Porter Goss: “when credible and respected observer organizations, notably the International Republican Institute, returned from the…”

“when credible and respected observer organizations, notably the International Republican Institute, returned from the June 25 elections in Haiti to report their documented observations--both the good and the bad--they were not received with open arms. It was more like a shoot-the-messenger situation here and elsewhere in Washington because at that time international organizations, the Clinton administration officials, and some of the national media even were too busy painting rosy pictures of what was going on in Haiti--glossing over widespread irregularities in the elections that actually happened hailing the relatively non-violent atmosphere on election day as the measure of a successful electoral process in Haiti, never mind the widespread and serious mismanagement, chaos, confusion, and disorganization that disenfranchised so many candidates and so many voters. Now the flurry of election reports of 2 weeks ago in Haiti has dwindled to a few inches of space in the major papers. Last Friday, for example, the news that the run-off elections, the important run-off elections scheduled for the end of this month were being pushed back to August. This was buried in the deepest recesses of the major papers.…”