WfJRIlERS '.II',.RI) 25¢ ~X.623 No. 568 ~~ 29 January 1993 ay New imperialist chief Clinton celebrates at inaugural ball. Desperate Haitian refugees risk their lives in small boats seeking to escape terror and sta Clinton Dances As Haitians Drown,lraqis Die While president-elect Bill Clinton and munications center. The hotel has been his yuppie claque were carousing under on Bush's hit list ever since it served as pre-inaugural fireworks displays in the base for journalists like CNN's Peter Washington, George Bush lit up the skies Arnett, whose factual reports about over Baghdad with his own counter­ American atrocities like Amiriya or the inaugural, raining death down on the bombing of a baby formula factory dur­ Iraqi people. It was "the mother of all ing the Gulf slaughter exposed Pentagon unfinished business," quipped one news­ lies, and earned him wrathful denuncia­ paper cartoon, as the Republican sore tions as a "dupe of Saddam Hussein." loser with state power ordered three White House spokesmen conceded bombing raids against Iraq in his last that it was "unique" for a lame duck pres­ week in office. A bogus Iraq "crisis" was ident to be bombing other countries days manufactured to lend plausible implau­ before leaving the Oval Office. Then sibility for what everybody knew was again, Bush never did seem too recon­ Bush lashing out at the Iraqi strongman ciled to last November's "popular man­ for outlasting him. In the streets of Bagh­ date." All Republican appointees were dad, demonstrating schoolgirls taunted, ordered to quit before Clinton was sworn "Bush is gone but Saddam remains." in-leaving key government positions But Clinton had no qualms aboufpick­ vacant-and those who hesitated were ing up where Bush left.off, as American denounced by Bush aide Kevin Moley fighter planes l}lasted Iraqi facilities as "disloyal" and "traitorous." Explain­ three times in as many days after he took ing the White House action, Moley office. Speaking amid the grotesque railed, 'That's what the American people splendor of a $30 million inauguration voted for Nov. 3. Now the consequences rite, Clinton's thankfully brief incoming will come home to roost" (New York address was an uninterrupted exhortation Times, 16 January). Indeed, when former for "sacrifice"-to working people and secretary of state James Baker gloated minorities already reeling from two dec­ in self-congratulation about a "peaceful" ades of plummeting living standards. transition of power after Clinton's Desperate Haitians had their illusions of inauguration, it made you wonder just imminent salvation crushed even, before uters what else the Bush/Quayle team might the new president was sworn in-Clin­ Sore loser Bush bombs Iraq. Grieving woman holds photo of her sister, killed have been thinking about. ton not only continued Bush's racist in AI Rashid Hotel by U.S. missile. The outgoing administration openly exclusion of Haitian refugees, but defied two court orders against erasing ordered a naval blockade of the island gon claims of a "pinpoint strike" in the like all the others, had been visited ump­ White House computer files. They finally country to keep them imprisoned in their first attack on January 13, over a hundred teen times by United Nations "inspec­ promised to hand over copies of every­ police-state hellhole. jets armed with high-tech "smart bQmbs" tors"). Pentagon flacks first claimed the thing they erased, but who would notice Bush: The Mother of All hit only one of four missile batteries hotel had been hit by Iraqi anti-aircraft if, in the end, they copied only 98.2 Sore Losers targeted. They did succeed in killing 19 fire, then allowed that some of the mis­ percent of the files-or perhaps 92.8 per­ people and bombing a residential area siles might have passed near the hotel, cent? Bush also handed over a personal If Nixon used the IRS and gusano in the southern province of Basra. and finally admitted that all 45 of the diary of the Iran/contra scandal kept hid­ Watergate "plumbers" to go after his A second attack four days later did low-flying cruise missiles had been pro­ den from investigators for five years. "enemies list," one-time CIA chief Bush achieve a "pinpoint strike," as a Toma­ grammed to fly over the city. Predictably, the diary as released, was relied on more formidable means, seiz­ hawk cruise missile exploded right at So now the bombing of the hotel is hardly competition for True Confessions. ing his last chance to "bloody the nose" the entrance of Baghdad's AI Rashid deemed an "accident." We remember a But where the Washington Post (16 Jan­ of Saddam Hussein-and anybody else Hotel (which happened to be hosting similar "accident" two years ago, when uary) reported, "Diary Says Bush Had who'd crossed him. But despite Penta- an Islamic conference at the time), kill­ laser-guided "smart bombs" pierced the 'Details' of Iran Arms Deal," the ever ing two women, and bloodying a Ger- roof of Baghdad's Amiriya air raid shel­ "responsible" New York Times ran a - man journalist. The nominal target­ ter with surgical precision, incinerating cover-up of the cover-up, headlining, eight miles away-was also destroyed, hundreds of sleeping women and chil­ "Entries Suggest He Did Not Know I II 05 another of those supposedly Ubiquitous dren. We also recall how the Pentagon Details of Scandal." Before exiting, Bush Iraqi nuclear facilities (this one turned threatened to target the AI Rashid at the freely dispensed presidential pardons to o 74470 81030 • ~ out to be a tool and die factory, which, time, labeling it a secret military com- continued on page 2 7 January). Secretary of State Warren around on admitting Haitian refugees. Cuba! Down with the racist blockade Clinton ... Christopher presided over army spying Denouncing Bush's policy as "inhu­ of Haiti! (continued from page 1) on left and antiwar groups when he mane" and "appalling" during the cam­ served under Lyndon Johnson during paign, Clinton promised that even those Fight for a Workers Party! Caspar Weinberger and five others who the Vietnam War. New CIA chief Jim Haitians who were not deemed "political While Clinton has gone out of his way faced Contragate criminal charges. The Woolsey is "the Republicans' favorite refugees" would be given "temporary to snub labor and minorities, the fake­ question, asked Daniel Schorr in the New' Democrat" (New York Times, II Janu­ asylum" until deposed president Jean­ left is gaga over the Democrats, seeking York Times (29 December 1992), was ary), while Zoe Baird, Clinton's nominee Bertrand Aristide was restored to power. to be the new administration's "socialist" "Will Bush Pardon Himself?" for top cop who was shot down for hiring When it became clear that upwards of _ conscience. A pacifist rally in Washing­ If Bush didn't, it was only because he undocumented workers, was hailed by 150,000 Haitians were preparing a des­ ton against the bombing of Iraq on Jan­ could be damn sure the Democrats had the Wall Street Journal (13 January) as perate exodus in time for the inaugura­ uary 13 pleaded outside Democratic no intention of going after him. Leading "An Attorney General Quayle Could tion, Clinton began furiously backped­ Party headqoarters: "Bill, Gore-Stop Congressional Democrats endorsed the Love." aling, asserting that Bush's racist the War!" The rad-lib Nation (l Febru­ Weinberger pardon, and a: House panel The Clinton team came in vowing to interdiction policy had to be maintained ary) carried a front-page "Memos to investigating the "October Surprise" keep the death row assembly line running "for the time being" to assure a "smooth Bill," which begged him to_listen to issued a- whitewash report exonerating at full speed and to slash "entitlement" transition." Then he went Bush one fur­ "some different voices" than "hordes of Reagan/Bush of charges that they stole programs like Medicaid and Medicare. ther, mounting a full-scale Coast Guard policy wonks, bureaucrats, office seek­ the 1980 elections by cutting a deal with And aside from his lukewarm support blockade, "Operation Able Manner," of ers, pundits, economists, corporate lob­ Khomeini to delay the release of Amer­ to liberalizing Bush's draconian anti­ Haiti's northern coast and the Windward byists," etc.-as though Clinton were a ican hostages until after Reagan came to abortion policies, Clinton pulled back on Passage. well-meaning innocent being misled by power. The hostages were released as most of his other campaign promises even For all of Clinton's "humanitarian" his advisers! The social-democratic In Reagan took the oath of office, and arms before taking office. The middle-class tax rhetoric, this brazenly racist act has These Times enthused in a January 11 shipments started flowing to Iran via cut and promised investment in public nothing to do with saving Haitian lives. article, "It's been a long time since any­ Israel. But Democrat Lee Hamilton in­ works and infrastructure were zapped. Over 40,000 Haitians have fled since one in power spoke our language." toned there was "no credible evidence." The "commitment" to issue an immediate Aristide's overthrow in 1991, and they Gus Hall's Communist Party long­ Election Promises Are executive order banning discrimination will continue to seek refuge from abject ingly harked back to the heady popular­ Made to Be Broken against homosexuals in the armed forces poverty and the terror of the military front days of Roosexelt's "New Deal," has turned into an evanescent rumor of regime. Last December 21, 392 people advising that "With enough 'street heat' The Democrats never went after Rea­ undefined action at an indefinite time.