Eight American missionaries arrived in Miami hours after they were freed from a Haitian jail.
Lt. Kenneth Scholz with the U.S. Southern Command said Thursday that a C-130 cargo plane carrying the Americans landed at Miami International Airport. The group still hadn't emerged from customs as of early Thursday.
They were allowed to leave by Haitian judge Wednesday, nearly three weeks after they were jailed for trying to take a group of children out of the earthquake-stricken country.
The eight — looking bedraggled and sweat-soaked — walked out of the Haitian jail escorted by U.S. diplomats just after dusk. They waited until they were safely inside a white van before flashing smiles and giving a thumbs up to reporters.
Hours earlier, judge Bernard Saint-Vil told The Associated Press that eight of the 10 missionaries were free to leave without bail or other conditions after parents testified they voluntarily handed their children over to the missionaries.
"The parents of the kids made statements proving that they can be released," he said, adding that he still wants to question the group's leader and her nanny.
Entitled to Evacuation flights
Kimberly Flowers at the U.S. Embassy would not confirm that the Americans were leaving on a U.S. government chartered plane, citing privacy law. She said that as U.S. citizens, they were entitled to evacuation flights.
The group will be flying out of Haiti Wednesday night, said defense attorney Aviol Fleurant. Their destination was not immediately known. Reporters were denied access to the Port-au-Prince airport tarmac where the released detainees were taken.
The missionaries, most from two Baptist churches in Idaho, are accused of trying to take 33 Haitian children to the Dominican Republic on Jan. 29 without proper documents. Their detentions came just as aid officials were urging a halt to short-cut adoptions in the wake of the earthquake.
The missionaries say they were on a humanitarian mission to rescue child quake victims by taking them to a hastily prepared orphanage in the Dominican Republic and have denied accusations of trafficking.
Group leader Laura Silsby originally said they were taking only orphaned and abandoned children, but reporters found that several of the children were handed over to the group by their parents, who said they hoped the Baptists would give them a better life.
Saint-Vil said he still wants to question Silsby and nanny Charisa Coulter about their visit to Haiti in December before the earthquake, but he asked for Coulter to be hospitalized because of her diabetes.
Earlier Wednesday, Coulter of Boise, Idaho, briefly received treatment but was then taken back to jail.
"We are very pleased that Paul, Silas, Drew, and Steve have been released by the Haitian court," said Caleb Stegall, a Kansas district attorney who has been helping some of the defendants. "Their families are relieved and anxious to have them safely home, and we are turning all of our energies toward bringing them back as safely and quickly as possible,"
Gary Lissade, the attorney for American Jim Allen, said he expected the charges to be dropped against the eight.
It's hard to react
Relatives in the U.S. received the news of the judge's decision cautiously.
"Until I know they're on a plane on their way home, it's hard to react," said Drew Ham, assistant pastor of a Baptist church in Meridian.
Silsby's sister, Kim Barton, said learning that her sister could not leave Haiti was difficult.
"At this point I don't have any comment. I don't know any more than you do," Barton said.
The group early had been embarrassed by revelations that a man who briefly served as their legal adviser and spokesman in the Dominican Republic is wanted on people-smuggling charges in the United States and El Salvador.
U.S. Marshals say they are hunting for Jorge Puello, who was already being pursued by authorities in the Dominican Republic on an Interpol warrant out of El Salvador, where police say he led a ring that lured young women and girls into prostitution. He also had an outstanding warrant for a U.S. parole violation.
Puello said he volunteered to help the missionaries after they were jailed and said he never met any of them before they were detained.
Puello — who surged into the spotlight by providing food, medicine and legal assistance to the jailed Americans — acknowledged in a phone interview with The Associated Press Tuesday that he is named in a 2003 federal indictment out of Vermont that accuses him of smuggling illegal immigrants from Canada into the United States.
He said he is innocent of the accusations.
Puello said he was in Panama and preparing to return to El Salvador to fight the charges against him there. His whereabouts could not be confirmed.
Puello's involvement with the Americans began to unravel when authorities in El Salvador noted his resemblance to the suspect in the sex trafficking case. He acknowledged on Monday that he is in fact the suspect but said he was wrongly accused and will fight the charges.
France's national anthem blared across the tarmac on Wednesday as Nicolas Sarkozy made the first visit ever by a French president to Haiti, once his nation's richest colony — offering aid to a country prostrate after a catastrophic earthquake.
Sarkozy promised $370 million over two years to support Haiti during its reconstruction and announced France's decision to forgive Haiti of its $76 million in debt.
Moments earlier, Haitian President Rene Preval greeted the French president as a brass band played the Marseillaise to start a quick tour of the earthquake ravaged capital and a French field hospital.
Some Haitians are welcoming France's new interest in their nation as a counterbalance to the United States, which has sent troops there three times in the past 16 years. But Sarkozy's visit is also reviving bitter memories of the crippling costs of Haiti's 1804 independence.
A third of the population was killed in an uprising against exceptionally brutal slavery, an international embargo was imposed to deter slave revolts elsewhere and 90 million pieces of gold were demanded by Paris from the world's first black republic.
The debt hobbled Haiti, it seemed for life.
A country plagued by natural and unnatural calamities was desperately poor and mismanaged even before a magnitude-7 earthquake smashed up the capital Port-au-Prince on Jan. 12, killing more than 200,000 people and leaving more than a million homeless.
New Era For Relations?
Haitian politicians this week diplomatically skirted the question of French reparations — a demand put to Paris by ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004. That suggests Sarkozy's four-hour visit could herald a new era.
French officials say Sarkozy will announce details of "a French plan for the reconstruction of Haiti" — if Haitian officials agree. It differs little from proposals from Haitian, U.S. and U.N. officials to decentralize power away from the devastated capital and boost agriculture and tourism.
The trip brings Sarkozy to an island where, French officials acknowledge, fascination with things French duels with strong, lingering resentments.
One official close to the French presidency, briefing reporters in Paris on condition of anonymity, hinted that France is not deaf to calls for reparations, calling Sarkozy's visit "an occasion to show that France is mobilizing to give Haitians control of their destiny and pay past debts."
France has already said it was canceling all of Haiti's 56 million euro ( about $77 million) debt to Paris.
Repaying France for lost property
In 1825, crippled by the U.S.-led international embargo that was enforced by French warships, Haiti agreed to pay France 150 million francs in compensation for the lost "property" — including slaves — of French plantation owners.
By comparison, France sold the United States its immensely larger Louisiana Territory in 1803 for just 60 million francs. The amount for Haiti was later lowered to 90 million gold francs.
Haiti did not finish paying the debilitating debt — which was swollen by massive interest payments to French and American banks — until 1947.
But Haiti's wealth already was destroyed. It had been the world's richest colony, providing half the globe's sugar and other exports including coffee, cotton, hardwood and indigo that exceeded the value of everything produced in the United States in 1788.
By the early 1780s, half of Haiti's forests were gone, leading to the devastating erosion and extreme poverty that bedevils the country today.
France's other former colonies in the region — Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Martin, St. Barts and Guiana (in South America) — all have voted to remain part of France and send legislators to the French parliament.
The 10 U.S. Missionaries (from an Idaho Baptist Church) who were jailed in Haiti on false Child Kidnapping/ Human Trafficking charges, may finally be freed on a Provisional basis pending an ongoing investigation.
No thanks to Pres. Obama's Administration who seemingly tried to throw them under the bus without getting all the facts.
Praise God! Prayer does work.
As I stated in a previous blog post those 10 Missionaries were being used as a scapegoat to hide the fact that Haiti's Gov't is full of Corrupt leaders, who waste Foreign Aid funds for personal use and allow Haitian Orphans to be sold in Child Trafficking/ Sex Slavery schemes.
The international media spotlight on this situation also exposed that most of Haiti's Orphanages are nothing more than Money Laundering fronts used to procure more Foreign Aid. (This too was mentioned in my post.)
In fact the NY Times later published a post to substantiate what I wrote about Haiti's Orphanages and CNN reported on Haiti's Corruption.
The Missionaries hired a Haitian lawyer but he was actually a crook who tried to extort them for $50,000. and was working against them.
Thank God they discovered his devious plans and fired him.
After they hired a Honest Dominican Republican Attorney to represent them, the truth about their real purpose for being in Haiti was finally revealed.
Now they are being freed.
The outcome of this case along with reports of miracles regarding Haitian Survivors (after Earthquake), proves that God is real and he does answer prayer especially for people who were just trying to help Poor, Black Children.
God Bless those 10 Missionaries and much success!
For more coverage on this story check out the videos and articles below.
Judge Bernard Saint-Vil must now send his recommendation to the prosecutor, who may agree or object, but the judge has the final authority to decide whether they stay in custody or go free.
Saint-Vil said he was making his recommendation a day after questioning the Americans and hearing testimony from parents who said they willingly gave their children to the Baptist missionaries, believing they would educate and care for them.
"After listening to the families, I see the possibility that they can all be released," Saint-Vil told The Associated Press. "I am recommending that all 10 Americans be released."
Later, Saint-Vil said he would recommend provisional freedom for the detainees while the investigation continues. But it wasn't clear whether their possible release means they would be allowed to leave Haiti, or what implications the judge's decision could have on whether the charges may be dropped.
By midday Thursday, Saint-Vil had yet to deliver his formal recommendation to the prosecutor.
Gary Lassade, an attorney for one of the Americans, said he expects the judge will recommend the case be dropped — though the prosecutor could also appeal that ruling.
The Americans, most from an Idaho Baptist group, were charged last week with child kidnapping and criminal association after being arrested Jan. 29 while trying to take 33 children, ages 2 to 12, across the border to an orphanage they were trying to set up in the Dominican Republic.
The following day, group leader Laura Silsby of Meridian, Idaho, told the AP that the children were obtained either from orphanages or from distant relatives. She said only children who were found not to have living parents or relatives who could care for them might be put up for adoption.
However, at least 20 of the children are from a single village and have living parents. Some of the parents told the AP they willingly turned over their children to the missionaries on the promise the Americans would educate them and let relatives visit.
Drew Ham, assistant pastor at Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, said Thursday that the judge's recommendation is encouraging but it's too soon to celebrate with the detainees still in custody.
"It's a good sign," Ham told the AP. "But we still don't have confirmation of their release."
On Wednesday, from behind cell bars in the stuffy, grimy jail where they have been held, the missionaries refused to be interviewed.
"We've said all we're going to say for now. We don't want to talk now," Silsby said. "Maybe tomorrow."
The women were held separately from the men, who shared their cell with nine Haitian men, some of whom played checkers on the cell floor.
"We will not talk unless our lawyer is present," said Paul Thompson, pastor of the Eastside Baptist Church in Twin Falls, Idaho. Lassade represents Thompson's cousin, Jim Allen of Amarillo, Texas.
A Dallas attorney for Allen, Hiram Sasser, told the AP that his client was recruited just 48 hours before the group left last month for the Dominican Republic on what Silsby termed an emergency rescue mission.
"He did not know many of the other people who were on the mission trip, or what other people were going to do, or about paperwork," Sasser said.
Silsby had decided last summer to create an orphanage in the Dominican Republic and in November registered the nonprofit New Life Children's Refuge foundation in Idaho.
After Haiti's catastrophic Jan. 12 earthquake, she accelerated the plan and recruited her fellow missionaries. Silsby told the AP she was only interested in saving suffering children.
She told the AP after her arrest, however, that she did not have all the Haitian papers required to take the children out of the country.
A Dominican diplomat told the AP he warned her that without those papers she could be arrested.
The 10 Americans detained on kidnapping charges are pleading for the United States government to do more on their behalf and for the news media to focus on them less.
“Help us,” one of the detainees, Carla Thompson, said Monday as she lay on a bed in a scorching Port-au-Prince jail cell of about 8 feet by 5 feet, her ankles bandaged from infected mosquito bites. “That’s the message I would give to Mr. Obama and the State Department. Start helping us.”
Sitting on a dirty concrete floor in the cell, another detainee, Corinna Lankford, nodded in agreement, a frustrated look on her face. “I have faith in God,” Ms. Lankford said. “But maybe the U.S. government could help a little more, too.”
“No one is giving us any kind of information about what is going on,” she added.
The detainees, most of them affiliated with Baptist churches in Meridian and Twin Falls, Idaho, arrived in the chaotic days after the Jan. 12 earthquake. They were detained as they tried to take 33 Haitian children whom the Baptists said had been orphaned into the neighboring Dominican Republic.
Some of the children later said they had parents, and Haitian prosecutors have charged the Americans with kidnapping and criminal association. The Americans have said they were on a charity mission.
Asked whether they believed their case had become a distraction to the quake disaster, several of the prisoners became upset.
“Yes, without a doubt,” said Ms. Thompson as she suddenly started to cry.
“We came here to help, and now there is all this attention on us,” Ms. Lankford chimed in as she, too, began to cry.
The investigating judge, Bernard Saint-Vil, questioned the prisoners on Monday and Tuesday and planned to hear from them as a group on Wednesday.
“I want to hear what they thought they were doing,” he said. “I hope to hear from the parents of the younger ones.”
On Monday, Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told The Associated Press that his country would consider having the Americans transferred and tried in a United States court, since most government buildings in Haiti — including the country’s courts — had been severely damaged in the earthquake.
Mr. Bellerive has suggested the country would not oppose a trial of the Americans in a United States court because of the severe damage to Haiti’s own government buildings, including the courts. American officials have said they intend to let the Haitian justice system take its course. Judge Saint-Vil has said he intends to investigate the case fully.
For Laura Silsby, the leader of the group of Americans, that process began on Monday.
Sitting on a brown tattered couch in Mr. Saint-Vil’s office, she waited to discuss her fate. A Bible lay on her lap, and her hands shook. “I’m nervous,” said Ms. Silsby, 40, furtively glancing at the judge.
In an interview before the judge questioned her, Ms. Silsby said she, too, was frustrated with the level of American government involvement.
“It has mostly been missionaries, not the government, that has been providing us with food and medicine,” she said, adding that one of the prisoners, Charisa Coulter, 24, who is diabetic, was lacking insulin for the first week of her detention. On Sunday, a missionary was allowed to deliver medicine to her.
The Americans said that they were being treated well by guards and other prisoners. They said they were passing the time reading the Bible, napping, praying and snacking on sugared cereal and potato chips provided to them by missionaries.
They also said that they took the children in good faith.
“We were told by officials at the border that we could go back the next day and get the remaining papers,” said Silas Daniel Thompson, 19, as he stood in his cell surrounded by Haitian men.
Ms. Silsby said she was going to do that on behalf of the group, he said, “but then they arrested us before we got the chance.”
Listening attentively from the adjacent cell, Nicole Lankford, 18, the daughter of Corinna Lankford, began shaking her head.
“Our point was to draw attention to the plight of Haitian orphans,” she said. “We came here to help, not to become the story.”
On Tuesday, Reginald Brown, an American lawyer for Jim Allen, one of the detainees, wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, asking her to personally get involved in the case. Mr. Allen is a construction worker from Texas who said he was in Haiti to rebuild orphanages.
“We think it is clear that the unprecedented situation that exists in Haiti now requires a response beyond what would be expected in the ordinary course,” read the letter, which was released by Mr. Brown’s office.
Also on Tuesday, Haitian officials allowed Louis Gary Lissade, a former justice minister in Haiti who is also representing Mr. Allen, to bring a satellite phone into the jail so Mr. Allen could call his wife, Lisa, who was in Dallas, and assure her that he was all right. He said that he was not getting much information about his case, but was optimistic that he would be released as soon as the facts were known.
“I love you, I miss you, we’ll be O.K.,” he was heard telling her. “Don’t worry.”
The floors were concrete and the windows were broken.
There was no electricity or running water. Lunch looked like watery grits. Beds were fashioned from sheets of cardboard. And the only toilet did not work.
But the Foyer of Patience here is like hundreds of places that pass as orphanages for thousands of children in the poorest country in the hemisphere. Many are barely habitable, much less licensed. They have no means to provide real schooling or basic medical care, so children spend their days engaged in mindless activities, and many die from treatable illnesses.
Haiti’s child welfare system was broken before the earthquake struck. But as the quake shattered homes and drove hundreds of thousands of people into the streets, the number of children needing care grew exponentially.
Chronic problems — like inadequate services, overwhelming poverty and shady orphanages — have only intensified, while the authorities fear that some of the less scrupulous orphanages are taking advantage of the chaos to round up children in crisis and offer them for sale as servants and sex slaves.
But it took the arrest last weekend of 10 Americans caught trying to leave the country with 33 Haitian children to focus international attention on the issue. While there is no evidence that the Americans, who said they were trying to rescue children in the aftermath of the earthquake, intended any harm, the ease with which they drove into the capital and scooped up a busload of children without documents exposed vast gaps in the system’s safeguards.
“This has called the world’s attention because it is the first clear piece of evidence that our fears have come true,” said Patricia Vargas, the regional coordinator for SOS Children’s Villages, which provides services to abandoned children around the world. “Our concern as an organization is how many other cases are out there that we are not aware of.”
At the front lines of the system are the orphanages, which run the gamut from large, well-equipped institutions with international financing to one-room hovels in a slum where a single woman cares for abandoned children as best she can.
Most of the children in them, the authorities said, are not orphans, but children whose parents are unable to provide for them. To desperate parents, the orphanage is a godsend, a temporary solution to help a child survive a particularly tough economic stretch. Many orphanages offer regular family visiting hours and, when their situations improve, parents are allowed to take their children back home.
But instead of protecting Haiti’s most vulnerable population, some orphanages have become tools of exploitation, the authorities fear.
“There are many so-called orphanages that have opened in the last couple of years that are not really orphanages at all,” said Frantz Thermilus, the chief of Haiti’s National Judicial Police. “They are fronts for criminal organizations that take advantage of people who are homeless and hungry. And with the earthquake they see an opportunity to strike in a big way.”
There is no precise count of the number of orphanages in this country, the number of children living in them, or of the children who are victims of trafficking, although Unicef estimates that number in the tens of thousands per year. The authorities said thousands of those trafficked were sold as servants, known as restaveks, to well-to-do Haitian families. Others, officials say, are smuggled into the Dominican Republic to do domestic and agricultural work, often in appalling conditions.
In recent years, the government has tried to crack down on trafficking, establishing special police units known as child protection brigades that monitor children leaving the airports or crossing borders. But a State Department report issued last year said the brigades did not pursue trafficking cases because there was no Haitian law against the practice. The government “did shut down a number of unregistered orphanages whose residents were believed to be vulnerable to trafficking,” the report said.
And in the wake of the earthquake, the authorities suspended all adoptions pending a review of hundreds of applications already in the system.
But Haitian authorities acknowledge that the fledgling efforts of a financially struggling government long plagued by corruption have proved little match for the highly organized, multimillion-dollar criminal networks.
Manuel Fontaine, a child protection specialist with Unicef, said his agency was also concerned that Haiti’s inability to monitor orphanages and keep track of children moving in and out of them left them open to abuses.
“With the system already fragile before the quake, we knew something like this could happen,” he said of the effort by the 10 Americans. “We warned authorities here to be on the lookout.”
It was unclear what the future holds for the 50 children crammed into two bedrooms at the Foyer of Patience, some of them scampering around in clothes that were either too big or too small, and others wearing no clothes at all.
The director of the orphanage, Enoch Anequaire, said he opened the center five years ago but has had no time to get a license. He said he provided an education to the children, but there was not a single book, piece of paper or pencil in the house.
He said he fed them three square meals. At noon, one recent day, several said that they had had nothing to eat.
Mr. Anequaire, whose own clothes were pressed and shoes polished, said he had been overwhelmed with new children since the earthquake. He pointed out five boys who arrived last Wednesday and said that an aunt had brought them in because their homes had collapsed, and that their mothers were unable to feed them.
Some of the children, however, said Mr. Anequaire had come looking for them.
“He came to my house and told my mother he needed 10 more kids,” said one of the boys, whose names were withheld from this article to protect them from retribution.
Mr. Anequaire denied this version of events.
Across the street stands another orphanage, two-story compound called the Foyer of Zion, where more than 60 children live in airy, cheerfully decorated rooms. Still, on a recent visit, it was woefully understaffed and poorly equipped. Children in the nursery were kept in stacked wooden boxes rather than cribs.
The director, Marjorie Mardy, said that the center was financed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that several members from the United States had rushed to Port-au-Prince after the earthquake to take home children who had been in the adoption process for more than two years.
Most of the children, however, were in legal limbo, she said. Their parents had not given up custody, nor had they any clear plans for bringing the children home. Many children had been dropped off at the orphanage without any documents providing their names, ages or need for specialized care, which Ms. Mardy acknowledges she is unable to provide.
There was a baby so frail and shriveled she was clearly sick, but Ms. Mardy said she had not been able to take her for tests. A toddler who seemed lethargic and unresponsive had been running a low-grade fever since arriving at the orphanage after the earthquake. But she had not been taken to a doctor.
“In Haiti, it’s not like the United States where people have jobs and homes and security,” Ms. Mardy said. “And if people have no security, how can they give security to their children?
“We try to give them that security,” she said. “But at times like these, it’s overwhelming.”
The solution, say child protection advocates, lies as much in fixing families as fixing orphanages.
“If we are going to really protect children, orphanages have to become a family’s last resort,” said Suzanna Tkalec, a human rights lawyer and child protection specialist at Catholic Relief Services, which is developing a program to provide social and economic support for the families of some 2,000 displaced children.
“Anything that recreates a family is a much better option.”
Lomene Nerisier is a living example of what is possible. After her husband kicked her and their three children out of their house in La Mardelle, she begged an orphanage in the village to give the children to a family that might provide them a better life.
The director, Gina Duncan, offered Ms. Nerisier a job instead. She received part of her salary in cash and the other part in materials to build her own house. Three years later, she not only takes care of her own children, but she also teaches preschool.
Today she is proud of her accomplishment, but not naïve about what sets her apart from the vast majority of mothers in this country.
“I am lucky,” she said. “So many women do not have jobs. They do not have land to grow food for their children. If their choice is to watch their children starve or give them away, they are going to give them away, and hope that they have put them in good hands.”
Either way, the decision is heart-wrenching for parent and child. Stanley Vixamar, 10, cried through the night on his first night at the Foyer of Patience.
“I wanted to stay with my mother even though our house has fallen down,” he said. “I love her.”
A Haitian judge could rule Thursday on whether to release on bail 10 Americans detained in Port-au-Prince on child abduction charges, an attorney for one of the Americans said.
The judge has investigated the case against the group thoroughly, Hiram Sasser, director of the Liberty Legal Institute, told CNN's "American Morning," and the testimony of Haitians in the case "really exonerated Jim [Allen] and the others."
Allen is among 10 missionaries charged a week ago with kidnapping children and criminal association for trying to take 33 children out of Haiti without proper documentation following the January 12 magnitude-7.0 earthquake there.
His wife, Lisa Allen, said Thursday she has suffered "horrific anxiety" since the detentions. "I'm confident that the people of Haiti will do the right thing and bring Jim home," she said.
Sasser said he hopes the ruling comes Thursday, or else it will not come until Monday. Friday is a day of mourning for quake victims in Haiti.
The 10 will not be required to appear in court for the ruling.
The Americans have said they were attempting to help the children get to a safe place and wanted to establish an orphanage in the Dominican Republic. Some of the Americans have said they thought they were helping orphans, but their interpreters have told CNN that they were present when group members spoke with some of the children's parents.
Some of the parents also said they had willingly given their children to the Americans, who promised them a better life and said they could see their children whenever they wanted.
Earlier this week, Jorge Puello, a Dominican attorney hired to represent the group, said the missionaries had authorization from the Dominican Republic to bring the children across the border, but he did not show the documents to reporters.
Dominican officials have said previously the Americans did not have permission to transport children into the country, and Puello did not say whether the group had authorization from Haitian officials.
Allen said she was able to speak with her husband briefly on Tuesday. "He sounded good. He said he's well," she said. "That's what I'm having to go on. It was a very short conversation, but it was great to hear his voice."
She said her husband is a construction welder who wanted to help after seeing the devastation wrought by the Haiti quake. Asked whether she thought her husband was unaware of plans involving the children and had been tricked, she said no, but did not elaborate.
Sasser said Jim Allen was called on the trip to "participate in construction activities. ... Whatever happened and the facts there, we'll find out when he gets home and we'll piece it together."
Another attorney for Allen, Reginald Brown of Washington, sent U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a letter on Tuesday asking her to intervene in the case personally, but a State Department spokesman said Clinton would not get involved.
"It would be highly unusual for the secretary of state to intervene in a case involving the judicial process of another country," spokesman P.J. Crowley said.
Ten U.S. Baptist missionaries charged with child kidnapping returned to jail Friday after failing to persuade a judge to grant them provisional release pending the outcome of their case, their lawyer said.
The weary looking Americans were led one by one into the back of a police van after spending half the day at a courthouse in the rubble-strewn capital. A judge scheduled three more days of hearings next week, starting Monday, defense attorney Edwin Coq told reporters.
Haitian officials at the court declined to answer questions from Journalists about the case. The missionaries did not respond to questions and Coq said they had been ordered by the judge not to discuss their case.
The lawyer said that at least nine of the Americans — all but the group's leader, Laura Silsby — clearly did not know they lacked the proper papers to remove 33 children from Haiti following the devastating earthquake and they should be immediately released.
"They came to Haiti to help. They came in solidarity," he said. "It is scandalous that they are being detained."
Prior to the closed hearing, Coq told reporters he would ask the judge to grant the detainees "Provisional Release," a type of bail without money posted. He said they should be allowed to leave Haiti until their trial, a date for which has not been established.
An investigating judge charged the Americans on Thursday with kidnapping for trying to take the 33 children across the border into the Dominican Republic on Jan. 29 without documentation.
Coq says Silsby knew she couldn't take the youngsters without proper paperwork. But he characterized the other nine missionaries as innocents caught up in actions they didn't understand.
The Baptist group, most of whose members are from two Idaho churches, insisted they were rescuing abandoned children and orphans after the Jan. 12 quake.
But at least 22 of the children, ranging in age from 2 to 12, have parents. Some of the parents told The Associated Press they gave them up willingly because the missionaries promised the children a better life.
Each of the missionaries is charged with one count of kidnapping, which carries a sentence of five to 15 years in prison, and one of criminal association, punishable by three to nine years. Coq said the case was assigned a judge and a verdict could take three months.
"Obviously this is a matter for the Haitian judicial system," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday.
Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, now a special U.N. envoy for Haiti relief, met with President Rene Preval in Port-au-Prince on Friday, but said his visit had nothing to do with the detained Americans. He did say Washington was monitoring their welfare.
Three national leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention sent a letter Friday to President Barack Obama urging him to "do everything within the authority of your office to secure a safe return home" for the detainees.
The leaders added that they could not "speak authoritatively about the motives and actions" of those detained, saying they went to Haiti on their own and weren't part of the Southern Baptist Convention's international relief efforts.
Silsby, who wanted to create an orphanage for Haitian children in the neighboring Dominican Republic, and the other nine went to Haiti after the earthquake to gather children for their project.
Most of the children were from the village of Callebas, where people said they handed the kids over because they couldn't feed or clothe them. Their stories contradicted Silsby's account that the children came from collapsed orphanages or were handed over by distant relatives.
Silsby also said she believed she had all the necessary documents to take the children. The Dominican consul in Haiti, however, said he warned Silsby her mission would be considered child trafficking if she lacked adoption papers signed by Haitian officials.
The Dominican consul general Wednesday rejected the claim from an American church leader that she thought her paperwork was in order when she attempted to take 33 Haitian children out of the country, saying he had told her it was not.
"I warned her, I said as soon as you get there without the proper documents, you are going to get into trouble, because they are going to accuse you, because you have the intent to pass the border without the proper papers and they are going to accuse you with kids trafficking," Carlos Castillo said he told the group's leader, Laura Silsby, during a meeting Friday.
Four hours later, Silsby and nine other Americans were turned back from the border. They were arrested and taken to a jail in Port-au-Prince.
"This woman knew what she was trying to do was not legal," Castillo said.
A CNN reporter attempted to get reaction to Castillo's comment from the jailed Americans, but they would not discuss the matter, responding to questions by singing "Amazing Grace" and praying.
Told earlier that many of the children had living parents, Silsby said, "I did not know that."
She added, "In our hearts, our intention was to help children that had been orphaned or abandoned by their parents."
But the interpreters the group had used said the conversations between Silsby and the parents in the Haitian town of Calebasse made clear to them that Silsby must have been aware of the children's status.
SOS Children's Villages, an Austrian charity, said that it has determined that at least two-thirds of the children are not orphans.
Authorities on Wednesday questioned a Haitian police officer who works at the Dominican Embassy about whether he provided illegal paperwork to Silsby and the other Americans to facilitate their efforts as alleged by interpreters who had translated for the Americans.
The interpreters told CNN the Americans met at least twice last week with the officer, at the embassy and consulate.
"He told them that he could help, and he was helping them with some paper," said interpreter Steve Adrien. "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.
Isaac Adrien, Steve's brother and another of the interpreters, said the group came away from the meeting with a document from the embassy that the Americans took with them to the border Friday in their unsuccessful attempt to cross.
A Haitian lawyer representing the Americans told reporters that the arrests themselves were illegal and that their clients had only been trying to help. They are to appear Thursday before the attorney general.
The group, New Life Children's Refuge, said it was rescuing abandoned children by moving them to the Dominican Republic, where it was building an orphanage.
At least some of the group are members of the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho.
Several residents of the village of Calebasse, more than an hour from Port-au-Prince, told CNN they voluntarily handed over their children after Silsby told them she would give them a better life.
Pastor Jean Sainvil told CNN he rounded up 20 children from a camp in the Delmas neighborhood of the capital. "I just got the word out that I am going to look for some children to be going with a group of missionaries," he said.
Some of those who responded apparently included parents. "One of them turned five children over," he said. He said no money changed hands.
The group has no experience running an orphanage, has not registered as an international adoption agency and has not filed with the U.S. government as a nonprofit.
Church pastor Clint Henry was unfazed. "I believe that the kind of knowledge that it takes to begin an organization that works that way was in place," he told CNN. "The kind of employees that it takes to successfully run an orphanage, those were going to be hired."
The matter drew attention Wednesday from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
"It was unfortunate that, whatever the motivation, that this group of Americans took matters into their own hands," she said.
The number of Haitian orphans taken to the United States -- those whose approval and paperwork had been in the bureaucratic pipeline at the time of the disaster -- stands at 578, with 44 others processed and awaiting transportation, said U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley.
A group of U.S. missionaries in Haiti was charged Thursday with child kidnapping and criminal association for allegedly trying to take children illegally out of the earthquake-hit country.
After announcing the charges, Haitian Deputy Prosecutor Jean Ferge Joseph told the 10 Americans their case was being sent to an investigative judge.
"That judge can free you but he can also continue to hold you for further proceedings," the deputy prosecutor told the five men and five women in a hearing.
The 10 members of an Idaho-based Baptist Church were arrested last week on Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic when they tried to cross with a busload of 33 children they said were orphaned by the devastating Jan. 12 quake.
They deny any wrongdoing.
The group's lawyer, Edwin Coq, said the church members face three to nine years in prison if they are found guilty at trial. If there is a trial, it could be three months away.
"We're not 100 percent sure if they will find them guilty. I don't think they will, I don't think there will be a charge," he said.
Earlier, Coq said that nine of his 10 clients were “completely innocent,” but added that “if the judiciary were to keep one, it could be the leader of the group.” He appeared to be referring to Laura Silsby, who helped organize the mission to Haiti and has spoken for the Americans since they were detained last Friday.
The Idaho-based church group contends it was trying to rescue orphaned and abandoned child victims of the Jan. 12 earthquake. Haitian officials say many of the 33 children found with them at Haiti's border still had parents, though they may have handed over the children willingly.
According to Haitian authorities, the group was trying to cross the border into the Dominican Republic without the required documents.
People in the village of Callebas have contradicted claims that the children, aged between 2 and 12, came from orphanages or were handed over by distant relatives.
They said they had surrendered their children after a local orphanage worker, fluent in English and acting on behalf of the Baptists, convened nearly the entire village of 500 people on a dirt soccer field to present an offer from the Americans.
Isaac Adrien, 20, told his neighbors the missionaries would educate their children in the neighboring Dominican Republic, the villagers said, adding that they were also assured they would be free to visit their children there.
Adrien said he met Silsby in Port-au-Prince on Jan. 26. She told him she was looking for homeless children, he said, and he knew exactly where to find them.
He rushed home to Callebas, where people scrape by growing carrots, peppers and onions. That day, he had a list of 20 children. Many parents said they had jumped at the offer.
"It's only because the bus was full that more children didn't go," said Melanie Augustin, a 58-year-old who gave her 10-year-old daughter, Jovin, to the Americans.
Laurentius Lelly, a 27-year-old computer technician who gave up his two children, ages 4 and 6, said: "I am living in a tent with a friend. My main concern is that if the kids come back I'm not going to be able to feed them."
Lelly said he was worried the Haitian judicial system would not properly investigate the case.
"I would like to find out if these people were really going to help the kids or were trying to steal them," Lelly said.
Representatives of the missionary group said Wednesday from the Dominican Republic that the missionaries "willingly accepted kids they knew were not orphans because the parents said they would starve otherwise."
Prime Minister Max Bellerive has suggested the Americans could be prosecuted in the United States because Haiti's shattered court system may not be able to cope with a trial.
In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the attempt to bring undocumented children out of Haiti was "unfortunate whatever the motivation" and the Americans should have followed proper procedures. She said U.S. officials were in discussions with Haitian authorities about how to resolve the case.
Its no secret Haiti's Cruel Gov't has a notorious history of Corruption.
This Corruption includes stealing Foreign Aid to live like Royalty, keeping Haitian Citizens in extreme Poverty (Children too) and allowing Child Trafficking/ Sex Slavery to occur.
The Haitian Gov't than keeps those Children in its Orphanages as a means of bringing in even more International/ Foreign Aid and for Human Trafficking/ Sex Slavery purposes.
Why don't Haitian citizens use Birth Control or practice Safe Sex you ask?
If the Haitian Gov't doesn't allow Birth Control to be distributed or Sex Education to be taught, how do you expect its citizens to practice Safe Sex?
If you do your research many of Haiti's Orphanages even those run by U.S. Citizens, are nothing more than Money Laundering Schemes which use Poor, Black Children to procure millions of dollars.
However that money is NOT used to care for the Children.
Sort of like how many State Governors in the U.S. use Black Foster Care Children to obtain Federal dollars (North Carolina) of which is mostly wasted versus being spent on the Children.
If you think I'm lying take a visit to Haiti to see with your own eyes or better yet since most of Haiti's structures were recently destroyed in the Earthquake, just do your own research.
You'll see.
Why do you think Haiti's Gov't Leaders consistently hinders the Adoption Process?
Now do you understand why the Haitian Gov't and many U.S. Citizens who operate Orphanages are fighting so hard to keep those Children in Haiti?
The Haitian Gov't plans to continue this Child/Human Trafficking Money Laundering Scheme by falsely accusing innocent U.S. Missionaries or other Americans with sincere motives, of stealing children for illegal purposes.
I along with millions of other Americans don't believe the 10 U.S. citizens from an Idaho Church and currently jailed in Haiti are guilty of Child/ Human Trafficking.
These false accusations are nothing more than a ploy to divert the U.S. State Dept from discovering Haiti's illegal activities as it relates to Child/ Human Trafficking and Misuse of International Aid (Corruption).
Every Haitian Orphanage run by Haitian Gov't Officials or Americans isn't a Child Trafficking Scheme, however most of them are.
Instead continue to allow Haitian Orphans to be legally adopted by U.S. Citizens.
I also suggest concerned citizens who love Children discontinue their Financial Support of Haitian Orphanages even those owned by Americans, until they find out how their money is really being used.
That may be the only way to rescue thousands of Haitian Children from Child Slavery and lifelong Poverty.
Please contact the White House, Congressional Members and U.S. State Dept officials to protest or express your concerns about this Corruption as it relates to Haiti's Forgotten Children and............
to demand release of the 10 U.S. Missionaries falsely accused by Haitian Gov't leaders of Human Trafficking.
Jesus loves the little Children, all the children of the world.
Red, Yellow, Black & White they are precious in his sight.
Ten Americans jailed amid allegations they were trafficking Haitian children are expected to meet a judge here again on Tuesday, a day after Haiti's prime minister said the missionaries knew that "what they were doing was wrong."
Prime Minister Max Bellerive also told The Associated Press that his country is open to having the Americans face prosecution in the United States, since most government buildings — including Haiti's courts — were crippled by the monster earthquake.
"It is clear now that they were trying to cross the border without papers. It is clear now that some of the children have live parents," Bellerive said. "And it is clear now that they knew what they were doing was wrong."
If they were acting in good faith — as the Americans claim — "perhaps the courts will try to be more lenient with them," he said.
U.S. Embassy officials would not say whether Washington would accept hosting judicial proceedings for the Americans, who are mostly from Idaho. For now, the case remains firmly in Haitian hands, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington.
"Once we know all the facts, we will determine what the appropriate course is, but the judgment is really up to the Haitian government," he said.
Haitian officials insist some prosecution is needed to help deter child trafficking, which many fear will flourish in the chaos caused by the devastating Jan. 12 quake. The government and aid groups are still struggling to get food, water, shelter and basic health care to hundreds of thousands of survivors, and many parents are desperate to get help for their children.
U.S. diplomats have had "unlimited" access to the 10 detainees, and will monitor any court proceedings, Crowley said. They have not yet been charged.
Nine of the 10 Americans met with a Haitian judge on Monday but because of uncertainty in the quality of translation, another interpreter "more acceptable to both sides" was being sought for a meeting on Tuesday.
Humanitarian Aim?
Members of the church group insisted they were only trying to save abandoned children — but few appear to have had any significant experience with Haiti, international charity work or international adoption regulations.
Pastor Clint Henry told the TODAY show on Tuesday that the church members were doing what they thought was right and what "they thought they had permission for."
Since their arrest Friday near the border, the church group has been held inside two small concrete rooms in the same judicial police headquarters building where ministers have makeshift offices and give disaster response briefings.
"There is no air conditioning, no electricity. It is very disturbing," Attorney Jorge Puello told the AP by phone from the Dominican Republic, where the Baptists hoped to shelter the children in a rented beach hotel.
One of the Americans, Charisa Coulter of Boise, Idaho, was treated Monday at a field hospital for either dehydration or the flu. Looking pale as she lay on a green Army cot, the 24-year-old Coulter, was being guarded by two Haitian police officers.
"They're treating me pretty good," she said. "I'm not concerned. I'm pretty confident that it will all work out."
Investigators have been trying to determine how the Americans got the children, and whether any of the traffickers that have plagued the impoverished country were involved. Their detained spokeswoman, Laura Silsby, said they were "just trying to do the right thing," but she conceded she had not obtained the required passports, birth certificates and adoption certificates for them — a near impossible challenge in the post-quake mayhem.
The 33 kids, ranging in age from 2 months to 12 years, arrived with their names written in tape on their shirts at a children's home where some told aid workers they have surviving parents. Haitian officials said they were trying to reunite them.
"One (9-year-old) girl was crying, and saying, 'I am not an orphan. I still have my parents.' And she thought she was going on a summer camp or a boarding school or something like that," said George Willeit, a spokesman for the SOS Children's Village.
The prime minister said some of those parents may have knowingly given their kids to the Americans in hopes they would reach the United States — a not uncommon wish for poor families in a country that already had an estimated 380,000 orphans before the quake.
Haiti's overwhelmed government has halted all adoptions unless they were in motion before the earthquake amid fears that parentless or lost children are more vulnerable than ever to being seized and sold. Sex trafficking has been rampant in Haiti. Bellerive's personal authorization is now required for the departure of any child.
The arrested Americans' churches are part of the Southern Baptist Convention, America's largest Protestant denomination, which has extensive humanitarian programs worldwide, but they decided to mount their own "rescue mission" following the earthquake.
Lely Laurentus thought he was doing the right thing when he handed his two young children over to an American woman who promised to take them to a better place.
Laura Silsby, a member of Idaho-based New Life Children's Refuge, had given him a flyer from her charity saying that it wanted to help "children who have lost their mother and father in the earthquake or have no one to love and care for them."
She promised schooling, soccer fields and even a swimming pool. She told Laurentus that she had government permission to carry out her plan, he said.
Laurentus loved his girls. They were everything to him, he said. But he also thought of his own life -- he dropped out of school at 15 and worked two jobs to put food on the table.
In the devastating January 12 earthquake, he lost the meager home he had sitting on a hillside in Calebasse.
"I can't stand that they were suffering here," Laurentus said. "I had confidence in the Americans. I trusted them."
So Thursday night, when Silsby came with a bus, he placed his girls, Soraya, 4, and Leila, 5, on two seats towards the front. He didn't pack any of their things, he said. Not even their teddy bear. The American woman had bags filled with clothes, toys and snacks.
"Will you remember me?" he asked the young girls, who could not, by his own admission, comprehend what was happening. Then he watched them drive off, with 18 other children from the village.
But the girls never made it out of Haiti.
Silsby and nine other American Baptist missionaries from Idaho, Kansas and Texas were arrested at the border with the Dominican Republic on Friday. They were detained on charges of illegally trying to take 33 children -- the 20 from Calebasse and 13 others -- out of the country.
They are being held in a jail in Port-au-Prince. Members of the group described conditions to CNN as sparse, but they said they are getting sufficient amounts of food and water.
P.J. Crowley, a spokesman for the State Department, said Monday that U.S. officials have been given unlimited consular access to the Americans and that U.S. and Haitian authorities are "working to try to ascertain what happened (and) the motive behind these people.
"Clearly there are questions about procedure as to whether they had the appropriate paperwork to move the children," he said.
Crowley said the group was scheduled to appear before a Haitian judge Monday afternoon, but that hearing apparently didn't happen.
A hearing for the group will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday, according to Haitian Information Minister Marie Laurence Lassegue, who said the group will be provided with a professional interpreter.
The missionaries say they were just trying to help the children leave tragedy behind and start life anew.
"We believe we've been charged very falsely with trafficking, which is the furthest possible extreme," said Silsby, whose group describes itself as a Christian ministry dedicated to rescuing orphaned, abandoned or impoverished Haitian and Dominican children. "We literally gave up everything and used up our own income to help these children and by no means (are we) part of that horrendous practice."
Clint Henry is senior pastor at Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho, a church attended by many of the group's members. He remade that point, saying the group's intentions were "upright and pure."
"The intention was simply to go down and try to be an aid in ministering to children that had been orphaned in the quake," Henry said. "It was our intention to be part of a new orphanage. The decision was made that we could house those children in the temporary sites."
But the incident has focused the spotlight on the issue of orphans in Haiti, where aid groups say the quake left tens of thousands of children without anyone to care for them.
The government has accused the American missionaries of kidnapping and is investigating the incident before releasing the children back to their families.
"The children certainly were not fully willing to go, because in some cases, from what I heard, they were asking for their parents, they wanted to return to their parents," Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told CNN.
Haiti's government requires documentation stating approval for children to exit the country. Silsby acknowledged she had none.
"They really didn't have any paperwork and this is probably a misunderstanding on my part, but I did not really know they would be required," she said.
Church pastor Drew Ham said "our understanding is, they were given some directives, some instructions on the paperwork they needed, and they did exactly what they were told to do. So upon the arrival at the border, 'Sorry, you're missing a piece,' OK, let's go fix that problem' ... We don't know of any mistakes that were made."
On Monday, Information Minister Lassegue appealed to Haitians to not give up their children to strangers.
"We're talking about people who are coming to countries in distress, after a hurricane, after a tsunami, after an earthquake," she said. "You will never see the children again."
The United States has already expressed concern over the fate of vulnerable orphans and the potential for child trafficking.
Laurentus said he first heard of Silsby through another Calebasse resident, Isaac Adrien, who was trying to get a job at a Port-au-Prince Christian school.
Adrien said he met Silsby at the school. She asked him whether he knew of people who had suffered in the quake and needed help. Adrien thought of his own community.
On Thursday, Adrien took her up on an hour-plus drive up to Calebasse, where clouds touch land and people live a simple farming life.
"All the schools are closed here," Adrien said. "I thought it would be a good idea to send the children away."
Silsby assured the residents of Calebasse that she would stay in touch with them, Laurentus said. And that they would be able to see the children whenever they wanted.
Silsby's group told CNN they were going to house the children in a converted hotel in the Dominican Republic.
But without proper documentation, Silsby and the other missionaries were turned away by Haitian police at the border.
"They wouldn't listen to her," Adrien said about Silsby. "She was crying."
Adrien said the 33 children were forced to sleep outside the police station Friday night before Haitian authorities placed them in the care of SOS Children's Villages in Port-au-Prince.
Laurentus said he bore no ill-will toward the Americans; that he still trusted them. But he wants his girls back home.
As did Adrienne Paulime, who put her 10-year-old daughter, Benatide, on the bus Thursday.
"We gave her to the Americans so she could have a better life," said Paulime, wiping her eyes dry.
Benatide's brother, Alain Paulime, said he received a phone call Friday from a woman at SOS orphanage. She said his kid sister was crying.
"Can you come pick me up?" Benatide asked Alain.
Paulime said he was anxious to let the orphanage know that Benatide did not belong there. She had a family.
Monday, Alain Paulime and his sister Carline Paulime joined Laurentus in the long trek down the mountain into the crowded capital.
"I want them back home," Laurentus said.
But in the end, they were forced to leave empty-handed, without even seeing them. The children were traumatized, said Georg Willeit, head of SOS Children's Villages.
"The emotional security of the kids is very unstable at the moment," he said.
Willeit told "Anderson Cooper 360" that at least 20 children are not orphaned. They are receiving "care and attention" at his facility, he said.
Many of them did not think they would ever see their parents again. He said he would not allow a visit now for fear of raising the children's expectations.
They would have to wait to go home, until the investigation is over.
Welcome to the BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ Blog. (Established 2008)
My name is Laurel. (Author & Publisher)
I Blog with a focus on POLITICS, Business, and occasionally Entertainment.
FACTS ABOUT LAUREL:
Wife,
Mother of a U.S. Soldier,
Sister,
Woman of GOD,
Loyal Friend,
Creative,
Blood-related to a nationally known Charlotte Politician.
Black Female, Intelligent,
Married,
Love to Travel,
Credentialed by the RNC and DNC.
Political Blogger/ Commentator
Grassroots Activist,
PROFESSIONAL STATUS:
Credential Political Blogger/ Commentator,
Registered Independent Voter
Original Native of BROOKLYN, NY
Currently reside in CHARLOTTE, NC
I’m Nice but don’t get it twisted because my Mind is Sharp!
Since You’ve Chosen to Visit and Read the Contents of this Blog by Personal Choice, and of Your Own Free Will,
Please don’t ask me to Compensate you for Expressing individual commentary/ Posted Articles, which are protected by the First Amendment, citing Freedom of Speech & Freedom of Expression.
No Intentionally Malicious Slander, Libel or Defamation of Character content will be published and I will always Credit all Sources.
NOTE TO ALL ELECTED OFFICIALS, APPOINTED OFFICIALS & PUBLIC FIGURES:
Per the Landmark U.S. Supreme Court Case: 1964 case of New York Times v. Sullivan………
The Public has a Right to Criticize the People who Govern them, so the least Protection from Defamation is given to Public Officials. When officials are accused of something that involves their behavior in office, they have to prove all of the above elements of defamation and they must also prove that the defendant acted with “actual malice.” (For a definition of actual malice, see the “History of Defamation and the First Amendment, below.”)
People who aren’t Elected but who are Still Public Figures because they are influential or famous — like Actors, Actresses, Movie Stars, Singers & Entertainers, Journalists, TV Hosts, Bloggers, etc., — also have to Prove that Defamatory statements were made with Actual Malice, in most cases.
To the Associated Press and other Media Organizations:
When I use your Content Links., I’m also citing the Fair Use Doctrine (Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107) for further Copyright permission.
Posts and Links published on Black Political Buzz are not endorsed by Black Political Buzz Blog Author Laurel’s Employer, nor the Employers of other Black Political Buzz employees.
This includes Links, Posts and Comments posted on Black Political Buzz’s Facebook and Twitter account pages.
Comments, Links and Opinions of site visitors are Independently-Owned and not endorsed by Black Political Buzz employees, Blog Author Laurel or Laurel’s Employer.)
(No Personal Offense intended) Please know that Black Political Buzz is not responsible for nor do I endorse Requests for Donations from Third Parties on this Blog.
I will Only Endorse Requests for Donations made on behalf of BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ Blog for Business Purposes & Operating Expenses.
I will also Only Endorse Requests for Donations on behalf of Legitimate Politicians and Legitimate Political Candidates. PERIOD!!
If anyone else or another Organization wishes to post a link to Request Donations, I am NOT endorsing ANY of those Requests!
Unless I receive a personal Request to do so and I have Professionally Confirmed that the Third Party Organization or Charity is indeed a Legitimate Entity.
NOTE: Anyone who chooses to give to any Third Party Organization NOT Endorsed by BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ is doing so at his or her own risk.
BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ does NOT Discriminate against Politicians, Political Candidates, Organizations or Charities based on Race, Color, Nationality, Ethnicity, Gender, Sexual Orientation, Religion, Faith, Disability, Political Affiliation, Creed, Education, Social Status, Age.
This disclaimer applies to ANY and All requests for Donations on this Blog. Thanks for understanding. Again No Personal Offense intended.
For Story Tips….Corrections…….. or Requests for Endorsements:
Please contact me via e-mail: blackpoliticalbuzz@gmail.com
or via my Facebook page: facebook.com/blackpoliticalbuzz
Thanks for stopping by
God Bless
Laurel @BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ
LINKS: POLITICAL PERSPECTIVE & INFORMATIONAL SITES
.jpg)
