20344: Esser: Tentacles of the International Republican Institute (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Tentacles of the International Republican Institute

03/11/04

People's Weekly World Newspaper, 12:57
James Jordan

Opinion

There can no longer be any doubt: the United States government, under
the leadership of the Bush administration, is behind the current coup
against Haiti and the kidnapping of that nation’s rightful president,
Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The Bush cadre are no longer content to
simply use Jim Crow tactics to steal elections here at home (Florida,
2000); they have exported their racism by overthrowing the
democratically elected president of a nation observing the
bicentennial of its successful revolt against slavery. Bush and his
Republican cronies are certainly ready to wage class oppression – but
they ain’t got one shred of class.

One organization in particular has played a vital role in this
illegal aggression: the International Republican Institute, chaired
by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and including on its board rightist
luminaries such as Reps. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) and David Dreier
(R-Calif.), Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), Lawrence Eagleburger, Jeanne
Kirkpatrick, and Brent Scowcroft. Funded by Congress through the
National Endowment for Democracy, the IRI is the convener and one of
the major funders of the Haitian opposition umbrella group, the
Democratic Convergence.

As Paul Farmer notes in his book, “Pathologies of Power: Health,
Human Rights and the New War on the Poor,” “Although the Democratic
Convergence has scant popular support within Haiti, it clearly has
support in Washington.” In the Haiti Action Committee booklet “Hidden
in the Headlines: The U.S. War Against Haiti,” Laura Flynn, Pierre
Labossiere and Robert Roth write that “the U.S. has spent millions to
fund the ‘Democratic Convergence.’”

What do the Republicans and U.S. ruling class so despise in Haiti?
The gains that have been made under Aristide on behalf of the Haitian
people – despite the U.S.-sponsored embargo (begun under the Democrat
Clinton) and its ongoing campaign of subterfuge – seem of no import
to them whatsoever. No matter that Aristide won the first and third
democratic elections in Haiti, by a landslide each time; no matter
that under Aristide the Haitian military was dismantled, more schools
were built than in the entire previous century, and the minimum wage
was doubled. Democracy and the security and welfare of the Haitian
people simply do not matter to Bush, McCain, the IRI, the
Republicans, the power-hungry wealthy elite of our country.

Through the International Republican Institute and the National
Endowment for Democracy’s other core grantees, the U.S. ruling class
carries out a global agenda in the shadows, with taxpayer funding.
The IRI represents the far right wing of these grantees.

The NED was initiated by the Reagan administration and funded by an
act of Congress, yet was designated a “private” institution. This
means that it and its core groups carry out foreign initiatives with
public funds, free of meaningful or official oversight. Allen
Weinstein, the NED’s theoretical planner, noted in a 1991 Washington
Post interview, “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years
ago by the CIA.” The fact is, in many respects, the NED-sponsored
groups are even freer of congressional monitoring then those of their
CIA predecessors.

These organizations work in the shadows to support and direct
assaults on democracy and people’s movements around the world. The
IRI, for example, boasted about its support of elements behind the
failed coup attempt against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. It
actively funds and coordinates organizations working to destabilize
the government of Cuba, even bragging about the increasing number of
illegal disruptions it has supported there. It has provided resources
to anti-democratic, extremist organizations throughout Eastern
Europe. It aids and abets reactionary movements in Ecuador, Brazil,
Palestine, Afghanistan, the Baltics, ad nauseum – for example, it
coordinated a Conference of the Central and Eastern European
Centre-Right Political Parties. Wherever and whenever any nation or
people’s movement stands in the way of right-wing lust for profits
and power, the IRI is there.

We must recognize the NED, the IRI, and their initiatives for what
they are: right-wing shadow foreign policy institutions funded by
taxpayers, yet subject to no meaningful oversight whatsoever.
Certainly, they should be abolished altogether. But short of that, we
must demand that they be de-privatized and that their activities be
made public and subject to congressional review.

And we must demand that our senators and representatives join the
Congressional Black Caucus in calling for an investigation into U.S.
involvement in the illegal coup against Haitian President Aristide.
Especially, we must investigate the role played by the Bush
administration and the IRI. And we must hold George W. Bush, John
McCain, and other “shadow operatives” personally responsible for any
wrongdoing by the anti-democratic thugs whom they have organized,
armed and funded. If a bloodbath occurs in Haiti, these are the
persons and the institutions behind it.

That should matter dearly to anyone who cares about democracy.

James Jordan is a member of Turnwind and the Tucson Peace Action
Coalition. He can be reached at turnwind@fastmail.fm.
.