Why did Bush authorize Powell to pressure Aristide to leave office?

[bigtree]

What crimes did Aristide commit to lose his office? What right do we have to pick the leader there?

Didn't he leave because we said we wouldn't guarantee his safety? Clinton did, and backed it up by our forces. Bush watched him fall and did nothing but pressure him to leave when he was under assault. Why didn't we send forces to support his elected presidency?

Why did we refuse to defend democracy there? Especially one that our country had expended money and military to effect in the first place.

Who does Bush support to replace him there? His deputy? Will he defend the government or will he let it fall to the rebel terrorists?

This was one more reversal of the Clinton legacy as Bush, through his negligence and indifference, let the work of the nation and the international community fall by the wayside and fester into a crisis and an emergency that he could exploit to the will of some hack in his mindless cabal.

This is another overthrow of a soverign nation under the Bush doctrine of world dominance. The former Aristide government shouldn't be forced by this Bush league to share power with terrorist rebels.


Thursday, February 26, 2004
On Flashpoints: An update on the US-supported violence in Haiti; Israeli forces continue their ethnic slaughter by the apartheid wall as they take millions from Palestinian bank accounts; Dolores Huerta and immigrant activists take on Pacific Lumber; we focus on women behind bars; The Knight Report.

Listen:
http://www.kpfa.org/cgi-bin/gen-mpegurl.m3u?server=209.81.10.18&port=80&mount=/data/20040227-Fri1700.mp3


Friday, February 27, 2004
Today on Flashpoints: Today on a special national edition of Flashpoints, we spend the hour on the expanding crisis in Haiti. We’ll feature a live report from our special correspondent Kevin Pina, live in Port-au-Prince, we’ll speak with Representative Barbara Lee of California, co-chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, we’ll speak with Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, and the host of Family Lavalas on Radio Soleil in Brooklyn, along with several Haitian activists.

Listen:
http://www.kpfa.org/cgi-bin/gen-mpegurl.m3u?server=209.81.10.18&port=80&mount=/data/20040227-Fri1700.mp3

[sallyseven]

1. The rebels are bought and

paid for by the rich corporations in Haiti. They gave to bush and will in the election coming up. What is the matter with you???

[enough]

4. Ignorant question.

I have no doubt that this is true, but I know nothing about it. I guess we'll all get educated pretty fast here. What are the major corporate interests in Haiti?

[Turbineguy]

2. How about this for crime:

the country has no oil.

[bigtree]

3. Statement from John Kerry on Haiti

February 24, 2004
http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/releases/pr_2004_0224i.html

“The current crisis in Haiti is yet another example of Bush Administration neglect in our own hemisphere. Instead of working to support democratic institutions for the past three years, this Administration has seemed intent on bringing about regime change by encouraging the opposition and cutting off aid from the United States and international financial institutions.

“When the situation on the ground began to degenerate into violence and lawlessness over the past weeks, the Administration stubbornly refused to engage diplomatically. As a result, Haiti is now on the verge of collapsing into a failed state, potentially creating untold hardships for the Haitian people and an enormous influx of refugees on our shores.

[Octafish]

5. Drugs.

The BFEE rakes in billions on the drug trade. Aristide kicked out the generals who ran the show under Papa Doc and Baby Doc's regimes.

It's like Iraq and oil. George Herbert Walker Bush backed the coup in 1992 against Aristide. Now Smirk is finishing the "job" for the Bush Organized Crime Family.

[bigtree]

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

By Amy Goodman and Jeremy Scahill
Democracynow.org

AMY GOODMAN: It's good to have you with us. What is your assessment of what's happening in Haiti right now?

IRA KURZBAN: Well, I think this is clearly a military operation, and it's a military coup. We have analyzed the kinds of weapons that these people have brought from the Dominican Republic, who they are, how they're organized, and they're organized, really, as a military commando strike force that's going from city to city. They're very well organized, and they're armed to the teeth with the kinds of weapons, Amy, that really, no one has ever seen in Haiti, except when Haiti had an army. This notion that somehow, you know, this is kind of a rag-tag group of people who had arms that they got originally from Aristide, which is kind of what's playing in the press generally, is just totally untrue. When we have looked at the weapons that they have, they have M-16's, M-60's. They now have armor piercing weapons they have rocket propelled launchers. They have weapons to shoot down the one helicopter that the government has. They have acted as a pretty tight-knit commando unit, and they're led by, as I think you were pointing out in the introduction -- they're led by people who were former associates of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Jodel Chamblin was the trigger man for FRAPH during the military coup, when FRAPH -- when FRAPH was written was a creation of the Defense Intelligence Agency of the United States. There's enough indications from our point of view, at least from my point of view, that the United States certainly knew what was coming about two weeks before this military operation started. The United States made contingency plans for Guantanamo.

The U.S. Ambassador in Port-au-Prince began the process of warning American citizens and asking them to register. This was a week before any of this, and two weeks before any of this happened. So, there was a clear feeling that something was going to happen, and what really happened is the combination of Jean Tatun who is a person that the press has rarely reported about in Gonaives, who was a former FRAPH person who we tried and convicted for gross violations of human rights and murder in Raboteau, and is behind what's going on in Gonaives. He had strong connections with Chamblain, the ex-head of FRAPH, and Guy Philippe, a former member of the Haitian armed forces who has attempted previous coups, not only against Aristide, but the Preval government. These people came through the Dominican border after the United States had provided 20,000 M-16's to the Dominican army. They came through the border, that is Philippe and Chamblain with a really small army of about 20 or 30 highly trained military people with these M-16's and M-60's and all of this other equipment that came through the Dominican border with -- in several trucks with very, very heavy equipment. And quite frankly, I believe that the United States clearly knew about it before, and that given the fact of the history of these people, we are probably very, very deeply involved, and I think congress needs to seriously look at what the involvement of the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency has been in this operation. Because it is a military operation. It's not a rag-tag group of liberators, as has often been put in the press in the last week or two. The second part of it is that it's clear that as a result of a number of stories that have come out in the last two days that the so-called peaceful opposition has been working very, very closely with these people. Guy Philippe was quoted in the Associated Press yesterday saying with a big smile on his face that he has not been officially in contact with the opposition, but that he has received money and support from the Haitian business community. Well, the Haitian business community are the people who are behind what's called the group of 184. Those are the people who were so-called peaceful opposition. It's clear to us that they're stalling tactics in the last week have been designed to develop a fate accompli on the ground. I think that's what we're seeing right now.

AMY GOODMAN: Hadn’t Guy Philippe been arrested in the Dominican Republic at one time?

IRA KURZBAN: Yes. Guy Philippe was heavily involved in drug dealing in Cap-Haitien and was involved in a coup against Preval. And the reason I point that out is because a lot of the press reports are saying this is all about Aristide and so forth. It has nothing really to do with Aristide. This is a military operation designed to bring back the Haitian army. And I think that the Defenses Intelligence Agency has always wanted to push to have the army reconstituted. So Philippe was involved in a coup in the year 2000 against President Preval and the thrust of that then just as the thrust of it now is, we want to bring back the Haitian Army. So under the cover of this is all about Aristide and how undemocratic he has been and so forth, it's really an operation to bring back the army. When he tried the coup in 2000 he was fired from the police and fled to the Dominican Republic and the Haitian government has made many efforts to extradite him and to put him on trial. As a result of not only that effort but what happened on December 17 where one of his cohorts readily admitted that Philippe and his cohorts were involved in a coup to take the National Palace. They have tried this two or three times in different ways. There was an effort in July of 2001 to capture the police stations in Haiti, and that was unsuccessful. There was another effort on December 17 to take the National Palace, and that was unsuccessful. And obviously, they have regrouped. They have obtained these kinds of very, very heavy weapons. And are coming across the border. Yes, I -- to be perfectly clear, Amy, I believe that this is a group that is armed by, trained by, and employed by the intelligence services of the United States. I think that the congress really needs to take a very careful look at this now.

AMY GOODMAN: We're talking to Ira Kurzban, who since 1991 has been a lawyer for the Haitian government, a Miami-based attorney.

IRA KURZBAN: The president went on national TV in Haiti and also spoke with the international community yesterday saying what's really going on about this military coup and asking for international assistance. I mean, the Haitians who are in Port-au-Prince and the police who have acted very, very valiantly against very difficult odds and the palace security are all prepared to fight, and I think they will fight. I don't think that you are going to see the situation that you have seen in some other places where they -- this military operation has been able to roll into the cities because of their disproportionate fire power. And one thing I think that needs to be made clear, Amy, in this is when the press reports that these people easily went into the city because there's so much opposition to Aristide, I think it's really doing a disservice to the American public because what's happening is people are trying to fight back with machetes and rocks and bottles, and they're facing M-60's which are the weapon that Rambo had in the movie. I mean, these are huge, powerful weapons against people who are trying to stand up for democracy and of course, you know, they are -- they have not been able to stop this well-armed and well-trained group of commandos. And I think the situation, though, in Port-au-Prince is very different. There are many, many police now in Port-au-Prince. There are security forces in Port-au-Prince. I think they're prepared to fight. I think they will fight. I think the president, and really being a statesman, is trying to say to the world, we need to stop this. You know, this is the 21st century. Haiti should be moving forward. We should be moving forward toward peace. We should resolve this in a peaceful way. There's going to be a lot of bloodshed and with bloodshed, there's also going to be boat people who are going to be fleeing the country in the next six months or a year. If these guys do take over, they're bad actors. These are people who were killers and even as the Secretary of State acknowledged, thugs and criminals who have a very, very bad human rights history in Haiti.

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

Listen:
http://stream.realimpact.net/rihurl.ram?file=webactive/demnow/dn20040225.ra&start=10:21.1

[Octafish]

7. Aristide is a good man. Thus, he's an enemy of the BFEE

Thank you for the great links, bigtree! I'm much obliged. Here's some background on my thinking on this subject (posted on a thread started by Stephanie a couple days back):

An ex-Roman Catholic priest, Aristide is a good man. He preached "Liberation Theology" and that makes him an enemy of the BFEE.

Liberation Theology is putting into political practice the teachings of the New Testament. Aristide believes the people deserve more than the scraps. In Haiti, 99 percent of the property is owned by 1 percent of the population. Sounds like the US is heading in the same direction under Baby Doc Bush.

True story: I met Jean Bertrand-Aristide after he was deposed by the generals in the early 90s when he came to speak at the Cranbrook Peace Foundation in metro Detroit.

Aristide said all Bush had to do was pick up the phone and the generals would quit their coup and the first democratically elected leader of Haiti in 75 years would be returned to power. Bush didn't and Aristide wasn't until Clinton, many years and many, many lives later.

The turd Jesse Helms called Aristide, during this period, a murderer who necklaced his victims. That's odd, because Aristide is a former Catholic priest who survived an assassination attempt during Mass.

JUST LIKE HIS SON TODAY, the reason for Poppy Doc Bush's inaction? Uncle Sam likes to deal with "our dictators." It just so happens the elite in Haiti will benefit, like the elite in Nigeria, Guatemala and Saudi Arabia, at the expense of their people.
Aristide also said that the generals were deep into the wholesale cocaine importation business. Now who would be their partner in all that?

Aristide in his own words...


Eyes of the Heart

by Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Common Courage Press, 2000

p5

Our planet is entering the new century with fully 1.3 billion people living on less than one dollar a day. Three billion people, or half the population of the world, live on less than two dollars a day. Yet this same planet is experiencing unprecedented economic growth. The statistics that describe the accumulation of wealth in the world are mind-boggling. From where we sit, the most staggering statistics of all are those that reflect the polarization of this wealth. In 1960 the richest 20% of the world's population had 70% of the world's wealth, today they have 86% of the wealth. In 1960 the poorest 20% of the world's population had just 2.3% of the wealth of the world. Today this has shrunk to just barely 1%.

p11

What happens to poor countries when they embrace free trade? In Haiti in 1986 we imported just 7000 tons of rice, the main staple food of the country. The vast majority was grown in Haiti. In the late 1980s Haiti complied with free trade policies advocated by the international lending agencies and lifted tariffs on rice imports. Cheaper rice immediately flooded in from the United States where the rice industry is subsidized. In fact the liberalization of Haiti's market coincided with the 1985 Farm Bill in the United States which increased subsidies to the rice industry so that 40% of U.S. rice growers' profits came from the government by 1987. Haiti's peasant farmers could not possibly compete. By 1996 Haiti was importing 196,000 tons of foreign rice at the cost of $100 million a year. Haitian rice production became negligible. Once the dependence on foreign rice was complete, import prices began to rise, leaving Haiti's population, particularly the urban poor, completely at the whim of rising world grain prices. And the prices continue to rise.

p13

... in 1995, severely indebted low-income countries paid one billion dollars more in debt and interest to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) than they received from it. For the 46 countries of Subsaharan Africa, foreign debt service was four times their combined governmental health and education budgets in 1996. So, we find that aid does not aid.

SNIP...


p57

Today we face complex networks of communications and disinformation, corporations with budgets hundreds of times the size of our national budget, and an army of international financial, trade, and development institutions. The panorama of threats is so daunting that sometimes I say perhaps our only strength is that the majority of the people did not go to school. They are not yet assimilated into this machine. Their minds remain their own and they are experts at unearthing the truth in a morass of disinformation.

CONTINUED...

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Aristide/Eyes_Heart_Aristide.html

[bigtree]

8. The finest leader there can't govern with just his good intentions

The U.S. had an obligation to put the force of our diplomatic and military resources behind his elected government. Instead, Bush did all he could to undermine him.

Wonder what Rebel figure the Bush junta will choose to 'share' power with the former Aristide government? Or, more likely, they will seize power and execute or exile whomever dares to stay.

BushII: Illegal Coup, military overthrow of a sovereign country #2

[Donna Zen]

10. FWIW

I'm all for blasting bush on this one; however, it should be noted that 1) Aristide has been rather inept in governing 2) the repubs refuse to support democracy with economic aid...no money and follow through after Clinton went in. In fact, it is fair to say that bush has been uninterested in all of South Am. and the islands. 3) the Catholic Church could do much to change Haiti.

I visit the island once a year, and the corruption is rife on the Dominican side as well. And yes, it is an off loading stop for drugs.

We need a new everything...Administration and congress. What is happening here is effecting too many people too adversely.

I assume that they will blame Clinton for this.

[bigtree]

9. kick

:kick:

[windansea]

11. even Carter saw thru Aristade

sorry but I wouldn't call the guy "democratically elected" based on these reports

re: 1995 election

The Carter Center report on the ensuing election -- written by Carter confidant and former National Security Council advisor Robert Pastor -- documents the disgraceful conduct of the Aristide government and his Lavalas party. "Of the 13 elections I have observed, the June 25 Haitian elections were the most disastrous technically, with the most insecure count," Pastor said in the report. "I personally witnessed the compromise of one-third of the ballot boxes in Port-au-Prince."

According to the report, the election was riddled with graft, fraud and chaos, with widespread irregularities, ballots burned, hundreds of voting stations never opened and tens of thousands of people never able to vote.

The report, issued by the Atlanta-based Carter Center, exposes Aristide's one-party "Lavalas" rule, with its widespread corruption, mismanagement and ballot manipulating, particularly in the June 25 election. Aristide's allies swept local and parliamentary seats in that balloting.

President Carter's critique of Aristide is especially startling, considering the long political association between the two. When Aristide won Haiti's 1990 presidential election, the Carter Center was at the forefront of groups supporting the results

A critical part of Aristide's plan for seizing total power in Haiti has been his illegal and authoritarian command of the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) that conducted the fraudulent June election. Sensing trouble in March, Carter visited Haiti and was formally rebuffed by Aristide. Unofficially, he was greeted by hostile crowds and vicious graffiti, all engineered by Lavalas street gangs intent on embarrassing the former U.S. chief executive

http://www.cartercenter.org/documents/1248.pdf

and these reports on 2000 election from politics and elections.com


Former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide won election as president of Haiti again, winning 92% of the vote according to the country's electoral council. All major opposition parties boycotted the election.

Aristide's Lavalas Family Party won all nine Senate seats that were contested, giving it all but one seat in the upper house. Lavalas Family also won 80% of the House of Assembly seats in may, June and July legislative elections. Opponents charge that those elections were rigged to enable Aristide to govern with, effectively, one-party rule.

Aristide was first elected in 1990, ending nearly 200 years of dictatorship. A bloody army coup kicked him out seven months later, followed by a terroristic military government, and than an invasion by U.S. troops to restore Aristide to power.

Opposition activist Evans Paul said ballot boxes were stuffed and tally sheets altered to make it look like a higher turnout. Some polls closed hours early for lack of voters.

more...

http://www.politicsandelections.com/international/hai.htm

[bigtree]

12. Two points

The first report does not accuse Aristide or any organized effort to subvert the vote. It blames chaos and inefficiency.

The second report has the opposition claiming stuffed ballot boxes but offers no proof. Low turnout caused by opposition intimidation and a boycott by the opposition may have hampered the vote but that doesn't excuse the Bush coup.

Aristide was the closest to an elected representative the country had, and he is popular among the people.

[windansea]

13. I'm not excusing Bush

but Aristade turned into a thug and the last 2 elections there were obviously rigged...hopefully the UN will come in and make sure they have a fair election

[bigtree]

15. I saw no evidence that Aristide turned into a thug.

I do think that he was unable to curb the violence of some of his supporters.

[windansea]

16. please....he gave them badges and support

http://www.haiti-info.com/article.php3?id_article=250

http://www.oplpeople.com/message/1566.html

direct Aristade quote

""Yes, we have less (support) than we had in
1990 ... but I think the 30,000 gangsters want
to keep me in power against the majority of
the Haitian people," Aristide said. "And if you
compare the millions Dollars I have and what
the one who comes behind me can get —
there you will see a huge margin of
difference."

http://www.oplpeople.com/message/1034.html

need more???

[bigtree]

17. I've got my Aristide articles too

What does that prove? That Aristide rigged elections? I believe he is popular in Haiti. I can provide pro-Aristide links.

A series by Kevin Pina:

Propaganda War Intensifies Against Haiti, October 30
http://www.blackcommentator.com/62/62_haiti_1.html

An increasing barrage of negative propaganda in the US media is softening the ground for an eventual power grab by the Washington-sponsored opposition in Haiti, the Democratic Convergence. In a series of press releases and articles over the past three months, international organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and journalists have bombarded the press to justify one common theme: violent regime change is acceptable, if not inevitable, in Haiti. The main themes of this media spin cycling through the press today should be more than familiar to those who follow Haiti in the news: politicization of the Haitian police force, Lavalas grassroots organizations cast as armed gangs, and government corruption.
____________________________________________________________________

U.S. Corporate Media Distorts Haitian Events, November 6
http://www.blackcommentator.com/63/63_haiti_2.html

Immediately after Transparency International took its turn trying to beat the Haitian government’s credibility senseless, the so-called independent voices of the US press stepped in to deliver a few more uncritical yet fatal blows. The message of these so-called independent voices was uncannily similar and nearly indistinguishable: Amiot Metayer was a demon created by the devil President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The underlying theme was that the Haitian government deserves to fall because it has brought violence on itself through its own actions. Never mind that the violence against the government is being led by Jean Tatoune, a former member of the CIA-inspired Front for Advancement and Progress in Haiti or FRAPH, who has a history of betrayal where Metayer is concerned.

___________________________________________________________________

The Bush Administration's End Game for Haiti
http://www.blackcommentator.com/67/67_pina.html

Unfortunately, to HDP’s chagrin and angst, Aristide’s popularity among the poor majority of Haitians remains intact. In a backhanded and slanted acknowledgement of this fact Paisley Dodds of Reuters wrote on November 18, “Now opponents say Aristide, who remains the country’s most popular leader, is becoming a dictator.” What Ms. Dodds fails to write is that the “opponents” she refers to include a large helping of white American citizens in the HDP who work, or have worked, for the U.S. government in Haiti.
___________________________________________________________________

Kevin Pina is a documentary filmmaker and freelance journalist who has been working and living in Haiti for the past three years. He has been covering events in Haiti for the past decade and produced a documentary film entitled "Haiti: Harvest of Hope". Mr. Pina is also the Haiti Special Correspondent for the Flashpoints radio program on the Pacifica Network's flagship station KPFA in Berkeley CA.


Thursday, February 26, 2004_

05:35 Update on Haiti - Capital Under Seige: Special Correspondent Kevin Pina on the telephone from Haiti describes the situation in Port-Au-Prince and today's developments. Dennis also speaks with Quixote Center director and Haiti Reborn Project founder Eugenia Charles-Mathurin in Washington DC, who expresses the Haitian people's struggle for democracy and survival while the international community stalls and even encourages the approaching humanitarian crisis. http://www.kpfa.org/cgi-bin/gen-mpegurl.m3u?server=209.81.10.18&port=80&mount=/data/20040226-Thu1700.mp3

Friday, February 27, 2004

Today on Flashpoints: Today on a special national edition of Flashpoints, we spend the hour on the expanding crisis in Haiti. We’ll feature a live report from our special correspondent Kevin Pina, live in Port-au-Prince, we’ll speak with Representative Barbara Lee of California, co-chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, we’ll speak with Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, and the host of Family Lavalas on Radio Soleil in Brooklyn, along with several Haitian activists. http://www.kpfa.org/cgi-bin/gen-mpegurl.m3u?server=209.81.10.18&port=80&mount=/data/20040227-Fri1700.mp3

[windansea]

18. hmmm lets see...Kevin Pina or President Carter

who would know more about rigged elections??

or maybe we could ask 1000s of haitian exiles in France and read the comments on their blog

or maybe we could listen to quotes by Aristade talking about his 30,000 thugs and millions of dollars

or maybe we could ask an anonymous poster who "believes" Aristade is popular

:headbang:

[bigtree]

19. There are more voices than Pinas.

Charlie Rangel, Barbara Lee, lots of African-American voices.

? I have access to information as you do. You aren't refuting the information that I have provided. You are defending your own point of view with links. I provided links. You provide alleged quotes from Aristide. There are quotes from him that are the opposite of those insinuated by you.

You maintain that Carter makes my points moot. Carter speaks of elections, not of charges of violence, or judgements on the police force there. They have pistols and machetes to the Rebel's CIA supplied M16's, but you would have us believe that Aristide's forces with their pistols and machetes are the threat there.

If you want to debate issues with links then you will have to accept that there are other views. I read your material. How about listening to one of the reports I provided? I don't think I am presenting anything outside of a reasonable argument here.

[windansea]

20. ok..do you respect reporters without borders???

Nearly 30 Haitian journalists have fled abroad in the past three years after being threatened by Aristide supporters and two journalists have been murdered. As a result, Aristide has been put on the Reporters Without Borders worldwide list of 42 predators of press freedom

Haiti - 2003 Annual Report

Impunity continued to hold sway in Haiti. It gave government supporters a free hand to harass and attack the press and opposition. Facing growing opposition, President Aristide's government tried to use fear to hold on to power. More journalists were forced into exile. The investigations into the deaths of Jean Dominique and Brignol Lindor did not progress. On the contrary, their killers continued to threaten the families of both journalists.

At least 40 journalists were physically attacked or threatened in 2002. The Association of Haitian Journalists (AJH) put the figure at more than 60. Some had reported on the collapse of the cooperative savings schemes in 2002, which ruined tens of thousands of small savers and in which the government was allegedly implicated at the highest level. It was amid such scandals that Israël Jacky Cantave of Caraïbes FM was kidnapped in July in what Cantave viewed as a government warning to the press. After Cantave was threatened and forced into exile, a warrant was issued for his arrest for not cooperating with investigators.
The year ended with demonstrations demanding President Aristide's resignation and growing tension, in which journalists paid the price. Seven journalists had to go into hiding in Gonaïves after covering one of the first big anti-government demonstrations. They were threatened by the Cannibal Army, a "popular organisation" led by Amiot Métayer which terrorized this northern town ever since Métayer broke out of prison in August 2002. After initially promising to rearrest him, the government apparently preferred to use him as a blunt instrument against its opponents.
Métayer had been arrested because of his violent attacks on the opposition during a supposedly spontaneous reaction to what was portrayed as an attempted coup d'etat on 17 December 2001. An Organisation of American States (OAS) enquiry published in July concluded not only that it was not a coup d'etat but also that police officers were accomplices to the attack staged on the presidential palace. The enquiry also stressed that the ensuing violence against the opposition had been carried with logistic support from the authorities. Those targeted on 17 December 2001 included some 10 journalists who afterwards went into exile. The increasingly discredited government could try to repeat this kind of operation, in which it poses as the victim in order to have a pretext for cracking down on the opposition and press.

http://www.rsf.fr/article.php3?id_article=6197

thats just one RWB article...many more here

http://www.rsf.fr/sinequa_en.php3?iFullTextQuery=haiti&iLanguage=english&archive=

[bigtree]

21. The Black Commentator articles from Pina covers these murders

These haven't been directly linked to Aristide. Just calling them Aristide supporters doesn't tie them to anything that Aristide would sanction. This is how the charges are framed. They have been defended elsewhere.

Did the Haiti police forces have a heavy hand? Probably. When U.S. cops act up do we oust the Governor? Aristide did not have strong control over the police. Does that make him a thug?

I guess the most that I can say is that there are many voices on both sides of the debate. I don't want to be agressive in whose word I would take here, but I have some rather reliable sources who have lived there that I read and listen to. Give it a try.

And the Rebels were shooting into the hospitals today, killing patients. These are better?

[windansea]

22. lets agree its a mess

and there are bad guys on both sides...at one point Aristade was popular...but then he got paranoid...I think he blew it...hopefully the UN will help them get a good government

[Adjoran]

14. Clinton chose the best

of bad options. Aristide had at least been honestly elected. Restoring him to power bought some time, but his regime was as brutal and corrupt as every other regime there has been.

There aren't any easy solutions in Haiti. Aristide might have been forced to leave by the US, but we probably saved his life in doing so. This is civil war - again.