Psychology and the CIA: leaders on the couch. (psychological profiles of world leaders)

Foreign Policy, June, 1994 by Omestad, Thomas

On October 20, 1993, Central Intelligence Agency briefers arrived on Capitol Hill to deliver a disturbing portrait of Haiti's exiled president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Aristide allegedly suffered from a history of mental illness, was prone to manic-depression and inciting violence, and had received psychiatric treatment at a Montreal hospital in 1980. That same day, Senator Jesse Helms (R-North Carolina), who had requested the briefing, strode onto the Senate floor to denounce Aristide as a "psychopath." Meanwhile, details of the classified briefing were being methodically leaked to the media, upstaging the Clinton administration's campaign to restore Aristide to power at a critical juncture in the Haitian drama.

Aristide angrily denied the report, and...

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