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Reporter's Notebook: Stephen Peacock

State Dept. Seeks Further Weapons Sales, Assistance to Haitian National Police

Posted by Stephen Peacock - November 6, 2005 at 12:30 am
The U.S. State Dept. is ramping up efforts to bolster the capabilities of the Haitian National Police (HNP), which is preparing for national elections in December while contending with continuing violence and domestic turbulence. State’s Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), which in May 2004 restarted its Police Advisory Group (PAG) in Haiti, intends to deploy a program director/senior advisor to the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince to coordinate the group’s activities.

The facilitation of weapons sales from the U.S. to the government of Haiti will be among the many responsibilities of the new advisor, according to a personal services contracting-document that the State Dept. on Friday uploaded to the federal Electronic Posting System database. The document acknowledged that the advisor’s role as weapons-purchase facilitator “is a very controversial and delicate area as Haiti is subject to a U.S. weapons embargo, and these purchases require a waiver of the embargo and Congressional approval.” Consequently, the advisor must ensure that U.S. Mission officials and senior INL managers “are kept apprised of the status of such requests.” He or she also will be required to regularly brief congressional staff, while providing “expert commentary on law enforcement weapons and non-lethal equipment requirements and utilization.”

Providing short-term security as Haiti gets ready for its long-delayed election day, and perpetuating that stability into the future, “remains the dominant U.S. and [United Nations] policy goal in Haiti,” the document points out. From the standpoint of recent Haitian history, it claims that:

The situation in Haiti changed dramatically in February 2004 with growing levels of violence leading to the departure of the Haitian President and a change in the Haitian government. While the US and others provided a near-term military presence, the United Nations committed to the long-term deployment of a military and police stabilization force to assist Haiti’s reestablishment of security throughout the country. Hence, the priority of Haitian National Police support programs will remain crucial to the success of US policy goals to and beyond national elections...”

The selected candidate will be responsible for supervising the PAG, which consists of up to six contract criminal justice experts. Serving simultaneously as senior advisor, the incumbent will report to the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Latin America Programs regarding programs whose stated goal is to improve security in Haiti. He or she will be the primary U.S. liaison with the HNP director general and the U.N. Civilian Police Commissioner.

In the absence of a permanently assigned Narcotics Affairs Section at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, the program director also will serve as the narcotics/crime advisor to the American Mission chief. Additionally, this slot involves the provision of regional law-enforcement expertise to the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic. It will serve as “a catalyst and conduit for information exchanges on global drug control issues, and on strategic efforts in the areas of law enforcement and judicial and criminal justice system reform,” according to the document.

INL-funds dedicated to the PAG program topped $9.5 million in fiscal year 2004, then rose to $14.3 million in FY-2005. The incumbent, who will earn between $72,622 and $107,017 annually, will have oversight of those funds. The amount slated for PAG is separate from U.S.-supported HNP assistance programs, which totaled $24 million for FYs 2004 and 2005.

Those initiatives, for which the program director likewise will be responsible for implementing, have involved and will continue to involve “significant expansion of the size of the HNP, basic and in-service training programs, infrastructure improvements, and vehicle and equipment procurement components,” the contract document says.

The incumbent will provide “professional advice and assistance in the development and acquisition of weapons, ammunition and non-lethal law enforcement equipment for the HNP,” it continues. “Based on extensive internal and external research, [he or she] determines [the] best procurement strategy, ensuring that the Bureau’s funds dedicated to these projects are managed in the most efficient and effective manner.”

About Stephen Peacock

Biography
I'm a former Washington, DC, journalist (1998-2003) who most recently worked for Communications Daily and Washington Internet Daily (WID), investigative newsletters that cover the telecommunications, broadcast and Internet industries. Following the 9/11 attacks, my news beat expanded beyond Capitol Hill telecom/TV/IT policy and began to include technology-policy coverage at the Pentagon and Dept. of Homeland Security. I've written over a thousand articles about government and industry affairs, and I'm pleased to say that I was the reporter who broke the story about the Total Information Awareness surveillance/data-collection initiative of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. I've written articles for publications including NACLA Report on the Americas, Drug Enforcement Report, Corrections Journal, SoJo Mail (Sojourners), and the Tampa Tribune. I've also written a memoir about my former career as a plainclothes security officer of the Helmsley Palace hotel in New York City, Hotel Dick: Harlots, Starlets, Thieves & Sleaze. I look forward to contributing to the fine work being done here at NarcoSphere.

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U.S. anti-drug money funds anti-democracy guns

Submitted November 6, 2005 - 3:54 pm by Benjamin Melançon
Stephen Peacock's reporting reveals another violently anti-democratic use to which the U.S.' so-called anti-drug spending goes, this time in Haiti.

The United States State Department’s Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) wants to appoint a director for its Police Advisory Group (PAG) in Haiti to work at the U.S. Embassy to get weapons to the government of Haiti through loopholes in the U.S.' own arms embargo.  The guns would be put in the hands of the Haitian National Police, an institution now condemned in human rights report after human rights report.

But even as the executive branch of the U.S. government prepares to pay someone upward of $70,000 a year to facilitate the flow of weapons to the coup government, true friends of Haiti in the legislative branch -- Representatives Barbara Lee and John Conyers of the Congressional Black Caucus -- are throwing up obstacles to this deadly aid.

Congresswoman Barbara Lee (Democrat of Oakland) successfully amended a foreign aid spending bill to forbid use of its funds to sell or transfer of arms for use by the Haitian National Police.

A statement released by Nathan Britton, communication director of Lee's office, said the amendment also requires a State Department report on the involvement of Haitian police in criminal activity.

"The people of Haiti remain targets of political violence, torture and in some cases murder, and too often the perpetrators of this violence are the Haitian National Police, armed with US weapons free of charge," said Lee. "This amendment is necessary in the effort to restore democracy. Haiti desperately needs humanitarian assistance, and sending weapons only exacerbates Haiti's struggle with violence and the criminal activity within the Haitian National Police Force."

Lee got the amendment passed by voice vote back on June 28.  In supporting the amendment Congressmember John Conyers (Democrat of Michigan, dean of the Congressional Black Caucus) said:

Even though the United States has an arms embargo against Haiti, U.S. law grants authority to the President of the United States to provide weapons to Haiti, without any Congressional input, as long as these arms are identified as "excess." Recently, it has come to the attention of Congress that last August, the President transferred over 4,000 arms and ammunition to the Government of Haiti. These arms included hundreds of .38 caliber, .45 caliber, and 9 mm guns as well as M-14 rifles and sub-machine guns.

The text of Lee's amendment is simply:

An amendment to prohibit funds made available in the Act from being used to transfer excess property of an agency of the United States Government to the Government of Haiti.

The House of Representatives approved the overall spending bill on Friday by a vote of 358-39.  It now awaits approval in the Senate before it would go to the White House to be signed into law.  It is not clear if the INL or other U.S. agencies in the Bush regime would be able to get around both the existing embargo and the prohibition in this bill and continue to give weapons to its Haitian partners in crime.

Bread and Circuses for Haiti, too

Submitted November 9, 2005 - 9:26 am by Benjamin Melançon
A recent article by Sasha Kramer focuses on the Office of Transition Initiatives open attempts to reduce participation in popular movements for democracy-- facts that NarcoSphere readers already know about.

Sasha takes her analysis a little bit farther, to look at other USAID initiatives and how the bread and circuses serve the same purposes as foreign troops and guns.

USAID is an arm of the US State Department reporting directly to Condoleezza Rice and their stated objective is to use aid to pursue outcomes desired by the State Department. In this case the State Department is eager to for the upcoming elections to appear legitimate as evident in Condoleezza Rice's recent visit to Haiti.

In order for this goal to be achieved it is critical to stifle resistance to the elections. Resistance is being tackled on two fronts. In the past year, thousands of former elected officials and community organizers have been imprisoned, forced into hiding or killed, with many innocent civilians caught in the crossfire. This overt stifling of dissent is implemented by Haiti's unelected interim government through the Haitian National Police, a brutal police forced armed by the United States and under the control of the United Nations.

USAID uses a different tactic for pacifying the poor in Haiti who have been rightfully outraged by the destruction of their democracy, rise in the cost of living and ongoing government-sponsored repression. Understanding the level of desperation in these communities, short-term provision of services is used as a way to draw people away from protesting these conditions with a warm meal. As people are fed they can be quietly indoctrinated with the notion that these camps provide an alternative to the "violence" of Lavalas.

The provision of entertainment and meals may provide a temporary alleviation of suffering but they do nothing to address the underlying causes of that suffering which are deeply entangled in with the disruption of Haiti's democracy in 2004. A full stomach will not end the police killings, it will not free the political prisoners and it will not result in the reestablishment of social programs in Haiti; but it may give a hungry person a moment of peace.

Full stomachs and soccer are excellent tools for temporarily easing suffering to pacify protest and give the country the appearance of calm in the run up to the elections but they are not a sustainable solution to the many problems that prevent these elections from being free and fair, nor will they promote a democracy that truly represents that Haitian people. The long term implications of installing an illegitimate government could far outweigh the short term benefits enjoyed by those attending the camps.

Other questions about these programs include: how long will these programs feed the hungry and what is their effect on pre-existing programs in Petit Place Cazeau, that were not mentioned in the report? Long before USAID initiated the Play for Peace camps in the neighborhood, Father Jean Juste and the St. Claire community were providing vocational training classes, recreational activities and meals to thousands of children in the neighborhood. Now with Father Jean Juste in prison these programs are at risk.

Unlike Father Jean Juste's commitment to empowering the community, USAIDs stated goal of pacifying political protest through aid is decidedly a short-term strategy, and these camps are not likely to provide a sustainable source of aid after political objectives have been met.

If USAID were truly interested in improving the lives of poor people they would support the maintenance of existing programs by joining Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, 29 members of Congress, and over 400 religious leaders in calling for the release of Father Jean Juste, a cornerstone of many community development projects in Petit Place Cazeau.

The report also references plans to increase activities in the northern town of Milot. It reads: The coming weeks will see HTI staff make field visits to Milot, a critical locale outside the Cap Haitien metropolitan area. This place is known as the point from which all northern protests by former President Aristide's Lavalas Party are coordinated.

Like Petit Place Cazeau, Milot represents an area of the country where the poor have collectively organized. Numerous community programs in Cap Haitien and Milot, started under local Lavalas administrations, have lost funding since the coup. Without funding these programs are struggling to provide for the community.

USAID is taking advantage of the economic and political crisis, using food and recreation to placate peoples resistance, to stifle their demands for justice. The timetable for USAID programs is politically determined; their mandate requires that they do so only as long as the programs serve US foreign policy interests. Communities in northern Haiti are already experiencing the loss of social programs since the coup, their absence will be all the more painful when USAID programs evaporate with changing policy objectives.

As stated in the document, the coming weeks will see increased expansion of USAID programs in Petit Place Cazeau and in other key areas like Milot, where Lavalas remains strong. These developments are of interest not only for those concerned with US subversion of democracy in Haiti but also to those interested in understanding USAID's operations throughout the world.

Despite its beneficent name, USAID is doing what it was designed to do, play off the hunger of the starving, and the boredom of the unemployed, to further US policy interests. In Haiti this means propping up and illegitimate foreign government in the face of massive resistance, a difficult task best carried out through a combination of violent repression and foreign aid, the friendly face of US imperialism.

In context

Submitted November 7, 2005 - 12:56 am by Stephen Peacock
Thank you, Benjamin, for providing the above value-added comment to the HNP article. The fact that such prohibitions have been instituted by Congress speaks volumes about the advisor's role as a weapons-sale middleman. It places in context State's admission that this is "a very controversial and delicate area."

I wonder if the Reagan White House similarly made such acknowledgements as it resisted congressional opposition to funding the Nicaraguan Contras. Hmmm.

Freezing in Haiti

Submitted November 7, 2005 - 5:58 pm by Stephen Peacock
Here's some more food for thought on the issue of Haiti and the December elections; just as the State Dept. ramps up efforts to provide weapons, etc., to the HNP, the U.S. military wants to ship 12 24-foot "refrigerated/freezer containers" to Haiti by December 1. More than likely, the containers will be for food-related uses; on the other hand, upon seeing that the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command Acquisition Center is coordinating this particular procurement action, I couldn't help but let my mind wander a bit.

Why is a military R&D unit handling the shipment of these massive freezers? Plus, why does this contract fall under Foreign Military Sales regulations?

I won't dare speculate.

a horrible thought

Submitted November 15, 2005 - 3:20 am by Jeb Sprague
someone just told:

   "maybe it's for cadavers"

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