they not have taken them to another part of Haiti? The earthquake did not destroy the whole of Haiti as these apologetic press articles would like to cover for the missionaries.

Religious nut jobs for sure. Creeps and perverts.

I believe that the main Haitian jail collapsed in the quaker, so where are they being held?

wow, here's some new news about the "leader"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35243272/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake/

The woman leader has a ton of legal problems in the states. Read up on her. You can also see the holding pens where they are being held. No blankets and sleeping on the floor. Lots of mosquito bites too. I think they should prosecute the leader, but send the other 9 back.

goddog:

Nah, i think they should all stand trial. there's no way that 9 other adults could just be oblivious to what was happening. I dont think they'll get anything serious though.

This is all about $. These self-rightouus Christian extremest should be sent to Gitmo.

Send them to Gitmo! The leader was out to get paid. And use the stupid followers to fulfill her goals. Another example, of religion being an excuse for ignorance. This is why religion can be so dangerous. It makes good people throw out common sense for something that can't be tangibly proven true. There is a strong correlation between stubbornness and strong religious faith. The leader should get the toughest sentence.

Typical arrogant religious loons who do as they please with no real concern for others.

As they came to help your people give them your respect and honor before God judge your nation again. GOD loves America.

This seems to be more of a case of people with good intentions gone bad. They probably figured that they were helping those poor kids. Any objective look at the history of Haiti undoubtedly would lead anyone to the conclusion that the children would have been better off just about anywhere else in the world. However, it seems like the group were using the disaster as a means to basically kidnap them. I don't think there is enough information yet to say that they wanted to profit personally from what they did other then the satisfaction of doing what they believd their religion wanted them to do - which is to help desperately poor children. It's sad but there are just too many poor pitiful children in the world to save - and kidnapping isn't the way to try.

Not super surprised at this. Slightly surprised that 9 out of the 10 had no clue at all. I was expecting that maybe 2 or 3 were working in cahoots with Silsby and the rest were being duped...but all 9...hunh. They are either incredibly naive or Silsby is one crafty gal. I am going with the naive theory.

It seems they really did want to help these kids but were ridiculously ignorant of many things. For instance, if they were unaware that there was no paperwork, where the heck did they think the paperwork was? In Silsby's briefcase? Obviously none of them had even glimpsed it, since it didn't exist.

I really do think that those 9 blindly believed everything Laura Silsby told them.

I think most of this is a perfectly legit misunderstanding. They weren't smuggling kids -- there was no secret sneaky-by going on, the parents of the kids knew about it and wanted them to go to a better life, and all 10 have been cooperative. Also, we're talking about Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, here. I'd be surprised if the government there even knew how to officially identify its own citizens, much less keep any migration or visa data.

They're not religious nutjobs trying to kidnap children, as far as anyone can tell. Had you actually read the article, they'd been planning to go to Haiti long prior to the earthquake on humanitarian reasons and for creating a Haitian child welfare center, which clearly fell through. I think labeling them bonkers speaks more disturbingly about the name-caller's failure to mete due process of law and assert guilt without actually investigating the matter at hand.

@meloveulongtime - Skirting the law is to obey the law. If you drive 44kph in a 45kph zone, you're skirting the law. If you drink up to .1 within the intoxication limits of public drunkenness, you're skirting the law. To skirt it is to respect the line that's been drawn and not break it.