Haiti's Lawyer: U.S. Is Arming Anti-Aristide Paramilitaries

[Wonk]

Haiti's lawyer: US Is Arming Anti-Aristide Paramilitaries, Calls For UN Peacekeepers

By Amy Goodman and Jeremy Scahill
Democracynow.org

The US lawyer representing the government of Haiti charged today that the US government is directly involved in a military coup attempt against the country's democratically elected President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Ira Kurzban, the Miami-based attorney who has served as General Counsel to the Haitian government since 1991, said that the paramilitaries fighting to overthrow Aristide are being backed by Washington.

"I believe that this is a group that is armed by, trained by, and employed by the intelligence services of the United States," Kurzban told the national radio and TV program Democracy Now!. "This is clearly a military operation, and it's a military coup."

(snip)

"I don't think that there's any question about the fact that the weapons that they have did not come from Haiti," says Kurzban. "They're organized as a military commando strike force that's going from city to city."

Kurzban says that among the weapons being used by the paramilitaries are: M-16's, M-60's, armor piercing weapons and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. "They have weapons to shoot down the one helicopter that the government has," he said. "They have acted as a pretty tight-knit commando unit."

more...
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/25/1613200

[DuctapeFatwa]

1. Vatican's Lawyer: Pope is Catholic

bush has ordered all Haitians to remain in place calmly and wait for slaughter. Seeking refuge in the US will be considered an act of terrorism, and perpetrators will be returned immediately to Haiti to be hacked to pieces with machetes in accordance with US policy.

[Tempest]

2. Sounds reasonable

They did the same thing in Venezuela.

I wonder if Robert Reich was in Haiti recently?

[nodictators]

3. They must think there's OIL in Haiti

BTW, isn't Bush siding with the terrorists?

Check this story out:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3797067,00.html

Rebels Threaten Haiti's Capital

Friday February 27, 2004 4:46 PM

By MICHAEL NORTON

Associated Press Writer

---snip---

Aristide told CNN on Thursday he would not resign.

He also said it wouldn't take much international aid to crush the insurgency, which has been joined by former Haitian army death squad leader Louis-Jodel Chamblain and Philippe, an army officer who was Aristide's assistant police chief for north Haiti.

[Darranar]

4. I'm not surprised.

[JohnLocke]

5. Of course.