=?x-unknown?q?19643=3A__Esser=3A_Mr=2E_Powell=92s_Credibility?==?x-unknown?q?_on_Haiti_?=

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Buzzflash
http://www.buzzflash.com

Reader Commentary
March 2, 2004

Mr. Powell’s Credibility on Haiti
by Sigrid Smith

Personally, I believe that the US removed Mr. Aristide forcibly, as
he and his friends report. I think that it was a coup and that the
rationale comes from the hard right beliefs of Roger Noriega and Otto
Reich. They think that Aristide, along with Chavez of Venezuela and
others in Central and South America, are leaning towards Cuba and
Fidel Castro. Reich would like to rid Latin America and the Caribbean
of all Left leaning regimes. But let’s put that aside. Let’s
stipulate that Aristide did leave of his own free will.

According to the State Department, Aristide asked for assistance and
specifically, and most importantly, he asked for two things: a choice
of where to go and for protection of his personal property if he were
to leave Haiti. “We gave him answers to these questions, positive
answers.” according to Powell.

Here is how Secretary of State Colin Powell describes his version of
what happened:

The Ambassador consulted with me and Assistant Secretary Noriega by
telephone. We told him he could take the call and see what President
Aristide had in mind. And he talked about protection of property,
protection of his personal property, his -- property of some of his
ministers, and would he have some choice as to where he was going if
he decided to leave.

We gave him answers to these questions, positive answers. And then in
the course of the evening, other conversations took place. He said he
wanted to think about it, he wanted to speak to his wife, which he
did. And he came back to us and said that it was his decision, based
on what his security people were also telling him about the
deteriorating situation, that he should leave. And we made
arrangements for his departure. He was -- he wrote a letter of
resignation. I think he might have been in touch with other people.
And a leased plane was brought in and he departed at 6:15,
thereabouts on Sunday morning. [From the State Department webpage:
http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/30040.htm ].

This morning in the newspapers, we see stories of the looting of the
home of the Aristides. There are family photos strewn about, a grand
piano in the front yard and people picking through his belongings.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=496981.

On Aristide’s request that he be able to choose where to go, he asked
to go to South Africa, but he was sent to the Central African
Republic, a violent dictatorship subject to coups itself. Several
South African ministers have indicated that he would have been
welcome there, had they been asked. They were not. If I were one who
prayed, I would pray for the safety of the Aristides in this violent
place.

When we went into Iraq, we didn’t protect the nuclear facilities that
had been sealed by the IAEA and as a result yellowcake was strew
about the villages. We said that places like Tuwaitha were too large
to protect the perimeter, so looting resulted. There is no such
problem with the Aristide house. The Marines could have secured the
house immediately. Mr. Powell says that we had made a specific
promise to Aristide that his belongings would be protected and that
Aristide made his decision to leave based on that promise. If Powell
cannot be believed when he says that he will protect something as
simple as the family photos, how can we believe anything else that he
says?
.