Tape Shows Haiti Police Questioning Silsby
Ten Americans charged with the abduction of 33 Haitian children remain behind bars Monday morning in Haiti.
Now, CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker reports, the volunteers from a Baptist church in Idaho are not getting along and are speaking out against their leader, Laura Silsby.
On a tape of the arrest of the Americans 10 days ago acquired by CBS News, the nine other Americans in the group - most from two Baptist churches in Idaho - are seen holding the Haitian children, some just infants.
The group is shown being questioned in a Haitian police station after being sent back from the Dominican border, which they tried to cross, allegedly with improper documentation for the children.
Back in Port-au-Prince, Laura Silsby, the leader of the 10 Baptists from the United States, is being lectured by a Haitian official: "We understand all the good feelings you could have, all the good intentions, but there's a way to do it," a man tells Silsby.
While the interrogation was being conducted, outside in the hallway, many of the 33 Haitian children found in the missionaries' custody were crying for their mothers - crying to go home.
There are light moments on the video (one woman says to two of the children, "Smile and wave at the camera"), but most of it is intense and serious.
The police take the Americans' passports, and while nine Americans and the children look on, police interrogate a shaken Silsby.
She told them what she has been saying ever since: "Most of these children's parents died in the earthquake just a few days ago."
When she was asked if she had a legal paper and didn't answer, the interrogator grew irritated and demanded an answer.
"We simply wanted to help these children," Silsby said. "We did not understand all your rules."
Today The New York Times reports that eight members of the group of Americans signed a note they passed to an NBC News producer stating they had been misled by Silsby and were afraid. "We believe lying," the note read.
Each missionary has been charged with kidnapping and criminal association, and if convicted face sentences of up to 24 years in prison.
Who is Laura Silsby?
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