Perhaps you might begin by considering where a visa is physically located:

There are several threads on DU discussing the Haskells' story. Mr. Haskell himself signed up to DU, and stopped participating because he didn't like being asked detailed questions.
You are free to believe whomever and whatever you want, but do not accuse others of being unquestioning.
A "sympathy ploy" does not get around the fines and penalties that are imposed on airlines for delivering passengers who do not have passports to international destinations. There is nothing that anyone - be they a government agent or anything else - can say to a gate agent for an airline to get them onto a plane without a passport. In order to be in the international gate area of Schiphol in the first place, a passport is required (I have flown through there many times). A gate agent would not have authority to waive the airline requirement.