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House Members Blast Administration For Haiti Policies
Rep. Maxine Waters Says Aristide Is Being Held Like a Prisoner
Rep. Barbara Lee Criticizes U.S. "Systematic Destabilization
and Undermining of Democracy in Haiti"
Hugo Chavez Accuses U.S. of Spending Over $1 Million To Help
Oust Him
House Members Blast Administration For Haiti Policies
INTRO: Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega was grilled
by Congressional Democrats yesterday for the Bush administration's
handling of the crisis in Haiti at a hearing of the House
International Relations subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere.
We play excerpts of the hearing.
Congressional Democrats attacked the Bush administration's
handling of the crisis in Haiti yesterday and questioned whether
the United States overthrew the government of President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide.
Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega was the target
of the grilling yesterday at a hearing of House International
Relations subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. This came
as Aristide and his wife Mildred made another round of phone
calls to congressmembers and their friends--they continue
to say that they were kidnapped and that Aristide was overthrown
in a coup d'etat facilitated by the US.
The Central African Republic yesterday had strong words
for former Haiti President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, painting
the exiled leader as an ungrateful guest who likely would
be dead were it not for its hospitality and the kindness of
its allies.
Government spokesman Parfait M'bay told the Agence-France
Presse ''[Aristide] must be grateful...Because if he had not
asked the United States and France to help him, president
Aristide would be dead by now."
- Donald Payne (D-NJ) questioning Assistant Secretary of
State Roger Noreiga.
- Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) questioning Assistant Secretary
of State Roger Noreiga.
- Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) questioning Assistant Secretary
of State Roger Noreiga.
- Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) questioning Assistant Secretary
of State Roger Noreiga.
Rep. Maxine Waters Says Aristide Is Being Held Like
a Prisoner
INTRO: Rep. Maxine Waters discusses President Aristide's
treatment in the Central African Republic and her grilling
of Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega about the return
to Haiti of the paramilitary leaders who led the 1994 coup.
- Rep. Maxine Waters,
Democratic Congressmember from California serving in her
seventh term. She is the Chief Deputy Whip of the Democratic
Party and serves as Co-Chair of the House Democratic Steering
Committee. She is the former chair of the Congressional
Black Caucus.
Rep. Barbara Lee Criticizes U.S. "Systematic
Destabilization and Undermining of Democracy in Haiti"
INTRO: Rep. Barbara Lee compares the administration's policies
in Haiti to the invasion of Iraq and talks about the systematic
embargo and the disallowance of funding for humanitarian projects
in Haiti such as health education and clean water efforts.
- Rep. Barbara Lee,
Democrat from California and member of the Black Congressional
Caucus.
Hugo Chavez Accuses U.S. of Spending Over $1 Million
To Help Oust Him
INTRO: Newly publicized documents show how the National
Endowment for Democracy has given over $1 million in projects
related to an anti-Chavez referendum and opposition groups.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is accusing the United States
of spending over $1 million in helping his opponents attempt
to oust him from power.
In a recent speech Chavez said "The government of Washington
is using the money of its people to support - not only opposition
activities - but acts of conspiracy."
Chavez cited recently made public documents that detail
how the U.S.-funded National Endowment for Democracy has backed
anti-Chavez projects and recall referendums in Venezuela.
The documents were obtained by investigative journalist Jeremy
Bigwood through the Freedom of Information Act and have been
posted on the site venezuelafoia.info run by the Venezuelan
Solidarity Committee.
According to the Miami Herald all of the money is going
to opposition groups determined to unseat Chavez.
One recipient was Sumate which organized the recall petition
against Chavez. Documents show Sumate received just over $50,000
from the National Endowment for Democracy, which is a private
agency funded entirely by the U.S. government.
The State Department issued a statement two weeks categorically
denying Chavez's accusations. The U.S. government has also
denied it played a role in the 2002 coup.
In the summer of 2002, the State Department's Inspector
General's office also released a report that determined the
National Endowment for Democracy or the U.S. government did
not nothing to encourage the coup.
But the report did state the NED, the Pentagon and other
US assistance programs "provided training, institution
building and other support to individuals and organizations
understood to be actively involved in the brief ouster of
the Chavez government."
In Venezuela, the National Endowment for Democracy tripled
its funding from about $250,000 to nearly $900,000 between
2000 and 2001 as opposition to Chavez intensified.
- Eva Golinger, founder of the new website venezuelafoia.info
that has posted documents connecting the National Endowment
for Democracy to the Venezuelan opposition movement.
Link: www.venezuelafoia.info
- Chris Sabatini, senior program officer at the National
Endowment for Democracy for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Link: www.ned.org
- Greg Wilpert, independent journalist in Venezuela who
writes for the website venezuelanalysis.com.
Link: www.venezuelanalysis.com
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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