Clinton-Led Recovery Is the Last Thing Haiti Needs

Bill Clinton's high-profile, perpetually teary-eyed presence on the ground in Haiti has snagged him the unofficial role of aid czar in the rebuilding effort, Mary Anastasia O'Grady writes in the Wall Street Journal, and that's very bad news for Haitians. As president, O'Grady writes, Clinton did plenty to show he shouldn't be trusted to rebuild the country: He "propped up a corrupt despot who proceeded to go into business with key Democrats and left the country poorer, institutionally bereft and riddled with political violence."

The Clinton administration, she argues, "never did anything" to combat the rampant corruption and human rights abuses of the Aristide regime. Furthermore, Clinton allies were behind a shady telecom deal with Aristide that deprived the Haitian treasury of "urgently needed foreign currency." Haiti can only develop, O'Grady writes, if it relies "less on cronyism and more on transparency. That would disqualify Bill Clinton."


(More bill clinton haiti relief stories.)