Japan Today - 2 Iraqi boys killed after playing with shell
Sunday, March 28, 2004 at 05:31 JST
SAMAWAH, Iraq — Two of six children playing with what was thought to be a dud shell died after it exploded Saturday in the southern Iraqi city of Samawah, where Japanese troops on a reconstruction mission are based, a local hospital official said.
The four other children were unhurt in the accident that took place at around 10 a.m. on the premises of a base where drills were conducted by the former Iraqi military. (Kyodo News)

I wonder how many other children have been killed by the unexploded ordnance that we have left laying around the country side? I have no doubt that the fine people at Tacitus.org that it's unfortunate, but that you can't make an omelet with out breaking eggs.

I personally would love seeing the great Tacitus go and explain to the parents, why their children had to pay the morally acceptable price of war.

Tacitus - November 23,2003

What’s the f*cking difference between this and dropping a two thousand pound bomb in the middle of Bahgdad the way we did a few days ago, the dead are dead and their bodies have definitly been desecrated.

War is a bitch and you guys on the Right wanted it, now go and fight it.
Posted by: Don_Quijote at November 24, 2003 12:22 AM

What’s the f*cking difference between this and dropping a two thousand pound bomb in the middle of Bahgdad the way we did a few days ago….

You’re the voice of ignorance, Don Quijote. The 2,000-pound bomb strikes in Baghdad were against empty buildings, and the populace was warned well beforehand. Ludicrous tactics, but hardly immoral.

And, might I add, we are not in the habit of mutilating Iraqi corpses.

Next.
Posted by: Tacitus at November 24, 2003 12:29 AM

Tac,

I don’t see how it’s any worse that this:

We visit another family, several streets over. Twenty-two people live in this simple compound. During the attack that Saturday some gathered in the small open-air cubicle that is used for washing clothes. Raja Mizhir, 40, the mother of seven children, tried to shelter them when two small bombs blasted through the wall. It was about 11am. The holes in the wall show how one came in high, above their heads, and the other low, at shin level. Raja’s legs were hit and later, in hospital, both were amputated. She died on March 30 from, her death certificate states, “aggressive shelling”.

Mapped: The lethal legacy of cluster bombs

Documented Collateral Damage: Minimum 7898 maximum 9727

So who are the savages exactly? How many US civilians have the Iraqis ever killed?
Posted by: Don_Quijote at November 24, 2003 01:16 AM

Then by your standard, whether you realize it or not, all war is wrong. The Civil War was wrong. The Revolution was wrong. World War II was wrong. All because of “collateral damage.”

Most people recognize “collateral damage” as a morally acceptable price of war. You may not, but I hope you understand the implication of that belief.
Posted by: Tacitus at November 24, 2003 01:44 AM

Tac,

No one knows if any civilians were killed by those bombs in Downtown Bahgdad. I would be shocked if there was no collateral damage.

As for just war theory, I know nothing about it but I know right and wrong and IMNSHO this war is WRONG.
Posted by: Don_Quijote at November 24, 2003 01:41 AM

Then by your standard, whether you realize it or not, all war is wrong. The Civil War was wrong. The Revolution was wrong. World War II was wrong. All because of “collateral damage.”

Most people recognize “collateral damage” as a morally acceptable price of war. You may not, but I hope you understand the implication of that belief.
Posted by: Tacitus at November 24, 2003 01:44 AM

Tac,

War is wrong, but occasionally a necessary evil, in this particular case it was not necessary. Iraq did not threathen the US nor did it have the ability to strike at the US (No Navy, No Air Force).

In the Twentieth Century the US participated in numerous wars, but only one of those, WWII was just as far as I am concerned.

Now, you people on the right wanted war, you ‘ve got it so quit bitching.
Posted by: Don_Quijote at November 24, 2003 01:54 AM

You’re not a lost cause, rilkefan. Quijote, on the other hand, would be better off in a preschool for moral idiots. “Quit bitching.” Good God.

wellbasically can’t understand why corpse mutilation is abominable. I feel pity.

Two things for you, Small Axe:

1) Can you really argue that the Tiger Force is anything but an outlyer — an exception to the rule — insofar as the modern American Army is concerned? Having actually been in the Army, I can assure you that such behavior is not generally condoned.

2) Yes, a society that tolerates public corpse mutilation is far sicker and more debased than one that forces it out of view.
Posted by: Tacitus at November 24, 2003 02:08 AM

In conclusion who gives a f*ck about collateral damage, but heaven forbid that any of my friends get hurt, after all they are far more important than the other 400+ dead Americans or the thousands of wounded & crippled Amwericans. Not to even discuss the Iraqi Body count that we are creating.

And I am a moral Idiot?

Hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue. De La Rochefoucauld
Posted by Don Quijote · January 10, 2004 01:24 AM

Here is an image of you morally acceptable collateral damage


courtesy of Human Rights Watch




- posted by Don Quijote @ 8:50 AM

 
San Diego Union Tribune -Dead appear and disappear mysteriously in Haiti
No one knows how many people have been killed or where they might be buried since a revolt that helped oust President Jean-Bertrand Aristide two weeks ago plunged the impoverished Caribbean nation into violence.
Statistics of people killed since bloodshed began on Feb. 5 have fallen victim to chaos. Estimates by rights groups range from 200 to several hundred. Many killings occurred in the provinces, where relatives are afraid of taking their dead to hospitals for fear of persecution and bury them in secret.
"It is impossible to come up with a credible number. There is no legal identification and the service has collapsed. There are no judges, no police, nobody to do the job," said Simon Pluess of the International Committee for the Red Cross in Haiti.
In the capital Port-au-Prince, anonymous bodies appear in the streets almost every dawn. They sometimes lie untouched for days, the traffic flowing slowly by them but not stopping.
Merite Merilien, head of the cramped morgue in Port-au-Prince, said he has lost count of how many bodies have been brought in over the last month. He said that at the peak of the violence, the number of bodies reached 40 a day.

New Jersey Star Ledger - Looters teach Haiti a harsh lesson
As life slowly returns to what passes for normal in strife-torn Haiti, the daily routine for many students remains in tatters. More than half the country's schools were closed after the uprising that left more than 300 dead and forced Aristide into exile.
Yesterday, uniformed boys with rucksacks and girls wearing pink and red hair ribbons filled the streets as most schools reopened for the first time since the crisis started brewing in December.
The disruption crippled an already moribund education system in a country where more than half the 8 million people are illiterate and only 60 percent have access to schools.
All told, at least 50 schools throughout Haiti were destroyed by pro-Aristide gangs, according to the U.N. Children's Fund. An unknown number of others were gutted by looters who took everything not nailed down -- textbooks, wall maps, desks, even blackboards.

Charlotte Observer - Political rapes of '90s not forgotten in Haiti
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - When the men stopped beating her, the night was silent. For an instant, Immacula Deluce said, she wondered whether she was dead. Then she was overwhelmed by the pain and the shame of having been raped by three men, their faces covered by black hoods.
For six months after her ordeal in 1991, she said, she roamed the streets, blinded from the beating. "When they found me in the street, I was crazy. They took me to the country and did leaf medicine for me and treated me," said Deluce, 38, a proud woman who leads a support group for Haitian women who have been raped.
Deluce and her group said the rapes were politically motivated following a 1991 military coup, the first time that President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced into exile. He was ousted again last month.
In the three years until the United States restored Aristide to office in 1994, survivors' groups and human rights activists said, thousands of women were raped as military and paramilitary groups terrorized people they considered Aristide supporters.
The women's group, representing some of those who say they were raped, now wants the attackers prosecuted. But because many women cannot identify their rapists because of the hoods, the group has opted to go after the leaders of the military who they contend encouraged the rapes. Aristide disbanded the military when he returned to Haiti in 1994.

Jamaica Observer - Latortue praises gang leaders, gunmen
GONAIVES, Haiti (AP) - Sharing a platform with rebel leaders, Haiti's interim leader yesterday praised the gunmen who began the uprising that chased Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power and even paid tribute to an assassinated gangster.
About 3,000 people cheered and clapped for Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, who held his first rally in his hometown of Gonaives, where Haiti's independence was declared 200 years ago and starting point for its recent rebellion.

I have been trying to figure out what is going on in Haiti, but I must say that it's practically impossible to get enough information to form an accurate picture. Now I understand that Haiti is a back water, but it would be nice if the Press would send a few reporter there to keep us appraised of the events, particularly when one takes into account that the new regime is very similar to the one that overthrew Aristide in the early 90's. I strongly suspect that when, in a few years from now, the full story of the coup and it's aftermath come out, people will be appalled by the level of violence & bloodletting.

To paraphrase some French writer ,whose name I can't remember who said upon seeing the massacres that ended the 1870 Paris commune, This blood bath will buy us twenty years of social peace.
- posted by Don Quijote @ 7:13 AM

 
Energy Information Administration

Iraq is estimated to hold 115 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, and possibly much more undiscovered oil in unexplored areas of the country. Iraq also is estimated to contain at least 110 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The country is a focal point for regional and international security issues.
Note: The information contained in this report is the best available as of March 2004 and can change. Also, please click here for a complete chronology of events pertaining to Iraq from 1980 through February 2004

NY Times -With Oil Prices High, OPEC Balks at Cutting Production
HOUSTON, March 22 - Some OPEC members are signaling their reluctance to proceed with announced cuts in production as crude oil prices have climbed to their highest level since the first gulf war.
Oil prices for May delivery eased on Monday after the members' statements, falling 57 cents, or more than 1.5 percent, in New York, to $37.05 a barrel.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is scheduled to discuss quotas at a meeting on March 31 in Vienna, but several representatives from member nations, including officials from Qatar and Venezuela, said they were hesitant to cut production significantly.

Natural Gas Weekly Update
Overview: Thursday, March 18, 2004 (next release 2:00 p.m. on March 25)
Natural gas spot prices have increased since Wednesday, March 10, at most market locations in the Lower 48 States. For the week (Wednesday-Wednesday), prices at the Henry Hub increased 28 cents or about 5 percent to $5.61 per MMBtu. Yesterday (Wednesday, March 17), the price of the NYMEX futures contract for April delivery at the Henry Hub settled at $5.722 per MMBtu, increasing roughly 33 cents or 6 percent since last Wednesday.

British Thermal Unit (BTU), MBTU, MMBTU
A standard unit of measurement used to denote both the amount of heat energy in fuels and the ability of appliances and air conditioning systems to produce heating or cooling. A BTU is the amount of heat required to increase the temperature of a pint of water (which weighs exactly 16 ounces) by one degree Fahrenheit. Since BTUs are measurements of energy consumption, they can be converted directly to kilowatt-hours (3412 BTUs = 1 kWh) or joules (1 BTU = 1,055.06 joules). A wooden kitchen match produce approximately 1 BTU, and air conditioners for household use typically produce between 5,000 and 15,000 BTU.
MBTU stands for one million BTUs, which can also be expressed as one decatherm (10 therms). MBTU is occasionally used as a standard unit of measurement for natural gas and provides a convenient basis for comparing the energy content of various grades of natural gas and other fuels. One cubic foot of natural gas produces approximately 1,000 BTUs, so 1,000 cu.ft. of gas is comparable to 1 MBTU. MBTU is occasionally expressed as MMBTU, which is intended to represent a thousand thousand BTUs.

So 115 billion barrels of Oil at $35 a barrel, a nice chunk of loose change:

Some quick math 115 billion * $35 = $4025 billion. That's a measly 4 trillion dollars worth of Oil on today's market.

and for good measure we have all that Natural Gas,


110 trillion cubic feet of natural gas aproximates 110 billion MBTU (110 trillion/ 1000) at slightly over $5 on the market at the present time.

So a little more math:

110 Billion * $5 = $550 Billion, another nice chunk of loose change.

At todays Market price & assuming that the reserve estimates are reasonably accurate & that the price of energy does not collape, we are looking at over $4.5 trillion worth of loot. There are many people who believe that it might be worth a few hundred billion dollars and a couple hundred thousand dead bodies to get control of all that filthy lucre, after all they or their families aren't the ones doing the dying.

Now this quick back of the envelope does not take into account all the intangibles that controlling all that oil will give you, such as the ability to blackmail other industrial countries, or possibly cut off their Oil supply.

WAR FOR OIL sounds about right!!!


- posted by Don Quijote @ 11:01 PM

 


Tacitus.org - Devotion

I would comment on their idiocy, if I had not been banned from their site. Having been banned I will only observe that these fine people at tacitus are congratulating themselves for putting a bandaid on an open infected wound that they have caused.

If it was'nt for all the DU that the US has dumped upon that poor benighted country, that child would probably not have cancer, & would be outside running around and playing with his/her friends assuming that we had not dumped a few tons of cluster bombs (many of which are still unexploded and will wound and kill people for the next few decades) all over the country side.

Seattle Post Intellicencer - Iraqi cancers, birth defects blamed on U.S. depleted uranium
DU shell holes in the vehicles along the Highway of Death are 1,000 times more radioactive than background radiation, according to Geiger counter readings done for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Dr. Khajak Vartaanian, a nuclear medicine expert from the Iraq Department of Radiation Protection in Basra, and Col. Amal Kassim of the Iraqi navy.
The desert around the vehicles was 100 times more radioactive than background radiation; Basra, a city of 1 million people, some 125 miles away, registered only slightly above background radiation level.
But the radioactivity is only one concern about DU munitions.
A second, potentially more serious hazard is created when a DU round hits its target. As much as 70 percent of the projectile can burn up on impact, creating a firestorm of ceramic DU oxide particles. The residue of this firestorm is an extremely fine ceramic uranium dust that can be spread by the wind, inhaled and absorbed into the human body and absorbed by plants and animals, becoming part of the food chain.
Once lodged in the soil, the munitions can pollute the environment and create up to a hundredfold increase in uranium levels in ground water, according to the U.N. Environmental Program.
Studies show it can remain in human organs for years.

Sunday Herald - WHO ‘suppressed’ scientific study into depleted uranium cancer fears in Iraq
An expert report warning that the long-term health of Iraq’s civilian population would be endangered by British and US depleted uranium (DU) weapons has been kept secret.
The study by three leading radiation scientists cautioned that children and adults could contract cancer after breathing in dust containing DU, which is radioactive and chemically toxic. But it was blocked from publication by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which employed the main author, Dr Keith Baverstock, as a senior radiation advisor. He alleges that it was deliberately suppressed, though this is denied by WHO.
Baverstock also believes that if the study had been published when it was completed in 2001, there would have been more pressure on the US and UK to limit their use of DU weapons in last year’s war, and to clean up afterwards.

BBC - Depleted uranium 'threatens Balkan cancer epidemic'
Mr Coghill says the maximum effect will be reached about six months after the war, and he thinks the first cancers - probably leukaemias - will start to show up about a year after that.
"Throughout the Balkan region, I calculate that there will be an extra 10,150 deaths from cancer because of the use of DU. That will include local people, K-FOR personnel, aid workers, everyone."
He accepts that doubts remain over the effects of DU, and says it is vital to listen to critics who suggest that the higher cancer rates seen in parts of Iraq may have been caused by chemical weapons instead.
However, Mr Coghill notes that Bosnia, where DU weapons were used in 1995, was not attacked with chemical munitions, unlike Iraq.
"No epidemiological study can ever prove causality - all it can do is show an association. For proof, you need human, animal and cellular studies. All of those have been carried out on DU, and they support the association," says Mr Coghill.
"The total evidence is strong that DU is behind Gulf War Syndrome, and the increased rates of disease in Iraq - and in Bosnia.
"The birth deformities seen in the Gulf are identical to those seen in Bosnia, and in the children of some US service personnel who were exposed to DU."
He says there is telling confirmation of his distrust of DU. It comes in the form of evidence submitted by radiation physicists at the University of Maryland to the US Department of Energy in April on the long-term use of DU.
"They concluded that DU should never be used in a battlefield scenario, because of its hazards to health."


It's to bad the chickenhawks who could not help but attempt to prove their machismo by sending other people children to war will not suffer the consequences of their cowardice. After all the vietnamese are still suffering the consequence of agent orange, thirty years after that war has ended.

The Age - With faith on her side
Ten-year-old Khanh came to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) with his mother when he was three. "His mum went off to sell papers and never came back," says Sister Trish Franklin, the founder and program coordinator of the Loreto Vietnam-Australia Project (LVAP) .
"He was living on the streets for years, begging and stealing. He's been in our boys' shelter for 12 months now, and is up to grade one."
Trish points to a photo of a grinning boy in one of her brochures. "This little boy came to our school for the blind six months ago. He's 11, and he has no eyeballs. But, do you know, he's the best singer in the school."

In this case the consequences are being borne by a child that was not even born when the war ended.


- posted by Don Quijote @ 10:15 PM

 
Elections are coming to El Salvador, on the left we have Schafik Handal, of the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, a former guerrilla group and on the right we have Tony Saca of the rightwing ARENA (National Republican Alliance) party, a party founded by Roberto D'Aubuisson, the head of the White Warrior Union, an ultra-right death squad.

Here is the Washington Times take on the elections, the Chicago Tribune's and the Progressive's.

Here is one good reason to root for Handal,Miami Herald- Honduran troops are to leave Iraq in June as planned, but soldiers from El Salvador are to stay put -- unless a leftist candidate wins election Sunday.




- posted by Don Quijote @ 7:54 PM

 
NY Times - Life Is Hard and Short in Haiti's Bleak Villages
By TIM WEINER
Published: March 14, 2004
PLAINE DANGER, Haiti, March 11 — Diplomats call Haiti "a failed state," a nation done in by dictators and disasters.
What that means is a hungry life and an early death for five million people in Haiti's little villages, places like Plaine Danger, 500 miles from Florida and light-years from Port-au-Prince, the capital, where President Jean-Bertrand Aristide fell last week.
Mr. Aristide always promised to make life better in Haiti, where public health, education and the economy have been collapsing for decades. But he never did; no Haitian leader ever has, and many made life worse. Governments and juntas rise and fall, 15 in the last 18 years, doing nothing to stop Haiti from sliding into the sea.
Haiti is slowly disappearing. The soil slides away from its steep hills, where all the trees are turned to charcoal, the only thing people can sell for a profit.

While not particularly knowledgeable about ecology, I remembered reading that Bamboo could grow to full size in 5 year and could be used to prevent erosion, so I did a little googling on Bamboo and came up with some interesting information.

ENVIRONMENTAL BAMBOO FOUNDATION
GROWING WITH STRENGTH AND SPEED...
With a tensile strength superior to mild steel (withstands up to 52,000 Pounds of pressure psi) and a weight-to-strength ratio surpassing that of graphite, bamboo is the strongest growing woody plant on earth with one of the widest ranging habitats of more than 1500 species thriving in diverse terrain from sea level to 12,000 feet on every continent but the poles. It also grows the fastest: clocked shooting skyward at 2 inches an hour. Some species grow one and a half meters a day.

BAMBOO PROTECTS THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE AIR WE BREATHE...
Bamboo is the fastest growing canopy for the regreening of degraded lands, and its stands release 35% more oxygen than equivalent stands of trees. Some bamboo even sequester up to 12 tons of carbon dioxide from the air per hectare. Bamboo can also lower light intensity and protects against ultraviolet rays. Traditional belief holds that being in a bamboo grove - the favorite dwelling place of Buddha - restores calmness to emotions and stimulates creativity.

lDENDROCALAMUS ASPER Probable height in Southern California within 3 years = 20'
Probable ultimate height in Southern California = 60'
Height in habitat = 100'
Loses leaves around 25 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit.
Loses canes around 15 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit.
Dies around 10 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit.
If growing in the ground it prefers to grow in full sun.
A clumping bamboo - rhizomes will not run sideways.
Minimum soil depth required for a healthy plant = 2'
Unrestrained rhizome depth in moist soil = 3'

I am not sufficiently conceited to believe that I am the first person who thought of using Bamboo in Haiti to prevent Erosion, after doing a little more research I came up on the following site Organization for the Rehabilitation of the Environment. I know nothing about the organisation other than what I have read on their website, if anyone is familiar with their work, please let us know if they are worthy of our financial support.
- posted by Don Quijote @ 11:06 AM

 
Boston Globe- Aristide backers blame US for ouster

By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff, 3/1/2004

WASHINGTON - Members of Congress and supporters of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti said the Bush administration inspired - if not actively supported - the removal of a democratically elected leader.
Senior US officials denied having any hand in the three-week rebellion that ultimately forced Aristide to leave the country early yesterday under US Marine guard to an undisclosed location, saying Aristide's corruption and repression were responsible for the uprising.
Critics of the Bush administration accused the United States of collusion, giving the rebel opposition a chance to veto a proposal last week to participate in power sharing and squeezing the Aristide government in recent years. They said Washington helped remove a leader whom it helped regain power a decade ago but with whom it steadily lost favor.
Chief supporters of Aristide made more pointed accusations. They contended that the rebellion was orchestrated by US military and intelligence officials and planned over several years to topple Aristide.
A senior US military official acknowledged that some American weapons sold to the neighboring Dominican Republic last year may have ended up in the hands of opposition forces in Haiti, but stressed that they were not provided as part of some covert US activity and could have been acquired from the Dominican military.The Central Intelligence Agency declined to respond to questions yesterday whether it had any role in Haiti.
The United States was blamed for cutting off international aid to Haiti and, as a result, slowly making Aristide's position untenable. The United States put a stop to hundreds of millions of dollars in loans from the World Bank in 2000 after independent observers said Aristide's party won an overwhelming victory in fraudulent elections.
Aristide's lawyer, Ira Kurzban, also accused the United States of playing a leading role on the ground in Haiti. He said that the rebel leader, Guy Philippe, is an ally of Jadel Chamberlain, the cofounder of FRAPH, the paramilitary organization that terrorized Haitians in the early 1990s and that Kurzban claimed was founded with the help of US intelligence agencies.
Kurzban, who said he had not been able to reach Aristide and was concerned about his safety, said he believes that some of the rebels crossed into Haiti from the Dominican Republic, aided by the US weaponry.
``I think they had an active role, and the key is Chamberlain,'' Kurzban said in an interview from Miami. He provided no evidence for the allegations.
The senior US military official said a small number of US special forces conducted antiterrorism exercises, called Operation Jaded Task, with the Dominican military in February 2003, a program he described as ``routine.''
According to news reports at the time, the exercise apparently came as a surprise to the country's foreign minister, who publicly denounced the operation. The US official said 20,000 M-16s were provided to the Dominican forces to help the country guard its border with Haiti and that all the weapons could not be accounted for.
Another senior defense official who asked not to be named called the allegations of US meddling in Haiti ``utter nonsense.''
``I'm not sure I'd call it a coup d'etat,'' Richard Haas, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, told ABC. ``This was something that was much more revolutionary, if you will, much more from the streets.''

Chicago Tribune - Aristide flees, riots erupt
One rebel leader, Louis-Jodel Chamblain, headed a feared paramilitary group that killed several thousand civilians in the early 1990s. He is joined in the insurgency by several other notorious paramilitary leaders as well as Philippe, a former police official whom Aristide accused of leading at least one failed coup against his government.

VOA - Rioting, Looting Leaves Much of Port-au-Prince in Shambles
The first of several hundred U.S. Marines ordered to Haiti by President Bush arrived in the chaotic capital Sunday. Much of the city lies in shambles one day after the departure of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Much of Haiti's capital lies in shambles one day after the departure of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide under international pressure. Several have been killed and countless shops and other businesses left in ruin.
Automatic gunfire rang out repeatedly near Haiti's national palace in the wake of Mr. Aristide's resignation, as armed gangs of Aristide die-hard loyalists drove city streets, voicing their displeasure with bullets.
But one local resident, who identified himself only as a businessman, was smiling. "I am more than happy. Why? Because the devil has left the country, OK?"
But any joy the man may have felt was soon drowned out by anarchy and lawlessness.

BBC - Guy Philippe: The rebelling soldier
But Mr Philippe's career in the police came to an abrupt end in 2000, when the authorities accused him of plotting a coup with other police chiefs.But Mr Philippe's career in the police came to an abrupt end in 2000, when the authorities accused him of plotting a coup with other police chiefs.
He fled - first to Ecuador, then to the neighbouring Dominican Republic.
In December 2001, when armed men tried to seize the presidential National Palace, a year after disputed elections returned Mr Aristide to office for a second term, authorities accused Mr Philippe of masterminding the operation.
But extradition negotiations failed, and Mr Philippe remained at large.
While in the Dominican Republic, Mr Philippe's reputed taste for luxury hotels fuelled speculation he was involved in drugs trafficking - a charge that he vehemently denied in a recent interview.
"You can look in all the banks of the world, but you will not find any money of mine, because I am not rich," he said.
He fled - first to Ecuador, then to the neighbouring Dominican Republic.
In December 2001, when armed men tried to seize the presidential National Palace, a year after disputed elections returned Mr Aristide to office for a second term, authorities accused Mr Philippe of masterminding the operation.
But extradition negotiations failed, and Mr Philippe remained at large.
While in the Dominican Republic, Mr Philippe's reputed taste for luxury hotels fuelled speculation he was involved in drugs trafficking - a charge that he vehemently denied in a recent interview.
"You can look in all the banks of the world, but you will not find any money of mine, because I am not rich," he said.

Haiti: The Past Is Prologue
Louis Jodel Chamblain is, beyond any doubt, the most shocking figure to have reemerged among the rebels. A sergeant in the Haitian army until 1989 or 1990, Chamblain was one of the founders in 1993 of the paramilitary group known as the Revolutionary Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress (FRAPH). As FRAPH's second in command, and its operational leader, he had a reputation for violence and action.
"I was never paramilitary chief," asserted Chamblain in a recent interview with the New York Times. "I was the leader of a political organization. FRAPH helped people and brought the Haitian people together."
FRAPH's repressive activities, in fact, helped lead nearly 100,000 Haitians to flee their country. At least 3,000 people were killed during military rule, and many thousands more suffered torture, rape, beatings, extortion, arbitrary detention and other abuses

But remember this was not a US backed coup!!! After all we would never support known mass murderers or train a new batch of them !

All that is left to do now is to watch the body count! Hopefully we won't outdo the Cedras count.


The only thing that has me baffled is the interest of the US in the internal affairs of Haiti, a country that is the poorest in the Americas and has no great Natural resources to speak of.
- posted by Don Quijote @ 7:10 AM