Porter Goss: “2 weeks have passed since the House last visited the Haiti issue. If one looks at the media spin in the headlines, it…”

“2 weeks have passed since the House last visited the Haiti issue. If one looks at the media spin in the headlines, it appears that the United States is making great strides there. However, behind the headlines, the substance indicates that we are still striding down the wrong road. Despite the clear signs that the President's new refugee policy is encouraging Haitians--more than 1,600 since the policy was announced--to take to their leaky boats, the administration has not abandoned it. Instead, we have tried to fine-tune a bad policy by pursuing agreements with our Caribbean neighbors. The United States can now anchor its $34,000-a-day Ukrainian ships in Jamaican water for refugee processing. In turks and caicos we can use the beach--for the small price of a $12 million investment in the local infrastructure and a pledge that we will help repatriate 3,000 of the Haitians already on shore there. In both cases, it will be U.S. personnel, U.S. funds, and U.S. refuge for those seeking political asylum. Bottomline: Same policy, different location, higher price tag. This week, the administration announced with much fanfare its plan to ratchet up the misery-producing embargo again, this time with a ban on commercial flights and financial transactions. Yet despite this pressure, the military leadership in Haiti remains defiant, attacking Haitians attempting to leave, reinstating the Macoutes and freezing United States aid funds in Haitian banks.”