21187: Esser: Rally in B'klyn for Aristide (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser tporx@joimail.com

The New York Daily News
http://www.nydailynews.com

April 8, 2004

Rally in B'klyn for Aristide
by Leslie Casimir

Chanting "Aristide yes, CIA no," nearly 1,500 supporters of the
former Haitian president gathered at Brooklyn College yesterday to
call for his return to power.

Speaker after speaker at the spirited four-hour-plus rally in the
college's Whitman Theater accused the White House of forcibly
removing Jean-Bertrand Aristide from office Feb. 29. The Bush
administration has insisted he willingly resigned.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) passionately defended Aristide and
charged that U.S. agents "took him out in force. It was a
coup-napping."

"I will never abandon Aristide," she told the cheering crowd, "no
matter what Colin Powell says."

Powell, the U.S. secretary of state, visited Haiti on Monday to show
support for the new government and came away saying that Aristide,
currently a guest of the Jamaican government, shouldn't be allowed
anywhere near his homeland.

Rep. Major Owens (D-Brooklyn) drew applause when he vowed that the
Congressional Black Caucus would press for an investigation into
Aristide's departure.