6413: Re: 6408: CIA and 1991 Coup (Saint-Vil enquires) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Neil Elliott <ee4@uswest.net>

A reply to Jean Saint-Vil--

The question is CIA involvement in the coup; Mr. Saint-Vil
responded to a post by Mr. Chamberlain which seemed oddly
oblivious to CIA involvement, implying that Francois had acted
more-or-less alone and out of vengeance.

The documentary trail should include (1) CIA official Brian Latell's
appearance before Congress before the coup, describing Cedras
as one of the brightest hopes for democracy in Haiti; and CIA
admissions after the coup that Cedras had been a paid "asset" for
years before the coup. (2) A New York Times story from Nov. 1993
in which CIA officials admitted they had continued to give money,
training, weapons, and moral support to the SIN, an supposed
elite anti-drug unit in Haiti, even after they recognized that the
SIN was operating as a death squad, killing the usual suspects
(journalists, activists, etc.), and profiting themselves from drug
traffic. (3) The interviews Allan Nairn conducted with Toto Constant
in which the latter made clear his understanding that the CIA wanted
FRAPH built as a "counterbalance" to Aristide. (4) Although the
CIA connection isn't explicit, eyewitness accounts of the U.S,
Ambassador traveling in U.S. aircraft with the coup leaders--I
think it was Biamby and Cedras but am not sure--in the week before
the coup. (5) On the theme of U.S. Embassy complicity recall the
leaked memo, from the period before the coup, laying out a strategy
of marginalizing Aristide by supporting his enemies; (6) the leaked
memo, from the coup period, insisting that Aristide's people were
exaggerating human-rights violations--a line mirroring the Bush
Admin's response to "human rights records" of the Aristide and
coup periods; this policy alone should merit a separate ring in the
depths of Dante's inferno for various Bush-era officials, given the
tremendous weight of evidence now available. Let's add (7) the
admission by Clinton's administration that the FRAPH documents
identify U.S. citizens and therefore can't be released in their
original state to the Haitian prosecutors. And (8) again reported
by Nairn--an official with ICITAP declaring that the CIA had
well infiltrated the new HNP vetting system.

The relevant questions now, raised by Amy Wilentz (thank you,
Ms. Wilentz!), concern the extent to which the "opposition's"
efforts to mount a paper coup against the elected government are
being actively encouraged by people in D.C. or (not necessarily
the same thing) Langley, VA.

A slight corrective to Mr. Saint-Vil's rhetorical question: whatever
James Earl Ray did in 1963, he may have done on his own. But
the circumstantial evidence surrounding Defense Intelligence and
FBI activity in the weeks immediately preceding Martin Luther King,
Jr.'s assassination IN 1968 certainly cast doubt on the "lone assassin"
theory. (Friendly correction!)

Neil Elliott