Democracy denied: US turning Haiti into another vassal state

December 21, 2015 by Cynthia McKinney Robert Baer just made an incredibly important admission that for me comes way too late, but still it’s good to know. The former CIA officer admits he was given millions of dollars which he used successfully to bribe politicians in Yugoslavia to betray their country’s interest. Robert Baer describes how the U.S. brought democracy to Yugoslavia by destroying it.
Of course, this policy, financed by my tax dollars, didn’t benefit me or my next door neighbors; but certain individuals in both the U.S. and Yugoslavia benefitted handsomely from the gambit. Oops, too bad about those hundreds of thousands of lives; too bad about Srebrenica. So, now, Robert Baer is trying to make amends, of sort, by exposing the whole affair.
Therefore, it is with this backdrop in mind, that I want to explore how U.S. policy can hurt multitudes of people, yet benefit a small clique, and so be deemed “successful.” U.S. policy in Yugoslavia literally wiped the country off the map. If you are not a peace and justice kind of person, it could be said that the U.S. policy to destroy that country was effective and successful, despite the tremendous loss of life that resulted. And now, the U.S. is attempting to bring “democracy” to Haiti.
Haiti is currently in the midst of an electoral crisis because the U.S. wants to dictate who the next president will be. In 2010, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton interfered in Haiti’s election results, denying the people their right of self-determination.
According to the previous (and now current) head of Haiti’s Presidential Electoral Commission (EC), Pierre Louis Opont, the EC had prepared election results to be publicized; those results were passed on to Cheryl Mills, the chief of staff of then-Secretary Clinton. But, instead of announcing the two winners, who would then compete in a runoff, Mills announced a completely different result.
Opont and the remaining commission members were shocked, but said or did nothing at the time and allowed the fraudulent result to stand.

Haiti is currently in the midst of an electoral crisis because the U.S. wants to dictate who the next president will be.

In July 2015, Opont went public with the saga, just as Haiti was about to commence its presidential campaign for 2015. Needless to say, the U.S.-backed Michel Martelly, an entertainer known onstage as “Sweet Mickey,” went on to “win” the Haitian election, defeating Jude Celestin, who had the backing of outgoing President Rene Preval, a Jean-Bertrand Aristide ally. Democracy denied.
During the 2010 election, the U.S. State Department had made comments like Celestin “was too close to [Venezuelan President Hugo] Chavez.” The U.S. government took it upon itself to deny democracy to Haitians because they had voted for a Chavez ally to lead them.
Well, Hugo Chavez is no longer an issue, nor is the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which just handed Chavez protégé President Nicolas Maduro a crippling blow in Parliamentary elections on Dec. 10, 2015.
Meanwhile, it was later revealed that Secretary Clinton had awarded, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), a $100,000 donation to an organization that supported Clinton’s choice for President, Martelly. After his inauguration, one of Martelly’s favorite slogans was “Haiti is open for business.”

The U.S. government took it upon itself to deny democracy to Haitians because they had voted for a Chavez ally to lead them.

For the then-secretary of state that proved to be an understatement. First, there was the revelation that Tony Rodham, the Secretary Clinton’s brother, was awarded a contract to mine Haitian gold. Tony Rodham has no special insights into gold mining except that he is Hillary Clinton’s brother.
Moreover, the Haitians have refused to mine for more gold because they have steadfastly demanded the return of their gold bullion, taken for “safe keeping” by the U.S. in 1915. The U.S. militarily occupied Haiti until 1934, but maintained economic control over the country.
It is this economic control over Haitian resources that is at the center of the Haitian struggle for self-determination. Now, Secretary Clinton is running for president of the United States but has yet to answer the question of how her brother came to gain a gold mining contract in Haiti during her tenure at the State Department. Her official answer is that she doesn’t know.
More recently, another revelation has come to light of the Clinton Foundation having a for-profit peanut business in Haiti. Acceso Peanut Enterprise Corp., known as Acceso Haiti, is a project of the Clinton Foundation and Canadian mining magnate, Frank Giustra.

It is economic control over Haitian resources that is at the center of the Haitian struggle for self-determination.

Candidate Clinton has yet to be asked about her investments in Haiti that have spawned from the 2010 changed election results.
In addition to finding gold in peanuts, as “Sweet Mickey” is on his way out of the Haitian presidency (the Haitian Constitution prohibits presidents to succeed themselves), yet another Clinton Foundation donor was awarded a contract in Haiti. In October 2015, President Martelly awarded an Israeli company, HLSI, the right to secure Haiti’s land and sea borders.
Now, with the prospects of having yet another election stolen, the people of Haiti have erupted to protect their right of self-determination and, moreover, to protect their resources from more Clinton pillage. This Haitian struggle for independence and dignity today is as important for this small Caribbean country as was a similar struggle that resulted in the Haitian Revolution in 1804.
Recognizing that the situation could easily slip from their control, the U.S. Embassy called presidential candidate Jude Celestin in for “consultations.” The result was that Celestin got up and walked out of the meeting. He declared at the time, “I am not a dealer; I am a leader.” Celestin, however, did not reveal the contents of the “deal” that was discussed.

With the prospects of having yet another election stolen, the people of Haiti have erupted to protect their right of self-determination and, moreover, to protect their resources from more Clinton pillage.

There certainly is enough on the table. But the U.S. Embassy should not be in the position of protecting ill-gotten gains of U.S. presidential candidates against the will of the people in the affected country. Jude Celestin has already had one election stolen from him by the Clintons; but this time, he has forged a relationship with the other candidates. They call themselves “the G8.”
So far, the G8 have held firm and called the presidential election, Round One, fraudulent. And they will not recognize any election outcome announced by the already-tainted Presidential Election Commission without an independent investigation of the allegations of fraud.
The U.S. Embassy has not been able to peel away individual candidates who form the G8. On a recent trip to the country, Ambassador Kenneth Merten came away empty-handed.
Jude Celestin has already had one election stolen from him by the Clintons; but this time, he has forged a relationship with the other candidates. They call themselves “the G8.”
Now, a special delegation from the United Nations is on the ground in Haiti trying to fix this mess because neither the U.S. nor the Organization of American States has been able to move the G8 from its united position. Today, the G8 remain united in their call for an investigation of the election fraud that marred the first round of the presidential poll.
The U.S. brought democracy to Yugoslavia, and Yugoslavia no longer exists. The U.S. has spent $5 billion according to the State Department bringing democracy to Ukraine, and today Ukraine is in turmoil.
In the end, neither the people of Yugoslavia, nor the people of Ukraine have benefited from U.S. democracy. And so it goes with the people of Haiti. But the list of non-Haitians who benefit from U.S. “democracy” is long, indeed.
And the Clinton Foundation family and donors top this list.
After serving in the Georgia Legislature, in 1992, Cynthia McKinney won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. She was the first African-American woman from Georgia in the U.S. Congress. In 2005, McKinney was a vocal critic of the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina and was the first member of Congress to file articles of impeachment against George W. Bush. In 2008, Cynthia McKinney won the Green Party nomination for the U.S. presidency. She can be reached at Cynthia@runcynthiarun.org and on Facebook at CynthiaMcKinneyOfficial.
This story first appeared at https://www.rt.com/op-edge/325895-haiti-presidential-elections-clinton/.

State Dept Again Announces $95K Grant to Teach Haitian Inmates How to Sew

(CNSNews.com) – The State Department did not have success finding a grant recipient last year, so it decided to again announce a $95,000 grant opportunity for a pilot program to train Haitian inmates in textile production and assembly so that they can sew uniforms for other inmates.
“The objective of the program is to provide training to inmates that will provide them with valuable skills for employment in textile production and assembly, which they will then use to create standardized uniforms for Haiti’s inmate population,” the grant announcement said.
“The grantee will need to work closely with the Haitian Department of Prison Administration (DAP) to hold trainings within DAP facilities, involve DAP personnel through a ‘train the trainer’ model, and coordinate details on inmates’ uniform production,” the announcement said.
“Having standardized uniforms is important for DAP, because corrections officers cannot differentiate between inmates and civilians. Differences in inmates’ street clothes can prompt discrimination in how they are treated by corrections officers, or can incite theft from other inmates,” the grant said.
The grant recipient “should aim to train at least 100 DAP inmates in textile production skills, and at least one DAP personnel in each participating prison.” The training is expected to be delivered to “at least four prison facilities in Haiti’s Ouest Department, including the Youth Offenders’ facility in Delmas 33 and the PetionVille Women’s facility.”
Applicants are expected to propose “key personnel and trainers who are fluent in French and/or Haitian Creole, and all course materials must be delivered in French and/or Haitian Creole (not through interpretation).”
Haiti’s prisons are severely overcrowded with the current prison population exceeding the intended capacity by 5,487 inmates. “Women, men, juveniles, and serious/petty offenders are not separated consistently across the system,” the grant announcement said.
Not only is the program an effort to alleviate “severe overcrowding and improve humane conditions” within Haiti’s prison system, but it is expected to provide inmates with skills they can use to re-enter society and reduce recidivism. Inmates can use these skills to “facilitate their entry into the job market.”
“Inmates targeted for participation should be convicted prisoners with remaining sentences between 2-5 years, with higher priority on those with less time remaining.”
The grant is being issued by the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. One grant is expected to be awarded with an award floor of $40,000 and an award ceiling of $95,000.
“The award may be extended up to two years based on INL’s program priorities, good performance on the award, and pending funding availability,” the State Department said.
CNSNews.com previously reported on the grant on July 16, 2013, but the grant was never awarded, according to a State Department spokesman, who told CNSNews.com Tuesday that the grant opportunity posted on Feb. 3, 2014 is a continuation of the grant announced on June 3, 2013. Since that grant was never awarded, the grant opportunity was announced again.
- See more at: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/melanie-hunter/state-dept-again-announces-95k-grant-teach-haitian-inmates-how-sew-0#sthash.0g1HGREy.dpuf