http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24421.h...
The Militarization of Emergency Aid to Haiti:

Is it a Humanitarian Operation or an Invasion?

By Michel Chossudovsky

Haiti has a longstanding history of US military intervention and occupation going back to the beginning of the 20th Century. US interventionism has contributed to the destruction of Haiti's national economy and the impoverishment of its population.

The devastating earthquake is presented to World public opinion as the sole cause of the country's predicament.

A country has been destroyed, its infrastructure demolished. Its people precipitated into abysmal poverty and despair.

Haiti's history, its colonial past have been erased.

The US military has come to the rescue of an impoverished Nation. What is its Mandate?

Is it a Humanitarian Operation or an Invasion?

January 17, "GlobalResearch" January 15, 2010 -- The main actors in America's "humanitarian operation" are the Department of Defense, the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). (See USAID Speeches: On-The-Record Briefing on the Situation in Haiti, 01/13/10). USAID has also been entrusted in channelling food aid to Haiti, which is distributed by the World Food Program. (See USAID Press Release: USAID to Provide Emergency Food Aid for Haiti Earthquake Victims, January 13, 2010)

The military component of the US mission, however, tends to overshadow the civilian functions of rescuing a desperate and impoverished population. The overall humanitarian operation is not being led by civilian governmental agencies such as FEMA or USAID, but by the Pentagon.

The dominant decision making role has been entrusted to US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM).

A massive deployment of military hardware personnel is contemplated. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen has confirmed that the US will be sending nine to ten thousand troops to Haiti, including 2000 marines. (American Forces Press Service, January 14, 2010)

Aircraft carrier, USS Carl Vinson and its complement of supporting ships has already arrived in Port au Prince. (January 15, 2010). The 2,000-member Marine Amphibious Unit as well as and soldiers from the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne division "are trained in a wide variety of missions including security and riot-control in addition to humanitarian tasks."

In contrast to rescue and relief teams dispatched by various civilian teams and organizations, the humanitarian mandate of the US military is not clearly defined:

“Marines are definitely warriors first, and that is what the world knows the Marines for,... we’re equally as compassionate when we need to be, and this is a role that we’d like to show -- that compassionate warrior, reaching out with a helping hand for those who need it. We are very excited about this.” (Marines' Spokesman, Marines Embark on Haiti Response Mission, Army Forces Press Services, January 14, 2010)

While presidents Obama and Préval spoke on the phone, there were no reports of negotiations between the two governments regarding the entry and deployment of US troops on Haitian soil. The decision was taken and imposed unilaterally by Washington. The total lack of a functioning government in Haiti was used to legitimize, on humanitarian grounds, the sending in of a powerful military force, which has de facto taken over several governmental functions.

<snip to last paragraph>

The militarization of relief operations will weaken the organizational capabilities of Haitians to rebuild and reinstate the institutions of civilian government which have been destroyed. It will also encroach upon the efforts of the international medical teams and civilian relief organisations.

It is absolutely essential that the Haitian people continue to forcefully oppose the presence of foreign troops in their country, particularly in public security operations.

It is essential that Americans across the land forcefully oppose the decision of the Obama adminstration to send US combat troops to Haiti.

There can be no real reconstruction or development under foreign military occupation.


much more at link above

also posted over there

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7491281&mesg_id=7491281

but I love it! I guarantee they shit a brick over there.

Cali was quite lovely to deal with, I was not accurate at all times, but couldn't keep up with the typing...

Here's a Cali OP I had to rec:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7491245&mesg_id=7491245

I logged on here about a half hour ago. Read this OP. Thought I'd take a look at the DU thread before I posted a reply to both forums. I inadvertantly closed out the window, and when I went back the whole thread was GONE!

What the hell is WRONG with those people over there??? Posters might as well be living under the Spanish Inquisition for all the freedom of thought that's allowed.

Soooo.....

maryf was SPOT-ON in posting that article. This morning I was watching MTP and David Gregory, himself, was beating the drums for the US Military taking over in Haiti. Decide for yourself:

First he asked Gen. Keen, "Will the US have a role in running that country for some period of time?"

When he said that, I thought, "Whoa! What is that about?"

Then, a few minutes later, interviewing fmr. Pres. Clinton, he did it again. "Beyond the initial rush, does there have to be some kind of UN-US temporary government? Do we have to have a role in running the government for a time?"

Note the use of almost the same phrase both times, "have a role in running the government (country)".

Given that Gregory is essentially a mouthpiece for the BFEE & Co., I think this is significant. My take is that somebody, somewhere is talking this up.

To the credit of both Gen. Keen and Pres. Clinton, neither chose to bite. Possibly because Gregory was preemptively speaking out of turn. Maybe it's not time to roll that product out yet.

And yet, those BONEHEADS over there, chose to disappear an entire thread because it wasn't seen as PC. :angry:


Here's the link to the MTP transcript. Gen. Keen at top of pg. 2. Clinton further down.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34894130/ns/meet_the_press//


edit> changed maybe to possibly, for clarity.

to be on the side of "the angels" since the angels also happen to be the biggest terrorists and murderers on the planet. And of course the fact that even Faust wouldn't take their bargain of aid in exchange for occupation.

All things considered, no surprise they don't want to talk about it.

They are on the side of the "angels". They don't think the US will ever occupy Haiti.

US accused of annexing airport as squabbling hinders aid effort in Haiti
Priority landing for Americans forces flights carrying emergency supplies to divert to Dominican Republic

Rory Carroll and Daniel Nasaw


January 17, 2010

The US military's takeover of emergency operations in Haiti has triggered a diplomatic row with countries and aid agencies furious at having flights redirected.

Brazil and France lodged an official *protest with Washington after US military aircraft were given priority at Port-au-Prince's congested airport, forcing many non-US flights to divert to the Dominican Republic.

Brasilia warned it would not *relinquish command of UN forces in Haiti, and Paris complained the airport had become a US "annexe", exposing a brewing power struggle amid the global relief effort. The Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières also complained about diverted flights.

The row prompted Haiti's president, René Préval, to call for calm. "This is an extremely difficult situation," he told AP. "We must keep our cool to co-ordinate and not throw accusations at each other."

The squabbling came amid signs that aid was reaching some of the hundreds of thousands of people in desperate need of water, food and medicine six days after a magnitude 7 earthquake levelled the capital, killing more than 100,000, according to Haitian authorities.

The UN was feeding 40,000 and hoped to increase that to 1 million within a fortnight, said the secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, as he arrived in Port-au-Prince yesterday. "I am here with a message of hope that help is on the way," he said, speaking outside the severely damaged national palace. He also acknowledged "that many people are frustrated and they are losing their patience."

Ban said he has three priorities in Haiti: saving as many lives as possible, stepping up humanitarian assistance and ensuring the co-ordination of aid coming into the country. "We should not waste even a single item, a dollar," he said.

The plight of 80 elderly people at a partially collapsed municipal hospice just a mile from the airport, now a huge aid hub, showed the desperate need. The body of a dead 70-year-old man rotted on a mattress, nearly indistinguishable from the exhausted, hungry and thirsty people around him. "Others won't live until tonight," an administrator, Jean Emmanuel, told the Associated Press.

The Haitian government has established 14 food distribution points and aid groups have opened five emergency health centres. Water-purification units – a priority to avert disease and dehydration – were arriving.

But with aftershocks jolting the ruins, bloated bodies in the street and severe shortages of water and food many survivors had had enough: an exodus trekked on foot out of the city to rural areas.

The security situation worsened, with some looters fighting with rocks and clubs for rice, clothing and other goods scavenged from debris. In places the embryonic aid machine did not even try to organise distribution. Aid workers tossed out food packets to crowds and US helicopters took off as soon as they offloaded supplies, prompting scrambles in which the fittest and strongest prevailed.

"They are not identifying the people who need the water. The sick and the old have no chance," Estime Pierre Deny, *hoping to fill a plastic container with water amid a scrum of people, told Reuters.

Frustration over aid bottlenecks among donors became tinged by national rivalry as it became clear the US was taking ownership of the crisis. A vanguard of more than 1,000 US troops was on the ground and 12,000 were expected in the region by today, including marines aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson which anchored offshore as a "floating airport".

The Haitian government, paralysed by the destruction of the presidential palace and ministries, signed a memorandum of understanding formally transferring control of Toussaint L'Ouverture airport to the US. Former president Bill Clinton said he will travel to Haiti today to meet with government officials and deliver much-needed emergency supplies.

The UN mission, which had a 9,000-strong peacekeeping force in Haiti before the quake, seemed too stunned by its own losses to take control. Its dead include its Tunisian head, Hédi Annabi, his Brazilian deputy, Luiz Carlos da Costa, and the acting police commissioner, Doug Coates, a Canadian.

Flights seeking permission to land continuously circle the airport, which is damaged and has only a single runway, rankling several governments and aid agencies. "There are 200 flights going in and out every day, which is an incredible amount for a country like Haiti," Jarry Emmanuel, air logistics officer for the UN's World Food Programme, told the New York Times. "But most flights are for the US military. Their priorities are to secure the country. Ours are to feed. We have got to get those priorities in sync."

France, which as the former *colonial power expects a prominent role, *protested when an emergency field hospital was turned back. The foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said the airport was not for the international community but "an annexe of Washington", according to France's ambassador to Haiti, Didier Le Bret.

Brazil, which saw its leadership of the UN peacekeeping mission as a calling card of its burgeoning influence, was also indignant when three flights were not allowed to land. The foreign ministry reportedly asked Hillary Clinton to grant Brazil priority over chartered flights. Nelson Jobim, the defence minister, said Brazil would not relinquish command duties and suggested it, not Washington, would continue to lead UN forces. Analysts said it was vital command issues be resolved.

The Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières complained about flights with medical staff and equipment which were redirected to the Dominican Republic. "We are all going crazy," said Nan Buzard, of the American Red Cross.

The Obama administration has enlisted former presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton to spearhead relief efforts. In a series of interviews both men deflected right-wing accusations that the White House was seeking political advantage from the disaster. "I'd say now is not the time to focus on politics," Bush said, as he sat beside his predecessor. "You've got children who've lost parents. People wondering where they're going to be able to drink water."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/17/us-accused-aid-effort-haiti

political advantage from the disaster..."

They're pretty good at that, aren't they? It never ends...

Saying the article was from an "unreliable" source (ICH), I was going to repost it from Global Research, the original site, but figured it'd be dumped again. Cali's first post was to say that I should self delete for that very reason...hhhmmm, who do you think complained?

statements on MTP on Sunday. I think it's sginificant that he raised the issue not once, but twice, about the US taking over and "running the country".

Isn't that a red flag for anyone, given that Gregory is pretty much a water-carrier for the PTB?

to takeover Haiti. I think we all expect it. It is how this empire works. Obama is exactly like Bush who is exactly like Clinton, etc. They will grab and will not let go (Colombia and Peru are both coming to realize this truth, as has Honduras). The US will never be "out" of Haiti...

But over at DU they're venomous over even the hint that the US military is going to establish themselves in Haiti. Actually, the phrase, "protest too much" comes to mind.

Flower's entire thread was disappeared, supposedly because ICH is the non-credible source du jour . And there isn't even a guide to help people determine what, today is the source not to be referenced. And those who whine and complain about non-credible sites never have to actually support their assertions. Aren't progressives/liberals supposed to be able to THINK??

Gatekeepers. That's what they are!

But I digress......

I believe that those of us who can see where this is going will be vindicated, down the road. The PTB don't even try to cover their tracks anymore. Like that person said, "We'll creat our reality, and while you're contemplating that, we'll create another reality." (Something like that.) :banghead:

I posted from there once, and my entire thread got deleted. I received a PM from a mod saying that DU does not allow linking to "biased/unreliable" sites such as Global Research. (WTF??) I politely asked what other sites were considered "biased and/or unreliable" so I know not to post from them in the future, and the mod politely said that they cannot provide such a list.

That was the only time when my thread got deleted. I didn't know that ICH was considered an "unreliable" source, as well.

Death by Bottleneck: Musclebound Militarism Hampers Haiti Relief
Written by Chris Floyd
Tuesday, 19 January 2010 23:34

With international turf battles and diplomatic spats slowing the distribution of food, water, medicine and security in Haiti, the stricken people are now fleeing to the countryside. This may actually help the situation in one sense, as it might be easier to get aid to more people in unruined areas; however, it will also put a great strain on regions which are themselves mired in poverty and deprivation, and lacking in infrastructure.

Meanwhile, in Port-au-Prince, as aid begins to trickle in, anguished medical professionals are lamenting the multitude of unnecessary deaths that the bureaucratic bottlenecks have caused. As the Guardian reports:

Médecins sans Frontières says confusion over who is running the relief effort – the US which controls the main airport, or the UN which says it is overseeing distribution – may have led to hundreds of avoidable deaths because it has not been able to get essential supplies in to the country. "The co-ordination ... is not existing or not functioning at this stage," said Benoit Leduc, MSF's operations manager in Port-au-Prince. "I don't really know who is in charge. Between the two systems (the US and the UN) I don't think there is smooth liaison [over] who decides what."

...There has been criticism from some aid agencies of the Americans for giving priority to military flights at the airport while planes carrying relief supplies are unable to land. MSF has had five planes turned back from the airport in recent days, three carrying essential medical supplies and two with expert surgical personnel.

"We lost 48 hours because of these access problems," said Leduc. "Of course it is a small airport, but this is clearly a matter of defining priorities."

Asked how many avoidable deaths had been caused by the delays, he said that hundreds of critical lifesaving operations had been delayed by two days.

"We are talking about septicaemia. The morgues in the hospitals are full," he said.

... John O'Shea, the head of the Irish medical charity, Goal, [said], "there is only one thing stopping a massive and prodigious aid effort being rolled out and that is leadership and co-ordination. You have neither in Haiti at the moment."


The American government response has largely been a militarized one. But the celebrated American war machine -- whose annual budgets could lift millions out of poverty, deprivation and lack of infrastructure every year -- seems too musclebound to respond with the precision and flexibility that the situation requires. No doubt most of the individuals involved in the effort are working tirelessly; but a system designed for war, for death, destruction and domination, will never be a fit instrument for humanitarian relief.

The chief face of the United States in Haiti right now are highly-armed veterans of imperial wars, trained for conquest and occupation -- and many of them strained by multiple tours. And while many Haitians will greet the sight of any organized force coming to help them, America's long and ugly history with Haiti is not forgotten either, as Ed Pilkington notes:

The Haitian in whose house in Port-au-Prince we are staying – a prominent businessman and generally very pro-America – keeps a cherished machete on his wall. It was used, he explained to me one night, by his grandfather to attack US soldiers during the 1915-1934 American occupation of his country.


Writing on Monday, Pilkington also detailed the fatal slowness of the musclebound relief effort:

Day seven of the catastrophe, yet wherever we go we are still surrounded by crowds of people living on the streets pleading with us for water. A few miles away at the airport huge quantities of supplies are stacked high in the sun. Under a deal finalised between the heads of relevant parties on Sunday night, US troops will be responsible for securing the incoming supplies at the airport, and then moving them to four central distribution hubs. One of those hubs is at the national football stadium in downtown Port-au-Prince and another at a golf course near the US embassy.

That will free up troops from the UN peacekeeping force in Haiti, so the official line goes, to take charge of the next stage of the process – getting the aid out of the central hubs and to the neighbourhoods. For that purpose the UN has pinpointed 14 distribution locations where it, together with aid groups, will hand out the goods.

The plan sounds neat, thoroughly thought-out, fool-proof. There is only one problem: it is several days late.


A vast, permanent, completely mobile, well-trained, civilian rescue and restoration corps could easily be maintained by the United States, at the merest fraction of what it now pays out for its regular "war supplements" -- never mind the obscenely bloated 'regular' Pentagon budget. (And yes, such a corps would have a security component, made up of officers who have been trained to deal with suffering people in extremity -- not those trained to inflict suffering and extremity on people.)

This seems like a somewhat better use of public money than, say, waging endless wars to "project dominance" to the four corners of the earth, or bailing out a kleptoplutocracy that has wrecked the global economy and ruined the lives of millions around the world -- or even enriching pharmaceutical and med-biz conglomerates beyond the dreams of avarice just to claim you have passed health care "reform" without actually reforming an insanely expensive and unjust system. But like Dennis Kuchinich's idea of a "Department of Peace," any notion of a full-scale rescue corps would be hooted off the national stage by the super-savvy serious "realists" who rule our discourse, and our lives.

So we will go on as we are now. When natural disasters strike -- and they will be striking more often, and with deadlier effect, on our crowded, corroded planet in the years to come -- we will simply follow the same old pattern: launching ad hoc, inept attempts to retool a few bits and pieces of the lumbering War Machine for temporary humanitarian service. And once again, hundreds, if not thousands, of stricken people will die needless deaths.



NOTE: As noted here the other day, two good venues for giving aid to Haiti are Partners in Health and the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund, both of whom have been working in Haiti for many years.

http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1906-death-by-bottleneck-musclebound-militarism-hampers-haiti-relief.html

http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dangerroom/2010/01/evergreen_photo.jpg

A controversial CIA contractor has found new work in Haiti, flying drones on disaster recovery duty.

When last we heard from Evergreen International Aviation, the Oregon-based firm was offering to post sentries at local voting centers during the 2008 election, ”detaining troublemakers” and making sure voters “do not get out of control.”
Help Haiti Recover
Join Reddit’s Haiti relief fundraising drive with Direct Relief International.

Now, company vice president Sam White tells Aviation Week that the firm is flying at least one ScanEagle surveillance drone over Haiti. ”The company has a fleet of 747s and a fleet of large and small choppers, and has begun ferrying in supplies to Port au Prince,” the magazine’s Paul McLeary notes. “White wouldn’t say who the company is moving cargo for, saying only that ‘we’re working with different agencies, and we have one plane coming in tomorrow full of humanitarian supplies.’”

Over the years, Evergreen has had all sorts of interesting clients over its five-plus decades in operation. Back in the late ’80s, the company “acknowledged one agreement under which his companies provide occasional jobs and cover to foreign nationals the CIA wants taken out of other countries or brought into the United States.” In 2006, Evergreen’s parent company flew Bill O’Reilly into Kuwait in 2006, according toSourceWatch. Last April, the company won a $158 million contract to supply the Air Force with helicopters in Afghanistan.

Haiti wouldn’t be Evergreen’s first disaster-response mission, however. In September, the State of California chartered Evergreen’s 747 supertanker, to help put out forest fires there.

UPDATE: Brian Whiteside, executive vice president of Evergreen Unmanned Systems, denied that his company is flying drones for the earthquake recovery operation. “We have no UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] in Haiti — nothing currently in Haiti, and nothing in the region,”he tells Danger Room. Whiteside acknowledged that “we do have teams over there that are trying to help.” But Whiteside isn’t sure what, exactly, they’ve been able to accomplish. “We don’t have very good comms with them.” And when I asked him which government agency or charity Evergreen was trying to support, he ducked the question, and referred me to his spokesperson.

UPDATE 2: McLeary went back and posted the quotes he got from Evergreen’s Sam White. “We also have some UAVs here that we’re bringing in to, uh, probably work with the press to help out downloading live video links and aerial shots of the devastation,” he said. “We also have 747 cargo airplanes, and so we’re working with different agencies there and uh, we have a plane landing here tomorrow to bring in a lot of humanitarian supplies. So we’ll be here for quite some time.”

So which Evergreen exec is telling the truth?

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/01/cia-contractor-now-flying-spy-drone-over-haiti/

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EVERGREEN, CIA, RENDITION

For anybody interested in following this “company” check out their connection with rendition flights. Some folks in the UK who tracked tail numbers had Evergreen planes in their sights.

Also, a story in the Oregonian many years ago reported that Evergreen flew the first “humanitarian” flight into Afghanistan after we bombed he hell out of them. Front page.

Their headquarters is very close the Hillsboro airport in Oregon, an airport heavily used by corporate jets and the like. The Civil Air Patrol, a weird little offshoot “search and rescue” outfit of the Air Force, also operates out of there…hint hint.

They used to hold their board meetings at the Mallory Hotel in Portland. The place is on 14th and Yamhill, nestled between a couple of Masonic buildings. No shit. Sounds looney, right? Local rumor has it that Evergreen’s bossman is a former Special Ops person and is rather scary. Many of the hotel’s former employees had military experience. At one time there was a fmr. special forces soldier, a Foreign Legion dude, a Burmese rebel who got all his college kid recruits killed back in their fight against the junta, a Russian with a non-Russian accent, Navy officers, etc. Those were just in janitorial and housekeeping. That, and a lot of uniformed military folk used to stay there as well.

Now, consider: Oregon has no major military bases. But what Oregon does have is a massive CIA presence, in the form of Evergreen Aviation.

Food for thought: if you were the US military, would you give 1 of 2 of your most bitchin’ spy planes ever to some backwater museum, as they operate at the Evergreen Aviation museum in McMinnville? And even funnier and loonier: McMinnville says a UFO once landed on their streets…apparently to get some Hammerhead beer from the local McMenamins.

Kidding aside, Evergreen HQ is th NW Coast’s Langley, folks.

Feel free to drive by and freak out, Portlanders. Take the 26 to 185th…and a right on Creepy Lane.

Happy hunting.
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