Posted on 03/01/2004 5:10:04 PM PST by Roscoe Karns
Mar 1, 7:41 PM (ET)
ATLANTA, Ga. (AP) - Jean-Bertrand Aristide said in a telephone interview Monday that he was "forced to leave" Haiti by U.S. military forces who said they would "start shooting and killing" if he refused.
Aristide was put in contact with The Associated Press by the Rev. Jesse Jackson following a news conference, where the civil rights leader called on Congress to investigate Aristide's ouster.
When asked if he left Haiti on his own, Aristide quickly answered: "No. I was forced to leave.
"They were telling me that if I don't leave they would start shooting, and be killing in a matter of time," Aristide said during the brief interview via speaker phone. He spoke with a thick Haitian accent, his voice obscured at times by a bad connection.
When asked who the agents were, he responded: "White American, white military.
"They came at night. ... There were too many. I couldn't count them," he added.
Aristide told reporters that he signed documents relinquishing power out of fear that violence would erupt in Haiti if he didn't comply with the demands of "American security agents."
Aristide said he was in his palace in Port-au-Prince when the military force arrived. He said he thought he was being taken to the Caribbean island of Antigua, but instead he has been exiled to the Central African Republic.
Aristide described the agents as "good, warm, nice," but added that he had no rights during his 20-hour flight to Africa.
Aristide's wife, Mildred, initiated Monday's telephone call, said Shelley Davis, a special assistant to Jackson. She said the reverend and the president's family have been close for about a decade.
Jackson said Congress should investigate whether the United States, specifically the CIA, had a role in the rebellion that led to Aristide's exile.
Jackson encouraged reporters to question where the rebels in Haiti got their guns and uniforms.
"Why would we immediately support an armed overthrow and not support a constitutionally elected government?" Jackson said.
Aristide, who fled Haiti under pressure from the rebels, his political opponents, the United States and France, arrived Monday in the Central African Republic, according to the country's state radio. He has claimed that he was abducted from Haiti by U.S. troops who accompanied him to Africa.
The White House, Pentagon and State Department have denied allegations that Aristide was kidnapped by U.S. forces eager for him to resign.
When asked who the agents were, he responded: "White American, white military."
Aristide described the agents as "good, warm, nice," but added that he had no rights during his 20-hour flight to Africa.
So which is it, Aristide? Were they threatening to shoot and kill, or were they "good, warm and nice"? Methinks something doesn't compute.
As others have said, either he misunderstood the US forces who were telling him there would be shooting and killing by the rebels if he didn't resign (not that the US forces would be "shooting and killing") or he's simply flat-out lying to save face. He's clearly lying when he doesn't mention that he was accompanied by his own security guards.
Do you think he's telling the truth?
Seriously, with our forces already engaged on two fronts in the war on terror, with Kim Jong Il stirring the pot in SE Asia and an election at home to boot, what earthly reason is there for the Bush Administration to engineer a coup in Haiti? Haiti has absolutely no strategic value at all, the only time the average American even thinks about it is when the latest dictator is getting ready to take a fall, and to stir it up means running the risk of having thousands of refugees washing ashore in South Florida on the rooves of their houses. All kinds of pictures of emaciated boat people being turned away by the Coast Guard for the Rats to play over and over again.
Notice how NO ONE in the media is asking these kind of questions?
With the French involved in this, I'm just waiting for the shiv to be planted deeply into our back. Something about this whole episode just screams "Set up!" to me.
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