BY JOHN LANTIGUA
Palm Beach Post

PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Haitians looted the walled estate of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide earlier this week of much of its contents, but they left behind stacks of rotting $100 bills and some artifacts of the exiled leader's life.

When several journalists on Wednesday entered the three-story white house of some 20 rooms and extensive grounds, what they found left behind were broken toys, documents, art including various oil portraits of Aristide, mementos and thousands of books.

Many of the books were written by Aristide, including dozens of copies of his autobiography, but other titles included Living Faith by former President Jimmy Carter, Eyewitness to Power, by journalist and CNN commentator David Gergen, a collection of writings by Booker T. Washington, several tomes about President John F. Kennedy and a study of the clandestine operations of the CIA.

Aristide also owned a large photo of the late Robert Kennedy, given to him by a member of the Kennedy family, according to an inscription.

A local resident who took part in the looting showed a plastic bag containing the rotted U.S. bills totaling at least several thousand dollars, which he said came from a safe found behind a false wall in the basement.