Essential The Official Contemporary Haitian Geopolitics/Event thread

[loyola llothta]

Haiti Sentinel’s interview with Clinton Cash author, Peter Schweizer

ORLANDO, Florida, USA (sentinel.ht) – It was the reports of failure in the multi-billion dollar post-earthquake effort in Haiti that led Peter Schweizer to author his latest and best selling title, Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich.

Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich
Peter Schweizer, President of the Government Accountability Institute (GAI), availed himself for a telephone interview last week where we discussed the widely-cited book that has been made into a film documentary and graphic novel.

The most remarkable takeaway from my talk with Mr. Schweizer is that it was motivated by the need to look further into the situation of the Haiti post-earthquake reconstruction.

Billions for Haiti: Where did the money go?
All can recall the images of devastation and death of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. It was a top story on every news outlet, print, radio and television for months. It trended on Twitter just as long and gained the attention as support of everyone around the world, governments, celebrities, man, woman and child felt the need to say something, to do something.

Long after the fanfare and the headlines were gone, reports began coming out from Haitian news agencies and lingering journalists that the earthquake reconstruction wasn’t fitting the bill. At the helm was a former U.S. President, Bill Clinton, who was named Head of the United Nations Envoy to Haiti. There was also his wife, then-Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, who together, never hid their long-standing connection to the country. But there were $13 billion pledged dollars, the Clinton Foundation and a recovery that was slow, frustrating and in the end didn’t build Haiti back, let alone, better.

From the earthquake reconstruction effort, Mr. Schweizer began to see a pattern emerge of unusual benefits being given to friends and donors to the Clintons. Haitians were kept out of the decisions related to the country’s relief effort and reconstruction. Instead, projects, such as those with the wealthy Irish billionaire, Denis O’Brien, who essentially holds a monopoly in Haiti’s telecommunications industry, were forwarded.

From Haiti, to the world, Mr. Schweizer began to find that the Clintons were surrounded by conflicts of interests and insufficient transparency. All over the world, with countries such as Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, India, Schweizer found a consistent patter of pay-to-play.

Secretary of State Clinton would change policy positions quite timely with massively disproportionate speaking fees to former President Clinton and donations, some undisclosed, to the Clinton Foundation.

The Need for Further Investigation
Clinton Cash leaves many questions to be answered. Peter Schweizer and his team put together the facts of the book mostly through publicly available, although elusive, information. What the book has left, which Schweizer said during our interview, was the need for further investigation.

The title is already perhaps the most-cited book affecting the 2016 presidential race, but as more and more information is found, may be the most important work of investigative journalism of modern U.S. politics.

Many pundits, news personalities and politicians, dismissed the Hillary Clinton private email server scandal when it first broke out, Schweizer didn’t and has not, as he said in our interview. He learned with the rest of the world, while still preparing for the release of his book about the private server. Mr. Schweizer, as any and many critical observers, including myself, suspect now that the server was used to cover up the kinds of dealings written in his book.

Although Mr. Schweizer believes the patterns his book has uncovered are sufficient to warrant investigation, he believes the more than 30,000 deleted emails of Hillary Clinton, that could not be recovered by James Comey’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), likely hold the proverbial “smoking gun”.

Article:
http://sentinel.ht/2016/08/08/interview-peter-schweizer/

http://sentinel.ht/2016/08/08/interview-peter-schweizer/

 

[loyola llothta]

corruption like no other. upsetting


Defiant Kaliko Beach Uncooperative with Child-Trafficking Investigation

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (sentinel.ht) – Haitian authorities say the proprietor of the Kaliko Beach Club hotel is being uncooperative, defiant and boastful even. And although 18 arrests were made on Sunday during the police operation, as of Monday evening only, nine, all Haitian nationals, involved in the child-trafficking ring were still in police custody.

The capital city’s chief prosecutor, Government Commissioner Jean Danton Leger, said the hotel owner is being defiant, “la p ouvri ko l“, in essence raising his voice with a certain “frekansite” or sass. The less than uncooperative hotelier which had at least 31 girls, youngest found to be aged 10, in one room, was eventually released.

Dwindling Number of Those Arrested

The spokes woman for the commissioner’s office, Substitute Commissioner Mirlande D. Prévost, who was present at Sunday’s police operation, initially reported that 18 adults tied to the child-trafficking ring had been arrested. By that evening, Commissioner Leger had, and has since, been saying 12 adults were arrested. By Monday morning, in an interview with Marie Lucie Bonhomme Opont of Vision 2000, police spokesman, Inspector Gary Desrosiers, said 9 had been arrested.

Senator Jean Renel Senatus (PONT/Ouest) believes the foreign participants somehow escaped. None the less, he congratulated the police units which participated in the sting at Kaliko Beach Club. Senator Senatus said the first information he received was that foreigners were involved in the child-trafficking.

Mr. Senatus, a former Government Commissioner of Port-au-Prince who became known for his aggressive actions against juvenile delinquency, said he made it a point to go to police headquarters to verify the information. He told a journalist Monday morning, “you know in Haiti, there are vagabons who are arrested, who have powerful authorities who call to have them liberated. I didn’t want this to happen so I went there to secure the investigation.”

He said when he arrived at police headquarters there were 31 girls sitting in the hallway. Their ages were from 13-20 but he said even for the older ones, one can’t be certain cause you don’t see the age in their face. He said the girls looked in bad rundown shape. Critical tot he investigation, the senator said the girls told them they were approached by “blan“, which translates to “white” but also can just mean foreigner. He said the individuals approached them near a restaurant in the district of Petion-Ville even with a cake in hand. The girls were asked to join them for a party at the beach.

According to Senator Senatus, the girls said “fok blan yo arret tou“, “the whites should be arrested also”. The girls said these persons should be made to compensate them for what they have been through and that they want to go home.

Commissioner Leger, also in the aforementioned live interview with Madame Opont, that followed Inspector Desrosier’s, said 12 had been arrested. But by that afternoon, in other interviews, he said he spent Monday issuing departure bans against the other suspected participants. He added that he could only hope they were still in the country by the time the bans were ordered.

Police Findings at Scene of Arrests

Mr. Leger also provided details on the sting in several interviews he held throughout the day. He says Room 158, where the adults were found, adjacent to Room 155 where the “33” girls were, substances resembling cocaine and marijuana were recovered. This is interesting because such drugs, especially cocaine, is not widely used in Haiti. It is not easily purchased in retail in non-producing third-world countries, like Haiti. Although such countries like Haiti are trafficking routes for narcotics to the U.S. and Canada, usage of the costly drugs are rare.

The commissioner also said that a laptop was seized at the scene. He said there are photos and videos of adults participating in what he described as “abuse” and sexual acts with minors, not of the some 31 who rescued at the hotel. He says he is more certain than ever that the “child-trafficking”, as he called it, that was thwarted at Kaliko Beach Club, includes sex-trafficking and the sex-trade. For his assistant, Madame Prévost, findings in the laptop, drugs and currencies at the scene hint to a “large network”, she said.

It was through the help of “missionaries” in Haiti that police were tipped off of the activities in December. Both Commissioner Leger and Inspector Desrosiers have confirmed this. They said that these foreigners were approached by individuals offering them minors. It was then that the investigation was launched.

Through interrogations with the girls at the Central Directorate of Judicial Police (DCPJ; Haiti’s FBI), the girls, police say they learned that some were coaxed with invitations by the Haitian suspects to take part in a party on a yacht and take flights aboard a helicopter. Police say neither of the vehicles were confirmed to be in the area. The suspect the foreign parties had intended to take the children out of the country where then they could be subject to kidnapping, sexual exploitation and/or organ farming.

The Haitian citizens arrested in participation told police they were expected to be paid $300 [USD] for bringing each girl offered. The bus driver says he asked no questions about transporting the girls to the hotel. He says he was paid $400 [USD] for the job. A relatively significant pay day.

http://sentinel.ht/2017/02/08/defiant-kaliko-beach-uncooperative-child-trafficking-investigation/

 

[loyola llothta]

 

[loyola llothta]

Ex-Haiti rebel leader argues his case from a U.S. jail cell — on WhatsApp

Guy Philippe one of the Freedom Fighters leaders during Haiti last coup in February 2004 in a Miami Herald interview talking about forming the “Front de Reconstrucion Nationale,” a new party. Peter Andrew Bosch Miami Herald

Ex-Haiti rebel leader and accused drug trafficker Guy Philippe is on the defense — from inside a Miami federal lockup.

Philippe, who was arrested Jan. 5 by the anti-drug trafficking unit of the Haiti National Police in Port-au-Prince and transferred to Miami within hours where he’ll face trial on drug-trafficking and money laundering charges, broke his silence over the weekend.

In a highly unusual move, he pleaded his innocence, called on supporters to continue demonstrating for his immediate return to Haiti and accused former classmate and Haitian Senate President Youri Latortue of heading the conspiracy leading to his unexpected arrest.


And he did it all in a three-minute recording that went viral on the WhatsApp messaging service.

“They have absolutely no proof that I am involved in drugs,” Philippe, 48, proclaimed in Creole from his jail cell in the Miami Federal Detention Center. “They are calling people in prison, offering to reduce their time, calling people in Haiti, offering them visas so that they could come testify against me to condemn me because they don’t really have any evidence against me.”

link:

Ex-Haiti rebel leader argues his case from a U.S. jail cell — on WhatsApp

 

[loyola llothta]

Former Haiti coup leader Guy Philippe boards plane to Miami escorted by U.S. federal agents
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article124915484.html
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article124915484.html

Former Haiti coup leader Guy Philippe, who has been wanted for more than a decade on drug charges in the United States, was arrested Thursday in Haiti and escorted to Miami by U.S. federal agents.



Mercedes Feliciano, a spokeswoman at the detention center, did not respond to an inquiry on how Philippe could have made the recording and whether he is allowed to use the phone from jail. Generally speaking, phone privileges for inmates are allowed, but recordings can only be made by prison authorities. Authorities do routinely record conversations. It is unclear who recorded the conversation.

Philippe was charged under an indictment that was returned by a federal grand jury 12 years ago and unsealed last month. It accuses him of cocaine trafficking and money laundering from 1997 to 2003. He could face up to life in prison if convicted. The U.S. Attorney’s Office also is seeking to recover $1.5 million in drug profits from him.

An ex-member of Haiti’s disbanded armed forces and a former police commissioner, Philippe rose to international prominence 13 years ago this month after leading a caravan of heavily armed militiamen into Port-au-Prince amid a bloody coup that removed then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power Feb. 29, 2004.

Last November, Philippe was elected to the Haitian Senate to represent the Grand’ Anse region, in southwestern Haiti. He was arrested as part of an undercover operation just days before his swearing in. If he’d been sworn in as a senator, he would have had immunity from prosecution during his six-year term. Since his arrest, he and his supporters have tried unsuccessfully to obtain documents from the Senate to support an immunity claim.

Philippe’s wife, Natalie, who resides in the U.S., confirmed it was her husband on the recording. She did so in her own recording — a short video clip in Creole, released hours later also on WhatsApp and other social media sites.


Read more here: Ex-Haiti rebel leader argues his case from a U.S. jail cell — on WhatsApp

 

[loyola llothta]

Wife of Guy Philippe confirms it was her husband's voice on viral video

Natalie Philippe, wife of Guy Philippe, confirming that it was her husband's voice from inside a Miami federal detention lockup in a recording that went viral recently.

Philippe’s defense lawyer, Zeljka Bozanic, also told the Miami Herald that “it was Guy. The statement that he made, it was obviously his voice.”

Bozanic would not say how Philippe made the recording from the highly secured Miami federal detention center. But mid-way through the recording, an unidentified male voice acknowledges him — “Mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm” — and Philippe ends the conversation by saying, “I’ll call you before an hour’s time … tell the guys to release it.”

Philippe’s trial, Bozanic said, is scheduled for the week of April 3.

Philippe starts his recorded declaration by saying that after his arrest by the Haitian police’s anti-drug trafficking unit, La Brigade de Lutte contre le Trafic de Stupéfiants (BLTS), as he left a radio station, the police spent three hours driving him through the streets of Port-au-Prince because supporters were following them.

“After, they placed me in a house they have in Tabarre,” he said, referring to a neighborhood not far from Port-au-Prince’s Toussaint Louverture International Airport. He was flown from Port-au-Prince on a U.S. aircraft after federal agents posed for photos with him on the tarmac.

“It was a total kidnapping,” he said.

One of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s most wanted men, Philippe spent more than a decade evading authorities until his arrest. But he tells a different story in the recording.

“They said they had an arrest warrant for me since 2005; in 2006, I was at the American Embassy to get a visa and they didn’t arrest me,” he said.

A U.S. official, who asked not to be identified, said there is no visa record for Philippe, and there was never an application filed under his name.

Not stopping there, Philippe then launched into a political attack.

“It’s a plot, a severe plot,” he said. “And at the head of it is Youri Latortue and the four Lavalas [political party] senators.”

Latortue, one of the most powerful politicians in Haiti currently, called the statement “a political maneuver.”

“It’s unfortunate that you have someone in prison, and someone is putting pressure on him to say something that isn’t true … to stop me from working,” Latortue told the Herald. He would not say who he thinks is behind Philippe’s attack against him.

On the recording, Philippe said that only the continued demonstrations of his supporters, who earlier this week demonstrated in front of the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince demanding his return, can get him out of his “hole.”

“They are the only ones who can do something for me,” Philippe said of his supporters. “Remain mobilized.”

Herald Staff Writer Jay Weaver contributed to this report.


Read more here: Ex-Haiti rebel leader argues his case from a U.S. jail cell — on WhatsApp

 

[loyola llothta]

this is what Zoe Life really look like

 

[Secure Da Bag]

Jovenel Moise wants a representation of the diaspora (who represents 2 to 3 millions people) at the National assembly . What y'all think about that ?

What is the diaspora directly doing for Haiti that they need direct representation in the National Assembly? Especially if it spends 90% of its time and money outside of Haiti? What does Moise see this idea going? Is there a benefit he's foreseeing?

 

[BigMan]

What is the diaspora directly doing for Haiti that they need direct representation in the National Assembly? Especially if it spends 90% of its time and money outside of Haiti? What does Moise see this idea going? Is there a benefit he's foreseeing?

20% of Haiti's GDP is remittances and remittances are the biggest source of foreign exchange and foreign investment

 

[Secure Da Bag]

20% of Haiti's GDP is remittances and remittances are the biggest source of foreign exchange and foreign investment

The cynic in me says that passing that law would open Haiti to a further foreign monetary invasion. I can see this idea going awry.

 

[mson]

Congrats to Sony Michel and Sebastian Joseph for adding to the growing legacy of Haitian American NFL players. I might be leaving out some guys.

 

[Mr.Big Meat McGee]

What happened to the Billion dollar China infrastructure projects for Haiti? Did they start em or?

 

[Secure Da Bag]

What happened to the Billion dollar China infrastructure projects for Haiti? Did they start em or?

Good question. All the articles I've seen says there were talks and looks promising. But nothing saying the project has actually started.

$4.7 Billion Chinese Development Project Advances in Haiti | HuffPost

 

[Secure Da Bag]

Can Haiti learn from Rwanda's economic model to pull itself into the modern world?

 

[BigMan]

Can Haiti learn from Rwanda's economic model to pull itself into the modern world?

before i watch

this looks off.

video about Haiti and Rwanda with some Chinese guy as the first thing you see