Aristide’s Defenders:

At a House International Relations Committee hearing on Haiti last week, members of the Congressional Black Caucus pummeled Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega, accusing the administration of forcing Jean Bertrand Aristide out of the presidency of Haiti by spiriting him into exile. Finally, an exasperated Rep. Jerry Weller (R.-Ill) said what many fellow Republican lawmakers really felt about the charges: "He was a brutal dictator, allowing children to be sold into slave labor, and if we hadn??¢â???¬â???¢t gone in there, Mr. Aristide would be dead because the people would have killed him."