HAITI: MEDIA COVER-UP IN EFFECT

MICKEY MOUSE MEETING IN PHILADELPHIA

From one explosive situation, we turn to another that is being covered even worse. It is closer to home, in Haiti, where a democracy is being destroyed while we watch the snuff movie on TV with almost no analysis.

BY THEIR GRINS YOU SHALL KNOW THEM

Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld had a big grin on his face. He said he was searching for a word, the right word, to respond specifically to questions and charges being aired on Pacifica stations that Haiti’s democratically elected president had been kidnapped by US troops. This was the first time I have heard Pacifica cited as a source at the Department of Defense briefing. After grinning some more, Rumsfeld then denied the charge but didn’t want to talk about it, Smile. Smile. I imagine he didn’t want to talk about it. And the reporters there did not even challenge him. His constant companion General Myers was in denial too — saying he hasn’t heard about any of the allegations being relayed by Congresswoman Maxine Waters on the basis of direct conversations with President Aristide.

ARISTIDE CONFIRMS: IT WAS A COUP!

Aristide is now personally confirming earlier charges that this was a coup, and that he was kidnapped. This has been denied by Secretary of State Powell and White House Press Secretary Scott McClellen. The news media which failed to cover just how Aristide was bum rushed out of Haiti — and who all accepted information fed by anti-Aristide forces and the US government — rushed to report these denials, giving them a credibility that it is likely they do NOT deserve.

THE BAND OF "BROTHERS"

The Haitian President who was overthrown once before, and then restored by American power during the Clinton Administration, has been displaced by American power in the Bush White House. According to Reuters, "killers and human rights abusers" led the revolt and are now in charge. Another report sent to me, not sure from what outlet, said that the two rebel leaders, Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a former death-squad member and convicted assassin, and Guy Philippe, a former police chief, thanked the United States for moving to secure Haiti after the fall of Mr. Aristide.

“We’re grateful to the United States!” Mr. Chamblain shouted through the window of his truck en route to the presidential palace. Mr. Philippe said: “The United States soldiers are like us. We’re brothers. We’re grateful for their service to our nation and against the terrorists of Aristide.”

THE TRASHING OF PORT AU PRINCE

The Haitian Capital is being trashed while US soldiers look on, reports Marguerite Laurent, Chair, of Haitian Lawyers Leadership:

This is NOT being reported by a US media which has focused instead on crowds of people cheering Aristide’s removal.

WHAT HAPPENED TO PRESIDENT ARISTIDE?

TransAfrica Founder Randall Robinson spoke to him as well. This is part of what he was told. It certainly DOES NOT sound like a voluntary departure

"The soldiers came in to the house and ordered them to use no phones and to come immediately. They were taken at gunpoint to the airport and put on a plane. His own security detachment was taken as well and they were put in a separate compartment of the plane. The president was kept with his wife with the soldiers with the shades of the plane down and when he asked where he was being taken, the soldiers told him they were under orders not to tell him that."

AND WHERE IS HE NOW?

Where is Aristide now? Maxine Waters reported on the basis of her conversation:

"He is in the Central Republic of Africa at a place called the Palace of the Renaissance, and he’s not sure if that’s a house or a hotel or what it is and he is surrounded by military. It’s like in jail, he said. He said that he was kidnapped; he said that he was forced to leave Haiti. He said that the American embassy sent the diplomats; he referred to them as, to his home where they was lead by Mr. Moreno. And I believe that Mr. Moreno is a deputy chief of staff at the embassy in Haiti and other diplomats, and they ordered him to leave. They said you must go NOW”

CHARLIE ROSE’S PSEUDO DEBATE

Charlie Rose had on Columbia University Scholar Jeffrey Sachs and others, including Republican Congressman Mark Foley of Florida who has been the Administration’s point person for attacking Aristide. Aristide has everything to benefit, Foley said, by obfuscating the issue. Foley suggested that Aristide is trying to save face. And making it all up. Former US Ambassador Carney, on from Washington was also blasting Aristide. But who is to blame?

Michelle Montes of Radio Haiti confirmed that the so -called rebels were thugs and killers. Sachs asked who armed them, and confronted both of the government’s functionaries who charged Aristide was lying. “How do they know?” he asked. Did they speak to him? They said no. Sachs made the point that the US had undermined Aristide’s government over the years. Sachs spelled this out in an article in the Financial Times explaining how the Bush Administration worked to squeeze Aristide and bring him down by freezing aid. "We cut off aid to hungry children," he said. Montes, whose husband journalist Jean Dominique had been killed in Haiti, was also critical of the US, but said that Aristide disappointed his followers.

NIGHTLINE NO BETTER

One of the main reasons that Haitians who cheered Aristide’s ouster on Nightline gave was that Aristide failed to eliminate the misery in the poorest country in the Americas. He has raised expectations and was popular among the poor, especially in rural areas but was unable to satisfy the expectations. But few new why Aristide was unable to deliver on his promises and the hopes people had in him. If history is any guide the hopes expressed in the streets of Port au Prince yesterday are likely to turn to disappointment once again. That was Nightline’s view. Nightline did not have anyone like Sachs on to explain how Haiti was destabilized by the US. Where there was any critical assessment, it all focused on Aristide’s failing, which certainly contributed to the problems. The facile ‘blame Aristide’ news frame was challenged by Jeffrey Sachs but he wrote yesterday in England’s Financial Times, not the New York Times. Where was the American press?

SHIFTING THE DISCUSSION, COVERING UP THE CRIME

Ambassador Carney continually tried to shift the discussion away from what did or did not happen to Aristide. Let’s talk about what happens now he kept saying. Montes said we can’t go back. And so the discussion metaphorically finished the burial of Aristide that US Marines had begun. They want him disappeared.

Charlie asks Sachs: Are you questioning the integrity of Secretary of State Powell? "No," said Sachs, "I am questioning his truthfulness." Citing Powell’s speech to the UN claiming that there were weapons of mass destruction, "When I was on your program a year ago, I said it wasn’t true. And I am saying he isn’t telling the truth now." No response from Mr Rose.

THE ABSENCE OF BALANCE

Sachs challenged the way that the issue was being deconstructed on the show. There was no support from Charlie Rose for his position. So the debate turned into 3 against Aristide and one man challenging the Administration line. Rose was more skeptical of Sachs than the others. Although Montes, who clearly was hostile to Aristide, was more evenhanded speaking out against Washington, insisting that it was American policy that was responsible for the mess and destruction. She noted that the US soldiers have no mandate to disarm the gunmen who have looted and killed there way through the country.

To Charlie the issue was all about managing a crisis, not restoring justice. It was a typical PBS discussion, skewed towards established power. The Haiti discussion was followed by a US commander from Iraq giving a one-sided view on the progress and achievements in the new Iraq. I am sure the parallel was not intended — but there it was, Iraq-Haiti. Two US military interventions. Two pro-Washington rationalizations. So blatant. So shameful. Yuk.

NIGHTLINE HAD THE US LINE

Nightline was no better, another program with no real debate. No critics were allowed on the air at all. Instead a US official, Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega was allowed to prattle unchallenged by any other point of view, as he explained away the alleged US attempt to work out power sharing arrangement which was torpedoed. He kept calling Aristide "unreliable." Reliability is what the Bush Administration prizes. Or, in the code language of the day, does reliability mean deference and servility?

Incidentally, here’s Sachs take on what should be done now — but won’t be:

"What should happen now is unlikely to pass. The United Nations should help restore Mr Aristide to power for his remaining two years in office, making clear that yesterday’s events were an illegal power grab. Second, the US should call on the opposition, which is largely a US construct, to stop the violence immediately and unconditionally. Third, after years of literally starving the people of Haiti, the long-promised and long-frozen aid flows of Dollars 500m should start immediately. These steps would rescue a dying democracy and avert a possible bloodbath".

IT’S THE CABAL, STUPID

Heather Williams writes in Counterpunch (via Progressive Review):

"Those who view Haiti’s current violence as merely one of an eternal humanitarian crisis in temporary overdrive miss the story. It is no simple tale of a corrupt regime collapsing under the weight of popular anger and bad management. A cursory glance at events of the last fourteen years suggests that the fall of the Aristide regime was a foregone conclusion at the entrance of President George W. Bush and the installation of a cabal of appointees with a grim record of utilizing official and covert channels to destabilize uncooperative governments in the Western Hemisphere.

"What is immediately ominous about the current crisis in Haiti is the likely prospect that leaders of armed groups making a final assault on the capital will play important roles in a post-Aristide order. Such armed groups include the Tontons Macoutes, the gunmen who viciously supervised repression under both father and son Duvaliers’ dictatorships until 1986. They also include members of the disbanded Haitian army that held power for three years following the coup against President Aristide in 1991, and the FRAPH death squads that mowed down the ranks of democratic civil society during that period, leaving over 3,000 dead and thousands more in exile. What is also now worrisome about this crisis is what it likely indicates about the intentions of the US State Department and security apparatus elsewhere in the Caribbean. …"

HOW CHANGING THE CONTEXT DISTORTS NEWS

"There was talk of Aristide going on to South Africa. It is unclear if he will be given asylum there either. Mr. Noriega said that Aristide has no visa to the US. Clearly he is not wanted. Earlier in the day I noted an AFP Dispatch from South Africa quoting the head of the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee calling Aristide "nasty." Since I knew the ANC leader Pallo Jordan, I was surprised he would call Aristide names. I wrote to him. Guess what? The quote missed the context.

Here’s what was reported: "If it’s going to help things giving even a nasty man political asylum in a country so that solutions may be found to problems in his country, you do it,” Pallo Jordan told news agency AFP.

Here’s what Pallo Jordan said happened: "I was in a panel today, where the question was asked about Aristide being given asylum in South Africa. I responded by saying that in principle, we would look at the case on its merits. The rejoinder from the opposition party (DA) was that Aristide was a nasty little dictator! I rejoined with the words quoted. Did AFP carry only that?" Answer: yes!

TODAY IS DISNEY DAY IN PHILADELPHIA

Disney’s embattled board holds its share holder meeting today with more defections reported Former Disney directors Roy Disney and Stanley Gold charge that chief executive Michael Eisner is ruining the company. Two more Disney pension funds are abandoning Eisner. And on the outside unions,public interest groups and media activists are protesting a possible merger with Comcast which would accelerate media concentration in America.

OUR READERS RESPOND

Bob Easton writes from New Mexico:

“Thanks for today’s summary of the coup in Haiti. I’ve been looking for news since last Thursday and finding little. The NY Times & CNN have, of course, been putting out the standard US line that Aristide brought it on himself. Even Truthout had a Times article today, with nothing to tell the other side of the story. The only news I’ve been getting that’s been worth a damn has been Amy Goodman, but I missed most of her special on Saturday because it wasn’t publicized. Alternet finally posted an article today that’s got better coverage but still lacks much of the information in your summary. Where have the alternative media been on this one? Are they distracted by Iraq and domestic politics? I can’t imagine they don’t care!”

Kim Ravenswood writes from Chicago:

“I have been a media critic and devoted fan of yours since I read The More You Watch …

"I even sent a copy to my mother, who then found your blog and turned me onto it. I admire and consult it on a regular basis.

"When I started to hear about pressure on Aristide to step down, I too thought of the Contras, when I read the article about Otto Reich.

"Question: What’s in it for the Bush Administration? I’m curious about your conjecture.

"Keep up the good work, pal. You’re a hero in my book."

Scott Stewart is in San Francisco,

"After listening to Amy Goodman & Dennis Bernstein on KPFA (Pacifica/Berkeley) reporting on Aristide being led away in handcuffs by US Marines & Ambassador Foley (?), the BBC news reports overnight have pretty much followed the same lines as NPR, etc. No mention of this, or the likelihood that this was a Bush government staged coup d’etat. Exporting democracy, American style! High praises for Pacifica and many thanks for your excellent blog."

The always thoughtful Suzanne Taylor writes (and I will be sharing more of her letter later in the week):

“Can it really go on like this?” Danny, it will until something happens to deflect it. Isn’t looking for that worth doing? Can’t we members of the outrage club do that? How about what I talked about in my last post re asteroid concerns? William Rivers Pitt also is in my playing field and he’s going to get the same urging from me to look for how we might effect a radical shift of consciousness. I’ve been trying to get Kucinich on this bandwagon, too. A fundamental change of consciousness is the only solution to the World Problematique. Everything else is fingers in the dike, waiting for a devastation so large that we can’t regroup in the same aggressive ways."