If Jim Refinger knows one thing it's this: Ousted Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide is safe. There was no kidnapping, as some sources reported. There was no injury. And for Refinger there was no mystery. Refinger was there. The former Jacksonville police sniper and retired Marine was part of a private security team hired to protect Aristide's inner circle. "We left with him (but) I won't talk about where we went," Refinger said Friday from his home in Jacksonville where he just returned. "We escorted him safely out.
| "I can say no ... oh, heck, I'll spill the beans." |
"Everything was done with the full knowledge and cooperation of the president. There was no forcing the president to go anywhere. We protected our principal without a shot fired and he is safe." Refinger works for Steele Foundation, a security firm based in San Francisco. The company has protection details all over the world and does industrial security and risk analysis, Refinger said. Aristide had a presidential protection unit, and a team from Steele mirrored the unit in an inner circle. Refinger's job was running the outer circle that kept the inner circle safe. "We were protecting the protectors, and we worked closely with the Haitian counter-ambush team," he said. Although the country was considered unstable, Refinger said it really wasn't a combat area. "The threat of rebels didn't really happen until the first of the year," he said. "Most of the time we were protecting (Aristide) from people who loved him too much."
| "They'd get all worked up and then crush the baby ducks. Brutal, I tell ya." |
Thousands of people would show up at public events threatening to crush the president with sick children in the belief that somehow the former Catholic priest would cure them. A lot of people also hated Aristide, seemingly to Refinger because the president came from the poor, lower class. "It never really came to Port-au-Prince," Refinger said. "We saw some demonstrations and started hearing about it in Gonaives and Cap Haitien. The police got pretty overwhelmed, especially in the small towns, but Port-au-Prince is probably 80 percent pro-Aristide." Refinger speculated that Aristide may have decided to leave to avoid further bloodshed, but questioned whether it was possible to avoid that in Haiti. The matter is under investigation, said Refinger, who added that he may be called to testify and, therefore, could not go into details about Aristide's departure. "We got out slick and fast, before they even knew what was happening," Refinger said. "It wasn't until after it was all said and done that we heard a report about kidnapping, but we knew that wasn't the case." |