Rescue bids had political overtones linked to congressional race
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The early stages of efforts to rescue 54 Haitian orphans and bring them to Pittsburgh turned into a competition with political undertones, secret meetings and a possible foretaste of a coming congressional race.
Mary Beth Buchanan, the former U.S. attorney for Western Pennsylvania, opened a bid to extract the children and the sisters from Ben Avon who ran the BRESMA orphanage in Port-au-Prince.
Ms. Buchanan, who has been openly mulling a run for the Republican nomination to challenge incumbent Rep. Jason Altmire, D-McCandless, spent four days obtaining clearance for the children to enter the United States, medical supplies for the trip down and back, physicians to escort the children and -- in the final link that did not fall into place in time -- an airplane cleared to land in Haiti.
She said the organizer of the other rescue attempt, Leslie Merrill McCombs, a senior consultant for UPMC, phoned and grilled her for information, obtained a list of the children and ended up shipping medical supplies gathered as part of the Buchanan effort on the plane that carried Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and Mr. Altmire.
However the successful rescue was organized, it had the effect of short-circuiting Ms. Buchanan's effort and shifting attention to Mr. Altmire, a former UPMC lobbyist.
Ms. Buchanan said she started on Thursday, Jan. 14, two days after the quake, by contacting Jonathan Wander, a local writer who was close with the McMutrie sisters. He put her in touch with Diana Boni, who is in charge of Haiti adoptions for Kentucky Adoption Services, the company with legal standing to file a petition for asylum on behalf of the children.
Ms. Buchanan also enlisted Valerie May, a Pittsburgh immigration lawyer. With Ms. Boni, they assembled a three-part list: BRESMA children close to final adoption; those with prospective parents but whose adoptions were in the early stages; and children with no current prospects.
First Published January 24, 2010 12:03 am
