March 2, 2004 - On the 17th of February Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters that “"We will accept no outcome that in any way illegally attempts to remove the elected president of Haiti…We cannot buy into the proposition that the elected president must be forced out of office by thugs and those who do not respect the law,"

That remark came the same day that Louis-Jodel Chamblain led well armed commando unit in an attack on the police station in the Haitian town of Hinote. Three policemen were killed in the assault. Champlain’s troops were outfitted in camouflage battle dress complete with Kevlar helmets and vests. They were well armed with surplus US military assault rifles.

Chamblain had been a Sergeant in the Haitian Army during the period following the military coup that sent Aristide into exile in 1991. That coup was tacitly supported by the first Bush Administration. Chamblain had been a leader of the FRAPH death squads that are credited with killing up to 3,000 Aristide loyalists before the US intervention restored Aristide to office in 1994. FRAPH is widely reported to have been financed and trained by the CIA. With the 1994 restoration of democratic government Chamblain and other elements of FRAPH fled across the border to the Dominican Republic.

In December and January reports began to circulate that the Dominican Army had detected military training camps in the Republic’s mountainous border region adjacent to northern Haiti and was preparing a campaign to shut the camps down. When in early February violence broke out in Gonaives, Chamblain led his commandos back into Haiti and attacked police stations in several towns.

Chamblain joined forces with Guy Philippe, a former Army cadet who had not taken part in the 1991 coup. He was attending military school in Ecuador and the United States during the military dictatorship, When Aristide left office at the end of his first term in 1995 Philippe was appointed Chief of Police in northern Haiti. In 2000 Philippe was accused of plotting a coup against the government under Rene Preval, Aristide’s successor in the Presidency and fled across the border.

Within a week of the Secretary of State’s remarks, hinting as they did at an American intervention to preserve Haiti’s fledgling democracy the Whitehouse dashed cold water on the idea saying that US troops would only be deployed after a political solution to he crisis was in place. They floated the idea of power sharing between the elected President and the forces marching to overthrow him. It did not fly and it is doubtful that it was anything more than an excuse to let the insurgency play its way out.

Almost immediately after assuming office in January 2001 the Bush Administration suspended all aid to the Haitian government alleging irregularities in the election that brought Aristide back to power with 90% of the reported vote. As the aid disappeared so too did Haitian hope and the country sank into economic chaos. When it erupted into violence by a happy coincidence Chamblain and Philippe were ready to return from exile with well armed and equipped cadres to organize the rebellion. When their forces successfully blockaded the capitol the statement of American policy became inoperative. With marines stationed at the embassy the American ambassador laid out a stark choice for President Aristide; resign and leave or stay and die at he hands of the thugs. The marines escorted the President to the airport.

In the aftermath the marines and soldiers from France and Canada share the streets of Port-Au-Prince with Chamblain and Philippe. Philippe proclaimed that he was the “Chief” of Haiti, the head of its reconstituted military. The Comedians masks are starting to slip and we are getting a glimpse of what is behind them.