28848: Haiti is Hopeless Youth Fertile Ground for Terrorists (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Stanley Lucas <maloukwi@yahoo.com>

Haiti’s “Hopeless” Youth Fertile Ground for Terrorists
  By Stanley Lucas
  August 02, 2006

  Despite its close proximity, unstable government and general lawlessness, few 
would view Haiti as a national security priority for the United States or any 
kind of imminent threat.  It is, for us, a poverty stricken nation that 
produces boatloads of hopeless people making a dangerous escape for a better 
life in the U.S. by any means possible.  We see a country continuously 
exploited by corrupt despots and assume that their ultimate goal is more money. 
This is the myth of Haiti.

  What we do not see is an entrenched leadership that is perpetuating and 
capitalizing on the “hopeless” situation to fulfill an ideological goal to 
destabilize the United States.  What is worse, they are trying to join forces 
with the world’s worst terrorists.

  The U.S. has been consistently confounded by how to deal with the challenges 
of Haitian despots.  The concept of nation-building has not resonated with U.S. 
policy makers and military interventions have left the job unfinished.  The 
recent indictment of the “homegrown terrorists” in Miami, which included one 
Haitian national in the U.S. illegally and two here legally, sheds light on a 
growing dynamic in Haiti that requires added attention from policy makers and 
voters alike.

  While the world views the Haitian government as being infested by corruption, 
drug dealers and money hungry leaders, there is actually a deep underlying 
ideological current running through the chaos.  Money is not their primary 
motive, rather it is a deep desire to do damage to the U.S.  There is a method 
to their madness.  Haiti’s hopeless youth are being exploited and exported by a 
group of ideologists focused on damaging the United States.

  The “Molotov” Alliance

  There is a generation of leaders in Haiti’s government that is a product of 
the Cold War having received heavy indoctrination and training by Eastern 
European Communists in the 1970s.  These leaders have a deep and often 
disguised hatred for the United States. After their return to Haiti in the 
mid-1980s, these leaders embraced liberation theology seeking to combat free 
markets and the democratic system, which was prevailing in Latin America 
supported by the U.S.

  In the late 1990s, the same Haitian extremists joined forces with the 
Pakistani military and Muslims who were looking for a foothold in the country 
by building mosques throughout Haiti and providing scholarships to the 
madrassas in Pakistan.  Further, Palestinian extremists, naturalized in Haiti, 
also aligned with this faction and offered access to an international network 
and financial resources to the growing movement.

  After September 11 and the Iraq war, most of them have become al-Qaeda 
sympathizers in a shared view of the United States as an evil power.  In fact, 
Haitian extremists, supported by Aristide in exile, unleashed “Operation 
Baghdad” throughout Haiti in 2004 beheading Haitian police officers, kidnapping 
and killing dozens of innocent Haitian citizens.  This group is further 
supported by the major drug traffickers in Haiti with networks throughout the 
region.

  The combination of these forces – the liberation theologists, al-Queda 
sympathizers and drug cartels --  has created a powerful “Haitian Molotov 
cocktail” focused on the goal of checking the power and influence of the United 
States.  This “Molotov alliance”, currently supported primarily by Aristide and 
his Lavalas movement, has been busy over the past 15 years taking advantage of 
the hopeless and disenfranchised youth by sowing the idea that the U.S. is to 
blame for their plight.  Aristide has publicly denounced the United States as 
an evil power in his speeches on numerous occasions.

  Exporting the Seeds of Terrorism

  Haiti has 82% unemployment.  Almost 70% of the population is illiterate.  It 
is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and has been since the 1970s. 
Young people cannot find jobs even if they are fortunate enough to have an 
education.  Poverty, however, has become one of the many means for Haitian 
government leaders to fulfill their goals.  Without hope, these youth have been 
effectively converted into henchmen of oppression by Haitian despots from Papa 
Doc’s Tonton Macoute to Aristide’s Lavalas extremists.

  Haitian government leaders are not only sponsoring oppression in their own 
country, but they are now exporting these seeds of terrorism to the United 
States by sending their henchmen to the U.S.  Haiti accounts for a significant 
percentage of U.S. immigrants.  In fact, it ranks number five on the list of 
countries benefiting from the green card program.  Most are in fact extremely 
productive and successful members of U.S. society.  In fact, the wealthiest 
minority business leader in Texas, is a Haitian immigrant.  The creator of the 
popular Chrysler 300 is a Haitian immigrant.  The list is long.  Unfortunately, 
a small percentage of the immigrants are among these disenfranchised – and now 
somewhat hostile – youth are exported legally to the United States to fulfill 
their indoctrinated goals.

  This terrorist group in Miami was ineffective and amateurish in the end, but 
their motives and dedication were unwavering.  Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism 
expert who heads the Washington office of the Rand Corporation, said in a 
Washington Post interview on June 23 that the Miami plot appeared to be 
“embryonic at best” but that “amateur terrorists can kill as effectively as the 
professional kind.”

  What to do?

  The short answer is:  promote hope.

  Disappointingly, Preval’s return to power signals more of the same.  He has a 
clear opportunity to steer Haiti in the right direction at this crossroads. 
However, it has become apparent that he and his close political advisors are 
providing direct support to these terrorist groups.  Members of these groups 
even have been included in official delegations traveling to Europe, the United 
States and the Caribbean.  Notably, during Preval’s May visit to Washington, 
two members of his delegation were denied entrance to the White House.  It is 
unimaginable that an official Lebanese delegation would include members of 
Hezbollah or that an official Colombian delegation would include members of the 
terrorist group FARC. What happened here?

  To turn the tides, policymakers need to closely monitor the Preval government 
and ensure they do not drift further away from democracy.  They need to also 
find ways to support and engage Haiti’s youth directly by providing education 
and opportunity.

  While promoting hope is a short answer, it is a long term proposition.  Past 
experience has shown, Haitian leaders have squandered opportunities extended by 
the international community.  The good will and aid of international 
institutions cannot be managed by naive optimism that the current government 
will try to do better.  History do not support this.  Last week international 
aid organizations approved a $750 million aid package to Haiti.  To ensure that 
this money is spent strategically on projects that will contribute to the 
Haitian economy, these organizations must provide clear guidelines on how the 
money should be spent and hold leaders accountable if they fail to follow those 
guidelines.

  The international bodies providing aid, including the United Nations, the 
Organization of American States, the International Monetary Fund, the World 
Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the European Union, the U.S. Agency 
of International Development, and friends of Haiti, should create an umbrella 
organization for donor coordination ensuring that international aid reaches the 
average Haitian citizen.  This organization should provide, in addition, some 
means of policy discipline.  Too many actors of the international community for 
too long have been working to implement their personal agendas. While in many 
cases, these goals are in Haiti’s interest.  There is a need for new blood in 
these organizations.

  Congressman Charles Rangel, the Ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means 
Committee, plans to introduce legislation appropriately named HOPE, the Haiti 
Hemispheric Opportunity Partnership Encouragement.  The bill, not yet 
introduced, is expected to provide duty-free treatment for certain specified 
quantities of apparel items.  It is intended to spur Haiti’s export market, and 
of course, job creation.

  Institutionally, the international community can and should help strengthen a 
non partisan police force and an independent judiciary.  When the situation 
deteriorates in Haiti to the point of military intervention, U.S. tax payers 
pick up the bill.  The 2006 UN peacekeeping mission cost US$600 million. 
Elections, which were ultimately decided by the mob, cost an additional US$120 
million.  Prevention is a far more economical approach.

  The U.S. has a process to designate extremist groups as terrorists which 
systematically prevents them from receiving aid.  The previous Lavalas 
governments provided funding and arms to these extremist groups and facilitated 
their movements around the globe.  The U.S. should reexamine these groups and 
include them on the overall terrorist watch list.  Currently, no Haitian 
extremist groups are on that list.

  Promoting hope in Haiti is a relatively inexpensive proposition, especially 
in the context of the overall war on terror.  The majority of Haitians are hard 
working, religious, lawful citizens looking for a chance to have a better life. 
Among those, there is a group of young, future leaders eager to seize 
opportunity and make a difference.  They deserve opportunity.  The path to 
those opportunities and success, however, has been diverted.  And that 
diversion has layered another dimension onto the global war against terror.


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