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President, by Randall Robinson, pg. 196, 197, 198-203
(http://randallrobinson.com/ ).

Reproduced by Ezili’s HLL Network, October 27, 2007

“…Port au Prince is A TWO HOUR drive south from Gonaives along a coastal
road. When President Aristide and his wife disappeared during the early hours
of Sunday, February 29, 2004, Guy Philippe, Luis-Jodel Chamblain, and their
American-armed paramilitary force were in the vicinity of Gonaives, one 
hundred
kilometers north of the capital, presumably awaiting further 
instructions...."
pg. 196 (emphasis added).

"…as things turned out, [Philippe, Chamblain and their American-armed
paramilitary force, were] DECOYS whose roles in a murderous plot ended hours,
if not days before the coup and Aristide’s disappearance." pg. 196 
(emphasis
added)

"….In the late afternoon of Saturday, February 28, the president’s
helicopter pilot, Frantz Gabriel, reported for the last time to the 
government
on the pattern of movement and exact whereabouts of the American-armed
paramilitary force that had ground to a FULL STOP somewhere in the 
neighborhood
of Gonaives on the north west cost of the country. (emphasis added)

Gabriel believed that the “thugs were afraid to come into Port-au-Prince”
and said as much to his superiors in the government." (From, An Unbroken 
Agony:
Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President, by Randall Robinson,
pg. 196, 197, http://randallrobinson.com/)

***

Statement of Frantz Gabriel by Randall Robinson
(From, An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a
President, pg. 198-203, http://randallrobinson.com/)



“…The telephone rang in Gabriel’s home at 3:15 in the morning. The call
was made by one of the president’s Haitian security guards who said to
Gabriel in Kreyol that “there is something happening that I don’t
understand. I think you’d better come here.” The voice on the phone had
been colored with alarm. Gabriel dressed quickly and went out, positioning on
the front seat at his car beside him an M3, the equivalent of a small M16
automatic rifle. The streets would be deserted at this time of night, and
Gabriel expected to reach the president’s home at Tabarre in twenty 
minutes.

*

"Besides the president, his wife, and the few Haitian security personnel
present at the president’s home in the early hours of February 29, Frantz
Gabriel would be the only eyewitness to the coup d’etat and abduction of 
the
president and his wife that was carried out between 3:45 and 4:00 A.M. by
American Special Forces soldiers.

On October 25, 2005, I took this statement from Gabriel in Pretoria, South
Africa, where he was living in exile.
		 
	

'I got to the house at 3:30 A.M. on Sunday morning. The gate is usually 
opened
by a member of the CAT team (Haitian Counter Ambush Team). That morning it 
was
opened by the Steele people. This never happened before. (I later thought 
that
the Steele people had gotten a call to play the game, to play along.)

The gate closed behind me. I parked in my usual space in the parking lot on 
the
right between the two walls. I left the M3 on the seat of my car. I walked
through the second gate and into the command post. No one said anything to 
me.
I then walked through the office and then into the president's living room.

The president was standing alone in the room dressed in a suit with a white
shirt and a dark tie. The First Lady was somewhere else. She was not in the
living room.

I then asked, "Is there a problem, Mr. President?"

The president said, "There has been a lot of pressure coming from all 
different
directions."

I said, "What do you mean, sir?"

He said, "The way things are looking – I am under intense pressure."

The phone rang and the president went to answer it. I heard him talk. No
American forces were there at that time. While he was on the phone, I said to
myself that I should go out and see what was going on in the yard where 
Haitian
security and the Steele people [US private security hired by Haiti to protect
Haiti’s president] were.

As I walked out [the front door], pulling up to the walk to the front door 
was
a big white Suburban with diplomatic plates. I was standing by the steps to 
the
door. [Luis] Moreno got out of the Suburban with two American soldiers. I
turned and went back into the living room to be closer to the president. The
president was putting the phone down.

Moreno said, "Mr. President, I'm from the U.S. Embassy. Ten years ago, I was
there when you came in. I was there to greet you. It's too bad that ten years
later, I'm the one that has to announce to you that you've got to go."

I looked at the president and then at Moreno. By then the First Lady had come
downstairs. The president went into the dining room to speak with her. They
came out together. The First Lady was carrying a small bag. She was wearing a
suit.

Outside there were twenty to thirty American soldiers on the walls that
surrounded the house. They had lasers on their guns that made red dots. The 
red
dots filled the yard. They were crisscrossing and coming from all directions.

The two soldiers with Moreno were Special Forces. I knew this because they 
had
beards. They carried M16's and wore full battle dress with steel helmets and
bulletproof vests. They were white and said nothing.

We got into the Suburban. The president sat in the second row by the window.
The First lady sat in the middle and Moreno sat by the sliding door. The two
solders sat up front with one of them driving. I sat in the back row.

We went through the main gate and made the right toward the airport. Outside
the gate, we were joined by a convoy of ten U.S. embassy vehicles. There were
all white Suburbans. We made a right into the airport in the direction of the
general aviation area. There were two hangers there. The old Huey helicopter
was there. There was s white Airbus there. It had a huge American flag on the
tail. There was no tail number and no other markings.

Moreno opened the door and got out of the Suburban. He said to the president
and the First Lady, "Okay, let's go."

That's all he said. He didn't say anything to me. He stood at the foot of the
plane and sort of motioned to the president, the First Lady, and me to board
the plane. The three of us went up the stairs into the plane. The two 
American
soldiers who were in the Suburban boarded the plane and changed into civilian
clothes (polo shirts and sneakers) while the door was still open.

Moreno never boarded the plane. The [American] ambassador was not there.

All this happened very quickly. Everything was timed so well. The Suburban 
came
into the yard at about 4:00 A.M. We got to the plane at about 4:30 A.M. The
Suburban went right to the bottom of the stairs. We sat in the Suburban about
five minutes before Moreno opened the door and said, "Okay, let's go."

The plane looked like it would seat about 365 people. All the window shades
were pulled down. Behind the first seating section was a big operations 
centre
with telephone, a fax machine, and a computer. The machines were on one side 
of
the plane and there were seats on the other side.

The president and the First lady were told to sit in the front section. I sat
ten rows behind a bulkhead that was behind the American soldiers who were
behind the operations centre. I could not see the president and the First 
lady
from where I was sitting, but I went to talk to them several times. He was
quiet. She was crying silently. I said to myself, This is incredible. This 
is a
kidnapping. They just came and kidnapped the president in his home and took 
him
away. I'm in the middle of a fucking kidnapping. This is the first thing that
hit my mind.

There were about thirty American soldiers on the plane. They came from the
house in the ten Suburbans. They all had beards. They boarded the plane with
their gear and then changed into civilian clothes. One of them, who seems to 
be
in charge, said to me, "Are you going back with us?" like he thinks I am one 
of
his men. Maybe it was just because of my beard.

The American soldiers sat on the plane between me and the president and the
First Lady. All the way in the back behind me were the Steele men with their
wives and children. They were all wearing casual clothes. The pilots wore
regular pilot's uniforms. We waited on the plane about thirty minutes before 
we
took off.

There were five black people on the plane. Besides the president, the First
Lady, and me, there was a Haitian woman who was with one of the Steele men.
They had a baby. After we landed the first time, I asked somebody where we 
were
but nobody would tell me.

Everybody was quiet. I heard the fuel nozzle attach. Once in a while the baby
would cry. After the baby was fed, everything was quiet again. They offered 
the
president and the First lady some sandwiches, but they did not take them.

We were on the ground for five hours. The guys who spoke to me before, who
seemed to be in charge, said to everyone over the PA system, "So far we don't
have an official invitation yet for President Aristide. It seems like nobody
wants him." The guy was on the phone the whole time behind the president who
was sitting face forward. His staff was also on the phone. Some of the phones
were black and some were red. They were using the fax and the laptops also.

We flew for a long time after we took off again. We landed again and waited 
on
the ground for fuel. We didn't know where we were. When we were approaching 
the
Central African Republic, the guy who was in charge asked me, "What are you
gonna do? Are you going back with us?" I told him that I was staying with the
president. Then he said, "You are going to a French military prison." This is
what he said to me. I said, "I don't care. I'm going where the president 
goes."
Then he said, "You will be greeted by a French colonel on your arrival."

No Americans got off the plane. Nobody. Only the three of us. Only the 
Central
African Republic minister of foreign affairs came on the plane. We left the
airport before the plane took off. Before that, we went into a small 
terminal.
It was in the morning. We sat in the terminal for thirty minutes. The 
minister
allowed journalists to ask him questions, but he was in no mood to talk. Then
they drove us to President Bozize's palace. The president was out of town. 
They
took us to two rooms in a side section of the palace. It was three days 
before
President Bozize returned from out of town.

You asked me if the Central African Republic people where respectful to us.

The only time that they were a little disrespectful was when your plane 
came.'
[Randall Robinson, Congresswoman Maxine Waters and Jamaican parliament 
member,
Sharon Hay-Webster, traveled to the Central African Republic and rescued the
Aristides, arranging temporary asylum in Jamaica, against US-Condoleezza
Rice’s strong-armed pressure for Jamaica not to provide said temporary
asylum.]
	

**

(For more information and greater details, please purchase Randall 
Robinson’s
book “ An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a
President - Buy the book at: http://randallrobinson.com/buy_agony.html ; and
visit http://randallrobinson.com/ ) See also:
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/randall.htm
*********************** 


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Forwarded by the Ezili's Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/law/lawpress.html