It looks like BushCo is spreading Freedom's libertudinous Flames with his signature policies - lots of guns and some good ol' election rigging:
On May 4, 2005 a U.S. government backed NGO, the Haiti Democracy Project published on its website (haitipolicy.org) a "fact-finding report" carried out during mid February of 2005 in Haiti. The fact finding mission, while visiting Haiti, met with nine members of Group 184 (a coalition of the wealthy elite) and 26 others, ranging from Coup Prime Minister Gérard Latortue, to U.N. and Haitian Police officials, U.S. Ambassador James Foley, and the Brazilian, Argentinean, Canadian, and Dominican Republic Ambassadors to Haiti.
In the report the Haiti Democracy Project's executive director James R. Morrel along with other members of the "fact-finding" delegation, including three former U.S. Ambassadors, conclude that, "Monitoring the election will likely be easier with polling stations reduced to six hundred or so from the twelve thousand of previous elections". The report also mentions the "utility of a voter registration card". Both of these measures will work to exclude large swaths of the Haitian population from the upcoming vote and allow the interim government of Gerard Latortue and the former military to better censor the role of Lavalas and the poor. 95% of all the polling stations used in previous elections will be excluded in the upcoming election.
Now go read Frieheit und Wissen's recap of Rep. Barbara Lee's amendment to a $6B Haitian aid bill in the House. She wanted to tie the aid to free and fair elections. The GOP congressmen? Not so much. This isn't the first time that Barbara Lee has tried to do the right thing by Haiti.
Other news: A popular Haitian journalist, Jacques Roche, who had been kidnapped has turned up dead. He was tortured before being killed. He worked for a television show produced by the Group of 184, a fact which his abductors are alleged to have mentioned during ransom calls. It's unclear whether his work was what motivated Mr. Roche's kidnapping or if it was something that came up in the negotiations after he was abducted.
Stay on this, eRob. Matters.
Posted by: The Heretik | July 16, 2005 at 11:55 PM