20889: Morrell: Haiti Democracy Project

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: James Morrell <james.morrell@haitipolicy.org>

Correction of erroneous item appearing on Corbett list. (The Theater of
Coup. Dramatis Personae: Roger Noriega and "The Opposition". By Gilbert
Wesley Purdy)

"The IRI has created a front group, the Haitian Democracy Project, with no
ostensible ties to the IRI, to advise the Group of 184 on how to network
its way to success."

The Haiti Democracy Project has no connection whatever, ostensible,
philosophical, financial, or otherwise, with the International Republican
Institute. Foreign guidance of the Group of 184, from us or any other
source, was minimal.

"The founding members and present board members are almost entirely
neo-conservative Republicans."

The members of the Haiti Democracy Project span the U.S. political
spectrum. There are, however, no neo-conservative Republicans.

"On the newer of its two web-sites, the Project proudly posts the 'Unity
Statement of the Group of 184.'"

We currently have 1,726 items posted on our website, http://haitipolicy.org.

"It functions as the executive committee of the Group of 184, a tiny
minority group working to return the wealthiest citizens to control
of the country."

While certainly in contact with the Group of 184, we are not
organizationally connected to it and it takes no direction from us. The
group is not a tiny minority but one of the broadest coalitions ever
assembled in Haiti.

"Its members provide virulent anti-Aristide commentary to some of the
United States’ largest media markets."

Our position was anti-Aristide but our output was reasoned and
factually-based, not virulent.

"The guests in attendance for the gala opening of the Haiti Democracy
Project, on November 20, 2002, included many of the
biggest names in U. S. neo-conservative politics.  Among the names was one
of particular concern to the Haiti watcher now: the name of Roger Noriega,
the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs: the Bush
administration’s point man for the Haitian crisis ­ its purported mediator
between Aristide and “The Opposition”.

Ambassador Noriega was invited as the top-ranking official of the Bush
administration dealing with Haiti. Ours is a project which seeks to
communicate the pro-democracy viewpoint to top policy-makers. There were no
big names in U.S. neo-conservative politics there. The other speakers were:
Amb. Luigi Einaudi, assistant secretary-general of the OAS; Amb. Timothy
Carney, U.S. ambassador to Haiti, 1998-99; Amb. Jean Casimir, Haiti's
ambassador to the United States, 1992-95; Amb. Orlando Marville, chief of
OAS electoral mission to Haiti, 2000; Georges Fauriol, vice-president of
the International Republican Institute and a leading Haiti policy analyst;
Prof. Robert Maguire, director of the Trinity College Haiti Program and
similarly a leading analyst; and myself, founder and former research
director of the liberal-left Center for International Policy. I am a former
peace activist who co-founded the Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars, an
anti-Vietnam-war group.

James R. Morrell
Executive director, Haiti Democracy Project, Washington, D.C.