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Did the Bush Administration Allow a Network of Right-Wing
Republicans to Foment a Violent Coup in Haiti?
A Passel of Pomp and a Circus of Circumstance: Historic Conventions
Coverage from the Pacifica Radio Archives
8:01-8:08 Headlines
8:08-8:09 One Minute Music Break
8:07-8:58
Did the Bush Administration Allow a Network of Right-Wing
Republicans to Foment a Violent Coup in Haiti?
INTRO: We speak with Max Blumenthal contributor to Salon.com
and author of a new investigative piece that examines the
role of the United States in destabilizing the democratically-elected
government of Jean Bertrand-Aristide through the International
Republican Institute, a federally-funded, nonprofit political
group backed by powerful Republicans close to the Bush administration
Haiti’s unelected Prime Minister Gerard Latortue is
in Washington today to attend a two-day conference at the
World Bank headquarters to urge international donors to help
the new U.S.-backed Haitian government. The World Bank has
estimated about $1.3 billion is needed to help rebuild the
country which is the poorest in the Americas.
The allocation of funds will be guided by the Interim Cooperation
Framework, an assessment of Haiti”s financial needs
completed earlier this month by the European Commission, the
Inter-American Development Bank, the United Nations and the
World Bank.
Critics warn that the program’s failure to involve
Haitians in the planning could end up sending nearly all the
funds into the pockets of foreigners and Haitian elite, with
little reaching the people in need. A protest is being organized
outside the meeting today.
U.S. Treasury Undersecretary John Taylor said the United
States would contribute $232 million and the Inter-American
Development Bank $400 million. But what many people don’t
know is that U.S. federal funds have been flowing into Haiti
for the past six years. A federally-funded group called the
International Republican Institute, or IRI, has funneled some
$3 million into Haiti to destabilize the democratically-elected
government of Jean Bertrand Aristide.
The IRI, a nonprofit political group backed by powerful Republicans
close to the Bush administration, initiated the destabilization
of Aristide’s government by imposing harsh sanctions,
training Aristide’s political opponents and encouraging
them to reject internationally-sanctioned power-sharing agreements.
Haiti’s political crisis eventually escalated into violence
until Aristide was overthrown in February of this year in
what he calls a modern-day kidnapping in the service of a
coup backed by the United States.
A Passel of Pomp and a Circus of Circumstance: Historic
Conventions Coverage from the Pacifica Radio Archives
INTRO: We continue with our week-long series looking at
political party conventions throughout history with a new
documentary "A Passel of Pomp and a Circus of Circumstance:
Historic Conventions Coverage" produced by the Pacifica
Radio Archives in collaboration with Democracy Now!
We turn now to the second part of our week-long series looking
at conventions past. The new 2-hour documentary "A Passel
of Pomp and a Circus of Circumstance: Historic Conventions
Coverage" produced by the Pacifica Radio Archives in
collaboration with Democracy Now!
Yesterday we looked at conventions from 1936 through to 1948
hearing the voices of Franklin D Roosevelt, Claire Booth-Luce
and many more.
Today we look at the tumultuous years that followed, ending
in the 1968 democratic convention in Chicago. We’ll
hear the voices of John F. Kennedy, Fannie Lou Hamer, Martin
Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and many more.
8:58-8:59 Outro and Credits
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 John Hanmilton.
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, Jenny Filipazzo
and Isis Phillips
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