Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega was grilled by Congressional Democrats yesterday for the Bush administration’s handling of the crisis in Haiti at a hearing of the House International Relations subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. We play excerpts of the hearing.

Congressional Democrats attacked the Bush administration’s handling of the crisis in Haiti yesterday and questioned whether the United States overthrew the government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega was the target of the grilling yesterday at a hearing of House International Relations subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. This came as Aristide and his wife Mildred made another round of phone calls to congressmembers and their friends—they continue to say that they were kidnapped and that Aristide was overthrown in a coup d’etat facilitated by the US.

The Central African Republic yesterday had strong words for former Haiti President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, painting the exiled leader as an ungrateful guest who likely would be dead were it not for its hospitality and the kindness of its allies.

Government spokesman Parfait M’bay told the Agence-France Presse ’’[Aristide] must be grateful…Because if he had not asked the United States and France to help him, president Aristide would be dead by now.”

• Donald Payne (D-NJ) questioning Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noreiga.
• Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) questioning Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noreiga.
• Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) questioning Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noreiga.
• Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) questioning Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noreiga.