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The Haitian government is flexing it's muscles.  It's charging a group of 10 American missionaries with kidnapping and criminal conspiracy for attempting to leave the country with 30 Haitian children.  

According to recent reports, 22 of the 30 children are not actually orphans.  News organizations are speculating on the group's intentions and whether or not a crime has been committed.  

We're looking at perspectives from CBS News, MSNBC, Fox News, NBC News, and others. 

Laura Silsby led the group from Idaho into Haiti in order to bring children to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic.  CBS News suggests whether or not Silsby's troubled legal past may provide insight into her character.  

"There are serious questions about Silsby's motives.  The forty-year-old business woman who convinced fellow members of the Central Valley Baptist Church to follow her dream of an orphanage in Haiti has a troubling financial history. She's been the subject of 8 civil lawsuits, 14 for unpaid wages.  Her Meridian, Idaho house is in foreclosure.  She's had at least 9 traffic citations in the last 12 years, including 4 for failing to register or insure her car."

"He says that all 10 are charged with attempted kidnapping and conspiracy.  I asked him, 'As the defense attorney, what do you think?' He said 'I believe that 9 of these people had no idea what was going on.'  He pointed the finger at Laura Silsby."  

Haitian law defines kidnapping as an intentional act that cannot be done by accident.  FOX News reports the Haitian government faces the burden of proof in this case.

"The whole case depends up on their intent. If they intended unlawfully to steal this children for whatever reason, to proselytize them and their religion, to bring them to the US, well thats kidnapping and your facing 20 years. But if they were trying to help the children, thought that they were following the law, knew they couldn’t get legal papers because the government itself hasn't been operating in Haiti, then there is no crime and there is no case against them."  

ABC News reports that Silsby knew what she was getting into.  

Silsby - "Well The paper work, honestly, it has been a confusing process, we have tried to figure out exactly what they wanted from us." 

Reporter - "But apparantely they did know. In an interview overnight, this women told us she warned them before they even entered the country." 

Interview: "I really have to let you know that you're very likely to be stopped at the border and you may even be you know, in trouble."  

A Haitian woman told NBC's The Today Show that she willingly turned her child over to the group.  

Reporter: To Florence Entwoine and her family, though, it really did seem like a Godsend.  A chance for a future. And so Florance and her family gave away three children, one of them her own, to the Americans. 

Florance: They told us they would help our children with everything education, food, eventually a career.  It was like the solution for us."  

The BBC News reports many Haitians are upset the government is focusing more on this group of Americans than the disaster relief in Haiti.  

"And I think the background to this is here is a situation in which the Haitian government is seen by the Haitian population as almost entirely absent and here is a way, a rather dramatic way, of saying to everybody, to the international community, but also to their own population, 'Oh no, we are still very much here and prepared and ready to make difficult decisions.'"

The Christian News Wire sympathizes with the American missionaries.

"The Christian Defense reminded Haitian leaders and officials that the people they have labeled as 'kidnappers' and 'traffickers' are part of the Christian community that has given millions of dollars to help their country..."

Were the Americans well-intentioned or are they guilty of kidnapping?  Should the entire group be charged or should Silsby stand alone?