21424: Esser: Lies, Malice and Machetes (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. E s s e r <torx@joimail.com>

April, 2004

Lies, Malice and Machetes
by John Maxwell

On January 20, 1988, the Liberian registered freighter Khian Sea
begins unloading 4,000 tons of toxic waste on the beach at Gonaives
on the western coast of Haiti. The waste material –  incinerator
waste from the American city of Philadelphia. “Papers [which]
describe the ash as fertilizer are signed by two brothers of military
strongman Jean-Claude Paul.. “ – Greenpeace International.

The Khian Sea saga was a long one. The ship set out from Philadelphia
one year before it arrived in Haiti, trying to offload the ash in the
Bahamas, Bermuda, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Guinea
Bissau and the Netherlands Antilles.

” The 3,000 tons of ash has been on the move since 1985 when 
Philadelphia was searching for a place to put ash from an 
incinerator. More than 14,000 tons were loaded onto a bulk-cargo
ship, the Khian Sea, which in late 1986 began its voyage.  For more
than two years, the ship sailed the Caribbean searching  for a dump
site.“–  AP January 27, 2001.

Finally, somebody bribed the brothers of the interim Haitian
strongman, Jean-Claude Paul and the ash was dumped in Haiti..

On the internet over the past two weeks, various people have been
circulating the story that the Khian Sea was allowed to dump its ash
in Haiti on the orders of …you guessed it, Jean Bertrand Aristide.

Some people will go to any lengths to discredit Aristide but this
allegation is particularly bizarre, because at the time the ash was
being dumped, Aristide was a parish priest,  trying to avoid being
murdered by the goon squads of the elite rulers of Haiti

I have said before that the only thing Aristide  has not yet been
accused of is cannibalism, but that, no doubt, is part of Haiti’s
‘future’.

More Toxic Waste

The United States has been dumping on Haiti for a very long time.
Now, they have found the perfect scapegoat on whom to blame
everything bad  that’s happened in or  been done to Haiti over 200
years ……you guessed it– Jean Bertrand Aristide!

I can’t remember reading as slimy a piece of literary garbage as the
speech given to the American Enterprise Institute by a  high US
government official  – the Assistant Secretary of State for Western
Hemisphere Affairs, Roger Noriega.

On Wednesday, Mr Noriega dumped the entire contents of a
freighter-load of lies on Aristide, providing, for the comfort of the
Haitian elite, at least, ‘reasons’  for the United States usurpation
of the will and integrity of the Haitian people.

Mr Noriega’s speech is entitled, with unconscious irony “Haiti at the
Crossroads of Democracy” forgetting that Haitian democracy has had a
stake driven through its heart by vampires who have triumphed over
their victim and buried her, they hope, never to rise again.

After paying lip-service to the Haitian revolution Noriega dismisses
the rest of the nineteenth century in a line:

“During its first century, Haiti endured international isolation and
internal strife.”

WOW!

Haiti's second century gets similar summary dismissal: ”… a
succession of strongmen and failed attempts at implementing
democratic rule were followed by the election in 1957 of Dr. Francois
Duvalier, a popular leader known as "Papa Doc" who promised
democratic reform but quickly resorted to demagoguery and political
violence to maintain his self-proclaimed title, "President for Life."
He was succeeded by his son, "Baby Doc" Duvalier, who reigned in
Haiti until 1986 when a combination of international pressure and
internal antagonism brought on by decades of brutal and corrupt
misrule forced him from power.”

Nowhere in the speech is mentioned the dominant role of the United
States in Haitian affairs, suborning, aborting and subverting
democracy by armed intervention, military threats and by menaces and
blackmail.

Mr Noriega then proceeds to the “real “ history of Haiti, which is an
attempted demolition job on Jean Bertrand Aristide.

“In hindsight, the Aristide regime bore too much of a resemblance to
the Duvalier regime. Despite his early promise and lipservice to
democracy, the Aristide years were yet another disappointing chapter
in Haitian history. The lesson is that democracy is not an election,
a street demonstration, or a dusty legal document, it is a way of
living and working together and, as such, it is contingent on what
people do and how they treat one another. Leaders can undermine a
republic and their own legitimacy by their actions and that is how a
people can lose their democracy.”

The main factors, according to Noriega are:

“• First, there is the culture of political violence and impunity that
characterized his movement and his regime;

“• Second, the corruption of the institutions of the state that
flourished under him;

“• Third, his polarizing rhetoric and willful (sic) refusal give any
quarter to or compromise with political adversaries;

“• And finally, his flouting of the concerns of his neighbors and
friends in the international community.”

As regards violence, Noriega alleges that Aristide was a “compelling
and inflammatory orator, and his followers were known to have
‘necklaced’ opponents with gasoline filled tires and set them on
fire. At least, Mr Noriega does not actually allege Aristide incited
necklacing, as his elite enemies accused him in 1991.

“Critics and adversaries of President Aristide often wound up dead,
while their killers went unpunished". Noriega instances Jean
Dominique, a journalist and friend and supporter of Aristide (who,
contrary to report was murdered during the Presidency of Dominique’s
protege and close friend, Rene Preval. )

Aristide’s ’Corruption’

According to Noriega, Aristide allowed corruption to flourish and
says that the Lavalas gangs – ‘chimeres’ were paid out of the
telephone company’s funds:  “…the national patrimony was used as a
piggybank to fund Aristide’s ambitions”. Other critics say that
Aristide simply stole the money. 

Mr Noriega says that Aristide also thoroughly corrupted the National
Police, – HNP – after the US and the international community spent
hundreds of millions of dollars to make it a credible guardian and
enforcer of the rule of law.

“[Aristide] systematically removed professional policemen and
replaced them with thugs and criminals loyal to him” according to
Noriega.  As I have reported before, the HNP project was aborted by
the US for internal US reasons) and left unfinished, although the US
insisted on the HNP’s retaining known criminals from the Duvalier
regime, giving it a built-in lever of subversion against Aristide.

But this is par for the course. Everything that Aristide supporters 
have alleged against the Duvalier Dobermans is thrown back as an
accusation against Aristide.

The most brilliant example of this is in Noriega’s ‘account’ of how
Aristide "flouted the concerns of his neighbours and the
international community”.

It is common knowledge that Aristide’s enemies refused to have any
democratic involvement in the Haitian society, refusing  even to
discuss anything with Aristide from well before he became President
for the second time, refusing to put up electoral candidates,
claiming electoral corruption for which there is absolutely no
evidence. According to Noriega it was Aristide who refused to talk.

In a classic paragraph, Noriega sums up the case against Aristide. I
need to reprint this idiocy in full:

“Lessons Learned

I am convinced that Aristide himself is to blame for his own
political demise. Had he not encouraged and condoned political
violence, he would have had much greater moral authority and
political sympathy. Had he not corrupted the state and the HNP, his
government could have withstood the challenge brought by a handful of
rebels. Had he not alienated so many former allies and adversaries by
grabbing for power with both hands, he would likely have had
continued success at the polls. Had he not turned his back on his
neighbors and friends in the international community--especially when
they were trying to help him resolve his political crisis by
constitutional, electoral, and peaceful means, he probably would be
in office today.”

No doubt, Aristide invaded Haiti in 1915.

Orwellian Doublespeak

For those who are more familiar with the history of Haiti than most
members of the public, Noriega’s speech is a lunatic travesty of the
facts. I am truly astonished to realise that the putschists are so
desperate for apparent legitimacy that they need to depend on such a
scabrous piece of obvious rubbish.

It may of course be useful to know that Mr Noriega is a protege of
the late Jesse Helms, late Senator for North Carolina and racist of
some distinction. Noriega, in his position as Assistant Secretary
of State, succeeded someone even less wholesome, the deplorable Otto
Reich, implicated in the 2002 coup against President Hugo Chavez in
Venezuela. Reich is a frenzied anti-Castroite and a man who, during
the Reagan administration advised Californians that they were in
danger of being bombed by Soviet MIGS based in Nicaragua!!! He
narrowly escaped jail in the Iran-Contra scandal but, despite his
record, was appointed to be Assistant Secretary of State by President
George Bush in a manoeuvre (vainly) intended to escape the scrutiny
of the US Senate. Noriega was brought in to succeed him. Reich is
justly infamous for his efforts to protect and comfort among others, 
Luis Posada Carriles, the terrorist who, among other atrocities,
killed a Cuban plane-load of people over Barbados in 1976.

Our problem and the problem of the United States, is that the people
of the US are completely unaware that their country’s reputation  in
the Western hemisphere, is and has been in the hands of such rascals
as Reich and Noriega.  

Meanwhile, in the name of Freedom and Democracy, dozens of Haitians,
supporters of Aristide, are being murdered every week. The 
distinguished, diligent and glorious  international press, as usual,
is blissfully unaware. In their worldview, Haitians don't make the
cut.

Copyright 2003 John Maxwell
maxinf@cwjamaica.com
.