Wednesday, June 16, 2004

Council on Foreign Relations Helps Kissinger Deny his Criminal Past

comment | Posted June 3, 2004

Last November Foreign Affairs, the prestigious journal of the Council on Foreign Relations, published a review of The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability, a new book by Peter Kornbluh, director of the National Security Archive's Chile Documentation Project. Written by the council's chief Latin America expert, Kenneth Maxwell, the review upset two former statesmen who figure prominently in the book and who also happen to be influential actors at the council: Henry Kissinger and his longtime associate William Rogers. In May, after an acrimonious exchange between Rogers and Maxwell in Foreign Affairs--an exchange that Maxwell insists was abruptly curtailed as a result of pressure from Kissinger and Rogers--Maxwell resigned in protest from the council. His departure raises questions about intellectual freedom at the council; about editorial independence at Foreign Affairs, where Maxwell spent eleven years as Western Hemisphere book reviewer; and about Kissinger's and Rogers's influence on the nation's pre-eminent foreign policy think tank.

Posted by: Gustavo at 8 : 47 PM | Comments? (63) | LINK

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Central America Again?

This is the most ominous sounding news article, I have read in recent days.

U.S. Training African Forces to Uproot Terrorists
....
Having learned from missteps in Afghanistan and Iraq, the American officers are pursuing this battle with a new approach. Instead of planning on a heavy American military presence, they are dispatching Special Operations forces to countries like Mali and Mauritania in West Africa to train soldiers and outfit them with pickup trucks, radios and global-positioning equipment.

Anyone remember what counter-terrorism meant in Central America? As American trained death squads swept over the land, attaining the heights -- as Chomsky puts it -- of the Nazi SS?

Posted by: Suvrat at 12 : 12 PM | Comments? (57) | LINK

Saturday, March 06, 2004

Statement from Jean Bertrand Aristide

This is from Zmag.org:

Aristide Details Last Moments In Haiti, Calls For Stop To Bloodshed In First Address To Haitian People From Exile

This is also hosted here, click to see the full article.

Posted by: Phil at 4 : 55 PM | Comments? (178) | LINK

Saturday, March 06, 2004

Thousands of Aristide Supporters Pour Into Streets

By Ibon Villelabeitia and Jim Loney

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) - Thousands of outraged supporters of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide poured out of Haiti's slums and into the streets on Friday, marching on the U.S. Embassy to denounce the "occupation" of their homeland and demand Aristide's return.

Hurling slurs at U.S. Marines and calling President Bush a "terrorist," a crowd estimated at more than 10,000 materialized in the capital, seething with anger at Aristide's flight to Africa five days ago after a bloody rebellion and U.S. pressure.

"Bush terrorist! Bush terrorist!," chanted the crowd, many of them waving Haitian flags and wearing T-shirts bearing photos of Aristide, as they passed a contingent of battle-equipped U.S. Marines guarding the embassy.

Hundreds held up their hands with five fingers extended, shouting "Aristide five years," the rallying cry of his supporters who wanted him to finish his five-year term in office. U.S. troops watched impassively from the rooftop.

The massive protest came as U.S. and French troops joined Haitian police on patrol in the teeming capital. U.S. military vehicles mounted with machine guns and missile launchers rumbled through the streets, sending a message to rebels and Aristide militants to lay down their arms.

Supporters of Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest whose fiery oratory from the pulpit helped galvanize a popular revolt that dislodged the Duvalier family dictatorship in the 1980s, had been relatively quiet this week, shocked by the ouster of Haiti's first freely elected president.

They had stayed largely in Cite Soleil, La Saline and the other slums of Port-au-Prince as the armed rebels who helped push Aristide from office roamed the streets, hunting for "chimeres," the most militant of Aristide's supporters.

But as the rebels withdrew from the city following a pledge from their leader, former police chief Guy Philippe, to lay down their arms, Aristide partisans vowed to demonstrate daily for the return of their president.

"FOREIGN OCCUPATION"

They blamed Haiti's wealthy elite, Bush and French President Jacques Chirac for what they called the "foreign occupation" of Haiti.

"The bourgeoisie joined with the international community to occupy Haiti and get rid of President Aristide," one demonstrator screamed. "The bourgeoisie never did anything for us, the masses. Now they took away our president."

"If Aristide doesn't come back, life will be hell here."

Five days after Aristide was ousted by a bloody rebellion, a new tripartite council made up of people chosen by the government, Aristide's political foes and foreign nations went to work.

Aristide's Minister of Haitians Living Abroad, Leslie Voltaire, was named by the government. The political opposition Democratic Platform picked Paul Denis, a former senator, and the international community chose Adama Guindo, the United Nations resident coordinator.

The council will select a seven member "Council of Wise Men" within a week to pick a new prime minister and begin the process of establishing a new government.

Haiti's legislature has been largely defunct since early January. Only a few senators have time left in their terms.

Haitian and foreign officials have been struggling with the process of installing interim president Boniface Alexandre, who according to the constitution must be ratified by the legislature. It was still uncertain on Friday when a formal swearing in would be held at the palace.

U.S., French, Chilean and Canadian troops in Haiti numbered about 2,000, according to the commanders of the multinational force approved by the United Nations to restore order after days of looting and shooting following Aristide's flight into exile in the Central African Republic on Sunday.

More than 100 people died in the armed revolt that began on Feb. 5 when an anti-Aristide gang took over the northwestern city of Gonaives.

Aristide said from his African exile that he was kidnapped. The U.S. government has denied the allegation but residents of Aristide strongholds believe it.

In the pro-Aristide Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Bellair, where glass and debris litters the streets and the stench of sewage hangs in the air, residents said foreign troops should help protect them from gunmen that raid the area nightly.

They say rebels have been conducting reprisal raids.

"At 6 p.m. we all have to go and find a hole to hide," said Hubert Louis, 31, referring to the nightly curfew. "If the foreign troops want to show they want to support the people, they should protect us from the soldiers who are chasing us." (Additional reporting by Joseph Guyler Delva)

� 2004 Reuters

Posted by: Phil at 11 : 34 AM | Comments? (107) | LINK

Wednesday, March 03, 2004

Haiti Primer

For those interested in what's been happening/what did happen in Haiti here is a series of articles and excerpts:

Regime Change in Haiti: A Coup By Any Other Name by Mark Weisbrot

We know from press reports that the United States government was in control of Aristide's security. There were no security problems for American citizens, embassy personnel, or anyone else our government wanted to protect. A handful of Marines were able to secure the airport. But Secretary of State Colin Powell informed Aristide that the United States would not protect him. In other words, you either resign and leave or you may be killed.

Even worse, the Miami Herald reported on Monday that "the Bush administration blocked a last-minute attempt by [Aristide] to bolster his bodyguards."

The Bush administration had already called for Aristide to resign. But the Administration has been working on toppling Aristide for the past three years, plunging the country into chaos in the process.

Don't Fall For Washington's Spin On Haiti by Jeffrey Sachs:

The crisis in Haiti is another case of brazen US manipulation of a small, impoverished country with the truth unexplored by journalists. In the nearly universal media line on the Haitian revolt, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was portrayed as an undemocratic leader who betrayed Haiti's democratic hopes and thereby lost the support of his erstwhile backers. He "stole" elections and intransigently refused to address opposition concerns. As a result he had to leave office, which he did at the insistence of the US and France. Unfortunately, this is a gravely distorted view.

The Destabilization of Haiti by Michel Chossudovsky:

This article was written in the last days of February 2004 in response to the barrage of disinformation in the mainstream media. It was completed on February 29th, the day of President Jean Bertrand Aristide's departure in exile.

U.S. political maneuvering behind the ouster by Ron Howell.

The departure of Haiti's Jean-Bertrand Aristide is a victory for a Bush administration hard-liner who has been long dedicated to Aristide's ouster, U.S. foreign policy analysts say.

Mistakes in Haiti, Venezuela by John De Leon

The U.S. position facilitating Jean-Bertrand Aristide's ouster signals an ominous new period in U.S. foreign policy in which we are no longer committed to supporting democratically elected governments in this hemisphere or elsewhere. The Bush administration has lent its support to the ouster of democratically elected governments in Haiti and Venezuela, signaling a disdain not so much for their leaders but rather for the democratic institutions forged in the sacrifice of their people.

U.S. allegedly blocked extra bodyguards by Juan O. Tamayo

The Bush administration blocked a last-minute attempt by Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to bolster his bodyguards -- mostly former U.S. Special Forces members -- fearing he wanted them to organize and lead a counterattack against the rebels who threatened his presidency, knowledgeable sources said Sunday.

U.S. officials also forced a small group of extra bodyguards from the San Francisco-based Steele Foundation to delay their flight from the United States to Haiti from Sunday to today -- too late to help Aristide, said the sources, who are close to Aristide.

There are many more resources available on Democracy Now.org and Zmag.org.

Posted by: Phil at 11 : 12 AM | Comments? (326) | LINK

Thursday, February 26, 2004

Situation in Haiti

As many have no doubt heard, a very dire situation has been developing in Haiti this month, with anti-Aristid rebels trying to take over the country by force. There are several resources to find out more about what is going on. This article outlines accusations on the part of a lawyer for the Haitian government that the US is behind the coup. Further very good coverage is available on Democracy Now's special Crisis in Haiti section.

Posted by: Phil at 11 : 12 PM | Comments? (114) | LINK

Saturday, November 22, 2003

Frontline Article: The Bush Plan for Cuba

In this article Sharmini Peries raises the frightening possibility that US may be seriously planning a war against Cuba. She discusses the similarities between the punitive measures taken against Cuba and the pre-invasion measures against Iraq. Of course, she points out the miserable history of US imperialist attacks against Cuba, and the remarkable resilience that the small country has shown.

And this also includes a nice picture of Chomsky and Castro in Havana!

Posted by: Suvrat at 9 : 48 PM | Comments? (191) | LINK

Wednesday, June 16, 2004 Council on Foreign Relations Helps Kissinger Deny his Criminal Past

Tuesday, May 11, 2004 Central America Again?

Saturday, March 06, 2004 Statement from Jean Bertrand Aristide

Saturday, March 06, 2004 Thousands of Aristide Supporters Pour Into Streets

Wednesday, March 03, 2004 Haiti Primer

Thursday, February 26, 2004 Situation in Haiti