Americas

Haiti president's 2nd choice for PM announced

2011-07-09T12:07:35Z

Associated Press - By TRENTON DANIEL - July 6, 2011

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) ? Haitian President Michel Martelly has chosen a
former justice minister as his nominee for prime minister in his second
attempt to fill the position, a government official said Wednesday.

]]> Bernard Gousse was chosen in the hopes that his experience and reputation as
a prominent attorney will overcome opposition from lawmakers who rejected
the president's first candidate for the post, businessman Daniel-Gerard
Rouzier, said Martelly's chief of staff, Thierry Mayard-Paul.

"He's an honest man. He has experience in public administration,"
Mayard-Paul told The Associated Press. "We believe that Mr. Gousse can drive
this country out of its turmoil."

The nominee still may face a challenge winning approval from a Senate and
Chamber of Deputies dominated by the opposition Unity party of former
President Rene Preval.

Gousse served as justice minister under the interim government that was
formed after the ouster of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004.
Critics accused him of persecuting supporters of Aristide, who returned to
Haiti in March and remains a popular figure in the impoverished country.

Unity party Deputy Patrick Joseph said Gousse would be rejected. "The choice
is a bad choice," he said. "He won't be ratified."

In Martelly's first major political setback, lawmakers last month
overwhelmingly rejected Rouzier. The absence of a prime minister has left
the government in limbo.

Martelly told reporters in St. Kitts on Friday that he had been considering
Gousse along with current Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, and Jean Henry
Ceant, who was among the candidates in November's first round of the
presidential election. He met with lawmakers in an attempt to avoid another
defeat.

From: Sandra Mignot sandramignot@noos.fr

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hISFSWmiaKrTkTmzOpcDYSd3JW
EA?docId=5837dbd8e6424ab98f0ced9651772e5e
Related articles
Haiti Headlines: Parliament Rejects Prez' Choice for PM, Martelly Celebrates Haiti Health Week by Going to US for a Check-up, and UN Says Don't Forcibly Repatriate Haitians (hcvanalysis.wordpress.com)
For PM, Martelly Picks Former Justice Minister Who Persecuted Aristide Supporters under Illegal Gov't. Selected by US in 2004 (hcvanalysis.wordpress.com)

Mexican town stands alone against drug cartel

2011-07-07T22:04:38Z

A man with his face covered takes part in a demonstration in the town of Cherán, Mexico.

Photograph: Clayton Conn

Since April this year the Mexican town of Cherán has been defending itself against illegal loggers backed by a local drug cartel. Increasingly isolated and running out of supplies townspeople opened up the town on 26 June to welcome Javier Sicilia's caravan of peace

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By Ela Stapley

Rain poured down, but the demonstration continued unabated. Masked men and boys in long raincoats cleared roadblocks of tyres and wood allowing the Caravan of Solace, Mexico's peace movement, into the mountain town of Cherán, Mexico. As people marched down muddy streets, those gathered on the side of the roads cried out with shouts of "Cherán is not alone, your support we see."

But the indigenous Purépecha people of Cherán are very much alone in their fight against Mexican President Felipe Calderón's drug war, which has claimed 40,000 lives since 2006.

Illegal loggers, backed by the regions drug cartel, have been threatening the Purépecha's way of life for years. This community of around 20,000 has seen their natural habitat destroyed and faced threats, murder and kidnappings. Things came to a head on 15 April this year when townspeople stopped and detained illegal loggers. In reprisal, armed men, accompanied by municipal police, started shooting at residents, according to Amnesty International.

The town has since take charge of its own security. Living under a self-imposed lockdown, men women and children defend their streets in twelve-hour shifts armed only with wooden sticks, baseball bats and machetes.

"Much has changed here," says a 50-year-old man who wishes to remain anonymous. He adjusts his straw hat and pulls his red face scarf higher up over his nose to hide his face. He is one of many defending the town. This year they did not celebrate the local Easter festival because it wasn't safe. "They said they would come and burn down the town and kidnap those participating in the event," he states.

Kidnapping is something that Rosa Maria Hernandez is all too familiar with. The 46-year-old wrings her hands and stares ahead defiantly. She explains how her husband, Fernando Geronimo, was taken from their family home in front of their daughter on 10 February this year. She is certain she knows who has taken him, but is reluctant to name names. "The government has not investigated properly, they have made no advances," she states. "They say that they can not come now as the village is blocked off."

In this town where no one leaves or enters at will a group of teenagers gather to discuss what needs doing. "Right now we are painting to improve the look of the buildings," says Raul Ortiz Madrigal. "We want the town to look better." Raul who seems older than his 15 years is one of between 60 and 70 young people involved in the town's youth organisation. Since the town closed itself off, the children of Cherán have not gone to school. It is simply far too dangerous. "People ask if they don't go to school what are they doing?" he states. He straightens up and looks serious. "We are supporting and helping the town," he says. "We want to move it forward."

But these young people are also looking back into the past. They speak passionately about the forests that their community has lost. "These trees were sacred for us," says 17 year-old Rosa Lidia Huaroco. "Thousands of hectors and they cut them down in three months." The group tells of how illegal loggers took free-reign of their town, threatening residents. "We feel more secure now than before, now that we take care of our own security," Rosa says, she speaks quickly her anger evident.

And there was much more at threat than the loss of the community's forests. Her face darkens and she raises her voice. "When they had finished with the trees," she states eyes widening. "They said they were coming for the women of the town."

Follow Ela Stapley on Twitter

Sell and leave

2011-07-07T21:43:31Z

A man looks out over a balcony from a house in Cuba where Cuban officials plan to let Cubans buy and sell their own homes for the first time in 50 years

Photograph: Ben, a Cuban in Europe. http://bendeasis.blogspot.com

At the beginning of the month Cuban officials opened up discussion on housing rights in Cuba, where people are not allowed to buy or sell their own homes. While citizens have welcomed the move it has also created suspicions. Cuban blogger, Yoani Sanchez, gives her thoughts

By Yoani Sanchez

News has several lives on this Island. First they hint at something but don't publish it, then they announce it tersely in some national media, and later its echo repeatedly feeds popular fantasy. This has happened with the recent information about the new flexibility in buying and selling homes. For months-perhaps years-we spun the rumor that a new housing law was about to be approved, that the absurdities of real estate would no longer stand. But only when the Cuban Communist Party Congress addressed it in Guideline No. 297, could we put some hesitant certainty to it. Although late, the measure has sparked an exclamation of relief, but has also revealed our suspicions.

Curiously, most people who bring up the issue, repeatedly put the same question to me. "Can you sell your house before leaving the country?" everyone asks, as if the real estate business was just a step to fulfilling the widespread dream of emigration. Until now, someone who permanently left the country was dispossessed of their property. Only a family member living under the same roof-and for ten years-was able to stay put, but they had to pay the National Institute for Urban Reform the value of the house. Forced evictions of those who didn't follow this rule became a common sight on the streets of this capital. Now, the great conundrum is whether a property owner will have the power to dispose of their home on the market and use that money to relocate to another latitude. How much time should elapse between this commercial transaction and the departure from the national territory?

We have been conned so much that people prefer to wrap themselves in skepticism and believe that the new selling measures will also be full of restrictions. I am surprisingly optimistic amid so much suspicion. I argue to the doubters, "The government is forced to open up, or the reality will leave them behind," but they prefer to carry on without illusion. Notwithstanding their distrust, many cherish the idea of offering the walls within which they live in exchange for a ticket and visa to get out of Cuba. Sell and leave, trading a roof here for one there, using their small patrimony to escape. And do this before the real estate flag drops again, before the step back is taken.

Follow Yoani Sanchez on Twitter

Follow Yoani Sanchez's blog

The Children

2010-11-28T19:38:45Z

Cuban conductor, Zenaida Romeu. Image taken from Yoani Sanchez's blog

By Yoani Sanchez, Cuba

Glancing at the TV I was caught by a phrase from Zenaida Romeu, director of the chamber group that bears her name. It's Tuesday and the energy of this woman, a guest on the program With True Affection, Two... had me sitting in front of the screen while the potatoes burned on the stove. She answered the questions skillfully, with a language far from the boring chatter that fills so many other spaces.

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In a few minutes she told of the difficulties in creating an all-woman orchestra, how bothered she is by the lack of seriousness in some artists, and of the day when she cropped her hair to appear with the maestro Michael Legrand. All this and more she told with an energy that calls forth an image of her, baton always in hand, score in front of her.

It is not her own story, however, that has me thinking when I return to the pot on the stove, but that of her children. She is the third or fourth guest on Amaury Perez's program who has admitted that her children live in another country. If I'm not mistaken, Eusebio Leal* also spoke of his emigrant kids, and a few days earlier Miguel Barnet* described a similar experience. All of them speak about it naturally. They discuss it without thinking that it is precisely this massive exodus of young people that is the principal evidence of our nation's failure. That the children of a generation of writers, musicians and politicians -- including those of the Minister of Communications and of the director of the newspaper Granma -- have chosen to leave, should make them doubt themselves, make them wonder if they have contributed to building a system in which their own descendants don't want to live.

This migration is a phenomenon that has left an empty chair in almost every Cuban home, but the high incidence of among families who are integral to the process, is very symptomatic. The number of children of ministers, party leaders and cultural representatives who have relocated abroad seems to exceed that of the offspring of the more critical or discontented. Could it be that in the end the dissidents and nonconformists have transmitted a greater sense of belonging to their children? Have these famous faces noticed that the babies born to them are refusing to stay here?

I look at Teo for a while and ask myself if someday I will have to talk to him from a distance, if at some moment I will have to confess -- in front of a camera -- that I failed to help create a country where he wanted to stay.

*Translator's notes:
Eusebio Leal is the Havana City Historian, director of the program to restore Old Havana and its historic center, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Miguel Barnet is a Cuban writer.

Reposted from http://www.desdecuba.com/generationy/?p=2100

Haitians Cry in Letters: 'Please -- Do Something!'

2010-09-20T23:10:25Z

CORAIL-CESSELESSE, Haiti -- It was after midnight in a remote annex of this isolated tent camp on a windswept gravel plain. Marjorie Saint Hilaire's three boys were fast asleep, but her mind was racing.

Document

Inside Haiti's Camps: Letters From the Suggestion Box

Enlarge This Image

Jake Price for The New York Times

Ms. Felicien read one appeal for help as other camp residents listened. "It is like we are bobbing along on the waves of the ocean, waiting to be saved," she said.

The camp leader had proposed writing letters to the nongovernment authorities, and she had so much to say. She lighted a candle and summoned a gracious sentiment with which to begin.

"To all the members of concerned organizations, I thank you first for feeling our pain," she wrote slowly in pencil on what became an eraser-smudged page. "I note that you have taken on almost all our problems and some of our greatest needs."

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Ms. Saint Hilaire, 33, then succinctly explained that she had lost her husband and her livelihood to the Jan. 12 earthquake and now found herself hungry, stressed and stranded in a camp annex without a school, a health clinic, a marketplace or any activity at all.

"Please -- do something!" she wrote from Tent J2, Block 7, Sector 3, her new address. "We don't want to die of hunger and also we want to send our children to school. I give glory to God that I am still alive -- but I would like to stay that way!"

In the last couple of weeks, thousands of displaced Haitians have similarly vented their concerns, depositing impassioned pleas for help in new suggestion boxes at a hundred camps throughout the disaster zone. Taken together, the letters form a collective cri de coeur from a population that has felt increasingly impotent and ignored.

With 1.3 million displaced people in 1,300 camps, homelessness is the new normal here. Two recent protest marches have sought to make the homeless a central issue in the coming presidential campaign. But the tent camp residents, miserable, weary and in many cases fighting eviction, do not seem to have the energy to become a vocal force.

When the International Organization for Migration added suggestion boxes to its information kiosks in scores of camps, it did not expect to tap directly into a well of pent-up emotions. "I anticipated maybe a few cranky letters," said Leonard Doyle, who handles communications for the organization in Haiti. "But to my absolute, blow-me-down surprise, we got 700 letters in three days from our first boxes -- real individualized expressions of suffering that give a human face to this ongoing tragedy."

In some cases, the letters contain a breathless litany of miseries, a chain of woes strung together by commas: "I feel discouraged, I don't sleep comfortably, I gave birth six months ago, the baby died, I have six other children, they don't have a father, I don't have work, my tarp is torn, the rain panics me, my house was crushed, I don't have money to feed my family, I would really love it if you would help me," wrote Marie Jean Jean.

In others, despair is expressed formally, with remarkable restraint: "Living under a tent is not favorable neither to me nor to my children" or "We would appreciate your assistance in obtaining a future as one does not appear to be on our horizon."

Several writers sent terse wish lists on self-designed forms: "Name: Paul Wilbert. Camp: Boulos. Need: House. Demand: $1,250. Project: Build house. Thank you."

And some tweaked the truth. Ketteline Lebon, who lives in a camp in the slum area called Cité Soleil, cannot read or write. She dictated a letter to her cousin, who decided to alter Ms. Lebon's story to say that her husband had died in the earthquake whereas he had really died in a car accident. "What does it matter?" Ms. Lebon said, shrugging. "I'm still a widow in a tent with four kids I cannot afford to send to school."

At this camp's annex, Corail 3, Sandra Felicien, a regal woman whose black-and-white sundress looks as crisp as if it hangs in a closet, has become the epistolary queen. An earthquake widow whose husband was crushed to death in the school where he taught adult education courses, Ms. Felicien said she wrote letters almost daily because doing so made her feel as if she were taking action. "We are so powerless," she said. "It is like we are bobbing along on the waves of the ocean, waiting to be saved."

Read more and see the letters at The New York Times

The First Sip of Water

2010-08-09T19:52:41Z

Coco Fariñas takes his first sip of water, Santa Clara hospital, Cuba. Photo: Yoani Sanchez

Cuban journalist and dissident, Coco Fariñas, ended his 134 day hunger strike last month after the Cuban government agreed to release 52 political prisoners. Cuban blogger, Yoani Sanchez, describes the moment he abandoned his fast.

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After 134 days without solid food, or even a sip of liquid, Guillermo Fariñas lifted a red plastic cup to his lips and drank a little water. It was 2:15 in the afternoon on Thursday July 8, and from the other side of the glass in the intensive care ward where he was being treated, dozens of friends watching him burst into applause as if they had been witnesses to a miracle.

Fariñas had won one battle but still remains in a fierce war against death, because the land that has seen the action of this singular belligerency is his own body -- ultimately the only space available to him to carry out this campaign. His intestines are now like fragile paper conduits distilling bacteria through their pores, his jugular vein is partially obstructed by a blood clot which, if it detached, could lodge in the heart, brain or lungs; or more precisely, in his heart, his brain or his lungs. He has suffered four staph infections and at night a sharp pain in his groin barely allows him to sleep.

His shriveled esophagus was not ready for that first sip of water. It created such a pain in his chest that for a minute he thought he was having a heart attack, but he endured it in silence. On the other side of the glass, expectantly watching, were those who for days had been keeping a vigil outside the hospital, praying for his life, and others who had come from very far away to ask him to end his martyrdom and to be a witnesses to his victory. Not wanting to dampen the celebration of his jubilant colleagues applauding the triumph of his cause, he managed to turn a grimace into a smile.

Guillermo Fariñas's family allowed me to watch over him on this, the first night after the end of his hunger strike, and he allowed me to be a witness his suffering, his occasional crankiness, and his human weaknesses. Only then did I discover the true hero of this day.

Reposted from http://www.desdecuba.com/generationy/?p=1842

Surfari Haiti

2010-08-08T21:52:37Z

On Surfari Haiti from Russell Brownley on Vimeo.

On the streets of Port au Prince...Chimin Lakay

2010-08-08T04:30:00Z

Where the streets have no names and 1.5m are forgotten

2010-08-08T04:00:00Z

New UN Site To Ensure Efficiency Of Haiti Donations

2010-08-01T16:11:59Z

UNITED NATIONS -- The United Nations has launched a new website to ensure the efficient use of the more than $9 billion in aid pledged to Haiti at a donor's conference last month.

Martin Nesirky, spokesman for the UN secretary-general, said Thursday the website is intended to help the Haitian government address the challenges linked to the management of foreign aid.

The site is intended to help hold donors to their promises and ensure transparency and accountability in the use of the money.

At the March meeting, nearly 50 donors pledged a total of $9.9 billion in aid to help Haiti recover from the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that devastated the capital Port-au-Prince. The Jan. 12 quake killed more than 200,000 people and left 1.3 million homeless.

The site's address is . http://www.refondation.ht

New bid to erect Columbus statue in Puerto Rico

2010-08-01T16:06:27Z

Reposted from Repeating islands:

URL: http://wp.me/psnTa-4NG

Christopher Columbus is on the move again in the New World, after numerous rejections in a nearly two-decade quest to find him a suitable spot, the Associated Press reports. A towering statue of the explorer -- twice the height of the Statue of Liberty without its pedestal and shunned by several U.S. cities -- might be erected on Puerto Rico's north coast.

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It would be the tallest structure in the U.S. Caribbean territory. The chosen spot is near the coastal town of Arecibo, José González, administrator of Holland Group Ports Investments, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "It already was inspected by the artist and approved by him," González said. He declined to identify the specific location. Although the site has been chosen, several permits must be approved before the project can go forward, Gonzalez said, declining further comment.

It was unclear who picked the site and authorized the statue's move. González's company runs the port where the colossal statue is stored. Arecibo Mayor Lemuel Soto did not return calls for comment.

The statue was created by Zurab Tsereteli, a controversial Russian sculptor. The nearly 300-foot (90-meter) bronze creation shows Columbus at the wheel of a tiny ship with three billowing sails behind him. It weighs 660 tons (599 metric tons). Tsereteli built it in 1991 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Columbus' 1492 arrival in the Western Hemisphere. It was given to Puerto Rico as a gift after New York, Miami, Baltimore and other cities refused to accept, for reasons ranging from cost to appearance. The Baltimore Sun called it "From Russia with Ugh."

After arriving in Puerto Rico, the statue drew more criticism. Some people said the arms are too long, the head too small and the one-handed greeting pose silly. The original plan was to erect the statue in Cataño, a suburb of San Juan. But residents protested because the plan called for demolishing several dozen homes to make room for it, and problems arose with airplane flight paths.

The statue was then proposed for Mayagüez, but an appropriate location was never found. It has been in storage there for two years, said González, whose company runs the Mayaguez port. Puerto Rico's government has estimated it would cost more than $20 million to assemble the statue's 2,750 pieces.

For the original Associated Press report go to http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jO2iEoiZTuHqrMpDX-YTRWYICbAgD9H8EFOG1

Image above: "The Inflatable Head of Columbus," 2006, parodies a failed Christopher Columbus monument in Puerto Rico. The statue, designed by Russian artist Zurab Tsereteli, was rejected by several U.S. cities before arriving in Cataño, Puerto Rico, costing the towns millions of dollars in shipping alone. However, finances collapsed, the Mayor of Cataño (Edwin "el Amolao" Sierra) resigned for psychological reasons and the controversial project was never erected. Today, Columbus lies fragmented in thousands of pieces of bronze, deteriorating in an outdoor lot next to the Bacardi Factory in Cataño. The only recognizable feature of the statue had been the giant Head. To commemorate the 500-year anniversary of the Death of Christopher Columbus (May 20, 2006), Miguel Luciano installed an inflatable replica in the Plaza Colón (Columbus Plaza) of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. Photo from http://www.vvork.com/index.php?s=tue

Image below: Model for Tsereteli's work from http://www.vanderkrogt.net/statues/object.php?record=usmd05&webpage=CO

New Book: Haïti, une traversée littéraire

2010-08-01T15:32:24Z

Reposted from Repeating Islands: URL:http://wp.me/psnTa-4Oy

Haïti, une traversée littéraire [Haiti, a Literary Voyage] is a new book by Louis- Philippe Dalembert and Lyonel Trouillot (Éditions Philippe Rey/Culturesfrance, Paris, 2010).

Description: Haiti is not only the country where "Négritude stood up for the first time," in the words of Aimé Césaire. The former French colony of Saint Domingue, which became independent in 1804, has since maintained an extraordinary flourishing of literary creation. Thus, from d'Anténor Firmin (De l'égalité des races humaines) to Marie Vieux-Chauvet (Amour, Colère, Folie), along with Jean-Price Mars (Ainsi parla l'oncle) and Jacques Roumain (Gouverneurs de la rosée), the dynamism of this literature is well documented. Today, it is written in both languages of the country, French and Creole, in Haiti as well as in its diaspora. French publishing houses tout, for example, the works of Georges Castera , Dany Laferrière , Yanick Lahens , Gary Victor, Kettly March, Edwidge Danticat, Evelyne Trouillot, and many others. Haïti, une traversée littéraire presents a journey through this literature as it was created, is created, and distributed today. An anthology of selected texts by Louis -Philippe Dalembert and Lyonel Trouillot, an audio CD, and a sound archive, complete the literary journey. The audio CD includes the voices of René Depestre, Frankétienne, Emile Ollivier, the sound archives of INA plus an excerpt from "Pierrot le Noir" by Jean -Richard Laforest, Émile Ollivier, and Anthony Phelps.

The anthology was published with the collaboration of Yves Chemla, teacher, researcher, and author of La Question de l'Autre dans le roman haïtien contemporain (Ibis Rouge éditions, 2003).

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Image via Wikipedia

Louis- Philippe Dalembert is a writer. Besides Port- au-Prince, he has lived in, Nancy, Paris, Rome, Jerusalem, Florence, and now, in Berlin. He has published numerous books of various genres including novel, short story, poetry, and essay. His most recent previous publication isRoman de Cuba (The Rock, 2009).

Lyonel Trouillot is a writer, poet, journalist, and professor of literature. Living in the Haitian capital and having spent part of his childhood and adolescence in the United States, he has also published extensively, including six novels. His latest novel is Yanvalou pour Charlie(2009).

The entire proceeds from the sale of this book will go towards rebuilding the National Library of Haiti, in partnership with the NGO "Library without Borders."

For more information (in French), see http://www.culturesfrance.com/evenement/Haiti-une-traversee-litteraire/evpg968.html

Binational Projects for Haiti and the Dominican Republic

2010-08-01T15:28:17Z

Representatives of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) based in Haiti and the Dominican Republic have reached agreement on the preparation of a binational project that will focus on the border region. The initiative will center on transboundary diseases that limit trade in agricultural products; the promotion of agribusinesses for generational change in the countryside; and agricultural technology to cope with climate change.

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IICA and FAO have been laying the groundwork for this partnership for several months. During a recent meeting on the future of Haiti, held in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, IICA officials met with the Assistant Director General of FAO for Latin America, José Graziano da Silva. It was decided that the two institutions would work together on the design and implementation of projects in both countries, in areas that could contribute to agricultural development, especially along their common border.

The four representatives in Haiti and the Dominican Republic are Alfredo Mena and Manuel Sánchez, respectively, and their FAO counterparts Ari Toubo Ibrahim and Deep Ford. In a meeting in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, held on July 21, they discussed projects of mutual interest in the two neighboring countries, especially rural communities. The final version of the proposal is expected to be ready in September. Their respective organizations, IICA and FAO, also formalized a partnership to coordinate their actions in the agricultural sector in the two countries.

For full article, see http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/news-24072--38-38--.html

Reposted from Repeating Islands

URL: http://wp.me/psnTa-4OG

Wikileaks exposes truth behind Afghan war

2010-07-26T17:05:38Z

The online whistle-blowing organisation Wikileaks has made public more than 90,000 reports, detailing the war in Afghanistan. The documents, extracts of which were published by the New York Times, the Guardian and Der Spiegel, expose the unseen side to the Afghan war.

The New York Times writes on how these secret documents show a bleaker view of the war.

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A six-year archive of classified military documents made public on Sunday offers an unvarnished, ground-level picture of the war in Afghanistan that is in many respects more grim than the official portrayal.

The secret documents, released on the Internet by an organization called WikiLeaks, are a daily diary of an American-led force often starved for resources and attention as it struggled against an insurgency that grew larger, better coordinated and more deadly each year.

The New York Times, the British newspaper The Guardian and the German magazine Der Spiegel were given access to the voluminous records several weeks ago on the condition that they not report on the material before Sunday.

The documents -- some 92,000 reports spanning parts of two administrations from January 2004 through December 2009 -- illustrate in mosaic detail why, after the United States has spent almost $300 billion on the war in Afghanistan, the Taliban are stronger than at any time since 2001.

As the new American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David H. Petraeus, tries to reverse the lagging war effort, the documents sketch a war hamstrung by an Afghan government, police force and army of questionable loyalty and competence, and by a Pakistani military that appears at best uncooperative and at worst to work from the shadows as an unspoken ally of the very insurgent forces the American-led coalition is trying to defeat.

The material comes to light as Congress and the public grow increasingly skeptical of the deepening involvement in Afghanistan and its chances for success as next year's deadline to begin withdrawing troops looms.

The archive is a vivid reminder that the Afghan conflict until recently was a second-class war, with money, troops and attention lavished on Iraq while soldiers and Marines lamented that the Afghans they were training were not being paid.

The reports -- usually spare summaries but sometimes detailed narratives -- shed light on some elements of the war that have been largely hidden from the public eye:

• The Taliban have used portable heat-seeking missiles against allied aircraft, a fact that has not been publicly disclosed by the military. This type of weapon helped the Afghan mujahedeen defeat the Soviet occupation in the 1980s.

• Secret commando units like Task Force 373 -- a classified group of Army and Navy special operatives -- work from a "capture/kill list" of about 70 top insurgent commanders. These missions, which have been stepped up under the Obama administration, claim notable successes, but have sometimes gone wrong, killing civilians and stoking Afghan resentment.

• The military employs more and more drone aircraft to survey the battlefield and strike targets in Afghanistan, although their performance is less impressive than officially portrayed. Some crash or collide, forcing American troops to undertake risky retrieval missions before the Taliban can claim the drone's weaponry.

• The Central Intelligence Agency has expanded paramilitary operations inside Afghanistan. The units launch ambushes, order airstrikes and conduct night raids. From 2001 to 2008, the C.I.A. paid the budget of Afghanistan's spy agency and ran it as a virtual subsidiary.

Over all, the documents do not contradict official accounts of the war. But in some cases the documents show that the American military made misleading public statements -- attributing the downing of a helicopter to conventional weapons instead of heat-seeking missiles or giving Afghans credit for missions carried out by Special Operations commandos.

White House officials vigorously denied that the Obama administration had presented a misleading portrait of the war in Afghanistan.

"On Dec. 1, 2009, President Obama announced a new strategy with a substantial increase in resources for Afghanistan, and increased focus on Al Qaeda and Taliban safe-havens in Pakistan, precisely because of the grave situation that had developed over several years," said Gen. James L. Jones, White House national security adviser, in a statement released Sunday.

"We know that serious challenges lie ahead, but if Afghanistan is permitted to slide backwards, we will again face a threat from violent extremist groups like Al Qaeda who will have more space to plot and train," the statement said.

General Jones also decried the decision by WikiLeaks to make the documents public, saying that the United States "strongly condemns the disclosure of classified information by individuals and organizations which could put the lives of Americans and our partners at risk, and threaten our national security.""

"WikiLeaks made no effort to contact us about these documents - the United States government learned from news organizations that these documents would be posted," General Jones said.

The archive is clearly an incomplete record of the war. It is missing many references to seminal events and does not include more highly classified information. The documents also do not cover events in 2010, when the influx of more troops into Afghanistan began and a new counterinsurgency strategy took hold.

They suggest that the military's internal assessments of the prospects for winning over the Afghan public, especially in the early days, were often optimistic, even naïve.

There are fleeting -- even taunting -- reminders of how the war began in the occasional references to the elusive Osama bin Laden. In some reports he is said to be attending meetings in Quetta, Pakistan. His money man is said to be flying from Iran to North Korea to buy weapons. Mr. bin Laden has supposedly ordered a suicide attack against the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai. These reports all seem secondhand at best.

The reports portray a resilient, canny insurgency that has bled American forces through a war of small cuts. The insurgents set the war's pace, usually fighting on ground of their own choosing and then slipping away.

Sabotage and trickery have been weapons every bit as potent as small arms, mortars or suicide bombers. So has Taliban intimidation of Afghan officials and civilians -- applied with pinpoint pressure through threats, charm, violence, money, religious fervor and populist appeals.

This article was written and reported by C. J. Chivers, Carlotta Gall, Andrew W. Lehren, Mark Mazzetti, Jane Perlez, and Eric Schmitt, with contributions from Jacob Harris and Alan McLean.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/world/asia/26warlogs.html?hp

www.wikileaks.org

Preval gets busy at ground zero

2010-07-26T12:22:26Z

Jacqueline Charles, writing for the Miami Heald, looks at how Haitian President René Preval, from dispatching government loaders to hiring consultants, is laying a foundation for a new Haiti.

Deep in the ravine amid the narrow corridors and chaotic construction, workers in T-shirts push wheelbarrows up and down a newly carved dirt path as rubble-filled buckets are passed in a human chain. At the top of the steep hill, a clear view of the crumbled presidential palace and near-collapsed capital emerge as empty lots replace mounds of rubble.

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For two months, Haitian President René Préval has been quietly laying the foundation for his quake-wrecked nation's rebuilding, transforming Fort National, a densely populated slum, into ground zero of Haiti's recovery efforts. Often criticized for inaction, Préval has personally dispatched government top loaders and bulldozers to some of the hardest-hit neighborhoods, asked international aid agencies to send displaced residents to clean up their own streets, and sat with neighborhood leaders and camp dwellers to determine their needs. ``Temporary shelters are not the solution,'' Préval told The Miami Herald this week. ``There just isn't enough space. They are a solution to help people get from underneath tents. But they are not a housing solution. We have to build up.''

A little more than six months after the worst natural disaster in the Western Hemisphere, reconstruction remains slow: Just 275,000 of an estimated 20 million cubic meters of rubble have been removed. But Préval said he's working on a three-prong reconstruction plan that includes using government heavy equipment to allow many of the estimated 1.5 million displaced quake victims to return to their neighborhoods, and having the government construct affordable multi-story apartments. At the same time, he's pushing an innovative plan to redevelop downtown from the waterfront to the Champ de Mars with the help of Central Bank financing, and by using rubble to extend the Port-au-Prince harbor.

The Central Bank would use $150 million to build about two dozen modern buildings. The buildings would be leased to the state, and be part of a new administrative and financial district that includes hotels, apartment complexes, 15 government ministries, the palace of justice, and parliament. The proposals are expected to go before the Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission when it meets next month.

The initiatives come as many here speculate on who Préval will tap as his successor, Haiti struggles to get the United States and other donors to make good on $5.3 billion in promised aid, and U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, once more blasts Préval over his leadership in a report released Thursday. ``I don't have flashy leadership,'' he said. ``I have a leadership that is tranquil.''

For now, the progress of his efforts can be seen in Fort National, where government equipment with the words Ayiti Pap Peri -- Haiti Will Not Die -- emblazoned on the side work alongside residents. ``If someone had never visited Fort National . . . they would think nothing has been done,'' said Jean-Michel Olophene, a resident-turned-leader inside the Champ de Mars camp. ``But if you saw what it looked like before, you would realize that an immense amount of progress has been made.''

Last weekend, Préval made his first foray into the hard-hit community since the 7.0 earthquake.

``Everyone was happy, but I wasn't happy,'' he said. ``I did not see the solution for relocating people.''

So far, the idea of having residents travel several flights of stairs -- as opposed to several miles from the city -- for housing seems to have the support of the co-chairs of the commission, Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive and former President Bill Clinton. ``If we can build multi-story housing, it would make the city less dense even with the same population,'' Clinton said in a meeting with foreign donors this week, adding that any future construction would have to be anti-seismic and meet code.

Préval says Haiti's ongoing challenges -- the lack of temporary shelters, the logistics of removing rubble from densely populated neighborhoods and bringing together different groups, make it clear, ``we have to provide the solutions.'' For instance, while outside government organizations ``worked on their own, did what they wanted, we are working with the people, bringing together leaders of the camps and of the popular neighborhoods and asking them what route should we take.''

So far the path appears to be winning fans among both foreign diplomats who laud the progress, and residents living in other hard-hit communities such as Avenue Poupelard, who recently asked for similar assistance as Fort National. To cope with the growing demand, a dispatching center was recently set up on the grounds of the palace to field calls. The government also cut a deal with the neighboring Dominican Republic to put 50 additional trucks at its disposal to clear and cart away rubble.

Préval will not say how much the pilot project is costing his cash-strapped government that received $35 million in donations. Meanwhile, faced with few dump sites for the rubble, Préval has asked one of his chief engineers to order up a study of the soil composition of the Port-au-Prince harbor as he considers using debris to extend the harbor. The vision of an extended, remodeled waterfront would not just offer unchartered territory for prime development, but also take it back from the anarchist development that has taken over the capital and led to a government-estimated 300,000 dead from the quake. ``While others are talking about recycling the debris for road construction and other things, we'll take it and do this instead,'' Préval said. ``We are better off enlarging the harbor for new development.''

For more go to http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/23/v-fullstory/1744737/preval-leads-the-way-for-a-new.html#ixzz0ueSKVyjY