22305: erzilidanto: The U.S. in Haiti as a corruptible element (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Erzilidanto@aol.com

The U.S. in Haiti as a corruptible element
June 7, 2004

The U.S. in Haiti as a corruptible element did not begin with the events of
February 29, 2004 where military barracks replaced a school, nor where U.S.
Marines did nothing to stop the releasing of 3,000 Haitian prisoners in Port au
Prince. The subversion of Haitian democracy, Haitian justice, prison and police
system continued from the first U.S.-supported Coup D'etat unabated. That is,
despite the U.S. return of President Aristide. Besides the well documented
destabilization tools of creating an artificial crisis before February 5 through
29, 2004, through mass media propaganda, IRI, NED, USAID, U.S. Embassy and
even OAS and European Union support and funding of a phony "civil society"
opposition with minuscule popular support base, the training and arming of former
Haitian soldiers and paramilitaries and a U.S. humanitarian embargo against the
people of Haiti, there was a consistent recruitment process going on in Haiti
to strum political and developmental paralysis and create the political
climate of chaos and disorder that culminated in the lost of life, since February
29, 2004 of at least 3,000 Haitians with the destruction of Haitian property
and assets, including the assets of Haitian-Americans who sends close to $900
million dollars a year to support their families and family's assets in Haiti.

The tools for the recruitment process for Haitian saboteurs to destabilize
Haiti come in many forms, including use of U.S. immigration laws, use of U.S
power in the world to seek asylum arrangements for ex-military officers,
convicted killers and suspected drugdealers who participated in the first Coup d'etat
against the people's mandate; use of the visa carrot and U.S. funding to
recruit and subvert journalist, students, disappointed former Lavalas and most
insidious of all, the use the professional training programs in Haiti and the war
on drugs and terrorism to, sometimes manufacture conflicts and subvert
otherwise clean and non-coopted Haitian police officers and Lavalas officials
attempting to sincerely carry out their service duties on behalf of the mass Haitian
electorate.  Haiti does not need, nor do the Haitian populace want, any
government authority to cuddle drugdealers and human rights violators. Yet, it has
been alleged that many times the U.S. agents in Haiti are not so concerned
about eradicating drug dealing and assisting with Haitian democracy and that, in
fact, drug enforcement and supporting Haitian justice system has little to do
with U.S. presence because, for the most part, as long as the U.S. agents find
a Haitian useful to their war against Haitian democracy and President Aristide
then they don't seem to care about that persons actual involvement in
drug-dealing or human rights violations.

Examine, for example, the Guy Philippe, Jean Tatoune and Louis Jodel
Chamblain not to mention the Michel Francois cases. Examine further the Toto Constant
and Toussaint cases and how the use of U.S. jail and promises of leniency or
asylum operates to undermine the institutionalization of Haitian justice at the
article below "A Marked Man" By Jim DeFede below, Miami Newtimes, August 28 -
September 3, 1997; and, for further background information, "Separating Cops,
Spies" by Sam Skolnik written in March 1, 1999, Legal Times, and the Harkin's
Senate speech regarding the credibility of those who furnish information to
U.S. policymakers about President Aristide and Haiti in general.

Marguerite Laurent
Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
(Dedicated to protecting the human, civil and cultural rights of Haitians
living at home and abroad)

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:


Haiti: A Marked Man/Toussaint Case

      id BAA19034; Thu, 18 Sep 1997 01:53:32 -0400


Miami Newtimes, August 28 - September 3, 1997


"A Marked Man"

By Jim DeFede


This past January 22, shortly before 5:00 p.m., Dany Toussaint arrived at

Miami International Airport aboard American Airlines flight 1292 from

Port-au-Prince and was detained by officials from the U.S. Immigration and

Naturalization Service. Although he is a legal permanent resident of the

United States, Toussaint had become accustomed to such delays on his trips

back and forth from Haiti. During the previous twelve weeks Toussaint had

been stopped at MIA three times by INS officials. On each occasion he was

held for an hour or two, then allowed to leave without any explanation as

to why he had been detained. He was never questioned and his immigration

status was never challenged. This time, however, would be different.


His belt and shoes were confiscated and he was placed in a holding cell at

the airport. Beginning at approximately 8:00 p.m., Toussaint was

interrogated by an immigration inspector named James Carroll. Although

some of the questions were related to Toussaint's immigration status, he

says the majority dealt with political matters in Haiti and specifically

with his ties to former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the country's

current leader, Rene Preval.


According to Toussaint, the interview session lasted nearly seven hours,

until roughly 3:00 a.m. One reason it dragged on so long was the peculiar

way in which the questions were asked. According to Toussaint, the INS

agent would ask a question, then type Toussaint's answer into a laptop

computer. This was then followed by an awkward silence -- sometimes as

long as ten minutes -- before the INS official would ask another question.

Slowly it dawned on Toussaint that someone other than the agent in the

room with him was actually conducting the interview -- by way of e-mail.

But who?


The answer to that question can be found in Toussaint's background. He was

born in Cap-Haitien on September 12, 1957. Before his first birthday, his

father was killed by security forces working for Francois "Papa Doc"

Duvalier. Several years later his stepfather was also killed by

Duvalierists.


Paradoxical as it may seem, these murders induced Toussaint to join the

Haitian army. "When you are in the military," he explains, "you know what

is going on and you are in a better position to protect your family."


Toussaint excelled in the military. Not only did he become a black belt in

tae kwon do, he also represented Haiti in international karate

competitions. As a reward he was sent to the United States, where he

learned English at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, then went on to Fort

Benning, Georgia, where he received advanced military training. By the

time Toussaint completed his eight-month stint in Georgia in 1985, the

political situation in Haiti had deteriorated dramatically; killings had

become commonplace.


Toussaint had already moved his family to the United States, so rather

than return to Haiti, he received permanent-resident status under an

agricultural program. (For a time he had been a farmworker in South Dade.)

He then began shuttling between New York and Miami, working for various

Haitian-American organizations. He also became a vocal critic of Haiti's

self-proclaimed president-for-life, Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier.


After Duvalier was forced from power in February 1986 and replaced by

Haitian army leaders, Toussaint returned to the island, where he resumed

his military career. He claims he was then trained by the CIA to conduct

surveillance for the military junta. "I was the best clandestine

photographer in Haiti," he says proudly.


Among those he was assigned to spy on was a populist priest named

Jean-Bertrand Aristide. But Toussaint claims Haitian officials wanted more

than just photographs of Aristide; they wanted Aristide killed.  Rather

than carry out that order, Toussaint says, he went to Aristide and warned

him of the plot. Toussaint once again fled to the United States,

eventually settling in Miami, where he went to work at Coconut Grove's

landmark E-Z Kwik Kuntry Grocery Store on SW 27th Avenue.


In December 1990 Aristide became the first democratically elected

president of Haiti. One of his first calls went to Toussaint. He reached

him at E-Z Kwik.


Aristide asked Toussaint to return to Haiti and become one of the

commanders responsible for overseeing his corps of bodyguards. "I was

working for E-Z Kwik. I had a good job, but I wanted to serve my country,"

Toussaint recalls. "I wanted to be part of the change. We wanted to show a

different image of the army." Toussaint returned with the rank of captain.


But there was nothing easy or quick about changing the culture within the

Haitian army. In September 1991 the military, led by Gen. Raoul Cedras,

launched a bloody coup. At the time of the uprising Toussaint was with

Aristide at the president's home in a suburb of Port-au-Prince, along with

about 30 loyal bodyguards. For the next two hours, Toussaint recalls, they

fought their way through roadblocks so Aristide could reach the

presidential palace, where the fighting grew even more intense.


At the palace Toussaint's best friend, the head of Aristide's security

force, died in the firefight. Eventually Aristide was permitted to leave

the country and go into exile. Toussaint says military officials asked him

to stay behind and swear his allegiance to Cedras, but he refused and

tendered his resignation. He returned to Miami and his job at E-Z Kwik.


By the time U.S. military forces restored Aristide to the presidency in

October 1994, Toussaint had left his job at E-Z Kwik for a new assignment

as Aristide's personal bodyguard. After the president's return, Toussaint

was appointed chief of the country's interim police force, a post he held

through the end of 1995, when he resigned from government service. Today

he owns a pair of businesses in Haiti -- a video arcade and a

police-supply store. He is a member of Aristide's political party, Lavalas

Family, and says he plans to run for the Haitian Senate.


Why, then, did U.S. officials detain Toussaint at Miami International

Airport? And who was really behind his questioning? Toussaint says he got

his answers two days after the incident, when he was transferred to the

Krome Detention Center: A pair of FBI agents paid him a visit.


During Toussaint's tenure as interim police chief, several high-profile

murders occurred in Haiti, most notably that of attorney Mireille Durocher

Bertin on March 28, 1995. Bertin was an outspoken critic of Aristide, and

so early suspicions held that she had been killed by forces within the

government. Under pressure from the United States, Aristide agreed to

allow the FBI to investigate Bertin's murder, but only on condition that

the bureau also probe the slayings of numerous Aristide supporters as

well, including Justice Minister Guy Mallory and Father Jean-Marie

Vincent. More than two years later the continuing FBI inquiry has become

so politically charged as to render it highly suspect.


One of the FBI agents who arrived at Krome to visit Toussaint was Mark

D'Amico, who was responsible for the investigation into Bertin's death.

"He told me he knows I am not the triggerman but they would like me to

cooperate with them," Toussaint says. "He made it seem like he was there

to help me. Anything I want I could have. He wanted to buy me. He wanted

me to lie about what I know about the killings, about whether Aristide

ordered the killings." Toussaint refused, saying he had nothing to do with

Bertin's murder and that he didn't know who was responsible.


Toussaint acknowledges that when he returned to Haiti in 1994 he was

tempted to seek revenge on those who supported the coup against Aristide.

"But President Aristide gave us orders to do reconciliation,"  he says

today. "He granted amnesty and we had to follow his orders.  Inside of me,

at first, I did not agree with reconciliation, because my friends who were

killed never got justice. The people who killed them never went to jail.

My house was ransacked and nothing happened. But I have to follow orders.

Finally, I now feel comfortable with reconciliation, because those people

did not know what they were doing."


Toussaint, who was released from Krome several days after D'Amico's visit,

believes it was D'Amico or others at the FBI who were feeding the INS

agent questions via e-mail during his January interrogation.  Toussaint's

Miami attorney, Ira Kurzban, suspects that federal agents used the e-mail

gambit as a way of circumventing Toussaint's right to have an attorney

present while being questioned in a criminal case.  Toussaint says he

repeatedly asked to call his attorney but was told he was not entitled to

counsel because he was merely being questioned regarding his entry into

the United States. Anne Figueiras, a spokeswoman for the Miami office of

the FBI, declined to comment.


Although INS officials initially told Toussaint they would go to court to

have his residency status revoked, seven months have passed without any

action. Miami INS spokesman Lemar Wooley would not comment about any

possible action the INS might eventually take against Toussaint.


Kurzban, who in addition to representing Toussaint is also an attorney for

the government of Haiti, argues that the United States's ham-handed

treatment of Toussaint is typical of its dealings with Haiti in general.

For example, when FBI agents went to Haiti to investigate Bertin's death,

Kurzban asserts, they were predisposed to believe that Aristide was

responsible. "The FBI was being briefed by the U.S. intelligence guys in

Haiti," says Kurzban. "These are the same guys who were in Haiti during

the September 1991 coup that removed Aristide and who some people believe

may have had some responsibility for the coup. So the orientation they

were getting when they came in was that Aristide's people were behind this

killing in some way, without any proof except for the fact that Bertin was

on TV as a critic of Aristide. But anyone who knew Haitian politics knew

she was not a threat to Aristide. She was just a person who shot off her

mouth a lot."


Although the United States helped restore Aristide to power, many senior

U.S. officials have never been comfortable with the former priest and his

fervent brand of nationalism. The prospect of Aristide running again for

president in 2001 is clearly something they do not relish. "The fear is

that he doesn't toe the line," Kurzban says. If they can brand Aristide --

as well as his most loyal supporters -- with Bertin's death, Toussaint

contends, then they may be able to keep him from running for office.


Many Republicans in Congress, particularly North Carolina's Sen. Jesse

Helms, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, have been

vociferous opponents of Aristide and have repeatedly criticized the

Clinton administration for not being more aggressive in pursuing the FBI

investigation into Bertin's death. Indeed, it is possible that such

congressional pressure on the FBI may have been partly responsible for

Toussaint's detention and questioning.


Although Toussaint returned to Haiti this past April, new obstacles have

arisen to keep him from re-entering the United States. An amendment to the

bill authorizing funding of the State Department appears to have been

proposed with the specific intent of barring Toussaint's return.  The

measure, which recently passed Congress, allows INS officials to exclude

anyone the Secretary of State believes participated in political killings

in Haiti.


"On its face, obviously, who can complain about going after and excluding

human rights violators?" Kurzban asks. "That's the thrust of what it is --

unless you really know what the politics are. This is a bill written to

exclude ten people from the United States, and to put pressure on them.


"Look at what the standard is," Kurzban continues. "The standard is

ridiculous. It says, 'reason to believe that there is a credible

allegation.' What does that mean? That means that if the FBI says they

think they have information -- even though it wouldn't stand up in a court

of law -- that is sufficient to exclude someone from the United States who

has been a long-term permanent resident. Where's the evidence? What this

does is allow the government to get off the hook by not having to prove

anything."


Kurzban says he has no doubt the measure was written specifically with

Toussaint and a handful of other people in mind. "I've been practicing

immigration law for twenty years and have never seen an immigration bill

establishing grounds for exclusion directed toward specific individuals,"

he adds. "Whatever the objective is here, it is bad law and bad public

policy, because, if they want to go after human rights violators, then

they ought to do it in such a way to cover human rights violators wherever

they are in the world. But to single this out -- it is obvious to me what

it is. It's really going after three or four major people, with Dany at

the top of the list, and six or seven other people solely because of very

short-term, very narrowly focused U.S. foreign policy."


The only way to have the ban lifted, according to the law, is for suspects

to cooperate with the FBI. "The exemption is that if you cooperate, we

will forgive everything, which is the same offer that has been made to

Dany and others before," Kurzban says. "It was made to Dany when they

stopped him at the airport. This is designed to try to induce them to

testify falsely against Aristide, Preval, or anyone else in the

government." Kurzban says he is considering a possible legal challenge to

the measure, believing that it is unconstitutionally broad and violates

Toussaint's rights to due process and equal protection under the law.


Although the law would also apply to those suspected of killing Aristide's

allies, Kurzban says he doubts it would ever be used to that end. "Given

the history of the State Department, it is a virtual certainty that they

will not apply it toward anyone who was involved in the murders of

Aristide's supporters," he says.


Kurzban notes that members of Cedras's family have been allowed to reside

in the United States. In addition, the U.S. government granted political

asylum to Marc Valme, a major in the Haitian military, even though he was

identified as one of the leaders of the coup against Aristide. (He was

subsequently indicted by a Miami federal grand jury on drug-trafficking

charges.)  "How the U.S. decides to grant asylum to Valme is absolutely

amazing," Kurzban says with exasperation.


But no more amazing than the decision earlier this month to allow Emmanuel

Constant, former leader of the murderous right-wing Haitian paramilitary

group known as FRAPH, to live and work freely in the United States.

Although he is wanted in Haiti for numerous human rights violations, U.S.

officials are considering his application for political asylum. In 1995

Constant told the CBS program 60 Minutes that he had been a paid agent of

the CIA from 1991 to 1994. "That just goes to show you what this country's

agenda is," Kurzban shrugs. "As long we find you useful we don't care what

you do."


                                  ###


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Forwarded by the Haitian Lawyers Leadership
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See, The Haitian Leadership Networks'  7 "men anpil chaj pa

lou" campaigns to help restore Haiti's independence, the will of the mass
electorate and the rule of law. See,
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/haitianlawyers.html ; http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaigns.html

and Haitiaction.net

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