by Dreams End » Fri Sep 08, 2006 9:22 am
<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Tontons Macoutes<br><br>Aliases: Boogeymen, National Security Volunteers<br><br>Base of Operation: Haiti<br><br>Founding Philosophy: The Tontons Macoutes were a militia loyal to longtime Haitian dictator Francois ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier, and later to his son, Jean Claude ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier. The Tontons Macoutes, “boogeymen” in Haitian Creole, were created as a paramilitary force to be stronger than the Haitian Army, in order to guard the Duvalier regime against assassination attempts in the midst of Haiti’s violent political climate. They eventually became a force for controlling public discontent and political adversaries of the Duvaliers, ensuring their continued reign in Haiti.<br><br>“Tonton Macoute” is a figure from Haitian folklore, usually represented as an old man who captures children and places them in a bag.<br><br>Current Goals: Political unrest has continued in Haiti well past the reign of the Duvaliers. Political-oriented armed gangs have become a major source of violence in the streets of Haiti, with frequent battles between supporters of ousted Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide and their opponents. Sources claim that anti-Aristide groups have in their ranks former members of the Tontons Macoutes, some of whom became integrated into the Haitian police and military services.<br><br>MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base includes terrorist attacks linked to Tonton Macoutes remnants active after the Duvalier regime ended in 1986. <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.tkb.org/Group.jsp?groupID=4288">link</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>Not as easy to get a good reference about them as I thought it would be. I also remember a lot of U.S. military "suicides" during the U.S. occupation of Haiti. <br><br>they folded into the police and into the newer party of death, the FRAPH, which was founded by a guy on the CIA payroll. Death is cheap...only 700 bucks a month:<br><br> *<br><br>[edit]<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><br><br>The formation of FRAPH<br><br>FRAPH was established by Emmanuel "Toto" Constant, who went on the CIA payroll as an informant and spy in early 1992 (according to the Agency, this relation ended in mid-1994, but the following October the American Embassy in Haïti was openly acknowledging that Constant – now a born-again democrat – was on its payroll). According to Constant, shortly after Aristide's ouster, Colonel Patrick Collins, a U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), attache who was stationed in Haïti from 1989 to 1992, pressured him to organize a front that could balance the Aristide movement and do intelligence work against it (it is believed that members of FRAPH were working, and perhaps still are, for two social service agencies funded by the Agency for International Development, one of which maintains sensitive files on the movements of the Haïtian poor). [1]<br>[edit]<br><br>U.S. involvement in Haïti<br><br>During the 1992 U.S. presidential campaign, candidate Bill Clinton had promised to restore democracy to Haïti if elected. Inaugurated in 1993, the administration had to deal with a continuing refugee problem in Florida. Condemning FRAPH and the military regime as nothing more than "armed thugs," the administration cooperated with a multinational force and dispatched 15,000 troops sent and a high-level negotiating team (Jimmy Carter, Sam Nunn, and Colin Powell) to force the military to step down, restoring Aristide to power in August 1994 after international sanctions and pressure had failed to produce any results. Although the presence of U.S. and UN peacekeepers helped restore calm and security, this success, claims researcher Lisa A. McGowan, was undermined by their refusal to disarm the disbanded Haïtian military and paramilitaries. As McGowan wrote,<br><br> [USAID] is providing funding and technical assistance to strengthen Haïti’s judicial system, yet the U.S. has refused Haïtian government requests to deport FRAPH leader Constant, who was imprisoned in the U.S. and wanted in Haïti on murder charges. Instead, the U.S. Justice Department released him from prison. Furthermore, the Clinton administration refuses to give the Haïtian government uncensored copies of the documents seized from FRAPH headquarters, raising suspicions that the documents contain incriminating information about CIA and other U.S. collaboration with Haïtian paramilitaries. Documents that were obtained revealed, for example, that the CIA knew that Constant was directly implicated in the 1993 murder of Justice Minister Guy Malory, yet kept him on their payroll until the return of Aristide in 1994. [2]<br><br>It subsequently emerged that the US government had in fact played a significant role in establishing and funding FRAPH. The investigative journalist Allan Nairn broke the story in an article published in The Nation in 1994. [3] Nairn based his findings on interviews with military, paramilitary and intelligence officials in Haïti and the United States as well as Green Beret commanders and internal documents from the U.S. and Haïtian armies. Nairn spoke directly with Constant himself, then being held in a Maryland jail, shortly before he was due to be deported to Haïti. According to Constant, he started the group that became FRAPH at the urging of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and that even after the U.S. occupation got under way in September 1994, "other people from my organization were working with the DIA.", aiding in operations directed against "subversive activities". [4] When Nairn tried to follow up (Constant insisted on a face-to-face meeting), the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service denied him access, explaining that Constant had had a change of heart and no longer wanted to talk.[5]<br><br>Constant later confirmed in 1995 on CBS's "60 Minutes" that the CIA paid him about $700 a month and that he created FRAPH while on the CIA payroll. According to Constant, the FRAPH had been formed "with encouragement and financial backing from the DIA and the CIA." (Miami New Times, 26 February 2004) [6]<br><br>In February 1996, the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) announced that it had obtained thousands of pages of newly declassified U.S. documents, which they claim revealed that the U.S. government recognized the brutal nature of FRAPH but denied it in public. Describing the attitude of US government officials, CCR lawyer Michael Ratner said<br><br> they were talking out of both sides of their mouth. They were talking about restoring democracy to Haïti, but at the same time, they were undermining democracy in the coup period -- at times supporting a group that committed terrorist acts against the Haïtian people. [7]<br><br>According to Ratner, U.S. suspicions of Aristide’s leftist populism prodded them to seek support from even the most brutal anti-Aristide elements. Observers such as Ratner, Nairn and Lisa McGowan have argued that covert assistance to antidemocratic forces such as FRAPH was used to pressure Ariside into abandoning his ambitious program for social reform and adopt harsh economic reforms when the U.S. returned him to power.<br><br>According to Bill O'Neil, consultant for the New York-based National Coalition for Haïtian Rights, though the CIA and the Pentagon encouraged FRAPH early on, "within a few weeks or a few months, [U.S. support] was largely jettisoned." O'Neil, though, expressed concern that the U.S.'s reluctance to completely sever relations with FRAPH until 1995 (when Constant was arrested) may have allowed several high-profile figures to go into hiding. [8]<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FRAPH">wiki link</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br>A little bit on the U.S. military suicides in '94:<br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><br> Suicides of 3 In U.S. Ranks Raise Concern<br><br><br>Article Tools Sponsored By<br>By ERIC SCHMITT,<br>Published: October 19, 1994<br><br>For the third time in a month, an American serviceman in Haiti has apparently committed suicide, prompting military commanders to hold small counseling sessions with soldiers and to enlist the help of chaplains and combat psychiatrists. <br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=990DE2D6103CF93AA25753C1A962958260">link</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>And speaking of suicides, in early this year, the General in charge of the UN force "shot himself in the head in an apparent suicide". You will be absolutely SHOCKED to find out that he was replaced by a school of the Americas graduate, who will helpfully inform you that Pinochet is who made Chile what it is. You can read about it<!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://libcom.org/news/article.php/haiti-un-commander-suicide-090106">here.</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> <p></p><i></i>