Powell: Aristide left 'willingly'

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ^ | March 1. 2004 | Bob Deans

[tomball]

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration Monday denied allegations by Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his supporters that U.S. agents and diplomats coerced him into resigning as Haiti's president and spirited him out of the country at gunpoint.
 

Walter Astrada/AP (ENLARGE)
A looter leaves the former home Monday of Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Port-au-Prince. Amid debris littering the ground is a mask of Aristide.
AP (ENLARGE)
Jean-Bertrand Aristide

"He went onto the airplane willingly," Secretary of State Colin Powell said. "And that's the truth."
 
Powell also admonished two members of Congress for suggesting U.S. diplomats and troops strong-armed the Haitian into exile.
 
"It would have been better for members of Congress who have heard these stories to ask us about the stories before going public with them so that we don't make a difficult situation that much more difficult," Powell said, calling the charges "absurd."
 
Powell made the remarks after Reps. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said Aristide or his wife told them by telephone that American soldiers had forced him onto a plane eventually bound for the Central African Republic.
 
Aristide told The Associated Press and CNN he was "forced to leave" by Americans who warned that his life was threatened by rebels besieging the capital.
 
Powell said Aristide decided to resign and that U.S. forces helped protect him and his family as they boarded a private jet chartered by the State Department.
 
Rangel said Aristide told him on the telephone "he felt like he was being kidnapped." Rangel said Aristide also claimed U.S. Embassy officials dictated the text of his resignation letter.
 
"They needed that resignation. Why? Because [without it] we would have been part of a coup, because it was a coup," Rangel said.
 
Waters told CNN Aristide's wife, Mildred, told her the exiled Haitian leader was "forced to leave his home," after a U.S. Embassy official told him he "had to go now — that if he didn't go he would be killed and a lot of Haitians would be killed."
 
In Port-au-Prince, an elderly caretaker of the presidential palace also told France's RTL radio station that U.S. troops forced Aristide out, according to a report by the Agence France-Presse news service.
 
"The American army came to take him away at 2 in the morning," the palace caretaker told RTL. "They came with a helicopter and they took the security guards.  . . . [Aristide] was not happy. He did not want to be taken away. He did not want to leave. He was not able to fight against the Americans." Officials at the White House and the Pentagon dismissed the allegations as ludicrous.
 
"We took steps to protect Mr. Aristide and his family so they would not be harmed as they departed Haiti," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "We see it as a peaceful, democratic and constitutional solution that was in the best interests of the Haitian people."
 
At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld chuckled when asked whether U.S. Marines led Aristide in handcuffs from the presidential palace in Port-au-Prince.
 
"If you're asking me did that happen, the answer is no," Rumsfeld said. "The idea that someone was abducted is just totally inconsistent with everything I heard or saw or am aware of."

[CindyDawg]

Well take him back and leave him then.

[SunStar]

Reps. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said Aristide or his wife told them by telephone that American soldiers had forced him onto a plane

The usual suspects... two leftist radicals using another leftist radical to smear a Republican White House. Yawn.

[bobo1]

"Reps. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said Aristide or his wife told them by telephone that American soldiers had forced him onto a plane eventually bound for the Central African Republic."

Who in their right mind would believe anything that these two would say? Whooppppppppssssss. Never mind. I can't think like a Rat.

Blessings, bobo

[Mr. Mojo]

I wish I could say that Rangel, Waters and Co. readily believing a foreign crimminal thug before solid U.S. citizen and Secretary of State Colin Powell is surprising, but it isn't.

[Tactical]

I kind of think we should have a press conference and make the option available to Aristide that we will provide him transportation back to Haiti for free, if that's what he wants.

I can understand the guy being upset and most likely confused a bit, with his country falling to pieces and people being killed left and right. So making him that offer is the least we can do for him.

I suspect he won't take us up on it.

As for Rangel and Waters? Well I'm sure glad they aren't the monthly dictator's this month, or there'd be no more Constitution, just everybody throwing their earned wages into a pile for them to distribute to their special interest groups. Sheesh, this is absolutely disgusting for a Congressman and Congresswoman to accuse their own govt of such nonsense!

[Myrddin]

Well take him back and leave him then.

Aristide, Rangel and Jackson should be dropped back in Haiti behind rebel lines. Their adoring fans will treat them in the manner they deserve.

[Fenris6]

Agreed. Warning "you have to leave now or you will get killed by the mob" is not kidnapping. Like a fireman saying "you have to leave now or you will be burned to death".

Rangel and Waters are irresponsible idiots, as are their constituents.

[Squantos]

Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) ............Hate Incorporated CEO & VP !

[sarasmom]

Make sure some old tires and gasoline are on site, else the ambiance wll lack a certain cache!

[Mo1]

Hey Charlie and Maxine ... you can always escort Aristide back to Hatti if you want .. no one is stopping you

[longtermmemmory]

I remember stories about Aristide have bizare behavior when he was previously deposed. I think he may have "issues" to put it mildly. Perhaps this is why Clinton selected him.

He is trying to shape escorts into kidnappers. He lost his leadership for the second time. Hard to think he would not be affected by that.

[fire_eye]

When I first heard Powell issuing a denial of this, my initial reaction was why even bother responding to these leftist howlings.

But now that I see who's howling, I wish he'd just said (whether it's true or not) - "Yes - We grabbed him and threw him out of the country, and we're sending him to a Communist country where he'll be more welcome. We're trying to decide between Cuba and Commufornia".

[debg]

Aristede was live on CNN last night (the call had been set up by none other than Jesse Jackson.) He repeated that he was kidnapped.

[Caipirabob]

If the US had been so inclined as to actually kidnap Aristede, they would have also been smart enought to lost him before they landed.

Aristede is a fool, and now he's a fool out of power. All the better. Maxine Waters should be careful, Aristede may decide to run for her seat now that he's got all this free time on his hands. If she could get elected, well...

[debg]

I hope we have pictures of him and his security staff (celebrating) on the plane. Release them in a few days after the CBC has spewed more hate.