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Bush Blockhead
By John Maxwell, July 2006

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Mp3 audio of inaugural speech in Kreyol

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Hope and Humiliation HLLN's Analysis of May 18, 2006 and the Inaugural of President Rene Preval by Marguerite Laurent, Haitian Perspectives, May 18, 2006 (photos)
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Should Haiti Declare 'War on Terrorism' Against the US

Haitian Terrorist Arrested in Long Island

Statement by Cop Watch on Miami

"Aspirational Rather than Operational" - 7 Arrested in Miami Terror Plot , Democracy Now! | Monday, June 26th, 2006

Reuters Photo| Hundreds of Thousands demonstrate on July 15, 2006, Aristide's birthday, demanding release of political prisoners, return of President Aristide and a stop to the coup d'etat oppressions

Dessalines Is Rising!!
Ayisyen: You Are Not Alone!





 






 

Haitian Death Squad Leader
Found Liable for Abuses


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Haiti's "Toto" Constant
Must Pay Millions


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US judge orders Haitian
strongman, "Toto" Constant to
pay $19.5 millions to rape victims


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CIA and "Toto" Constant
plan killing of Haitian Justice
Minister, Guy Malary

(Constant on Demopedia )

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Bush Blockhead
By John Maxwell, July 2006


The Haitian National Anthem | La Dessalinienne
| Dessaline's Song |La Desalinyen
(audio)

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Dessaline's Song
Lyrics: in Kreyol, French, and an English
translation of the French


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MOBILISATION DU 15 JUILLET 2006, Des organisations de base de Fanmi Lavalas

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Busha Blockhead
John Maxwell

There are one or two important things in this life of which we must always be aware. One is that you can kill as many Haitians as you like, you can rape as many Haitians as you like, you can chop off the faces of as many Haitians as satisfies your blood lust, and you can still live like a king In Queens, New York, as long as you remember that you mustn’t mess with Uncle Sam’s financial system.

Not even a teensy weensy bit.

You don’t have to rob Fort Knox or deprive 50,000 people of their pensions and life savings, or like Al Capone, avoid income tax. All you need to get into real trouble is to work a simple little scheme to relieve a bank of some of its surplus cash. That will get you the attention of New York’s finest. You will go to jail, be fingerprinted, mug-shotted and become a person of interest to the FBI.

Cocaine trafficking? Rape, Murder? Terrorism? Crimes against humanity ? Bagatelles!!! who remembers them? But making a banker look stupid? Now that’s really serious.

You’re gonna swing for that. That is a crime against the Holy Greenback itself.

Emanuel Toto Constant, like Baron Savimbi of Angola, was a friend of the CIA and various Higher Powers. He had not, as far as is known, yet been invited to the White house like Savimbi but he was doing very well, thank you, as long as he confined this depredations to the Haitians, as long as his attaches with machetes, machine guns and murder in their hearts carved their bloody way through Haitian democracy with lavish fascism.

Toto, living the life in Queens, New York, just didn’t know the rules.


While he danced, his President was in exile 5,000 miles away, his country’s Prime Minister languishing in jail for no good reason, along with Haiti’s foremost folklorist, a sexagenarian lady named Anne August, and thousands more like them are dead, or in prison, or in exile, because of the machinations and macheteros of Good Ol’ Toto, friend of the CIA and Mr (Deadeye) Dick Cheney. And other friends, like Louis Jodel Chamblain and other assassins, walk freely in Haiti, shooting and chopping up as they please. One of them ran for President a few months ago.

They even have anniversary Massacres! They had one last week.

It all goes to show that, contrary to what some people believe, some of us don’t have to await the Rapture; Heaven is right here on earth as long as you don’t mess with the Feds.

In Haiti itself, God has at long last deigned to speak –through the American Ambassador, one Ms. Sanderson. This oracle has delivered herself of the message that perhaps Prime minister Yvon Neptun has been in jail long enough. She thought it was because of Haiti’s “flawed judicial system” that he was still there, after two years without charge or trial.

Which is strange, since it was her government which elevated the head of that same judicial system to the post of “President” of Haiti, from which eyrie he and another American carpetbagger, one Gerard La Tortue, dispatched Mr Neptune to jail.

US Ambassador Janet Sanderson



The charade now taking place in Haiti is not a Haitian production, it is an American production, like “The Emperor Jones.” In this American version of Grand Guignol theatre, an important walk-on part is played by black people who have the temerity not only to speak French but to anticipate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by 144 years. The real actors are Americans – a whole panoply of eminent fellows, steel-jawed and gimlet-eyed, full of 'resolve' – from Thomas Jefferson to Woodrow Wilson, to George (the least) Bush, from William Jennings Bryan, a failed Presidential candidate, to Colin Powell, a failed Jamaican.

In their polished diplomatic phrases they all express themselves satisfied when the Haitians, the first and only people to abolish the servitude which chained them, are reduced to their proper status as less-than-people, undeserving even of even as much democracy as Iraqis or Palestinians. The Nanny-in-Chief, a failed African American named Condoleezza Rice, was quite within her rights to inform them last year that their vote was all-important. It was the most important thing they could do. Because, no matter which way they voted, they were not going to get the leader they wanted. He would have to stay in South Africa while Uncle Dick scouted the waters round Haiti for oil.

President Jean Bertrand Aristide



There must be oil in Haiti. Just read the CV of the latest prophetess, Ms Sanderson. Her minor qualifications seem to have been her alleged intimate involvement in the illegal detention of two dozen Algerian nationals at the U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo Bay in 2002.

She completed an honors thesis, "The Arab Oil Weapon," the year before joining the State Department as a career diplomat in August 1977. She later served as the petroleum attaché to Kuwait. During the first Gulf War, Sanderson was working as economic counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Jordan

As Ambassador to Algeria she was most famous for her attitude to the arrest of 24 Algerians working for aid organisations in occupied Bosnia. They were accused of "planning terrorist attacks on the American and UK embassies in Sarajevo." Two of the men are computer programmers, while the other 22 held administrative positions in several different NGOs.

The men were detained without bail for three months before the Bosnian Supreme Court acquitted them. However, in the early morning hours on the day they were to be released, the men were hooded, shackled and taken away to an unknown destination. They wouldn't be located for over a month. Eventually they were found to be in Guantanamo Bay.

After a year in custody, all 24 Algerian aid workers were released. Strangely, Miss Sanderson refused to life a finger to help their families locate them, referring them to the Algerian authorities although she must have known they were in American custody.(Thanks to Lynn Duff for this info)

During a Senate hearing in 2000, Sanderson was gung ho about the so-called drawdown programme, under which, favoured US allies are allowed to receive free of cost, unused US weaponry to control unruly trade unionists and pesky journalists, for example. "The drawdown program, like the rest of our foreign assistance program, underscores the importance we attach to [the country we give weapons to] and to our ongoing political, military and security relationship."

That connection, and her little noticed expertise in petroleum matters, suggests to me that Mr Cheney knows that there is oil off the coast of Haiti and that he wants Halliburton to retrieve it for its rightful owner, the USA. Sanderson’s human rights and petroleum background would seem to fit her perfectly for this mission critical.

Meanwhile, in the Middle East, the slaughter goes on. It is a fair fight, with the Palestinians using their concrete schools, hospitals and power stations to damage Israeli bombs and tank-shells and employing their formidable skulls against Israeli bullets. Children’s sleep patterns repel sonic booms at 4’oclock in the morning, no doubt damaging the Israeli F16s.

Mr George Bush, recognising a championship fight when he sees one, has called on both sides for restraint. He has vetoed a Security Council resolution encouraging Israel to behave herself. Not evenhanded enough.

Busha Blockhead

As I have said, ad nauseam, the ruling classes of the world, but especially in Jamaica, have no class and cannot rule.

Just as the Israel rockets and shells are powerless against Palestinian civilians so are our own rulers powerless against the public they say they serve. If this were not so we would not have people like Mr Dennis Morrison whining about the all-powerful Jamaican NGOs, some of them intimidating entities boasting two women and a WMD fax machine.

These are dangerous adversaries indeed, which is why such powerless bureaucracies as the Ultimate Degradation Conglomerate (UDC) and various Ministries are forced to do good by stealth.

In the all-important race to curtain Jamaica off from its seacoast, the poor, helpless Cyclops like JAMPRO, the Ministry of Production, the Ministry of Transport, the UDC and various other enervated entities must find ways round the law, ways to evade the public’s due diligence, ways to diddle the public out of its beaches, its national parks and its sadly neglected cultural assets.

The government entities are giving privileged positions on the seaside to such as the RIU hotels, who, if all goes according to form, will soon produce in Jamaica a massive scandal which will tarnish the image of the entire jamaican hotel industry. RIU hotels owns two hotels in Jamaica, forcing-houses in which tourists are processed for a few days and sent back whence they fled with nothing to show that they have been in a faraway country of which they knew nothing before coming and about which they remain blissfully ignorant after having been.

In the Dominican Republic RIU owns at least three hotels and since last year, according to several firms of English lawyers, the Financial Times and the Daily Mail, droves of English guests in RIU hotels have come down with serious and debilitating gastric afflictions.

According to Financial Times information services, quoted in the Daily Mail:
“HUNDREDS of British holidaymakers have been struck down by a severe vomiting bug at a luxury Caribbean resort - a year after an identical outbreak.

More than 200 guests have fallen ill at a five-star hotel in the Dominican Republic, which closed for five weeks in June last year to eradicate the highly contagious virus.

Many of the sick, including dozens of children, had intravenous drips hooked up in their rooms and one 18-month-old baby was hospitalised for a fortnight.

Some of the guests asked to be transferred to another hotel, but say their requests were rejected. Others were simply too ill to be moved.”

But the story, judging from travelblogs, is not new: “29 year-old Nicola Piercy, from Mansfield was affected by the outbreak of the virus at the same resort in 2005 and says "I think it's absolutely disgraceful that this has happened again. I travelled to the resort in March 2005 for what I hoped would be my dream wedding and instead had to endure seeing my fiancée placed on a drip on our wedding day and most of our family including myself suffering from severe gastric symptoms.

The personal injury law firm of Pannone in Manchester, England, says “Hotels in the Dominican Republic have suffered similar problems over recent years with the Riu chain featuring in newspaper articles last year regarding complaints of poor standards of hygiene. Identical complaints are surfacing again this year as well as reports of vermin in hotel bars and restaurants, tour operator reps denying there were problems, unsupervised groups of Puerto Rican teenagers, some of whom were seen urinating in the swimming pool and medical staff treating patients without washing their hands.”

If anything like this were to happen in Jamaica you know that the entire hotel industry would be shut down within a week or two. The US press would roast us, the British Press would trot out its favourite template about Trouble in Paradise and the dollar would probably be devalued.

Have the Jamaican government agencies done their due diligence? Do they really understand what is at stake?

I have my doubts.

God Speaks, Again

The founding prophetess of the Dayton Avenue Church of God has lashed out at those people in her church who informed the press and others about the case of the raped teenager. And, before we go any further, a child cannot consent to sexual intercourse, and sexual intercourse without consent is rape.

I don’t want to say too much about this strange and increasingly noxious case, except to point out that it is an offence to conceal knowledge of a felony, which carnal abuse is. The founder of the church should have sought legal advice before making a fool of herself in public. But she had legal advice available; her pastor is a Queen’s Counsel, a former Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, former High Court Judge and former Justice of the Court of Appeal.

He is a bona fide member of the ruling classes.

Copyright ©2006 John Maxwell

jankunnu [at] yahoo.com


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-Should Haiti Declare War on Terrorism' Against the US
- Haitian Terrorist Arrested in Long Island
- Cop Watch of Miami
-
"Aspirational Rather than Operational" - 7 Arrested in Miami
Terror Plot , Democracy Now! | Monday, June 26th, 2006


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SHOULD HAITI DECLARE WAR ON TERRORISM? AGAINST THE U.S.?
by Steve Pitteli

http://www.hopedance.org/archive/issue32/articles/pitteli-haiti.htm


On December 27, 1993, Emmanuel "Toto" Constant and his FRAPH
(Revolutionary Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti) death squads
began firing on the Haitian shantytown of Cite Soleil. They then circled
the town with gasoline and burnt several hundred homes to the ground,
forcing some fleeing residents- children included- back into their burning
homes at gunpoint.

Two months before this attack, in October, 1993, the U.S. navy vessel,
USS Harlan County was dispatched to Haiti carrying 200 troops to
ostensibly pave the way for previously ousted President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide's return to power. As the ship approached the Port-au-Prince wharf,
Constant and his men staged a riot and the USS Harlan was unable to
dock. As a result, the populist President's scheduled return was aborted.

During Constant's three-year reign of terror, his FRAPH death squads
butchered several thousand Haitian civilians. So how is it that one of
the world's leading terrorists is free and living in a nice, two-story
home in the quiet Laurelton neighborhood of Queens, New York?
After the U.S. military entered Haiti in 1994, Constant, who by then
had a criminal subpoena and a warrant for his arrest, escaped an
uninspired "search" by U.S. soldiers and slipped into the U.S. on a tourist
visa. He was eventually captured and placed in the custody of U.S.
immigration authorities forover a year. In 1995, the Haitian government
requested Constant's extradition on charges of murder, torture and arson;
however the U.S. suspended his deportation, claiming that Haitian courts
could not handle the extradition and instead gave Constant a green card
to live and work freely in the U.S.

In truth, it appears that the government's change of heart on the
extradition began after Constant revealed on the television news magazine
"60 Minutes," in December, 1995, that he had been on the CIA payroll
during Haiti's military rule (1991-1994). Constant then sued the U.S.

government and threatened to reveal other CIA misdeeds in Haiti if he was
not released- a strategy that worked in Constant's favor. This list of
misdeeds are believed to include CIA involvement in the 1991 coup that
forced democratically-elected President Aristide out of the country, and
that Constant staged the Port-au-Prince riot in October 1993 at
the direction of the CIA to provide the U.S. with a reason to withhold
President Aristide from Haiti. Currently, as cluster bombs and daisy cutters fall on Afghanistan, the United States is a friendly host to terrorist Emmanuel Constant,
responsible for the murders of thousands. The government refuses to extradite
him to Haiti despite substantial evidence of his involvement in death,
arson and torture and despite several requests from the Haitian government.

Constant himself states that FRAPH still operates in Haiti, and he plans to return soon. The double standard here is interesting and goes unreported in the mainstream press. The U.S. justifies the Afghanistan war on much the same premise and may even expand that war to several other alleged "terrorist-harboring" countries such as Iraq and Syria. To date, the Haitians have no plans to begin bombing the United States.

Dr. Pittelli is a psychiatrist and post-September 11 convert to
political activism from San Luis Obispo, CA.

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HAITIAN TERRORIST ARRESTED ON LONG ISLAND
By Bill Weinberg
07/13/2006 - 18:16
http://ww4report.com/node/2188

Another reason to love New York State Attorney General Elliot Spitzer.
But, as we've said before [1] regarding a similar case, getting
Emmanuel Constant for mortgage fraud is kind of like nailing Hitler for
tax-evasion. From Newsday [2], July 7:

A Queens man and former Haitian paramilitary leader, convicted of the
1994 massacre of slum-dwellers loyal to former Haitian President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, has been arrested and charged with committing mortgage
fraud from the Melville brokerage where he works, Suffolk officials
said yesterday.

Emmanuel Constant, of 137-35 225 St. in Laurelton, was
arrested Wednesday and will be arraigned in Suffolk today before Acting State Supreme Court Justice Michael Mullen on charges of first-degree grand larceny,
falsifying business records and forgery, Suffolk district attorney's
office spokesman Robert Clifford said.

The case is being prosecuted by the state attorney general's office.
Clifford said details of the charges against Constant were not available
late yesterday. Officials at the state attorney general's office could
not be reached for comment.

Constant did not return a call to his office at New York Mortgage Co.
LLC in Melville. When called at his home, a woman who identified herself
as Constant's wife said she did not know anything about the charges and
that her husband was "upstairs sleeping."

Constant has lived in New York since 1995, despite a deportation order
and charges that he led the Haitian paramilitary group, the Front for
the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, during the mid-1990s. Human
rights groups allege the group terrorized and slaughtered supporters of the
toppled Aristide.

After U.S. forces helped restore Aristide to power, Constant slipped
into the United States on a tourist visa. Immigration and Naturalization
Service agents captured him in Queens, but Constant appealed his
deportation on the ground he would be killed if sent back.

He was released in 1996 on the condition that he not travel outside New
York City and that he report regularly to the INS, now called
Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In 2000, a Haitian court sentenced Constant to life in prison following
his conviction in absentia for the 1994 massacre.

In a 2005 federal lawsuit, three unnamed women now living in the United
States said Constant's soldiers engaged in a "systematic campaign of
violence against women" under his rule, and beat and gang-raped them.

Constant has so far largely ignored the lawsuit, the women's lawyers
have said.

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The Center for Pan-African Development and Miami CopWatch Statement on Liberty City "Terror" Arrests

On the day of the Liberty City raids, the story of a former director of
the right wing Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), a federally
recognized not-for-profit organization based in Miami, admitting to
planning terrorist acts against a sovereign state, failed either to
draw national attention or merit "above the fold" coverage on the front
page of Miami's newspaper of record.

A sub-committee of the CANF board of directors moved beyond the "discussion stage," demonstrating their capacity to carry out terrorist plots by purchasing boats, a helicopter and caches of weapons and ammunition for the purpose of
executing the plot. The admission only confirmed commonly held
suspicions about the CANF's violent intentions and the government's
indifference towards those intentions.

Today, the U.S. government faces intense international pressure over their continued
refusal to extradite Luis Posada, suspected mastermind of the bombing
of a Cuban airliner- full of human beings- in 1976. Subsequent to the
bombing, Posada was rewarded with a slot on the U.S. government payroll
for advancing the execution of the dirty wars in Nicaragua and
elsewhere.

The lack of action taken against well developed terrorist plots juxtaposed
against the recent aggressive action taken against seven Black men,
with little to no demonstrable capacity to advance their plans beyond
the discussion stage, reveals a double standard in the war on terror,
characterized by the selective prosecution of groups with minimal
social and political value. The double standard also raises
real questions about the role law enforcement plays in these types of
investigations in general and the Liberty City raid in particular.

Local police and federal agents have a long history of inciting, provoking
and outright entrapping Black organizations and individuals during the
civil rights movement and through modern times. As such, it is entirely
reasonable to question both the tactics and the motives of the law
enforcement agencies who approached seven men, apparently poor and
frustrated, with promises of cash and glory.

While the accusations are shocking to the senses, the facts presented thus
far fall well short of the hype. The men are charged with plotting
sophisticated attacks on complex targets, but appear too unequipped,
unsophisticated and unorganized to possibly advance beyond bragging.

For example, the group only gains in capacity due to the largess of the
government agent on the case. Much ado is made of the group's "militaristic" attire of combat boots and fatigues. The group, however, was so unorganized, that the federal government, not group members, provided the military equipment which is now the focus of so much attention. The terror plot only advanced as far as taking pictures of potential targets in South Florida. However, the group was unable to
conduct the surveillance on their own, and the government provided the
surveillance vehicles as well as the cameras with which the strongest
piece of evidence was captured. In addition, no weapons of any sort
were discovered during the raid.

The group's lack of capacity calls to question their ability to accomplish
any mission, much less tackle the logistical challenges of attacking
federal buildings and out of state targets. Because government agents
are capable of evaluating threats based, at least in part, on the
capacity of the individuals involved, the very strategic and national security value of this group is in question. Conversely, the paramilitary experience and capacity of the members of CANF and Luis Posada are well known and yet ignored.

CopWatch does not pretend to know if the accusations against the men are false or inaccurate. However, the veracity of an agency with a history of targeting groups
for their political beliefs is a legitimate issue of contention and
must be aggressively addressed as the only means of assuring that the
accused are extended their rights to the presumption of innocence, due
process and a fair opportunity to defend themselves.

Further, the prosecution of an undeveloped plot by a group seemingly incapable
of carrying out even the most mundane mission, must not be used to
advance a political agenda at the expense of either the Black community
or the civil liberties of the broader society.

The Liberty City raid seems to suggest that Black "wannabes" are more valuable targets than actual terrorists who are white. This operation must not be the
pretext for more aggressive police presence and tactics in the Black
community, as invoking the notion of "terrorism" is not a blank check
for the abuse of individuals, entire communities or the rights of
either one. Further, the raids cannot be used to justify the continued
discriminatory policies directed against Haitian refugees and
immigrants.

In the broader context, the general public is being convinced that raiding
a marginally competent group of young Black men represents a victory
for public safety. Using minimally credible threats to scare the public
will not ensure public safety, but can be used to manipulated the
public into giving up their rights in the name of security.

CopWatch denounces:

* the disparate treatment of those in the Black community accused of crimes;* the
criminalization of Black communities in the name of fighting crime;* unfair media accounts which rely on innuendo instead of facts.

CopWatch urges:
*
all people to refrain from leaping to conclusions based on unconfirmed and general accusations, particularly given the history of the FBI;* the public and the media to question the version of events presented by an FBI and government clearly willing to violate individual rights.

CopWatch demands:
* that all accused are extended rights to due process and a fair trial;* accountability from law enforcement agencies.

CopWatch
A Project of The Center for Pan-African Development
PO Box 510232
Miami, FL 33151

contact:
Max Rameau
afrimax@gmail.com

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"Aspirational Rather than Operational" - 7 Arrested in Miami
Terror Plot
, Democracy Now! | Monday, June 26th, 2006

Seven men were arrested in Miami last week on charges of conspiring to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago and FBI buildings in five cities. It appears the entire case rests on conversations between the group's supposed ringleader and an FBI informant posed as representative of Al-Qaida. We go to Miami to speak with a defense attorney and a community advocate. [includes rush transcript] On Thursday evening, government officials raided a warehouse in the Liberty City section of Miami and arrested seven men, charging them with conspiring to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago and FBI buildings in five cities. The men are Narseal Batiste, Patrick Abraham, Stanley Phanor, Naudimar Herrera, Burson Augustin, Lyglenson Lemorin, and Rotschild Augustine. They range in age from 22 to 32 and were indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami on Friday.

Five of the men are U.S. citizens, one is a legal immigrant from Haiti and the last is an undocumented immigrant originally from Haiti. The men are charged with two counts of conspiring to support a foreign terrorist organization, one count of conspiring to destroy buildings by use of explosives and one count of conspiring to wage war against the government. Each faces a maximum sentence of 70 years.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced the details of the case at a press conference on Friday.

* Alberto Gonzales, attorney general speaking June 23, 2006.

Family and community members have expressed shock at the charges and point out that no weapons or explosives were found nor did investigators document any links to Al-Qaida. It appears that the entire case rests on conversations between Narseal Baptiste, the supposed ringleader of the group and the FBI informant, who was posing as a representative of Al-Qaida. John Pistole, the FBI's deputy director, described the plan on Friday as "aspirational rather than operational."

* David O. Markus, Defense Attorney and president of the Miami Chapter of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He is founder of David Oscar Markus law firm, which focuses on criminal trials and appeals.

* Max Rameau, member of Miami CopWatch which is a project of the Center for Pan-African Development.

******

Monday, June 26th, 2006
Democracy Now!

AMY GOODMAN: This is Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announcing the details of the case at a news conference Friday.

ALBERTO GONZALES: These individuals wish to wage a, quote, “full ground war against the United States.” That quote is from the investigation of these individuals, who also allegedly stated the desire to, quote, “kill all the devils we can.” They hoped for their attacks to be, quote, “just as good or greater than 9/11.”

AMY GOODMAN: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Family and community members have expressed shock at the charges and point out no weapons or explosives were found, nor did investigators document any links to al-Qaeda. It appears the entire case rests on conversations between Narseal Baptiste, the supposed ringleader of the group, and the FBI informant, who was posing as a representative of al-Qaeda. John Pistole, the FBI’s Deputy Director, described the plan on Friday as, quote, “aspirational, rather than operational.”

We’re joined right now in Miami by David Markus and Max Rameau. David Markus is defense attorney and president of the Miami chapter of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He’s founder of the David Oscar Markus Law Firm, which focuses on criminal trials and appeals. Max Rameau is with Miami CopWatch, which is a project of the Center for Pan-African Development. We welcome you both to Democracy Now!

David Markus, let’s begin with you. Can you explain exactly what went down on Thursday? What are the charges? What has been shown?

DAVID MARKUS: Well, they’ve alleged in a 13-page indictment that these seven individuals have connections to terrorists and were funding terrorists and were going to be involved in blowing up different places. And as you mentioned, there are no weapons, no connection to al-Qaeda. You see a lot of scary words in the indictment, like “jihad” and “loyalty oath” and “Osama bin Laden,” but what we have is the traditional informant going in and talking to a bunch of guys, and what’s going to come out in the next couple weeks is actually what was said, and that’s going to be the critical part to the case.

AMY GOODMAN: What is the narrative the government has laid out about exactly what happened? Who was the informant? How did they learn about this group of people?

DAVID MARKUS: We don’t know who the informant is yet? We know from reading the indictment that there were a number of meetings in warehouses and so on in Liberty City and that those meetings were recorded. We know from reading the indictment, as well, that there are allegations that there were talks about blowing up the Sears Tower, about the Miami FBI office, about the downtown Justice building. But, again, there was nothing actually done. There was talk. And we’ve seen in a lot of these cases that talk can sometimes lead to acquittals. So we’re going to have to see more than just talk for the government to be able to show their case.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the phrase the government is using, that the plans were “aspirational,” not operational?

DAVID MARKUS: Right. It’s interesting, because I think even the government is trying to lower expectations in their case, because they know that nothing was actually done. I think the most that was done were these guys got some boots from the informants, some military boots. They have to be able to prove that they were able to carry this out, that they were going to do something. And based on the mere words, that’s going to be difficult to do. We have to hear what was said on the tapes, how far these meetings got. But based on words and the government’s talk as aspirational plans, they may have some tough hurdles to get over.

AMY GOODMAN: And can you talk about other cases? Have there been similar ones like this in Miami and Florida?

DAVID MARKUS: There have been. The most recent one, of course, was Professor Al-Arian, who in Tampa got an acquittal for—what the defense was—just talking. Now, that case is different in a lot of respects, but I think there are some similarities to be drawn in the way that the professor’s defense was this was just talk, there was nothing more than talk. You’re allowed to talk about this kind of stuff. And at the end of the day he was acquitted of most of the charges. I think that’s going to be part of the defense here, in addition to the entrapment and that this was just fantasy on the part of the seven. There have been some other defenses floated around, like that these guys might have just been bad conmen trying to get $50,000 and some guns from somebody who came around. Who knows whether the defense is going to be entrapment or that they were conned or that this was just talk? But there are potential defenses being talked about that have been successful in the past.

AMY GOODMAN: David Markus is a defense attorney. Max Rameau is with Miami CopWatch, which is a project of the Center for Pan-African Development. Max, you are from Liberty City, where the people who have been arrested are from. Can you talk about what you understand has happened, how this has affected the community, the community that these men come from?

MAX RAMEAU: Well, Liberty City, I live at. It’s about 20—I live—my home is about 20 blocks from where the raid occurred. I have a lot of friends who are right in that area. The community obviously is very shocked, because of the show of force which was there and shocked because of the incredible and overwhelming news coverage of this. However, as things now are starting to calm down, as the dust is settling, we’re taking a closer look at it, and I think a lot of concerns are being raised about the disparate treatment that these men are receiving as compared to what members of other communities receive who might be accused of doing the same thing or might have been planning the same thing or even further along in the plans. So we have a long history of local law enforcement and the FBI, as well, attacking and targeting the Black community and groups in that community, and we’re concerned that this is another example of that.

AMY GOODMAN: You say “disparate treatment.” Can you give us examples of people you’re talking about?

MAX RAMEAU: Certainly. Obviously in the war on drugs there’s a lot more tax on the Black community, where less drugs are used than in the White community, particular about the issue of terrorism, in addition to Luis Posada, who is a Cuban who is widely considered to be responsible for the 1976 bombing of an airplane, with killing 73 people. He is in jail now but was in Miami walking around freely for many months before he was in jail. And he’s in jail on immigration charges, not on bombing charges.
Orlando Bosch was also a Cuban who held a press conference in April of 2006, essentially confessed on television to his role in that same bombing, killing 73 people, blowing up an airplane. He said that he didn’t want to get himself in trouble by saying that he did it, but he essentially confessed to doing it. He lives in Miami right now in a nice big house, and he’s not being bothered by anyone.

On the day of the raids, that same Thursday, the Miami Herald, which is the local paper, put out a front-page article, where a former board member of the Cuban American National Foundation by the name of Jose Antonio Llama came out on the front page and said that the Cuban American National Foundation, which is recognized by the government as a not-for-profit organization, had a subcommittee from their board who was responsible and did buy weapons, bought boats, bought helicopters, for the purpose of attacking a sovereign country, for attacking Cuba. So these guys were actually terrorists, real live terrorists, and they all live right now free in Miami and not getting arrested.

I’m trying to imagine what would happen if a group of Black people got together and came out on TV and said, “We were responsible for blowing up an airplane.” What would happen to them? So it looks like there’s really a big difference in the treatment there of some amateur wannabes terrorists here, allegedly, who are now going to get ready to get run over by this train that is Homeland Security, and there’s some real live terrorists who are sitting, living, and being unmolested by the police as we speak. This is really unfair treatment.

AMY GOODMAN: Max Rameau, can you talk about the Haitian community in Liberty City and the effect that this has had, Max?

MAX RAMEAU: Yes. Well, I was born in Haiti myself. The Haitian community has been very upset by this. We’re really concerned that this is going be used as a justification for the continued discriminatory practices against Haitians. Already, Haitians have a difficult time. Haitians refugees have a difficult time getting into the United States.

We’re concerned that now the government is going to say, “We told you all along that we shouldn’t have Haitians in here, and this is proof of it. We have a bunch of Haitian terrorists running around here.” So we’re very concerned that this is going to be used as a justification for discriminatory practices against the Haitian community, both those Haitians trying to come in and it’s going to represent a pretext for cracking down on the Haitian community and the Black community in general, but the Haitian community in particular, who live here in South Florida or perhaps other parts of the country.

So we really have an interest in making sure that these guys get their due process and that we challenge the official government version of events, because there is a history of lying, of planting evidence, of attacks and disparate treatment on behalf of the government against the Black community.

AMY GOODMAN: What about the evidence or lack of evidence that was found?

MAX RAMEAU: Well, a lot of show has been made about the militaristic boots that they had and the gear and the outfits. Well, it turns out these guys didn’t have enough money or enough organization to get these things for themselves. The FBI bought them the boots that we’ve heard so much about, bought them the military outfits that we’ve heard so much about. If you look at the indictment, the biggest piece of evidence, it seems to me, that they have is that the group may have taken pictures of a bunch of targets in South Florida. But the guys couldn’t afford their own cameras, so the federal government bought them the cameras with which they took the pictures. They couldn’t get downtown and all the other places by themselves.

The federal government rented them the cars that they needed to get downtown in order to take the pictures. So it looks like they really didn’t have too much capacity.

In addition, right now the running joke in Liberty City is, you know, in the indictments—if you read the indictments, the men provided the FBI informant with a list of things they needed in order to blow up these buildings, but in the list they didn’t include any explosives or any materials which could be used to make explosives. So now everyone in Liberty City is joking that the guys were going to kick down the FBI building with their new boots, because they didn’t have any devices which could have been used to explode, so this really, really looks pretty thin.

And in addition, we have concerned—anyone who is an activist and been to community meetings knows that there’s a few people who come into a meeting and make these statements which are a little bit beyond what their capacity is. You know, you go in, you talk about a zoning issue, and some guy comes in and says, “Oh, we’ll just take over the City Hall,” when they’re talking about a little small zoning issue, and you know they have no capacity do that. So we’re concerned that these guys had no capacity to do anything that they seemed to be talking about, that they were led by the hand by this FBI agent.

I been living in Liberty City. I’m not sure, you know, just judging by Liberty City, in general—not just Liberty City, but most people there—I’m not sure these guys knew where the Sears Tower was, much less that it would represent a significant target.
So I really wonder who suggested the Sears Tower in the first place, who suggested taking the pictures. It’s just not all that clear that these guys could have come up with these plots and have carried them out, and it really raises questions again about the other real live terrorists who are living here who are not being arrested.

AMY GOODMAN: Max, finally, the issue of when it was first announced, the government said that these were Muslim men. CAIR has been quite vocal over the weekend, the Council on Arab-Islamic Relations saying that they are not from their community.

MAX RAMEAU: Well, first of all, I don’t see that as being a major issue, whether they’re Muslim or not. I still think that they have a right to a fair trial and they have a right to the presumption of innocence and they have a right not to be arrested for thinking things.

But with that said, it really raises a lot more questions, that the federal government will go out and make these statements that, you know, apparently leaking information that these were a bunch of Muslim men, when apparently they were not Muslim men. It raises several questions. For example, did the government even know if they were Muslim or not? And if they didn’t know that these guys were not Muslim, then what else did they not know that they’re including in here.

And it raises questions that they would come out and outright lie. We’ve been very concerned about the media coverage also, which has emphasized very, very minute or seemingly insignificant information, like these guys like to keep to themselves. These guys wore turbans. Well, what does—you know, I don’t understand what the big deal is with some of that, except to the extent that that plays into xenophobic fears and fears about the war on terrorism as framed by the government.

AMY GOODMAN: This story came at just the same time as a huge embarrassment to the government, and that is the story in the New York Times about the monitoring of financial records internationally.

MAX RAMEAU: Yeah. I really think this could be a case of weapons of mass distraction, where you have a big embarrassing issue coming out, and right now people are not talking about that, and they’re talking about this. And this is not even seemingly all that significant of an arrest. So it really raises questions, when they didn’t have any weapons at the place. It seems to me that if the feds would have even thought this out a little bit, they would have at least planted weapons there, but they didn’t even go through the trouble of doing that.

So it seems that this was thrown out there, thrust out there as a way of distracting people or drawing attention away from another really embarrassing situation, which means that these guys are just props, and I am really offended by that, because I know then that if these guys really are just props, that means that there are—the government is spending all kinds of time and resources on people who don’t represent any danger whatsoever to the general society, and there’s other people who represent a significant danger to people in the society who are not being tracked, who are not being followed, who are not being arrested. So this is a real, real concern, not only because these guys have rights, but because this is a misappropriation of government money—my money and everyone else’s money, as well.

AMY GOODMAN: Max Rameau, I want to thank you for being with us with Miami CopWatch, project of the Center for Pan-African Development in Miami; and David Markus, head of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

For full Democracy Now! transcript, go to:http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/26/1349235

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Democracy Now!
<http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/18/1352207>
August 18, 2006

Haitian Death Squad Leader Found Liable For Abuses


A former Haitian death squad leader living in the United States has been found liable in a civil case brought by several of his victims. On Wednesday, a judge ruled against Emmanuel "Toto" Constant because he failed to meet a deadline to respond to the case.

The suit was launched in December 2004 by a group of women who suffered gang rape and other abuses from Constant's forces. Constant led the paramilitary group
the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, or FRAPH, which killed thousands of supporters of former Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide. He
has been allowed to live freely in the US after threatening to reveal the full extent of his ties to the CIA. The US government has ignored several requests for his extradition. Constant was arrested in a separate case last month -- not for human rights abuses but for committing mortgage fraud.

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See also:  

Failed Solidarity by Jeb Sprague
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Reverse Solidarity: The Reactionary role of US Labor in haiti and Venezuela by Jeb Sprague and Kim Scipes

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HLLN's call for investigation of the CEP and electoral fraud in the 2006 presidential and legislative elections.
***********************
Remembering July 6, 2005
(also in Kreyol)

******
Haitian Children Put in Chains by the Whites: Remebering How the UN dropped bombs on Haitian civilians in Site Soley last July , 2005 then put the wounded in chainsDanto Spoken Word Dance Theater

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Blan Kolon mete jèn Ayisyen Lan Kod
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AUMOHD's Preliminary Report on July 7, 2006 Gran Ravine Massacre
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Undeclared War on Haiti's Poor by Ken Rosenthal, July 11, 2006
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Tension and Grief in the Caribbean by Ken Rosenthal, March 1, 2006
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One Island, Two Nations by Ken rosenthal, July 1, 2006
***************

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Civil Servants Protest Lay Offs
by AHP July 10, 2006
http://www.ahphaiti.org

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Gran Ravine Massacre by Lame Timanchet on July 7, 2006

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AHP New- July 12, 2006
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Hundred to thousands demonstrate on July 15, 2006 Demanding Pres. Aristide's return to Haiti
(Photos)

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What's Destabalizing Haiti?: The massacre and imprisonment of Haiti's Innocents
***************


***********************
Resolution on Haiti by the International
Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL)

Haiti's Sins: Fighting to live and be free from European and American Chains by Marguerite Laurent, 2004

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Haitian Children Put in Chains by the Whites (Listen to Kreyol Audio)
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***********************

Gang killings may be political
By Reed Lindsay THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published July 14, 2006

***********************
AUMOHD's Preliminary Report on July 7, 2006 Gran Ravine Massacre

***********************

“Daddy, its goats or pigs that I have seen cut up before. How come they are cutting up people now?" (Horrified exclamation of a traumatized young Haitian boy watching the Grand Ravine Massacre on Sunday, August 21, 2005) Ezili Danto report on Aug. Grand Ravine slaughter at USAID-sponsored soccer match Ezili Danto Project | August 25, 2005
**********************************************

MOBILISATION DU 15 JUILLET 2006, Des organisations de base de Fanmi Lavalas

******************
Expose the Lies
***************

***********************
Lame Timanchèt: The DDR Fiasco,
Ezili Danto Witness Project, July 19, 2006 (Matisan Video Clips - Clip 1 begging forgiveness, Clip2 - March 19, 2006 interview with Sason; Clip3 - Peace between Gran Ravine activists and the police would turn false as police-created Lame Timanchèt would 3-months later attack the Gran Ravine community, again

***************

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo: AP. Pro-Aristide supporters confront Haitian police in front of the Presidential Palace on Saturday. (July 15, 2006)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 6, 2005 UN Massacre of Haitian civilians in Sitey Soley, including the murder of Dred Wilme, 1year old Nelson, his mother, Sonia Romelus, and 4-year brother.

 


'

Turning Haiti Into a Penal Colony
by Marguerite Laurent | November 3, 2006
******

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AP Photo:Pro-Aristide supporters kiss an Aristide portrait during a demonstration demanding for the return of ousted president Jean Bertrand Aristide in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, July 15, 2006. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

 

 

 

 

 
 

 







 



Dessalines Is Rising!!
Ayisyen: You Are Not Alone!


"When you make a choice, you mobilize vast human energies and resources which otherwise go untapped...........If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want and all that is left is a compromise." Robert Fritz

 

THE HAITIAN NATIONAL ANTHEM:
La Dessalinienne / Dessaline’s Song / La Desalinyen
http://www.geocities.com/ernsly/haitiladessalinienne.mid
(Audio file)

http://www.thelouvertureproject.org/wiki/index.php?title=La_Dessalinienne

(Lyrics: in Kreyol, French, and an English translation of the French)

DESSALINE’S SONG


For our country,
For our forefathers,
United let us march.
Let there be no traitors in our ranks!
Let us be masters of our soil.
United let us march
For our country,
For our forefathers.

For our forebears,
For our country
Let us toil joyfully.
May the fields be fertile
And our souls take courage.
Let us toil joyfully
For our forebears,
For our country.

For our country
And for our forefathers,
Let us train our sons.
Free, strong, and prosperous,
We shall always be as brothers.
Let us train our sons
For our country
And for our forefathers.

For our forebears,
For our country,
Oh God of the valiant!
Take our rights and our life
Under your infinite protection,
Oh God of the valiant!
For our forebears,
For our country.

For the flag,
For our country
To die is a fine thing!
Our past cries out to us:
Have a disciplined soul!
To die is a fine thing,
For the flag,
For our country.

 
Dessalines Is Rising!!
Ayisyen: You Are Not Alone!


 

 

 

 
 
campaigns_button
different_button
HLLN's controvesy
with Marine
Spokesman
,
US occupiers
Lt. Col. Dave Lapan faces off with the Network
International
Solidarity Day Pictures & Articles
May 18, 2005
Pictures and Articles Witness Project
_____________
Drèd Wilme, A Hero for the 21st Century

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Pèralte Speaks!

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Yvon Neptune's
Letter From Jail
Pacot
-
April 20, 2005

(Kreyol & English)
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Click photo for larger image
Emmanuel "Dread" Wilme - on "Wanted poster" of suspects wanted by the Haitian police.
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Emmanuel "Dread" Wilme speaks:
Radio Lakou New York, April 4, 2005 interview with Emmanuel "Dread" Wilme
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The
Crucifiction of
Emmanuel "Dread" Wilme,
a historical
perspective

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Urgent Action:
Demand a Stop
to the Killings
in Cite Soleil

*
Sample letters &
Contact info

_______________
_______________
Denounce Canada's role in Haiti: Canadian officials Contact Infomation
_______________

Urge the Caribbean Community to stand firm in not recognizing the illegal Latortue regime:

Selected CARICOM Contacts
Key
CARICOM
Email
Addresses
zilibutton Slide Show at the July 27, 2004 Haiti Forum Press Conference during the DNC in Boston honoring those who stand firm for Haiti and democracy; those who tell the truth about Haiti; Presenting the Haiti Resolution, and; remembering Haiti's revolutionary legacy in 2004 and all those who have lost life or liberty fighting against the Feb. 29, 2004 Coup d'etat and its consequences
     
 
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