Haiti has practically slipped through the mainstream media radar. Just another coup in a 3rd world country. Kind of makes you wonder just how close
Venezuela came to puppet status...
Anyhow, DemocracyNow! has been one of the very few media outlets to mark the anniversary of the ouster of the constitutionally elected President, Aristide, this past week;
AristideNo, I didn't resign. What some people call "resignation" is a "new coup d'etat," or "modern kidnapping."
Official U.S. Government spokesman disagree...
AMY GOODMAN: When the reporters brought the question to the Pentagon, they questioned Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and asked if it was true what Pacifica was reporting. Donald Rumsfeld:
DONALD RUMSFELD: The idea that someone was abducted is just totally inconsistent with everything I heard or saw or am aware of. So I think that – that I do not believe he is saying what you say -- are saying he is saying.
AMY GOODMAN: That's Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Here is Secretary of State Colin Powell speaking on March 1 of last year.
COLIN POWELL: He was not kidnapped. We did not force him onto the airplane. He went onto the airplane willingly, and that's the truth.
AMY GOODMAN: And finally, White House Press Secretary, Scott McClellan.
SCOTT McCLELLAN: Conspiracy theories like that do nothing to help the Haitian people realize the future that they aspire to, which is a better future, a more free future and a more prosperous future. We took steps to protect Mr. Aristide. We took steps to protect his family as they departed Haiti. It was Mr. Aristide's decision to resign, and he spelled out his reasons why.
Funny thing is, I can't find a transcript of Aristide's "decision to resign" or "the reasons why."
Anywhere.
The people of Haiti remembered the ouster of Aristide, and the occasion was marked with violence, hardly mentioned by media outlets across the globe...
Tensions high in Haiti after police violenceTensions remain high in Haiti after police opened fire on protesters in the capital of Port-Au-Prince on Monday, killing two people and wounding some 20 others.
The police opened fire when a 2,000-strong group of supporters of deposed president Jean-Bertrand Aristide marched towards the National Palace to observe the one-year anniversary of his ouster.
News agencies said the protestors advanced towards the government building waving portraits of Aristide and shouting slogans against US President George Bush. A police vehicle blocked the road and the policemen fired tear gas shells and then live ammunition into the crowd.
Of course, DemocracyNow!
noticed;BILL QUIGLEY: We had been marching with people through the neighborhood, and it was a really joyous occasion, people singing and dancing and jumping and shouting and holding up homemade signs and chanting, "Bring back Aristide." And there was a lot of international media there. There were U.N. troops that were every couple of blocks, and it looked like it was going to be a very peaceful demonstration and very safe. And then all of a sudden, about 30 minutes into the demonstration, as thousands of people were coming down this street, there was just a series of booms from the police and people scattered and screamed. There were people down in the street. They showed pictures on the television last night of somebody who had the back half of their head blown off. There was other people who were beaten by the police, but it was just shot after shot after shot, and these booms just echoed through the streets as children were screaming and crying and people diving for cover and running away, and it wasn't actually ’til a lot of the U.N. troops came in that people felt even safe enough to be able to venture back to the street to be able to try to escape the neighborhood. It was a horrifying and totally unprovoked massacre. People didn't have -- they had no guns, no bats, no pipes, no rocks, no anything. They were holding up political signs and dancing. There was a band. It was just a shocking display of an attempt to repress human rights and democracy.
Gosh, did Larry King miss this? How about John Roberts? Cokie? Anyone? Bueler? Bueler?
Stan?
Who?
Stan Goff.As I write this there is an attempt to start a civil war in Haiti, engineered in the United States of America and supported by its lapdogs in Caricom and the Organization of American States. Former Haitian military men who have received "some form" of training and logistical support while hiding out in the neighboring US semi-colony, the Dominican Republic, are systematically attacking the Haitian National Police at primary strategic points along the entire route from Port-au-Prince to the Dominican Border near Ouanaminthe. Only Cap Haitien has not fallen so far as St Marc, Gonaives, and Trou du Nord a town at a key bridge between the border and Cap Haitien has been ransacked by right-wing paramilitaries, who are the armed wing of a US-funded "opposition" that cloaks itself in the name Convergence Democratique, and now falsely claims no connection with this activity.
Ok, Stan saw it coming.
And continued to cover it;
"Progressive" Latin American Leaders Support the Coup in HaitiAfter a coup d'etat planned, coordinated, and executed by the most reactionary elements in Haiti, with the substantial material support of the governments of the United States and its ever-obedient Dominican Republic, the proud nation of Haiti is again under foreign military occupation. The shameful fact, however, is that this time the occupation is being carried out by not only by the French, whose savage imperial history there is well known, and by the Canadians (perennial handmaidens of the US), but by Argentina, Brazil, and Chile--three nations who have themselves been victimized by the covert operations establishment of the United States, and governments who are making the now-specious claim that they are "progressive."
Oh! Canada!
From
Zmag.orgCanada is perhaps as deeply involved in Aristide’s ouster as any client government has been historically in assisting the U.S. in enforcing Monroe Doctrine-like principles in the hemisphere, and this includes the present cover-up that is being undertaken. Diplomatically, as the Jean Chretien regime was wringing their hands in the face of popular opposition over their potential role in the ‘coalition of the willing’ in Iraq, they were helping to plan regime change in Haiti. Three weeks before regime change, on February 5, Pierre Pettigrew consorted with rebel “mastermind” Paul Arcelin, who had previously been arrested for plotting a coup in 2003. Pettigrew also has strong ties to Gildan Activewear, Hydro Quebec, and other corporations that stand to benefit from a government that is willing to follow the “American Plan” in Haiti. Just the person we want as Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Since the coup, Canada has helped prop up the puppet regime and has actively prevented the realities of post-coup Haiti from being heard or seen by the ‘mainstream’ Canadian public. The Canadian Commander of ‘Task Force Haiti’ deliberately evaded questions about extensively documented human rights abuses that took place while Canadian soldiers were still occupying the country. Among other things as well, Canadian NGOs such as “Development and Peace,” “Rights and Democracy,” and “FOCAL,” helped foment the demonization and destabilization campaign against the elected government, and are aiding and abetting this massive cover-up.
And so it goes.
Democracy throttled in another abandoned corner of the universe.
But you can't say that nobody noticed.
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