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3 Sw. J. L. & Trade Am. 303 (1996)
Sin, Fraph, and the CIA: U.S. Covert Action in Haiti

handle is hein.journals/sjlta3 and id is 311 raw text is: SIN, FRAPH, AND THE CIA: U.S.
COVERT ACTION IN HAITI
Kathleen Marie Whitney t
Using secret intelligence agencies to defend a constitutional republic
is akin to the ancient medical practice of employing leeches to take
blood from feverish patients .... Secret intelligence agencies are
designed to act routinely in ways that violate the laws or standards of
society.1
The United States Central Intelligence Agency has undertaken
secret interventions for almost forty years in Haiti, the poorest coun-
try in the Western Hemisphere.2 The CIA has provided training,
funds, and equipment to the corrupt Haitian military; created SIN, a
Haitian intelligence service that engaged in drug trafficking and polit-
ical violence; investigated and falsely reported about the democrati-
cally-elected Haitian President; financially supported and protected
individuals and groups responsible for the 1991 military coup and its
aftermath, including FRAPH, the violent paramilitary group that is
responsible for thousands of human rights violations; and intervened
in the UN mission established to reinstate the legitimate government
in Haiti.
t Assistant Professor of Law, Western State University College of Law; LL.M. candidate,
University of San Diego. 1996; J.D., Western State University College of Law, 1984. The author
represented Haitian boat people making political asylum claims in the United States from 1992
to 1995. She was in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, during the 1989 coup attempt against General Prosper
Avril's government and in March 1995 when the United States turned over control to the United
Nations. The author wishes to thank Prof. Jorge Vargas at the University of San Diego and Prof.
Stuart Miller at Western State University for their critiques of drafts of this article.
1. MORTON H. HALPERIN ET AL., THE LAWLESS STATE: THE CRIMES OF THE U.S. INTEL-
LIGENCE AGENCIES 5 (1976), quoted in Frank Gafney, Halperin Syndrome: Clinton Appoin-
tees' Antipathy to CIA, Military Sets Stage for Debacles in Haiti, Beyond (decision brief dated
Oct. 26, 1993), presented in 139 CONG. REC. H8870 (daily ed. Nov. 4, 1993). The intent is
therapeutic, but in the long run the cure is more deadly than the disease. Id. Morton Halperin,
President Clinton's nominee to become Assistant Secretary of Defense for Democracy and
Peacekeeping, failed to win confirmation and, instead, became the National Security advisor on
human fights. Arnaud de Borchgrave, Consider the Source of the Ambuscade, WASH. TIMES,
Dec. 14, 1995, at A19.
2. Douglas Farah, Haiti's New President Hurries to Help a Nation Bogging Down; Prag-
matic Preval Finds Means to Escape Shadow of Aristide, WASH. POST, Aug. 11, 1996, at A23.

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