ARRESTS IN HAITI – AT 4:41 P.M. ET:  I saw something disturbing last night.  P.J. Crowley, the assistant secretary of state for public affairs, was interviewed by Geraldo Rivera.

Rivera asked Crowley about the American missionaries arrested in Haiti recently, and now charged with trying to smuggle Haitian orphans out of the country illegally after the earthquake.  The missionaries claimed they were just trying to give the kids a new home.

I don't have any direct knowledge of the facts.  The missionaries may have knowingly broken the law.  Or, more likely, they could have been naive about procedures for adopting orphans from Haiti.  But they are American citizens under arrest in a chaotic, corruption-strewn country where law-and-order have largely broken down.  They deserve some expression of concern by their own government.

They didn't get it.  Crowley's cold remarks – even Rivera seemed taken aback – simply reiterated the State Department's position, that this is a matter for the Haitian judicial system.  Not a single word of compassion, no description of what State might be doing to insure that these Americans are given the full rights, and defense, to which they're entitled.

Rivera made the point that thousands of dangerous Haitians escaped from the country's jails in the aftermath of the earthquake – murderers, rapists, drug dealers – and yet the Haitian "government" seems far more determined to pursue these American missionaries.  Crowley had virtually no reaction, and this after the United States poured in aid and troops to keep people alive. 

Rivera revealed that Haiti is now asking $20,000 for every child adopted from the country, and wondered out loud where all that money would go.  Crowley mumbled something about America being committed to honest accounting, or something like that. 

It was a disgrace.  Once again we find that this administration cannot bring itself to defend Americans. 

Geraldo conceded at the end that Crowley had to speak carefully.  True, but he could have come off as an American official, not an international civil servant.  The State Department is ours, isn't it?

February 7, 2010