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HAITI PRESIDENT WHISKED AWAY, U.S. DENIES ABDUCTION.

Article Excerpt
With the departure of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Feb. 29, 2004, at about 4:30 a.m. local time, the democratically elected government of Haiti ceased to exist. The 33rd coup in the nation's 200-year history was a fait accompli. The next day, it was still unclear to whom the blame or credit belonged.

The US was widely suspected. Despite official denials, the evidence was solid and the witnesses credible that the US had removed the democratically elected president of Haiti without his informed consent.

Two days before a US aircraft took President Aristide off the island, "heavily armed" US Marine helicopters were seen within a mile of the National Palace. This happened scant minutes after the president's wife Mildred Aristide was heard live on more than 140 US radio stations, television stations, and the Internet telling Amy Goodman of the daily program Democracy Now, "OK. The situation is quite critical. The thugs and the FRAPH [Front Revolutionnaire pour l'Avancement et le Progres d'Haiti] and the military, which are heavily armed in the north, are sending messages repeatedly on the airways in Haiti that they stand ready at any moment to storm Port-au-Prince. And here in Port-au-Prince, the population has erected--I am looking out the window--lots of barricades along the streets to prevent an attack. Security is at a heightened situation, but the president's resolve is very strong, as he indicated yesterday and through to this morning that what is important in this moment for Haiti, in terms of the future of Haiti, is to establish the stability and the political stability that Haiti has never had, and for there to be a continuity of governance from one president to the next."

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