Washington, DC – At a heated Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere hearing today, Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) questioned a panel of Bush Administration officials about the Administration’s role in the coup d’etat carried out last week against the democratically-elected Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. A member of the International Relations Committee, Lee called for the hearing last week, and with the events over the weekend, the hearing took on an immediacy and urgency.

In particular, Lee grilled Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega, who is widely considered the mastermind behind the Bush Administration Haiti policy.  Lee challenged Noriega about the State Department’s failure to respond to her suggestions in a February 12 letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell, which would have staved off a coup.

Lee also asked Noriega why Aristide would willingly leave Haiti on Sunday morning without a definite place of asylum provided.  During the next day, Aristide would be flown around the world until, finally, the Central African Republic (CAR) provided temporary asylum. At present, Aristide is reportedly under guard in the CAR.

Lee also accused the Bush Administration of supporting and sanctioning the overthrow of the Aristide Government by blaming Aristide for the opposition’s refusal to negotiate.  Secretary of State Colin Powell last week called the opposition rebels “murderers and thugs,” but later backpedaled to the point that the Administration issued a statement, last Saturday, that said that “the long-simmering crisis is largely of Mr. Aristide's making.”

Lee summed up her disgust with the Bush Administration’s actions by accusing 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.

 

 

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