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<h1><b>What Bush Did To Haiti</b></h1><font size=3>January 19, 2010 By
<b>David Swanson</b> <br>
<a href="http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/23660" eudora="autourl">
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/23660<br><br>
<br>
</a>If a group of dedicated scholars, attorneys, journalists, and
activists had tried to generate a comprehensive list of impeachable
offenses committed by George W. Bush as president, and only 35 of them
had been introduced into Congress, one of the many discarded ones, in
rough and overly detailed form, might have read something like this:
<br><br>
In his conduct while President of the United States, George W. Bush, in
violation of his constitutional oath to faithfully execute the office of
President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve,
protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in
violation of his constitutional duty under Article II, Section 3 of the
Constitution "to take care that the laws be faithfully
executed", has both personally and acting through his agents and
subordinates, caused the United States of America to kidnap, imprison,
intimidate, coerce, threaten, confine, abduct, and carry away the
elected, constitutional President of Haiti, and his wife, a U.S citizen,
in violation of United States statutes, to wit:<br><br>
a. The President, both personally and acting through his agents and
subordinates, prevented the security contractors working for Haiti's
elected, constitutional government led by President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide from receiving reinforcements at a time when Haiti's
constitutional government was under attack. The removal of the security
contractors facilitated the kidnapping of President Aristide:<br><br>
b. On February 17, 2004, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell defended
President Aristide as the "free and fairly elected President of
Haiti." Referring to insurgents who brutally attacked police
stations and other government building over the previous weeks, Secretary
Powell further stated that the United States "cannot buy into a
proposition that says the elected President must be forced out of office
by thugs and those who do not respect law and are bringing terrible
violence to the Haitian people." <br><br>
c. On the afternoon of Saturday, February 28, 2004, the Steele
Foundation, a U.S. company that had been providing private security
services to the Haitian government, informed President Aristide that the
U.S. government had asked it to withdraw all of its personnel from
Haiti. The Steele Foundation also told President Aristide that the
U.S. government was blocking the Steele Foundation's efforts to bring to
Haiti additional personnel needed to protect the President. Later that
day, the Steele Foundation informed President Aristide that without the
additional personnel, the Foundation would not be able to protect the
President or his wife.<br><br>
d. The President, both personally and acting through his agents and
subordinates, misrepresented the immediacy of the threat against
President Aristide, and informed him that U.S. forces in the country
would not help either the President or his constitutional
government:<br><br>
e. On February 28, members of the U.S. Foreign Service informed President
Aristide that rebel forces under the command of Guy Philippe, a
U.S.-trained former army and police officer, were less than 50 miles
outside Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince. The diplomats informed President
Aristide that Mr. Philippe's forces would attack the next day. At the
time, Mr. Philippe and his soldiers were in Cap-Haitian, at the far
northern end of Haiti, and could not have reached Port-au-Prince for
several days.<br><br>
f. Members of the U.S. Foreign service told President Aristide that if he
remained in Port-au-Prince, the United States would not provide any
assistance when the expected attack by the insurgents occurred, and that
they expected that the insurgents would kill him, his wife and many of
his supporters.<br><br>
g. That night, the U.S. Deputy Charge de Mission (DCM) in Haiti, Luis
Moreno, accompanied by a contingent of U.S. troops, met with President
Aristide. Moreno reiterated the expectation that an attack by the
insurgents was imminent and the promise that the U.S. would not intervene
to protect President Aristide or his supporters. He then informed
President Aristide that if he left at that moment, the United States
would provide aircraft for him to leave, but only if he provided the
United States with a letter of resignation.<br><br>
h. On February 28, Secretary Powell called former Representative Ron
Dellums, who had been engaged as a lobbyist in Washington by the Haitian
government. Secretary Powell informed Mr. Dellums that the insurgents
were going to attack Port-au-Prince the next day (February 29), and that
the United States would do nothing to interfere with their
plans.<br><br>
i. The President, acting through his agents and subordinates, forced
President Aristide onto an unmarked U.S. plane that filed a false flight
plan, and flew him against his will to the Central African
Republic.<br><br>
j. On February 25, Secretary Powell issued a threat to President
Aristide, telling the press: "whether or not Aristide is able to
effectively continue as President is something he will have to examine
carefully in the interests of the Haitian people." On February
28, a senior State Department official told CNN that the
"international community" is "putting pressure on Aristide
to live up to his responsibilities and to think hard about his
future," which implied more pressure for President Aristide to step
down. The CNN article also reported that "privately the United
States continues to distance itself from Aristide and suggests it might
be time for him to step down." Timothy Carney, who was
appointed by President Bush to run Iraq's Ministry of Minerals and Mines
in 2003 and coordinator of Iraq reconstruction in January 2007, announced
to the press that "Aristide is toast. He's gone. The only question
is whether he goes out in a pine box or on an airplane." These
statements contradicted the earlier statements of the Secretary of State,
which recognized Aristide as the democratically elected President of
Haiti and blamed the rebel groups for the violence gripping the
country.<br><br>
k. On February 28, White House spokesman Scott McClellan stated,
"Aristide's own actions have called into question his fitness to
govern Haiti. We urge him to examine his position
carefully...."<br><br>
l. President Aristide, at all times, publicly and privately, insisted
that he would remain in office to serve out his constitutional
term.<br><br>
m. On February 28, President Aristide conferred with U.S. Ambassador to
Haiti James Foley and DCM Luis Moreno about ways of avoiding further
violence in Port-au-Prince. Early in the morning of February 29, at Mr.
Moreno's request, President Aristide agreed to go with a U.S. escort to a
location where he could appear on television to appeal for
calm. The escort that arrived at President Aristide's house
consisted of heavily armed, uniformed members of the U.S. Armed Forces
traveling in a convoy. The escorts took President Aristide and his wife
from his house, and instead of taking him to a television studio, took
him to the Port-au-Prince airport.<br><br>
n. The Steele Foundation security contractors protecting President
Aristide were told to plan for a move to the U.S. Embassy where President
Aristide would make a TV broadcast. Then minutes before they left
President Aristide's residence, they were told they were going to the
airport and that they would be leaving with him on the plane.<br><br>
o. An unmarked white aircraft, with a U.S. flag, had been flown in by the
U.S. government, and sat on the airport runway According to a customs
declaration at a refueling stop, the aircraft was owned or operated by
Technilink, and was registered in the U.S.A, registration number N145CA.
Haiti's national airport was secured by U.S. soldiers. President Aristide
reported that DCM Moreno forced him to sign a letter and board the
plane.<br><br>
p. President Aristide claims that the statement that he signed was not a
resignation letter, that he did not intend to resign - that it included a
conditional statement, "[i]f I am obliged to leave in order to avoid
bloodshed . . . ." The United States Government reported this
letter as a resignation, to the United States public, to the United
Nations and to the Organization of American States even though the Creole
expert the government asked to translate it, Professor Bryant Freeman of
the University of Kansas, concluded that the statement was not a
resignation letter.<br><br>
q. Uniformed and heavily-armed members of the U.S. armed forces boarded
the plane along with President Aristide. They changed into civilian
clothes after boarding. Nineteen members of the Steele Foundation
security detail also boarded the plane, although they were taking
direction not from President Aristide, but from officials of the United
States. Also on board were President Aristide's wife, Mildred
Trouillot Aristide, a U.S. citizen, and two Haitian security
officials.<br><br>
r. The plane left Port-au-Prince at about 6 AM on February 29. Once
placed on the aircraft, President Aristide and his wife were kept
incommunicado by United States military personnel, even though the plane
was equipped with faxes, satellite telephones, and other means of
communication. The passengers were forced to keep the shutters on the
aircraft closed at all times. They were denied the right to leave the
aircraft when it landed in Antigua and thereafter when it
refueled.<br><br>
s. The operators of the aircraft provided the Antiguan government a
fraudulent customs declaration that stated there were no passengers on
board, that the flight had originated in "Guantanamo Bay," and
that there had been no intermediate stops. No destination was
listed.<br><br>
t. Neither the President nor his wife, who is a United States citizen,
was told by the United States military personnel where the aircraft was
going or when they would land. They were kept as prisoners on the
aircraft and were only told a short time before the aircraft landed that
the Central African Republic was their country of destination.<br><br>
u. When the unmarked plane landed at the airport in Bangui, Central
Africa Republic, it was met by French soldiers, who were based in the
Republic. Officials of the Central African Republic informed President
Aristide's lawyer that they were in consultation with both French and
United States officials about keeping President Aristide in the country,
and that they were doing it as a "favor" for those
countries.<br><br>
v. President Aristide was kept against his will in the Central African
Republic. He was not allowed to leave his lodging on the grounds of the
Presidential Palace without government permission and an escort, and he
was not allowed to speak on the telephone after he made a few calls
explaining what had happened to him, which Central African Republic
officials called "regrettable statements. President Aristide was
kept there for two weeks, until a mission led by U.S. Representative
Maxine Waters flew to the country and negotiated his release with the
President of the Central African Republic, Francis Bozize.<br><br>
w. President Bush's kidnapping of President Aristide and his wife
violated U.S. law:<br><br>
x. Under 18 U.S.C. section 112, it is a criminal offense to imprison,
intimidate, coerce, or threaten an "Internationally Protected
Person." The statute's definition of "Internationally Protected
Person" includes both President Aristide and his wife, Mildred
Trouillot Aristide. The actions by President Bush and his agents and
subordinates, including Secretary Powell, Ambassador Foley and DCM
Moreno, included imprisonment, intimidation, coercion and threats within
the statute. The statute penalizes such illegal conduct with prison
sentences up to ten years. The statute confers jurisdiction for these
crimes to U.S. courts, because the offenders were nationals of the United
States, and were afterward found within the United States.<br><br>
y. Under 18 U.S.C. section 1201, it is a criminal offense to unlawfully
confine, kidnap, abduct, or carry away an "Internationally Protected
Person." The statute's definition of "Internationally Protected
Person" includes both President Aristide and his wife, Mildred
Trouillot Aristide. The actions by President Bush and his agents and
subordinates, including Secretary Powell, Ambassador Foley and DCM
Moreno, included seizing, confining, kidnapping, abducting, and carrying
away of both President Aristide and his wife. The statute penalizes such
illegal conduct with prison sentences of up to life in prison. The
statute confers jurisdiction for these crimes to U.S. courts, because the
offenders were nationals of the United States, and were afterward found
within the United States.<br><br>
In all of these actions and decisions, President George W. Bush has acted
in a manner contrary to his trust as President and Commander in Chief,
and subversive of constitutional government, to the prejudice of the
cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the
United States. Wherefore, President George W. Bush, by such conduct, is
guilty of an impeachable offense warranting removal from office.<br><br>
<br>
-- <br><br>
<br><br>
David Swanson is the author of the new book "Daybreak: Undoing the
Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union" by Seven
Stories Press. You can order it and find out when tour will be in
your town:
</font><a href="http://davidswanson.org/book">
<font size=3 color="#0022E3">http://davidswanson.org/book</a></font>
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<br><br>
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