A-Infos (en) Former U.S. official appeals for justice for Iraq

[oceaner <gaoj@ucsub.Colorado.EDU>]

________________________________________________
     A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
           http://www.ainfos.ca/
________________________________________________

Hello all.  

This is something I received from a organizer of Voices In The Wilderness,
an anti-U.S. embargo in Iraq, anti-US imperialism group based in Chicago.
It concerns the planned military action against Iraq. 

I would like to urge everyone to seriously consider the human implication 
of the planned military action. When the US went to war in the Gulf 8 
years ago, there were many protests around the country and world.
But most of these went unseen and unheard, ignored by the corporate
dominated media. A one sided slaughter, or shall we say, high tech
massacre, followed, for the sake of oil and US "vital national interest".
By conservative measures, 300,000 Iraqi soliders and 40,000 civilians were
killed. The war and the subsequent embargo has killed more than 1 million
and half people in Iraq. It is time to stop. 

Now we are on the brink of another war, another round of shedding the
blood of "Collateral Damage" for consumption on TV, in our cars, and
corporate profit. More military action will only result in more death of
innocent Iraqi civilians, and a possible fall out of chemical and
biological agents; while do nothing to stop Saddam Hussain, only to
bolster his standing as an anti-imperialist fighter, according to BBC and
other news agencies' measure of Iraqi public opinion.    

Following the piece is a list of actions and organization around the US
opposing the renewed military build up in the Gulf and plan to bomb Iraq.
Please consider attend or organize.  Also, my friends and I would love to
hear more about anti-war actions around the world.

peace
-------------

February 2, 1998

Former U.S. official appeals for justice for Iraq

AMMAN (J.T.) - Following is former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark's
Jan. 28 letter to the U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan about the current
U.S. threats against Iraq. The text of the letter, signed by Mr. Clark as
chairperson of the New York-based International Action Center, was made
available to the Jordan Times. 

THE UNITED States government has climaxed months of propaganda and
threats against Iraq with the statement it will launch a new sustained
attack using missiles and bombs on suspected
biological and chemical weapon sites and other targets, alone if
necessary, as soon as mid-February. It offers as its excuse Iraq's failure
to permit its inspectors unrestricted access to any place in Iraq they
choose. For the Security Council to permit the United States to take the
enforcement of Security Council resolutions into its own hands and commit
acts of war against Iraq would have tragic
consequences for the United Nations and the hope for peace. 
There is no chance that such an assault would not kill innocent
civilians. While then-U.S. Secretary of Defence Caspar Weinberger
proclaimed it "was impossible" that civilians were
killed by surprise U.S. air strikes against the sleeping Libyan cities of
Tripoli and Benghazi in April 1986, we now know hundreds of civilians were
killed. It is impossible to bomb cities without killing civilians. 

In the last three days of his presidency January 17-19, 1993, George Bush
ordered hundreds of cruise missiles and air strikes to be launched against
Iraq causing scores of civilian deaths. One
cruise missile struck the Al Rashid Hotel killing two hotel service
employees. U.S. intelligence agencies believed Saddam Hussein was to
attend an international Islamic meeting in the Al Rashid at the time. 
When President Clinton ordered 23 cruise missiles to be launched toward
Baghdad on June 26, 1993, justifying his acts by citing the right to
self-defence under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter,
they managed to kill dozens of civilians including the internationally
known Layla Al-Altar, artist and director general of Iraq's National
Centre for Arts, and her husband when a missile hit their home. 
The United States has made a shooting gallery of the "Cradle of
Civilisation." People live there. Their lives are threatened and some are
lost every time the U.S. decides, for its own political
interests, to attack. When the Security Council authorises, or condones,
such attacks, it, too, is guilty of crimes against humanity. 
Attacks against nuclear, biological, or chemical plants and other
inherently dangerous facilities violate international law because they
expose civilian populations to death and injury. The
General Assembly of the United Nations passed a resolution on Dec. 4,
1990, specifically prohibiting any attacks on Iraq's two nuclear
facilities. The U.S. ignored the resolution. On
Jan. 23, 1991, General Colin Powell announced Iraq's "two operating
reactors...are both gone. They're down. They're finished." On Jan. 30,
General Norman Schwarzkopf boasted his
forces had attacked 18 chemical, 10 biological and three nuclear plants.
By Feb. 4, 1991, a French military spokesperson was reported to say the
chemical fallout was being detected throughout Iraq. See, e.g., Financial
Times (London) Feb. 4, 1991; Medical Educational Trust
Report, Background Papers, July 1991, p 15. U.S. forces fired more than
900 tonnes of depleted uranium in missiles and shells into Iraq leaving
unretrievable, deadly radioactive matter
in the soil and water forever. The U.S. showed no concern for the
civilian population of Iraq. It cannot be expected to show more now. 
The Security Council and the General Assembly should immediately admonish
the United States that it must not commit any armed assault, or other
grave threats to peace, against Iraq. It should
condemn the repeated uses of false propaganda employed to create fear and
hatred toward Iraq such as the recent false claims that photographs proved
Iraq tested chemical weapons against prisoners. 
The Security Council should announce that after seven years no credible
evidence has been found that Iraq is manufacturing or possesses new
nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons,
and that Iraq has the same rights accorded to every nation to refuse
inspectors that it deems a threat to its national security. See, e.g.
Chemical Weapons, Convention Implementation Act of
1997. How else could Iraq consider inspections of the residences of its
president and high officials by U.S. military officers who served in U.S.
intelligence capacities during the 1991 bombing of Iraq? 
Above all, the Security Council must act now to end the sanctions against
Iraq. They are the direct cause of the deaths of a million and a half
people, the majority infants, children, chronically ill persons and the
elderly. They are genocide as defined by
the Convention Against Genocide, and take several hundred more lives each
day. There can be no link between these
sanctions which afflict the weakest members of society and any acts of
the government of Iraq.  International law prohibits the use of starvation
as a weapon even in times of war. 
In this moment of crisis, the Security Council and the General Assembly
must renounce all sanctions which impact on an entire society, killing and
injuring its most vulnerable members.
They must prohibit the use of punitive missile and air strikes by one
nation against another and specifically a superpower against a defenseless
people.

----------------------------

Fellowship of Reconciliation has gathered these various tidbits (so far)
from the internet on actions on Iraq around the country for this week.
Keep sending more bulletins to fellowship@igc.org.

1)The anti-war protest letter is now on the web.You can sign it and an
email will automatically be sent to thepresident and appropriate
congressmen.
The address is:  http://leb.net/IAC/letterwar.html
Please spread the word....
____________________________________________________________________
Please access the IAC website (http://leb.net/IAC/). An Anti-War letter to
US Officials has been set up.  Please read the letter.If you agree withits
content, fill out your name and address. Based on your mailingaddress, our
web page will look up the email address of yourrepresentative and your
senators, and will send the message to them, aswell as to Bill Clinton, Al
Gore, and Madeline Albright. You will alsoreceive a copy. Only US
residents
can utilize this e-mail letter. Non-US residents, please copy this letter
and send it to your governmentalrepresentatives.A phone-call is still more
powerful than a letter. Please CALL theCongressional Switchboard at: (202)
224-3121 - to get the phone number ofyour Represenative and Senator.
Thank you,-Rania MasriIraq Action Coalition
http://leb.net/IAC/

2)*URGENT*URGENT*URGENT*URGENT*URGENT*URGENT*
TO:   All SPAN organizers/chapters and student activists
FROM:   Diana Onken, SPAN National Coordinator
                          DON'T BOMB!  SPEAK OUT FEBRUARY 11!
SPAN (Student Peace Action Network), in conjunction with the National
Officeof Peace Action, is committed to mounting a serious national effort
toprotest the impending bombing campaign against Iraq. We are declaring
Wednesday, February 11 as a NATIONAL DAY OFACTION FOR PEACE. We are
calling
for students everywhere to organize eventson their campus declaring the
possible bombing of Iraq as an abuse of thehuman rights of the people of
Iraq. The student actions will occur on the same day that Peace Action
affiliatesand chapters hold demonstrations that bring together Christian,
Jewish andMuslim clergy.Student activists are encouraged to do any and all
of the following:
* hold a demonstration, rally or vigil declaring the bombing of Iraq as
theabuse of Iraqi human rights-this message will likely resonate with
other
students working onhuman rights issues. Contact them and ask them to work
on this importantevent with you.
* Contact your campus media and try to fill the air waves and print with
themessage that the US should not bomb Iraq
* At your rally, publicize Feb. 12 as a NATIONAL CALL-IN DAY TELLING
PRESIDENT CLINTON NOT TO BOMB IRAQ
Peace Action and SPAN have a number of tools available to make your event
asuccess. Simply go to the Peace Action webpage
(www.webcom.com/peaceact/)and download the following tools. You will find
these tools by clicking on"Peace Action." If you have access to a fax,
email me your fax number and wewill promptly fax you all of the following:
* a sample flyer for your actions* the Peace Action press release *
handbills for a Call-In to the President on February 12 * talking points
for you to utilize when you you speak to your campus media Let the SPAN
office know if you plan to organize and action. WE URGENTLY NEED
TOORGANIZE
ACTIONS ACROSS THE COUNTRY THAT CAN BE "PROJECTED" TO THE HIGHLY SKEPTICAL
NATIONAL PRESS. REMEMBER TO SEND THE SPAN OFFICE COPIES OF ANY PRESS
COVERAGE YOU EARN!!
Please direct any questions to span-talk@igc.org or call Diana
at202.862.9740 ext 3051.
***********************************************************************
Diana Onken(SPAN) Student Peace Action NetworkNational Coordinator1819 H
Street NW Suite 425           Washington DC 20006-3603     ph:
202.862.9740 ext. 3051fax:  202.862.9762 www.webcom.com/peaceact/

3)We hada demo/press conference here in Louisville, KY on 2/9.  We
organized it over the weekend.  We had over 50 folks from many different
organizations,many who made statements.  We got lots of press.  Our theme
was"Permission Denied!"  focusing on the importance of showing
ourelectedreps and the press that consent is NOT present everywhere as
issometimes assumed. I think we are ready to organize further and look
forward toadditionaldata from national groups and campaigns.  Thanks for
the good work.David Horvath dghorv01@gwise.louisville.edu

4)In Chicago the eighth day center for justice seems to be the place
forpeople to contact (312-641-5151). Here at Voices in the Wilderness i am
doing mostlysupport work for the delegation which left for Iraq tonight.
If
you get amaster list of events and especially contacts in various cities
organizingactivities please email it to me, we are also getting many
requests from all over re: actions in other cities.    On February 12 the
Eighth Day Center for Justice is holding a vigil tocommemorate the bombing
of the Ameriyah shelter in a suburb of Baghdad in1991. On Feb 12 of that
year a US "smart" bomb pierced the roof of theshelter and killed nearly
500
women and children who had taken refuge thereto celebrate the end of the
Muslim holy month of Ramadan.  Where: FederalBuilding Plaza (Dearborn and
Adams)          When:    4:30-5:30pm

5)FOR-Houston has had M.Bremer here 2/8-2/11 doing talks at churches,
amosque and universities in city. He will go on Wed. to Austin for
theCentral Texas FOR itinerary of talks. Local Pacifica programs have
donetelephone interviews with KKelly/ other VitW delegates and also
IACdelegation to Iraq folks. Demonstrations on almost a weekly basis.
Vigilon Jan 18 at Rothko Chapel and support to calls for national
call-ins.There is a Houston Coalition now... they will demonstrate in
front
of theM.Leland Fed. Bldg Friday.4-6 p.m./ Teach-in on 2/ 24 at Univ.
ofHouston.Time TBA "The Truth About the U.S. War Against Iraq".

6)Washington DC is having a demonstration in front of the White House on
Thursday, February 12.

7)February 12 has been designated a national call-in day to Washington by
Peace Action.  White House Opinion Line (202 456-1111), fax (202
456-2461),
e-mail president@whitehouse.gov.  Congress switchboard (202 224 3121).




     ****** A-Infos News Service *****
  News about and of interest to anarchists

Subscribe -> email MAJORDOMO@TAO.CA
             with the message SUBSCRIBE A-INFOS
Info      -> http://www.ainfos.ca/
Reproduce -> please include this section