In the January-February 2006 issue of New Left Review, Justin Podur reviewed Michael Deibert’s book, Notes from the Last Testament.
This is Podur’s rejoinder to Deibert’s response to that review.
Haiti: Democracy Undone is an investigative report I recently viewed on the Discovery Times channel, where it’s next scheduled to air on the 21st and 22nd of March. The film is a co-production by CBC News: Correspondent, The New York Times and Discovery Times Television, and premiered on the Canadian channel 29 January 2006.
In Haiti: Democracy Undone, Walt Bogdanich, a reporter with The New York Times, investigates the 2004 coup and the US role. That coup was led by Louis Jodel Chamblain, a former death squad leader, and Guy Philippe, a former police chief accused of drug trafficking by the US. While the US claimed they opposed any attempt to violently overthrow the Aristide government, Bogdanich finds that elements of the US government were sending the political opposition a very different message. The investigation looks at the role of the International Republican Institute, based in Washington. In 2004 the IRI, a non-profit organisation, received $36,000,000 in federal funds to promote democracy abroad.
There have been earlier allegations of US support for the 2004 coup. This documentary presents new and overwhelming evidence that that was the case.
The International Republican Institute seems to be the Bush administration’s privatised State Dept. and compliments NED’s WMD bureau, a U.S.-led initiative that promotes neoconservative and like-minded neoliberal policies that contort international law and convention.
Rice has called on the international community to form a “united front” against Venezuela, calling its relationship with Castro “a particular danger to the region.”
I’d call the shadow govt. at work in the United States a threat to the international community that shows no signs of abating or being held accountable to the American taxpayers who are funding its dirty work. I can only wonder how many millions the International Republican Institute has been given to overthrow yet another democratically-elected govt. that poses no real threat to the U.S..