Not In Our Name / Bush Crimes Commission – 2006-09-20 08:50:28
http://www.bushcommission.org/?q=node/49
Organize and Speak Out Against
Bush Administration War Crimes and
Crimes Against Humanity!
On September 19, 20 and 21, The International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration calls on all campuses and communities across the country to organize public events to expose and denounce the Bush administration’s war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The Bush Regime’s actions cry out for resounding calls of conscience by the many, many people across the country who do not want these acts carried out in our names. They call for hundreds of events, sending a loud “No, not in our name!” far and wide.
Think about what the Bush regime has already done: illegal, immoral and unjust wars; rapes and massacres by occupying US military forces; torture, rendition and illegal detention; and now threats against Iran. It has assaulted efforts to curb global warming. It insists upon potentially genocidal abstinence-only AIDS-prevention programs in Africa. It left poor Black people to drown in Hurricane Katrina, then blocked food and aid, and now leaves New Orleans in ruins.
Acts of this regime are unconscionable on the scales of history. We have a moral and political responsibility to bring these horrendous crimes to a halt, and ensure they never happen again.
As George W. Bush ratchets up his rhetoric of empire, brazenly labeling those in his cross-hairs as targets in a war for civilization, we have a response: George W. Bush the war criminal does not speak for us!
Suggested Actions:
• Protests, Public Showings of new Bush Commission DVD, Teach-Ins, Photo Exhibits
1. Protest at the UN September 19 when Bush speaks, potentially laying the groundwork for war on Iran.
2. Organize a teach-in or forum on Bush’s War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, featuring local professors or activists and/or hold a public showing of the powerful new DVD featuring excerpts from 4 out of the 5 indictments investigated by the Commission. The DVD, along with the downloadable Verdict and Findings of Fact can be used to organize teach-ins, speak-outs, protests, vigils, and classroom presentations.
• You don’t need to be an expert — these materials, the DVD and the Findings of Fact, contain the key facts and evidence — on Bush’s war crimes and crimes against humanity in the areas of war, torture, global warming, HIV/AIDS and Katrina – acts that by their scope or nature shock the conscience of humankind.
• Watch this section of the new DVD for a for a jolting yet substantive sampling of what you’ll fund on the full DVD. This DVD contains stunning testimony from eye-witnesses and experts in three areas of indictment: torture, global warming and HIV/AIDS.
Additionally, we have a DVD of an extraordinary — and very inspiring — panel convened on the Berkeley Campus of the University of California featuring Brig. Gen Karpinski, the ex-commander of Abu Ghraib, Ambassador Craig Murray, the ex-British Ambassador to Uzbekistan who declared at the Commission, “I’d rather die than have someone tortured to save my life,” Daniel Ellsberg, of the Pentagon Papers, and Larry Everest, the author of Oil, Power and Empire.
3. Students at the University of California, Berkeley are organizing a protest against John Yoo (one of the main legal architects of Bush’s torture policies). Organize political protests and demonstrations on campus against similar high-level architects of Bush acts and policies that constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity. You could start by contacting all the Human Rights groups in your area or at your campus in advance, and ask them to spread word about it.
4. Gather a group of people together in a visible, busy location for a public denunciation of torture. This could involve people putting black cloth and hoods on to simulate the torture carried out by US soldiers at Abu Ghraib, or could include people wearing orange jumpsuits with black hoods to dramatize the treatment of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, or even a sign: “George W. Bush and his administration — Guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity!”. Have extra materials on hand so that others can join in, and signs saying “Bush: Guilty of War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity” or use former UK ambassador Craig Murray’s statement: “I’d rather die than have someone tortured to save my life.”
• Imagine a scenario when thousands of students and others on campuses and communities across the country are debating and discussing whether George W. Bush is guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
• Imagine them watching and listening to testimony from sources of authority that makes this case — coherently and conclusively.
• Contact The Bush Crimes Commission National Office
http://www.bushcommission.org
commission@nion.us
Ten Nobel Peace Prize Winners Take Aim at US
Chase Squires / Associated Press
Ten Nobel Peace Prize Laureates have accused the Bush administration of being a threat to world peace. The prizewinners include: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, The Dalai Lama, Betty Williams, Jody Williams, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Shirin Ebadi and Malread Corrigan Maguire, Oscar Arias, José Ramos Horta and Aung San Suu Kyi (who is still under house arrest in Burma).
DENVER, Colorado (September 17, 2006) — Ten Nobel Peace Prize laureates called for world peace Saturday and took direct aim at the United States, asking an enthusiastic crowd of 7,000 youth to demand the US pull back its military, spread its wealth and offer aid to developing countries.
“After the painful events of September 11, I wish that America would have built a school in Afghanistan in the name of every victim,” said Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian judge and 2003 Peace Prize recipient. “When someone claims he has a vision from God to bring war to Iraq, this is a kind of terrorism.”
Only the Dalai Lama, whose speech during the first public event of a three-day event at the University of Denver was interrupted when a fire alarm went off, didn’t take a direct jab at the US.
Instead the Dalai Lama called on the world to open itself to religious tolerance.
PeaceJam, a Colorado-based program in its 10th year, hosts conventions around the world, bringing teenagers together with Nobel laureates to talk about what they can do to promote peace. Founders Dawn Engle and Ivan Suvanjieff say the interaction between the teens and laureates can build a generation that will tackle the big issues of poverty, disease and war.
One after the other Saturday night, the laureates thanked the crowd that rose to its feet before and after each speech, and then called on Americans to do something about their government’s foreign policy. From efforts to close the border with Mexico, to Iraq, to arms exports, the Nobel laureates had words for the US government.
“Stand up. Take action,” said Jody Williams, the 1997 recipient for her work opposing land mines, and the only American to take the stage. “Don’t try to bring democracy to people you don’t understand through the barrel of a gun and leave them with civil war.”
Even the Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who praised the United States for its fight against South Africa’s apartheid and its history of justice and democracy, had stern words for the Bush administration.
“You taught us about the rule of law,” he said. “You taught us no government worth its salt can subvert the rule of law. We believed you. That’s part of what you have as a gift for the world. Then how can you commit Guantanamo Bay? Take back your country…. How about exporting some of your generosity instead of your bombs?”
Non-aligned Nations Slam US
CBC News
HAVANA (September 16, 2006) — The leaders of more than 100 of the world’s non-aligned nations vowed Saturday to stand up to the United States, a country they said posed “a grave threat to world peace and security.”
Meeting in Havana, the Non-aligned Movement also rejected U.S. President George W. Bush’s use of the term “axis of evil,” supported Iran’s right to nuclear technology for peaceful use and criticized the United States for riding roughshod over the sovereignty of smaller nations.
And the non-aligned nations blamed the United States and the West for many of the world’s problems, including global poverty and the lack of world peace.
The Non-Aligned Movement is a group of 118 nations that includes such U.S. critics as Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela and Algeria. But the group also includes Malaysia, India, Pakistan, Chile, Peru and Colombia, countries that are seen as friendly to the United States.
It was founded in 1961 as an alternative to both Moscow and Washington. The group moved to Havana for its meeting this year, from Malaysia, which has led the group for the past three years.
Cuba’s Raul Castro hosted the meeting on behalf of his brother Fidel, who is still recovering from surgery. Fidel, 80, met several key leaders in his private hospital room, but did not attend the plenary sessions.
One of the most vocal critics of the United States was Kim Yong-nam, the head of North Korea’s parliament, who blasted the United States for its unilateral actions against smaller countries.
“The United States is attempting to deprive other countries of even their legitimate right to peaceful nuclear activities,” he said, adding that the United States was “abusing the human rights issue” to interfere in the internal affairs of foreign countries.
North Korea also took aim at the United States for destroying the world international order. The desire for peace by the group’s members, he said, is “confronted with grave challenges owing to the high-handed acts and unilateralism of the superpower, which denies countries and nations the independent choice of development.”
The resulting imbalance in global politics constitutes “grave threats to world peace and security,” he said. United Nations Secretary General Koffi Annan attended the meeting, but the United States declined an invitation.
Copyright ©2006 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation – All Rights Reserved
Posted in accordance with Title 17, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
Switzerland’s Largest Newspaper Asks
If Bush Was Behind 9-11.
“The More We Research, the More We Doubt.”
Elie Peter / Blick
English Translation:
ZURICH (September 15, 2006) – 2,973 humans died with the attacks of 9/11. “Bin Laden” and “Al Qaeda”, the Bush clan cried. The world believed him. In the meantime even scientists doubt the Bush version. Now, Swiss university professors Albert A. Stahel (63) and Daniele Ganser (34) raise hot new questions.
“Something is not correct”, says strategy expert Stahel in “World Week”, and refers to the “incomplete” official US Government 9/11 Report of 2004.
The university professor confirms his criticism in VIEW: “Osama Bin Laden cannot be ‘the large godfather’ behind the attacks. He did not have enough means of communication”.
Stahel doubts that a passenger airliner crashed into the Pentagon: “For trainee pilots it is actually impossible to crash into the building so exactly. Seven hours after the Twin Towers collapsed, the World trade center Building 7 next to it also collapsed. The official version: It burned for a long time. Nothing at all is clear.”
Raising questions along with Stahel is historian Dr. Daniele Ganser, his colleague at the University of Zurich. Dr. Ganser also calls the official US version “a conspiracy theory”.
“There are 3 theories, which we should treat equally”:
1. “Surprise theory” — Bin Laden and Al Qaeda implemented the attacks.
2. “Let it happen on purpose” — The US Government knew the Al Qaeda plans and did not react in order to legitimize a series of wars.
3. “Made it happen on purpose” — The attacks were actually planned and orchestrated by the Pentagon and/or US secret services.
Ganser: “3,000 humans were sacrificed for strategic interests. The more we research, the more we doubt the Bush version. It is conceivable that the Bush government was responsible. Bush has lied so much already! And we already know that the US government planned an operation in 1962 [Operation Northwood] that was approved by the Pentagon that would have sacrificed innocent US citizens for the government’s own interests.” As far as Ganser and Stahel go: “We only ask questions.”
London Lays out US Gitmo Violations
Prensa Latina
LONDON (September 13, 2006) — British Lord Chancellor Charles Falconer Wednesday accused the US for violating democratic principles by keeping prisoners at the illegal naval base of Guantanamo without trial.
Lord Falconer has thus become the highest British authority to slam Washington’s abuse of prisoners in its illegal base of Guantanamo, in Cuba’s east. The British official stated that Washington’s supposed acceptance of the rule of law means the alleged terrorist suspects in that prison have the right to be tried.
Addressing academics, politicians, and lawyers in New South Wales, Falconer said the rule of law must prevail “both in times of terrorism and times of peace,” according to The Guardian. “Any battle waged by a country must be in compliance with the law,” he indicated clearly, alluding to the people detained in Guantanamo without charges or right to be tried.
