WaPo: Marines to Protect U.S. Embassy in Haiti
The Pentagon is sending 50 combat-ready Marines to Haiti today to protect the United States Embassy and its staff amid an insurgency bent on taking the country’s capital and toppling President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
The Marines are departing today, with the sole mission of securing U.S. facilities and associated buildings, said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.
The unit is called a FAST team, which stands for Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team, but defense officials were quick to point out that this deployment is not related to terrorism.
They are going “to provide an additional layer of security to what’s already there,” said Whitman.
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Defense officials said then that the dispatch of the team should not be viewed as an initial step toward U.S. military intervention. Since the outbreak of violence last month, the Bush administration has rejected the idea of sending U.S. troops or police to Haiti, saying it prefers to help broker a political solution.
Involvement in another insurrection, we don’t need.
