Bill O'Reilly Show Me the Money, Haiti

Bill O'Reilly Show Me the Money, Haiti So now we're back to ground zero, literally. A few weeks after the attacks on 9/11, actor George Clooney and a bunch of celebrities fronted a telethon to raise money for the families of the victims. It was a well-intentioned project that raised about $150 million. Unfortunately, the distribution of the money was somewhat chaotic, and I led the charge to have the celebrities pressure the charities to be more transparent about where the funds were going. Clooney took umbrage at my request, and a big controversy ensued. Now we have the charity debacle in Haiti. A year after the devastating earthquake that killed more than 300,000 people, more than a million Haitians are still living in the streets. This despite the fact that the United States alone has sent almost $2 billion to that nation. Another $10 billion has been pledged by other countries, but it is impossible to track that money. The brutal truth is that no one knows where much of the aid designated to help the Haitians is. There is absolutely no transparency and little accountability. Dozens of brand-new donated trucks sit idle at the Port-au-Prince airport because the Haitian government wants thousands of dollars in "import duties" before it will allow the trucks to transport vital goods to the suffering people. That's just one example of the madness going on. Presidents Clinton and Bush the Younger headed up the private relief effort in America, which raised $53 million for Haiti. In the middle of a wicked recession, Americans gave their hard-earned money to help people they will never meet. I asked Bush if he knows why there has been so little progress in Haiti even after so much money has poured in there. He said he does not know. Clinton will not even answer my questions, despite the fact that he has been deeply involved with Haiti for years. We have called the "Clinton Initiative" many times, and they say they have distributed tens of millions of dollars to help the Haitian people and can provide documents to back that up. But, again, once the cash arrives in Port-au-Prince, darkness descends. The moral question is this: Should good people continue to send money to a place that has been corrupt for eons? The scenes this week of Baby Doc Duvalier, the gangster former dictator of Haiti, returning to his country after an exile in France is symbolic of the problem. Despite all the good intentions in the world, Haiti remains a place of squalor and hopelessness. Nothing seems to get better. I would like to see Clinton and Bush demand accountability from the Haitian government right now. These guys should go on television and call some people out. Clinton, in particular, knows what's going on, and he has a responsibility to let us know. It is easy to ask for money. It is much more difficult to see that it is honestly spent. Bill O'Reilly Bill O'Reilly is host of the Fox News show "The O'Reilly Factor" and author of "Who's Looking Out For You?" and Pinheads and Patriots.   Carl Ray Louk "FRIENDSHIP NEVER ENDS" SG-1996 "LET LOVE LEAD THE WAY" SG-2000 "THE PHOENIX SHALL RISE" SD "EVEN A MAN WHO IS PURE IN HEART AND SAYS HIS PRAYERS BY NIGHT, MAY BECOME A WOLF WHEN THE WOLFBANE BLOOMS AND THE AUTUMN MOON IS BRIGHT." LT-1941 "FLESH OF MY FLESH; BLOOD OF MY BLOOD; KIN OF MY KIN WHEN SAY COME TO YOU, YOU SHALL CROSS LAND OR SEA TO DO MY BIDDING!" CVTD-1895 "FROM HELL'S HEART I STAB AT THEE, FOR HATE SAKE I SPIT MY LAST BREATH AT THEE" CA-1895  "I HAVE BEEN, AND ALWAYS SHALL BE YOUR FRIEND" Spock  "TRICK OR TREAT, TRICK OR TREAT CANDY IS DANDY BUT MURDER, OH MURDER, IS SO SWEET" CRL-2003  "EYE OF NEWT, AND TOE OF FROG, WOOL OF BAT, AND TONGUE OF DOG ADDER'S FORK, BLIND-WORM'S STING, LIZARD'S LEG, AND OWLET'S WING. FOR A CHARM OF POWERFUL TROUBLE, LIKE A HELL-BROTH BOIL AND BABBLE. DOUBLE, DOUBLE, TOIL AND TROUBLE, FIRE BURN, AND CALDRON BUBBLE" WS MySpace.com: www.myspace.com/carlraylouk http://www.myspace.com/carlraylouk Yahoo Group: Yahoo! Groups : LouksHauntedGraveyardhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/LouksHauntedGraveyard/ Yahoo Group: Yahoo! Groups : TheWorldAccordingtoCarlRayLouk http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheWorldAccordingtoCarlRayLouk/