20732: erzilidanto: On Haiti: Cynthia McKinney Speaks at UC Berkeley Law School (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Erzilidanto@aol.com

Cynthia McKinney

The Effects of US Policy:  The U.S., Haiti, and Jean Bertrand Aristide

UC Berkeley Law School - Boalt Hall

Saturday, March 6, 2004


Nowhere do we see the impotence of Black America played out before our

eyes and those of the world as we now see in the case of Haiti.  But let me

add that it hasn't always been this way, and it doesn't have to be this way.


First of all, as I see it, the correct call is not just for

investigation, but also for reinstallation.  Just as the US, in the 1950s,
launched its

policy of rollback for communism, so too must Americans of good

conscience call for the Bush gang of thieves to roll back the coup in Haiti.
This

action stands in stark contrast to the proposed US action to attack Cuba

shortly after Kennedy came to power.  But Bobby Kennedy reminded John

that for 175 years the United States had not been the kind of country that

preemptively attacked a smaller, poorer country. And so, John Kennedy

refused to attack Cuba.  Even though his Pentagon desperately wanted a

war.

Obviously, George W. Bush is no John Kennedy.


If you will recall, the United States and Haiti have been in this exact

same place before.  General Raul Cedras had stolen power in a coup against

the democratically-elected priest who worked in the barrios of

Port-au-Prince. Haitian Americans in Florida and New York and elsewhere,
worked nonstop to reinstall Father Aristide to power.  The Republican Justice
Department

had just overseen the largest expansion of the Congressional Black Caucus

since the passage of the Voting Rights Act as it forced southern legislatures

to draw districts that would allow rural blacks finally to elect candidates

of their choice.  Black voters, with a massive turnout, had turned George

Bush's father out of the White House and elected Bill Clinton instead.

So the stage was set on the inside and on the outside for a massive shift

in US policy toward Haiti, leaving the Republican antipathy for Aristide

behind.

This shift so infuriated at least one small group in white America that,

in the Florida redistricting case, the plaintiff actually wrote that the

increased strength of the Congressional Black Caucus had actually

changed US policy toward Haiti, and for that reason, among others, the size
of the

CBC had grown too large, thus the lawsuit against the district of

Congresswoman Corrine Brown.  The brief of the Florida plaintiffs provides a
smoking

gun for the effectiveness of the larger, stronger, younger Black Caucus that

entered Washington with an agenda grounded in the people.  It also

places in stark relief what is possible when Black America has authentic
leaders,

well placed, in politics.


Eventually, Cedras was given money and escorted out of Port-au-Prince

while some of the leaders of FRAPH, the CIA-inspired tonton macoute

replacement, found refuge in the US, the Dominican Republic, and other
places.  With

most of his term spent out of office, Aristide eventually was triumphantly

returned to office.  Upon the expiration of his term, Aristide left

office and ran for reelection after the end of the term of his successor, Rene

Preval.


Now, according to one of my investigative sources, one of the contracts

that Preval put in place was with the Steele Foundation to provide

Presidential security.  The Steele Foundation, headquartered here in the Bay
Area, is

reportedly very close to the Pentagon with its former leader coming

directly from the Pentagon's Office of Intelligence.  Interestingly, it

reportedly maintains an office in Miami, the home of the headquarters of the
US

Special Operations Command, which was reportedly involved in training the
rebels

who ousted Aristide.  So, at the time of Aristide's "capture," he supposedly

was protected by a Pentagon-sanctioned security team that just happened to

fail to secure him.  Additionally, according to this same source, some of the

Dominican troops and Spanish and English-speaking paramilitaries trained

by the US during last year's Operation Jaded Task in the Dominican Republic

were fighting alongside Haitian rebels in the north and on the southern

coast of Haiti.  We are told further that Haitian government authorities

intercepted vans carrying new M-16s across the border from the Dominican

Republic.  According to the report I have received, Haitian authorities

began intercepting vans carrying the weapons from the Dominican Republic

beginning last year, and shortly after the US military delivered 20,000

M-16s to the Dominican Army.


Haiti was about to celebrate its bicentennial.  I remember how happy

this country was when it celebrated its bicentennial.  That joy has been

denied to the Haitian people.  Jean Bertrand Aristide's slogan during the

country's commemorative campaign was restitution, reparation, celebration.
And he

had declared Haiti an African country.  Aristide was no COINTELPRO leader.

No, "clean Negro."  And in the language of J. Edgar Hoover, he "excited the

Negroes."  So, now, understanding who Jean Bertrand Aristide really is,

and at the same time knowing how our country deals with authentic leaders

like him, we can't be surprised by what happens.  We should however, be

dismayed if our collective power is not able to restore Aristide to power once

again.


Haiti's lawyer charged that the US government was directly involved in

the coup and that the coup leaders were armed, trained, employed by the

intelligence services of the United States.


An eye witness, Aristide's caretaker, told French radio that "the

American army came to take him away at two in the morning.  The Americans
forced

him out with weapons."


After having spoken directly with President Aristide, Congresswoman

Maxine Waters reported that Aristide was surrounded by the military.  "It's

like he's in jail, he says he was kidnapped," she said.


Randall Robinson also spoke to President Aristide.  Robinson said that

Aristide emphatically denied that he had resigned.


Reverend Jesse Jackson got Aristide on the phone with an Associated

Press reporter and Aristide, himself, said that he was forced to leave.  He

said,

"They came at night.  There were too many, I couldn't count them."  He

said that agents told him that if he didn't leave they would start shooting

and killiing.  Aristide is quoted as describing these agents who threatened

him as "white American, white military."


Donald Rumsfeld said that the idea of an abduction was just totally

inconsistent with everything he heard or saw.  The White House dismissed

allegations that Aristide had been kidnapped by US forces eager to force

him to resign and flee into exile.  Colin Powell said flatly that Aristide

was not kidnapped.  Powell said, "We did not force him on the airplane."


Now, I don't know about you.  But it is clear to me by now, that I can't

believe Donald Rumsfeld.  I can't believe the White House.  And I can't

believe Colin Powell.


But even more than that, notice Powell's use of the word, "we."


And therein lies the essence of our predicament.


On March 1, 2004, the Washington Times headlined Colin Powell's comment,

"I am on the President's agenda."  Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell have

provided a black face for policies that have devastated the global

community and our American community.  Progressive America and the global

community need a strong, vibrant, and activist black community.


A recent report in the New York Times found that 50% of the black male

adults in New York City are unemployed.  According to the State of the

Dream, 2004 report, if current rates of progress remain the same, it

will take 8 years for America to close the black-white gap in high school

graduation.  It will take 73 years to close the college graduation gap;

190 years to close the imprisonment gap; 581 years to close the per capita

income gap; and 1,664 years to close the home ownership gap.  Clearly

progress on important quality of life indices is not being made quickly

enough.


But we won't see that portrayed on UPN, FOX, CNN, or the WB.

Increasingly, prominent leaders tell us that we don't need a movement anymore
and that

agitators who concentrate on these facts are passé.


And to them I only ask one question.  What becomes of a community that

rewards those who pick the fruit up, but fails to protect those who

shake it down?


Tree shakers are all over the globe trying to uplift their communities.

Only through our active and informed participation in the political

process here will we be able to stop the powers that produce pernicious

policies.

Only through our participation in the political process will we be able

to protect the global community, like Haiti, like Venezuela, from the

vicissitudes of powerful people acting in our name who don't care one

whit about the values that we hold dear.


Black America, vibrant with authentic leaders, in active partnership

with all progressives, can change what is happening here at home and the

policies being implemented abroad.


And so I end with a plea and a charge for us as a people to stand up,

speak truth to power, don't cower, and say to those who control this awful

machine, "It's time for you to stop, right now."


Thank you.
Cynthia McKinney

The Effects of US Policy:  The U.S., Haiti, and Jean Bertrand Aristide

UC Berkeley Law School - Boalt Hall

Saturday, March 6, 2004

 ********