The New York Times has revealed new details of the US role in the overthrow of Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide. In a lengthy expose published Sunday, former US ambassador Brian Dean Curran says the White House and State Department actively ignored his complaints over the Haiti activities of the International Republican Institute — a government-funded group with close ties to the Bush administration. Over Curran’s objection, the IRI convened training sessions for anti-Aristide groups at a Santo Domingo hotel. These meetings were financed by the US government. On one occasion, two key leaders of the armed rebellion that eventually toppled Aristide — Guy Phillipe and Paul Accelin — were staying at the same hotel where the meetings took place. Curran was removed from his post in July 2003 — six months before his term was set to expire. Otto Reich, who served as Assistant Secretary of State during President George W. Bush’s first term, said Curran was replaced because QUOTE “we did not think the ambassador was carrying out the new policy in the way we wanted it carried out.” Aristide was deposed just months later, on February 29th 2004, in what he called a modern-day kidnapping in the service of a coup d’etat backed by the United States.