Haiti & U.S. Foreign Policy

Upon seeing the first Associated Press (AP) releases of the situation rising in Haiti, I must admit to having no idea exactly what is happening over there. It seemed to me that the people staging the coup may be oppressed citizens that reached the boiling point leading to riots, but something felt very weird about this and I couldn't quite nail it. Ever suspicious of AP reports, because propaganda frequently finds its way into their stories and (occasionally) photographic images (like the one of Iranian young men allegedly rioting at a stadium where cut and paste images were obvious), I went online to see what else I could find on this situation.

The BBC has, at least, one reporter on the case who seems to be showing both sides of the story, as if leaving us to draw our own conclusions. However, I still felt the need to keep looking. I've been doing just that.

If you're a U.S. Citizen, you can access any ol' corporate source that passes itself off as mainstream news, but I'm willing to bet that most of these sources won't bring up a lot of questions and issues that real professional journalists and those having greater understanding of the situation arising are already broaching. In fact, I suggest, before you believe what the corporate psuedo-journalists are babbling, read Anthony Fenton's Media vs. Reality in Haiti. The leference links following Fenton's analysis are noteoworthy for anyone wanting to understand what is happening there and how the U.S. Foreign Policy may be involved.

It seems, Narco News has returned from its temporary (economically caused) limbo state just in time to add some insightful questions and possible answers to the Haitian situation arising. Al Giordano of Narco News asks five questions about the situation and adds some quotes and historic facts (plus other references) worth reading. I've read these five questions just after reading the latest news that the Bush regime is sending troops to protect U.S. citizens at the U.S. Embassy there (ever reminded of situations, like the 1979 karmic return of the U.S. and British coup against a democratically-elected Iranian government, replaced by a U.S. puppet Shah.) Like Fenton, Giordano also provides good reference links. Check 'em out!

Yahoo.com published a Feb. 19th story quoting Colin Powell's double-speak comments that suggest the U.S. isn't asking Haitian President Aristide to step down before his term ends in Feb. 2006, but he added that the United States would not object if, as part of negotiations with opposition leaders, Aristide agreed to leave ahead of schedule. This remark stood out as I'd read Al Giordano's Five Questions About Haiti and the Coup Attempt (Echoes of Venezuela 2002 Are Heard Across the Caribbean).

I've had questions of my own, starting with the corporate psuedo-journalists' quotes of rebels blaming Aristide for their economic woes that are really caused by U.S. and U.N. sanctions against that country. With that, I've wondered why Clinton and Bush have imposed those sanctions on Haiti, especially after Aristide returned to Haiti's presidency. So, who is really to blame for that country's worsened poverty and hunger?

Like Giordano, I want to know how the top players that instigated this coup-attempt got their hands on the weapons, since the U.S. embargo against Haiti (which is also questionable) includes a ban on shipments of weapons. Why is it that these guys could get guns, but Aristide, who's pegged as the "villian" by the corporate media when his own cops aren't able to get guns. But these question leads me to other questions.

The corporate psuedo-journalists mention nothing about where the leaders of this coup effort have been living during the past decade and have failed to even hint that they've really made much of an effort to learn more about the leaders of this coup, which are few, compared to the majority of Haitian citizens, most of whom appear to support Aristide. I'm wondering if any of them were in the United States, perhaps in Miami (where a CIA compound exists), or at Ft. Benning, Georgia (Where the controversial and previously named School of the Americas trains domestic warriors in the manner that men like Osama bin laden and some of his militants, Manuel Noriega and Contra soldiers were trained. Noriega and Central and South American milititants were, in fact, trained at this school which creates forces used by Americans, sometimes later becoming named as U.S. national enemies and named as anti-US terrorists. (In many cases, the militants trained by U.S. forces later complain of being betrayed by the U.S. government, the CIA and other coverts when they offer their reasons for turning on these former helpers/weapons providers/trainers.)

Al Giordano mentions a number of other things that stick in my mind: Nicaragua, Argentina, Venezuela, drug smuggling, Haiti's location (near the Dominican Republic, where to Pa. narcotics officers uncovered a CIA/DR President coke smuggling ring that reminds me of what FTR's former narc., Mike Ruppert, discovered when he traced coke from the streets of L.A., to Nicaragua, the CIA, then-CIA director, George H. W. Bush, Oliver North, an arms smuggling [Iran/Contra scandal]). Al also mentioned Haiti's resources (mostly farming) and the IMF, which reminded me of what investigative journalist, Greg Palast uncovered and shared regarding the IMF, WTO and World Bank globalization efforts that destroyed Argentina's economy while profiteers like Enron made their money as they intensified the country's economic woes (Look for references to relative links on Greg Palast's Globalization page here.). And I am reminded of what Noam Chomski wrote in his book, "What Uncle Sam Really Wants," with regard to how George H. W. Bush, Oliver North and School of America's trained Contra soldiers helped to destroy Nicaragua's once-thriving and rising agriculture and economy by using U.S. trained Contras to terrorize and murder Nicaraguan families.

I see a possible situation similar in some ways to what's happened respectively in Argentina and Nicaragua, especially after U.S. narcotics agents helped to bring their findings of the drug smuggling deal between the CIA and the president of Haiti's next-door-neighbor, the Dominican Republic, into the mainstream news when they won a law suit in a Pa. courtroom after they'd lost their jobs over this discovery. That leads me to wonder if the militants staging this coup on President Aristide, his administration and police force may be the Contra soldiers of Haiti. If so, then I also wonder if the goal for this coup is to take advantage of U.S. led economic sanctions that have caused the extreme poverty in Haiti to dupe the country into selling off their resources (water and power supplies, farms and manufacturing industries) to global corporations in exchange for IMF assistance and other factors that may be used in any deals the Bush regime makes with either Aristide, should he remain in power.

If Aristide is offered this kind of deal during upcoming, or later negotiations with Bush regime members, or members of the IMF, what would happen if he refuses to agree to the terms? Would that mean violence erupts into greater extremes, perhaps terrorism of all Aristide supporters?

Is it likely that the WTO, IMF and members of the U.S. foreign policy group have set the stage for the neocon fascists Plan for the New American Century to finish off the once-promising independent democracy of Haiti? Is it also possible that Aristide hasn't been a puppet for the global megalomaniacs of these groups and that this is his last chance to either comply, or get out of the way to allow the Bush regime, or its replacement (possibly John Kerry) to insure that the next Haitian leader will obey and allow these groups to rape Haiti of its resources and what remains of Haitian dignity while the neocons and their helpers take control of that country? I'll keep these questions in mind as this situation unfolds.