Language

U.S. Embassy Prevented Reinforcements

Submitted March 1, 2004 - 11:00 am by Andrew Grice (not verified)

Selected quotes from Juan Tamayo's article in today's Miami Herald.  http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/nation/8074989.htm
"The Bush administration blocked a last-minute attempt by Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to bolster his bodyguards -- mostly former U.S. Special Forces members -- fearing he wanted them to organize and lead a counterattack against the rebels who threatened his presidency, knowledgeable sources said Sunday."
And why should such a counterattack be feared by Washington?  Because it might have been succesful?  
"U.S. officials also forced a small group of extra bodyguards from the San Francisco-based Steele Foundation to delay their flight from the United States to Haiti from Sunday to today -- too late to help Aristide, said the sources, who are close to Aristide."
"The Steele Foundation, which despite its name is a private executive-protection firm, has long held the contract, approved by the U.S. State Department, to provide Aristide's personal security detail."
"Aristide's Steele guard rose from about 10 to about 60 in 2000 after an apparent coup attempt the previous December, according to Herald reports.  But it had dropped to around 20 to 25 as of recent weeks, the sources indicated."
"The sources said that after the Haitian government had recently contacted Steele to provide a large group of extra bodyguards, U.S. Embassy officials in the Haitian capital contacted Steele representatives and warned them off."
So, while Washington was publically throwing up its hands saying there was nothing it could do to defend the elected president of Haiti, the U.S. embassy was busy making sure that president couldn't defend himself.  

Reply

Our Policy on Comment Submissions: Co-publishers of Narco News (which includes The Narcosphere and The Field) may post comments without moderation. All co-publishers comment under their real name, have contributed resources or volunteer labor to this project, have filled out this application and agreed to some simple guidelines about commenting.

Narco News has recently opened its comments section for submissions to moderated comments (that’s this box, here) by everybody else. More than 95 percent of all submitted comments are typically approved, because they are on-topic, coherent, don’t spread false claims or rumors, don’t gratuitously insult other commenters, and don’t engage in commerce, spam or otherwise hijack the thread. Narco News reserves the right to reject any comment for any reason, so, especially if you choose to comment anonymously, the burden is on you to make your comment interesting and relevant. That said, as you can see, hundreds of comments are approved each week here. Good luck in your comment submission!

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.

More information about formatting options

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

User login