Missing iPhone Backup

I have a AT&T unlocked 3Gs that was working great until I had occasion to "factory unlock" it. (I know there is no such thing. AT&T just takes it off their restricted list.)

I am stationed in Central America and the phone being FU-ed, I figured, heym just let it be updated to 6.1.3. Then I tried to authenticate it from here without an AT&T SIM card. Others have done it, but theirs was not on BB 06.15.00.

Neither the phone nor ITunes will give me the Congratulations Unlocked screen. Instead I get "We're sorry, we are unable to continue with your activation at this time" The local SIM is accepted without an error note and the phone is permanently searching,

So far that history.

I had another 3G and thought, well, until I get this squarred away, I will just Restore from the 3Gs in iTunes. However the backup of the 3Gs is not listed. I had just backedup/synched before the FU. When I go Settings> Devices, the 3Gs is there, but not when I want to choose it in the Restore pulldown.

I went to ~/Library/App Support/MobileSync/Backup and judging by the exact date, I can identify the randomly-numbered backup. It's there, all 150MB.

I am here to ask if you guys know a workaround, or how to make it visible when restoring.

Yes, I have run Permissions repair and restarted my MBP.

Yes, I have reset the Network setting on the 3G, and

yes, with a desperate mind, I erased the whole phone, thinking that I might trick it into giving me the screen where I can choose to restore as new phone. To boot, now it is stuck in the icicle and ont boot completely. Well I can handle that by reinstalling.

Thanks.