29283: (reply) Chamberlain: 29281: Kondrat re Chamberlain ( 29232) Wikipedia (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

> Kondrat wrote:
> I followed the link that Mr. Chamberlain provided, and here is what the
Wikipedia entry on Aristide says about Kevin Pina


This is what it says _today_.  As I noted, the Aristide entry is the target
of a propaganda attack by his partisans and so it changes every day,
sometimes many times.  And as it says at the top of the entry: "The
neutrality of this article is disputed."  Kondrat is, I'm sure, well aware
of this and how Wikipedia works.

Just before I posted my comment, the entry was as I said it was: a sentence
about the minor inconvenience caused to Kevin Pina (who, to judge by
reports at the time, was jubilant at finally being arrested, and fully
confident that nothing bad would happen to him thanks to his energetic
demand that the hated US embassy get him released).  This was followed by a
brief sentence (as if an afterthought) mentioning that Jean Dominique had
been murdered.  Incidentally, Corbetteers may recall that in 2002 Pina
denounced both Judge Gassant's investigation of the killing and the
Reporters Without Borders call for it to be investigated as "creating
confusion."

Now the entry has changed again and is, as I write, roughly what Kondrat
says it is.  Though I don't recall any reports at the time saying that Pina
was "beaten up."  The rewriters of history at it again?  It's always easier
to slip in distortions long after the event, when people are less inclined
to remember or check them.  But perhaps we can hear about how I'm wrong and
thus further highlight Pina's minor misfortunes, to help the long-standing
efforts by the white US armchair Stalinists to play down the Dominique and
Brignol Lindor murders because Aristide supporters have been implicated in
them.



The Aristide entry (today) also says:

> three alleged gunmen were arrested under Aristide (later escaped under
Latortue)

Yet several key suspects in the Dominique killing mysteriously escaped from
prison under Aristide...



> the case against Toussaint has been tied up in court ever since.

For "balance," one might've expected a mention of the death threats to
Judge Gassant that caused him to flee the country just as he was about to
indict Toussaint.  An odd omission, or should we really be surprised?  And
all the Wikipedia article's "references" and "external links" refer to
notorious apologists for Aristide.  A concerted propaganda attack all
right.  No wonder Wikipedia warns that "the neutrality of this article is
disputed."


Kondrat's charge that I'm a "rabid Aristide-hater" is rather like
dismissing all critics of Israel as "anti-Semitic."  I'm a critic of
Aristide for his dishonesty, use of street gangs and his poor performance.
But you can always try your luck at sidestepping the issue by claiming such
critics have a personal grudge and chucking a slogan at them.

"Shameless" indeed, Kondrat.



        Greg Chamberlain