http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/8
374521.htm
Contra Costa Times on Privert's arrest:  
"I hope this is done with due process because if not it appears to be a witch hunt," said Leslie Voltaire, a former Aristide Cabinet member. "We don't think it's a good step for rebuilding the country."
Is this an indication?  
"Although Privert allegedly conspired to kill several people in the town, officials did not say how many people were killed, nor did they provide names of those allegedly slain."
"Privert was being held at the national penitentiary. Law requires that he hear the charges against him within 48 hours."
Is this normal behavior to arrest the alleged murderer first and then take a couple of days to decide who he might have killed?  Then again, take a look at who is guarding his cell - that sure ain't normal.
"Penitentiary Inspector Olmaille Bien-Aime said Privert's cell was being guarded by U.S. Marines who are part of a peacekeeping force. But U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Mara Tekach-Bell denied the claim, saying, "he's not in our hands.""
Who do you believe, the guy who works at the prison or the press flack for the U.S. embassy with a motivation to lie?  
Speaking of lies, CNS quotes Colin Powell a bit more extensively than the NYT yesterday, including one hell of a whopper.  
"[Powell] rejected the idea of having the United Nations investigate Aristide's ouster.  "I don't think any purpose would be served by such an inquiry. The facts are very well-known,'' Powell said. "It was six weeks ago that Haiti was on the verge of total security collapse. We prevented a blood bath and a coup from taking place.''
That's right.  Collin Powell is actually saying (presumably with a straight face) that the U.S. prevented a coup!
The immensity of this dishonesty is clear.  Even if one were to disregard the witnesses and accept the official U.S. version of Aristide's ouster, we're still left with an extreme departure from constitutional process.  Nothing even close to the succession rules in Haiti's constitution have been followed.  Instead, a ruler handpicked by the United States was installed.  And instead of a temporary leader being replaced by elections in 90 days, Latortue only vaguely promises elections sometime in 2005.  
The main focus of the CNS piece are the excellent criticisms of Rep. Maxine Waters.  http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=%5CPo
litics%5Carchive%5C200404%5CPOL20040407a.html
"Rep. Waters named Guy Philippe, Louis-Jodel Chamblain, and Jean Tatoune as being among those "criminals." She said they are the ones who threatened to kill Aristide and who stirred up violence in Port au Prince and other cities "where members of the Lavalas Party are found dead every day."
"It is absolutely shameful," said Waters, "for the U.S. to be aligned with these killers and, even at this late date, refuse to divest itself of this unholy alliance." She said Secretary Powell has neither "the desire nor the will to removes these killers from their role in Haiti's crisis.""
Human Rights Watch is also calling Powell to task for his support of those butchers who will NOT be arrested.  
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/04/06/haiti8397_t
xt.htm
"Yet Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue has, in contrast, publicly lauded the rebel forces. On March 20, during a visit to the rebel stronghold of Gonaives, Latortue referred implicitly to Secretary Powell's comments, stating that in the United States "they thought the people in Gonaives were thugs and bandits."  
 
Latortue repudiated this view, saying that in his opinion "they are freedom fighters."  
 
The most notorious of the insurgent leaders is Louis Jodel Chamblain, the apparent second in command to rebel commander Guy Philippe. Chamblain, one of the founders of the violent paramilitary group known as the Revolutionary Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress (FRAPH), was convicted in absentia and sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1993 murder of Antoine Izméry, a well-known pro-democracy activist, and for involvement in the April 1994 Raboteau massacre in which some 20 people are believed to have been killed.  
 
Another member of the insurgent forces with a history of violent abuses is Jean Pierre Baptiste, better known as Jean Tatoune. Tatoune, a local FRAPH leader during the 1991-1994 military government, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the Raboteau massacre. He escaped from prison in Gonaives in August 2002, as part of a mass prison break, and later joined the armed insurgency."
Here's the kicker:  "Two weeks ago, while on a 10-day visit to Haiti, Human Rights Watch representatives met with Bernard Gousse, Haiti's new minister of justice. Gousse told Human Rights Watch that the government might consider giving Jean Tatoune a reduction in sentence if Tatoune turned himself in to the justice authorities. The reduction could be merited, Gousse claimed, because "he's fought against two dictatorships.""
And who's sentences will be reduced for fighting against the dictatorship of Latortue and Gousse?  Sadly, most those "sentences" are summary executions being meted out by Powell's friends, the "freedom fighters" Latortue praises.