Novak - Aristide's regime took over 1 billion dollars in 4 wk.

[Florida_Geek]

Interviewed in his office, the prime minister told me: "The public finance is in crisis. They (the Aristide regime) took everything they could from the reserve of the country." His estimate: "over $1 billion" stolen in four weeks.

During Aristide's last days, well-armed gangs supporting him went on a rampage of destruction and looting across the country. It continued after his departure and before foreign troops arrived, with pro-Aristide demonstrators sweeping downtown Port-au-Prince to trash parked autos on March 10.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/03/25/haiti/index.html

Yes yes I know this is Novak, but is there any truth of this rumor??

Anybody hear of anything like this??

[w4rma]

1. They may have relocated it to prevent it from falling into the hands of...

the warlords in case he was assassinated.

[Abaques]

2. The language that you just used is not the right language to use...

Having funds "relocated" sounds a heck of a whole lot like stealing. If Aristide set money out of reach of the rebels, then so be it, but when you use language like "relocated" it just sounds like something Rumsfeld would say.

I don't mean to flame, but that was the first thing that I thought of when I read your post. If he put money aside, he may very well have had a good reason, but he needs to explain what exactly he did. We should not defend him until we know what he is claiming. Maybe he's explained himself already, but I haven't heard about that.

[kcordell]

16. Maybe This Will Help (Got This Wed.)

Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2004 8:29 PM
Subject: %Partners%


Friend,
I write you in good faith, hoping that you will treat this letter as a desperate search for assistance in a matter that shall benefit both us.
I am Joseph Aristide, the brother of the recently ousted president of Haiti, who has just been granted temporary asylum in Africa, Central African Republic.
Because of the hurried nature of my brother's exit from Haiti, he left the country with the money he could and all his life savings has remained in Haiti as he left in a without plans in order to safeguard his dear life.
I am in possession of Banking documents, with which my brothers's personal business associate Scott D. Morton, fixed the sum of $37,500,000 (Thirty Seven Million Five Hundred Thousand U.S Dollars) in a bank on behalf of my brother
This money was fixed by his associate in order to beat any probing eyes in the country and when my brother had to leave hurriedly, this money remained untouched because the associate of his just died, with this money lying in the Bank, we now wish to have a Next of Kin who must be a foreigner, to stand as beneficiary of this money so we can move the money to any of the developed countries, preferably America or Britain. This is why we seek your assistance to stand as the beneficiary of this money. All necessary modalities have been put in place to have the money moved very quickly without attracting attention.
The procedure will be to get a lawyer to prepare the WILL and Affidavit of witness, stating you as the inheritor of this money. All necessary documents will be procured in order to make the transaction very legal. I have already sold off my remaining belongings to pay the Legal charges for the lawyers we shall use.
If you agree to work with me to secure this money, I will be willing to allow you keep %20 (Twenty Percent), I will get %40 and %40 will be kept for my brother until he is able to get a permanent place for his asylum, by then all the tension will also have died down.
Please contact me at the Email address : [e-mail], [e-mail]
Thank you for your anticipated cooperation and assistance.

[terisel]

3. No faith in Novak

Especially since he seems to be a White House mouthpiece.

This reminds me of the stories put out about the missing money in Iraq supposedly taken from their bank by Hussein's family. Saddam Hussein sure didn't look like he had it.

I know there was at least one story about the possibility of a CIA operation to remove it from the country.

I also remember that an international charity made accusations about the US taking a huge sum.

I've gotten a bit cynical but if the present administration was involved in the overthrow or knew it was coming , I would consider the possibility that there was a transfer of funds electronically done covertly by this administration.

The fact is that the Bush administration seems to have little oversight.

[bemildred]

4. Fundamental flaw here.

There was no Constitutional transfer of power,
hence there was no theft, Aristide merely did what
he could to protect the national assets from theft
as a result of a coup. If Prime Minister Aristide
were to turn the funds to his personal use, one could
argue some crime has been committed. Right now he is
acting legitimately in his role as the Prime Minister
of Haiti, assuming the rest of this story is not bullshit
too, and that is somewhat of a reach.

[Judi Lynn]

5. We had some anti-Aristide posters here

pushing the "corrupt Aristide" propaganda weeks ago. They NEVER had any evidence, OF COURSE.

They moved on to anti-Chavez matters.

[tallyho]

9. What does that have to do with missing cash?

Besides, Kerry is "anti-Chavez" too...How does that sit with you?

[htuttle]

6. I don't think Haiti ever had a billion dollars in the bank

Certainly not liquid where someone could withdraw it. Where did the money come from? The Bush admin cut off the government's aid, and the rich in Haiti never paid their taxes.

This is horseshit.

[htuttle]

10. This is total horseshit. Haiti only had $51 million in foreign reserves...

...in 2002.

http://www.haiti-progres.com/2003/sm030423/eng04-23.html

In the 2002 fiscal year, Haiti's foreign reserves plummeted some 50% from $102 million to a mere $51 million. Over the same period, Haiti paid out some $21 million in interest payments to foreign lenders, while receiving only $13 million in aid from them, Faubert said.

As of January, Haiti's total foreign debt amounted to $1.248 billion, $1.031 billion of that sum to multilateral lenders and the remaining $217 million for bilateral loans. Haiti is in arrears on payments for about $61.7 million.

This story is totally false. A complete fabrication.

[Jacobin]

7. That's less than Halliburton, et al's take in Iraq

Aristide is a fucking piker by comparison to the thieves in the WH

[tallyho]

8. Does that justify it in your mind?

It don't cut it with me. The lesser of evil is still evil.

[tkmorris]

12. It also didn't happen

Blithering idiots making wild claims with no evidence is also evil. You do grok that this didn't happen right? That Novak made it up out of thin air?

[terisel]

11. Possible scenario-money laundering.

1.One and one/half billion disappears from Iraq. It's believable there had been one billion there. One billion disappears from Haiti.It is not believable Haiti had one billion.

2.One billion that Haiti never really had is recovered with Iraqi sand stuck to it. (One quarter billion from Iraq disappears into various pockets on the flight from Iraq to a stopover in Florida when Jeb's assistant greets the plane and another quarter billion then disappears).

3.Plane lands in Haiti with one billion supposedly recovered from Aristide. Haiti pays debts or inflated costs of reconstruction of Haiti which is needed due to their messy liberation. Halliburton wins contract for infrastructure. Carlyle wins contract for Defense.

4.Haiti is rebuilt as a well-defended paradise of casinos and luxury dwellings with a surplus of cheap labor and many jails for unruly natives. It sets itself up as a corporate tax haven.
Inexplicably it disavows its extradition treaty with USA.

5.Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, and Rice flee to Haiti from USA following issuance of subpoenas to testify. Haiti incorporates itself as Halliburton-Carlyle.

[peacetalksforall]

13. Is this coming from the same people who said the silver was missing

from the WH or AF1 and Hillary took it? Are the same people who are supporting the former criminal, now the Prime Minister installed by the United States of American telling him to say the silver is missing except that the silver changed to 1 billion?

First impression - bullstuff. Loose bullstuff.

[beanball]

14. Novak

please retire you lying ass.

[KG]

15. funny how all of a sudden, novak has cred here.

[truthspeaker]

17. now we know why Bush supported the coup!

Aristide didn't kick back 5% to Bush. "Just give me something to wet my beak a little." Bush wants to be the crime boss of the world.