20172: radtimes: "National Endowment for Destabilization"? (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: radtimes <resist@best.com>

Institute for Public Accuracy
915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org
___________________________________________________

Wednesday, March 10, 2004

         * Prisoner Aristide?
         * Back from Central African Republic
         * Haiti Case Against the U.S.?
         * "National Endowment for Destabilization"?

BILL FLETCHER, bfletcher@transafricaforum.org, http://www.transafricaforum.org
President of TransAfrica Forum, Fletcher said today: "Like so many people
concerned about the situation in Haiti, I am perplexed by the lack of
response to the de facto imprisonment of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Though the U.S. claims that President Aristide left Haiti voluntarily, this
seems to fly in the face of the difficulty which he has had communicating
with the outside world, his not knowing which country he was going to until
20 minutes prior to landing, and the obstacles put in the way of his
supporters visiting him in the Central African Republic. It defies
credibility to believe that the problems that President and Mrs. Aristide
are facing in the Central African Republic are solely the result of the
views of that government. One must first ask the question: who made the
arrangements for the Aristides to go to the Central African Republic in the
first place?"

KIM IVES, editor@haitiprogres.com, http://www.haitiprogres.com
Editor of Haiti-Progres, Ives had a lengthy interview with Aristide while
in the Central African Republic. Ives works with Haiti Support Network. He
is scheduled to return to the U.S. this morning.

BRIAN CONCANNON Jr., brianhaiti@aol.com,
http://haitisupport.gn.apc.org/concannon.html
A lawyer for Aristide, Concannon is also just back from the Central African
Republic today.

IRA KURZBAN, ira@kkwtlaw.com
Kurzban, a lawyer for the Aristide government, has invoked the Multilateral
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against
Internationally Protected Persons against the U.S. government. He has
served Secretary of State Colin Powell with papers asking that "the U.S.
prosecute the people involved in the kidnaping of President Aristide and
his wife Mildred, who is a U.S. citizen." [For the most extensive
English-language interview with Aristide as well as an interview with
Kurzban, see: <http://www.democracynow.org>.]

WILLIAM BLUM, BBlum6@aol.com, http://members.aol.com/superogue/ned.htm,
http://www.killinghope.org
Blum's book "Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower," contains
a chapter titled "Trojan Horse: The National Endowment for Democracy."
While some are calling for the NED to be more involved in Haiti, Blum notes
that the group "has already allocated over $100,000 through the National
Republican Institute and the Center for International Private Enterprise to
activities in Haiti. This is not chickenfeed in a poor country like Haiti.
The NED has also given far more to try to oust Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.
NED was created by Congress, and virtually every penny of its funding comes
from the federal government. It likes to refer to itself as an NGO because
this helps to maintain a certain credibility abroad. Allen Weinstein, who
helped draft the legislation establishing NED, was quite candid when he
said in 1991: 'A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by
the CIA.' In a multitude of ways, NED meddles in the internal affairs of
foreign countries by supplying funds ... to selected political groups,
civic organizations, labor unions, dissident movements, student groups,
book publishers, newspapers, other media, etc. NED programs equate
free-market economy with democracy, reform, and growth; they also emphasize
the merits of foreign investment. The NED, like the CIA before it, calls
what it does supporting democracy. The governments and movements that the
NED targets call it destabilization." Blum also authored the book "Killing
Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II."

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

.