Aristide Tells AP the U.S. Forced Him Out

AP ^ | ELIOTT C. McLAUGHLIN

[noutopia]

The Black Circus,or caucus as them say, only be want to be put in our face.They jump on anything that may hurt the GOP.When Clinton was President the Black Circus was all over the GOP for his detractors.Now they only show up when it hurts the GOP or so they be thinkin.

[saquin]

"They were telling me that if I don't leave they would start shooting, and be killing in a matter of time," Aristide said...

When asked who the agents were, he responded: "White American, white military."

Aristide described the agents as "good, warm, nice," but added that he had no rights during his 20-hour flight to Africa.

So which is it, Aristide? Were they threatening to shoot and kill, or were they "good, warm and nice"? Methinks something doesn't compute.

As others have said, either he misunderstood the US forces who were telling him there would be shooting and killing by the rebels if he didn't resign (not that the US forces would be "shooting and killing") or he's simply flat-out lying to save face. He's clearly lying when he doesn't mention that he was accompanied by his own security guards.

[torchthemummy]

"I know I'll probably get flamed, and (having visited Haiti in the recent past) I know that in the long run Haiti will be better off post-Aristide - but I wish it would have been after he completed his term in office."

This guy would never had made it to the end of his term - I doubt he would have survived 48 more hours. He has shown over ten years since he was returned to power through the Clinton-helmed military that he has done nothing - nothing! - to stabilize the plight of Haitians. He never created an environment that would foster job creation/international investment - hence the plight he finds himself in. The bottomline: Aristide was lucky to get out with all his body parts intact.

[wardaddy]

You were right...dead men tell no tales.

[peteram]

friggin' Liar!

[CFC__VRWC]

If he is telling the truth, it is a sad day to be an American.

Do you think he's telling the truth?

Seriously, with our forces already engaged on two fronts in the war on terror, with Kim Jong Il stirring the pot in SE Asia and an election at home to boot, what earthly reason is there for the Bush Administration to engineer a coup in Haiti? Haiti has absolutely no strategic value at all, the only time the average American even thinks about it is when the latest dictator is getting ready to take a fall, and to stir it up means running the risk of having thousands of refugees washing ashore in South Florida on the rooves of their houses. All kinds of pictures of emaciated boat people being turned away by the Coast Guard for the Rats to play over and over again.

Notice how NO ONE in the media is asking these kind of questions?

[Agog]

What is particularly curious is that the U.S. does not have much of a presence in the Central African Republic. We shut down our consulate there, I believe, a couple of years ago owing to the political unrest in that country. Perhaps it was the French who escorted him out of Haiti.

[CFC__VRWC]

Perhaps it was the French who escorted him out of Haiti.

With the French involved in this, I'm just waiting for the shiv to be planted deeply into our back. Something about this whole episode just screams "Set up!" to me.

[pragmatic_asian]

There's nothing un-constitutional about what the US allegedly did. The only prohibition against removal of a foreign leader is use of deadly force but even that prohibition against assasination was only an executive order. Bush may have already reversed it.

As for Aristide serving out his term, I might have agreed if he had actually been elected but it was so fraudulent that there's no way I would call him the rightful president of Haiti. For too long people of the third world have tolerated fraudulent elections. Maybe if they threw out those 'elected' presidents, fewer of them would become dictators or try to stay too long. What dis-incentives do they have not to abuse the electoral process? The tree of liberty has to be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots.