Washington’s policy toward democracy in Haiti

Haiti’s infamous dictator “Baby Doc” Duvalier returned to his country this week, while the country’s first elected President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is kept out. These two facts really say everything about Washington’s policy toward Haiti, and our government’s respect for democracy in that country and in the region. Asked about the return of Duvalier, who had […]

Oxfam slams Haiti quake recovery “quagmire”

Reconstruction has barely begun in Haiti a year after its catastrophic earthquake, a leading international charity said in a report sharply critical of a recovery commission led by former President Bill Clinton. There was a tremendous outpouring of support from around the world after the January 12 quake that devastated much of the poor Caribbean […]

Haiti’s untapped wealth and the US military presence there

Beneath the rubble and tragedy of Haiti lies what some geophysicists believe may be one of the globe’s richest zones for oil and gas hydrocarbons outside the Middle East. The same tectonic plates of North America, South America and the Caribbean that rub together to cause earthquakes, also form one of the world’s most active […]

Blackwater-type mercenaries anticipated in Haiti

This month a prominent umbrella organization, the IPOA, is co-organizing a “Haiti summit” for private military and logistic corporations. The IPOA or International Peace Operations Association is dubbed the “mercenary trade association” by journalist Jeremy Scahill, author of “Blackwater: the Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army”. Haiti’s former Minister of Defense, Patrick Elie, […]

U.S. Military gets 40 cents of each U.S. aid dollar to Haiti

Of each U.S. taxpayer dollar, 40 cents is going to the U.S. military, paying for security, search and rescue teams, and the Navy’s hospital ship USNS Comfort. Less than two weeks after President Obama announced an initial $100 million for Haiti earthquake relief, U.S. government spending on the disaster has tripled to $317 million at […]

Criticism of U.S. Military in Haiti

Watch the U.S. media and its coverage of the crisis in Haiti, and you get the impression that Washington is a benevolent power doing its utmost to help with emergency relief in the Caribbean island nation. But tune into news from other parts of the world and you come away with a very different view. […]

American aid for Haiti less than 1 percent of banker bonuses

The estimates are that the six largest U.S. banks paid out a total of $150 Billion in compensation to their employees for 2009. So the $100 Million pledged to Haiti by the U.S. is 0.05 percent of that. In 2009, the U.S. spent about $12 Billion a MONTH on its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan., […]