27399: anonymous post - (reply) to Bogdanich's article in NY Times

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

For Immediate Release
January 29, 2006
Contact: Lisa Gates
202-572-1546
lgates@iri.org

Statement by IRI President Lorne Craner Responding to The New York Times
Article "Mixed U.S. Signals Helped Tilt Haiti Toward Chaos"
"Walt Bogdanich's piece (The New York Times 1/29/06) reads like a bad
college thesis.  Bogdanich strings together disparate allegations to
prove a hypothesis, repeatedly leaving out inconvenient contradictory
information.

"The article's core charge - that IRI in Haiti 'undercut the official
United States policy and the ambassador assigned to carry it out' - is
based on accusations by former U.S. Ambassador Brian Dean Curran.  The
only support for Curran's charge comes from former associates of ousted
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and an accused death squad leader.  All
are dubious sources, and all have ample motivation to criticize IRI.
Omitted from the article is any mention of Curran's predecessors or
successors as ambassador to Haiti, none of whom has criticized IRI's
work.  Moreover, none of Curran's superiors - policymakers Otto Reich,
Roger Noriega or Colin Powell - express any belief that IRI 'undercut
the official US policy,' and none offer any criticism of the Institute's
work in Haiti.  In fact, for more than a decade, through both the
Clinton and Bush Administrations, our work in Haiti has been judged
sufficiently meritorious by the U.S. government that we have received
funding to work there whenever we requested it.


"If a picture is worth a thousand words, these contradictions are best
illustrated in one of the article's accompanying photographs.  The
photo, sent by IRI to The New York Times, showed three people: Lorne
Craner, Stanley Lucas and then-U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Tim Carney
(Curran's predecessor).  During the event at which the picture was
taken, Carney praised IRI and its work.  His words, sent to The New York
Times, were omitted from the article.  Most disturbing, however, is that
Carney himself was cropped from the picture before it ran - again,
because his presence would have contradicted Bogdanich's hypothesis.


(more)






Statement by IRI President Lorne Craner - Page Two



"We, in the United States, have prospered under democracy.  And, we wish
to share our democratic ideals with our neighbors and with other nations
of the world. We realize that each nation is unique, but all nations can
benefit from adapting the principles of democracy to their own society.
This is why the International Republican Institute is here in Haiti-to
work with local Haitian political leadership to help develop a strong,
viable, pluralistic democratic society in the Republic of Haiti," then
U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Tim Carney, opening of the Political Party
Training and Information Center in Petionville, Haiti, August 1998.

"IRI has many more examples of omitted information, which will be
forwarded to The New York Times' ombudsman.

"IRI did not undermine U.S. policy in Haiti.  Nor, as a U.S. Agency for
International Development Inspector General's report showed, did we
consort with rebels in President Aristide's overthrow.  As Colin Powell
has stated, Aristide was 'a man who was democratically elected, but did
not democratically govern, or govern well.  And he has to bear a large
burden, if not the major burden, for what has happened.'


(more)



Statement by IRI President Lorne Craner - Page Three

"The most disappointing thing about this article is that it will spur on
the kind of events The New York Times has covered in the last few weeks
- the shutdown of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Russia and
elsewhere.  It will be used by authoritarians overseas, from Robert
Mugabe to Alexander Lukashenko to Islam Karimov, to justify expelling
western human rights and democracy NGOs and to persecute those with whom
they have been associated - brave souls who yearn for freedom."


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