I woke up in Port-au-Prince, Wednesday morning at 6am December 20,1989 to find president George Bush on my TV screen explaining to the world that operation Just Cause had started in Panama with 20,000 of our soldiers to restore democracy and capture general Manuel Antonio Noriega, a drug trafficker indicted on February 4, 1988 by a federal grand jury.
I was thrilled, we were finally going to liberate our Panamanian brothers from a tyrant. I ran to my office and started calling my friends to get their opinions and more details, and of course my radio was on. I could not really concentrate on work.
By 11 am, a leftist friend of mine called my office to tell me that Noriega and his irregular paramilitary units called "dignity battalions" were fighting the American imperialists. I was upset, first of all because she was defending Noriega and second, because of her lack of concern for the soldiers and civilians who were probably dying. It was the first time in history we were learning about the invisible plane, the stealth fighter.
By the next day we were already winning the war, finally we saw a picture of Noriega in shackles on a plane departing for Miami. The world was happy, once more people were free, dancing and chanting in the streets of Panama.
America made a loud and clear statement that will live forever in the minds and hearts of the decent people of the world. For the first time in recent history a president was taken prisoner on drug charges and brought to trial to answer for his crimes.
Noriega had killed opposition leaders, journalists were beaten by his thugs, politicians got kicked and clubbed by his bandidos for hire. He was selling weapons to the Sandinistas, and making as much money as he could dealing in the infamous white powder, the family destroyer known as cocaine.
Noriega the Panamanian strongman, also known as God’s Favorite is now serving a 40-year sentence in Florida for drug trafficking. Not to forget the fact that he undermined his country’s so-called democratic elections in 1989.
Five years later, in September of 1994, President Bill Clinton launched his OPERATION RESTORE DEMOCRACY and ordered combat troops to land on the Caribbean island of Haiti and return the Jean Bertrand Aristide to power, the elected, Defrocked Priest President who had been overthrown three years earlier in a bloody military coup. It seemed very noble to the world, no longer could a legitimate leader be ousted from power by military dictators, especially in Latin America. Politicians rejoiced, now they could do as they pleased and would not have to confront another Pinochet. Great, the people could then decide for themselves whom they wanted as president. VIVE LA DEMOCRATIE, LONG LIVE DEMOCRACY, VIVA LA DEMOCRACIA.
What they failed to tell us was that "OPERATION RESTORE DEMOCRACY" was really "OPERATION BIG BUCKS", and it was only a question of money, large amounts of green backs. With 20,000 American troops and American taxpayers’ money, we returned a Psychopath, Drug Dealer, Leftist Anti-American Taliban to Haiti, only to have him turn the country into a Narco-State.
Does it make sense that Mr. Bush arrested Noriega a Drug Dealer and brought him to justice in 1989, and a few years later, in 1994, Mr. Clinton escorted another drug dealer, Mr. Aristide, in grand style only to have him completely destroy a people and a country?
One of Clinton’s big arguments was that the Haitian military was facilitating cocaine shipments to the United States. Of course as a leftist, he had the back- up of the international left, the Latin American politicians afraid for their own positions, the Black Caucus (Haitians call them Black Coquins-Black Rascals in English). As a result, Haiti, a poor country suffered 3 years of a devastating embargo, many people died from lack of food and medication, and the country became the Scapegoat. One can’t help but wonder why?
Now 8 years after the return of Aristide the tyrant, buddy to Fidel Castro, admirer of Chavez, friend of Kaddafi, the Haitian people are living the worst possible scenario . The economy is in shambles, the people are starving, kidnapings and assassinations are rampant, and most importantly the cocaine flow has increased by 20 percent. In addition to blatantly fraudulent elections, drug dealers are jailed only to be released within hours, journalists are being killed, and everyone knows that the meek little priest has become a BILLIONAIRE.
All major newspapers that favored Aristide now denounce him, his former supporters have turned their backs to him, American Congressman and Senators are vehement in their criticism of his corrupt regime. All Haitians know that the President of Haiti is the NEW PABLO ESCOBAR.
We wonder where the DEA and the FBI are? They know more about Aristide and the Drug Trade in Haiti than most of us, they have the tools and the money to investigate. They all know how to read, they all have computers, why don’t they try www.yahoo.com, or www.google.com, it is all there, when is the indictment coming? When is our government going to send a plane to Haiti to get Jean Bertrand Aristide and bring him to justice in Miami? From what I heard, Noriega is waiting for him.
Did you know that cocaine is destroying our children, killing Americans? What are you people doing with our tax dollars?
Where is Bill Clinton, he owes us all an APOLOGY? He should make a public statement concerning his huge blunder in the Haiti operation. Is he blind, is he deaf or is he afraid to denounce Aristide openly?
Where are the Democrats who supported Aristide? Where are the artists from Hollywood? The intellectuals? Where is the Black Caucus when the situation is desperate? Where are the Kennedys? The Haitians want to hear what you have to say now? Jesse Jackson and Randall Robinson what do you have to say? Are you afraid to say that Senator Jesse Helms and the CIA were right?
Or, are you afraid Aristide might talk? He has already issued a warning that if anything happens to him, he will tell the world the names of the people he bribed. Why are you afraid to denounce the priest? Go ahead : THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE.
I can say what you people cannot say, because I am not a candidate, and I am not afraid for my life. I can say out LOUD what most people say in a LOW voice.
THIS IS FREEDOM, I AM FREE.
Now, I am waiting for our government to do its job which is to protect our citizens first and foremost. GO GET THE NEW PABLO ESCOBAR, THE WORLD AND THE HAITIAN PEOPLE WILL BE FOREVER GRATEFUL!!! .
Georges Sami SAATI
Supporter of Democracy |
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