[Peace-discuss] Corrupt US media in Haiti

[Ricky Baldwin]

My favorite line is:

"Part of [the NED-funded group]'s work is to train
Haitian journalists how to cover elections." :-)

Fascinating article.  Where's it from, by the way?

Ricky

--- "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at uiuc.edu> wrote:

> [The AP has a lot to answer for in the Middle East.
> This
> article from Flashpoints Radio (Berkeley) shows the
> same is
> true in Haiti. It also discusses the nefarious work
> of the
> NED. --CGE]
> 
>   Denial in Haiti:
>   AP reporter RéGINE is wearing two hats
>   December 29, 2005
>   by Anthony Fenton and Dennis Bernstein
> 
> Has the Associated Press and
> the New York Times gone to bed
> with the National Endowment for Democracy?
> 
> ORIGINAL ARTICLE UPDATED: 12/30/05 12:30 PM PST
> 
> A by-lined freelancer for the Associated Press, who
> is also a
> stringer for the New York Times in Haiti, is
> moonlighting as a
> consultant for the US Government funded National
> Endowment for
> Democracy, according to an official at the NED, and
> several of
> the agency's grantees.
> 
> NED is funded annually by grants from the US
> Congress and
> State Department, with a 2006 global budget of $80
> million, an
> increase of $20 million from 2005. For years the
> group has
> played a controversial role -- with lopsided funding
> of
> elections in foreign countries -- in promoting
> pro-US
> candidates and policies friendly to US interests.
> Most
> recently, the NED has been accused of attempting to
> destabilize the Venezuelan government.
> 
> Regine Alexandre, whose name appears as an AP
> by-line at least
> a dozen times starting in May of 2004, and appears
> as a
> contributor to two NY Times stories, is a part of an
> NED
> "experiment" to place a representative on the ground
> in
> countries where the NED has funded groups.
> 
> "This is almost like an experiment for us," said
> Fabiola
> Cordova, a Haiti program officer with the NED in
> Washington
> D.C. on December 6th. "The NED usually doesn't have
> a field
> presence and most of the work from our side takes
> place here
> in D.C. Then once the grants are approved it's
> really very
> much on the grantees' leadership and initiative to
> 'implement
> their programs.'"
> 
> Cordova said the NED tries to monitor the programs
> from DC and
> to provide some financial oversight, but "a lot of
> the
> organizations in Haiti really need a lot of
> hand-holding, so
> we hired this person to be part-time NED staff on
> the ground,
> and she's helped us, well, both identify new
> grantees and to
> respond to any specific questions they're going to
> have on the
> ground."
> 
> Cordova said the relationship between NED and
> Alexandre has
> worked out well. "I think it has been very helpful,
> and over
> time as they get more used to having her there, they
> will use
> her more effectively too. It works out well for us,"
> said the
> NED program officer, "because we don't need a full
> time
> person. Like I said, it's an experiment, NED has
> never had
> like a field presence like this before, but we
> really wanted
> to expand our Haiti program so we thought it was
> really
> necessary to do this."
> 
> Cordova said that Alexandre "was already in Haiti
> doing some
> other freelance work" and the NED hired her part
> time where
> she "works as a consultant." As a follow up, NED's
> Haiti
> program officer forwarded in a December 6, 2005
> eMail the
> direct contacts for Regine Alexandre including her
> phone and
> eMail address. "Nice talking to you today," wrote
> Cordova, "As
> promised, attached is the information on our Haiti
> grantees,
> and the contact information on our part-time field
> rep in
> Haiti. Her name is Regine Alexandre. I will drop her
> an e-mail
> and to let her know you might be in touch."
> 
> In recent years, NED funding for Haiti has
> skyrocketed from $0
> in 2003, before the forced departure of elected
> President John
> Bertrand Aristide, to $149,300 in 2004 to its
> current level of
> $541,045 in 2005 (8 grantees). NED spending in Haiti
> is at its
> highest level since 1990, the year Aristide was
> first elected.
> 
> Alexandre denies working for the NED, but said she
> has met
> with several NED grantees and was considering
> working for NED
> but then decided not to. "All I can tell you," she
> said in a
> phone interview from Port-au-Prince on December
> 27th, "I met
> with NED, I was going to work for them, and I didn't
> know much
> about NED and I decided not to work for them. I
> remember
> meeting with two, maybe three of the grantees and
> that's it,
> but I do not work for NED."
> 
> In response to queries to AP about Alexandre's links
> to NED,
> Jack Stokes of the Associated Press, Corporate
> Communications,
> replied that "Regine Alexandre, a freelance reporter
> for AP,
> says that at no time has she been an employee of the
> National
> Endowment of Democracy. Alexandre, who is also a
> development
> consultant in Haiti, says that at the request of NED
> she did
> meet briefly with some Haitian non-government
> organizations to
> provide them with contact information for NED, and
> was
> reimbursed by NED for travel expenses. She says she
> was
> unaware that NED had any U.S. government links. The
> AP is
> continuing to look into the matter," the Stokes
> statement
> concluded.
> 
> For their part, the New York Times has been avoiding
> comment
> for days. After dozens of calls to several offices
> at the
> Times, we were told that they were still looking
> into it, and
> that their reporter in Haiti, Ginger Thompson, who
> used
> Alexandre as a stringer, had no information about
> whether
> Alexandre was working with the State Department.
> When I
> pointed out we were talking about the NED, and not
> the State
> Department directly, the deputy Foreign Desk Editor
> for the
> Times, Ethan Bonner, said the Times will look into
> the matter
> further and get back to us. Mr. Bonner acknowledged
> that it
> could present a "conflict of interest," depending on
> the
> situation, but he had no idea whether this
> particular case
> would be a problem, or whether the Times would be
> utilizing
> Regine Alexandre again or not.
> 
> In a follow up interview on 12/30/2005, Times Deputy
> Foreign
> Editor, Ethan Bonner, stated that Thompson had
> caught up with
> Alexandre for a brief cell phone conversation and
> Alexandre
> assured her, as in the case of AP, she received
> expenses for
> travel, which includeed air-fare to Washington D.C.
> for a job
> interview with the NED, but then turned it down.
> Bonner said
> that the NY Times believed that Alexander was not
> working or
> consulting with the NED when she was reporting for
> the paper.
> He said in her interview with Thomson that Alexandre
> denied
> being an employee for the NED, but the line went
> dead before
> Thompson could follow up as to whether Alexandre was
> on the
> NED payroll, either directly or as a consultant or
> being paid
> by NED grantees with NED monies.
> 
> "Conflict of interest" would be to put it mildly.
> "The NED was
> created in the highest echelons of the US national
> security
> state," writes William Robinson in Promoting
> Polyarchy:
> Globalization, US Intervention and Hegemony. "It is
> organically integrated into the overall execution of
> US
> national security and foreign policy. In structure,
> organization, and operation, it is closer to
> clandestine and
> national security organs such as the CIA than to
> apolitical or
> humanitarian endowments, as the name would suggest."
> 
> Other groups that have worked with Alexandre include
> RANCODHA,
> a Haiti-based group, also working around the
> elections.
> RANCODHA was the recipient of a $41,220 grant from
> the NED,
> according to documents obtained from the NED. Gadin
> Jean-Pierre, a spokesperson for the group, said in
> an
> interview from Haiti on December 27th that Alexandre
> has been
> in regular touch with the group, as a representative
> of the
> NED. "She's keeping in touch with us, and we keep
> her informed
> about our activities that we are doing now with the
> project. I
> have had a meeting with her already, and she keeps
> in touch
> with us."
> 
> In a second interview, Jean-Pierre again confirmed
> Alexandre's
> work for the NED. "NED is the organization funding
> our
> program...We get funding from NED and we are working
> in close
> collaboration with Regine Alexandre. She will meet
> tomorrow
> with us, at 9:00; we have the evaluation of the
> program of the
> last module we have done. She will be with us
> tomorrow
> (Thursday,December 29th)."
> 
> Hans Tippenhauer, director of Fondation Espoir (Hope
> Foundation), the recipient of a $132,970 NED grant,
> also
> confirmed that Regine Alexandre was working for the
> NED, and
> acted as a "contact officer" between his
> organization and NED.
> In an interview from Haiti Tippenhauer said "Yes,
> she is a
> contact person" for Fondation Espoir, and added that
> "the
> reality is our last program was approved before she
> was in
> charge, so now she is just a contact officer for us,
> but we
> are working directly with, I mean we had previous
> engagements
> with NED in Washington..."
> 
> Maryse Balthazar is the coordinator of the
> Association of
> Haitian Women Journalists or AMIFEH. The group
> received a
> $16,815 NED grant for 2005. Balthazar said she last
> met with
> Regine Alexandre on December 8th. She says that she
> first
> started working with Alexandre in September 2005.
> Part of
> AMIFEH's work is to train Haitian journalists how to
> cover
> elections. "Yes," she said in an interview on
> 12/29/2005, "I
> work with Alexandre." Balathazar said the last
> meeting she had
> with Alexandre was "before the Session of the North
> department," on December 8th, and that she had
> commenced
> working with her in September of 2005.
> 
> 	  	
> 
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