Porter Goss: “this weekend Presidents Clinton and Aristide celebrated the very welcome end of the United States mission in Haiti in a…”

“this weekend Presidents Clinton and Aristide celebrated the very welcome end of the United States mission in Haiti in a very beautiful ceremony with warm congratulations, white doves and all. It was a wonderful photo opportunity and a good moment, especially, a good time to thank our troops who did an excellent job. Again, one more time, our uniform forces have earned the respect and gratitude of the American people, each and every one of us. I hope, frankly, that those folks who are down in Haiti on that long mission are now scheduled for some R&R; they certainly earned it. Mr. Speaker, I cannot help contrasting this with the harsh images of Madam Bertin, mother of four, organizer of a democratic opposition movement, savagely slaughtered in her car just before President Clinton's visit in what was clearly a political assassination, and a very brutal one, a murder our Pentagon has said is unquestionably linked to high level Aristide officials. Just one event, it stands out as a representation of things that are still in the making in Haiti regrettably: The vengeance that abides in some members of Haitian society and the still dangerous mission we have asked the thousands of American troops we still have there as part of the U.N. mission.”