Rebel Says He's New Haiti Military Chief

[seemslikeadream]

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Rebel leader Guy Philippe on Tuesday declared himself the new chief of Haiti's military, which had been disbanded by ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide....

"This is my country," Duvalier told Miami's WFOR-CBS4 television in an interview in Paris. "I'm ready to put myself at the disposal of the Haitian people."....

Amnesty International called Monday for international peacekeepers to arrest rebel leaders Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a former death squad leader convicted of murders while in exile, and Jean Pierre Baptiste, also known as Jean Tatoune, who escaped from jail after being sentenced to two life sentences for the 1994 massacre of 15 Aristide supporters.

http://www.insidebaltimore.com/news/world/04-03-02-haiti.shtml

[seemslikeadream]

1. Guns smuggled from South Florida arming Haitians

By Jake Bergman and Oriana Zill de Granados
Special to the Sun-Sentinel
Posted March 6 2004

The political unrest in Haiti, with its graphic daily images of gunfire and street violence, is focusing attention once again on the island's South Florida gun connection.

Behind drugs, gun cases now occupy most of the attention of federal prosecutors in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, statistics show. The U.S. Attorney's Office does not keep track of the intended destination of smuggled guns.


ATF agents describe the flow of smuggled guns to Haiti as constant, although at certain times they have noticed peaks of activity. The last noticeable increases occurred between 1999 and 2000 and between 1994 and 1995, both periods coinciding with attempts to oust former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.


http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-gunsmar06,0,1669888.story?coll=sfla-news-sfla

[papau]

2. I thought the CIA'S various warehouses in South Florida were empty

Indeed across the south I thought they had become just holders of space. I guess the neo-cons have been busy!

[Judi Lynn]

4. Did you hear about the huge shipment of weapons found last year

inside containers with boxes of laundry detergent in Venezuela? Apparently they were meant to go to Venezuelan opposition members, but they were caught at the airport first.

Tried to run down the story, but couldn't find anything quickly, so I grabbed this, which mentions Miami, Haiti, and Venezuela, and weapons:

Weapons of Mass Consumption
How U.S. dealers arm the world

BY JAKE BERGMAN and JULIA REYNOLDS


A few years ago, the government of Colombia asked the United States to trace nearly 50 MAK-90 rifles it had seized from the National Liberation Army, or ELN. It turned out these rifles had been obtained by Colombian gun traffickers after being purchased at retail stores in the Miami area. The ELN is on the State Department's foreign terror watch list. Yet, like many other underground armies around the world, it buys its weapons in one of the world's freest arms markets. "The United States has for many years been a warehouse, a shopping center, if you will, for firearms," says retired Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) resident agent in charge Daniel McBride, "because of the ease of acquisition, not just in the state of Florida but typically throughout the United States. We are a very easy place from which to obtain firearms for transshipment back home." Law enforcement officials describe the United States as a one-stop shop for the guns sought by terrorists, mercenaries and international criminals of all stripes. And Sept. 11 has not changed that in any significant way. In fact, Attorney General John Ashcroft has refused to permit the use of gun purchase records to track crimes, a practice that the FBI had previously used and that conceivably could help to identify terrorists. Nor has Ashcroft proposed closing gun loopholes as part of the USA Patriot Act. The result of the lax U.S. system, says McBride, is "an ongoing cycle" in which weapons bought here end up fueling violence abroad, and in which America is regarded as the firearms "shopping center for the world."

Lobster Air and Gun Land The story of a ragtag South Florida outfit called Lobster Air International illustrates just how easy U.S. gun purchases can be. In the summer of 1998, Stephen Jorgensen began buying the first of what were eventually more than 800 MAK-90 semiautomatic rifles at a store called Gun Land in Kissimmee. He did not have a resale permit -- known as a Federal Firearms License or FFL -- and he was not required to present one. But Jorgensen wasn't stockpiling the guns for his personal use; he was taking them to Opa-Locka airport near Miami and loading them aboard a light airplane headed for airstrips in Venezuela and Colombia, via Haiti.

Jorgensen's South American clients originally wanted AK-47s, but in the United States, the fully automatic AK-47 can be purchased from a dealer only with a Class 3 permit, which is difficult to obtain. The AK was modified in 1990 to get around the California Assault Weapons Ban -- hence MAK-90 or "Modified AK 1990." It is virtually identical to the AK-47 but costs only $200 to $300, compared with $1,000 to $3,000 for a Russian-made AK-47. It is exempt from the national Assault Weapons Ban, enacted after the California ban, because it has slight alterations that give it a hunting-rifle appearance. Jorgensen, a hefty man with an easygoing manner, says the distinction is absurd. "These weapons happened to be a loophole because they didn't have a pistol grip on the stock. They had a thumbhole. How ridiculous!" The MAK-90 can use the same caliber bullet as the AK-47, and it can be converted to fully automatic with rudimentary mechanical skills; a number of websites offer kits and instructions.
(snip)

It may be surprising to learn that buying hundreds of MAK-90s and thousands of rounds of ammunition that could supply U.S.- designated terrorist organizations doesn't raise any eyebrows. But there is simply no requirement for gun stores to report suspicious activity. If a customer buys more than one handgun in five days, the store must report the sales to ATF, but the MAK-90 comes with no such restriction. Nor does ammunition. Some gun-store owners say they voluntarily tip off ATF to suspicious buyers, usually after the sale is made and the money collected.
(snip/...)

http://www.weeklyplanet.com/2003-01-15/cover.html

[papau]

5. No I had not caught that story - thanks for the heads up.

:-)

[MasonJar]

3. Some democracy! Now the Bush-sponsored traitors are appoint

ing themselves to positions and saying the legitimate, Constitutional leaders must go. Is there anything that the Bushies touch that does not immediately rot?

[Tinoire]

6. May get very ugly: Aristide supporters plan Haiti backlash

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) - Anger is simmering among supporters of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in the Port-au-Prince slums nearly a week after he fled to Africa.

"We are going to burn down the palace with the Americans inside," said Jean Enzo, a resident of the slums where Aristide built a power base as a firebrand Roman Catholic priest two decades ago. "We have weapons and we are ready to fight."

The harsh words and a huge demonstration by Aristide supporters on Friday showed Haiti's poor masses were not ready to give up on their elected president, who was pushed from office on Sunday by a bloody revolt and foreign pressure.

<snip>
"If they don't bring the president back, there's going to be a lot of blood," said Jean Gustave, near the ruins of St. Jean Bosco, the church where Aristide railed against Haiti's Duvalier family dictatorship in the mid-1980s.

Aristide supporters promised daily demonstrations to protest the ouster of Haiti's first freely elected president, who won a second
term in office in 2000 but was pushed out by armed rebels and political opponents who accused him of corruption and human rights violations.

<snip>

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=470773§ion=news

[Judi Lynn]

8. If people don't see the propagandists at work sometime soon

they simply never will.

It's so obvious in the articles we get on countries _Bush doesn't like.

As in this case, from your Reuters article:

The Pan American Health Organisation said Port-au-Prince's main hospital was holding nearly 200 bodies of victims of violence since the revolt's outbreak, taking the death toll much higher than previous estimates of about 100 nationwide.

With U.S. and French troops and the National Police on patrol, the capital had calmed after the looting and shooting surrounding Aristide's departure. But aid agencies struggled to move food amid reports that hundreds were turning up at health centres in search of supplies.

"A lot of people are suffering because of the security situation," said Alejandro Chicheri of the World Food Program. He said the WFP hoped to send a convoy north next week but the roads were still too dangerous.

After five days of lying low amid reports of reprisal killings, a huge crowd of Aristide's rabid supporters burst out of the slums on Friday to demand his return and hurl slurs at U.S. Marines and denounce President George W. Bush.

That's simply inexcusable, using those loaded, vilifying words, to "mold perceptions."

An article was posted last week which said that in many cases, A.P. and Reuters do NOT have their own reporters in many countries, and as in Haiti's case, they take their information from the local media, and Haiti's media, of course, is owned TOTALLY by Convergence people, the "opposition."

If readers don't educate themselves on these fundamental points, they are ALWAYS going to be clueless.

[Tinoire]

9. Sad isn't it? And to think we have a few chosen few here repeating

that BS. The majority of the poor speak neither English nor French. Kreyol was introduced as a "real" language 15 years ago on America's behalf.

On one hand, I thought it served as a good thing because things would be written down and everyone able to share thoughts but the Haitian elite can barely read Kreyol (they only deal with English and French).

But the down-side? It literally cuts the people off from the rest of the world and puts anything they say at the mercy of a few translators. We all saw the controversy in Aristide's "resignation letter" which the US Embassy translated in a way favorable to the US but which soon, thankfully, exposed as a hoax translation.

I am so thankful for the few good people who brave everything to get to the truth despite the vile propagandists who excuse America's little coups.

[Judi Lynn]

11. When anyone reads enough of these posts, it'll become clear

who is sincere, and who is jerking people around, wouldn't you think?

The people who really care about these matters SOUND as if they care, and often bring real informtion along to help others understand the events and context who might have not already read it for themselves.

Could NOT believe the U.S. statement about Aristide's "resignation letter." That was truly audacious, as if they believed no one would ever know the truth of it, and they don't respect people enough to tell it.

[Octafish]

7. The reason Aristide disbanded military...

... is Aristide felt the country needed to use the money to make life better for the 99 percent of the people with nothing of value: education, home, food, clean water, hospitals, doctors, nurses ... not even a shirt, for many.

Bush, OTOH, ordered Otto Reich and his neo-NAZIs to arm to the teeth the supporters of the exiled dictator Baby Doc Duvalier. They're the ones who had the big army, needed to maintain social order of feudalism and the drug trade.

More proof of the BFEE. Wake up America. What Bush is doing to Haiti he plans to do in the United States.

[seemslikeadream]

10. Aristide Supporters Warn Fight for Haiti Not Over

By Ibon Villelabeitia
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) - Anger simmered among supporters of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in the Port-au-Prince slums on Saturday nearly a week after he fled to Africa, while Haiti's council of elders worked to pick a new prime minister for the impoverished Caribbean country.

"We are going to burn down the palace with the Americans inside," said Jean Enzo, a resident of the slums where Aristide built a power base as a firebrand Roman Catholic priest two decades ago. "We have weapons and we are ready to fight."

The harsh words and a huge demonstration by Aristide supporters on Friday showed Haiti's poor masses were not ready to give up on their elected president, who was pushed from office on Sunday by a bloody revolt and foreign pressure.

Aristide, from exile in the Central African Republic, has repeatedly said he was kidnapped. The death toll in the monthlong rebellion has swelled to more than 200.

"If they don't bring the president back, there's going to be a lot of blood," said Jean Gustave, near the ruins of St. Jean Bosco, the church where Aristide railed against Haiti's Duvalier family dictatorship in the mid-1980s


As the political effort plodded ahead, U.S. special forces moved into territory held by the rebels, including Gonaives, where the rebellion erupted on Feb. 5, and Cap-Haitien, the second-largest city.


The Pan American Health Organization said Port-au-Prince's main hospital was holding nearly 200 bodies of victims of violence since the revolt's outbreak, taking the death toll much higher than previous estimates of about 100 nationwide.


"A lot of people are suffering because of the security situation," said Alejandro Chicheri of the World Food Program. He said the WFP hoped to send a convoy north next week but the roads were still too dangerous.

After five days of lying low amid reports of reprisal killings, a huge crowd of Aristide's rabid supporters burst out of the slums on Friday to demand his return and hurl slurs at U.S. Marines and denounce President Bush.

"George Bush kidnapped our president and we want him back," Gustave said on Saturday.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4511409&pageNumber=0

[Octafish]

12. "George Bush kidnapped our president and we want him back."

Since when is America in the business of overthrowing democratically elected governments? Oops. I forgot:

Iran
Guatemala
Brazil
Greece
Vietnam
Bolivia
Chile
Argentina
El Salvador
Panama
Haiti (Papa Doc Bush and Baby Doc Bush)

and on and on and on and on...

I know you know the story, seemslikeadream, but for those new to the Bush Organized Crime Family, let's take a look at...

Kissinger, war criminals assoCIAtes

by untermensch Friday February 06, 2004 at 11:51 AM

The Rockefellers run US foreign policy

EXCERPT...

.......1976-OPERATION CONDOR, SOUTH AMERICAN ASSASSINATION CARTEL, THE YEAR GEORGE BUSH SR. IS CIA DIRECTOR. In 1976, Nelson Rockefeller was Vice President (to Ford), and his advisor Henry Kissinger was Secretary of State. In this year Kissinger's puppet dictator Pinochet, of Chile, organised Operation CONDOR, to co-ordinate death squad assassinations by the secret police of the dictators of Chile, Brasil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay . 30,000 leftists were assassinated/ executed/ "disappeared". Former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier was car bombed in Washington DC by Chilean agents. Operation CONDOR was based out of a bizarre Nazi colony in Chile known as COLONIA DIGNIDAD, whose founder is wanted in Germany for kidnapping and molesting young boys. Colonia Dignidad was used by Pinochets team to train for the 1973 coup d'etat, and then served as a torture center where prisoners were "disappeared". Many of the top ranking Nazi war criminals in South America are believed to have lived in Colonia Dignidad. In 1993 a cache of documents called the "ARCHIVES OF TERROR" was found in Paraguay detailing Nazi war criminal involvement in Operation Condor, and listing victims, including Israeli agents who were trying to find Nazis to bring to trial. It is highly probable that George Bush sr and Henry Kissinger knew about, and directed, Operation CONDOR. General Pinochet was never ashamed of his pro-Nazi fetish, preferring Nazi uniforms and marching music. In 1985 an American professor, Boris Weisfeiler, was disappeared at Colonia Dignidad. Today Dignidad is a prospering commune valued at $5 billion, but closed to the public and protected by the Chilean military. Today David Rockefeller is the scion of his families' empire, running Chase-Manhattan Bank, the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), and Rockefeller Center, NYC. Kissinger was Bush jrs choice to head the September 11th investigation. Paul Bremer III, former Director of Kissinger Associates, is today Bush's appointed ruler of Iraq. (Sources: Operation Condor, Virtual Truth Commission: http://www.geocities.com/~virtualtruth/condor.htm

CONTINUED...

http://maritimes.indymedia.org/news/2004/02/7326.php

[snippy]

13. I can hear some criminal Bush crony now:

"But I wanted to be the new chief of Haiti's military."