Free the Idaho Baptists!

Let me break the first law of punditry and admit that I don't know the truth. I can't read into the hearts of the missionaries. I am relatively sure that most bad things are done by people who are sincere in their convictions and insulated from any other visions of truth. I also have to admit that it is only by a willful effort that I feel compassion for the plight of these less than divinely guided missionaries. My natural empathy is circumscribed by the sure and certain knowledge that they believe that I, as a Jew, am on my way to hell. None-the-less, keeping them all in a Haitian prison is a very bad idea for several important reasons.

1. It's way too easy to treat the whole group as co-conspirators. Only a couple, most likely, were in charge.
2. It is easy in the heat of the chaos to feel the need, the call to action and want to cut through the Gordian Knot of rules that impede care.
3. Getting paperwork done in chaos and tragedy is often difficult.
4. Getting paperwork done in a system that is derived from the French model of bureaucracy is impossible. Believe me, this I know from having lived in the developing world in a formerly French colonized country.
5. Prosecuting probably well-intentioned volunteers will likely massively diminish the charitable response from the world, this nation and certainly the Christian community.
6. No, of course the Haitians shouldn't sell their children or their sovereignty for foreign aid. They must make some kind of example to stop others, but their arrest and charging are probably sufficient to deter others.