.:Center for American Progress Newsletter:.

COMPLICIT IN THE OVERTHROW?: U.S. Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) said on ABC's This Week that the Administration is "just as much a part of this coup d'etat as the rebels, as the looters, or anyone else" because they "made it abundantly clear that Aristide would do best by leaving the country, which means that the rebels, the looters ... [were] given to believe that they should never, never, never accept Aristide as the president." Not only did the Administration demand Aristide's removal, but it refused to send peacekeeping troops until Aristide left. Said Rangel: "All we had to do was to send 200, 300 troops over there and tell those people to put down the arms." And at least one news agency reports that the caretaker of the Haitian presidential palace witnessed Aristide being forcibly removed from the palace by U.S. troops. Rangel's point was reinforced by one diplomat who noted that when Aristide was negotiating with rebels over the last two weeks, "it was clear that Washington had its own agenda during the mediation." Specifically, "the United States refused to talk about sending in peacekeepers to help thwart the gunmen's uprising in the countryside as part of a peace plan." As the diplomat said, "When they were refusing to address the security concerns, it was clear they had other things in mind," the diplomat said. "It was clear to me two weeks ago that Aristide was a goner."

This is how the Dubya administration wins friends and influences nations.