[R-G] Haiti bill calling for investigation of U.S. role in 2004 Coup d'État

[Anthony Fenton]

Haiti bill calling for investigation of U.S. role in 2004 Coup d'État

http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HA/2_5_9/2_5_9.html

Haiti Action.net - Rep. Barbara Lee and ten other members of Congress  
re-introduced a bill calling for an investigation of the Bush  
Administration's role in the 2004 Coup d'État of Haiti. The original  
bill, known as the TRUTH Act, has been referred to the House Committee  
on Foreign Affairs at every session since Lee first made the case for  
a congressional investigation in March of 2004:

"We do not teach people to overthrow our US government, and the Bush  
Administration must not participate in the overthrow of other  
democratically-elected governments. The United States must stand firm  
in its support of democracy and not allow a nascent democracy like  
Haiti to fall victim to the Bush Administration's apparent policy of  
regime change."

At a heated Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere hearing in March  
2004, Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) and other Democrats questioned  
a panel of Bush Administration officials about their role in the coup  
d'État carried out against the democratically-elected Haitian  
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Lee summed up her disgust with the  
Bush Administration's actions by accusing then Assistant Secretary of  
State Roger Noriega and the Bush Administration of "aiding and  
abetting"  the overthrow of the Aristide Government. "Regime change  
takes a variety of forms, and this looks like a blatant form of regime  
change to me," Lee told Noriega.

With the political shift in Washington this year the bill H.R. 331 is  
expected to make the congressional calendar for review. The bill's  
current co-sponsors include:

Rep Brown, Corrine [FL-3]
Rep Fattah, Chaka [PA-2]
Rep Honda, Michael M. [CA-15]
Rep Johnson, Eddie Bernice [TX-30]
Rep Kucinich, Dennis J. [OH-10]
Rep Norton, Eleanor Holmes [DC]
Rep Payne, Donald M. [NJ-10]
Rep Rangel, Charles B. [NY-15]
Rep Schakowsky, Janice D. [IL-9]
Rep Waters, Maxine [CA-35]

Full text of bill "To establish the Independent Commission on the 2004  
Coup d'Etat in the Republic of Haiti" here:

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-331