The <q>to be returned</q> documents

An article written by Dana Priest appeared on the Washington Post on December 6, 1995. The title is: U.S. to Return Documents seized Last Year in Haiti. The following are some excerpts from the article for analyses and comments:

1- The Clinton Administration decided to return Tens of Thousands of sensitive documents that were seized by U.S. troops during the 1994 intervention

2- Aristide's Government believes the documents could help identify weapons caches and individuals responsible for human rights violation also contain the names of Haitians who supported the 1991 coup and would show the ties the U.S. intelligence agencies had to the Haitian military

3- U.S. military and intelligence officials stated that the documents did not belong to the Aristide Government because they were records from the previous regime (Cedras and company)

4- A Pentagon Official stated that the Defense Department is screening the documents and will black out the names of U.S. citizens for privacy reasons and to ensure the safety of American citizens

5- Stated Department official said that Washington would cooperate with Haitian officials in investigating and bringing to justice any American involved in illegal activities whose identity may be revealed in the paper

6- The State Department official said it would take several weeks before the documents are handed over and that their contents are not as substantiate as has been portrayed in Haitian and U.S. news accounts. It is basically junk. It was silly to hold on to this in the first place.

My Observation/Comments/Concerns From the Article

Why Tens of Thousands of sensitive documents were generated? Can anyone help us to find out what their mission was?

If the documents do not belong to the Arristide's Government as stated in the article, is it their intention to hand them over to Mr. Cedras who is in exile or to Mr. Constant who is currently in jail in Maryland?

If Defense Department's plan is to screen the documents and black out the names of U.S. from the documents. How will the Justice Department bring to justice Americans whose names are revealed in the documents

As stated by a State Department official that the contents of the documents are: It is basically junk and It was silly to hold on to this in the first place, why don't they just return the documents 'As is' without screening them and black out the names of the people who were involved

Conclusion:

Dick Gregory said: Information is Power. Lately we have been bombarded by a series of articles written in the Washington Post, Washington Times, New York Times etc. to just name a few. I think it would be best to share excerpts from these articles via the internet. That will help us to perform clearer analyses of events occuring in Haiti. Remember each newswritter approaches or reports certain news differently, i.e. some may report the truth while others may be very conservative.

Herald Wire Services this date carry announcement by State Dept. spokesman Glyn Davies that the administration will turn over to Haiti 30,000 to 60,000 Haitian military documents and other items seized last year.

Comment: The high end of this range still amounts to less than half of the documents allegedly seized. One doubts that FRAPH documentation is included under the strange rubric of other items seized.

I saw the story in both the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and The New York Times yesterday. Like the authors above, I noted the truncated amount of material to be returned and the mutilated condition they were to be in.

Think about this a minute: The U.S. allows that the coup was illegal and even sent in troops to put it down. The U.S. allows that Aristide is the legitimate president of Haiti, and doesn't contest his election at all.

But they won't turn over Haitian documents to the Haitian government? Can you imagine the flap if this were not a poor, small nation without any clout?

The to be returned documents

Dialog on Bob Corbett's Haiti list, December 1995

My Observation/Comments/Concerns From the Article

Conclusion: