USA’S Haitian Earthquake Relief Efforts: AID or Benevolently-disguised BETRAYAL?

January 20, 2010
USA’S Haitian Earthquake Relief Efforts: AID or Benevolently-disguised BETRAYAL?
Posted by tempestodimare under Survival | Tags: Congress, donate, earthquake, Greg Palast, Haiti, military, national debt, obama, Port au Prince airport, State Department, UK Guardian |
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©2005 Haiti Information Project (HIP) - Brazilian UN soldier in Delmas 2, Port au Prince, aims at residents in a pro-Aristide neighborhood where they continue to demand for the restoration of democracy and Aristide’s return.
by Kathryn Smith, January 20th, 2010


Permission is hereby granted for reprinting or excerpting of this article, but only free of charge. To cut through the public brainwash discussed in this article, please post this widely around the web and email it to as many people in your address book as you can think of. Thank you for your help to the Haitians in so doing.

[article excerpt]:

Meanwhile, according to the complaints by presidents of multiple countries, landing military planes from the United States obviously took priority over foreign planes carrying food, water and medical supplies. Why?

Why did it take days to start air-dropping water and food? Why were the airport lights allowed to be off for four full days? Why weren’t generators flown in if necessary? And let’s call a spade a spade, here is the greatest brainwash of all: Why complain of the damaged roads and disabled airport when helicopters are capable of air-dropping food, water, medicines and fuel, and we have had that capability all along?

[end excerpt]
Believe me, just like you, I too have felt heartened and uplifted to see how beautifully the whole world is teaming together to help the Haitians in this horrible earthquake catastrophe. It’s one global human chain, reminding us all of our common humanity, bringing the best forward out of our individual and collective hearts. It’s almost as if people are waging peace and love instead of wars without end. What a horrific and tragic event it took to make that happen. But at least it’s happening. And thankfully, the world will be all the more bonded to Haitian people, keeping an active eye out for our brothers and sisters out there from here forward. Bless you, our dear Haitian friends, you are the sacrificial lambs for this cause of global humanity. What a horrific event, and you never deserved it. Believe you me the suffering is ours too. We too are traumatized for your sakes. We grieve with you, we suffer with you as we watch the horrors and agonizing pain you are going through. We are with you in this, hand-in-hand, and heart-to-heart. We say this not in word and in tongue, but in deed and in heart-felt truth. Hopefully, the viral donating on a world-wide scale, by countries and the private cross-sector alike, are proof to you that these words are real, very real.

But there is something wrong with the picture in Washington. Before you disbelieve me, read on and check out every one of the links below. Then I will leave it up to the reader to decide. I only ask that you make a very informed decision first. NOTE: I want to forewarn any Haitians reading this article, or anyone who has family or friends in the stricken country, that the information here may be very upsetting and could add to the already overwhelming burden which you already have to deal with. It is not my intention to strike grief into anybody’s heart. However, there are certain things that must be reported, and I cannot live at peace with myself unless and until I pass on what I have already read, offering my analysis below. This is very important: We have to cut through the public brainwashing which this article aims to undo. The truth will set you free, and evil does not like to see the light of day. Further, I am going to stress as much of the solution as I can come up with, at the end of this article. If you believe you may be adversely emotionally affected, you may or may not choose to read this article. Please use your own judgment and know that all of our thoughts and hearts are with you! We feel with you, and we want to help. And that is exactly the reason why I am writing this article.

On January 18th, 2010, the UK Telegraph reported:

A leading aid group has complained of skewed priorities and a supply bottleneck at Haiti’s US-controlled airport. The Geneva-based aid group Medecins Sans Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders) said: “There is little sign of significant aid distribution.”

The “major difficulty,” it said, was the bottleneck at the airport. It said a flight carrying its own inflatable hospital was denied landing clearance and was being trucked overland from Santo Domingo, almost 200 miles away in the Dominican Republic, delaying its arrival by 24 hours.

French, Brazilian and other officials had earlier complained about the airport’s refusal to allow their supply planes to land. A World Food Program official told The New York Times that the Americans’ priorities were out of sync, allowing too many US military flights and too few aid deliveries.

Alain Joyandet, French co-operation minister, said he had protested to Washington about the US military’s management of the airport where he said a French medical aid flight had been turned away.

A 71-year-old woman, turned out onto the streets by the fallen elderly residence home where she lived, complained that “This government is a joke. We live half a mile from the airport, but we are going to die” (from starvation).

In response to the complaints, the general in charge said the US military was “working aggressively” to speed up deliveries. Ban Ki Moon, the UN secretary general, has also pledged to accelerate the aid effort. More here: www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2430992/posts

Further, writes investigative reporter Greg Palast, the boat we sent to Haiti with nineteen helicopters on board, contained nothing but helicopters and guns. No water, no food, no supplies, no medicines. Nothing. Just helicopters and guns. Why didn’t we make a point of packing the helicopters with air-droppable aid? That is a question which I want you to ponder as you read this article. More here: www.gregpalast.com/the-right-testicle-of-hell-history-of-a-haitian-holocaust/

The Washington Post continues: But there were growing tensions over which country’s planes were allowed to land here first, with each nation insisting its aid flight was a priority, according to an official involved in the relief operation. France, Brazil and Italy were said to be upset, and the Red Cross said one of its planes was diverted to Santo Domingo, the capital of neighboring Dominican Republic. The French government became so annoyed when a plane with an emergency field hospital was turned back Friday that foreign minister Bernard Kouchner lodged a protest with the State Department, according to the French ambassador to Haiti, Didier Le Bret. Le Bret said that the Port-au-Prince airport has become “not an airport for the international community. It is an annex of Washington….We were told it was an extreme emergency, there was a need for a field hospital,” the ambassador said. “We might be able to make a difference and save lives.”

The apparent carrot-dangling continues, reported in the same Washington Post article:

On Friday, the World Food Program had to suspend distribution of high-energy biscuits near the destroyed national palace when a crowd revolted, complaining that they were not getting better food. “We’re hungry. We’re hungry,” a group of boys on the side of the road implored a passing journalist on Saturday. More here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/16/AR2010011602921.html

In a Reuters report, one man reports that a full week has gone by without food being provided for his family. In the same report, there are stories of operations being performed by Haitians themselves, with vodka to sterilize equipment, while Doctors Without Borders are forced to buy a saw from the local store to do operations because their plane, carrying 12 tons of medical supplies, was “turned away three times since Sunday” January 17th, 2010. Meanwhile, American troops were guarding the hospital from renegade crowds. Nice of them, eh? More here: www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60B5IZ20100119

That American naval personnel are obstructing the distribution of food, water and aid to Haitians, is also evident in the fact that it took four full days to get the airport lights turned back on. Think about it: When the lights are on, the runway is visible, enabling the planes to land day or night. But obviously not, of course, when the lights are off. Further, cargo can be unloaded as the airport terminals are illuminated. And can’t, when they are not.

Why weren’t generators operated during these four days? If these were defunct, why weren’t any flown in? Inaccessible? My foot. In fact, Greg Palast reports on the link above, that based on his field work he personally knows FEMA to have helicopters, medical supplies and generators on hand for the event of hurricanes. Stored how far away? The Gulf Coast. Easily transportable by helicopter, within mere hours. They have yet to be moved from their spot, adds Palast.

Why were some Haitians and a handful of Americans evacuated to Guantanamo Bay, as reported by the BBC? This could be benign, but the inaccessibility to transparency also should cause us some concern, and could bear our watchful eye.

When crowds are looting and resorting to violence just to obtain food, is it best to contain them with guns or to feed them and give them water? You be the judge. To me, this seems like the most cruel thing any human being could do. Starve a severely traumatized nation of people, actively withhold and control the distribution of food and water, then shoot them as they go crazy in their ravenous search for survival. This is what we Americans call “Aid” ?

At first glance, when Obama promised the Haitian nation $100 million dollars in relief funding, it sounds overwhelmingly generous. But when one does the math, one has to do a double-take and think again. Consider:

Currently, there are 308 million American citizens in the USA. Of these, according to a 2008 report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a total of 157.5 million people worked during the year 2008. Senator Bernie Sanders reported on a Youtube video that the current unemployment rate is 17% .That leaves a total working population of 141 million people. Which means that basically, each tax payer gave 70 cents to the $100 million dollar Haiti earthquake aid package.

Now when you have people trapped inside buildings and screaming for their lives, some with head injuries and severed limbs, you don’t just hand them 70 cents and say “here, get yourself some aid”. But that is the equivalent of what Obama has done. I hardly call that “aid”: How about you?

One could argue that the economy is down, we can’t afford more. Yet, we can seemingly afford a multi-trillion dollar debt just to go to war without end, based on proven lies. Weapons of mass destruction were never found. (An aside: We ourselves have them, in spades. Some reason to go to war, eh?) It would seem that there is no concern about stopping the wars for the sake of the national debt either, and certainly not for the sake of human life. In fact, at the very moment of this writing, Congress is talking about raising the national debt ceiling to 13 trillion dollars, (mis)appropriating funds from “Entitlement spending”—that means Social Security—to pay for it. How then, can we expect any more heart from our politicians than they are already showing? Think about it. It’s time to fire about 85% of them, if we want OUR America back. This is off-topic, however to refute the notion that “this would never happen to us”, that the government would not treat us the same way as the Haitians, I offer the info about the 13 trillion dollar debt ceiling debate, here: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1209/122909cdam1.htm analysis here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=7489143

If we can afford to keep waging war without any end in sight, raising our own debt to 13 trillion dollars, surely we can hand out more than 70 cents per capita to save people in as horrific a disaster as we are now seeing in Haiti. In fact, to divert funds from the war in this way would be best for all humanitarian considerations. And it would hardly make a dent in Haliburton’s profits.

Unfortunately that does not seem to be the plan. Instead, a Reuters report broke the news, and the Tehran Times continues:

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez on Sunday accused the United States of using the earthquake in Haiti as a pretext to occupy the devastated Caribbean country and offered to send fuel from his OPEC nation.

“I read that 3,000 soldiers are arriving, Marines armed as if they were going to war. There is not a shortage of guns there, my God. Doctors, medicine, fuel, field hospitals, that’s what the United States should send,” Chavez said on his weekly television show. “They are occupying Haiti undercover” (emphasis added). “On top of that, you don’t see them in the streets. Are they picking up bodies? … Are they looking for the injured? You don’t see them. I haven’t seen them. Where are they?”

Chavez promised to send as much gasoline as Haiti needs for electricity generation and transport. More here: http://tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=212488

This is while the UN said crucial fuel supplies in Haiti are reaching “critically” low levels and warned of the grave consequences that such a shortage could have on international relief efforts.

Earlier, on Saturday Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega made similar remarks: “What is happening in Haiti seriously concerns me and U.S. troops have already taken control of the airport.”

“There is no logic that U.S. troops landed in Haiti. Haiti seeks humanitarian aid, not troops,” Press TV quoted Ortega.

So now we can begin to understand the “reason” (humbug!) why the American navy is blockading the aid distribution cause. Because as horrifically cruel and violently criminal as it is—I will call it nothing less, and I agree with Greg Palast that this is just as bad as the Holocaust—-to keep the Haitians starving and going wild with hunger serves a hair-raisingly convenient purpose. That is, to create an image of desperate “need” for the occupation by military personnel. By dropping just enough food and water to keep them all going insane with hunger, fighting like madmen (which they aren’t) for any scraps that may fall from the sky, the international community is eyewitness to the “fact” that Haiti really “needs” these gunmen from America to restrain and contain them all. Feeding people to keep them calm does not serve this convenient “purpose”. What Paul Revere the younger said is really true: “Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants, it is the creed of slaves”. This is a tactic, creating a picture of ”necessity” as pretext for abuse (warrantless wiretapping, nude body scans in airports, you name it), being used by our government again and again, ever since the fatal events of September 11, 2001 occurred. Why should they change the course now?

The truth is of course that looting and fighting is bound to happen regardless of feeding, watering and medical care. Doubtlessly a certain amount of crowd control would be required. That is hereby understood. To have some police and militia for order-keeping would be understandable and probably necessary. However, to send as many armed gunmen as we really are, and to keep the crowds wild with hunger and thirst, without access to adequate medical care, may possibly be a deliberately calculated crowd control strategy of another type.

This may sound sick and non-credible to the reader. In fact, I myself couldn’t believe what I am saying here, until I researched the facts. I hereby acknowledge how utterly difficult it is to take in certain information, digest it and believe in it as real. I want to underscore what may be quite literally a vitally important point: That nobody would ever have believed that the Nazi concentration camps were happening. And yet they did. Denial is the human mechanism which keeps the dynamic going. It is a self-protective cover designed by the psyche to shield us from emotional pain. Some things are just too hard to take in, let alone believe in. It is fully understandable if people dismiss this information by calling it “paranoid”, “Far-fetched” or “conspiracy theory”. I repeat: Denial is The Great Enabler. In fact, it can have very dangerous outcomes. Further, I answer: It is those who accuse the whistle-blower as a kook, who may possibly themselves be innocent. Think about it.

And I want you to think awfully hard too. Because, as you know, lives are at stake. We simply cannot afford to speculate and argue and wonder. We cannot blow off things as “conspiracy theory”, because to do so would simply be supporting the blaring evil which is right under our noses. Not funny! Don’t listen to that voice of denial. It will enable the rise of evil to happen, world-wide!

Why would America want to occupy Haiti? Slave labor. Profiteering as we “help” to rebuild “their” country. Capitalistic interests, new businesses flourishing in the ill-fated country. But of course, that is speculation. Or, is it? Look at Chavez’s words. Perhaps Hillary Clinton was also hinting broadly, delivering Obama‘s own words: “We will be here today, tomorrow and for the time ahead.” I too thought these words were comforting, at first. They may indeed have been meant that way, to be fair. Or, they may also have been meant to imply something quite different. Let’s agree that we can disagree, but also that the situation bears watching. That multiple countries have voiced concern over the alleged “occupation” of Haiti by the USA, also means that our eyes should be wide open. And, make the choices that support the common good (is sending your sons to the military really “helping” the Haitians or is it undercutting them?)

Nobody has to agree with me. Perhaps there is another explanation why the US Military and Washington, in cooperation together, seem to be holding back the aid distribution cause. One can call it incompetence, panic, inefficiency or deliberation, as one wills. But one thing is clear: In the final analysis, the why’s and wherefore’s no longer matter. The end result is still the same: People in Haiti remain trapped in buildings and in need of rescue. Anesthesia is needed for those in agony, medication is needed for all, and certainly more food and water are needed for survival, not to mention comfort. Such a concept.

Meanwhile, military planes from the States obviously took priority over food, water and medical supplies. Why?

Why did it take days to start air-dropping water and food? Why were the airport lights allowed to be off for four full days? Why weren’t generators flown in if necessary? And let’s call a spade a spade, here is the greatest brainwash of all: Why complain of the damaged roads and disabled airport when helicopters are capable of air-dropping food, water, medicines and fuel, and we have had that capability all along? What of the fact that helicopters are available to the US Government from “right there” Puerto Rico and the “nearby” Gulf Coast alike, according to Greg Palast? Why evacuate people to the inaccessible-to-scrutiny Guantanamo Bay? What is all this business about “don’t send any blankets or water, just send your cash” ? Where is all that money going? How is it possible that millions and millions of dollars are just pouring in, yet the Doctors Without Borders are saying that medicines have yet to be distributed? Why are doctors sitting stuck in the airports when helicopters can and should be flying them in? How is it possible that so many millions are being donated from the USA and abroad, yet the Haitians go clamoring for lack of food and water? Repeat: We have had helicopters to air-drop food and water from the very first moment! No excuses, please, my ears are closed! Last but not least of all, why use a disabled airport in the first place as drop-off point for aid? Why not use nearby airports as distribution centers, with the work being done by helicopters? DUH! Therefore, isn’t the disabled airport yet one more convenient “Excuse” ? Should we really “Buy” this “reasoning” that the bottlenecked airport really is legitimate reason to hold back the life-and-death cause? And last but not least again, why has America “annexed” the Port-au-Prince airport? What is the purpose and the motive of that? What god-given right do we have to do that? And why turn away planes carrying food, water, medicines and field hospitals while allowing American “priority” military planes to land? Why were helicopters not loaded with supplies and food? Why was only one hospital ship sent, with only three operating rooms? The list of questions could go on and on.

We don’t like to think much, do we? How much does this non-thinking serve us? Is it even protective to human well-being, not to think?

Last but not least, I want to share another thought. That is, that I never for even the first second “bought” the notion that delivery of supplies and food were necessarily blocked by the disabled airports and naval ports in Haiti. That is simply no excuse, I thought to myself. The fact is, that helicopters can air-drop supplies and food, and require no runways since they are hovering aircraft. Make no mistake about it: This “Excuse” for the slow delivery of water, food and medicine to the needy Haitians, is another deliberately calculated brainwash. Even if the disability of the ports and airport are true, we still must not fall for it, not even for one second. Further, we must spread word, to cut through the nonsense propaganda:

Where there is a will there is a way

Use an alternate airport, with helicopters to transport needed goods. Team up with neighboring countries, chartering their helicopters if necessary until our own can be shipped over to add to the mission. Park floating islands off the coast, serving as drop-off and carry-away stations and as extra floating hospitals. One ship with three operating rooms is hardly adequate for saving entire cities full of critically injured people: Dozens of such ships from all countries should be appearing, double and triple-parked in the waters with helicopters flying provisions in and out. Planes landed in Santo Domingo should be met by yet more helicopters, to fly out provisions instead of delaying transit by shipping over damaged roads. Countries can team together to charter helicopters from neighboring countries if necessary. There simply is no excuse for leaving people pinned inside fallen walls and moaning for their lives. I won’t stand for it, not for one split second! How about you? If you think that the US Government should be let off the hook for their excuse of the disabled airports and naval port—and remember too that the airport lights did not come on for four full days, obstructing lord knows how many plane landings—-then I suggest you might reconsider. It doesn’t “Just happen” that airport lights are off for that long, you know. We must hold these criminals responsible for their insane deeds!

WHAT WE ALL CAN DO:

A) Pass word along to wake up the deliberately misinformed public. Post articles to blogs, forward them by email, and send them to journalists asking for more reports. The truth does not like to see the light of day, and it also will set you free.

Write your college newsletter editors, who are inclined to print information otherwise rejected by the mainstream media. College kids also talk to their parents, who are inclined to believe in them where they might otherwise dismiss the information if it came from anybody else’s mouth. Thus, they wake the slumbering giant. Win-win, and mission accomplished!


Send out emails to almost everybody in your address book. Ask recipients to write letters to the editor, especially the college newsletter editors as above. Ask them to try for the mainstream too: One might be surprised by what may be printed instead of rejected, at least some of the time. The local newspapers are often inclined to print what the mainstream rejects, for popularity’s sake. Letters to the editor are the most-read pages in the newspapers. You never know who you are going to reach: A documentary movie maker? Go for it!

In that letter to the editor, ask people to cut through the public brainwash (a fundamental strategy, very important), saying why they do NOT believe that the disabled airport and naval port are any excuse for obstructing the cause. This is very important! Brainwashing runs an entire nation, and we must —we have a moral obligation to—-cut through. When we do, their tactics will no longer work. Period.

B) Call Congress and the State Department. Demand oversight of the distribution of aid to Haitians. Hold them accountable and remind them that we PAY them to uphold, protect and defend the Constitution…and human life. Ask them which other officials you should call. And, aren’t there laws governing the advantage-taking of disaster-stricken countries? Ask the question first, to get a clear answer. Then, demand that those laws be upheld!

C) Contact activist group leaders. Ask them to circulate facts and petitions to their members, demanding Congressional and State Department oversight of aid to Haitians. Ask them to let Congress know that the plan to occupy Haiti is hereby recognized and made public knowledge, by multiple international governments—and ourselves.

D) Consider organizing a class action lawsuit. Lawsuits are published in the newspapers where protests are not.

E) Summon up any lawyers or law schools you know and ask them to organize a criminal trial. Ask the National Lawyers Guild for help with this gravely serious matter.

Countries overseas have expressed watchful concern already. Just google this story and you will see it for yourself. Thank God, the Haitian people are not alone in this fight, and neither are we as their concerned friends. Countries overseas may be willing to conduct trials. Imagine the day when the system of checks and balances must come from overseas! If so it is, so be it. We must do what works.

F) Join organizations such as Downsize DC. This organization is devoted to ousting bad apples from Congress, and replacing them with people who truly care.

Ever noticed how many politicians in the Bush Administration resigned to avoid public scandal? If we think politicians don’t care what our opinion is of them, think again. Scandals work! Write letters to the editor to get it started. As rotten as this tactic is, it is even more rotten to live under the thumbs of mass killers who have not one thought of regret or remorse. Time to uphold the Constitution, and the cause of life itself! The nastiness of mud-slinging becomes much less important than the matters at stake. (Unfortunately, it usually is a sex or money scandal which does the trick, and not a political or fact-based one). This is NOT a partisan matter. It is a constitutional one, and in this case concerns violent criminality on a grand scale. Please brush aside all partisan concerns and just act in the best interest. Thank you.

G) Consider giving to organizations other than the Red Cross alone, such as Doctors Without Borders. Give your rugged shoes to Soles for Souls www.SolesforSouls.org, which will distribute them for rescuing purposes. (Civilians will also need shoes just to protect themselves from infection, rescuing or not. Consider donating women’s, men’s and children’s shoes alike). Don’t listen to GWB’s crafted words, “Don’t send your blankets and your water, just send cash”. Do you really believe that the man who broke the entire world’s bank and strummed his guitar while the Katrina victims drowned, is trustworthy to deliver the funds as promised? Where are these funds going, anyway? To “rebuilding” or colonizing Haiti? Go right ahead, give your blankets and your water, and for heaven’s sake don’t send them via Bush! (Why did Obama choose him anyway? Something else to think about).

H) If you already donated, donate again. Consider: 304 million people have quite a strength in numbers. If all we did was sneeze out $3.50 apiece, we would come up with one BILLION dollars. We are capable of doing that, overnight, if everybody cooperates. Some people may not be able to, so we can easily make up for that. Consider giving $20 to Doctors Without Borders (the Red Cross, alas, has squandered millions in severance packages to previous employees) or to some other trusted cause. Pass word along: If EVERYBODY in the USA did this, think how many billions of dollars we could raise! Post to blogs, dial in to radio talk shows, and send emails to pass word along. (Note: Sending money to the doctors will put pressure on the Feds to have food and water available at least to them. And, doctors talk to the Press, true?)

I) Last but not least, don’t support evil with your tax dollars. Consider leaving the country.

Or, stage a wide-spread coordinated boycott, “call in sick to work day.” Hit them in the pocketbook, right where it counts! Money talks, as they say.

Finally, I want to share a few words of hope and comfort for our Haitian friends. I want to reiterate, that as awful as this tragedy is, and as horrific as the suffering really is, you are helping to bind the world together as one global humanity. I hope that this knowledge gives you at least some little bit of relief from your pain. Please know that we truly care. Please know that no matter what the abandonments from Washington, the public cross-sector truly gives a damn, offering as many as 10,000 text messages and contributions per hour to one company alone, according to one news source. The Red Cross reported contributions unmatched at any other time in its history. Countries overseas have come through with genuine efforts to help, and are keeping a watchfully concerned eye on Washington. Again, just google the story and you will see. By no means are you alone in this! We care about you, my friends. And we are so sorry. Our friendship is with you, from this day forward and forever! PS and here is some more good news. The Center for Constitutional Rights has teamed up with several major organizations to call for the humanitarian prioritizing of aid distribution to Haiti. More here:

Rights Groups Urge Respect for Human Rights in Delivering Aid to …
Jan 14, 2010 … Rights Groups Urge Respect for Human Rights in Delivering Aid to Haiti, Call for Transparency and Consultation with Haitians …
ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/rights-groups-urge-respect-human-rights-delivering-aid-haiti,-call-transpare
The coordinated effort is done by: the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ), the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), Partners In Health/Zanmi Lasante, the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights (RFK Center), and TransAfrica Forum