This column is archived at
http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/c2010/cbarchive_20100126.html
People of goodwill everywhere are rightly sympathetic to the plight of
hundreds of thousands of innocent Haitians in the aftermath of the terrible
earthquake that rocked the island country. Private donations and volunteer
efforts are pouring into Haiti from all over the globe--especially from the
United States. This is a good thing, right? So, why am I troubled?
Simply put, I cannot remember such an all-out "relief effort" by
our
nation's military and government forces following a natural disaster
anywhere--ever! Not even New Orleans, Louisiana, and surrounding Gulf Coast
communities here in the homeland received the kind of attention from
Washington, D.C., that Haiti is receiving.
According to Agence France-Press (AFP), "The US military is ramping up
its
mission in quake-hit Haiti, with 20,000 US troops expected to operate on
ground and offshore by Sunday [January 24], the US commander overseeing the
region said."
No doubt, this would include ships and personnel from the USS Carl Vinson
carrier group. Cost to US taxpayers to send an entire carrier group--along
with more than 20,000 (so far) military personnel--to Haiti already numbers
in the multiplied millions of dollars. It is also almost certain that there
will be no quick exit from the island nation. There never is. In other
words, our military presence (dare I say occupation?) in Haiti will
doubtless last for years. At least, that's the way Latin American and
European countries see it. And they are probably right.
Suffice it to say that the United States military is now completely in
charge in Haiti.
At this point, it would be very enlightening for everyone to read Walter
Williams' column dated January 20, 2010, entitled "Haiti's Avoidable Death
Toll."
See Walter's column at:
http://tinyurl.com/haiti-avoidable-death
In short, Williams notes that the high death toll in Haiti is directly
related to the inferior political/economic philosophies of the Haitian
government. There is no economic liberty, which has relegated it to being
one of the world's poorest nations, with no opportunity to build the kind of
homes and businesses that can withstand natural disasters. Williams is right
when he says, "President Barack Obama called the quake 'especially cruel
and
incomprehensible.' He would be closer to the truth if he had said that the
Haitian political and economic climate that make Haitians helpless in the
face of natural disasters are 'especially cruel and incomprehensible.'"
Williams also observes, "Corruption is rampant" in Haiti. Crime is,
likewise, ubiquitous in Haiti, with little real law enforcement. Private
property rights are nonexistent. Like many (if not most) third world
countries, people live in tyranny and bondage to insensitive, power-mad
strongmen who use up the country's resources for their own selfish purposes.
Tyranny always impoverishes people; freedom enriches them.
Williams rightly concludes, "Haiti's disaster demands immediate Western
assistance but it's only the Haitian people who can relieve themselves of
the deeper tragedy of self-inflicted poverty." Amen.
All of that said, however, there are still several things bugging me about
the Haiti story.
For one thing, why was an earthquake of this magnitude not felt beyond
Port-au-Prince? (The only reports saying tremors were felt out of Haiti
belong to US-controlled sources.) All of the testimonies that I have read
from people living in the adjoining country of the Dominican Republic (which
shares the same island with Haiti) that were quoted by French, British, or
Spanish outlets universally say they felt nothing. If the foreign press is
reporting the story accurately, the devastation was almost exclusively
contained in and around Port-au-Prince. That is very strange to me. Even
most of the roads reportedly remained open after the quake.
Another oddity is the fact that this earthquake did not produce a tsunami.
It is being called "miraculous" that an earthquake measuring 7.0 on
the
Richter Scale did not produce a colossal tsunami, which would have affected
everyone in the region.
Furthermore, does the French government know something that we don't--but
should? According to a report of the Global Analysis International
Intelligence (GAII), "Not coincidentally, Agence France-Press (AFP), which
of course is closely affiliated with French intelligence, filed a report on
14th January which contained the following concluding sentence:
"'On Wednesday, Obama ordered a "swift, coordinated and aggressive
effort to
save lives" in Haiti following the murderous quake, as a massive US aid
mission swung into action, using troops, naval forces, aircraft and rescue
teams.'
"FACT: An 'act of God,' or natural calamity, is NOT a 'murderous quake.'
"The use of the word MURDEROUS here implies that someone is doing the
MURDERING."
GAII further speculates that the earthquake may have been the work of US
Black Ops, which "flattened the French embassy and many of its officials,
imploded the United Nations' own establishments in the Haitian capital, and
no doubt obliterated evidence of US Government and rogue official
drug-running complicity . . . channeled through the Haitian capital for many
years."
See the intelligence report at:
Intelligence reports are also circulating about the possible disruption of
liens and seizures of trillions of dollars by the international community
relative to past crimes committed by former Presidents George Bush I and II,
and Bill Clinton, which were being channeled through Haiti's Central Bank.
If any of this is even remotely true, it is certainly more than convenient
that the Haitian capital was destroyed.
This particular part of the story is a real sore spot with me. And I know if
I broach this topic, many readers (especially my Christian brethren who live
under the delusion that the Bush family can do no wrong) will refuse to
believe anything I report and will even take their anger and umbrage out on
me. So be it.
I am personally convinced that certain members of the Bush and Clinton
families have been involved in the international smuggling of illicit drugs
for decades. I have spoken in confidence with those who were in positions to
know, and they have emphatically told me that both then-Arkansas Governor
Bill Clinton and then-President George H.W. Bush were complicit in
CIA-assisted drug running out of Mena, Arkansas. (You don't think I would
say this if I did not have absolute confidence in the integrity and
credibility of these sources, do you? Plus, why would they tell me this at
potential great harm to themselves, if it were not true? And, no, I cannot
divulge their names, for obvious reasons.) And there is absolutely no reason
to believe that similar operations are not ongoing. In my opinion, it would
be utterly naïve to think otherwise.
After all, it has been often reported that the CIA used Army Special Forces
troops to facilitate the smuggling of drugs out of Indochina during the
Vietnam War, has it not? Yes, it has. That rogue elements within the US
government would use war--or even earthquakes--as cover and facilitation for
illegal drug smuggling or money laundering would not surprise me one bit.
I realize it is extremely difficult for many Americans to contemplate that
members of their own federal government could be evil enough to be involved
in anything such as is implied above. According to the thinking of many
Americans, evil people only live in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, or North Korea.
And, of course, that is exactly what government propagandists want us to
believe.
The truth is, no country or people has a monopoly on sin. As the prophet
Jeremiah was inspired to say, "The heart is deceitful above all things,
and
desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9) The Apostle Paul
agreed. He told the Philippians, "We . . . have no confidence in the flesh."
(Philippians 3:3)
Thomas Jefferson said virtually the same thing when he said, "In questions
of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down
from mischief by the chains of the Constitution."
This is why Jefferson and the rest of America's founders insisted that we
should be diligent to hold our civil magistrates accountable to the limits
and protections of the US Constitution. They well understood the sentiments
so wisely expressed by Lord Acton, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute
power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."
Christians, of all people, should understand this.
So, why are so many of us so quick to believe everything our government and
their toadies in the national media are telling us? Are we so naïve as
to
believe that unregenerate politicians in Washington, D.C., are incapable of
the same evil acts of barbarity and savagery that might be found in other
parts of the world? Are sinners less sinful because they happened to receive
their fallen nature from American bloodlines?
Am I saying that Black Ops personnel manufactured the earthquake in
Haiti--and killed tens of thousands of people in the process--for the
purpose of hiding or facilitating illegal activity? No, I am not. How in the
world would I know it, even if it were true?
What I am saying is that, once again, for me, there are many things that do
not add up regarding what is going on in Haiti. The way the earthquake
behaved; the lack of related seismic and tsunamic activity usually
associated with earthquakes of this magnitude; the unprecedented involvement
of US military forces being used for "relief efforts" even as commanders
are
desperate to fill combat theaters in Iraq and Afghanistan; the occupation of
another independent nation, which occurred at lightning speed; the vast sums
of US taxpayer dollars being expended; the devastation done to key Haitian
governmental and banking institutions--which were known to be conduits for
international financial disbursements--with virtually no devastation
experienced anywhere else; and intelligence reports of surreptitious
activity circulating all over Europe and Latin America all add up to one big
question, What's really going on in Haiti?