Haitian Rebels to Arrest Prime Minister

[Say_What]

More of GeorgieBoy's mess, the SOB. Guess Philippe didn't get the state depts. message saying he was to disarm and go home. </sarcasm>

<clips>

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti March 2 — Rebel leader Guy Philippe told The Associated Press on Tuesday he will arrest Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, shortly after Philippe declared himself Haiti's new "military chief."

Philippe had appeared minutes earlier on the second-floor balcony of the colonnaded former army headquarters as hundreds of cheering onlookers stood outside. A rebel standing next to Philippe urged them to accompany the rebel chief to Neptune's house.

"Arrest Neptune!" the crowd chanted.

Earlier, flanked by other rebel leaders and senior officers of Haiti's police force, Philippe told a news conference: "I am the chief." Asked what he meant, he said, "the military chief."

"I am not interested in politics," he said. "The president is the legal president, so we follow his orders."

[eablair3]

1. link?

[Say_What]

6. Link

Sorry :o

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040302_1342.html

[lostnfound]

8. They asked Baby Doc whether he plans to return to power??

What next..international criminal court for Aristide and a Nobel Peace prize for Baby Doc..?

[bemildred]

2. I wonder what he's getting buzzed with ... nt

[pinto]

3. Bushco's "Leave No Civil War Behind" doctrine...

[Judi Lynn]

4. Oh, now he's playing with fire!

Refusing to retire, after serving their purpose so well! It may cause Reich and Noriega to stamp their cloven hooves tiny feet.

I'm sure we'll be seeing a return engagement from kindred spirits who've been on ice elsewhere:

(snip) Haiti has had its share of strongmen, including Colonel Michel-Joseph Francois, who helped topple Haiti's president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in 1991, and proceeded to terrorise his countrymen as chief of the police for the next three years. In the wash-up, 4000 Haitians were killed.
In 1994, Francois fled to the Dominican Republic, where he lived off a half-interest in his brother's car-wash business and was able to buy a $400,000 house in a ritzy suburb and send his kids to a private school.
(snip)
The US became less than enthusiastic about the whole matter when Francois hinted that he might be forced to reveal what he knew about two CIA-created and funded groups with which he was associated -- Haiti's national intelligence service and a death-squad, Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti -- and details of military training he received at the US Army's notorious School of the Americas in Georgia. Nothing has been heard from him since.
(snip)

His mate, General Raoul Cedras, should have told him that the spot for all good dictators to hunker down is a place known as Club Panama. Thanks to its liberal asylum policy and its banking secrecy laws, the tiny isthmus is now home to a stunning rogues' gallery of exiled strongmen.

Cedras, who executed the usual atrocities -- murder, assassination, torture, in between allegedly running the country's drug trade -- until ousted by the Americans who helped install him, now rules supreme over a computer graphics shop in downtown Panama City. He's kicking back with his old friend, General Philippe Biamby, who helped him storm the corridors of power and then helped subdue the locals as the army's chief-of-staff.
(snip)

http://www.soaw.org/new/newswire_detail.php?id=257

[NYC]

5. Link. Agence France Presse at News.com, Australia.

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,8855450%255E1702,00.html

Armed rebels said today they would arrest Haitian Prime Minister Yvon Neptune who stayed on as the crisis-torn country's head of government following Aristide's weekend flight to exile in Africa.

Rebels loyal to Guy Philippe said they would detain Neptune, a close Aristide ally, for him to be tried for unspecified crimes.

[Tinoire]

7. Unspecified crimes...

Guess they just don't know how to adroitly rephrase "caring for people over corporations".

Never mind, Condeleeza Rice or someone will help them out.

Maybe they can recycle this one:

Weapons of Mass Destruction Program-Related Activities

[LSparkle]

9. Philippe pulls an Al Haig

"I'm in control here ... "

[dArKeR]

10. Rag-tag rebels flex their muscles in Haiti

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=3&art_id=qw1078288381870B230&set_id=1

[mobuto]

11. Uh, Guy Phillippe

lest you forget, there are American, French and Canadian troops in and en route to Port au Prince. This is definitely not a brilliant career move on your part.

[AZCat]

12. Unless this is part of the Bush* plan

Supposition: If the Bush* Admin. really is behind the coup, wouldn't they look the other way while Phillippe and co. clean house of all the Aristide supporters?

What's a few more dead people to Dubya? (especially if they're black, and don't speak english)

[mobuto]

14. Define "behind"

The Bush Administration clearly didn't like Aristide and did their utmost to persuade him to leave the country, but they're not supporting Guy Philippe either. The idea of this thug renouncing public promises he's made to the United States, arresting opposition politicians and then proclaiming himself "Military Chief" is just a little beyond the pale.

What's a few more dead people to Dubya? (especially if they're black, and don't speak english)

The flipside of that is that the Administration doesn't consider Haiti to be worth bloodshed.

[AZCat]

15. By bloodshed do you mean U.S. or in general?

I remain skeptical about any U.S. motives because we do not have a good history in this hemisphere. The list of evil people we have supported is long enough that I wouldn't rule out support for Philippe or Chamblain.

"Behind": I would consider behind to be any action that supports the opposition- either funding or supplying arms. This does not include blocking funds to Aristide's government, or (as alleged) preventing Aristide's security forces from entering Haiti.
Does this seem to be a fair definition?

[Judi Lynn]

16. I did hear, earlier this evening, on C-Span

several of the Congresspeople discussing _Bush's regime change in Haiti, as they are calling for an IMMEDIATE Congressional investigation, and they said that not only did _Bush refuse to send assistance to Aristide, even after he had made so many concessions to them, and agreed to share power with the opposition in the conference recently (which they refused), _Bush ALSO prohibited other countries sending in their own forces to assist Aristide altogether.

This is something we weren't told at the time. It's a filthy situation.

[AZCat]

17. Was this the CBC (Congressional Black Caucus)?

They're all over this. I heard Waters, Rangel, etc on Democracy Now, and they were just livid about what the Bush Administration has been doing.

[Judi Lynn]

18. It's just great. They may be back on tonight for a rerun of their speeches

It was run live, LATE, ending, a couple of hours ago when the last speaker, Jan Schakowsky finished her speech. John Conyers, Barbara Lee,Kendrick Meek of Florida, Majors Owens of New York were basically the ones I saw, and it looks as if I got there late.

I think it'll run again overnight, then be available for c-span.org for viewing tomorrow, in archive form.

I just checked www.c-span.org to see if they have it up, yet, and caught a schedule they are rotating at the top of the page. It says Florida's Democratic rep. Kendrick Meek will be on the Washington Journal in the morning.

Also, caught this:
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
House Subcmte. Hearing on Haiti
Asst. Sec. of State Roger Noriega & others testify before a House International Relations Subcommittee on the political situation in Haiti.
WEDS. ON C-SPAN3 AT 2PM ET

There'll be a whole lot of lying going on, NO TWO WAYS ABOUT IT.

You can be sure, if there are any decent people in attendance, there's going to be some very angry questioning from Democratic Representatives.

Majors Owens brought up some points to mention to the right-wing disinformation campaign going on right now. He said to tell people, when they claim Aristide ran an irregular election, that he was not even in office when this happened in 2000. He came into office in 2001.

He also said that for the right-wing propagandists who are trying to paint Aristide as a dictator, you should remind them that he abolished the Haitian Army after he took office, so he had no way of actually dictating squat.

He referred to the Haitian Army as having been created by the U.S. Marines when the U.S. was occupying Haiti, during a 30 year stretch once, and that they controlled the Army, meaning that when they wanted someone set straight, or put in place, they could use the Haitian Army to accomplish their goals for them! Aristide simply disbanded the Army. So much for that!

If you're up later tonight, you will be greatly interested in their comments which should be rerunning as "Special Speeches" on C-Span I.

[AZCat]

19. Aargh! I have two tests tomorrow right during all this

I'm going to miss the Hearing on Haiti tomorrow- I won't be back from campus until 10:00 ET or so. I hope they archive it on the c-span website.
I'd love to see that bastard Noriega on the hot seat, but I doubt he'll have a 'Perry Mason' moment, and instead avoid any real questions re. Scott McClellan.

[Judi Lynn]

22. They probably will have it archived.

Also, their best stuff from the day almost always gets rerun at night, sometimes twice, and then it sometimes comes back on weekends.
I'm not an expert, this is just something I've noticed.

Just check the home page first, as often they'll have the shows you're interested right in front of you.

I just looked again, and was fortunate enough to grab this dandy photo they have of Roger Noriega! This is my lucky day:



Also, an odd note you might really find disturbing:

The day all hell broke loose in Haiti, which was anticipated, and we didn't send any assistance was the very last day of Black History Awareness Month. This SOUNDS like a vicious right-wing Republican action to me, like leaving people a little message from _Bush himself.

On edit:

Just found a list of members of the Black Caucus, which is very interesting. Also discovered it's been around a long time, something I DIDN'T know:

http://www.house.gov/cummings/cbc/cbcmember.htm

On edit:

Also, the Representatives said that over 900 people have tried to escape from Haiti in their old, rickety boats since the extreme violence started, and only THREE people have been deemed worthy of salvation by the U.S. Coast Guard, and all others are returned to Haiti. They are interviewed as a group by the Coast Guard, which then decides if it seems they are REALLY afraid for their life, or if they are simply "economic migrants."

[eablair3]

20. BushCo strikes again

now they got a bunch of thugs and criminals that they've armed and trained and that are roaming around the country. And, now it's another case of "blowback". They ain't gonna just lay down their arms now that they have the military power. And, that's what they are saying.

I wonder how many Haitians will be killed and murdered by these thugs and the criminals that were convicted by human rights groups efforts and that have now all been released from jails there?

And, one has to wonder how many American marines will now come in the line of fire because these militants don't lay down?

[eablair3]

21. Kevin Pina on Flashpoints - Kennedy, Kerry involved in protecting Neptune

On Flashpoints tonight, Kevin Pina said he knew that about 3,000 armed opposition thugs were going to Prime Minister Neptune's house to arrest or kill him. Pina said he called him to warn him. Pina then called the wife of Randall Robinson in St. Kitts, who then called various politicians in the U.S., including Ted Kennedy and John Kerry. Pina thinks that they put enough pressure on the Bush Admin to make Bush assign some Marines to Neptune's house, which apparently kept him from being arrested and killed by the criminal thugs.

http://www.flashpoints.net Tues Mar 2 2004

[Judi Lynn]

26. Thanks for this information

If only they can be kept from destroying this man.


Haitian Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, right, Minister of the Interior Jocelerme Privert, center, and Minister of Culture Lilas Desquiron, right, during the funeral at the National Cathedral in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Friday, August 1, 2003, for the four government workers from Privert's Ministry of the Interior who were killed on July 25 near Belladere in an ambush by an armed commando. (AP Photo/Daniel Morel)

[Robb]

13. Well! All right then!

Things seem to be pretty much under control in Haiti....

[eablair3]

23. how can you say that?

the criminal thugs and opposition that are well armed are roaming around the countryside and Port-Au-Prince hunting down all the Lavalas (the political party members that were in the same party as Aristide) and are killing and murdering them.

It's a killing field, according to reports by those on the ground there, such as Kevin Pina on Flahspoints.

http://www.flashpoints.net

Apparently, the Marines are mostly doing nothing to control the thugs, and they have free reign to run around and hunt and kill members of the Lavalas, the political party of which Aristide was a member. There is a curfew in place for 6 pm, but the criminals and thugs roam around at night shooting, killing and strafing the poor neighborhoods that supported Aristide and Lavalas. The paramilitaries of the rich and wealthy class are also back on the streets terrorizing people.

Plus, the thugs released all the criminals from jail, including those convicted by human rights organizations for mass murder and heading death squads that assassinated people and officials in the past.

[Robb]

27. Sorry

I thought I didn't need to say "/sarcasm". :)

[daleo]

24. That's quite an article (the ABC news one)

- One of the 'rebels', who has been implicated in past human rights abuses, threatening to arrest the new prime minister, after Bushco went to all the trouble of trying to spread a veneer of constitutionality over this whole sordid process.

- Aristide being 'guarded' by French troops in the Central African Republic (talk about the long shadow of colonialism).

- The spineless new Canadian p.m. Paul Martin dragging Canada's relatively good name in the Caribbean through the muck by participating in this mess.

- Baby Doc planning his triumphant return from France, to further 'serve' his people (he must be running short of loot).

- More of Colin Powell's mock anger at his integrity being questioned.

An amazing display of lies and cynicism all around.

[Judi Lynn]

25. It's INCONCEIVABLE that Jean-Claude Duvalier would EVER return

yet, if it ever could happen in a million years, you can bet it would happen during this Republican regime.

The world has LOATHED the name of him and his father so long, yet now he's considering returning. This is so wrong.

Oh, yeah, the right-wingers see him as no goddamed lib'rul, like that scrawney little Aristide. Baby Doc will play ball with American Republicans, like his dad, whereas Aristide was trying to improve the condition of the country's people.


Baby Doc when he was single.


Caption:Tonton Macoute or militia man (center) and soldier (right) waiting to add a few more Haitians to their long list of victims