#3694: Special Report to Corbett List (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: kevin pina <cariborganics@hotmail.com>


Canadian National Sought in Haiti

Reported by Kevin Pina

Port au Prince, Haiti- May 18, 2000- Less than one week before Haiti's 
scheduled election, the Haitian National Police have issued an "arrest on 
sight" order for a Canadian national on charges of "activities suspected of 
being destabilizing to democratic order." The suspect was identified as 53 
year-old Lynn Garrison who claims Canadian citizenship and is known to have 
served as advisor to former military strongmen General Raoul Cedras and 
Chief of Police Michel Francois.  Cedras, who led the 1991 coup in Haiti, 
was last reported to be living in Panama while Francois was indicted in the 
US on charges of narcotics trafficking in 1997.

Garrison was described in a June 1994 interview in the Toronto Globe and 
Mail as "a former Canadian born fighter pilot…playing the improbable role of 
advisor to the military regime, public relations man for the 1991 coup, and 
intelligence source for attacks by American conservatives on exiled 
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide." Garrison has made public claims he was 
the source for the "psychological profile" of former Haitian president 
Jean-Bertrand Aristide that was presented by the CIA's Brian Latelle to the 
US Senate in 1993. In that report, Aristide was described as mentally 
unbalanced, on lithium, and having been confined to a Canadian mental 
institution in the 1980's.

Garrison's name surfaced May 11th following a raid at two addresses in the 
capital of Port au Prince. The raid resulted in the arrest of eight members 
of the former Haitian military and a warrant was also issued for the arrest 
of Serge Justafort who remains at large. Police sources confirmed that Mr. 
Justafort is the chief of security for rental installations operated by the 
US diplomatic mission in Haiti.

In addition to the arrests, police confiscated equipment used to manufacture 
identification cards bearing the logo of the former Haitian military.  
Aristide disbanded the military in 1994 when he returned to Haiti after the 
Clinton Administration dispatched 20,000 troops with the stated purpose of 
restoring democracy.  In an apparent challenge to Haiti's fledgling 
democracy, police sources have confirmed that the operation was devised to 
recruit membership for an eventual resurgence of the armed forces.  For a 
nominal fee of roughly $25 in US currency, recruits were guaranteed a 
position in the army and then issued a new identification card.

Mr. Garrison's whereabouts are presently unknown but a police spokesperson 
stated he has been "circulating throughout many regions of the country for 
several days" engaging in activities to "destabilize democracy" in the 
Caribbean nation.  Police have not elaborated on the charges and their 
investigation continues.

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