19589: (Craig) NYT: Administration Dismisses Rumors That U.S. Kidnapped Aristide (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dan Craig <hoosier@att.net>


Administration Dismisses Rumors That U.S. Kidnapped Aristide
March 1, 2004
By DAVID STOUT

The Bush administration ridiculed any suggestion today that
former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti had been
spirited out of his country under force by the United
States military.

"That's nonsense," President Bush's chief spokesman, Scott
McClellan, said at the White House. "Conspiracy theories do
nothing to help the Haitian people move forward to a
better, more free and more prosperous future."

Mr. McClellan and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld were
both asked about Mr. Aristide's departure. Asked at a
Pentagon news briefing if Mr. Aristide had been "virtually
kidnapped," Mr. Rumsfeld grinned broadly for several
seconds. "I'm trying to pick the right words," he said in
evident disdain for the premise behind the question.

Questions about the circumstances of Mr. Aristide's
departure from Haiti, where he quit the presidency on
Sunday amid widespread civil unrest, arose as he was on his
way to refuge in the Central African Republic, where was
last reported to be.

Representatives Charles Rangel of New York and Maxine
Waters of California, both Democrats, along with the head
of the TransAfrica advocacy group, Randall Robinson, said
today that Mr. Aristide had told them that he was abducted
and a victim of a coup led by the United States.

Ms. Waters said today that she had spoken by telephone with
Mr. Aristide, and that he had told her that he had been
forced to leave his house. Ms. Waters gave that account in
an interview with CNN as Mr. Rumsfeld was holding a news
briefing at the Pentagon.

Ms. Waters said Mr. Aristide had told her that armed men
had confronted him and told him that he "he had to go, and
he had to go now." Whereupon, she said, he was taken to an
airplane along with his wife, Mildred, a brother and a few
associates.

When Mr. Rumsfeld was asked the precise role of the United
States military in removing Mr. Aristide, he replied, "The
U.S. military role was to - the Department of State managed
that entire process."

Mr. Rumsfeld said he envisioned an American force in Haiti
of 1,500 to 2,000, and that the troops' stay need not be a
long one.

As for reports that Mr. Aristide had complained of being
"virtually kidnapped" before his departure, Mr. Rumsfeld
said: "I don't believe that's true that he is claiming
that. I just don't know that that's the case. I'd be
absolutely amazed if that were the case."

Although Mr. McClellan and Secretary Rumsfeld conveyed the
impression that they considered the questions hardly worthy
of reply, they were dealing with a potentially serious and
sensitive issue in trying to stop a rumor before it became
grist for a version of history.

In the few days before Mr. Aristide stepped down amid
escalating violence, the Bush administration made it
abundantly clear that it wanted him to quit. Secretary of
State Colin L. Powell, for instance, repeatedly suggested
that Mr. Aristide should weigh the best interests of his
people, and Secretary Powell did nothing to discourage the
notion that he meant that Mr. Aristide should step aside.

Asked today whether the American military might have
hastened Mr. Aristide's departure from Haiti, Mr. Rumsfeld
said, "The Department of State and other countries worked
with the Haitian government, and I think I'll leave it to
the Department of State to characterize what took place."

As if to discourage the notion of American military
involvement, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
Gen. Richard B. Myers, said that the plane that had taken
Mr. Aristide away was not a military craft but rather a
plane under contract to the State Department.

Mr. Rumsfeld said he expected the total peacekeeping force
in Haiti to number fewer than 5,000, with a majority from
countries other than the United States.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/01/international/americas/01CND-ABDU.html?ex=1079185010&ei=1&en=b00b355fad67064d
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company