CIA 'paid Haitian military'

WASHINGTON - The CIA made regular payments to senior members of the military regime in Haiti at least until the overthrow of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1991, writes Patrick Cockburn. The links between the CIA and the ruling junta explain why the agency has shown hostility to Mr Aristide. The payments were made to generals and politicians, ostensibly to gain information on political developments and cocaine smuggling. A member of Congress said, however, that 'there are things we should have been getting for the money which we didn't get, for example on the narcotics side'. The Clinton administration was angered last month when the CIA told senators Mr Aristide was mentally unstable. The leaking of the information about payments is probably aimed by the administration at discrediting the CIA on Haiti.