Aristide Murders Key Witness; Blackmails the Clintons By Stanley Lucas

Oriel Jean, former President Aristide’s security chief, was gunned down on March 2 in Delmas, Haiti. The popular belief in Haiti is that the murder is linked to his upcoming testimony against former President Aristide in Haitian court. Aristide is facing trial for money laundering and the murder of Haitian journalist, Jean Dominique, in 2000. The evidence in Jean’s murder investigation points to a premeditated strike. Police sources told reporters from Le Nouvelliste, Haiti’s national newspaper, that this killing was well planned.

Oriel Jean was a key witness in a judicial case linking former President Jean Bertrand Aristide to drug trafficking and money laundering in the United States as well as a key witness in two judicial cases in Haiti implicating Aristide: one in the killing of journalist Jean Dominique and the other on money laundering, drug trafficking and corruption.

The wheels of Haitian justice are turning slowly, but surely. Since the Superior Council of Judiciary Power (CSPJ) was installed three years ago under new rules that no longer allow them to be fired by the Executive Branch, Haitian judges have demonstrated a newfound courage in the pursuit of justice and have developed a new level of independence that is healthy for Haiti’s democratic development. But it is an uphill battle for these judges. They are facing dangerous threats from those with power and money and an aggressive and powerful lobbying campaign in the U.S. seeking to protect corrupt foreign interests linked to the Haitian mob bosses and economic cartels.

Inside the Aristide Trials

After Jean’s arraignment and trial he was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez in 2005. His prison sentence was reduced by a plea deal in which he provided extensive firsthand information on the networks of organized crime, drug trafficking and money laundering in Haiti. His testimony implicated former President Aristide in drug trafficking and money laundering. After serving out a two and a half year sentence, he returned to Haiti in 2012.

Meanwhile in Haiti, Aristide is facing three indictments and was summoned by two magistrate-investigating judges in 2011, 2012 and 2013. The first indictment was issued by Judge Ivickel Dabresil who is trying the case on the murder of Jean Dominique in 2011. One of the key witnesses in this case was Oriel Jean who provided testimony on how Aristide planned and killed Dominique. After a lengthy investigation, Judge Dabresil ordered the indictment and detention of nine Aristide associates implicated in the murder:

·      Mirlande Liberus the former head of Aristide’s “democracy foundation” now in Florida, protected by Aristide lobbyist, lawyer and business associate, Ira Kurzban

·      Aristide’s voodoo priest, Annette Auguste, alias Sô Ann, the former deputy mayor of Port au Prince

·      Frantz Camille, alias Franco Camille, a well known Aristide henchmen

·      Gabriel Harold Sévère

·      Jeudy Jean Daniel

·      Markenton Michel

·      Mérité et Dimsley Milien

·      Toussaint Merdique

The court was prepping for the final proceedings when Oriel Jean was executed. SOS Journalists and the Independent Commission to Support Investigations into Murders of Journalists (CIAPEAJ), two organizations leading the charge to seek justice for Jean Dominique, denounced and condemned the assassination calling upon the authorities to ensure that Dominique’s murder does not go unpunished in light of this major setback.

The other trial in which Jean was a key witness was the corruption, drug trafficking and money laundering trial. Judge Lamarre Belizaire conducted a far-reaching investigation that unveiled corruption and kickbacks in Haiti’s telecom sector, which has significant foreign political implications. The investigation revealed stolen state funds, drug trafficking and money laundering. Jean had a wealth of firsthand information as he served as Aristide’s confidante and right hand man at that time.

Aristide’s Violent Response

In the course of the judges’ investigations, Aristide responded with a campaign of violence, intimidation and a well-coordinated public relations campaign in-country and abroad executed by his lobbyists in Washington, DC and Kim Ives his mouthpiece and the same lobbyists and associates he made millionaires during his corrupt tenures as president.

Judge Belizaire’s wife, kids and parents were subjected to violent intimidation and a vicious media campaign in an effort to get him to back down. The judge was directly threatened, and there was an attempt on the life of his warrant server – the same server who delivered warrants to Aristide’s residence. Due to extensive foreign pressure, the Haitian police never executed the warrant.

Manipulating the State Department and Blackmailing the Clintons

Through his lobbyists in Washington, DC, Aristide made it clear to the Haiti coordinator at the US State Department that he and his supporters would “burn down half of Port-au-Prince” if these warrants were executed. Aristide claims that he enlisted US Representative Maxine Waters’ (D-CA) office to press this individual at the State Department into injecting US political pressure into the process by weighing in with the Haitian Government against the trials and warrant executions. Many in Haiti could construe this intervention as U.S. policy only taking people in Haiti seriously if they threaten violence – a dangerous message for the future of democracy.

In addition, Aristide spread the word that he can blackmail those in the US that were involved in the telecom deals when he was President. He has threatened to provide details on the recently surfaced stories about these same individuals’ involvement in a sweetheart deal involving Haiti’s USD$40 billion 24 karat gold mine as well as linkages between that concession and the deployment of billions of dollars allocated for recovery from Haiti’s 2010 earthquake. 

Among those implicated is Secretary Hillary Clinton’s brother, Tony Rodham. In Haiti, Aristide claimed that the Clinton knew about the gold mine since 1994 when the former President instructed the US military to blow up the Bossa Mountain in the North East of Haiti. In April 2014, Aristide sent Newton St Juste, a lawyer from his Lavalas party, to the Haitian General Accounting Office to request an investigation into former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary Clinton’s oversight of the $4 billion donated by the State Department to Haiti and the funds collected by the Clinton Foundation for Haiti from Algeria ($500,000), Qatar ($20 million), and other foreign countries. There are questions about the multilateral funds they received from the IDB, World Bank and other institutions. And, there are further questions about private funds donated by wealthy individuals, including Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim and Canadian Mogul Franck Giustra who each gave $100 million.

The tragedy here is that this was real money; money that could have been a game changer in Haiti. Yet after all this money was collected and all the attention brought by the earthquake, by every single person’s account, Haiti is absolutely no better off than it was before. Building Back Better never materialized.

Déjà Vu All Over Again

This is not the first time a witness involved in an Aristide case has been executed. Venel Joseph, Aristide’s former Governor of the Central Bank in Haiti agreed to testify in Miami against him in the Haiti telecom scandal and money laundering. After the Miami Herald wrote about his upcoming collaboration with the US judicial system, he was gunned down in Haiti on the eve of his trip to Miami. Joseph’s son, who was the head of Teleco, was already cooperating with Miami judicial authorities and provided substantial information as part of a plea deal. Joseph had detailed information on and extensive involvement in the kickbacks given during his tenure as Haitian Central Bank Governor and his role as Chairman of the Teleco Board of Directors. 

In another instance, Aristide had prominent businessman Bernard Lauture killed, and when his wife tried to seek justice for her husband’s murder in Haiti, Aristide sent one of his henchmen to threaten her saying that if she pursued the case, he would have her children killed next. Mrs. Lauture fled the country with her children and pursued justice from Europe. She was able to get partial justice because the French Government extradited one of the Aristide’s henchmen involved in the killing, Amaral Duclona, was sentenced to jail for the murder of a French Consul in Haiti. Madame Lauture’s public testimony over Haitian radio is available here.

Each time Aristide orders a hit, he tries to cover his tracks by using his propaganda machine to fabricate stories of a poor persecuted priest that enjoys the popular support of the people. This time after Oriel Jean assassination his chief story fabricator, Kim Ives, has already pushed out a story about how US intelligence killed Oriel Jean. With no evidence or motive, this lie is meant only to engage the fringe groups that support Aristide in the US and Haiti.

To What End?

The end game for Aristide is to create enough chaos so he can forge a coup against President Michel Martelly and reinstate his regime. He envisions installing his wife, who is an American citizen and legally unqualified to serve, as the figurehead. His efforts to evade justice are part of a multi-pronged strategy leveraging violence and undermining the organization of Haitian elections while turning Martelly into the fall guy for the failure to organize the municipal and Legislative elections.

Meanwhile, Haitians continue to reject him despite the external pressure of the corrupt foreign interests that Aristide is blackmailing. Upon his return from exile in 2010, the Haitian people welcomed him back by looting his home – stealing even the mangoes on the trees – the night before his arrival. And, his Lavalas party enjoys about a 5% approval rating.

In spite of Aristide’s violent campaign, Haiti’s electoral process is moving forward. The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) is in place and the electoral decree has been issued. The final electoral calendar will be published next week. And so, Haiti is once again at a critical, fragile juncture. While Aristide may believe that his violence and intimidation will work as it has over the past two decades, Haitians are proving him wrong. Judges are standing up for justice, and the people are standing down from their support of his leadership, which by every measure was a complete failure. Like rulers before him who employed violence, executions, intimidation, threats, blackmail, Aristide truly believes that he is above the law and is seemingly unaware of the trend toward justice. Perhaps he should study the fate of Saddam Hussein or Hosni Mubarak and watch carefully the fate of Vladimir Putin.

Jean Bertrand Aristide and the Assassination of Journalist Jean Dominique by Stanley Lucas

Jean Dominique is a Haitian journalist who was assassinated in April 3, 2000. For the past thirteen years judges and the Attorneys General of Haiti who were in charge of the case, were victims of intimidation, sabotage and forced resignation by members of the former Aristide Administration trying to protect the killers (see: http://www.haitipolicy.org/content/178.htm ).  Meanwhile many witnesses to the Dominique killing over the years were targeted and killed (see: http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article14345  ).

After the killing of many Haitian journalists, for the first time in twenty-five years a judge, Ivickel Dabresil, has had the courage to pursue this important investigation into the Jean Dominique assassination to bring those responsible to justice and put an end to impunity. It is in this context for the past three months that Judge Dabresil summoned for interrogation former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, former Fanmi Lavalas Senator Danny Toussaint and former President Rene Preval.

On May 8, 2013, former President Jean Bertrand Aristide was summoned by the Judge.  One of the investigative scenarios named former President as a suspect in the killing of Jean Dominique. According to that scenario, he ordered Dominique killed for two reasons: first, Dominique was a harsh critic of the corruption and abuse of power by Aristide; and second, with the support of President Preval, Dominique was going to be a candidate with the political organization Koze Pep in the November 2000 Presidential elections, for more see the following two links:

1.    http://www.haitipolicy.org/content/148.htm  
2.   http://www.haitipolicy.org/content/149.htm

 After receiving the judge’s summon, the Aristide machine swung into action lobbying in Haiti and overseas attempting to politicize and undermine these judicial proceeding by creating a political diversion.  While his well-paid lobbyists are trying to make it about his return in politics, in Haiti, the debate this week is not political but legal. The foreign lobbyists continue to attempt to undermine Haiti’s judicial system. Many readers may recall that with Haitian tax payers money, Jean Bertrand Aristide made Ira Kurzban, board member of the Miami Herald, and Brian Concannon of Institute of Democracy and Justice, millionaires (see: http://www.haitipolicy.org/Lobbying7.htm  ).  There is only one central question that the Haitians and their judicial system are trying to answer after thirteen years: Who killed journalist Jean Dominique?

Toussaint, Neptune and Preval have responded peacefully and have cooperated with the judge summon. They each separately answered the judge’s questions for hours.  

Jean Bertrand Aristide’s behavior toward these judicial proceedings was completely different. Aristide has always acted as if that he is above the law in Haiti.  Last January, after the victims of his cooperative scheme who stole millions filed a complaint with the office of the Attorney General Lucmane Delile, Aristide refused to respond to the legal summon. With threats and violence, Aristide forced the Attorney General to come to his house making a mockery of Haiti’s judicial system (see: http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article13915#.UZRoKGDgIzY ).

He wanted to do the same with judge Dabresil. On May 7, 2013 he tried to intimidate the judge and the judicial system of Haiti by dispatching 300 paid chimeres (thugs) of his party Fanmi Lavalas into the streets to lead violent demonstrations in the streets of Port-au-Prince (see: http://lematinhaiti.com/contenu.php?idtexte=35715&idtypetexte ).  Aristide’s violence did not intimidate the judge who did not budge from his position.

Again in order to intimidate the judge, on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, Aristide and his Fanmi Lavalas party turned the summons into a political rally in front of the judge’s offices where hundreds turned out to protest. With courage, the judge did not cede to these political pressures and acts of intimidation and violence of Aristide’s chimeres. Rather, Judge Dabresil interrogated Jean Bertrand Aristide for several hours. Again that day supporters of Aristide used violence. Journalist Henry Frantz Delice of Radio-Tele Ginen was one of the victims of Aristide’s chimeres. They also attacked the offices of radio-tele Ginen.  These acts of violence against the press were condemned by the National Association of Haitian Media (ANMH) led by Lilianne Pierre Paul. For more details see the following two links:

1.   http://signalfmhaiti.com/index.php/124-note-de-presse/512-l-anmh-condamne-l-agression-contre-tele-ginen
2.   http://www.radiokiskeya.com/spip.php?article9563

The majority of Haitians condemned this violent attitude of Jean Bertrand Aristide and his Fanmi Lavalas party toward Haiti’s judicial system. After these events many Haitians believe that Aristide has become the prime suspect behind the killers. The widow of Jean Dominique, Michele Montas, has stated to Reuters this week that Aristide knows who killed her husband.  In a previous interview she stated:

“ the Haitian police arrested Port au Prince former deputy mayor, Harold Severe, a member of President Aristide's cabinet, as well as Rouspide Petion, alias Douze for their alleged involvement in the murder of Jean Dominique. Harold Severe had been indicted on January 28, 2003 by instructing judge Bernard St Vil but his name was, at the last minute, taken out of the judge's final report.” (see: http://www.potomitan.info/vedrine/dominique.php )

This week, the antidemocratic behavior of Aristide has also refreshed the memory of many Haitians. They recall that during the period 2000-2004 Jean Bertrand Aristide was considered by Reporters Without Borders www.rsf.org as one of the 38 presidents considered as predators of press freedom around the world. For more details on the repression of the government of Jean Bertrand Aristide and his Fanmi Lavalas party against Haitian journalists and the Haitian press in general during that period check the following links:  

1.  http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article168 
2.    http://www.haitipolicy.org/content/991.htm
3.   http://www.haitipolicy.org/content/945.htm
4.    http://en.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=10005
5.    https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/forumculturel/7SUTcCf81Uk/-SQHEBYn7IoJ
6.   http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-52753110.html

During that Aristide era, Haiti was ranked 161 as one of the worst countries in relation to freedom of the press in comparison to today where Haiti was ranked 49 in the 2012 global report.

Repression and the killing of political opponents was so bad under Aristide that Haitian Senator Irvelt Chery wrote a letter to all Attorneys General of the country to ask them to trigger judicial actions against the perpetrators for those various crimes (see: http://www.haitian-truth.org/28-fevrier-2004-1013-neuf-ans-apres-la-demission-du-dictateur-jean-betrand-aristide-toujours-pas-de-justice-pour-les-victimes-de-la-repression-lavalas/ ).

Finally, Haitians hope that their judicial system will find and punish the killers who murdered not only Jean Dominique, but those that killed journalist Brignol Lindor, Jacques Roche and Georges Honorat.  Judges will not back down in the face of threats by violent anarchists.  This brave action by one judge signals hope for the Haitian people that Haiti could transition into a country that follows the rule of law over the rule of one man.