The SeeingBlack.com 411
April 2004

Mumia on Haiti's Coup...Text of Bush's 'Terror Memo'... Women of Color March for Women's Lives...Prisoners and the Census... Fidel Documentary Banned in U.S.... New York DJ Fired... Spelman Boots Nelly... We Got Jokes-Church Announcements.

Compiled by the Red-Eye Crew
SeeingBlack.com Writers

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Mumia: Behind the Coup D'Etat in Haiti

Make no mistake, we are witnessing a coup taking place on the island nation of Haiti. The forced departure of Haitian President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was something that the Bush administration has been trying to do for years. It saw the opportunity, and—wham!—it took it.

Now, it has installed a puppet as Prime Minister, and tries to install a president to it's liking. This is what American “democracy” means; the power to impose US imperial will on a sovereign government.

Several years ago, writers for the Haiti-Progress newspaper, wrote: “The destabilization campaign against the Haitian Government is being led by the Bush faction of the US bourgeoisie, which is arch-reactionary and hostile to regimes which even pay lip-service to a progressive agenda, as Aristide once did. Two conservative retreads from the previous Bush administration, Undersecretary of State for the Americas Otto Reich and Ambassador to the Organization for American States (OAS) Roger Noriega, are spearheading the campaign to uproot Aristide, whom they charge is becoming an "illegitimate president" of a "parish state," even as other OAS states stand by wringing their hands at the plight of the besieged president.”

Haiti-Progress newspaper published this article in October, 2002. They warned that elements of the Haitian bourgeoisie, would ally themselves with their very rivals, the land-rich grandons, and the latter would bring forth the same forces that held sway under the Duvalier dictatorship.

Lo, and behold—within days of the coup against Aristide, who emerges but Gerard Latortue, a man who served as ambassador in the short-lived military-backed government of Leslie Manigat, back in 1988. Manigat was overthrown by Gen. Henri Namphy some six months after his term began. Now, a face from that government is installed, as PM—and what are his first words?

'Bring back the Army!' He has called Aristide's disbanding of the Army, "unconstitutional."
We are now watching the re-emergence of Neo-Duvalierists, who want to reinstate the power of the Macoutes. The Bush regime calls this 'democracy', but the Haitian people have another idea. They have seen the U.S. come in before, using words like "democracy", and saw, instead, occupation and humiliation.

Haitian poet, Paul Laraque, in his poem, "Reign of a Human Race", gives a poignant definition that arises from
Haitian history:

You say democracy
and it's America to the Yankee
it's the rape of nations
It's Sandino's blood
And Peralte's crucifixion*

You say democracy
and it's the plunder of our wealth
from Hiroshima to Indochina
you spread the slaughter everywhere
and everywhere ruin ....

(*Peralte, Charlemagne—Leader of the Cacos Rebellion against US Occupation in Haiti; 1915-1919. Peralte was captured and slain by US Marines, his nearly nude body chained to wood, with his arms outstretched, like in crucifixion — maj)

Slowly, but surely, Americans are giving the people of the world a bad taste for the word, 'democracy.' It means, simply, that the rest of the world must submit to American business will.

Haiti is facing dire times as the grandons, and the bourgeoisie launch another war of exploitation against the Haitian poor. That's what it's all about. Who will profit from the
exploitation of the Haitian peasantry? Who shall rule?

The US seems determined to make sure that the Haitian people will have little say in the matter. That's why they sent Aristide into a forced exile -- the man who won some 85 percent of the Haitian people's vote!

Down with US meddling! Let the Haitian People govern themselves!

—Mumia Abu-Jamal

Text of Bush's Aug. 6, 2001 Briefing
After being cited repeatedly during the 9/11 Commission hearings, the text of a declassified presidential daily intelligence briefing from Aug. 6, 2001 was made public on April 9, 2004 by the White House. Portions marked "x" were blacked out before release.

Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US
Clandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate Bin Ladin since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the U.S. Bin Ladin implied in US television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and "bring the fighting to America."

After US missile strikes on his base in Afghanistan in 1998, Bin Ladin told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington, according to xxxxxxxxxxx service.

An Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) operative told an xxxxxxxxxx service at the same time that Bin Ladin was planning to exploit the operative's access to the US to mount a terrorist strike.

The millennium plotting in Canada in 1999 may have been part of Bin Ladin's first serious attempt to implement a terrorist strike in the US. Convicted plotter Ahmed Ressam has told the FBI that he conceived the idea to attack Los Angeles International Airport himself, but that Bin Ladin lieutenant Abu Zubaydah encouraged him and helped facilitate the operation. Ressam also said that in 1998 Abu Zubaydah was planning his own US attack.

Ressam says Bin Ladin was aware of the Los Angeles operation.
Although Bin Ladin has not succeeded, his attacks against the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 demonstrate that he prepares operations years in advance and is not deterred by setbacks. Bin Ladin associates surveilled our Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam as early as 1993, and some members of the Nairobi cell planning the bombings were arrested and deported in 1997.

Al-Qa'ida members—including some who are US citizens—have resided in or traveled to the US for years, and the group apparently maintains a support structure that could aid attacks. Two al-Qa'ida members found guilty in the conspiracy to bomb our Embassies in East Africa were US citizens, and a senior EIJ member lived in California in the mid-1990s.

A clandestine source said in 1998 that a Bin Ladin cell in New York was recruiting Muslim-American youth for attacks.

We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a xxxxxxxxxx service in 1998 saying that Bin Ladin wanted to hijack a US aircraft to gain the release of "Blind Shaykh" 'Umar 'Abd al-Rahman and other US-held extremists.

Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.

The FBI is conducting approximately 70 full field investigations throughout the US that it considers Bin Ladin-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our Embassy in UAE in May saying that a group of Bin Ladin supporters was in the US planning attacks with explosives.

Women of Color March for Women's Lives
From www.marchforwomen.org
Through New Voices, the March for Women's Lives is mobilizing thousands of women and men of color and dozens of organizations representing a diversity of issues in the movement for reproductive justice. In the name of reproductive justice, New Voices embraces the notion that the hundreds of thousands of marchers on April 25 should be focused on women's lives not just their wombs. Assembly for the morning rally will begin at 10:00 AM, on the national mall between the Smithsonian museums (between 3rd St. and 14th). The march will begin at noon. After marching on Washington, a rally will be held from 1-4 p.m. on the National Mall.

For the first time, the concerns of women of color and low-income women will be fully integrated into a major reproductive rights demonstration. Reproductive justice recognizes that any discussion of reproductive rights must include the right of women to have children—a human right that is incessantly threatened by hostile welfare reform policies, immigration policies, poverty, violence and racism—as well as economic issues that affect access to a wide range of reproductive health services.

There will be a huge Women of Color contingent at the March organized under the banner “Women of Color for Reproductive Justice.” This delegation also includes men of color marching in support of women's lives. If you would like to March with this contingent, please send an email to Loretta Ross at Loretta@nchre.org to tell us you are coming. We are asking women to wear red, yellow or orange so that we will be extremely visible during the March. You will be able to carry your own organizational banner as part of this contingent. Please register as a co-sponsor and delegation on the website to ensure that women/men of color organizations are officially registered.

Census Policy in the Age of Mass Incarceration
The Census Bureau is deciding on the enumeration methods it will use in the 2010 census. These decisions shape the demographic pictures of communities, which then inform national and local policymakers, and businesses that direct resources and services to constituents. Today, this picture is badly skewed by the convergence of powerful criminal justice trends (a massive prison population housed predominantly in rural prisons) with the Census Bureau's policy of counting incarcerated people as residents of prison towns rather than in their pre-incarceration home communities.

On April 14, community members and service providers who rely on Census data to accomplish their work, joined by Census researchers, were scheduled to discuss the consequences of the Bureau's methodology for counting prisoners. Organizers include included Rep. Adam Putnam (R-FL), Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL), Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and Rep. William Clay (D-MO), the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, the National Urban League, and the Mexican American Legal Defense & Educational Fund.

Oliver Stone Film on Fidel only for Canadian Eyes

One year after it was scheduled to air on HBO, Oliver Stone's documentary on Fidel Castro, "Comandante," filmed in early 2002 remains "banned in the USA." The Toronto Globe and Mail interviewed Stone in advance of the documentary's recent premiere in Canada. Here are excerpts:

"The Americans have a view of Castro that is unfortunately rigid," Stone says, the restaurant clatter amplified by his phone. "He is a man who's seen a lot. Let's give him his chance to speak. I think they're worried they might like him."

…That's where HBO is supposed to come into the picture. The pay-TV network portrays itself as being above the quotidian commercial pressures that crush the creativity of the broadcast outlets. As a cable service, it can afford to offend just about anyone it wishes, be it a core of Italian-Americans with The Sopranos, the Catholic church with a documentary about sexual abuse by priests, or anti-porn advocates with a program about Nevada's Bunny Ranch whorehouse.

HBO said it did not cave to pressure from a powerful lobby group, it merely took another look at Comandante when Castro's crackdown occurred and determined the film wasn't balanced enough. Saying it was "still in the works," the network asked Stone to return to Cuba for more material. He did so, securing another three days with Castro in May, 2003. The encounter was
much testier, as Stone pushed him on his control of political opponents and the execution of the hijackers. Stone also spoke with dissidents.

But rather than incorporate that material into Comandante, Stone produced an entirely separate documentary entitled Looking for Fidel, which will be shown on HBO. (CBC Newsworld is negotiating for the rights.) HBO still has no intention of running Comandante, even as a companion piece to Looking for Fidel. "We don't feel there is a need to air Comandante," said Lana Iny, an HBO spokesperson. —Simon Houpt

What's More Important—Free Speech Or Not Offending Anyone?
Posted March 24, 2004—With all the craziness going on with the FCC and all the censorship talk since Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction," radio personalities like shock jock Howard Stern have come under fire for making comments deemed "inappropriate." In recent news, radio personality and journalist Raquiah Mays was fired from her position as weekend radio show host on New York's Power 105 FM. On air Raquiah commented on interracial dating from her perspective as an African-American woman.She said that she wished White women would stop dating so many Black men since there was a shortage. This landed her in hot water with the station's program director and caused her dismissal.

Do you think that Mays' firing was justified? Should Raquiah have kept her opinions on whether or not African-American men should date outside of their race to herself? Is radio still tripping because of what happened earlier at this year's Super Bowl? If Raquiah was out of line, how should radio and television restrict "inappropriate" comments? And who should decide what's
"inappropriate" especially when race is a factor? —By The BET.com Staff

Nelly Booted from Spelman
A good cause turned into controversy when Spelman College women said no to Nelly. The rap artist was scheduled to appear recently at the historically black college on for a bone marrow drive sponsored by his foundation, 4Sho4Kids. But some Spelman students opposed his visit because of the negative images of women in his recently released video, "Tip Drill." Among the sexually suggestive images is one where Nelly swipes a credit card on the backside of a woman... About 500 students, including men from Morehouse and other Atlanta University Center schools, attended a forum night to discuss rap lyrics, videos and exploitation of women. They will encourage other students to stop watching the videos and buying the CDs and write letters to the artists" Go to News Buzz at http://www.ajc.com to get the complete article by Vikki Conwell.

We Got Jokes: Today's Church Announcements
(For Entertainment Purposes)

These are today's announcements:

The people who buy new Easter outfits to wear on Easter Sunday and take them back on Monday will have a brief meeting following Morning Worship Service.

The church will be going to 1st Church of Deliverance on 2nd Street to celebrate their pastor's 3rd Anniverssary on the 4th Sunday of this month. This service is to support their pastor's Car Fund. From what I understand the pastor needs a new ride.

Elder Abner will be conducting a seminar and workshop titled "The Gift of Laying of Hands". While using Biblical references, he will show how this particular gift isn't just for healing and praying, but it can also be used for disobedient children. Come out and find out how this gift is used.

The Washboard and Tambourine Ensemble will be having rehearsal following prayer on Tuesday.

Due to the fact that the church's Easter Ham, potato salad and collard greens are missing, the church's Easter Dinner will consist of 3 wing & fried rice specials from Dim Sum's Carry-Out on 14th Street. If you want Twinkies and punch, it'll be an extra $1.00.

This is from the pastor. Someone left a rubber duck, inner tube and a beach ball in the baptism pool. If you would like these articles, please see Elder Bradshaw after service.

Let us remember little Jimmy Drewer on today in prayer. Little Jimmy was hit with a barrage of Easter Eggs during school because other kids said he was cheating during the Easter Egg roll. Sister Drewer had no comment. Let's keep them both in prayer.

The brothers who leave their Bibles at homes will be meeting with the pastor in the choir stands after service.

Tickets for the play "Grandma Slapped Me with her Bible While Bishop Was Preaching" are going fast. See Sister Simmons for you tickets today.

These annoucements have been brought to you by Carol and Carl's Command-Mints. When your breath becomes hotter than the pit of hell, use a command-mint to rebuke that foul spirit of bad breath. Remember, we are to worship the Lord in Spirit and in truth, along with fresh smelling breath.

–By Carson Farmer

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—April 16, 2004

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