Aristide Foe Talks, and U.S. Listens : Controversy: CIA, embassy ties to leader of paramilitary group raise questions in Congress. Officials cite paradoxes of intelligence work.

During the three years of Haiti’s military regime, Emmanuel (Toto) Constant ran one of the country’s most feared paramilitary groups, terrorizing opponents of the government and even humiliating the United States by forcing the Harlan County, a cargo ship carrying peacekeeping troops, to turn tail and withdraw.

For much of that time, he was also an agent in good standing with the CIA. And today, Constant is once again working for the U.S. Embassy here, acting as a source of intelligence for diplomats and military officers--protected, at least for the moment, from arrest for his earlier actions.

“He’s back, and he’s providing information,” a U.S. official in Washington said.

Asked whether Constant is being paid for his work, the official replied, “You think he does it for free?”

Constant’s new role as a U.S. intelligence source--he had also been an informant in earlier years--is explained by American officials as merely one of the normal paradoxes of intelligence work.

“We often have to deal with unsavory characters,” a CIA official said, shrugging.

Constant is being consulted because he may have information about potential resistance movements against the U.S. military force occupying Haiti or against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who is scheduled to return from exile next week, officials said.

Still, his new role has already led to controversy among members of Congress, who want to know how close the U.S. link with the anti-Aristide agitator will be.

In particular, members of Congress expressed amazement that Constant was a CIA “asset” and was apparently being paid even as he helped destroy the Clinton Administration’s policy toward Haiti by blocking the landing of the Harlan County a year ago.

The Washington Post reported today that the CIA paid Constant more than $500 a month from 1992 until 1994. Officials refused to confirm the report.

In a bizarre ceremony of repentance this week, Constant turned himself in to the commander of U.S. forces here, Lt. Gen. Hugh Shelton. U.S. officials had earlier threatened him with arrest and said he might still be punished if he fails to cooperate.

A few hours later, Constant stood on a wooden podium built by U.S. troops and read a statement that turned out to have been written by Stanley Shrager, the U.S. Embassy spokesman.

“The only solution for Haiti today is the reality of the return of Aristide,” he told the television cameras as U.S. troops stood guard. “Put down your stones; put down your tires. No more violence.”

Constant is head of the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, or FRAPH, a shadowy political-military group created, controlled and funded by the Haitian military and believed to be responsible for several killings and terrorism since its founding in August, 1993.

His televised statement, officials said, was intended to show any remaining FRAPH militants that their day is over.

Although FRAPH has been used as a civilian cover for brutalizing pro-Aristide and other anti-military elements here, its most notable act was the organization of a mob of about 100 thugs last Oct. 11 to oppose the docking of the Harlan County, a U.S. Army cargo ship carrying American and Canadian troops.

The combined force of engineers and other technical personnel was scheduled to land to carry out a training and construction mission as part of an agreement to restore Aristide and remove the military from power.

But FRAPH’s thugs marched to the pier, harassed U.S. diplomats and threatened to attack the American-Canadian forces if they disembarked.

As a result, the Harlan County turned back, Haiti’s military leaders reneged on their agreement to restore Aristide, and the United States was humiliated, at least until U.S. troops returned in force last month to drive the Haitian army from power.

Constant, the 37-year-old illegitimate son of the man who commanded Haiti’s army during much of the reign of dictator Francois (Papa Doc) Duvalier, has been on the fringe of the country’s military for years.

In 1991, he served as an intelligence adviser to the current army commander, Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, a post he held until he left to lead FRAPH, along with a former army captain, Jodel Chamblin.

It was while working for Cedras in 1991 that the CIA reportedly paid Constant for information, mostly about what he knew of Aristide’s organization. According to intelligence sources, he knew very little and was quickly dropped as an informant.

“I worked for the CIA, but not for money,” Constant said in an interview with The Times.

An article in The Nation magazine this week asserted that U.S. Army Col. Pat Collins, defense attache at the U.S. Embassy until early 1993, urged Constant to form FRAPH. But senior officials in Washington denied that Collins or any other U.S. official had ever encouraged or supported the group. Collins left Haiti eight months before FRAPH was formed.

Constant and Chamblin appeared to be little more than tools for the military, particularly Lt. Col. Michel-Joseph Francois, the Port-au-Prince police chief, and Brig. Gen. Philippe Biamby, the army chief of staff. But they made a bid for independent power late last year.

Constant began a political organizing drive throughout the country, using bribes and threats of beatings and death as his recruiting tools. In an interview with The Times, he said, “I am building a political base that will make FRAPH so strong it will be independent.”

At that point, Biamby and Francois decided that he had gone too far. Francois had FRAPH disarmed.

Constant complained in a recent interview that he was humiliated.

“There we were, JoJo (Chamblin) and I at my house on Christmas Eve with only a bottle of wine. I didn’t even have a gun to fire to celebrate the coming of Christ,” he said.

Since then, Constant has been virtually cut off from any political organization, although military-supported thugs asserting FRAPH membership were used off and on in Port-au-Prince to terrorize Aristide supporters.

Constant, whose yellow-stained and crooked teeth and spectral facial structure give him a sinister appearance, has trawled for attention in recent months, offering himself to reporters for interviews and bragging about his political future.

Both Constant and Chamblin are heavy and public users of narcotics, officials said.

Chamblin apparently came to grief with his superiors about four months ago when someone tried to kill him. He said it was the army, a claim supported by diplomats.

Chamblin asked the U.S. Embassy for protection. The request was ignored, and he has been in hiding ever since.

Freed reported from Port-au-Prince and McManus reported from Washington.