Date: Sat, 21 May 1994 08:05:49 -0700
From: Liberty Net <[jim 1] at [netcom.com]>
Subject: LN-TOPIC: drug

	The U.S. Justice Department is investigating drug trafficking
within the Haitian military, saying prosecutors have evidence top
officers protected incoming cocaine flights and outgoing freighter
shipments.
	A confidential departmental memo obtained by The Associated
Press also reveals concerns that U.S. intelligence agencies may
have cooperated with the smugglers.
	The Haitian military's involvement in drug trafficking has long
been the subject of U.S. Senate hearings and federal law
enforcement reports.
	The Justice memo, however, is the first official sign a criminal
investigation is under way.
	As if to underscore U.S. concern about drug smuggling from
Haiti, President Clinton at a news conference Thursday listed drug
trafficking as one of six reasons America might use force against
the Haitian military regime.
	In a six-page memo written April 8, Deputy Assistant Attorney
General Mark M. Richard in Washington names the targets of
Justice's investigation: 14 top military officers, Haiti's port
director, and the Haitian National Intelligence Service (SIN).
	``The U.S. attorney's office in Miami has established that the
Haitian military have been closely involved in the facilitation of
drug trafficking since at least the early 1980s,'' Richard writes.
	The officers protect incoming Colombian drug planes and oversee
the reloading of cocaine on freighters, the memo says, and drugs
confiscated from smugglers are often sold back to other traffickers
for delivery to the United States.
	Richard's memo says Haitian officers are closely involved with
specific Colombian traffickers, who were not identified. It says
the investigation is still preliminary and indictments are not
expected in the immediate future.
	The U.S. attorney's office in Miami refused comment on the memo
Friday. But U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., said the memo makes the
need for action against Haiti's military more urgent.
	``It's further confirmation of how the sovereignty of Haiti has
been stolen and used for a whole variety of brutal and evil
activities, including increased shipment of drugs into the United
States,'' Graham said.
	The most prominent Haitian officer targeted is Lt. Col. Michel
Francois, the head of police in Port-au-Prince, the capital city.
	Francois, rather than the nation's nominal military chief, Lt.
Gen. Raoul Cedras, is considered the most powerful figure in the
regime that overthrew elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in
September 1991.
	Cedras' name is not on the memo's summary of investigative
targets. A confidential Senate report last year said Cedras' role
in the smuggling was unclear.
	The Justice memo, sent to the CIA, the FBI, the National
Security Agency, the State Department, the Drug Enforcement
Administration and other departments, asks the agencies to search
their files for any reference to Francois or the other suspects.
	Richard warns the agencies that the Haitians may try to use
``graymail'' to try to avoid prosecution. He suggests the officers
might claim the trafficking went on with the knowledge and approval
of U.S. authorities.
	Press reports have indicated the CIA helped create SIN after
dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier was overthrown in 1986, his memo
notes.
	``Experience certainly suggests that it is best to grapple with
any difficult issues early, before an indictment invokes both
severe time constraints and public debate,'' Richard writes.
	White House officials are concerned that some U.S. agencies,
under the Bush administration, may have participated in the 1991
coup against Aristide and an indictment would bring that
involvement to light, a source close to the case told the AP on
Friday, on condition of anonymity. The allegation of U.S.
participation has often been made by Aristide supporters.
	``It's high time our complicity in the coup is exposed,'' said
Steve Forester, chief legal counsel to the Haitian Refugee Center
in Miami. ``The United States has actively been involved in
supporting the Haitian military for years.''
	The Justice memo mentions the connection between
drug-trafficking allegations and the prosecution of Panama's
military strongman Manuel Noriega. After a failed attempt to
pressure Noriega out of power with a Miami drug indictment, the
United States invaded Panama in December 1989 and took him into
custody.
	In Noriega's subsequent trial, the CIA and other agencies were
forced to reveal sometimes embarrassing incidences of cooperation
with the defendant. Noriega was convicted and is serving a 40-year
sentence.
	The DEA has estimated that a ton of cocaine is normally shipped
through Haiti to the United States each month, although most
shipments have been stopped or slowed by the current embargo of
Haiti.
	The Justice memo asks agencies to review files beginning with
Jan. 1, 1985, and to answer seven questions, including whether
agents were aware of drug smuggling or other illegal activities by
the officers or SIN.
	The memo emphasizes that decisions about the relevancy of their
answers will be made in Washington, rather than by federal
prosecutors in Miami.
	``Any national security concerns that your agency may have
regarding those decisions will be addressed and resolved among the
intelligence community and with the Department of Justice prior to
any use of such information by the prosecutors,'' Richard writes.
	Along with Francois, the memo names as targets Brig. Gen.
Jean-Claude Duperval, second-in-command of Haiti's military under
Cedras; Lt. Col. Andre Claudel Josaphat, northern regional
commander; Col. Antoine Atouriste, head of Haiti's anti-drug squad;
and Capt. Jackson Joanis, top aide to Francois and a suspect in the
disappearance of pro-democracy activists.
	The only civilian named is Max Paul, Haiti's director of ports.
In October, using a band of Army-backed toughs, Paul barred the
U.S. warship Harlan County and some 200 American troops from
docking in Port-au-Prince to prepare for Aristede's return.
	Last month, confessed Colombian drug trafficker Gabriel Taboada
told a U.S. Senate subcommittee that he saw Francois in 1984 at the
ranch of Pablo Escobar, the boss of the Medellin cocaine cartel,
who was killed last December.
	A previous Senate staff report said Francois receives and
distributes $100 million each year in drug payoffs from Colombian
cocaine kings. Francois has strongly denied the accusations, and
attempts to reach senior military officials Friday were rebuffed.
Military spokesman Lt. Col. Jean-Robert Gabriel told an AP reporter
in Port-au-Prince to ``come back Tuesday.''