22245: Esser: Propaganda and Destabilization in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

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

ZNet | Haiti
http://www.zmag.org/lam/haitiwatch.cfm

June 02, 2004

Propaganda and Destabilization in Haiti
by Anthony Fenton

In his seminal text on the subject of destabilization "Grenada: the
Struggle Against Destabilization", Chris Searle characterized the
essential role of propaganda in this historical context:

"The examples of propaganda destabilization in Guyana under Cheddi
Jagan's People's Progressive Party, the media blitz suffered by
Allende's Popular Unity Government in Chile.and the outright war
declared upon the Manley government in Jamaica.were cogent examples
to [Grenada's] People's revolutionary Government of how the
imperialist press and its local branches would work against them
too." [1983, p. 60]

A close look at the role of the "imperialist press" is most helpful
in the current case of Haiti. The "disinformation loop" that
functioned so effectively during the lead up to the February 29th
coup has its work cut out for it as its propagandists attempt to
diffuse investigations into the systematic destabilization and
eventual overthrow of Haiti's democratically elected government.

Along these lines Letta Tayler's recent New York Newsday article
"After Aristide, Haiti faces organizing rebels" [June 1st, 2004], is
very revealing despite the usual [and expected] mainstream
distortions. The general thrust of the article is that in Haiti there
is currently "a literal army of trouble" brewing, given the presence
throughout "vast portions of this desperately poor and troubled
nation" of "between 2,500 and 5,000" rebels, the "ex-soldiers who
ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide three months ago."

According to Tayler, the "former Haitian soldiers" in the town of
Mireblais are functioning as "mayor, police chief, judge and jury".
In this opening paragraph we find Tayler's first glaring omission.
Added to her list of functions should have been "executioner", but
this would not fit into the corporate-government climate of denial
that has prevailed since these "rebels" invaded Haiti from the
Dominican Republic, while proceeding to hunt down Lavalas supporters
once U.S.-Canadian-French troops arrived to assist them.

Tayler begins the next paragraph with clarification vis a vis another
omission. She writes that these soldiers are "dressed in uniforms
from the army of the neighbouring Dominican Republic." That is the
extent of Tayler's analysis into the rebels' "Dominican connection".
The omission is found in the lack of elaboration or critical
questioning, such as, for starters: 'How did these people get
Dominican army uniforms?'

It should be recalled that during the build up to the coup, that is,
at the height of the recent four-year "phase" of destabilization by
the United States, Canada and France, the corporate media did allow
for some predictably narrow] speculation into the origins of these
"rebels". Guy Philippe is quoted in several articles confirming that
he had indeed trained in the Dominican, and had earlier trained at
the School of the Americas in Ecuador. It was also reported in The
Economist [on April 22nd, 2004] that a Pentagon official confirmed
knowledge of these Dominican operations a full year before the coup.

Recent [suppressed] evidence shows that the U.S. had its hands dirty
in the Dominican Republic beginning in 2000. A retired Dominican army
General Noble Espejo has confirmed that these Haitian paramilitaries
were incorporated into the Dominican army, wearing Dominican army
uniforms, beginning in 2000, under the Clinton administration. These
activities, according to Stan Goff who interviewed Espejo as part of
the International Action Committee investigation into U.S.
involvement in the Haiti coup, had the full knowledge of the U.S.
Embassy:

"It turns out that according to Espejo.a military base.called
Constanza, was normally home to a battalion of what they call
Castadores, which is like "Rangers" or "Shock Infantry". One
battalion was stationed here. At one point in the year 2000.they
transferred two additional battalions of Castadores over to
Constanza. They did this because the people of the town of Constanza
already knew the people that were assigned there. Any new faces would
stand out but by bringing in two additional battalions from, other
bases into Constanza, they overwhelmed the community with a bunch of
new soldiers and mixed in with those soldiers were the Haitian
paramilitaries, who were wearing Dominican uniforms, integrated into
the Dominican units, and receiving training with the Dominican
military." [See:
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=55&ItemID=5557 ]

The timing of this is interesting, given that Philippe had fled Haiti
in October of 2000 after helping destabilize the Haitian National
Police with his murderous tactics, and after having been caught
planning the first of several coup attempts. It seems now that
Philippe's persistence [not to mention U.S. training, funding, and
arming] paid off. The military exercises undertaken by Philippe and
his IRI and NED [See: CIA] backed forces can now be seen as, at once,
military exercises in preparation for the "big event" and, more
generally and perhaps more importantly, as helping fuel the
destabilization process, creating a climate of "insecurity".

Not long after the IAC released its findings [See:
http://www.iacenter.org/haiti_ustrained.htm], which included details
of how 200 U.S. Special Forces trained these paramilitaries for the
eventual assault on Haiti, the Right Wing released its spin on the
rebels.

David Adams writes in "Anatomy of a Ragtag Rebellion" on April 15,
2004 [St. Petersburg Times]:

"A month after Aristide's whirlwind exit, questions still linger
about Aristide's departure. Was there U.S. complicity in his removal?
And who was behind the seemingly all-powerful rebel army?"

While there appears to be a pretence here of serious examination of
these "lingering questions", the conclusions that Adams comes to
exemplify classic destabilization propaganda:

"Far from being a well-equipped army.the Haitian rebels were a ragtag
bunch of former soldiers and opportunists who begged and borrowed to
raise the money for their guns." [1]

Adams quotes several sources, who sound strangely like the hucksters
peddling their wares on late night infomercials. For example:

"Amazing as it seems, this was just a group of seven or eight guys."

Another incredulous response: "I was kind of amazed that it happened
like it did, because I didn't think they had a chance."

In another typical propaganda-destabilization move, Adams hedges his
bets by conceding that the rebels "enjoyed the tacit support of the
Dominican armed forces". We are now to believe that the Dominican
forces "tacitly" provided the paramilitaries with uniforms. Adams
also concedes the point that U.S. officials were aware of the rebels
activities:

"U.S. officials acknowledge they were keeping a close eye on the
rebels, but say they declined to provide assistance because they
viewed them as revolutionary has-beens."

The International Republican Institute reportedly provided these
rebels with $1.5 million [according to the IAC], however, despite the
denials that Adams cites to the contrary: "One institute official
described the [IRI "democracy enhancement"] program as "Democracy
101," covering issues that should be no threat to an open society."
An IRI representative added, "Violent regime change was not part of
the picture."

The major omission from Adams piece, similar to that of Tayler's, is
the IAC investigation, which specifically went into the questions
that "still linger about Aristide's departure." Indeed, the IAC
investigation conclusively established many facts that put the lie to
Adams and Tayler, as well as the official story as "acknowledged" by
U.S. officials or the Haitian paramilitaries themselves.

What is also of course missing from these articles, and universally
from all mainstream coverage, are reports of the widespread human
rights abuses that have taken place . It is anyone's guess as to how
many Haitians have thus far been murdered since February 29th. The
National Lawyers Guild [2] reported that 1000 bodies were disposed of
within three weeks of President Aristide's overthrow, according to
the Director of the State Morgue in Haiti. This does not include the
dozens of reported cases since then, nor does it include the 60
bodies that the NLG found - and photographed - burning in a field,
and this doesn't include the [as many as 9] people murdered by the
Special Tactical Squad of the Haitian National Police during the May
18th Flag Day demonstrations. This Squad fired indiscriminately on
crowds of demonstrators while U.S. marines watched. [See:
http://www.haitiaction.net] Lt. Col. Dave Lapan denied the version of
events on May 18th, as reported by journalist Kevin Pina, in a letter
to the San Francisco Bay View
[http://www.sfbayview.com/052604/marinesdispute052604.shtml].

This is the same Lapan who has recently claimed that when U.S. forces
leave at the end of June [handing over the reigns to a Brazilian
"peacekeeping" contingent] "we'll leave with a sense of
accomplishment," and that "In a relatively short time we've done a
lot to help." [AP, May 31, 2004]

It's not surprising that the Marines currently occupying Haiti "are
scheduled to go to Iraq next." These Marines will bring to Iraq the
much-needed experience of slaughtering civilians, arresting people
without legal pretence, repressing popular dissent, and extending the
U.S.-fuelled climate of terror, destruction, and permanent
destabilization from the Caribbean to the Middle East. [1] 20,000
M16s and one million cartridges were shipped to the Dominican
Republic in 2003, to deal with "border security issues". Many of
these are believed to be in the hands of Haitian paramilitaries.
Perhaps these machine guns were issued with the uniforms?
Additionally, as if by magic, the newly militarized Haitian police
are brandishing new arms [the ones they use to fire on
demonstrators], arms that imperial forces refused to send to the
Haitian government despite repeated requests prior to the coup.

[2] An interesting example of censorship and historical erasure of
this issue can be found on the Right-Wing Haiti Democracy Project
website [http://www.haitipolicy.org]. On April 28th, the HDP
announced that it would be "Pulling National Lawyers' Guild Report
from the Web Page", citing its policy "not to post items we know to
be false". Claiming that the NLG's investigation into human rights
abuses was undertaken "with a predetermined conclusion", the HDP
neglects to substantiate this argument. Several post-coup delegations
have documented reports of human rights abuses against Lavalas
supporters, who are the logical target of political persecution. The
NLG specified that they would be investigating these reports.
.