[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 134 (Thursday, September 22, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 22, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                            A 21-GUN SALUTE?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Dornan] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, I was going to ask my distinguished 
colleague from Florida about something we were discussing today, the 
Presidential candidate in Haiti who was beaten to death, lynched, and 
then, since they could not find a tire to necklace his corpse, had gas 
poured on him and was set on fire. This was a distinguished Haitian who 
had been a Presidential candidate against Aristide. Last night I 
witnessed the following series of film clips, and I cannot designate 
which network because I was surfing, as they say, from one channel to 
another.
  First of all, I saw a handsome Jamaican soldier at one of the 
training camps in Puerto Rico. A reporter asked him a key question that 
I think they should ask every American in this country. The reporter 
asked, ``Are you willing to die for Haiti?''
  And this handsome young Jamaican soldier, black of course because 
Jamaicans are almost exclusively of African heritage, said after a long 
pause in beautiful King's English; they have got a good school system 
in Jamaica; ``Boy, that's a tough question.''

  Now I wonder if all of our American Marines, and soldiers, and coast 
guardsmen, and sailors, and airmen, and paratroopers, male and female, 
I wonder how they would respond after, ``Boy, that's a good question.''
  Following that clip was an intelligent-looking woman in her forties, 
blond, and I am not sure if she was with Amnesty International or Human 
Rights Watch, but she was from some human rights group. And she said 
that an Aristide speech on necklacing got that Presidential candidate, 
Sylvio Claude, murdered. I am going to memorize part of this speech, 
but for now I will have to put on my reading glasses and turn to a hard 
copy. Here is what Aristide said, and I have seen the original French 
on networks with subtitles. My French is very bad, but this is an 
accurate translation. On September 27, 1991, Aristide encouraged a 
rally of his followers to engage in necklacing, which is a type of 
tortuous death wherein a gasoline filled tire is placed around a 
victim's neck and set on fire.
  Of course, the victim cannot remove the tire because their hands are 
tied behind their back. Here are Aristide's exact words. As I read them 
remember that this man was just honored with a 21-gun salute on the 
Mall Front, the River Front, of the Pentagon, the very hallowed ground 
where I go to POW/Missing in Action ceremonies. Aristide got a 21-gun 
salute. The max. That is what we gave Winston Churchill. That is what 
we gave Menachem Begin, the Queen of England, heads of state from all 
over the world. A 21-gun salute for a man who said this: ``a faker who 
pretends to be one of our supporters * * * Make sure he gets what he 
deserves with the tool you have in your hands,'' and he pointed to a 
tire. ``You have the right tool in your hands, the right instrument. 
What a beautiful tool we have. What a nice instrument. It is nice. It 
is chic.'' That is a direct translation from the French word ``chic.'' 
``It is chic, it is classy, it is elegant and snappy. It smells good, 
and wherever you go you want to smell it.''
  Two weeks ago, Mr. Speaker, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, on a radio 
station that we make available to him with our tax dollars, told 
Haitians that he was returning with the help of ``enemy'' guns.
  The enemy he spoke of is the United States of America. How's that for 
gratitude?
  There is a feeling at the Pentagon now that morale has hit a new low. 
They are down as low as they can get over what the Clinton 
administration has done to our military. We are now in harm's way again 
with no credible way to get out. If Clinton pulls out at any time in 
the next 2 months before the November 8 election day, I say, your 
party, Mr. Speaker, is going to take it in the chops, and it should 
because it looks like we cut tail and run.
  Are we going to keep soldiers in Haiti through a whole year? That 
would trap Clinton as Jimmy Carter was trapped by the hostage crisis in 
Iran. This man, Clinton, has put himself in a tar pit, as I said last 
night, from which no intelligent person, statesman, politician can see 
a way out.
  I am going to insert in the Record Jack Anderson's and Michael 
Binstein's article of today in the Post and Bill Safire's article 
titled, ``Jimmy Clinton, II,'' from the New York Times. As a sinning, 
but stumbling, loyal Jesuit-educated Catholic, I want to end my remarks 
by pointing out the following.
  To my friend, Pat Buchanan, I did not get to call you today, Pat, I 
say stop calling him Father Aristide. The Salesians of Don Bosco kicked 
out Aristide for preaching the righteousness of violence. He is a self-
ex-communicated Catholic. He is no longer a priest in the eyes of any 
practicing loyal Catholic.
  A 21-gun salute for this defrocked demagogue, Mr. Speaker? Shocking, 
shameful, disgraceful. People at the Pentagon are hanging their heads. 
As well they should. They are honorable men being asked to perpetuate a 
fraud on the American people.

               [From the Washington Post, Sept. 22, 1994]

                 Clinton Takes His Turn at a Risky Bet

                (By Jack Anderson and Michael Binstein)

       Jimmy Carter had the shah of Iran, Ronald Reagan had Deng 
     Xiaoping and George Bush had Saddam Hussein. Now Bill Clinton 
     will have Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
       It's been the curse of every recent president to bet on at 
     least one bad horse. From Carter's unwavering support of the 
     shah, to Reagan's break with Taiwan in favor of Deng and 
     Bush's support of Saddam in his war against Iran, each of 
     Clinton's recent predecessors has risked the prestige of the 
     United States on a leader in a Faustian bargain. Aristide 
     could be Clinton's albatross.
       Only time will tell if Aristide keeps his promise to step 
     down after his term ends next year. And only time will decide 
     if democracy in Haiti continues after American troops leave.
       Yet the history of Haiti, and questions about Aristide 
     himself, suggest the New Haitian government will be no easier 
     for the United States to influence than the leaders of Iran, 
     Iraq or China proved to be.
       We have detailed why Aristide may be more demagogue than 
     democrat in a series of columns over the past three years. 
     While the Clinton administration and Democrats in Congress 
     insist that Aristide has reformed, or can be reined in. there 
     remain several disturbing questions about his character:
       Information from public and private sources depicts a 
     president who is vengeful, paranoid and not afraid to use 
     unruly mobs to get what he wants. During his seven-month 
     presidency, Aristide sometimes showed a tendency to incite 
     mob violence and even rejoice in it.
       Though some aspects of the Central Intelligence Agency 
     profile on Aristide have been discredited, it remains proven 
     that some of Aristide's rivals were killed by 
     ``necklacing''--the practice of hanging a gasoline-soaked 
     tire around a victim's neck and lighting it.
       While Republicans in Congress have gone too far in 
     depicting Aristide as a communist, the record of Aristide's 
     brief presidential tenure shows someone whose commitment to 
     democracy may be based more in theory than in practice.
       Before his ouster in September 1991, Aristide demonstrated 
     a penchant for associating with unsavory characters. He made 
     entrees to Cuba's Fidel Castro and Libya's Moammar Gadhafi. 
     His own minister of planning even flew to Libya in April 1991 
     to attend the fifth annual America-bashing ceremony in memory 
     of the U.S. raid on Libya.
       As president of Haiti, Aristide steered $2 million in 
     foreign aid to an orphanage run by a close friend, who was 
     then arrested months later in a cocaine bust. Aristide's 
     response was to order the police to release his friend. The 
     U.S. ambassador at the time, Alvin Adams, protested, but 
     Aristide wouldn't back down.
       As an ugly parting shot, Aristide allegedly ordered the 
     murder of a jailed political opponent moments before being 
     unseated in the military coup. As we have reported, a 
     polygraph test secretly administered by the FBI in Port-au-
     Prince on the former head of Haiti's national penitentiary 
     corroborated accounts of the killing already given to 
     American officials by others.
       None of the disparaging facts about Aristide can take away 
     his legitimate claim to the Haitian presidency. He is the 
     democratically elected leader of his country and deserves to 
     finish his term. Yet the Clinton administration should not 
     expect the honeymoon in Haiti to last very long.
       Aristide's record indicates he will be a marked improvement 
     over the military regime, but he hardly deserves the plaudits 
     he's been receiving from the president and the Congressional 
     Black Caucus.
       When President Clinton signed the crime bill on the South 
     Lawn of the White House last week, spectators at the ceremony 
     found themselves gazing toward the heavens--but it wasn't for 
     divine inspiration. Many were abuzz about the single-engine 
     airplane that crash-landed in the same location the previous 
     day.
       The wreckage ``was all cleaned up, but I must say that 
     whenever there was a plane or helicopter flying overhead, the 
     spectators were all looking up and kind of ducking a little 
     bit,'' said Rep. Bill Richardson (D-N.M.), who attended the 
     ceremony. ``The president didn't talk about it, but it was 
     something that was very much on everyone's mind.''
       A senior White House official confirmed the report, adding 
     that some prominent guests took to making simulated crash 
     noises each time an airplane flew nearby. Yet he was quick to 
     add: ``This was before the president got out there, of 
     course.''
                                  ____


                           Jimmy Clinton, II

                          (By William Safire)

       Washington.--With lust in his heart for a Nobel Prize, 
     Jimmy Carter undermined Bill Clinton's resolve and turned a 
     triumph of American strength in Haiti into a fiasco of 
     wimpish indecision.
       Here is what the last-minute flinch shows us about Mr. 
     Clinton:
       1. He does moral flip-flops with the greatest of ease. On 
     Thursday, Clinton was portraying the Haitian dictator as a 
     murderer and tyrant; three days later, the thug became a man 
     of honor, and worse, our partner in cracking skulls.
       2. His ultimatum means nothing. Clinton swore to the world 
     that the negotiating was ended; then he submitted to quasi-
     arbitration; then he cracked under pressure, okaying a deal 
     to let Lieut. Gen. Raoul Cedras stay in Haiti.
       3. He can be jerked around by his pacifist predecessor. 
     Carter, with no authority, offered the junta a broker, then 
     enlisted Sam Nunn and Colin Powell, then confronted a 
     President panicked by the prospect of using force; the 
     passive Clinton permitted the negotiation of major 
     concessions while pretending he was permitting only 
     ``modalities'' of eviction.
       4. He can be personally insulted with impunity. Jimmy 
     Carter trumpeted that he told the dictator he was ``ashamed 
     of United States policy''; that was Clinton's policy he was 
     ashamed of, but the President cheerfully continues to wear 
     his ``Kick Me'' sign.
       5. He returns no loyalty to loyal aides. Warren 
     Christopher, who was criticized in this space long before it 
     became a Beltway pastime, has steadfastly carried Clinton's 
     slopping water buckets. In this episode of foreign-policy 
     freelancing (as in Carter's naive, spare-the-rods 
     intercession in North Korea), the de jure Secretary of State 
     was humiliated.
       Carter, in a self-immolating interview with Maureen Dowd in 
     The New York Times, is contemptuously rubbing State's nose in 
     its loss of face.
       6. Clinton has lost control of his foreign policy. When 
     Carter denounces ``the basic policy of the State Department'' 
     on the use of any sanctions against human-rights abusers the 
     President stands mute. Christopher's response was typically 
     other-cheeky: He phoned Carter yesterday to arrange a meeting 
     this weekend to assuage the former President's hubris. We can 
     expect Carter to present his arbitration demands for the 
     embrace of Castro and the partition of Jerusalem; what's a 
     poor President transfixed by a runaway emissary to do?
       1. He is inclined to wishful thinking that leads to 
     dangerous assumptions. It was Powell who telephoned Vice 
     President Gore to assure him that the brokers had set up 
     circumstances that would cause what U.N. Resolution 940 
     declared was ``the departure from Haiti of the military 
     leadership.'' Gore then briefed the networks, which reported 
     that the military leaders would soon leave. Carter told 
     Congressional leaders their departure was likely. Later, we 
     learned it was only ``power'' the dictator would leave--as he 
     promised before--but not Haiti.
       2. He made inevitable a ``mission creep.'' After Gen. John 
     Shalikashvili made clear the mission of U.S. soldiers did not 
     include as military police, the junta's vicious cops let the 
     celebrating populace know who was still in charge. Now, 
     thanks to Carter-Powell-Nunn, our M.P.'s, who speak no 
     Creole, are forced by photos of clubbings to take over the 
     police function--placing us between an arrogant and 
     undefeated Haitian military and a disappointed people.
       3. Colin Powell tends to act as if his primary mission is 
     to prevent bloodshed--a laudable aim--rather than decisively 
     to depose dictators. In Iraq, it was Powell who saved the 
     lives of Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard, which prevented 
     the overthrow of a murderous tyrant; in Haiti, it was Powell 
     who enabled a ragtag army of thugs to preserve its ``honor'' 
     and power.
       The only favor Jimmy Carter did for Bill Clinton was to 
     hype but ultimately diminish Colin Powell's potential as a 
     Republican Vice Presidential candidate.
       As this all began, I expressed the fear that Clinton might 
     give intervention a bad name. By virtue of his pulled punch, 
     ``Jimmy Clinton'' has done just that. No wonder the 
     isolationists are smirking.

                          ____________________