23754: (discuss) Arthur: who coined the term 'Operation Baghdad'? (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

Charles Arthur writes:

Always alive to the process by which 'news' about Haiti is manufactured, I
was intrigued to read Guy Delva's courageous contention that the term "Operation
Baghdad" to describe the alleged violent destablisation campaign by Lavalas
Family supporters was first used by interim prime minister Gerard Latortue.
(Source: The Observer, Reed Lindsay, 31 October, "In recent weeks, media
attention has focused on the killing and decapitation of two policemen, described as
part of 'Operation Baghdad'. But the government has presented no evidence that
the decapitations were carried out by Aristide supporters, nor that any such
operation exists. According to Guyler C. Delva, head of the Haitian Journalists
Association, the term 'Operation Baghdad' was coined by Latortue.)

Lindsay is, I believe, correct to suggest that the repeated use of the term
'Operation Baghdad' by the interim government is a stunt to justify the
repression against Lavalas Family members and supporters. However, I wonder if it was
Latortue himself who first dreamt it up. According to my records, the first
person to use the term was not Latortue but Jean-Claude Bajeux.

On his return from a visit to Miami, Latortue held a press conference on
Sunday 3 October during which, according to both Radio Metropole and AP, he spoke
about the Lavalas Family's Operation Baghdad. (The AP report had the following
lines: Latortue said the police killings were part of a new offensive by
pro-Aristide gangs that they have dubbed "Operation Baghdad." "You've heard about
Baghdad in the media. Every time they catch a Westerner they cut off his
head," Latortue told reporters.)

However an AP report on 2 October by Stevenson Jacobs contained what I
believe is the first usage of the "Baghdad" label: "Aristide's partisans have begun
an urban guerrilla operation that they call Operation Baghdad," human rights
activist Jean-Claude Bajeux said Saturday. "The decapitations are imitative of
those in Iraq, and they are meant to show the failure of U.S. policy in Haiti."

My question to the list is: On what date did anyone speaking on behalf of the
Lavalas Family and/or its supporters first use the term, "Operation Baghdad"?
Am I right in thinking that if anyone speaking on behalf of the Lavalas
Family and/or its supporters did use the term, then it was some days later -
perhaps around 5-6 October - by which time the repeated use of the term by Latortue,
Gousse, etc. and by national and international media had turned it into the
commonly accepted way to describe anti-government violence?