U.S. Special Forces in Haiti Seeking Out Rebel Leaders

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, March 5 — Newly arrived United States Special Forces sought out rebel leaders on Friday, as marines at the presidential palace were jeered and cursed by demonstrators loyal to the deposed president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The American commandos are in the rebel strongholds of Cap Haitien and Gonaïves, an American commander said. The commander, Gen. James T. Hill, said the rebels had not laid down their weapons as they had promised, though some had withdrawn from the capital.

Their most prominent leader, Guy Philippe, "is still in the city, and we are still looking for him to lay down his arms," said General Hill, who heads the Pentagon's Southern Command.
<snip...>
The flow of food, medicine and other international aid has resumed here, but very slowly. Many international aid agencies' stores were looted during the rebel advance on the capital.

Dr. Desmangles said the donations he had received in the last year were "mostly worthless recycled materials." "We have bullet wounds, dying people, every disease," he said. "If other nations want to help, they will send doctors, not junk."
<snip...more>
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/06/international/americas/06CAPI.html

Like Cuba?

"They've secured an empty palace," he said of the American soldiers here.

"We needed security here," at the hospital, he added. "But that did not interest them. They tell the rebels they cannot be involved in the politics of our country. Some of us feel the same way about them."

Sounds familiar...

Here's something on the US creating a government out of thin air:

In the capital, the American ambassador, James B. Foley, said a Haitian "council of elders" was formed Friday afternoon. He said the council would nominate members of a provisional "government of national unity" that would eventually run the country.

Haitian Constitution? What Constitution?

And finally:

General Hill (Pentagon head of Southern Command), flanked by commanders of French, Canadian and Chilean forces at the international airport here, denounced the rebels' call for the re-establishment of the Haitian Army. The Haitian military, long an instrument of political terror, overthrew President Aristide in 1991.

"There is no need for a Haitian Army," General Hill said forcefully. "I was here when President Aristide disbanded it, and that was the correct thing to do at the time."

Contrary to what so many US pundits seem to think, the General seems to agree that disbanding the Haitian Army was the right thing to do.

Obviously, the coup leaders are filthy. But according to all international observes the previous government was no better. I get the impression that a company of well trained Marines could take over the country.

The people of Haiti are human souls, but the chronic mismanagement of the nation makes one despair.

Beloved Haiti

http://www.counterpunch.org/goff02142004.html

CARICOM, South Africa, Democrats in congress, and many Haitians in the US plus others around the world are calling for an investigation. Just because you don't catch it on the 5pm news doesn't mean it's not happening.

The Haitian council general in NY as well as CARICOM are still recognizing Aristide as LEGAL President of Haiti. Based on the FACT that Bush FROZE all multilateral aid (IMF approved) to a starving country three years ago had great impact on this situation, but the LIES have been disseminated over a long period of time blaming Aristide--typical Washington BUSHIT.

Watch the House Committee hearing on Haiti that's available at CSPAN for FACTS on the situation or check DU for statements from Barbara Lee and Maxine Waters posted yesterday.

First, it came up in a search for a Haitian name mentioned in Stan Goff's article, linked above, I think in bemildred's post. I was looking for Mark Bazin, a man connected with international banking the U.S. has pushed in Haitian elections, who lost, of course.

This snippet simply addresses the U.S. N.E.D., and imparted something I believe is appalling:

With access to sources in both Managua and the U.S., William Robinson presents the first case study of the 1988-1990 campaign and elections in Nicaragua. The story began when U.S. intelligence worried that the CIA's stigma had blunted its capacity to intervene effectively in foreign affairs. In 1983 Congress gave the wolf a new suit of clothes by funding a "quasi- governmental institute" with a nice name to channel money to foreign operations through some of the CIA's old conduits. The "National Endowment for Democracy" emphasizes democratic participation, but essentially it purchases access for political parties that parrot U.S. interests. In Nicaragua, NED channeled millions through an array of cutouts and high- powered political strategists, for a spending level of about $20 per voter (George Bush spent less than $4 per voter in his own 1988 campaign). If a foreign country intervened at the same level in one of our elections, we might call it an "invasion" but we wouldn't call it "democracy." (snip)http://www.namebase.org/sources/SF.html

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The NED was first funded by President Ronald Reagan in 1982 and shaped by an initial study undertaken by the American Political Foundation. <2>

NED was created with a view to creating a broad base of political support for the organisation. NED received funds from the US government and distributes funds to four other organisations – one each created by the Republican and Democrat parties, one created by the business community and one by the labour movement.

The four affiliated organisations are Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the Free Trade Union Institute. (snip)

http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=National_Endowment_for_Democracy

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In the 1990 elections in Haiti, the NED supported Marc Bazin providing a big fraction of his total US-supported campaign funds of $36 million. Despite this funding, he only obtained 12% of the vote. Marc Bazin had earlier been a World Bank official. He was seen by most Haitians as a "front man for military and business interests", and had been prime minister during military rule, for the presidential election. <3>

In February of 2004, Haitian political instability erupted thanks to the NED providing financial and technical support to Anti-Aristide groups such as the Democratic Platform and the International Republican Institute, "the international arm of the Republican Party." The Democratic Platform denied supporting the armed resistance that killed scores of people and created many refugees but organized many disruptive rallies that forced Aristide to scramble in order to maintain order.<4> Combined with a freeze on aid to Haiti, silence from the administration of George Walker Bush and preparations for housing "15,000 Haitian boat people after they are interdicted on their way to Florida," the will of the United States appears to be regime change in Haiti.<5>

During 2001/2002, the NED gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to US and Venezuelan groups who organised protests and a coup d'etat against the elected president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. The coup happened on 11 April 2002. According to Wayne Madsen, a former intelligence officer with the US navy, US military attaches such as Lieutenant Colonel James Rogers had been in touch with members of the Venezuelan military to examine the possibility of a coup, while Roger Rondon claimed that both James Rogers and another US military officer, Ronald MacCammon, had been at the Fuerte Tiuna military headquarters with the coup leaders during the night of April 11-12. <6> (snip)

http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=National_Endowment_for_Democracy

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The US was willing to support a democratic election, figuring that its candidate, a former World Bank official named Marc Bazin, would easily win. He had all the resources and support, and it looked like a shoe-in. He ended up getting 14% of the vote, and Aristide got about 67%. The only question in the mind of anybody who knows a little history should have been, How is the US going to get rid of Aristide? The disaster became even worse in the first seven months of Aristide's office. There were some really amazing developments.

Haiti is, of course, an extremely impoverished country, with awful conditions. Aristide was nevertheless beginning to get places. He was able to reduce corruption extensively, and to trim a highly bloated state bureaucracy. He won a lot of international praise for this, even from the international lending institutions, which were offering him loans and preferential terms because they liked what he was doing.

Furthermore, he cut back on drug trafficking. The flow of refugees to the US virtually stopped. Atrocities were reduced to way below what they had been or would become. There was a considerable degree of popular engagement in what was going on, although the contradictions were already beginning to show up, and there were constraints on what he could do.

All of this made Aristide even more unacceptable from the US point of view, and we tried to undermine him through what were called-naturally-"democracy-enhancing programs." The US, which had never cared at all about centralization of power in Haiti when its own favored dictators were in charge, all of a sudden began setting up alternative institutions that aimed at undermining executive power, supposedly in the interests of greater democracy. A number of these alleged human rights and labor groups became the governing authorities after the coup, which came on September 30, 1991.
(snip)

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Chomsky/ChomskyOdonian_Haiti.html

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Haitian time line:

Dessalines declares Haiti's independence. Viewing the Haitian revolution as a dangerous example to its own slaves, the United States imposes economic blockade
1838
France recognizes Haitian independence in exchange for large financial indemnity
1822-44
Haiti occupies Spanish Santo Domingo
1863
United States recognizes Haiti
1843-1915
Sequence of bloody civil conflicts for political control of the nation. Only two of twenty-two presidents complete their full terms in office as the coup d'etat becomes the established method of power transfer
1915
United States occupies Haiti to "reestablish order and defend American interests"
1915-1919
Charlemagne Peralte leads peasant resistance to occupation; captured and assassinated in 1919.
1943
U.S. occupation withdrawn.
1957
Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier elected president.
1958
Following a failed coup attempt, Duvalier creates a personal armed security force, known as the Tonton Macoutes. The militia functioned to repress political opposition and terrorize the countryside.
1964
Duvalier proclaims himself President-for-Life
1970s-1980s
Economic shift from agriculture to assembly industry such as tennis shoes and baseballs. 85% of profit from industry goes to the United States. Efforts to protest low pay and dangerous working conditions are severely repressed.
1971
Francois Duvalier dies after naming his son Jean-Claude ("Baby Doc") as President-for-Life
1972
First Haitian refugee "boat people" arrive in Florida.
1980
Government crackdown on opposition groups. 200 journalists, lawyers and human rights workers arrested.
1981
U.S. and international agencies slaughter pigs in Haiti following outbreak of African swine fever.
1984
Anti-government riots in major Haitian towns.
1985
Soldiers shoot four schoolchildren during protests.
1986
Duvalier flees Haiti with family for exile in France. National governing Council formed, headed by Lieutenant General Henri Namphy.
1987
National election. Soldiers and Tontons Macoutes massacre voters. Election cancelled.
1988
Army holds fraudulent election; Leslie Maginat becomes figurehead president. Coup d'etats put Gen. Namphy in power, followed by Lt. Gen. Avril.
1990
Haiti successfully holds first Democratic elections. Jean Bertrand Aristide wins with 67% of popular vote against a well-financed, U.S.-backed candidate, former World Bank official Marc Bazin.
1991
February: Aristide is inaugurated. The economy, education and human rights improve. Flow of refugees slows to a trickle.
September 30, 1991
Army seizes power in coup d'etat. Aristide goes into exile. Severe repression is unleashed against democratic and grassroots groups. Thousands of refugees begin fleeing Haiti in boats.
October, 1991
Organization of American States (OAS) condemns the coup and calls for a trade embargo. (snip)

http://www.globalexchange.org/tours/haiti/history.html

After all, he just a rebel, and a former police officer, right?

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/03/1631258
...
He says the man he most admires is former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet. He praises the former dictator as the man who "made Chile what it is.'" Next to Pinochet, his second greatest hero is Ronald Reagan. The man is paramilitary leader Guy Philippe, a former Haitian police chief who was trained by US Special Forces in Ecuador in the early 1990s.

The Haitian government and the private US security firm hired in 1998 by Haiti to protect the president accuse Philippe of master-minding a deadly attack on the Police Academy in July 2001 and of an attempted coup in December 2001. When he is discussed in the corporate media, he is almost always referred to simply as a rebel leader, a former police chief.

But human rights groups paint a different picture.

Human Rights Watch reported Friday that during Philippe's term as police chief of the Port-au-Prince suburb of Delmas from 1997 to 1999, international monitors "learned that dozens of suspected gang members were summarily executed, mainly by police under the command of Inspector Berthony Bazile, Philippe's deputy."
...