PARIS (AFP) — Haiti’s ousted president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, has lodged a lawsuit in Paris claiming coercion involving US and French officials forced him from power, his lawyer and legal authorities said Wednesday.

The suit, for "threats, death threats, abduction and illegal detention" was lodged Tuesday, Aristide’s lawyer, Gilbert Collard said.

It designates the defendant as "X" — a French legal term for persons unknown — but specifically makes mention of the French and US ambassadors in Haiti, Thierry Burkard and James Foley, as well as a French writer, Regis Debray, and the sister of French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, Veronique Albanel, in the deposition.

Ronald B. McGuitre writes:

The great Puerto Rican activist, Richie Perez died
yesterday in Sloan Kettering hospital in New York City. My tears
tonight are not for Richie, but for the poor
Youngbloods who never knew him, who never heard his
wisdom, never saw his courage on the streets or felt
his compassion, or basked in his brilliance. The poor
Youngbloods who never invited Richie to enough CUNY
teach-ins to teach them their history and tell them
his vision. Richie Perez, a founder of the Young
Lords, organizer for the 1969 Open Admissions strike,
scourge of the drug lords, protector of the South
Bronx, enemy of every racist cop who ever profiled a
Black, Latino or Asian youth.

Richie Perez was the Che
Guevera of New York City rising up from the ghetto
streets with a boundless love for the Youngbloods,
who experienced the oppression of every disrespected
soul from Puerto Rico to Palestine like they was his
personal fam.

He was a revolutionary.

Richie Perez is dead.

But Richie Perez lived before he died and he lived
every moment as a revolutionary. He never punked out
of a fight or forgot a friend.

Richie was for real, he walked the whole walk and even
metastatic cancer couldn't quench his love of life or
his belief in the Youngbloods he leaves behind at
CUNY, in the prisons, in the 'hoods and on the island.

If I can only meet my end with one tenth the courage
and dignity of Richie, then count me a hero. Visitors
came away from his deathbed crying because Richie was
cheering them up, In his last days he was scheming
about organizing against the coup in Haiti and the war
in Iraq, and worrying about Bush getting re-elected
and networking people.

Folks will be paying last respects to Richie and
giving condolences to his family at the Campbell
Funeral Home at 1076 Madison Avenue at 81st street on
Monday March 29th from 2-5 PM and 7-9 PM. There will
also be viewing hours on Tuesday, March 30th. For more
information call the funeral home at 212-288-3570 or a
hotline set up by Richie's comrades at 347-245-0266.

Hasta La Victoria Siempre!

Que Viva Richie Perez!

"The al-Zawahiri Fiasco"

Pepe Escobar, Asia Times, March 23, 2004

It featured all the trappings of a glorified video
game. Thousands of Pakistani army and paramilitary
troops played the hammer. Hundreds of US troops and
Special Forces, plus the elite commando 121, were ready
to play the anvil across the border in Afghanistan.
What was supposed to be smashed in between was "high-
value target" Ayman al-Zawahiri, as Pakistani President
General Pervez Musharraf enthusiastically bragged --
with no hard evidence -- to an eager CNN last Thursday.
But what happened to this gigantic piece of psy-ops?
Nothing. And for a very simple reason: al-Qaeda's brain
and Osama bin Laden's deputy was never there in the
first place.