Haiti kidnapping updates

The New York Times is running a sloppy, credulous piece on US kidnappers in Haiti, countenancing their their persecuted-Christian posturing Americans Jailed in Haiti Plead for Help From U.S. by Ian Urbina 02/06/10. The Times could really have put some energy into this story. The Idaho Statesman's original reporting has been much better than this. The Times did run an earlier story giving some background on the child trafficking problem in Haiti, though the McClatcy/Miami Herald piece on that topic was also better.

The SBC News of the Southern Baptist Convention reports Idaho 10 face dire conditions; Silsby focus of inquiry by Erin Roach 02/08/10. The "Idaho 10" - soon perhaps to be a favorite slogan for those hyping the real and imagined persecution of Christians abroad.

The Idaho kidnapping group's new attorney is changing their public defense In Haiti, Americans' attorney says they had papers AP/Idaho Statesman 02/08/10. That claim seems unlikely to go very far based on previous reports, but we'll see.

Idahoans in Haiti agreed to pay $7,000 a month to house children in church center, newspaper says by Bethann Stewart Idaho Statesman 02/08/10 advances the story in pointing out that Silsby's current story on the arrangements they made for temporary housing for the 33 kidnapped children in the Dominican Republic, a story Stewart confirmed from an independent source:

... suggests that Laura Silsby, the Boise woman who organized the trip to Haiti to find children new homes after the Jan. 12 earthquake, didn't have housing for the children already lined up when she and the other Baptists first went to Haiti.

An anxious pastor encourages congregation to keep praying for 10 detainees in Haiti by Bethann Stewart Idaho Statesman 02/08/10

Fellow Baptist has faith in Laura Silsby Idaho Statesman 02/09/10 Despite the title, this article has a much broader roundup of recent news on the case. One single-sourced report said that the Idaho group had made an earlier attempt to take Haitian children out of the country but were blocked by Haitian officials, which could complicate the defense put forward by their first Haitian attorney that nine of the 10 thought the attempt in which they got busted was legally on the up-and-up.

Christian Imperialism in Haiti? Missionaries, Theo-tourism, and the Invasion of the Global South by Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado Religion Dispatches 02/08/10 deals with some of the broader issues at stake.

Marley Greiner has been following this story closely and commenting on it at her blog The Daily Bastardette and the Web page End Child Exportation and Trafficking in Haiti.

Tags: haiti kidnapping