Washington’s Reaction to IDF Killing of Aysenur Eygi is Disgraceful and Hypocritical

by Abdelhalim Abdelrahman Posted onSeptember 12, 2024

Last week, 26-year-old Turkish-American activist Aysenur Eygi was brutally murdered by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).  She was killed as she protested, alongside several other activists with the International Solidarity Movement, against settlement expansion and settler terrorism against Palestinians in Beita; a village located in the illegally occupied Palestinian city of Nablus.

Multiple eyewitness accounts asserted that Eygi, along with the other demonstrators, posed no threat and were protesting in an area where no combatants were present. But that did not matter, as the IDF fired live rounds into the crowd of activists which struck Eygi in the head and killed her instantly.

The Joe Biden administration, including Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, has yet to issue a vindictive statement condemning the Israeli army for the cold-blooded murder of Ms.Eygi. Collectively, Washington’s reaction to the IDF murdering Aysenur Eygi has been disgraceful for a litany of reasons.

Firstly, the U.S. provides Israel with $3.8 billion annually in military aid and has given Israel over $300 billion worth of military and financial aid since 1948. This includes missiles, cluster bombs, and American-manufactured assault rifles often used by IDF battalions in the illegally occupied West Bank. It’s revolting that the United States, a global superpower, cannot muster the moral and political courage to end the flow of such weapons to Israel, which are actively being used to kill U.S. citizens like Aysneur Eygi. This same U.S.-funded military is using those weapons to facilitate genocide in Gaza and accelerate the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, paving the way for more illegal settlements.

Beyond the U.S. unwillingness to impose an arms embargo, the incredibly weak and pathetic responses given by U.S. leaders in the wake of Eygi’s death must also be scrutinized. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken opined that Israel needed to make “some fundamental changes to the way they operate in the West Bank, including changes to their rules of engagement.” In saying that, Blinken fails to acknowledge the fact that the Israelis have no legal basis for being in the West Bank to begin with. Had there been no illegal occupation of Palestine, Eygi would still be alive today.

Blinken also stated that “no one should be killed for attending a protest.” His comments were weak, signaling a massive indifference towards Eygi’s murder. On the other hand, Biden issued a disgusting statement insisting that the Israeli killing of Eygi was “an accident, the bullet ricocheted off the ground, she got hit by accident.” Someone should tell Biden that a sniper rifle is a weapon that requires deliberate precision.

However, the embarrassment did not stop there. On Monday, State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel was being pressed regarding Aysneur’s murder. However, Patel refused to publicly acknowledge that the IDF killed Ms. Eygi. When asked if he had any doubts that it was an Israeli soldier who killed Eygi, Patel told reporters, “I’m not going to get ahead of the process here.”

To add insult to injury, President Biden has reportedly not spoken with her family to grant them condolences for losing their daughter. It is inexcusable, and sheer cowardice, for the President of the United States to not even interact with the family of a slain American. Biden may eventually do so, but waiting several days to grant condolences is a major insult.

Speaking of Eygi’s family, they are rightfully demanding an independent investigation into her death. The State Department has made clear it will not be investigating her murder and is hoping instead that Israel investigates her demise. The IDF has reported that they have already looked into the matter and determined that Eygi was “unintentionally” and “highly likely” killed by an IDF soldier.

The United States should not accept their determination. Israel cannot be trusted to conduct an impartial investigation into its wrongdoings. After Rachel Corrie, Shireen Abu Akleh, Omar Assad, Mohammad Khdour, and Tawfic Abdel Jabbar, now Aysenur Eygi joins the long list of Americans whose murder Israel labels “an accident.” Thus, it makes no sense to believe that this army accused of a grave crime could fully hold themselves accountable. If anything, history has demonstrated it is more likely Israel will exonerate itself of any wrongdoing. It is abhorrent and disgraceful that the United States government could stand idly by, refusing to ensure that Aysenur Eygi’s family seek justice for this unholy crime.

Aside from the fact that the U.S. refuses to investigate Ms. Eygi’s murder, perhaps the most disturbing fact from this ordeal lies within the Biden administration’s gross hypocrisy. In February, when Iran-backed militias killed three U.S. soldiers during an attack on Jordan’s airbase, Biden proclaimed that ‘if you harm an American, we will respond.” Israel has just killed yet another American citizen, and the administration refuses to issue substantial consequences. This is hypocrisy at its finest. For the disgraceful response to Eygi’s killing essentially manufactures future consent for Israel, and possibly other nations, to kill American citizens with impunity.

Abdelhalim Abdelrahman is a Palestinian-American writer and analyst located in Michigan. His work focusing on Palestine has been featured in The Hill, New Arab, Foreign Policy, and Responsible Statecraft.

GENOCIDE JOE;  ENABLER

US urges Israel to reassess military rules after Turkish-American activist’s death

WASHINGTON

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday urged Israel to reassess its military rules of engagement following the death of Turkish-American activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, who was killed by an Israeli sniper in the occupied West Bank.

Haberin Devamı

According to the Pentagon, Austin conveyed his concerns in a phone call with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, emphasizing the Israeli Defense Forces' responsibility for what he described as the "unprovoked and unjustified" death of the American citizen.

"The Secretary urged Minister Gallant to reexamine the IDF's rules of engagement while operating in the West Bank," the Pentagon's statement outlined.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday said that Israel's military needs to make "fundamental changes" when asked about the activist killing.

"Her killing was both unprovoked and unjustified," Blinken said of the death of 26-year-old Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi.

"In our judgement, Israeli security forces need to make some fundamental changes in the way that they operate in the West Bank, including changes to their rules of engagement," he told reporters in London.

The killing of Eygi by Israeli soldiers has shown Israel targets even those “who are in favor of peace,” Türkiye's foreign minister said on Tuesday.

Hakan Fidan, speaking to Anadolu in Cairo where he attended a session of the Arab League's Council of Foreign Ministers, vowed Türkiye will follow this “murder” from a legal perspective.

He expressed condolences to Eygi's family and emphasized the incident's significance in revealing Israel's approach towards peace advocates.

Eygi, 26, who held dual Turkish and U.S. citizenship, was killed by Israeli forces during a protest against illegal settlements in Beita. On Tuesday, the Israeli army stated it was "highly likely" that Eygi was hit "indirectly and unintentionally" by its fire.

U.S. President Joe Biden called the shooting of Eygi in the head by an Israeli sniper an "accident," adding that the bullet apparently "ricocheted off the ground, and she got hit.”

Biden has not spoken with the family of Eygi to offer his condolences, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Monday in response to a question.

In a separate statement, Eygi's family expressed outrage over any suggestion that her death at the hands of an Israeli sniper was unintentional, reiterating their calls for an independent investigation into her killing

In a separate statement, Eygi's family condemned the notion that her death was accidental, demanding an independent investigation.

"The Israeli military's preliminary inquiry into Aysenur's killing is wholly inadequate; we are deeply offended by the suggestion that her killing by a trained sniper was in any way unintentional," the family said in a statement.

"As we mourn the death of our beloved Aysenur, we reiterate our demand for U.S. government leaders - President Biden, Vice President (Kamala) Harris and Secretary of State (Antony) Blinken - to order an independent investigation into the Israeli military's deliberate targeting and killing of a US Citizen," the statement added.

THEY SHOULD MELLOW

Opium Replaces Meth As North Korea’s Drug Of Choice – Analysis

 September 12, 2024

By RFA

By Son Hyemin

Opium is replacing methamphetamine as the drug of choice in North Korea as the pandemic has disrupted Chinese supplies of the raw materials needed to make meth, residents in the country told Radio Free Asia.

Until a couple years ago, meth – known inside the country by its street name, “ice” – was widespread in North Korea to the point that people were giving it to each other as gifts for Lunar New Year. 

It is used recreationally as well as for various medicinal purposes in a country where the healthcare system faces a severe lack of resources. It’s illegal, but government officials are known to turn a blind eye because the state cannot provide the people with adequate medicine, sources told RFA.

But meth has become harder to obtain after trade shut down with China due to COVID-19. That’s prompting farmers to grow and sell poppies – used to make opium – on the black market, a resident of South Hamgyong province told RFA Korean on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Although legitimate trade with China has resumed, smuggling has not yet picked up to the point that steady meth supplies are coming in, a resident of the eastern province of South Hamgyong told RFA Korean on condition of anonymity for security reasons..

Many farmers in that province’s Kowon county try to grow poppies, he said. “In the mountain village where I live, five out of ten households plant opium.”

Some poppy growers grow only enough for their personal use, but most grow it for sale. It’s illegal, but if cultivated in small quantities, the government looks the other way, he said.

“The amount of meth sold on the black market has been decreasing since last year,” he said. “It has become difficult to purchase it this year, which is also the background for the rapid increase in opium cultivation.” 

Cheaper than meth

Opium is also popular because it is cheaper than meth, a resident in the western province of South Pyongan said. 

A gram of meth can fetch 18,000 won (US$1.12) on the black market, whereas the same amount of opium liquid costs only 5,000 won (31 cents), she said.

Opium is said to heal a number of ailments and lift one’s mood,  the first resident said.

“Nowadays, the common rumor is that people who have been feeling resentful and suicidal feel better after taking an opium injection,” he said.

The second resident said that opium is replacing meth as a treatment for headaches and diarrhea. RFA could not independently verify if either meth or opium are effective treatments for either condition.

“In Pyongan province, in July and August, you cut opium flower buds with a knife to obtain the liquid, which is then dried and sold,” she said, adding that the flower stems are also dried and sold.

“There are many farms that grow opium, so you can buy it at any time,” she said. It’s proving very profitable, to the point that people are growing opium flowers instead of edible crops like corn, the South Pyongan resident said.

“It was rare for farmers to plant opium in their gardens for sale, but with the coronavirus lockdown blocking businesses, some farmers have started growing opium to make a living,” she said. “More farmers have followed suit.”

Poppy seed pods Photo Credit: Zyance, Wikipedia Commons

Radio Free Asia’s mission is to provide accurate and timely news and information to Asian countries whose governments prohibit access to a free press. Content used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036.

WATCH: Trump amplifies false racist rumor about Ohio’s Haitian immigrants in debate

By —Mike Catalini, Associated Press
By —Julie Carr Smyth, Associated Press
By —Bruce Shipkowski, Associated Press


COLUMBUS, Ohio — Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday amplified false rumors that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were abducting and eating pets, repeating during a televised debate the type of inflammatory and anti-immigrant rhetoric he has promoted throughout his campaigns.

There is no evidence that Haitian immigrants in an Ohio community are doing that, officials say. But during the debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump specifically mentioned Springfield, Ohio, the town at the center of the claims, saying that immigrants were taking over the city.

“They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” he said.

Harris called Trump “extreme” and laughed after his comment. Debate moderators pointed out that city officials have said the claims are not true.

Trump’s comments echoed claims made by his campaign, including his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, and other Republicans. The claims attracted attention this week when Vance posted on social media that his office has “received many inquiries” about Haitian migrants abducting pets. Vance acknowledged Tuesday it was possible “all of these rumors will turn out to be false.”

Officials have said there have been no credible or detailed reports about the claims, even as Trump and his allies use them to amplify racist stereotypes about Black and brown immigrants.

While president, Trump questioned why the U.S. would accept people from “s—-hole” countries such as Haiti and some in Africa. His 2024 campaign has focused heavily on illegal immigration, often referencing in his speeches crimes committed by migrants. He argues immigrants are responsible for driving up crime and drug abuse in the United States and taking resources from American citizens.

Here’s a closer look at how the false claims have spread.
How did this get started?

On Sept. 6, a post surfaced on X that shared what looked like a screengrab of a social media post apparently out of Springfield. The retweeted post talked about the person’s “neighbor’s daughter’s friend” seeing a cat hanging from a tree to be butchered and eaten, claiming without evidence that Haitians lived at the house. The accompanying photo showed a Black man carrying what appeared to be a Canada goose by its feet. That post continued to get shared on social media.

On Monday, Vance posted on X. “Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country. Where is our border czar?” he said. The next day, Vance posted again on X about Springfield, saying his office had received inquires from residents who said “their neighbors’ pets or local wildlife were abducted by Haitian migrants. It’s possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false.”

Other Republicans shared similar posts. Among them was Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who posted a photo of kittens with a caption that said to vote for Trump “So Haitian immigrants don’t eat us.”

Hours before Trump’s debate with Harris, he posted two related photos on his social media site. One Truth Social post was a photo of Trump surrounded by cats and geese. Another featured armed cats wearing MAGA hats.

What do officials in Ohio say?

The office of the Springfield city manager, Bryan Heck, issued a statement knocking down the rumors.

“In response to recent rumors alleging criminal activity by the immigrant population in our city, we wish to clarify that there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community,” Heck’s office said in an emailed statement.

Springfield police on Monday told the Springfield News-Sun that they had received no reports of stolen or eaten pets.

Gov. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, held a news conference Tuesday to address the influx of Haitian immigrants to Springfield. He said he will send state troopers to Springfield to help local law enforcement deal with traffic issues and is earmarking $2.5 million over two years to provide more primary health care to immigrant families.

DeWine declined to address the allegations, deferring comment to local officials. But he repeatedly spoke in support of the people of Haiti, where his family has long operated a charity.

What do we know about a separate case 175 miles (281 km) away?
An entirely unrelated incident that occurred last month in Canton, Ohio, quickly and erroneously conflated into the discussion.

On Aug. 26, Canton police charged a 27-year-old woman with animal cruelty and disorderly conduct after she “did torture, kill, and eat a cat in a residential area in front (of) multiple people,” according to a police report.

But Allexis Ferrell is not Haitian. She was born in Ohio and graduated from Canton’s McKinley High School in 2015, according to public records and newspaper reports. Court records show she has been in and out of trouble with the law since at least 2017. Messages seeking comment were not returned by several attorneys who have represented her.

She is being held in Stark County jail pending a competency hearing next month, according to the prosecutor’s office.
What do advocates for Haitian immigrants say?

The posts create a false narrative and could be dangerous for Haitians in the United States, according to Guerline Jozef, founder and executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, a group that supports and advocates for immigrants of African descent

“We are always at the receiving end of all kind of barbaric, inhumane narratives and treatments, specifically when it comes to immigration,” Jozef said in a phone interview.

Her comments echoed White House national security spokesman John Kirby.

“There will be people that believe it, no matter how ludicrous and stupid it is,” Kirby said. “And they might act on that kind of information, and act on it in a way where somebody could get hurt. So it needs to stop.”
What is the broader context of Haitians in Ohio and the United States?

Springfield, a city of roughly 60,000, has seen its Haitian population grow in recent years. It’s impossible to give an exact number, according to the city, but it estimates Springfield’s entire county has an overall immigrant population of 15,000.

The city also says that the Haitian immigrants are in the country legally under a federal program that allows for them to remain in the country temporarily. Last month the Biden administration granted eligibility for temporary legal status to about 300,000 Haitians already in the United States because conditions in Haiti are considered unsafe for them to return. Haiti’s government has extended a state of emergency to the entire country due to endemic gang violence.

Another matter cropping up and raised by Trump in an email Monday is the August 2023 death of an 11-year-old boy after a vehicle driven by an immigrant from Haiti hit the boy’s school bus. After that, residents demanding answers about the immigrant community spoke out at city council meetings.

Catalini reported from Trenton, New Jersey, and Shipkowski from Toms River, New Jersey.


RelatedLive updates: Trump and Harris debate in Philadelphia

By Associated Press
Live fact check: Trump and Harris meet for presidential debate

‘They’re Eating the Pets!’ Trump Shouts About Fake Pet-Eating Story at Debate and Gets Brutally Fact-Checked

Phillip Nieto

Sep 10th, 2024,

Former President Donald Trump went on a bizarre rant during the ABC News debate Tuesday night when he claimed that undocumented migrants are eating cats and dogs in Ohio – leading to a fact-check from moderator David Muir.

Over the last few days, the Trump campaign has promoted a false rumor that Haitian immigrants in Ohio are abducting and eating pets. The former president even promoted the claim via social media by reposting AI images of him defending cats and ducks.

According to the Associated Press, there’s no evidence that Haitian immigrants in the Ohio community are harming or eating the animals in question.

During the debate, Trump brought up the topic after claiming that Vice President Kamala Harris would turn the U.S. into a third-world country:

TRUMP: In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country. And it’s a shame. As far as the rallies are concerned, as far as the reason they go, is they like what I say. They want to bring our country back. They want to make America great again. Very simple phrase, make America great again. She’s destroying this country. And if she becomes president, this country doesn’t have a chance of success. Not only success we’ll end up being Venezuela on steroids.

MUIR: I just want to clarify here. You bring up Springfield, Ohio. And ABC News did reach out to the city manager there. He told us there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured, or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.

The rumor about Haitian immigrants allegedly stealing pets and eating them seems to have originated with right-wing accounts spinning a Fox News report about an Ohio woman who was arrested in August for allegedly killing and eating a cat.

Watch above, via ABC.

First it was childless cat ladies. Now it's eating cats. How the topic led to 'ALF' memes

Jenny Porter Tilley and Katie Wiseman, Indianapolis Star
Wed, September 11, 2024

Debate surrounding the 2024 presidential election has gone from childless cat ladies to eating cats.

It's led to a rise in memes on social media sites referencing the 1980s television show "ALF," and it probably has some young voters confused about images of a furry puppet trying to make a cat sandwich.

Here's how the national conversation got there.

What did JD Vance say about eating cats?

In a post on X, vice presidential candidate JD Vance said Springfield, Ohio, residents claim Haitian immigrants have abducted and eaten their pets. Officials in Springfield have said there's no evidence of the claim.

What did Trump say about eating cats?

At Tuesday night's debate, Trump referenced the narrative from Vance. Here's what he said in reference to immigration:

"... look at what's happening to the towns all over the United States. And a lot of towns don't want to talk — not going to be Aurora or Springfield. A lot of towns don't want to talk about it because they're so embarrassed by it. In Springfield, they're eating the dogs. The people that came in. They're eating the cats. They're eating — they're eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what's happening in our country. And it's a shame."

2024 presidential debate: Trump echoes false anti-immigrant rumor during debate

What is 'ALF?'

'ALF,' which featured a furry alien from a planet called Melmac who was regularly trying to eat cats. It aired on NBC from 1986 to 1990 and starred Max Wright, Anne Schedeen, Andrea Elson and Benji Gregory, who died earlier this year. An animated series also ran from 1987-89.

The show's title character was played by Michu Meszaros, a former circus performer who was shorter than 3 feet tall, according to AP reporting. Meszaros died in 2016. He only did the physical acting, however. Show co-creator Paul Fusco voiced the character, according to the IMDB page for 'ALF.'

2024 elections: J.D. Vance once called VP Kamala Harris a 'childless cat lady.' What does that mean?

Where to stream 'ALF'

"ALF" is available to stream for free on Tubi, Peacock, Amazon Prime Video, Pluto TV and Sling TV.

What presidential debate viewers posted about 'ALF'

When Trump said he saw that illegal alien were eating cats on TV, most Americans know he feel asleep watching ALF pic.twitter.com/sjFTo96klp

— Yagog not Magog (@helenreddymades) September 11, 2024

USA TODAY reporter KiMi Robinson contributed.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Trump's immigration comments on cat-eating spur 'ALF' memes

GOTHIC CAPITALISM

JD Vance’s Slanders Are Far From the Worst Thing the US Has Done to Haitians

After years of strenuously ignoring the country’s agony, Secretary of State Antony Blinken finally visited Haiti last week. For five hours.

Amy Wilentz

THE NATION

 September 11, 2024

A five-hour tour: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken walks with Multinational Security Support Mission Commander Godfrey Otunge and Haitian National Police General Director Rameau Normal (L) in Port Au Prince, Haiti, on September 5, 2024.

(Photo by Roberto Schmidt / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)

It took a lot of unearned courage—some might call it chutzpah, or even balls—for Secretary of State Antony Blinken to fly down to Haiti, arguably the biggest mess US foreign policy has created anywhere in the world (though there are many contenders for that position), merely to reassert the administration’s commitment to the still-evolving government there. Yet Blinken’s lightning visit last week could nonetheless be considered a success. Nothing bad happened; another $45 million in US humanitarian assistance was promised.

Blinken is the highest-ranking American official to visit the country since 2015. Though the US policy in Haiti since the fall of the Duvalier dynasty in 1986 has been to establish a secure electoral democracy in the island nation, there has not been an election of any kind there since 2016—after which the two governments that the United States maneuvered into office failed ever to hold a vote.

The current prime minister, Garry Conille, is the latest in the series of US-backed leaders. He took over in June from the criminally negligent, impotent, overlong reign of the unelected Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who was finally hustled out of Haiti during a gang uprising this past spring and then was not permitted to return to Haitian territory.

One of the hallmarks of US policy in Haiti over the years has been to make demands that create conditions for future political failure, and then blame Haitian dysfunction for that inevitable collapse. Yet it is that very policy that encourages that dysfunction. Conille’s racketty-packetty house of a government, stuffed with rivalrous Haitian political factions essentially imposed on Haiti by the US and CARICOM (the 20-nation Caribbean economic coalition), has shown itself so far incapable of arriving at consensus, much less of leading the country to elections. Even within the factions represented, there are unbreachable fissures.

In spite of this very open fractiousness, and with the trademark casual American refusal to recognize real Haitian problems, Blinken told reporters in Port-au-Prince last week that the US “appreciates Haiti’s leaders putting aside their differences working together to put the country on a path for free and fair elections.” Meanwhile, Conille’s bifurcated government hobbles on, crippled for now by internecine squabbling over power—as could have been (and, in fact, was) predicted.

While the government squabbles, the country’s forces of order have tried to calm the streets. But power no longer resides with them; it hasn’t since the quasi-occupation of Haiti in 2004 by the United Nations mission there, which comprised some 5000 military officers and civilian staff and advisers. Neither the Haitian National Police, nor the small, rather ragtag Haitian Army, nor the painfully undermanned replacement for the UN occupation—a 400-person Kenyan police detail sent in to deal with Haiti’s security problems—seems capable of countering the volatile and violent gangs that now rule the Haitian capital, making the chance of free or fair elections slim indeed. Still, under Conille the Haitian police—fortified recently by a shipment to the Kenyan force of 24 armored vehicles from the US—have at least begun to engage with the gangs, and have even managed to claw back some small areas of the capital from their grasp.

Conille himself had to show up to receive Blinken: the United States is still Haiti’s “best friend” in terms of humanitarian aid and other support, but Haiti’s status as a test tube for ruinous US experiments in democracy is not gaining the Americans any popularity, and Conille did not make a big occasion out of the visit. Neither did Blinken, who traveled through Port-au-Prince via convoys of armored cars from one location secured by US forces to another. A five-hour visit, from landing to takeoff.

With more than 300,000 Haitians, including thousands of babies and children, still displaced by the 2010 earthquake and years of intensifying gang activity, and living in total precarity— no sanitation, clean water, or healthcare; vast food insecurity; and often without work, shelter, or school—Haitians from the top of the social ladder to the bottom feel as if all the US money that’s gone into stabilizing the country in recent years has been wasted. Or, as Haitians say, “it’s like throwing water on the sand.” In 2023 alone, the US provided Haiti with $380 million in financial assistance—not an unusual figure for the perpetually strapped country. In the decade after the earthquake, the international community as a whole furnished some $13 billion in aid.

But there is no sign that over the many decades of assistance the Haitian people have moved forward economically. Instead many Haitians—and most foreign economic analysts—believe that much of this aid has gone to reinforce and enrich corrupt governments and their business friends, rather than to provide social programs and development for the population. Several of these friends were also darlings of Bill and Hillary Clinton, and benefited from their valuable support.

The Biden administration’s policy of forcible deportation of Haitian refugees from US borders back to Port-au-Prince—more than 20,000 during his administration—has also not won the US president many admirers in Haiti, especially given the administration’s July 2023 decision to begin evacuating families of American personnel because of ongoing insecurity.

“Do not travel to Haiti due to kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and poor health care infrastructure,” read the travel advisory from the State Department. “US citizens in Haiti should depart Haiti as soon as possible by commercial or other privately available transportation options, in light of the current security situation and infrastructure challenges.” At the time, private helicopters were landing regularly on hilltops to ferry US citizens and Haitians with money and travel papers to either the neighboring Dominican Republic or to Miami, while the State Department haggled with Haitian groups about how to help the country out of its quagmire.

Beyond the failure of its aid program and its political policies, the United States is also reviled for supporting the 13-year UN occupation that only ended in 2017. “The Blinken visit is just a repeat of the traditional American playbook,” says Daniel Foote, former US special envoy to Haiti:

“Three years ago, the Department of State disavowed any desire for another UN peacekeeping mission, apparently acknowledging the fact that Haitians despise UN operations because of past atrocities, massacres, and sexual exploitation of women and children. Plus [the UN force] reintroduced cholera into the country 120 years after it was originally eradicated. Now the US is going for another military intervention [the Kenyan police] that’s not been requested by anyone but the US puppets. The irony: Secretary Blinken does all this while saying the plan is Haitian-led.”

If the US record were not so terrible in Latin America generally, it would be astonishing how backward and destructive the economic and political attitude of the world’s richest, best-armed superpower has been toward this desperate neighbor. After all, throughout its history Haiti has remained reasonably friendly toward the United States: no popular front, no powerful Communist or socialist party, a weak and fractured left, with much of its potential for resistance destroyed at conception by the US Marines’ occupation of the country from 1915 to 1934.

When the murderous Duvalier dynasty fell from power in 1986, Ronald Reagan was in the White house, and Haiti has been one of the prime victims of the US’s long Reagan hangover. His administration hoped that the military-civilian junta they supported after Duvalier’s departure would ensure that Haiti’s multigenerational economic elite and the country’s political class—so welcoming of long-entrenched US business interests and of the American government—would continue to run the country, only now without the obstacles that the corrupt Duvaliers had been putting in their way.

Members of those business-inclined elites—blessed, as Duvalier fell, by Reagan’s foreign policy circles—were repeatedly summoned to negotiating tables by US diplomats in the ensuing years. Until recently they were also still running the country as a balkanized series of corrupt fiefdoms, deploying gang firepower and coercion when necessary. The dead hand of Reaganomics in Haiti also kept the state extremely weak, leaving this same coddled elite and its minions in charge of services that in many other places would have been nationalized: transport, communications, energy, healthcare, water delivery, and education. Even the lottery was in private hands. In economic spaces where profit was not high enough—for example, clinics and schools in the countryside—international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), mostly religious charities, arrived to provide a limited version of service that the Haitian government could not provide, or would not. Haiti is Reagan’s dream made flesh: an economy almost completely run by the private sector, with no regulation.

But now the gangs that this same elite traditionally manipulated for political and business ends have apparently escaped from its control. Equipped with military-style weapons and ammunition brought in clandestinely through Miami’s ports, these groups have morphed into seemingly independent criminal enterprises and drug-trafficking rings that, while still sometimes useful to what Haitians call the county’s “biznis mafya,” can no longer be relied on to obey that mafia’s every command.

These same gangs now run almost all of Port-au-Prince—and are spreading their reigns of terror into the nearby countryside. Already this year, more than 4,000 Haitians have been killed or injured in gang violence. Tens of thousands have been displaced from their homes, all of which are systematically looted, and often burned. Women have been attacked both in gang-run areas, where many have been forced into what amounts to sexual servitude and enforced gang participation, and in neighborhoods under assault, where gang rape is common as a tool of control. Schools have been closed, hospitals attacked, looted, and burned, churches targeted, and barely a police headquarters in the capital or its environs has been left untouched by arson and looting. Several of the country’s largest prisons, redoubts of starvation and criminality themselves, have been destroyed and their populations released into the streets, some to starve further, others to rejoin the gangs.

Only one hospital in all of Port-au-Prince—l’Hôpital Universitaire de la Paix—can be called functional. Medical supplies have been commandeered by the gangs, as has gasoline. Extortionist tolls are exacted from bus drivers and passengers and from individual drivers at important crossroads leading in and out of Port-au-Prince. The highways around the country are places of banditry and death where hardly anyone ventures. The ubiquitous market women who come down from the countryside to sell in the cities’ markets—the picturesque lifeblood of Haitian commerce—are under constant threat of robbery and physical attack. “The gangs,” said Monica Clesca, a Haitian political activist, “are waging a war against the population.”

All of this terror was boiling and churning in recent years, as Washington vacillated and hemmed and hawed and turned away from reasonable Haitian interlocutors, engaging instead with the usual suspects it had always trusted and could never seemingly do without. American and other international negotiators put off new democratic groups, with new ideas about grassroots control of the country and real democratic rule, and rejected their proposals pretty much wholesale, while the old guard plotted and planned.

Whatever else the Haitians and Americans are now each cooking up, the brief passage of Blinken through the Haitian landscape means at least that the US hasn’t turned away from the crisis, even if so far it has been inept at helping to solve it. You may mistrust the motivations behind your friend’s offers of help, but still, you don’t want him to abandon you. From the administration’s point of view, continuing US support of Conille and the Kenyan force may help ensure that the Haitian situation doesn’t deteriorate further, at least in the immediate future, i.e., before the November 5 elections. The last thing the Democratic Party wants to see are boatloads of Haitians arriving on Florida’s shores during the next few months.

Conille is probably the right man for this moment: clear-eyed, familiar with the international complex (he worked for the UN in various capacities from 2001 on, including in Haiti after the earthquake), able to talk as an equal with Blinken, but also connected through family to both the Haitian elite and to the small but still important middle class. Slow to anger and with a reputation for loyalty toward his underlings rather than dramatic firings and hirings, Conille has so far been free from the usual, and often well-founded, accusations of corruption… or drug-trafficking…. or participation in gang massacres…. or looting of government coffers that have been leveled against many of his predecessors.

In the wings, the threat of Trump looms. He’s long put Haiti into his infamous category of “shithole countries,” while just this week his running mate JD Vance accused “illegal Haitian immigrants” of “draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio.” Vance also accused the Haitians of abducting and eating their neighbors’ household pets. Such talk does not bode well for Haitian immigrants—or for the country’s limping attempts to get out from under the gangs and move toward democratic governance.

When people ask how Haiti can be “like that” when it is so close to the US, the proper response is that it’s “like that” precisely because it is so close to the US.

Ohio’s Haitian immigrant influx boosts economy, strains services and sparks social furor

Haitian immigrants are reshaping Ohio’s demographics, bringing economic benefits but also challenging local infrastructure and social concerns in cities like Springfield.

by The Haitian Times

Sep. 10, 2024

Courtesy of Springfield, Ohio town website

Overview:

Ohio is experiencing a surge in Haitian immigration, particularly in cities like Springfield, where the population has grown by nearly 25% in the last four years. This demographic shift is reshaping the local economy and community dynamics, with benefits for industries facing labor shortages, and challenges to infrastructure and services like healthcare and education.

Ohio, traditionally a political bellwether, is undergoing a significant demographic shift with major implications as Haitian immigrants settle there. In recent years, the state has experienced a surge in Haitian immigration, particularly in cities like Springfield, that is reshaping communities economically, socially and politically. The growth is also highlighting anti-immigrant views such as vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance’s false, racist claims.

As Ohio grapples with these changes, the coming months will be crucial in determining whether the state can successfully integrate its new residents. The situation in Springfield could provide key insights into how communities across the U.S. might handle similar challenges in the future, particularly regarding immigration, economic policy, and electoral dynamics.

Springfield surge benefits economy

A city of about 60,000 residents, Springfield was once a symbol of the Rust Belt’s economic decline. But its population has grown by nearly 25%, driven largely by Haitians looking for work and safety, over the past four years. The city is now experiencing renewed vibrancy and opportunities. However, the rapid change has also brought challenges, including a resurfacing of white supremacist views, that have sparked debates among its residents and far beyond.

On the economic front, local businesses have benefited from the new labor force. Industries that were once struggling to fill positions, especially in manufacturing, have welcomed the Haitian workforce. Jamie McGregor, CEO of McGregor Metal Plant, highlighted the importance of these workers.

“Without the Haitian associates that we have, we had trouble filling these positions,” McGregor said.
Infrastructure, services, cultural concerns raised

For local infrastructure, however, the demographic shift has created challenges. Springfield’s hospitals, for example, are spending up to $50,000 each month on translation services for non-English-speaking patients. In school, many new students require additional support such as English as a Second Language (ESL), further straining already limited resources.

Local government officials are concerned about the resulting pressure on essential services. Mayor Rob Rue has urged state and federal authorities to step in and provide additional support.

“Our community has a big heart, but it’s being overwhelmed,” Rue said.

For long-time residents, the rapid changes have sparked concerns about local culture, the increased strain on services and broader social impacts. In response, the Springfield chapter of the NAACP, led by President Denise Williams, has been facilitating discussions aimed at promoting understanding between the Haitian community and established residents.

“They are not going anywhere,” Williams said during a recent forum. “So how do we co-exist? As one people.”

Racist claims tied to politics on rise

In politics, as the 2024 elections approach in particular, the presence of Haitians has become a focal point in local, state and federal campaigns. Immigration was already a hot-button issue in political debates, but the Haitian community’s growing presence could affect voter turnout and influence, especially in Ohio’s swing districts.

Just one day before the anticipated first debate between presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, Vance tweeted a debunked, racist conspiracy theory about Haitians in Ohio harming pets and wild animals. Other Republican officials like Ted Cruz and Elon Musk repeated the falsehood, just one of several that have been circulating on social platforms in targeting Haitians.

“People are scared and have been calling me all day because of this,” Vilès Dorsainvil, a Haitian community leader, said that Monday afternoon.

Prior to Vance amplifying the false claims, a white supremacist had become active in Springfield in the weeks prior. They held an anti-Haitian march in August, delivered a “warning” to the city officials during a regular meeting and ratcheted up attacks posted from anonymous users on Springfield social channels.

“Our community is more heated than it’s ever been after this [Vance] comment,” said Williams, of the Springfield NAACP. “This is really getting out of hand. [It] is absolutely disturbing. This is a good town. We don’t want them [far-right extremists] to run people off.”

This article contains information first reported by Springfield News Sun, WHIO, and NPR.

GOTHIC CAPITALISM

The Horror of Accumulation and the Commodification of Humanity.

ABSTRACT:

This article is in six parts with appendices. All footnotes are at the end of the article

1 ZOMBIE CAPITALISM
In Haiti under American Imperialism, 1915-1935, the cult of the Zombie developed and under capitalism became a tool for creating a docile labouring class for work on American controlled sugar plantations. With the publication of the Magic Island by William Seabrook in 1929 American popular culture was introduced to the Zombie, and it quickly became a popular character in horror literature, news stories and movies.