19279: Dreyfuss: RE: 19264: Slavin: (Kurtzban) H Rebels US Ops (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Joel Dreyfuss <jdreyfuss@att.biz>

Kurzban's charges show how ``Haitian'' he's become; it must be the millions
he's been paid in lobbying fees: no need for evidence; guilt by association;
conspiracy theories galore; Aristide's opponents arent even Haitian.. Etc.

Andy Apaid may be a U.S. citizen by birth, but as far as I know, he's lived
almost all his life in Haiti -- and unlike a lot of ``patriotes'', invested
a lot of his money in his own country and gave jobs to hundreds, maybe
thousands of people.

I don’t think anyone who cares about Haiti can be happy about the possible
outcomes now.  But to hear Kurzban, it's everyone's fault but Aristide's.
The fact that the two Aristide governments never showed the dimmest vision
of how they planned to lead the country out of the 18th century into the
21st; the fact that JB seemed incapable of managing anything all; the fact
that he became more and more isolated in his compound while his ministers
built million-dollar homes; the fact that government agencies remained as
corrupt as ever as anyone who tried to get legitimate goods through customs
or obtain a copy of a deed or birth certificate will attest, all contributed
to the disillusionment of people who put a lot of hope in him.

Haiti's well-wishers in international agencies told me how even early on
they had to go to the Palace to plead with his administration to propose
some development projects so they could give Haiti money. There was no
imagination and no initiative -- and no mass mobilization for constructive
purposes.

The final straw was that he only made the mildest effort to contain the
violence by his supporters. It wasn't the chimeres that drew tens of
thousands of peaceful demonstrators to the streets asking for Aristide's
departure. No doubt, Haitians are divided about his departure, but a lot of
the people who want him gone are not enemies of democracy. It's a shame that
Amy Goodman let her program be used so openly for paid propaganda.


Joel Dreyfuss
jdreyfuss@att.biz