Bill Clinton as UN Special Envoy to Haiti

The Miami Herald is reporting that the UN will make an official announcement tomorrow.

“It is an honor to accept the secretary general’s invitation to become special envoy to Haiti,” former President Clinton said in a statement to The Miami Herald. ‘Last year’s natural disasters took a great toll, but Haiti’s government and people have the determination and ability to `build back better,’ not just to repair the damage done but to lay the foundations for the long-term sustainable development that has eluded them for so long.”

He’s been there before, of course (and with pretty distinguished company), and has long been interested in the country.  Laura Rozen has more, and to Spencer Ackerman’s legitimate question — will Haiti’s government suppose that this provides it with a diplomatic “backchannel” to the White House? — I can only answer relatively pro forma: Bill is the UN‘s envoy to Haiti, not the United States’.  And while, sure, the United States is the major player on the world stage (and especially on quasi-neighboring Haiti’s), Clinton provides no greater official connection between Haiti and the U.S. than, say, Kai Eide does between Afghanistan and Norway.  Eide’s wife is not Norway’s foreign minister, of course (not that I know of, at least), but I can easily envision Obama making it pretty clear to his Haitian counterpart that Bill will not be playing unofficial go-between for Haiti’s government and his wife.