[News] Cynthia McKinney: Tell Bush to roll back the coup in Haiti

[News at freedomarchives.org]

http://www.sfbayview.com/031704/rollbackthecoup031704.shtml
3/17/04


Tell Bush to roll back the coup in Haiti

by Cynthia McKinney

Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney delivered this address March 6 at a 
UC Berkeley conference titled The Role of Law & Policy: Africa, the 
Caribbean & the U.S.sponsored by the African-American Law and Policy Report.

Nowhere do we see the impotence of Black America played out before our eyes 
and those of the world as we now see in the case of Haiti. But let me add 
that it hasn't always been this way, and it doesn't have to be this way.

First of all, as I see it, the correct call is not just for investigation, 
but also for reinstallation. Just as the U.S., in the 1950s, launched its 
policy of rollback for communism, so too must Americans of good conscience 
call for the Bush gang of thieves to roll back the coup in Haiti.

This action stands in stark contrast to the proposed U.S. action to attack 
Cuba shortly after Kennedy came to power. But Bobby Kennedy reminded John 
that for 175 years the United States had not been the kind of country that 
preemptively attacked a smaller, poorer country. And so, John Kennedy 
refused to attack Cuba. Even though his Pentagon desperately wanted a war. 
Obviously, George W. Bush is no John Kennedy.

If you will recall, the United States and Haiti have been in this exact 
same place before. Gen. Raul Cedras had stolen power in a coup against the 
democratically elected priest who worked in the barrios of Port-au-Prince. 
Haitian Americans in Florida and New York and elsewhere worked non-stop to 
reinstall Father Aristide to power.

The Republican Justice Department had just overseen the largest expansion 
of the Congressional Black Caucus since the passage of the Voting Rights 
Act as it forced Southern legislatures to draw districts that would allow 
rural Blacks finally to elect candidates of their choice. Black voters, 
with a massive turnout, had turned George Bushs father out of the White 
House and elected Bill Clinton instead.

So the stage was set on the inside and on the outside for a massive shift 
in U.S. policy toward Haiti, leaving the Republican antipathy for Aristide 
behind. This shift so infuriated at least one small group in white America 
that, in the Florida redistricting case, the plaintiff actually wrote that 
the increased strength of the Congressional Black Caucus had actually 
changed U.S. policy toward Haiti, and for that reason, among others, the 
size of the CBC had grown too large, thus the lawsuit against the district 
of Congresswoman Corrine Brown.

The brief of the Florida plaintiffs provides a smoking gun for the 
effectiveness of the larger, stronger, younger Black Caucus that entered 
Washington with an agenda grounded in the people. It also places in stark 
relief what is possible when Black America has authentic leaders, well 
placed, in politics.

Eventually, Cedras was given money and escorted out of Port-au-Prince while 
some of the leaders of FRAPH, the CIA-inspired tonton macoute replacement, 
found refuge in the U.S., the Dominican Republic and other places. With 
most of his term spent out of office, Aristide eventually was triumphantly 
returned to office. Upon the expiration of his term, Aristide left office 
and ran for reelection after the end of the term of his successor, Rene 
Preval.

Now, according to one of my investigative sources, one of the contracts 
that Preval put in place was with the Steele Foundation to provide 
presidential security. The Steele Foundation, headquartered here in the Bay 
Area, is reportedly very close to the Pentagon, with its former leader 
coming directly from the Pentagon's Office of Intelligence. Interestingly, 
it reportedly maintains an office in Miami, the home of the headquarters of 
the U.S. Special Operations Command, which was reportedly involved in 
training the rebels who ousted Aristide. So, at the time of Aristide's 
capture,he supposedly was protected by a Pentagon-sanctioned security team 
that just happened to fail to secure him.

Additionally, according to this same source, some of the Dominican troops 
and Spanish and English-speaking paramilitaries trained by the U.S. during 
last year's Operation Jaded Task in the Dominican Republic were fighting 
alongside Haitian rebels in the north and on the southern coast of Haiti. 
We are told further that Haitian government authorities intercepted vans 
carrying new M-16s across the border from the Dominican Republic. According 
to the report I have received, Haitian authorities began intercepting vans 
carrying the weapons from the Dominican Republic beginning last year, and 
shortly after the U.S. military delivered 20,000 M-16s to the Dominican Army.

Haiti was about to celebrate its bicentennial. I remember how happy this 
country was when it celebrated its bicentennial. That joy has been denied 
to the Haitian people. Jean-Bertrand Aristides slogan during the countrys 
commemorative campaign was restitution, reparation, celebration. And he had 
declared Haiti an African country.

Aristide was no COINTELPRO leader. No clean Negro.And, in the language of 
J. Edgar Hoover, he excited the Negroes.So now, understanding who Jean 
Bertrand Aristide really is, and at the same time knowing how our country 
deals with authentic leaders like him, we cant be surprised by what 
happens. We should, however, be dismayed if our collective power is not 
able to restore Aristide to power once again.

Haitis lawyer charged that the U.S. government was directly involved in the 
coup and that the coup leaders were armed, trained, employed by the 
intelligence services of the United States.

An eye witness, Aristides caretaker, told French radio that the American 
army came to take him away at two in the morning. The Americans forced him 
out with weapons.

After having spoken directly with President Aristide, Congresswoman Maxine 
Waters reported that Aristide was surrounded by the military. It's like 
he's in jail. He says he was kidnapped,she said.

Randall Robinson also spoke to President Aristide. Robinson said that 
Aristide emphatically denied that he had resigned.

Rev. Jesse Jackson got Aristide on the phone with an Associated Press 
reporter, and Aristide himself said that he was forced to leave. He said, 
They came at night. There were too many. I couldn't count them.He said that 
agents told him that if he didn't leave, they would start shooting and 
killing. Aristide is quoted as describing these agents who threatened him 
as white Americans, white military.

Donald Rumsfeld said that the idea of an abduction was just totally 
inconsistent with everything he heard or saw. The White House dismissed 
allegations that Aristide had been kidnapped by U.S. forces eager to force 
him to resign and flee into exile. Colin Powell said flatly that Aristide 
was not kidnapped. Powell said, We did not force him on the airplane.

Now, I don't know about you. But it is clear to me by now that I can't 
believe Donald Rumsfeld. I can't believe the White House. And I can't 
believe Colin Powell.

But even more than that, notice Powell's use of the word we.

And therein lies the essence of our predicament.

On March 1, 2004, the Washington Times headlined Colin Powell's comment, I 
am on the Presidents agenda.Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell have provided 
a Black face for policies that have devastated the global community and our 
American community. Progressive America and the global community need a 
strong, vibrant and activist Black community.

A recent report in the New York Times found that 50 percent of the Black 
male adults in New York City are unemployed. According to the State of the 
Dream 2004 report, if current rates of progress remain the same, it will 
take eight years for America to close the Black-White gap in high school 
graduation. It will take 73 years to close the college graduation gap, 190 
years to close the imprisonment gap, 581 years to close the per capita 
income gap, and 1,664 years to close the home ownership gap. Clearly 
progress on important quality of life indices is not being made quickly enough.

But we wont see that portrayed on UPN, FOX, CNN or the WB. Increasingly, 
prominent leaders tell us that we dont need a movement any more and that 
agitators who concentrate on these facts are passé.

And to them I only ask one question. What becomes of a community that 
rewards those who pick the fruit up but fails to protect those who shake it 
down?

Tree shakers are all over the globe trying to uplift their communities. 
Only through our active and informed participation in the political process 
here will we be able to stop the powers that produce pernicious policies. 
Only through our participation in the political process will we be able to 
protect the global community - like Haiti, like Venezuela - from the 
vicissitudes of powerful people acting in our name who dont care one whit 
about the values that we hold dear.

Black America, vibrant with authentic leaders, in active partnership with 
all progressives, can change what is happening here at home and the 
policies being implemented abroad.

And so I end with a plea and a charge for us as a people to stand up, speak 
truth to power, dont cower, and say to those who control this awful 
machine, It's time for you to stop, right now.

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