Haiti: KPFT / Pacifica Special 2-hr Live Report starts SOON 1 pm CST

[lostnfound]

Starts in 7 minutes. You can listen on the Internet at KPFT.org (probably other Pacifica stations, too, I would guess)

[htuttle]

1. On now

So far...


Reports indicate that Aristide has been removed from power, and transported outside of the country *by the US*.

No confirmation of his location.
No confirmation that he 'resigned' voluntarily. Those close to Aristide indicate that he was forced from power by US troops.

No images of Aristide, either signing the 'resignation', nor leaving. He seems to have, for all intensive purposes, vanished this morning.

Rioting in Port-au-Prince at the moment, both by Aristide supporters, and 'unaffiliated gangs'.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

18. Here's the streaming link from KPFA.org

Listen here- http://www.kpfa.org/cgi-bin/gen-mpegurl.m3u?server=aud-

[htuttle]

2. Further reports...

Guy Phillipe (the CIA trained rebel guy) has requested permission to enter the city of Port-au-Prince with his troops.

It's unclear to me who he asked permission FROM...

[DenverDem]

3. New Amerikan corporate offshoring colony.

Slave wages in our hemisphere. Congratulations George W. Bush on another anti-democratic regime change.

[htuttle]

4. Not even a written resignation!

The correspondent live from Haiti stated that there was no written resignation released. Apparently, all statements purported to be from Aristide have been delivered via US State Dept. spokespersons...

In addition, he reports that Aristide's own security people don't know where he is right now.

BTW, the person who delivered this report was Aristide's lawyer. I would assume that he would know whether Aristide had actually signed a statement or not.

Caricom countries are asking for an explantion from the US State department. Several countries have stated that they still consider Aristide the legitimate president of Haiti.

[htuttle]

5. MORE: Opposition leader Andy Apaid is not a Haitian citizen

He's a US citizen. I believe this was covered in the press last week. (our press, not the mainstream press). He claims dual citizenship. However, Haiti does not recgonize dual citizenship. Andy Apaid will not renounce his US citizenship, therefore he is not legally a Haitian citizen.

Apparently the US has been negotiating about Haiti's future...with a US citizen!

[whatelseisnew]

6. Ramsey Clark on now

[JohnOneillsMemory]

7. Pacifica's Bernstein has covered this coup live. Amazing. Reality Radio!

Peter Bernstein of the Flashpoints show has been covering the slow-motion coup live with reporters in Haiti contradicting the White House line that the mainstream media is spewing.

It is very compelling to hear a crime as it takes place:
REALITY RADIO!

[Zan_of_Texas]

8. Amy Goodman will be on later today

Amy will do a special on Pacifica on Haiti from 6 pm to 7 pm CENTRAL time. 7 pm to 8 pm Eastern Time.

www.pacifica.org

[eablair3]

15. It's Dennis Bernstein -- I'm listening on KPFA

amazing live coverage with U.S. helicopters flying overhead as they are interviewing people.

[htuttle]

9. REPORT: Mayor of Port au Prince under seige in his house

Opposition 'troops' are firing on the Mayor's house. The Mayor is reportedly asking for assistance.

Further report: Opposition is now also firing on another Mayor's house in a different
city as well ('Petainville'?). Two people from Mayor's house just shot in front of his house. Also begging for assistance.

[Melinda]

10. OMG, They are killing people as I type!!!!

Reporting that two people in the Major's home have been gunned down!!

Democracy?!?!? Bush sent Death squads!!!!!!!

I HATE YOU GEORGE BUSH!!!!!!!!!!!

[lostnfound]

37. That's "Pétionville" n/t

[htuttle]

11. More US helicopters seen and heard over Port au Prince

Pogrom in progress.

[Robbien]

12. I cannot believe this story is not being reported by the main media

KPFT is doing a great job on this. And to think this is all bloodletting is being supported by the US.

[htuttle]

13. REPORT: All the countries where US State dept said Aristide might go...

...have stated that they have no idea what the US State department is talking about. They know nothing about it.

Aristide's whereabout still unknown, outside of the White House situation room, of course.

[htuttle]

14. Prime minister cannot be reached...

...on his personal cell phone number.

Also missing.

[htuttle]

16. More: US state dept. statement that Aristide was escorted to airport...

...by Haitian official has been shown to be a lie. Those same officials have now stated that they did not escort him to the airport, and do not know where Aristide is.

[htuttle]

17. Presidential residence caretaker states Aristide was taken by US troops

States that Aristide didn't want to leave, but was unable to resist US marines who took him away about 2am.

Aristide still missing. No written resignation, no audio resignation.

Also reported by Australian press.

on edit: Whew! Dan Bernstein is getting steamed!

[DuctapeFatwa]

19. here's link to the AU press story

HAITIAN leader Jean Bertrand Aristide was taken away from his home by US soldiers, it was claimed today.

A man who said he was a caretaker for the now exiled president told France's RTL radio station the troops forced Aristide out. "The American army came to take him away at two in the morning," the man said.

"The Americans forced him out with weapons. "It was American soldiers. They came with a helicopter and they took the security guards. "(Aristide) was not happy. He did not want to be taken away. He did not want to leave. He was not able to fight against the Americans."

The RTL journalist who carried out the interview described the man as a "frightened old man, crouched in a corner" who said he was the "caretaker of the residence".

http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,8833298%255E1702,00.html

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

20. My god. This is unbelievable.

I want my country back.

[JasonBerry]

21. Pacifica???? FAR, FAR Left radio

I am beginning to get more and more concerned with DU. First of all, Pacifica is la-la land radio. Hardly an unbiased source. It is the FOX of the left. OH!! I forgot!! I'm sure that's okay. :eyes:

[Melinda]

24. God FORBID you should listen to UNFILITERED REALITY!!

Go away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[JasonBerry]

30. "Unflitered"

So, does that mean when FOX has reporters on the scene of a war - or anything else - that it is "unfiltered reporting"??? I am saying that Pacifica is filtering the news through their own biases. I hate it and I hate Fox. Neither are "reality".

[Robb]

31. You want to talk "la-la land"?

What kind of dreamworld do you live in where reporters are unbiased?

ALL reporting has bias. The difference between Pacifica and Fox is that Pacifica makes its bias clear and authentically stated, while Fox maintains the position that it is unbiased.

Typically reporters who claims they are objective are the least.

[mopinko]

25. true as this is, i still ask myself more and more

regular tinfoil, or extra strength reynolds wrap. so many of these stories that i have seen posted here on au or uk sources have trickled out here days later. please, all, keep posting.

[Robb]

27. Maybe you can find a third or fourth

...thread to repeat your message about Pacifica? :shrug:

[jpak]

28. I love Pacifica radio

Bring it on!

[Darranar]

29. You mean...

that it does not repeat the mainstream propaganda?

[JohnOneillsMemory]

32. Look at KPFA.org-biased towards democracy, human rights, anti-poverty, etc

I'm amazed that you would call that la-la land. But it reminds me that many people, including Democrats, think that the 'truth' of matters lives in the median between the two most urgent statements from the so-called left and right.

I contend that this indicates you don't get the power struggle and the corporate-controlled media complicity we're living in.

KPFA has been running hours a day backgrounders on the history of Haiti, American history in the Caribbean, current events, lots and lots of context PLUS first-hand reports on the ground as it happpens.

You're reaction to all this displays the enormous ignorance many people must overcome to take control of their lives back from professional criminals.

Please learn something from this. Please?

[htuttle]

33. Or to paraphrase:

PUT ON THE FUCKING SUNGLASSES!

[Minstrel Boy]

42. "They live....we sleep"

Fair and balanced:

[NashVegas]

34. Consider it a FAUX Antidote

Pacifica carries first hand reports no mainstream outlet will touch.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

35. Yow! Look at KPFA.org. Biased towards justice. Learn something about it.

Since 1949, it's called Free Speech Radio, you know-the 1st Amendment and stuff?

Is that la-la land? It is without a doubt the best news coverage about the corporate -hijacking of the US government you can find.

Hours and hours of background on Haiti's history, the US's history in the Caribbean, the US-backed attempted coups in Venezuala etc.

Hours and hours of on the ground first hand reports of what's going on and contrasting it with what the mainstream press is saying.

Just an entire education on the past and present players. Compare that with mainstream media soundbites that are lies.

I think you are displaying your ignorance about your country's government and media, friend, not healthy skepticism.

Read everything on KPFA.org and you will know much more than you do now.

[Minstrel Boy]

36. "I am beginning to get more and more concerned with DU"

Me too, Jason. Me too.

Where, I'm beginning to despair, can I find this elusive "FAR, FAR Left"?

[lostnfound]

38. Tell us what's wrong with Amy Goodman & lose all credibility...

Her reports on Pacifica will start at 7 pm EST and I would trust her with my life.

[DenverDem]

39. Say hello to the other guys in the Scaife boiler room.

Pacifica has people reporting directly from ground zero and dealing in facts. Faux is obsessing over the Oscars.

[morgan2]

41. so?

cnn msnbc.. FAR FAR to the pro corporation wing of thought? They're dedicated to maintaining the status quo and steadily increasing their influence. I trust pacifica a lot more than I trust the reports coming out of CNN..

[nolabels]

44. With out it we probably never learned what was happening before it....

Happened. This is radio sponsored by regular, ordinary people for other regular ordinary citizens or people, it is a non-profit organization and I and whole lot of other people get to use it for a tax deduction for the donations. We have, thre this media source, have been watching this unfold much the same as we have watched other types of situations unfold durring the many years.

This why we support it, we want to know so we support it. With out it we might not even know this was happening Much less how they are using the name of the United States trouncing it thru the mud and over throwing other governments. I am sure there have been crimes committed, the Neutrality Act just for one. If we are a country of personalities fine, but I believe most everything is run and covered by laws. There is no choice here only subterfuge and further erosion of the law. This is as plain as day

http://www.world-crisis.com/more/416_0_1_0_M/
Best Analysis and Comment
Double Game in Haiti

Tom Reeves
(snip)
No wonder, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was caught in the middle. He waffled when asked about USA intentions: “I guess the way to respond to that is that, needless to say, everyone’s hopeful that the situation, which tends to ebb and flow down there, will stay below a certain threshold and that there’s - we have no plans to do anything. By that I don’t mean we have no plans. Obviously, we have plans to do everything in the world that we can think of. But we - there’s no intention at the present time, or no reason to believe that any of the thinking that goes into these things day - year in and year out - would have to be utilized.”

I saw both sides of this double game when I went to Haiti at the time of Aristide’s return in 1994. I saw the USA helicopter that landed Aristide at the palace and the USA soldiers who guarded the bullet-proof box from which he was allowed to speak. I interviewed USA officers in the Central Plateau who said they were specifically told to treat FRAPH as a loyal opposition, and not to confiscate large weapons’ caches they stumbled upon. Most of the M-1s and M-14s seen in the hands of the Gonaives thugs today have been identified as coming from those Haitian army stockpiles left untouched during the USA occupation. A few M-16s, though, have begun to appear in Goniaves as well - identical to those given the Dominican army en masse just a few months ago by the USA government, in return for Dominican acquiescence in placing 900 USA troops alongside Dominican guards at the Dominican frontier - and for the Dominican agreement never to use the International Court to accuse and try USA citizens for war crimes. (Miami Herald, Dec. 6, 2002)

While virtually all USA media insist on parroting Powell and the Haitian opposition in referring to the Gonaives situation as a “uprising by the people,” they also repeat the mantra that the “rebel leaders” were originally armed by Aristide as his local goons, and that he is therefore responsible for the attacks on his own police. Such half-truths are sprinkled through media accounts. In fact, those responsible for the Gonaives violence are tied to two local gangs - or clans - entrenched in Gonaives for many years.

One gang, based in the slum of Raboto, was headed by Amiot Metayer, and called itself recently “The Cannibal Army.” The other, based in Jubilee, included Jean “Tatoune” Pierre, convicted of the notorious Raboto massacre of Aristide supporters in 1994. Metayer’s group claimed to support Aristide, but when human rights groups pressed the Haitian government to prosecute him for various crimes, he was arrested. Both Metyayer and Tatoune escaped from the Port au Prince penitentiary in August, 2002, in a daring bulldozer prison break. Late last year, Metayer was murdered, with the opposition and Metayer’s followers blaming Aristide, but the government pointing at Tatoune’s followers and the opposition. Metayer’s brother returned to Haiti from the USA and joined Tatoune to begin a campaign against Aristide’s party, Lavalas, and the government. They are among those who control Gonaives today - along with what the Washington Post (Feb. 10) calls “higher echelons of leadership from former Haitian army officers.” Now they have been joined outright by FRAPH/CIA operatives like Chamblain, who was also convicted in absentia for the Raboto massacre.

Metayer’s Cannibal Army, taking a leaf from his paymasters’ book, are ‘liberating’ the people of their government by terror and violence.

Whatever Aristide’s mistakes and weaknesses have been (and they are many), they pale when compared to the extreme brutality of those who are today implicated in the violence in Gonaives and elsewhere in Haiti. Andy Apaid is the notorious sweat-shop owner who speaks for the Group of 184, and who, with Evans Paul, leads the anti-Aristide demonstrations in Port au Prince. Apaid spearheaded a successful campaign last year to block Aristide’s attempt to raise the minimum wage. It is about $1.60 per day - lower even than in 1995. Apaid insists the opposition does not condone violence, yet says that “armed resistance is a legitimate political expression” and that the “rebels” should remain armed until Aristide has stepped down. Apaid continues to hold USA citizenship, despite having received a Haitian passport, based on a fradulent claim to have been born in Hait
(snip)

[eablair3]

45. it's just amazing ... listen and try to think for yourself

jasonberry, ... Why not try to listen to what Pacifica and KPFA reports? Ask the tough questions. What's the basis for their reports? Listen to Fox, too. And, to CNN, MSNBC, the NYT, the WP, and the rest. And, ask the same questions.

Get your info from a broad array of sources. Then, try to do some research on your own. Try to dig for info to determine the truth.

I think you will find that Pacifica is quite accurate, but I'm not asking you to believe that. All I'm suggesting is that you spend the time to figure it out for yourself. You may be surprised and shocked.

[Melinda]

22. And Joe and Jane America think they HATE US FOR OUR FREEDOMS?!?!

OMG, listen to this poor woman!!!! :cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry:

[htuttle]

23. Well....

...that was fucking heartbreaking....no description is possible.

[OKNancy]

26. She was very emotional

hard to listen to.

[DenverDem]

40. Imagine how you would feel if fascists took over your country.

Oh, wait, never mind.

She gave the most powerful reading of Bob Marley's last great song "Redemption Song", ever!

[Say_What]

43. HAITI IN CRISIS: Democracy Now! / Pacifica Radio Special Tonight 7-9 p.m

HAITI IN CRISIS: Democracy Now! / Pacifica Radio Special on the Haiti Crisis Tonight 7-9 p.m east coast time.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/29/2053220

or see KPFA website for other listening options:

http://www.kpfa.org/

[berry]

46. Does anyone else wonder about this being staged on Sunday?

How convenient that all the broadcast stations are showing sports this afternoon, and cable is basically reruns. No live news at all on TV. And tonight, when there might be some, is Oscar night, so lots of people will just watch that.

On any other day of the week, the media would have to report this--though probably with the usual spin. So I think this points to PR input into the planning of this atrocity.

Anyway, thanks to Pacifica there is information about what is happening. The afternoon reports direct from Haiti were VERY hard to bear to listen to, but necessary. The Congressional Black Caucus, if no one else, is sure to make noise about this. If the rest of the Dems don't demand investigations, well, we're going to have to get very noisy too. I feel sick with grief--though it's a repeat of an old story. THIS is the face of America to the rest of the world (and to Americans who pay attention).

There's going to be another report starting at 7 ET. Be sure to tune in.

[I AM SPARTACUS]

47. ...and Monday a.m., fair&balanced will report that Smirko fixed everything

while folks were enjoying their weekends..."Gosh, Jan, I didn't even know there was anything going on in Haiti, and the news just said the US troops are regaining order....what's that you say? You're suspicious...hmmm, here, have some ketchup on your french toast. Ketchup has natural mellowing agents that allow you to submit to nearly anything..." (background music swells, cue singer..."these are the good years...ketchup!, ketchup!...)

...with apologies to Garrison Keilor...

[eablair3]

48. good point about Sunday - I did read that the opposition slowed after

... seeing a request by the U.S. on an internet site. That's what the leader of the opposition was reported to have said.

Not surpisingly, ... it all goes down in the early AM on a Sunday.

[pinto]

49. Democracy Now is on, 4 PM PST...Haiti updates

http://www.kpftx.org