WASHINGTON -- Jean-Bertrand Aristide's attorney, Michael Barnes, denied CIA allegations Friday that the exiled Haitian president has a history of mental illness and Aristide himself called the CIA report 'garbage.'
Barnes said Aristide 'has not suffered from nor been treated for any mental problems.' Aristide called the CIA report 'garbage' in an interview on the Public Broadcasting Station.
'They said worse things about Martin Luther King. As a psychologist, I know about character assassination and about psychological warfare,' Ariside added.
The White House, meanwhile, withheld comment Friday on the contents of the CIA briefing to members of Congress in which intelligence officials told senators that Aristide has a history of mental illness.
White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers said she could not comment on the specifics of the classified CIA report, but added 'this information has been around for sometime...it's something that we're aware of.'
'In our dealings with President Aristide, he's been rational and responsible,' Myers said. 'He's had the best interests of his people at heart. He's lived up to the commitments that he's made. And I would remind you that he is the duly-elected leader of that country, democratically elected leader. And so it is our judgment, based on our experience with him, that he is fully qualified to serve as the president of Haiti.'
Furthermore, she said 'there's a lot of conflicting evidence out there.'
But she declined to say whether the CIA report included conflicting evidence on the grounds that it is classified.
Senator Jesse Helms, Republican of North Carolina, had arranged for senators to be briefed in private Wednesday by CIA officials on Aristide's rule in Haiti and on his 'psychological profile.'
On Thursday, Helms called Aristide 'a demonstrable killer,' and a 'psychopath,' and opposed the possible use of American troops to help restore Aristide to power.
Senate Republican leader Robert Dole of Kansas said the information he received from the CIA about Aristide was 'disturbing,' but that the United States needed to help him stabilize Haiti and help prevent a mass exodus of impoverished Haitians to the United States.
A strong supporter of Aristide, Senator Chris Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, dismissed the information, but said virtually all politicians would probably find something in their careers that they regret having said or done.
Aristide was ousted by the Haitian military in a September 1991 coup. Under a U.N.-mediated agreement signed by both Aristide and Haitian military leader Raoul Cedras, the exiled leader is to return to power on Oct. 30.
The Haitian military, however, has displayed an unwillingness in recent weeks to abide by the stipulations of the agreement, putting into question Aristide's return to power.
Aristide broke human rights guarantees by encouraging Haitians to hang rubber tires around opponents necks, according to the CIA report.
However, the CIA's Latin American director said Friday the CIA agrees with the Clinton administration that Aristide is capable of governing Haiti.
Barnes, a former member of Congress, said in a statement that the CIA's report alleges that Aristide was diagnosed at a Canadian hospital in 1980 as a manic depressive and was prescribed the drug Haldol, which is used to combat hallucinations and should be administered for life.
'President Aristide was not in Canada in 1980....He was in Israel,' Barnes said. 'He has never sought medical assistance for any mental problems. He has not taken nor does he currently take any drugs of the type described in the allegations.'
Barnes also defended Aristide against recent allegations that the Haitian president committed political and human rights violations during his presidency.
'I have never witnessed a more vicious and unfounded campaign of an orchestrated character assassination than the one directed at President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in the past few days,' he said.
