31 May 2014 — WSWS
The United States has dispatched an amphibious assault ship with some 1,000 Marines and a number of helicopters to coastal waters off Libya, raising the possibility of a direct US military intervention in a country devastated by the Washington-led war that overthrew Col. Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
17 August 2011 — Source: 12160
A U.S. Marine talking on what they are going to do & how they are going to aid the rebels! oops I thought Obama said that no U.S. Army/Marine would put foot on the ground of Libya. Here is the proof that American Troops are on the ground of the Libyan soil!
6 August 2011 — Stop NATO
26 July 2011 — Stop NATO
23 July 2011 — Stop NATO
14 July 2011 — Stop NATO
4 June 2011 — Stop NATO
17 May 2011 — Stop NATO
Updates on Libyan war: May 17, 2011
Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
24 March 2011 — OneNewsNow.com
An ABC affiliate in North Carolina says more than 2,000 U.S. Marines are on the ground in Libya.
WCTI-TV in New Bern reports those Marines, assigned to the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) at Camp Lejuene, are “preserving the sanctity of the city [of Ajdubiyah] and the safety of the civilians within it.”
Capt. Timothy Patrick with the 26th MEU told the station: “In Libya right now they are doing exactly what we need them to do. They are doing what they are told, and right now that’s protecting Libyan people against Qadhafi forces.”
Evidently the Marines’ efforts are being successful. The commanding officer of the 26th MEU, Col. Mark Desens, says that following a second round of strikes by AV-8B Harrier jets, the Libyan dictator’s forces “are now less capable of threatening the town than before.”
According to the report, the 2,200 Marines with the 26th MEU are nearing the end of their deployment in the Mediterranean area and are due to be replaced with Marines from the 22nd MEU out of Camp Lejeune. A March 7 notice from the commanding officer of the 22nd MEU says that unit was being deployed to the Mediterranean Sea earlier than previously planned.
27 January, 2010 — The Bay View
The Bay View is introducing this interview with an urgent action alert from the Haiti Action Committee, co-founded by Pierre Labossiere, urging readers to “stand in solidarity with Haiti” and call the White House, the State Department and their Congress members today.
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Haiti Action Committee Action Alert: Rebuilding Haiti with the Democratic Movement
Jan. 27 – In the aftermath of the devastating 7.0 earthquake, Haitian children, women and men are now suffering through a man-made disaster. Over one week ago, Obama promised, “The people of Haiti will have the full support of the United States in the urgent effort to rescue those trapped beneath the rubble and to deliver the humanitarian relief.” But instead of delivering on this commitment, he has allowed the military response to take priority, resulting in thousands of preventable deaths.
As Haitians organize to rebuild their lives in the midst of an escalated military occupation, we demand that the Obama administration stop its destructive interference in Haiti. Haitians must be at the head of relief efforts and the long term rebuilding of their country. Fanmi Lavalas, the democratic grassroots movement of Haiti, must be at the center of any legitimate rebuilding process.
On behalf of our sisters and brothers in Haiti who have yet to see any relief and are beginning the process of reconstructing their country, we make the following demands on the Obama administration:
20 January, 2010 — Party for Liberation & Socialism
U.S. ruling class has Haitian blood all over its hands
A helicopter lands on the USS Carl Vinson, from where the U.S. military is directing its operations in Haiti. The first U.S. airstrikes against Afghanistan following 9/11 were launched from the USS Carl Vinson’s deck.
The author is a co-founder of March Forward!, an organization of veterans and active-duty service members who stand against war and racism.
In the wake of a devastating earthquake in Haiti, Washington has seized the opportunity to strengthen its grip on Haiti—not only politically and economically, but militarily as well.
The U.S. military has deployed naval vessels, military jets, and more than 2,000 marines and 3,000 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Infantry Division. An additional 10,000 U.S. soldiers arrived in Haiti on Jan. 18.
U.S. military intervention in Haiti is nothing new. U.S. forces occupied the country from 1915 to 1934. Military intervention has been an effective weapon for wealthy U.S. corporate interests to maintain and expand their dominance in the Caribbean.
U.S. imperialism has been the number one enemy of the people of Haiti in the last century, picking up where Spanish and French colonialism left off. Through decades of occupation, countless interventions and financed coups resulting in the removal of the democratically elected Jean Bertrand Aristide—not once, but twice—the United States is the last place that our sisters and brothers in Haiti expect to receive help from.
20 January, 2010 18:22
Doctor: Misinformation and Racism Have Frozen Recovery Effort at General Hospital in Port-au-Prince
“There are no security issues,” says Dr. Evan Lyon of Partners in Health, reporting from the General Hospital in Port-Au-Prince in Haiti, where 1,000 people are in need of operations. Lyon said the reports of violence in the city have been overblown by the media and ha…
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=mGW1cEG4LxNjIlbYGG%2FYNL5yRgPBNOnE
Haiti TV coverage: Reporters saving lives is good, but selling it on TV feels bad
When the scope and intensity of the suffering among Haitians seems to grow by the day, spotlighting a single act by a visiting reporter – like Anderson Cooper of CNN helping a wounded boy across a barricade – feels uncomfortable and, to be blunt, self-serving. The aftermath…
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=161V1wiiFNN6dWSBDloCBL5yRgPBNOnE
Covering the Quake
The crisis in Haiti is a potent reminder to the Sam Zells of the world, who are finding the quickest ways to kill off once-great papers like the L.A. Times: Reporting is expensive, and the Haiti story is a reminder why you keep experienced newshounds on your payroll. Not su…
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=gLinILW2y%2BigAM7QR3d3pL5yRgPBNOnE
The Disaster Pool – How would I describe the Haiti coverage? Redundant.
In Haiti, the dozens of redundant dispatches are stressing an already perilously fragile situation, as all the journalists scrambling to get into the country chew up valuable capacity and resources. Surely there’s a better way. In fairness, the logistical nightmare of trans…
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=zBe%2FdisEpntv1XinfKTyn75yRgPBNOnE
Antiracismdsa: Cuba, Venezuela help Haiti,
By Duane Campbell
Venezuela, which sent its air force with medics, food and equipment a few hours after the tragedy. Cuba, which already had 344 medical doctors on the ground, sent more teams with 151 more specialized medical doctors (including the Reed …
http://antiracismdsa.blogspot.com/2010/01/cuba-venezuela-help-haiti.html
Pat Robertson’s comments on Haiti earthquake are ‘loathsome’
Washington Post
…that the earthquake in Haiti was God’s punishing the Haitians for consorting with the devil. The inhumanity and lack of compassion of this man “of God” …
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/19/AR2010011904424.html
53 Haitian Orphans Are Airlifted to US
New York Times
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr. and SEAN D. HAMILL MIAMI — A group of 53 Haitian orphans landed in Pittsburgh on Tuesday morning, the first wave to arrive after …
www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/world/americas/20orphans.html
Illegal Haitian Immigrants Can Start Applying Thursday to Stay in US
FOXNews
At Notre Dame d’Haiti Catholic Church in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood, Randy McGrorty, head of Catholic Charities Legal Services, fielded questions, …
www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,583408,00.html?test=latestnews
UN agrees to send 3500 more peacekeepers to Haiti
Reuters
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The UN Security Council on Tuesday unanimously
agreed to boost the number of UN troops and police in Haiti by 3500 to help
…
www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60H3H420100119
19 January, 2010 — Media Channel
Haiti remains a death trap, with an aid program that has sat by and watched thousands die without relief. The International Red Cross describes the situation there as a catastrophe while the American Red Cross reports raising more than $100 million dollars thanks to texting technologies and backing from the White House.
Raising money is their specialty; delivering aid is not.
The New York Times noted: “The contributions come despite well-publicized controversies over the Red Cross’s performance and financial accountability after other major disasters.
After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, for example, representatives from the British, German, Colombian, Dutch and other international Red Cross organizations criticized their American counterpart for inadequate planning, poor management of supplies and faulty record-keeping and logistics. And after the Sept. 11 attacks the organization struggled to deploy some $1 billion in donations.”
These are the people we are trusting with our money!
18 January, 2010 — Media Channel
Every disaster plan is built to some degree around the idea of triage—deciding who can and cannot be saved. The worst cases are often separated and allowed to perish so that others who are considered more survivable can be treated.
There is a tragic triage underway in Haiti thanks to screw-ups on the part of the US and western response, and in part because of the objectively tough conditions in Haiti that blocked access and made the delivery of food, water and services difficult. But the planners should have known that!
Look at the TV coverage. “Saving Haiti” is the title CNN has given to its coverage. It shows us all the planes landing, and donations coming in and celebrity response on one hand, and then the problems/failures to actually deliver aid on the other.
Much of the coverage focuses on the upbeat–people being saved, although despite the frame which is about a compassionate America’s response, the Haitian reality is only barelygetting through. It’s not pretty.
Everyone wants to believe in the best intentions of all involved but five days after the quake, with so few being helped, we have to ask, how did this get so badly done?
The family of slain Spanish journalist Ricardo Ortega recently held a press conference in Madrid, Spain where they presented evidence that he was killed by U.S. Marines in Haiti and not by gunmen associated with ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The organization Reporters without Borders (RSF) immediately seized upon the opportunity to release the following statement, “The investigation at first focused on armed supporters of Jean-Bertrand Aristide but in addition to the autopsy carried out in Spain, witness accounts gathered by a journalist colleague on Antena 3, Jesus Martin, who was sent to Haiti six months later, confirmed the thesis that the shooting had come from US troops…”
I found this utterly disingenuous and contemptible given that RSF had been the main proponent of the theory that gunmen associated with ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide were responsible for Ortega’s killing. RSF’s assertion would be uncritically repeated ad nauseum in the international press, and ultimately used by the U.S.-installed government that replaced Aristide, to justify a wholesale campaign of slaughter and mass arrests against his supporters in the following months and years.
Continue reading
3 March 2004
In a piece in Dissident Voice, the author proposes that Aristide may not have been abducted and forcibly deported by the US Marines. Instead it says:
“After making spirited verbal comments about how he would stay and fight the rebels to the end, Aristide, now safely in the CAR, had to put forth some face saving story for his supporters about his departure, while taking the opportunity to make a claim that would embarrass the Bush regime and possibly lead to international pressure for his reinstatement. So he contacts his most ardent supporters in the US, and now the Bushites are on the defensive.”
‘Aristide – Not Kidnapped?’
2 March 2004
“Tell the world that it’s a coup. That American soldiers abducted (me).”
Jean Bertrand Aristide“”Aristide would “leave Haiti in a Lear Jet or in a pine box.””
James Foley, US Ambassador to Haiti
No matter that the corporate media have done their best to cover up the outrage that has been committed against the people of Haiti, things have a way of working their way out into the light of day.
The telephone conversation between Randall Robinson of the TransAfrica Forum and Jean Bertrand Aristide has blown the lid of the gangsters game plan. And it might well be that the phone call saved Aristide’s life, as more information about how the abduction took place comes to light.
26 February 2004
“[In 1825] Haiti was obliged to repay more than it received…. France’s King Charles X ordered former French slaves to pay 150m francs [over $2 billion at today’s prices] before France would grant diplomatic recognition to Haiti, Latin America’s oldest republic. A French diplomat recently told me, without irony, that during François Mitterrand’s presidency, “Haiti still owed us part of that debt”.” [1]
So what else has changed in the following 179 years? Not very much and predictably, the media is doing a hatchet job on Haiti’s Aristide. A piece by Andrew Gumbel in Saturday’s Independent (21/02/04 p. 21) is pretty typical. Headed “The little priest who became a bloody dictator like the one he once despised” is an outrageous rewriting of the history of Haiti with nary a mention of the role that the US has played in the island’s sorry history for the past 179 years including refusing to recognise the world’s first independent Black republic until 1864, fearful of the example it set for its own enslaved African population.
The New Dark Age 