Politico slams Bill and Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Family Foundation over their history of “charity” and development in Haiti
According to Politico’s in-depth report: “ There’s no country that more clearly illustrates the confusing nexus of Hillary Clinton’s State Department and Bill Clinton’s foundation than Haiti — America’s poorest neighbor.”
During the era of Clinton activism in Haiti, most of the benefits have flowed to “wealthy foreigners and Haiti’s ruling elites”
The wag that put me onto this story had this nifty line about it: “It looks like the Clintons skimmed more money out of Haiti than [Meyer] Lansky did from Cuba [under Battista]” — Like so much else about the Clintons, that remains to be proved....
The Jonathan Katz’ article in Politico is a good place to start looking into that — AND — Hillary Clinton as “The Queen of Haiti”
Jonathan M. Katz was an AP reporter in Haiti when the earthquake hit about five years ago. He has written an expose of the Clintons and their activities in Haiti that is likely to wind up hitting them like that earthquake.
Katz’ recent article in Politico opened with this: “Sunday, January 30, 2011. Two hundred thousand people occupied Egypt’s Tahrir Square, defying a military curfew to demand the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. Tunisia’s authoritarian leader had just been overthrown, unleashing a wave of anti-government protests from Yemen to Syria to Morocco. South Sudan’s provisional president announced his people had voted overwhelmingly for independence, clearing the way for the breakup of Africa’s largest country. Yet as Hillary Clinton rushed to Andrews Air Force Base to catch her battered government-issue 727, the secretary of state was not headed to Cairo, Tunis or Juba. She was going to Haiti....” (See “[2016] The King and Queen of Haiti” by Jonathan M. Katz, 5/4/15, Politico [http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/05/clinton-foundation-haiti-117368.html#.VUo1II5VgoI]).
According to Jonathan Katz’ report for Politico, “... [T]he world’s most powerful couple [Bill and Hillary Clinton] have an abiding interest in this out-of-the-way place [Haiti]; the island where Bill Clinton four decades ago recommitted himself to politics after an eye-opening journey and an evening with a Vodou priest. During her tenure at State, Hillary traveled to Haiti four times, [>>>>] as often as she did Japan, Afghanistan or Russia [<<<<]. Bill Clinton continues to visit even as [Hillary’s] presidential campaign starts up. He attended the February dedication of Port-au-Prince’s new luxury Marriott hotel, a trip on which he reaffirmed, once again, that his work in Haiti represented ‘one of the great joys of my life.’...”
That’s all well and good, BUT....
THE CLINTONS’ ACTUAL RECORD — BIG PROMISES – SMALL RESULTS IN HAITI
Mr. Katz and his Politico article go onto state, “The legacy of the Clintons’ efforts [in Haiti] is decidedly mixed, a murky story filled with big promises and smaller results. Despite the huge amounts of aid and investment, the sweeping visions they’ve offered of transformative prosperity—promises delivered by a broad network of friends they recruited and deals they negotiated—have been tripped up by realities on the ground....”According to Politico, “... [f]ive years after the hemisphere’s deadliest single natural disaster, when both Clintons assumed leading roles in the rebuilding efforts, little progress has been made on many core problems in Haiti, and the government that Hillary Clinton helped put in power during [her] January 2011 trip — and that both Clintons have backed strongly since — has proven itself unworthy of that trust. Economic growth is stalling, and the nation’s politics look headed for a showdown in the next year that could once again plunge the country into internal strife.... A World Bank study released in December showed that despite modest declines in extreme poverty — [largely limited to] the capital, Port-au-Prince — Haiti remains the poorest and most economically depressed country on the continent, with the richest 20 percent of households accounting for 64 percent of the country’s total income. (The bottom one-fifth of the population earns less than 1 percent.) [>>>> In addition, t]he report warned that impending political instability could quickly reverse the few gains made since the earthquake [<<<<].
A SIGNAL FOREIGN AID AND POLICY FAILURE FOR SECRETARY OF STATE CLINTON — MOST OF THE “INVESTMENTS” IN HAITI BENEFITED FOREIGNERS AND HAITI’S RULING ELITES
The Politico article points out, “When Hillary Clinton became secretary of state in 2009, America’s poorest neighbor was slated to be one of the first beneficiaries of what she called “the power of proximity.” One of her first directives at State was to review U.S. policy toward Haiti — “an opportunity,” she would write in her memoir ‘Hard Choices’ — ‘to road-test new approaches to development that could be applied more broadly around the world.’ That approach had business at its center: Aid would be replaced by investment, the growth of which would in turn benefit the United States. Underscoring the importance of the policy, she tasked her chief of staff—former Clinton White House deputy counsel Cheryl Mills — to oversee the Haiti review personally....”Hillary Clinton had once hoped that Haiti would be one of the shining jewels of her foreign policy. But far from transforming this poorest of countries [Haiti], many of the Clintons’ grandest plans and promises remain little more than small pilot projects — a new set of basketball hoops and a model elementary school here, a functioning factory there — that have done little to alter radically the trajectory of the country.
Visiting some of [the Clintons’] projects over the course of an April research trip, Politico’s Jonathan Katz confirmed the tenuousness of the Clinton efforts and the limited benefits they’ve provided. He found that “... [m]any of the most notable investments the Clintons helped launch, such as the new Marriott in the capital, have primarily benefited wealthy foreigners and island’s ruling elite, who needed little help to begin with.”
CLINTONS INTERFERED IN THE HAITIAN ELECTIONS TO INSTALL ITS CURRENT INCOMPETENT AND CORRUPT LEADERSHIP
The New York Times has spotlighted criminality surrounding the Haitian administration of President Michel Martelly, including its protection of members of an alleged kidnapping and drug smuggling ring.Katz details how the Clinton’s engineered the election of Martelly, by jiggering the process of electing the popular Haitian pop singer, who had no real background to run a country.
When Politico's Jonathan Katz asked Hillary Clinton’s spokesperson, Nick Merrill about whether Martelly’s track record had changed Hillary Clinton’s opinion about the leader she helped put into power. Merrill responded that “She supports democratic elections, just like she did as secretary”; and he declined making any further comment about it.
There is much more in the Politico-Katz article – definitely give it a look – even better, give it a read.
The Clintons will be bigger than US Steel
ReplyDeleteBACKFILL: THE "FOR THE RECORD" EDITION
ReplyDeleteSUNDAY AT HILLARY'S CAMPAIGN HQ OVER TWENTY DEMONSTRATORS CHANTED "HILLARY STOP THE LIES" AND "NOT READY FOR HILLARY"
GLENN NOCERA, FRANKIE RUSSO, MEMBERS OF THE BROOKLYN YOUNG REPUBLICAN CLUB AND OTHERS DEMONSTRATED OUTSIDE HILLARY CLINTON'S NATIONAL CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS ON CADMAN PLAZA IN BROOKLYN
The Brooklyn Young Republican Club conducted the second notable demonstration at Hillary's Campaign Headquarters. Earlier tips to this blog that there were six or fewer demonstrators in front of One Pierrepont Plaza have been completely debunked by video of the event.
The main issue for the demonstrators was a demand that Hillary appear, cooperate and answer all of the Gowdy Committee's questions about Benghazi and Hillary's missing E-mails.
Also the source of false rumors about vulgar comments having been directed at Loretta Lynch was correctly identified as an HRC Super Volunteer, who had chosen to misidentify herself as a B. Ryan from Windsor Terrace, aka "Kim," and probably a former occasional BSI to this blog.
Neither Glenn Nocera nor other participants at the Sunday rally heard any mention of Loretta Lynch whatsoever.
[Note the first demonstrators at Hillary's Brooklyn HQ were Haitians or Haitian-Americans complaining about the mismanagement and misdirection of relief efforts for the Haitian people following the earthquake]
Nobody has presented any proof of a quid pro quo.
ReplyDeleteI get tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments all the time.
UPDATE: THE “CHELSEA CLINTON STANDING IN FOR HER MOM, HILLARY” EDITION
ReplyDeleteNO DENIALS, NO ANSWERS TO THE CHARGES — BASICALLY CHELSEA IS THERE TO TELL EVERYBODY TO LOOK AT THE FOUNDATION’S GOOD WORK AND NOT AT ANY OF WHAT SHE SAYS SHE HAS NEVER SEEN OR HEARD ANYTHING ABOUT — MONEY, POLICY AND POLITICS — OR POLITICS, MONEY AND POLICY
THAT SHOULD END IT THEN — WELL NOT QUITE — THE QUESTIONS CONTINUE AND THERE ARE NO ANSWERS FROM BILL, HILLARY OR CHELSEA CLINTON ABOUT THEIR FOUNDATION
From Washington Post writers: “MARRAKESH, Morocco — Bill and Chelsea Clinton are convening foreign leaders here at a lush golf resort set in a palm grove this week to showcase their foundation’s charitable work. But the conference also highlights new controversies engulfing the Clinton family’s vast philanthropic enterprises as Hillary Rodham Clinton begins her presidential campaign.... A liberal human rights organization and several Republican lawmakers, for instance, are criticizing the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation for accepting donations from a Moroccan government-owned mining company, whose seven-figure sponsorship of this week’s gathering came amid growing scrutiny of foreign-government donations.... Meanwhile, some blue-chip companies that have long provided large donations to the Clinton Foundation are pulling back or reassessing their support....” (See “Hoping to highlight good works, Clintons find controversy instead” by Philip Rucker, Rosalind S. Helderman & Tom Hamburger, 5/6/15, The Washington Post [http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/hoping-to-highlight-good-works-clintons-find-controversy-instead/2015/05/05/5c0a7728-f32f-11e4-b2f3-af5479e6bbdd_story.html]; [The same article appeared in the Santa Fe New Mexican – http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/hoping-to-highlight-good-works-clintons-find-controversy-instead/article_44f1c777-0117-52fc-b954-7a83378843d8.html]).
What did Chesea say ? Was there any denial of anything ? Not really....
Here’s what has been reported: “In an interview with The Washington Post, Chelsea Clinton, the foundation’s vice chair, defended its work and suggested that scrutiny was politically motivated. ‘My family is no stranger to scrutiny and neither is the foundation,’ she said. ‘It has been under intense scrutiny since inception. When you mix together the higher level of scrutiny around the foundation and then the political dimension, I’m not surprised.’...” Chelsea said this during a recent visit to Kenya: “What people who choose to partner with us, whether it’s in a financial capacity or a programmatic capacity, expect to get is the work that we’ve seen on this trip.... They expect to make a difference in stopping elephant poaching. They expect to make a difference in expanding secondary education for girls....” Chelsea Clinton added: “Whenever I have had a conversation with anyone, it’s always about the work. I’ve never had anyone talk to me about my parents in a political capacity for a foundation program.”
Chelsea Clinton said many employees have been confused by the scrutiny. “When you look at the 2,200 people who work at the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Health Access Initiative, it would be disingenuous to say it hasn’t affected people,” she said. “But it’s affected people insofar as they don’t understand why the world isn’t more interested in the work that they’re doing.”
Not a denial in any of that. And the questions keep popping up like mushrooms on shaded damp soil.
UPDATE & BACKFILL: THE “HILLARY-HAITI MOMENT THAT NOW SHE’D PROBABLY RATHER FORGET” EDITION
ReplyDeleteIN 2012, SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON TALKED AT AND ABOUT “THE CARACOL INDUSTRIAL PARK” IN HAITI — THREE YEARS LATER — LOCAL HAITIANS SAY THAT “THE FOREIGNERS HAVE TAKEN OVER CARACOL FOR THEMSELVES”
THE MIAMI HERALD SAYS THAT HILLARY WAS THERE IN 2012
“CARACOL, HAITI — While visiting this onetime bean field in Haiti's northeast region, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared it was a new day. *** ‘We had learned that supporting long-term prosperity in Haiti meant more than providing aid,’ Clinton told a roomful of star-studded investors at a luncheon celebrating the opening of the United States' largest post-quake investment in October 2012. ‘It required investments in infrastructure and the economy that would help the Haitian people achieve their own dreams.’ *** Nearly three years after the opening of the Caracol Industrial Park, some wonder if [Hillary] Clinton and others underestimated what it would take to create jobs and the environment for sustainable economic growth in a country riddled with disaster and political gridlock....” (See “Hillary Clinton-backed post-quake Haiti project 'a work in progress'” by Jacqueline Charles, 5/3/15, Miami Herald/ International Business [http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/international-business/article20129688.html]).
WHAT’S GOING ON IN CARACOL NOW ?
"Caracol is still on crutches," says former Finance Minster Marie Carmelle Jean-Marie. Even worse, in the nearby town of Caracol, several people say that the park hasn't transformed their lives as promised. "The park doesn't benefit the people of Caracol," said Renel Marseil, 31. "The foreigners have taken over Caracol for themselves."
The Miami Herald also noted that “... Mark D’Sa, a U.S. State Department consultant who promotes the park, says dozens of potential investors have shown interest over the years but end up walking away for a host of reasons. Sometimes it’s due to lack of Haitian government followup; sometimes, the buildings can’t be constructed fast enough.... For some, the strict U.S. oversight that D’Sa, a former apparel executive with The Gap, enforces is also a deterrent as is the environmental monitoring by the Inter-American Development Bank, the park’s main donor. Haiti’s political crisis, and ongoing protests over electricity in the region, have also been deterrents....”
“... For some, Caracol is symbolic of the endemic problems U.S. aid and development projects face in broken countries like Haiti. Jake Johnston, however, also views it as part of Hillary Clinton’s and husband, former President Bill Clinton’s, Haiti legacy.... ‘Both Hillary and Bill Clinton invested a tremendous amount of political capital and U.S. taxpayer dollars to showcase a success in Haiti to the global community, but the result is another lesson in the pitfalls of top-down development,’ said Johnston, who has been tracking Haiti’s relief and reconstruction as a research associate with the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research. ‘If this is what happened with the international community's flagship reconstruction project, imagine what is happening elsewhere, where less attention is being paid.'..."
"... Haiti-born political scientist Robert Fatton said that for Haiti to once more adopt ‘the type of export assembly project that has guided Haiti’s economic programs for the past 40 years is to invite the same failures and contradictions that have contributed to generalized underdevelopment and poverty....' Simply put, the road taken after the country’s catastrophic earthquake, Fatton said, ‘cannot generate any type of self-sustaining, let alone equitable development.’...”
Who says that Hillary Clinton is hiding from the press? Since she declared her candidacy on April 12, Hillary Rodham Clinton has answered seven (7) questions from reporters. Seven answered questions in less than month. That’s almost two (2) a week
ReplyDeleteThat’s probably seven more questions from the press than you have answered in the same time. And using the everyday American standard, “Everyday Hillary” has answered plenty of questions in less than the month that she's been running for President.
UPDATE & BACKFILL: THE “CLINTON’S TAKE REFUGE IN THEIR OWN BAD REPUTATION, ALA BONNY AND CLYDE” EDITION
ReplyDeleteNOONAN SAYS IF SHWEIZER’S BOOK IS TRUE, “OR EVEN HALF TRUE” IT’S A DIRTY STORY ABOUT THE CLINTONS — THEN SHE ASKS: WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE ? — AND — HOW WOULD ANY OTHER ASPIRANT FOR THE PRESIDENCY EXCEPT FOR HILLARY CLINTON SURVIVE SUCH A BOOK ?
AMID PEGGY NOONAN’S WSJ OP-ED TESTIMONIAL TO AND DESCRIPTION OF PETER SCHWEIZER’S BOOK, “CLINTON CASH...” IS A VERY IMPORTANT INSIGHT INTO HOW NOONAN THINKS THE CLINTONS’ GET AWAY WITH THEIR BONNY AND CLYDE ACT
This week in the Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan said, “I have read the Peter Schweizer book “Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich.” It is something. Because it is heavily researched and reported and soberly analyzed, it is a highly effective takedown. Because its tone is modest—Mr. Schweizer doesn’t pretend to more than he has, or take wild interpretive leaps—it is believable.... By the end I was certain of two things. A formal investigation, from Congress or the Justice Department, is needed to determine if Hillary Clinton’s State Department functioned, at least to some degree and in some cases, as pay-for-play operation and whether the Clinton Foundation has functioned, at least in part, as a kind of high-class philanthropic slush fund....” (See “How the Clintons Get Away With It – The Clintons are protected from charges of corruption by their reputation for corruption” by Peggy Noonan, 5/7/15, The Wall Street Journal/ Opinion [http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-the-clintons-get-away-with-it-1431035304]).
Noonan also asks this salient question: “I wonder if any aspirant for the presidency except Hillary Clinton could survive such a book.” Then Noonan answers her own question thus: “I suspect she can because the Clintons are unique in the annals of American politics: They are protected from charges of corruption by their reputation for corruption. It’s not news anymore. They’re like . . . Bonnie and Clyde go on a spree, hold up a bunch of banks, it causes a sensation, there’s a trial, and they’re acquitted. They walk out of the courthouse, get in a car, rob a bank, get hauled in, complain they’re being picked on — ‘Why are you always following us?’ — and again, not guilty. They rob the next bank and no one cares. ‘That’s just Bonnie and Clyde doing what Bonnie and Clyde do. No one else cares, why should I?’...”
What follows are descriptions from Schweizer’s book of the Clintons’ corruption and grabbing up money for themselves and their foundation on a scale so massive that Bonnie and Clyde would have been envious, had they lived.
Also Noonan spotlights Schweizer’s description of the Clinton family foundation — not a “traditional charity”; “little hands-on humanitarian work”; providing jobs “to those who served the Clintons when in power and who may serve them again”; failing to meet minimum standards of accountability and transparency; and having “at least four Clinton Foundation trustees convicted of or charged with financial crimes including bribery and fraud.”
All of that bugs Peggy Noonan — "If the book is true, the Peter Schweizer book, if the book is true, if it's half true, it is a dirty story. It would be good if the public, the Democrat Party, and the Washington political class would register some horror or at least dismay.... [What’s] more. Mrs. Clinton has yet to address any of it....”
FLASHBACK & BACKFILL: THE “HRC AND IHRC MISMATCH” EDITION
ReplyDelete[THIS COMMENT IS IN TWO (2) PARTS — Part 1 of 2 — See Part 2, below]
YES, IT’S HRC, AS IN – “HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON” AND IHRC, AS IN – “INTERIM HAITI RECOVERY COMMISSION”
HILLARY’S HAITI PROBLEMS DIDN’T BEGIN WITH A BUNCH OF BROOKLYN HAITIANS DEMONSTRATING IN FRONT OF HER NATIONAL CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS AT ONE PIERREPONT PLAZA A FEW WEEKS AGO
ANY EXAMINATION OF HILLARY CLINTON’S QUALIFICATIONS FOR PRESIDENT SHOULD INCLUDE A CLOSE STUDY OF THE INTERIM HAITI RECOVERY COMMISSION (IHRC)
About a year ago, the Wall Street Journal ran a report by Mary Anastasia O’Grady that told how Haitians were upset by the mismanagement of the Haiti reconstruction effort run by the Clintons ( See “Bill, Hillary and the Haiti Debacle...” by Mary Anastasia O’Grady, 5/18/14, The Wall Street Journal/ The Americas [http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304547704579564651201202122]).
At that time, Ms. O’Grady’s article said, “The news website Tout Haiti reported last month that two prominent lawyers have petitioned Haiti's Superior Court of Auditors and Administrative Disputes, demanding an audit of Bill Clinton's management of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC). There are powerful interests that won't want to see the petition succeed and it may go nowhere. But the sentiment it expresses is spreading fast. In the immortal words of Charlie Brown, Mr. Clinton has gone from hero to goat....”
Any examination of Hillary Clinton’s qualifications for president should include close study of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), set up to raise money and Haiti recover from its devastating 7.0 earthquake four years ago. IHRC is headed by Bill Clinton and initially functioned during the period his wife was Secretary of State, running the US government component of the aid effort through the State Department's U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
O’Grady’s article amply demonstrates that the massive effort to rebuild Haiti under the Clintons’ leadership has been a fiasco, with relatively little done to actually aid Haiti. O’Grady makes note of the facts, as follows: “… [H]undreds of millions of dollars from the State Department's U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), allocated to the IHRC, are gone. Hundreds of millions more to the IHRC from international donors have also been spent. Left behind is a mishmash of low quality, poorly thought-out development experiments and half-finished projects.... Haitians are angry, frustrated and increasingly suspicious of the motives of the IHRC and of its top official, [former U.S. President William] Clinton. Americans might feel the same way if they knew more about this colossal failure. One former Haitian official puts it this way: ‘I really cannot understand how you could raise so much money, put a former U.S. president in charge, and get this outcome.’..."
[End of Part 1]
FLASHBACK & BACKFILL: THE “HRC AND IHRC MISMATCH” EDITION
ReplyDelete[THIS COMMENT IS IN TWO (2) PARTS — Part 2 of 2 — See Part 1, above]
RELATIVELY LITTLE WAS DONE BY EITHER OF THE CLINTONS TO ACTUALLY HELP HAITI AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE
THIS IS NOT THE FIRST TIME THAT THE CLINTON CROWD HAS MILKED HAITI TO THE DETRIMENT OF ITS IMPOVERISHED PEOPLE — “... IN 1994, ASSORTED FRIENDS OF BILL WENT INTO BUSINESS TO MILK HAITI’S STATE-OWNED TELEPHONE MONOPOLY. [SINCE] TELECOM REVENUES WERE ONE OF THE FEW SOURCES OF HARD CURRENCY FOR [HAITI,] THE SCHEME HURT HAITIANS”
Any close study of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), headed by Bill Clinton and initially functioning during the period Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, running the US government component of the aid effort through the State Department's U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), would show that the massive effort has largely been a fiasco, with relatively little done to actually aid Haiti under the leadership of the Clintons, Bill and Hillary.
As O’Grady points out in her WSJ article [cited in the comment immediately above this one], it really isn’t that much of a mystery as to what is really going on in and about Haiti.
Here’s how Wall Street Journal reporter Mary Anastasia O’Grady sees it: “While [former President Bill] Clinton was running things for the IHRC, and the U.S. was leading the reconstruction effort, Hillary Clinton was the U.S. Secretary of State, which means that Mr. Clinton was reporting to his wife. Cheryl Mills, Mrs. Clinton's chief of staff and counselor to the State Department (an adviser and consultant to [Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton), traveled to the Haiti an estimated 30 times in four years. A State Department spokesman told me that ‘reflected the high priority the United State places on Haiti's recovery and development.’ Requests for comment from Mr. Clinton, through the Clinton Foundation, about the petition [for an accounting] and his IHRC record went unanswered.... The Clinton crowd has a lot of experience in Haiti. After President Clinton used the U.S. military to return Jean Bertrand Aristide to power in 1994, assorted Friends of Bill went into business to milk Haiti's state-owned telephone monopoly. Telecom revenues were one of the few sources of hard currency for the country so the scheme hurt Haitians....”
According to the blog “American Thinker,” there is a 2013 documentary film, “Fatal Assistance,” by Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck, which chronicles a number of debacles in the aid program for Haiti.
If Hillary becomes the Democrat nominee, that documentary film should receive a lot of attention from her opponent and conservative media ( See “Haiti earthquake recovery a debacle under management of Mr. and Mrs. Clinton” by Thomas Lifson, 5/19/14, American Thinker [http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/05/haiti_earthquake_recovery_a_debacle_under_management_of_mr_and_mrs_clinton.html]).
BACKFILL: THE “‘POPULIST’ BROOKLYN HEADQUARTERS” EDITION
ReplyDeleteHAITIAN DEMONSTRATIONS AT HILLARY HEADQUARTERS WERE OVER ONE MONTH AGO — VIDEO — CHANTS OF “HILLARY FOR PRESIDENT – HELL NO !” AND “WHERE’S THE MONEY ?” COULD BE HEARD CLEARLY
THE DEMONSTRATORS SUCCEEDED IN GAINING WORLD-WIDE ATTENTION TO THEIR CAUSE — MOST IMPORTANT BEING THE AMERICAN MSM THAT HAVE BEEN ALL OVER THE STORY
On Thursday, April 9th, 2015 members of the NY tri-state area Haitian community and their supporters held a loud and spirited protest outside Hillary Clinton's Brooklyn headquarters located at 1 Pierrepont Plaza on Cadman Plaza, in Brooklyn. With tongue in cheek, the demonstrators said they were there to "welcome" Hillary to Brooklyn. According to their spokesperson, the group passed out 1000 flyers in the Brooklyn Civic Center; and with several hand-painted signs in hand loudly denounced Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton “ ...for the thieves and liars that they are.”
There is video of the protest on You Tube (See “Haitian Community Protest to "welcome" Hillary Clinton to Brooklyn” posted by Komo Kodo, 4/10/15, You Tube [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZMAVVChWYs]). Several Haitian-accented doggerel chants could be heard from the crowd in clear English such as: “Hillary for President – Hell No !” and “Where’s the money ?” In addition, there were several chants in Haitian-accented French or Creole. Later on, one of the chants led by a different person changed slightly to “President Hillary ? Hell no !”
The modest-sized demonstration (there were many more signs than protesters) did receive good coverage including internationally. According to a Daily Telegraph report back in April, “ Mrs. Clinton was making waves last week before she had even taken up residence [at her new headquarters in Brooklyn].... A small group of protesters gathered outside the building's revolving doors chanting: ‘Do we want Clinton for president? Hell no.’...” They were Haitians, who accuse the Clinton Foundation of stealing money intended for rebuilding their country after the 2010 earthquake.... A dozen police officers, mindful of the new tenant, kept a watchful eye....” (See “Hillary Clinton 2016: the hip HQ by the river in New York's Brooklyn” by Rob Crilly, 4/12/15, The Telegraph [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/hillary-clinton/11530634/Hillary-Clinton-2016-the-hip-HQ-by-the-river-in-New-Yorks-Brooklyn.html]).
Since April 9th, there have been several press accounts of the goings on in Haiti when it comes to the complaints against the Clintons for mismanaging the rebuilding efforts there.