*************** US partisan and bias enforcement of drug laws amd drug trafficking in Haiti: * Haiti: The Politics of Drugs, by Nik Barry Shaw, The Dominion, June 26, 2007 ********* Drugs and Politics in Haiti by HIP, Haitiaction.net ********* *************** Insurgency and Betrayal: An Interview with Guy Philippe by Peter Hallward |HaitiAnalysis, August 3, 2007 *************** The Real Reason For the Raid Monterey Herald, July 27, 2007 *************** Anyone remember Haiti? by Bill Fletcher Jr. |Baltimore Times |8/3/2007 ********* Arbitrary and Capricious rules of "justice" and defamatory, simplistic and unfair mainstream media reporting apply to the poor in Site Soley, Haiti - Site Soley Update April 19, 2007 ******************** ********* Butter Metayer, returned to UN occupied-Haiti AHP *************** Louis Jodel Chamblain roams freely in UN occupied-Haiti *************** Three DEA suspected drug dealers allowed to run for President in UN occupied-Haiti, Miami Herald *************** Randall Robinson on " An Unbroken Agony: Haiti: From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President, Democracy Now!, July 23rd, 2007 ************

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

*********************
RandallRobinson.com
*********************

Popular grass-roots organizations in Haiti demand an end to the UN occupation, denounce privatization and globalization to mark the 92nd anniversary, on July 28, 2007, of the first US occupation (1915-1934)

Ezili Dantò's Note: In terms of corruption, fleecing of state treasury, embezzling foreign aid monies and Haiti resources, under Stanley Lucas' imposed Boca Raton-Latortue regime, Haiti was ranked the world's most corrupt country by Transparency International. In terms of drugs and drug trafficking: see articles below.

US partisan and bias enforcement of drug laws amd drug trafficking in Haiti
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/drugs.html
***************
- Insurgency and Betrayal: An Interview with Guy Philippe

- Haiti: The Politics of Drugs, The Dominion, June 26, 2007

- Drugs and Politics in Haiti by HIP
http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/7_24_7/7_24_7.html
********
- Have the Latortues Kidnapped Democracy in haiti?
by Anthony Fenton, ZNet, June 26, 2005

- Butter Metayer: The US State Department allows, Butter Metayer, "a well-known arms trafficker in their custody to return to the relative safety of his own drug-trafficking gangster buddies (in Gonaives) when the UN is in the midst of a supposed "disarmament" campaign."

See AHP News, "..The U.S. authorities repatriated Butter Métayer, president of the Front of Resistance of Gonaïves back to Haiti last Friday after imprisoning him for 47 days in Florida. Butter Métayer was held in the United States on accusations of arms trafficking and human rights violations.

-Gary Webb’s “Dark Alliance” , the Historic Document About U.S.-Sponsored Narco-Trafficking, By Dan Feder, Special to The Narco News Bulletin| June 23, 2005 | http://www.narconews.com/darkalliance/

- The Real Reason For the US-DEA Raid on Guy Philippe
Monterey Herald, July 27, 2007

- Anyone remember Haiti? by Bill Fletcher Jr. |Baltimore Times |8/3/2007
http://www.btimes.com/news/Article /
Article.asp?NewsID=81110&sID=16

Popular grass-roots organizations in Haiti demand an end to the UN occupation, denounce privatization and globalization to mark the 92nd anniversary, on July 28, 2007, of the first US occupation (1915-1934)


Louis Jodel Chamblain, the convicted killer and FRAPH death squad leader was released from prison after a sham trial while innocent Haitians, like former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, Sò Ann (Annette Auguste) and Father Gerald Jean Juste were forced to remain in UN-occupied Haiti prisons for years after the illegal ouster of Haiti's Constitutional government in 2004. (See also: Looking for Haiti's Freedom on May 18, 2007) and Answers To Media Questions About Haiti, March 2, 2004)

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

Haiti: The Politics of Drugs, June 26, 2007 posted by Nik Barry-Shaw about haiti and and Haiti in Latin America| The Dominion

An anonymous source recently pointed out the markedly partisan bias of the U.S. government's crackdown on drug trafficking in Haiti. According to the source, the six biggest Haitian drug traffickers at the time of the coup d’etat of February 29, 2004 were Jean Nesly Lucien, Fourel Celestin, Oriel Jean, Guy Philippe, Dany Toussaint and Youri Latortue. Of the six, those who supported the coup still walk free today and are even involved in domestic politics, while those who supported Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s Famni Lavalas party have been pounced on by the US Drug Enforcement Administration and thrown in jail.

Jean Nesly Lucien, former director general of the Haitian National Police, was arrested in May 2004 and extradited to the US. Lucien pleaded guilty on a money-laundering conspiracy charge and was sentenced in July 2005 to nearly five years in prison.

Fourel Celestin, President of the Haitian Senate during the Lavalas government, was arrested in late May 2004 and extradited to the US. Convicted in 2005 after a plea deal with Miami prosecutors, Célestin admitted taking a $200,000 bribe to help secure the release of two detained Colombian drug traffickers. Célestin is now cooperating with prosecutors.

Oriel Jean, the presidential security chief for Aristide, was arrested by immigration officers in Toronto in March 2004 and extradited to the US. A plea bargain deal allowed him to serve less than 3 years in jail, in exchange for cooperating with the DEA.

The arrests are part of a legal full-court press to make a case against Aristide. According to the Miami Herald, "the DEA, IRS and other federal agencies are still aggressively investigating whether Aristide was involved in . . . cocaine smuggling, received kickbacks from traffickers, or stole money from his own government and funneled it through U.S. banks and shell companies."

Although the investigations have produced much plea bargain-induced testimony against Aristide, no hard evidence has been uncovered. Yet for the Herald, the issue is not so much the lack of evidence as the good diplomatic etiquette of the US government: "[I]t remains to be seen whether prosecutors will ever ask the grand jury to indict Aristide, partly because he is a former head of state."
Manuel Noriega would no doubt beg to differ.

Guy Philippe, the leader of the "rebels" (read: former soldiers and death squad members) who invaded Haiti from the Dominican Republic in February 2004, has long been accused of involvement in drug trafficking. The DEA suspected Philippe was involved in drug trafficking when he was police chief in the northern port of Cap Haitien in the late 90s. U.S. drug agents once even tried to recruit Philippe as an informant , but he turned them down, saying that the traffickers paid him more.

Philippe fled to the DR in October 2000 after a coup plot he and some fellow police commanders had hatched with the help of the US military attache was uncovered by the government. Philippe's subsequent coup attempts - July 2001, December 2001 and numerous attacks in 2003 - culminating in the 2004 "uprising" were financed by a Canadian-Haitian businessman who has been linked to the drug trade by the International Crisis Group (ICG).

Philippe's involvement in the drug trade (not to mention his rampage of rape and murder throughout Haiti) hasn't hindered his involvement in politics since the coup. Philippe formed a political party, ran for the presidency in the February 2006 elections, getting a whopping 1.92 % of the vote, and has even appeared at seminars on women's rights (!) hosted by pro-coup feminist groups such as Famn Yo La.

Dany Toussaint has long been labeled by U.S. officials as a suspected trafficker. In 2001, Republican Congressman Porter Goss wrote to Secretary of State Colin Powell that Toussaint is "credibly linked by a number of US government agencies to narcotics trafficking in Haiti."

Toussaint, a Senator with Famni Lavalas while Aristide was in power, broke with Aristide when it became evident which way the winds of political change were blowing. Toussaint's presence in the government of Aristide was often held up as an example of the impunity that supposedly reigned under his administration; Toussaint used his Senatorial immunity to shield himself from investigations into his role in the assassination of famed radio journalist Jean Dominique. Critics' passion for justice, however, disappeared after the Senator switched sides and joined the opposition shortly before the coup.

Possessed by the same delusional megalomania as Philippe, Toussaint ran for president as well, fielding 7,905 votes or 0.41% of the total.

Youri Latortue, the nephew of former Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, was the main subject of a December 2005 investigation by the Miami Herald into drug traffiicking in Haiti:

“U.N. Civilian Police are concerned that Youri Latortue is trying to take control of the diplomatic lounge at the Port-au-Prince international airport, one way that drug traffickers have traditionally bypassed official scrutiny while entering and leaving Haiti, one top U.N. official told The Miami Herald. And there are credible reports that Youri has close ties to a gang of armed thugs in Gonaives that controls the drug trafficking through the seaport, the official added. Youri Latortue, meanwhile, has struck a political alliance with Guy Philippe, one of the leaders of the rebellion that ousted Aristide and now a candidate for the presidency. The two apparently knew each other when they served in the Haitian police."

During his time as security chief for his uncle, Youri Latortue was also renowned for his involvement in repression, kidnapping and corruption. Latortue earned the nickname "Mr. 30 Percent", allegedly for the amount in kickbacks that he demanded on government contracts, reported the French daily Le Figaro.

Sources here in Haiti claim that Youri Latortue organized and controlled from the Prime Minister’s office the black-clad death squads that patrolled the capital during the Interim Government's reign of terror.

Youri's connections with Guy Philippe's thugs in Gonaives, meanwhile, paid off in the legislative elections, making him the Senator for the Artibonite region. In a truly perverse outcome, Latortue is now the President of the Senate Commission on Justice and Public Security, a platform which he has repeatedly used to call for the reestablishment of the Haitian Army (an institution which itself had a long history of involvement in drug trafficking).

The US government’s hypocritical and one-sided fight against drug transshipment through Haiti is merely the latest instance of anti-drug trafficking efforts being subordinated to larger foreign policy goals. Whether in Southeast Asia, Afghanistan, Nicaragua and Central America, Colombia or Haiti, US planners have often relied on the services of drug dealers to achieve their aims.

In his semial account of the CIA's role in the Southeast Asian drug trade, historian Alfred McCoy wrote: "American involvement had gone far beyond coincidental complicity; embassies had covered up involvement by client governments, CIA contract airlines had carried opium, and individual CIA agents had winked at the opium traffic."

"In most cases, the CIA's role involved various forms of complicity, tolerance or studied ignorance about the trade, not any direct culpability in the actual trafficking ... [t]he CIA did not handle heroin, but it did provide its drug-lord allies with transport, arms, and political protection. In sum, the CIA's role in the Southeast Asian heroin trade involved indirect complicity rather than direct culpability."

Hence, despite the fulsome praise of the State Department for its interdiction efforts, cocaine passing through Haiti increased during the Interim Government period, a natural outcome of its close relations with drug traffickers such as Guy Philippe (whom Gerard Latortue hailed as a "freedom fighter") and Youri Latortue.

The partisan bias of US law enforcement initiatives was unmistakable to the ICG: "[O]nly suspects believed to be close to Lavalas have been detained in combined HNP/DEA operations. The perceived inaction of international law enforcement agencies with regard to the transitional government has led many in Haiti to believe that their actions are driven in part by political or strategic reasons. The roles of U.S. agencies such as the DEA and CIA, therefore, continue to be controversial."

* Nik Barry-Shaw's blog

*********************************************
See also: Gary Webb’s “Dark Alliance” , the Historic Document About U.S.-Sponsored Narco-Trafficking, By Dan Feder, Special to The Narco News Bulletin| June 23, 2005 | http://www.narconews.com/darkalliance/ and,

- Insurgency and Betrayal: An Interview with Guy Philippe By Peter Hallward – HaitiAnalysis.com
http://haitianalysis.com/ politics/insurgency- and-betrayal- an-interview-with-guy-philippe
*********************************************

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

Drugs and Politics in Haiti, By HIP, Haitiaction.net, June 24, 2007

http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/7_24_7/7_24_7.html

HIP - The US Drug Enforcement Agency's recent attempt to hunt down former policeman, paramilitary commander and presidential candidate Guy Philippe on drug charges can be traced back to a recent arrest in the town of Gonaives, Haiti.

Haitian police and Argentinean units of the UN arrested Wilfort Ferdinand, alias Ti Wil; on May 26 after he gave a lengthy interview on local radio station Radio Gonaives FM. Although news of Ferdinand's arrest received scant attention in the international press it was one of the top stories throughout Haiti the following day. Much of the reporting in the Haitian press focused on the shared history of Wilfort Ferdinand and Guy Philippe in leading paramilitary forces that helped to oust the government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

In early February 2004, Wilfort Ferdinand along with Butteur Metayer, Winter Etienne and Dieujuste Jeanty, led armed gangs to attack police stations in the Artibonite region in a bid to oust Aristide's government. They left a bloody trail in their wake including the summary execution of Aristide supporters in the streets of several cities. Their group, called the Artibonite Resistance Front, later joined with the small but well-armed paramilitary groups that invaded Haiti from the Dominican Republic under the leadership of Guy Philippe and former death squad commander Jodel Chamblain. Ferdinand and the others quickly claimed allegiance to Philippe and publicly referred to him as their "commander-in-chief" in press interviews.

Ferdinand appointed himself Chief of Police of Gonaives and Winter Etienne became the Chief of the Gonaives Port Authority, ruling Haiti's fourth largest city as a personal fiefdom following the ouster of Aristide on Feb. 29, 2004. Philippe shared the podium with Ferdinand in late March 2004 when US-installed prime minister Gerard Latortue was flown into Gonaives by US military helicopters accompanied by Davi d Lee, Canadian ambassador to the Organization of American States. During a mock celebration of Aristide's ouster, Latortue publicly praised the men as misunderstood "freedom fighters" while ambassador Lee nodded his head in approval.

During Ferdinand's interview on Radio Gonaives FM and just before his arrest on May 26, he repeated assertions he had made days earlier on another radio station in the capital. He claimed that he was being pressured by "certain members of the business community" to take up arms against the current government of President Rene Preval. He explained that these were some of the same business leaders that had financed their paramilitary operations against Aristide and ended with "I would rather commit suicide than raise arms against this government."

The day following Ferdinand's arrest, May 27, Guy Philippe was interviewed on Haitian radio station Signal FM where he took the accusations a step further.
Without answering the question of pressure to take up arms against Preval, Philippe began to name names of business and political leaders who backed the paramilitary insurgency against Aristide's government by providing arms, ammunition and logistical support.

Philippe's list included members of what was then touted as the "peaceful opposition" in Haiti that led demonstrations in the capital and other cities demanding Aristide's resignation. High on the list was Andy Apaid the leader of the civil society organization called the Group 184.

Apaid had been extensively quoted in the international media at the time saying their movement was non-violent and had no connections to the paramilitary bands. Claire Marshall wrote for the BBC on Feb. 13, 2004, "One of the most prominent opposition platform spokesmen, Andy Apaid, wanted to make it clear that he did not approve of violent methods." Marshall continued, "Andy Apaid invoked the names of Martin Luther K ing and Mahatma Gandhi, saying that he wanted to try and lead the opposition in a form of peaceful protest." Philippe's disclosures exposed Apaid's duplicity and served to discredit the "peaceful opposition" movement against Aristide. It also highlighted the uncritical and favorable reporting given to it by the BBC and other major news organizations.

Philippe's list also included the leadership of several political parties that were part of a United States Agency for International Development funded program in the 90's and who recently ran candidates in UN-sponsored elections in Haiti. Among others fingered by Guy Philippe were Evans Paul of KID/Alyans, former senator Dany Toussaint of the MODEREH, Serges Gilles of PANPRA (note: FUSION currently) and Himmler Rébu of the GREH.

On June 1, Haitian police spokesman Frantz Lerebours, announced that they had discovered a kilo of "a white substance resembling cocaine" after searching the residence of Wilfort Ferdinand. On July 16, DEA agents executed a dramatic raid against Philippe's residence in the southern coastal town of Les Cayes and he has been on the run ever since.

"It's a good question of whether Philippe will actually be arrested," responded a source close to UN intelligence operations in Haiti who asked not to be identified. "The other option is that he may end up in a third country in a quiet exile like Michel Francois," he said in reference to a former police chief who led a military coup against Aristide in 1991. Francois was indicted by a Miami Grand Jury in 1997 for drug trafficking and currently resides in Honduras after that country's Supreme Court refused to extradite him. The official continued, "It would take a complete change in current policy for him to be allowed to remain in Haiti without being arrested. But stranger things have happened."

*********************************************
Candidates in Haiti have ties to trafficking, officials say BY JOE MOZINGO|Knight Ridder Newspapers| Posted on Thu, Dec. 22, 2005

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - At least three candidates in Haiti's upcoming elections have links to a cocaine-trafficking industry that wants to ensure the next government is weak and corruptible, a half-dozen Haitian and U.S. officials say.

Two of Haiti's best-financed presidential candidates - Guy Philippe and Dany Toussaint - have long been linked to cocaine trafficking by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officials.

And a Senate candidate who's a nephew of interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue has close links to a gang that controls drug smuggling in the port of Gonaives, according to the Haitian and U.S. officials.

Haiti, where the average person struggles on less than $1 a day, is a pass-through point for about 8 percent of the Colombian cocaine detected heading to U.S. streets, according to U.S. State Department narcotics reports.

Despite the presence of 8,000 U.N. peacekeepers deployed after the rebellion that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide last year, the arrival of cocaine ``is essentially unimpeded,'' said the State Department's 2005 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report.

Analysts fear that traffickers are quietly working to subvert any return to an elected democracy, either by backing candidates they can control or sowing chaos on the streets to delay the balloting.

``At this point the entire transition is at risk,'' said Mark Schneider, of the International Crisis Group, a nonprofit that analyzes conflict around the world.
``Drug traffickers don't want a functioning, effective government with a functioning, effective police force and customs.''

``They have their hooks in the police, they have their hooks in parts of the transitional government,'' he added.

U.S. prosecutors in Miami have gone after 10 of the biggest traffickers and corrupt officials of the Aristide years.

But there are plenty of suspicions about officials of the current interim government.

Diplomats and counter-drug agents have expressed particular concerns about Youri Latortue - the security chief for his uncle, the prime minister, and a Senate candidate for the Gonaives region, a major drug-smuggling area.

The U.S. Embassy warned the prime minister in private in March 2004 that his nephew was linked to illegal activities and should not be part of the government, according to one top U.S. official familiar with the issue, who requested anonymity because he's not authorized to discuss the issue.

At that time, Washington refused the nephew a U.S. visa.

The French newspaper Le Figaro last year reported the nephew's nickname was ``Mr. 30 Percent'' for the commissions he allegedly demands on government contracts.

The prime minister publicly defended his nephew, saying he trusted him and, in a nation that has seen 32 coups in 200 years, he wanted the nephew to stay on as his chief of security and intelligence.

U.N. Civilian Police are concerned that Youri Latortue is trying to take control of the diplomatic lounge at the Port-au-Prince international airport, one way that drug traffickers have traditionally bypassed official scrutiny while entering and leaving Haiti, one top U.N. official told The Miami Herald.

And there are credible reports that Youri has close ties to a gang of armed thugs in Gonaives that controls the drug trafficking through the seaport, the official added.

Youri Latortue, meanwhile, has struck a political alliance with Guy Philippe, one of the leaders of the rebellion that ousted Aristide and now a candidate for the presidency.

The two apparently knew each other when they served in the Haitian police.
The DEA suspected Philippe was involved in drug trafficking when he was police chief in the northern port of Cap Haitien, Haiti's second biggest city.

U.S. drug agents once tried to recruit Philippe as an informant, but he turned them down, saying that the traffickers paid him more, two top U.S. officials told The Herald.

Philippe has vehemently denied such allegations.

``Where is the evidence?'' he asked, in an interview with The Herald last year.
But he has acknowledged that one of his rebellion's financial supporters was a Canadian-Haitian businessman named Jean-Claude Louis-Jean - who has been linked to the drug trade by the International Crisis Group.

Haitian police arrested Louis-Jean in September 2004, though it is unclear what the charges are against him.

Philippe vigorously defended his friend in an interview at the time with Radio Metropole.

``The judicial authorities will have to say why they arrested him and of what they accuse him,'' he said.

``I just hope that they will not say that there are rumors that he is involved in drug dealing, as they always do.''

When Aristide fled, Philippe put down his weapons and formed a political party.
He is among 35 presidential candidates on the ballot for the election tentatively scheduled for Jan. 8.

A CID-Gallup poll in November showed him a distant third, with 4 percent, behind former President Rene Preval with 32 percent and Leslie Manigat with 5 percent.
Rebuilding the corrupt police force has been the perhaps most critical priority for the U.S. State Department and the U.N. peacekeeping mission here.

The newly-appointed police chief, Mario Andresol, has estimated in media interviews that at least 25 percent of his force is corrupt.

U.N. officials say they fear that some of the officers may be more loyal to Dany Toussaint, a senator and chief of police under Aristide who broke with the president in 2003 and is now running for president.

Long labeled by U.S. officials as a suspected trafficker, and now the owner of a security business, Toussaint got 2 percent support in the CID-Gallup poll, behind nine other candidates.

Toussaint has denied the drug allegations and brushed off the claim that he controls some police officers.

***

See also: Allegations of three candidates' drug ties resurface in Haitian presidential race (JOE MOZINGO "Presidential hopefuls have drug ties, sources in Haiti, U.S. claim". Miami Herald, December 23, 2005)
********************

"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