19765: White: Congresswoman Barbara Lee Questions Bush Administration Officials at International Relations Subcommittee Hearing (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Randall White <raw@haitiaction.org>

NEWS from

CONGRESSWOMAN BARBARA LEE

9th District, California


For Immediate Release:
March 3, 2004
Contact:
Stuart Chapman 202-225-2398


Congresswoman Barbara Lee Questions Bush Administration Officials at
International Relations Subcommittee Hearing

Lee Calls for Independent Commission to Investigate Bush
Administration's Haiti Policy


Washington, DC - At a heated Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere
hearing today, Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) questioned a panel of
Bush Administration officials about the Administration's role in the
coup d'etat carried out last week against the democratically-elected
Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. A member of the
International Relations Committee, Lee called for the hearing last
week, and with the events over the weekend, the hearing took on an
immediacy and urgency.

In particular, Lee grilled Assistant Secretary of State Roger
Noriega, who is widely considered the mastermind behind the Bush
Administration Haiti policy.  Lee challenged Noriega about the State
Department's failure to respond to her suggestions in a February 12
letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell, which would have staved
off a coup.

Lee also asked Noriega why Aristide would willingly leave Haiti on
Sunday morning without a definite place of asylum provided.  During
the next day, Aristide would be flown around the world until,
finally, the Central African Republic (CAR) provided temporary
asylum. At present, Aristide is reportedly under guard in the CAR.

Lee also accused the Bush Administration of supporting and
sanctioning the overthrow of the Aristide Government by blaming
Aristide for the opposition's refusal to negotiate.  Secretary of
State Colin Powell last week called the opposition rebels "murderers
and thugs," but later backpedaled to the point that the
Administration issued a statement, last Saturday, that said that "the
long-simmering crisis is largely of Mr. Aristide's making."

Lee summed up her disgust with the Bush Administration's actions by
accusing Noriega and the Bush Administration of "aiding and abetting"
the overthrow of the Aristide Government.  "Regime change takes a
variety of forms, and this looks like a blatant form of regime change
to me," Lee told Noriega.




###