Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik Juni 2004 / Timeline June, 2004
Version 3.0
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06/01/2004
Det er nu tretten måneder siden, at USAs præsident Bush
erklærede krigen i Irak for vundet.
06/02/2004
Folketinget vedtager
beslutningsforslag om 'fortsat dansk bidrag til den
multinationale sikringsstyrke i Irak'.
06/02/2004
Seminar: 'Privatisation of Warfare'
http://www.ikv.nl/detail_page.phtml?page=privatisering
Venue: The 'Clingendael' Institute, The Hague, in co-operation with
the Interchurch Peace Council
Presentation: Tobias Masterton
Director & Co-Founder, Global Peace & Security
Partnership.
06/02/2004
DR1 sender kl. 20.00 Magtens billeder - Ullas vrede.
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Ulla Røder
Kilde: © DR Billedafdelingen |
Programmet følger Ulla Røder i efteråret 2003, hvor hun venter på at retssagen skal starte i forbindelse med hendes seneste civile nedrustningsaktion. Hun forcerede i 2003 hegnet til Royal Airforce Base i Leuchens, hvor hun formåede at kravle op i cockpittet på et jagerfly og ødelægge vitale dele. Hun nåede desuden at ødelægge noget på vingerne, så flyet med sikkerhed ikke kom i luften i nær fremtid. Efter pågribelsen blev hun varetægtsfængslet i fem måneder, og hun venter nu på, at den egentlige retssag skal gå i gang. Da retssagen endelig skulle starte var Ulla Røder forsvundet. Ingen vidste, hvor hun er blevet af. Politiet begærede en arrestordre mod hende i oktober 2003.
Hun gav livstegn fra sig i december 2003, hvor hun forklarede om
sine bevæggrunde til at blive væk fra retssagen. Hun
følte ikke, at hun ville blive givet en fair retssag. Efter
frifindelsen i 1999 er det juridiske system blevet lavet om,
så man ikke kan
påberåbe sig international lov i forbindelse med
hærværk på militære installationer, og
desuden er det blevet svært at føre vidner for den
anklagede i sådanne sager. Desuden mener Ulla Røder
ikke, at hendes advokat ydede hende den nødvendige
hjælp. Hun ventede derfor på en advokat, som ville
hjælpe hende med den rette bistand, og så var hun klar
til at indlede retssagen. Al dette forklarede hun foran kamera, da
det lykkedes tilrettelæggerne at få et interview med
Ulla Røder i den dybeste hemmelighed. Retssagen er stadig
ikke gået i gang.
Dokumentarserien "Magtens billeder" er en dokumentarserie
bestående af tolv dokumentarfilm, der sætter billeder
på magtens væsen. Filmene er resultatet af et
samarbejde mellem Det Danske Filminstitut og DR TV.
Ullas vrede er produceret af Lars Mortensen TV-Produktion for
DR1.
06/03/2004
FNs krigsforbryderdomstol for Sierra Leone starter sin
virksomhed.
06/03/2004
CIA's chef, George
Trenet, træder tilbage.
Også CIA's vicedirektør, James Pavitt, tager sin
afsked.
Litteratur: Leder: Bushs syndebukke. I:
Information, 06/05/2004.
Ruppert, Michael C.: Coup
D'Etat.
06/04/2004
15. årsdagen for
massakren på Den himmelske freds plads i Beijing,
Kina.
06/05/2004
Den russiske journalist Anna Politkovskaja har modtaget
Fredsfondens pris på 50.000 kr. 'som anerkendelse for at
gøre krigen i Tjetjenien synlig for omverdenen', skriver
Information.
06/07/2004
Ny Thule-erstatningssag startes ved Østre Landsret, skriver
Politiken.
06/07/2004
The Pinochet Principle : Pentagon Report Set Framework For Use
of Torture
By: Bravin, Jess The Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108655737612529969,00.html
Bush administration lawyers contended last year that the president
wasn't bound by laws prohibiting torture and that government agents
who might torture prisoners at his direction couldn't be prosecuted
by the Justice Department.
The advice was part of a classified report on interrogation methods
prepared for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld after commanders at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, complained in late 2002 that with
conventional methods they weren't getting enough information from
prisoners.
The report outlined U.S. laws and international treaties forbidding
torture, and why those restrictions might be overcome by
national-security considerations or legal technicalities. In a
March 6, 2003, draft of the report reviewed by The Wall Street
Journal, passages were deleted as was an attachment listing
specific interrogation techniques and whether Mr. Rumsfeld himself
or other officials must grant permission before they could be used.
The complete draft document was classified "secret" by Mr. Rumsfeld
and scheduled for declassification in 2013.
The working-group report elaborated the Bush administration's view
that the president has virtually unlimited power to wage war as he
sees fit, and neither Congress, the courts nor international law
can interfere. It concluded that neither the president nor anyone
following his instructions was bound by the federal Torture
Statute, which makes it a crime for Americans working for the
government overseas to commit or attempt torture, defined as any
act intended to "inflict severe physical or mental pain or
suffering." Punishment is up to 20 years imprisonment, or a death
sentence or life imprisonment if the victim dies. The report seemed
"designed to find the legal loopholes that will permit the use of
torture against detainees," said Mary Ellen O'Connell, an
international-law professor at the Ohio State University who has
seen the report. "CIA operatives will think they are covered
because they are not going to face liability."
06/08/2004
Resolution 1546 (2004) Adopted by the Security Council at its 4987th meeting, on 8 June 2004
http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N04/381/16/PDF/N0438116.pdf?OpenElement
http://www.un.org/Docs/journal/asp/ws.asp?m=S/RES/1546(2004)
The Security Council,
Welcoming the beginning of a new phase in Iraq’s transition to a
democratically elected government, and looking forward to the end of the
occupation and the assumption of full responsibility and authority by a fully
sovereign and independent Interim Government of Iraq by 30 June 2004,
Recalling all of its previous relevant resolutions on Iraq,
Reaffirming the independence, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity of
Iraq...
06/09/2004
Nobelfredsprismodtageren
Bertha von Suttner fødes 1843.
06/09/2004
Blair's ongoing devotion to WMD
The Trident Ploughshares campaign has given a strong welcome to the
growing appreciation that the British government is already making
firm plans for how it will replace the current Trident nuclear
weapon system.
In today's "Scotsman" journalist Tim Ripley *gives an account of
indications of new designs and plans, in particular for a new class
of nuclear weapon submarine, which might also have a conventional
weapon function.
In spite of government claims that no decisions have been made it
has been obvious to campaigners for some time that planning has
begun, given the heightened activity at Aldermaston and the
proposed laser facility there.
The political indications are also strong, given the stance at the
recent NPT Prepcom, when the UK joined other nuclear weapon states
in attempting to change the NPT agenda by downplaying the
obligations on current nuclear weapon states to disarm and focusing
solely on new states acquiring these weapons. In this context the
likelihood that designs for a new nuclear weapon submarine fleet
are in hand is hardly surprising.
A Trident Ploughshares spokesperson said:
"This government is committed to digging itself ever deeper in the
nuclear morass and is prepared to flout international law and its
treaty obligations to do so. We need a new public awakening to what
these weapons do to millions of people and to the planet. This is
why our direct action campaign will continue this summer, with the
disarmament camp at Aldermaston (2nd to 9th July) and the Big
Blockade at Faslane on 23rd August."
06/09/2004
Just in the past two days, we have learned the following:
a) there was a memo drafted by top Pentagon lawyers in March 2003
arguing that US military interrogators are exempted from convention
against torture, legitimizing later actions at Abu Ghraib and
elsewhere.
b) UN SC unanimously approved the transfer of power in Iraq from
the US occupation forces to CIA agent Allawi, a terrorist who
oversaw blowing up vehicles and killing innocent civilians in Iraq
on behalf of his handlers in the 1990s.
06/10/2004
Forsvarsforlig 2004, aftale om forsvarets
ordning 2005-2009, indgås. Mobiliseringsforsvaret
nedlægges og erstattes af to brigader, hvoraf 1. brigade skal
bestå af ca. 3.500 professionelle soldater, 2 brigade skal
bestå af en professionel kerne og cirka 4000 soldater
på rådighedskontrakt. Den danske internationale brigade
nedlægges af økonomiske årsager.
Den generelle tjenestetid for militærnægtere
nedsættes til fire måneder.
Litteratur: Brøndum, Christian: Hæren bliver
mindre end lovet i forlig. I: Berlingske Tidende,
11/05/2004.
French, Sandy: Bredt forlig om forsvaret. I:
Information, 06/11/2004.
Leder: Forsvar for en ny tid. I: Information,
06/14/2004.
Reiz Bjerregaard, Trine: Forsvarsforlig koster dyrbar
ingenørviden : Flertallet af ingeniører i
Forsvaret vil ikke med, når deres arbejdsplads flytter.
I: Ingeniøren, 06/18/2004.
Terp, Holger:
Forsvarsforlig 2005-2009 inspireret at Fredskommissionen af
1998
S kræver flere soldater til indsatsstyrke / Sandy
French ; Pia Fris Laneth. I: Information, 11/23/2004.
06/10/2004
Contractors Sued Over Abu Ghraib Abuses
By: Shannon P. Duffy
© 2004 Law.com and the Legal Intelligencer
Thursday, June 10, 2004 -- Three Philadelphia lawyers are part of a
national team that filed a class-action civil RICO suit Wednesday
against two U.S. corporations for allegedly conspiring in the
torture, rape, murder and abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the
now-infamous Abu Ghraib prison.
Attorneys Susan L. Burke and Joyce S. Meyers of Montgomery
McCracken Walker & Rhoads and professor Susan Feathers of the
University of Pennsylvania Law School are part of an 11-lawyer team
that filed the suit in U.S. District Court in San Diego on behalf
of more than 1,000 Iraqi detainees.
Named as defendants in the suit are Titan Corp.
of San Diego and CACI International of
Arlington, Va., along with three individuals who work for the
companies.
The suit alleges that the two companies "engaged in a wide range of
heinous and illegal acts in order to demonstrate their abilities to
obtain intelligence from detainees, and thereby obtain more
contracts from the government," a statement issued by the
plaintiffs' lawyers says.
Joining the Philadelphia lawyers in filing the suit are six lawyers
from the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York -- Michael
Ratner, Barbara Olshanky, Jeffrey Fogel, Jennifer Green, Judith
Brown Chomsky and Jules Lobel -- as well as Shereef Hadi Akeel of
Melamed Daily & Akeel in Huntington Woods, Mich., and William
J. Aceves of San Diego, serving as local counsel.
The suit alleges that three individual defendants -- Stephen
Stephanowicz and John Israel of CACI and Adel Nahkla of Titan --
directed and participated in illegal conduct at the Abu Ghraib
prison in Iraq.
Stephanowicz hails from Telford, Pa.
All three employees were implicated in abuses in the investigative
report by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba.
According to an Associated Press report, a series of government
lawyers' memos -- many of them still secret but leaked to the media
this week -- said the president had the legal authority to allow
torture of detainees during interrogations. Administration
officials, however, have insisted that such a policy never was
adopted.
In the RICO suit, plaintiffs' lawyers contend that CACI and Titan
created a "joint enterprise" that became known as "Team Titan." The
suit says the two contractors were hired by the United States to
provide interrogation services in Iraq, but that the abusive
tactics they used violated both federal and international law.
Some of the abuse allegations outlined in the suit are among the
cruelest described within the Iraqi prisons.
One person, identified in court documents only as a prisoner named
Rasheed, told lawyers his tongue was shocked and his toenails
pulled out. A second person, identified as a prisoner named Ahmed,
said he was forced to watch while his 63-year-old father was
tortured to death. The suit seeks payments for the alleged victims
and a ban on future government contracts for Titan and CACI.
In addition to the RICO claim, the suit cites claims under the
Alien Tort Claims Act and the Eighth, Fifth and 14th amendments to
the U.S. Constitution as well as other U.S. and international
laws.
Titan spokesman Wil Williams said the company considers the lawsuit
"frivolous."
Williams said Titan's contract with the government involves only
"linguistic services" and that Titan was never hired to participate
in prisoner interrogations.
A recent statement by Titan suggests that the company may be in the
midst of negotiating a deal with the U.S. Justice Department to
plead guilty to criminal charges, but Williams said the potential
charges are "completely unrelated" to the abuse at Abu Ghraib.
In a statement released on Monday, Titan announced that its
stockholders had overwhelmingly approved a proposed merger with
Lockheed Martin Corp. The announcement directly addressed the
prospect of possible criminal charges against Titan.
"It is a condition to Lockheed Martin's obligation to complete the
merger either that Titan have obtained a written statement from the
Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice that it
considers its investigation of alleged violations of the Foreign
Corrupt Practices Act resolved as to Titan and its subsidiaries and
does not intend to pursue any claims as to Titan and its
subsidiaries in respect of such alleged violations, or that Titan
must have entered into a plea agreement with the Department of
Justice and completed the sentencing process including entry of the
requisite judgment," the Titan press release says.
"Any plea agreement is subject to Lockheed Martin's prior consent,
which may not be unreasonably withheld or delayed," the statement
says. The statement hints that action on the criminal charges could
come very soon.
"Either party may terminate the merger agreement if the conditions
are not satisfied or waived and the merger is not completed by June
25, 2004, provided that if Titan enters into a plea agreement with
the United States Department of Justice Criminal Division on or
before June 25, 2004, then the parties may terminate the merger
agreement if the merger is not completed by the earlier of three
business days after a judgment signed by a United States district
court judge has been entered or Sept. 24, 2004," the statement
says.
Williams said he cannot discuss the criminal investigation, except
to say that it relates to "international sales" and that it is "not
connected in any way to the situation in Iraq."
The Titan employee named in the suit, Adel Nahkla, has been
terminated, Williams said. In the report by Taguba, he said, Nahkla
was identified only as a "suspect or witness."
Williams said the company intends to "vigorously defend" itself
against the allegations.
CACI spokeswoman Jody Brown said the allegations in the federal
suit "are irresponsible and outrageous."
"CACI regards these allegations as false and malicious," Brown said
in a written statement.
Brown said CACI officials "do not condone, tolerate or endorse any
illegal behavior by our employees in any circumstance or at any
time," and that the company "will act forcefully if the evidence
shows that any of our employees acted improperly."
But Brown emphasized that "no charges have been filed against any
of our employees."
The lawsuit, she said, makes "vicious, blanket accusations that
dishonor our people and our company. Our people are doing good work
in life-threatening circumstances and we are proud of them. We will
defend the reputation of our people and our company and we will
fight this false and malicious suit with all of our strength."
But the plaintiffs' lawyers insisted that the suit has merit and
that the two contractors were directly involved in the abuses at
Abu Ghraib. "We believe that CACI and Titan engaged in a conspiracy
to torture and abuse detainees, and did so to make more money,"
said Burke of Montgomery McCracken.
"These corporations saw an opportunity to build their businesses by
proving they could extract information from detainees in Iraq, by
any means necessary. In doing so they not only violated a raft of
domestic and international statutes but diminished America's
stature and reputation around the world," Burke said.
Fogel, the legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights,
said, "CACI and Titan perpetrated brutal human rights abuses to
obtain information, a practice that is not only barbaric but leads
to false confessions. The modern way to describe this is
outsourcing torture; in the old days we'd call these people
mercenaries."
Akeel said, "America is about accountability, and this lawsuit is
intended to hold accountable those who are responsible for the
wrongs they committed against our clients."
06/10/2004
Human Rights Watch (HRW) 2004 International Film
Festival
10-24 June 2004, New York City, Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln
Center
Films addressing women, peace and security issues include:
-“The Kite” (France/Lebanon 2003): …The Kite
tells the story of 16-year-old Lamia, who, on her wedding day must
cross over the barbed wire barrier that separates her Lebanese
village from that of her cousin and fiancé Samy, whose
village has been annexed by Israel. Between the villages, the
border is heavily patrolled. The checkpoint, controlled by both
sides, permits newlyweds and corpses to return to their home
villages. Lamia reaches the family of her fiancé, abandoning
her younger brother, her school, her kite, her mother, her past.
But she refuses to consummate her marriage; instead she gradually
falls in love with a soldier who has been watching her since the
day she crossed the border for the first time.
-“When the Storm Came” (USA 2003): The women of Kunnan
Pushpora trek through the jungle to collect firewood for fuel in
the militarized valley nestled at the foothills of the Himalayas
known as Kashmir. But they are haunted by a night now deeply
entrenched in their collective memory. When the Storm Came tells
their story and gives a human face to the commonly used "weapon" of
war — rape.
06/11/2004
Lokalvalg i Storbritannien. Labour taber mere end 400 mandater pga
'vælgernes utilfredshed' med krigen i Irak, som 'mange af dem
var imod'.
Litteratur: Theils, Lone: Blair betaler prisen for
Irak. I: Berlingske Tidende, 06/13/2004.
06/11/2004
The second annual Teaching Nonproliferation Summer
Institute
This summer, you have a chance visit a lovely area and at the same
time join a project that we hope will positively affect the future
of our planet. The second annual Teaching Nonproliferation Summer
Institute will be held from June 11-15 at the University of North
Carolina at Asheville. We're inviting you and your colleagues.
We've designed this development workshop to enable university
faculty to include issues related to reducing the threat from
weapons of mass destruction in appropriate courses. This year's
institute will emphasize environmental, public health, and security
issues. Participants will both learn from and establish connections
with renowned experts in the field. This is an opportunity to add a
timely and diverse dimension to your teaching.
Participants will receive room, board and a travel stipend.
Speakers will be:
* Clay Moltz and Charles Ferguson, Center for Nonproliferation
Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies
* Randall Forsberg, Institute for Defense and Disarmament
Studies
* Arjun Makhijani, Institute for Energy and Environmental
Research
* William Long, Chair of the Sam Nunn School for International
Affairs, Georgia Tech. and tentatively
* Victor Sidel editor of "War and Public Health" and a founder of
Physicians for Social Responsibility,
* Avner Cohen, Center for International Security Studies at
University of Maryland, author of "Israel and the Bomb,"
* Stephen Schwartz, publisher of the Bulletin of the Atomic
Scientist,
Thanks for considering our invitation and circulating it to others
in your department or, better yet, your university!
Dot Sulock, Institute Director
06/11/2004
Forsvarsforlig er en hån mod befolkningens nej til
EU-hær
- Ja-partierne, kristendemokraterne og Dansk Folkeparti baserer
deres politik på forventet opsigelse af aftalen med
vælgerne, udtaler Ditte Staun fra Folkebevægelsen mod
EU.
Det dugfriske forsvarsforlig – aftalen om forsvarets ordning
fra 2005 – 2009 – siger i sin indledning, at "Endvidere
vil dansk forsvar ved en eventuel ophævelse af det danske
forsvarsforbehold kunne deltage i EU’s indsats uden for
Unionens område med henblik på fredsskabelse,
fredsbevarelse, konfliktforebyggelse, humanitære operationer
og styrkelse af international sikkerhed i overensstemmelse med
principperne i FN-pagten.”
- Forligspartierne håner undtagelsen overfor EU’s
militære projekt, som befolkningen har vedtaget ved
folkeafstemning. Det gør de, når de direkte går
indgår aftaler om det danske forsvars forventede fremtidige
deltagelse i EU-hæren, siger Ditte Staun, som er en af
spidskandidaterne for Folkebevægelsen mod EU ved valget til
EU-parlamentet på søndag.
- Danmark kan sagtens deltage humanitære opgaver – for
eksempel gennem den multinationale FN-styrke SHIRBRIG, som har
hovedkvarter ved Birkerød i Nordsjælland.
EU-hæren handler langt fra kun om indsats med FN's
godkendelse. Tværimod siger udkastet til EU-grundlov, der
skal forhandles på plads om knap en uge, at der ikke
behøver at være noget FN-mandat for EU’s
militære indgreb, siger Ditte Staun og tilføjer:
- Verden har ikke brug for EU-militarisering, men for et styrket
FN!
06/11/2004
NDP leader shoots down missile defence program
Toronto Star
The U.S-led missile defence program will spark a dangerous new arms
race and Canada should have no part of it, NDP Leader Jack Layton
says.
Layton used a rally at a downtown Toronto church last night to lash
out against the proposed program, denouncing it as a costly, ill-
conceived hold-over from the Cold War that will ultimately put
weapons in space.
And as he vowed to make missile defence an election issue, he got
some high-profile help from members of Toronto's arts scene, who
added their own angry voices in condemning the proposed
program.
"It is shocking to see that Canada would even be considering
joining such a Cold War again," singer Steve Page, of the Barenaked
Ladies, told a crowd of about 200 people at the Church of Saint
George the Martyr.
Pianist Anton Kuerti said the costs of the program would make the
sponsorship scandal look like a "little appetizer." "We need to be
getting rid of missiles, not encouraging others to build more," he
said.
Noted environmentalist David Suzuki said the scheme, which involves
using ground-based interceptors to shoot down incoming missiles, is
unworkable.
06/12/2004
Estland underskriver Ottawa-konventionen mod landminer, skriver
Landmine action, May 2004.
06/13/2004
Democracy, USA
Today, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchu was held for
24-hours at the border and returned to her home in Mexico, stopping
her attending a conference in the U.S. i just got a phone call from
solidarity group in Los Angeles who are at the Guatemalan consulate
as we speak, protesting this ocurrance. also, Rigoberta is on the
board of directors of the International Indian Treaty Council which
is celebrating its 30 years as a NGO organization, july 8-11, 2004,
the indigenous voice at the United Nations, writes Dorinda.
06/13/2004
Valg til Europa-Parlamentet.
06/15/2004
Voices of Tolerance in the Age of Persecution
The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, has a new
exhibit, "Voices of Tolerance in the Age of Persecution." This
remarkably timely exhibit illuminates the birth and struggle for
survival of the modern ideas of tolerance and conscience
fundamental to the mission of FCNL. The exhibit draws on the
Folger's rich collection of 16th and 17th century rare books,
manuscripts, and art works and includes original 16th century texts
written by William
Penn and George
Fox during the early modern Quaker movement.
Suppression of religious dissent was generally accepted and
brutally enforced throughout Europe during the 16th and 17th
centuries. With ironic valence for our time, the suppression then
was termed "The War on Error."
06/15/2004
On Tuesday, June 15, the Senate will vote on an amendment to cut
funds for new nuclear weapons from the military ("defense")
authorization bill. This vote is likely to be very close.
We need your help to persuade senators to vote against funding
these new nuclear weapon systems. Please call, fax, or email your
senators. Urge them to support the Kennedy-Feinstein amendment to
cut funds for new nuclear weapons from the defense authorization
bill (S. 2400). Tell them that these weapons will not make the U.S.
more secure. In fact, they will make the world more dangerous.
06/16/2004
Stop the Secret Expansion of the USA PATRIOT Act!
By: Sylvia Brinton
Next Wednesday, June 16th, the House Intelligence Committee is
expected to consider expanding the USA PATRIOT Act by slipping
portions of the Anti-Terrorism Intelligence Tools Improvement Act
of 2003, HR 3179, into the Intelligence Authorization Act for
Fiscal Year 2005. HR 3179 includes the following provisions from
the leaked Justice Department draft of the Homeland Security
Enhancement Act, AKA "Patriot II":
-- A "lone wolf" provision that applies the Patriot Act's
surveillance and investigation provisions to persons acting alone.
(The Senate has already passed this as a stand-alone bill.)
-- Penalties for failure to cooperate with overbroad powers for the
FBI to issue secret National Security Letters (NSLs) requesting
private information, with no checks and balances
-- Secret use of information from NSLs in immigration proceedings,
which would deny immigrants their fifth and fourteenth amendment
protections from being "deprived of life, liberty, or property,
without due process of law."
There is no evidence that the FBI needs these provisions.
Furthermore, it is too early to consider expanding the USA PATRIOT
Act. We have not yet had adequate congressional oversight of how
the government is using the surveillance provisions of the PATRIOT
Act. Some provisions of the PATRIOT Act are set to expire at the
end of 2005, so Congress will need to review them next year -- when
all of these issues can be publicly debated and analyzed.
The intelligence authorization bill generally contains many
important provisions, and it must pass every year, so it is
difficult for members of Congress to vote against it even if it
contains some provisions they oppose. Therefore, it is critical to
stop the inclusion of HR 3179 in committee.
Last year, Reps. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Porter Goss (R-FL)
introduced HR 3179, a bill that would expand the FBI's ability to
obtain records without a court order and wiretap people without
meeting normal constitutional standards. After various
organizations voiced opposition to the bill, the House Judiciary
Committee held a hearing on HR 3179 last month, where former Rep.
Bob Barr (R-GA) testified against the bill.
After the hearing, it was reported that Rep. Goss, who is the Chair
of the House Intelligence Committee, was likely to tack the
provisions of HR 3179 onto the annual intelligence authorization
bill, which his committee debates and votes on behind closed
doors.
You may recall that last December, another section from PATRIOT II,
which expanded the FBI's ability to use secret National Security
Letters, was tacked on to the Intelligence Authorization Act of
2004 without the knowledge of most members of Congress. It was
passed, and President Bush signed the bill on Saturday, December
13, the day of Saddam Hussein's capture by U.S. forces in Iraq.
Texas Congressman Ron Paul called the tactic "a stealth enactment
of the enormously unpopular 'Patriot II' legislation."
06/16/2004
Highlight Cheney's Corruption -- Starting TOMORROW
By: Eli Pariser
Just this morning, the L.A. Times released a new Halliburton
bombshell: it's now clear that over the protests of an Army
official, Vice President Cheney's office helped ensure that
Cheney's old company Halliburton would receive a $7 billion no-bid
contract for rebuilding Iraq. Faced with a choice between serving
our troops and helping out his corporate buddies, Cheney chose the
latter. The timing for our new ad exposing how Halliburton and Bush
administration officials took taxpayers for a ride couldn't be
better.
And starting tomorrow, Congress will be holding hearings on whether
Halliburton used its close ties to administration officials to get
sweetheart deals, shortchanging both our troops and U.S. taxpayers.
Since Thursday afternoon, we've already raised about $420,000 to
air the ad. But in order to get the ad in front of swing-state
voters for a week starting tomorrow, we'll need to raise about $1.1
million. Together, if we all pitch in what we can, we can make it
happen.
06/16/2004
Halliburton's billing system for work in Iraq hit by audit :
Weak oversight of subcontractors, invoice woes cited
By Reuters
WASHINGTON -- Pentagon auditors have found "deficiencies" in
Halliburton's billing system for billions of dollars worth of work
in Iraq, according to a military audit released by a Democratic
lawmaker yesterday.
The audit on Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root, the US
military's biggest contractor in Iraq, was released by California
Representative Henry Waxman to back up claims of misuse of US
taxpayer funds in Iraq by the Texas firm, which was run by Dick
Cheney from 1995 to 2000, before he was elected vice president of
the United States.
The May 13 audit report cited "system deficiencies" that resulted
in invoicing misstatements and said a follow-up audit would be done
in six months to see whether corrective action had been taken.
The Defense Contract Audit Agency is doing several other reports,
covering issues such as a dispute over prices charged to the
military for food delivered to troops.
In addition, investigators are looking into whether Kellogg Brown
and Root overcharged for fuel.
The May audit also said the company did not have adequate controls
over subcontractors' bills, and criticized it for inadequate
oversight of subcontractors' work.
06/16/2004
Iraks olieeksport stoppes ved sabotage, skriver Reuters.
06/17/2004
Return of Diego Garcia islanders blocked
by Ewen MacAskill
The Guardian
The British government has summarily barred thousands of Indian
Ocean islanders from returning to the homes they were cheated out
of more than 30 years ago to make way for a US air and naval
base.
The decision to reject the right of return of residents of Diego
Garcia overturns without debate a high court judgment four years
ago that criticised the behaviour of previous British governments
and opened the way for the islanders to go home. At the time, the
Foreign Office accepted the judge's decision and promised to embark
on preparations for their return. But the Foreign Office minister
Bill Rammell has now said it is not feasible for the islanders to
go back and that, as a result of September 11, US defense needs
have increased.
The new law disbars islanders returning not only to Diego Garcia,
but to the other 64 outlying islands. Alan Vincatassin, leader of
British Indian Ocean Territory Islanders' Movement, said last
night: "It is totally horrendous and unacceptable. I am very angry.
This law is the most barbarous I have seen in the name of the
Queen.
"It is because the US wants to have these islands empty they [the
Foreign Office] have removed the right of abode."
The islanders are almost certain to mount a fresh legal
challenge.
Instead of using the normal legislative process, the Foreign Office
was able to change the law by use of orders in council, a remnant
of the once all-powerful royal prerogative. The new order replaces
the existing constitution of the territory and "makes clear, as a
principle of the constitution, that no person has the right of
abode in the territory or has unrestricted access to any part of
it".
Richard Gifford, the London-based lawyer for the 4,500 islanders
and their descendants seeking a right to return, said: "This is an
absolute stab in the back. Not since the days of King John has
anyone tried to expel British citizens from the realm by executive
order."
The British Indian Ocean Territory belongs to Britain, which has
leased Diego Garcia to the US. The British government tricked many
of the 2,000 islanders into moving out between 1967 and 1973 to
make way for the US base by insisting they had not been permanent
settlers, only transient.
The decision was agreed by the Privy Council last Thursday, the day
of the European, mayoral and council elections. Mr Rammell called
Mr Gifford to the Foreign Office on Tuesday morning to brief him.
In a written parliamentary statement, Mr Rammell said that a
feasibility study suggested the islands were vulnerable to natural
events that were "likely to make life difficult for a resettled
population" and, in the longer term, to global warming.
"Thus resettlement is likely to become less feasible over time," he
said, adding that life on the islands would be highly precarious
and would need heavy underwriting by the British government. He
said the restoration of full immigration control over the islands
was necessary for defense purposes, "especially in the light of
recent developments in the international security climate since the
November 2000 judgment".
Diego Garcia is hugely important to the US in providing a secure
base for the launch of attacks and surveillance in the Middle East
and Afghanistan. It was used in both Iraq wars.
Mr Vincatassin disputed the findings of the government's
feasibility report. "These islands were inhabited for centuries and
we cannot see why we cannot do it now," he said.
Labour MPs who have been campaigning on behalf of the islanders
yesterday put down a Commons early-day motion critical of the
decision. One of them, Tam Dalyell, said: "It is a matter of huge
concern that an order in council can overturn the high court."
In a separate development, a court in London will today hear an
appeal by the islanders against a ruling last year that they were
not entitled to any further compensation for their removal.
Close Diego Garcia, Bring Back the Chagossians!
06/18/2004
Denver PL to Archive Surveillance Files by City Police
AMERICAN LIBRARIES Aug. 04
http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/alnews2004/june2004ab/denverspy.htm
Twenty-one boxes of photos, flyers, membership rosters, and
investigators' notes on some 10,000 alleged extremists and 1,000
peaceful protest groups gathered since 1953 by the Denver
Intelligence Bureau, a division of the police department, will be
archived in a nonpublic area of the Denver Public Library for
selective review.
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper apologized June 17 for the
city’s surveillance activities, adding that police need to
keep intelligence files on criminals and not protest groups, the
Associated Press reported June 17. The American Civil Liberties
Union of Colorado had asked for the files to be preserved after
settling a lawsuit challenging the police activities as
unlawful.
“There's a very legitimate interest for historical purposes
for preserving these records, in what we hope is a now closed
episode in this city's history,” ACLU-Colorado Legal Director
Mark Silverstein said. “The plan sets up a mechanism that
will permit individuals to find out if they're in those files and
read what the police department wrote about them.”
City Librarian Rick Ashton said at least two archivists will
catalog, index, and organize the files to make them searchable by
name. Such public records as newspaper clippings, flyers, and
posters will be made available as soon as they are processed, but
police files containing personal information can only be viewed by
those named in the documents.
As part of the settlement, Denver police no longer gather
intelligence on groups or individuals based solely on their
political, social, or religious views.
© 2004 American Library Association.
50 E. Huron Chicago, IL 60611
06/19/2004
International Sympositum: Exchange of Experiences and Future
Cooperation of Asian Peace Museums, Kyoto Japan.
06/20/2004
International flygtningedag.
06/23/2004
U.S. Drops Effort to Gain Immunity for Its Troops
USA bowed to broad opposition on the Security Council today and
announced that it was dropping its effort to gain immunity for its
troops from prosecution by the International Criminal Court.
"The United States has decided not to proceed further with
consideration and action on the draft at this time in order to
avoid a prolonged and divisive debate," the deputy American
ambassador, James B. Cunningham, said on emerging from the council,
writes the New York Times.
06/23/2004
U.S.: Released Documents on Torture Not Sufficient :
Commission Needed to Probe Treatment of Detainees
— Documents released Monday by the U.S. Department of Defense
on interrogation procedures at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, raise more
questions than they answer, Human Rights Watch said today. Human
Rights Watch called for a 9/11-style independent commission to
probe the issue of detainee abuse.
The released documents stop in April 2003 and do not cover
practices at Abu Ghraib and other military prisons in Iraq, Human
Rights Watch said. Even so, they show that in December, 2002,
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld approved the use of
techniques, such as the use of guard dogs to instill fear in
detainees, stripping detainees nude, and the use of painful stress
positions, that violate the law. Rumsfeld later rescinded his
approval of these techniques on Guantanamo detainees, yet they
later featured prominently in the abuses at Abu Ghraib.
"This selective release of documents raises more questions than it
answers," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights
Watch. "We need an independent investigation, not a selective
self-investigation."
Human Rights Watch said that the released documents show the
beginning of the story, how illegal tactics were approved in
Guantanamo, but they do not show how these tactics, or even more
abusive methods, were later approved and applied in Afghanistan and
Iraq and resulted in the torture and other mistreatment of
detainees in those places.
Human Rights Watch also pointed out that the memos released Monday
concern interrogation techniques by the Department of Defense, and
that little or nothing has been provided about CIA interrogation
practices.
Human Rights Watch called on the administration to release all
documents relating to the treatment of detainees in the "war on
terror" and in Iraq,including the 2003 memoranda from Lt. Gen.
Ricardo S. Sanchez, the senior U.S. military officer in Iraq
authorizing coercive interrogation techniques there, writes Human
Rights Watch.
06/23/2004
Killing fields in former Yoguslavia
By András Riedlmayer
The number of bodies recovered from mass grave sites in Bosnia
since the first post-war exhumations undertaken by the ICTY in the
summer of 1996 is now approaching 19,000. To put that in context,
remember that mass grave exhumations were hampered for many years
after the war by the active efforts of the local authorities (esp.
by the Republika Srpska (RS) authorities) who tried to conceal
sites, rebury remains, and hide documentation and information. This
conspiracy of silence has now begun to break down, on the official
as well as on the personal level -- a number of recently exhumed
mass grave sites were at locations to which investigators were led
by conscience-stricken individuals (in some cases, people's
deathbed confessions). This is why each summer's exhumation season
for the last couple of years has brought more new discoveries.
A further 25,000 people in Bosnia remain on the ICRC books reported
as missing by relatives who are still actively looking for
them.
Another very significant but unknown number of people are
presumably missing but are not being looked for and are thus not
included in these figures (because the people who might have
reported their absence are either also dead, or scattered abroad as
refugees and not actively pursuing the matter with ICRC).
In all this, keep in mind that "mass grave site" is a highly
variable term -- a single "mass grave site" may have as few as
three bodies or as many as several hundred (such as the Crni Vrh
site near Zvornik, unearthed late last summer, with close to 1000
bodies). Also be mindful of the fact that many of the people who
were killed were not interred in mass grave sites, but were buried
singly, in unmarked and often unrecorded graves, were dumped down
wells, mine shafts, or clefts in the rocky terrain, or were simply
left where they fell in the woods.
Years after the end of the war, one can still come across
un-interred human bones scattered on the open ground, amidst the
weeds in the overgrown fields, in places like Srebrenica.
For certain incidents in particular localities, we are now
beginning to have widely accepted estimates of the number of dead,
based on exhumations and the findings of post-war investigations
and war crimes trials (e.g. between 7,000 and 8,500 men and boys
killed by Bosnian Serb forces over several days in July 1995 in and
around Srebrenica).
In addition to all the victims in mass graves and in the woods, who
together comprise only a part of those who were killed, there were
also the many other victims who were buried, hastily or formally,
by relatives, friends, or neighbors. There are reasonably reliable
totals for some specific places, including some of the towns where
circumstances allowed for such recording (e.g. Sarajevo -- 12,000
people killed and buried during the siege, among them 1,600
children). But in many other places, particularly where "ethnic
cleansing" was in progress and the authorities were themselves
implicated in the killings, there was either no incentive to record
the deaths or even if they were recorded, every reason to avoid
making such figures public.
But just as in the case of other massive human tragedies, the total
number of the dead during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war and in all the
other Balkan conflicts of the 1990s may never be firmly established
-- too many people died in circumstances where their deaths were
unlikely to be reported to or recorded by any authorities. There
were too many jurisdictions, in various states of disarray, and
during all this time there were untold numbers of desperate and
often undocumented people on the move, as individuals or in groups,
across front lines and across borders.
The most widely accepted estimates -- e.g., those cited in
testimony by demographic experts in cases before the ICTY -- seem
to be:
ca. 200,000 killed during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia
ca. 25,000 killed during the 1991-1995 war in Croatia
ca. 10,000 killed during the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo
The other Balkan conflicts (Slovenia 1991, bombing of Serbia 1999,
Macedonia 2001) resulted in relatively smaller numbers of people
killed or missing, ranging from some dozens in Slovenia and in
Macedonia to several hundred in Serbia.
So we're talking about just under a quarter million dead in all. To
put that in context, the 200,000 dead in Bosnia were out of a total
pre-war population of 4 million. Thanks to the UN High Commission
on Refugees and other such agencies, we have firmer figures on the
number of people who were "ethnically cleansed" -- more than 2
million, over half of Bosnia's population, were turned into
refugees. Fewer than 1 million have since returned to their pre-war
homes.
The above figures are for all ethnicities. I cannot provide any
precise ethnic breakdown (consider that of the bodies recovered
from post-war exhumations of mass grave sites only a fraction have
been fully identified), but the broad consensus is that while the
victims of these wars included people of all backgrounds, the great
majority of those killed in all these Balkan conflicts were
civilians, and that in Bosnia the largest number of those killed
and missing were Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims).
06/24/2004
Wheelchair User Breaks Into Nuke Base
Last night anti-Trident protesters again exposed serious flaws in
security at the Faslane as three activists, one in a wheelchair,
broke into the high security nuclear weapon base.
The three, Roz Bullen from Edinburgh, Morag Forbes and Sue
Brackenbury, both from Faslane Peace Camp, entered the base at the
north end, cutting a hole in the perimeter fence large enough to
admit the wheelchair, made their way without interruption to the
inner fence, and were in the process of cutting their way through
that when they were detained. They also painted peace slogans, such
as "No WMD" on buildings inside the base.
Roz, who relies totally on her wheelchair for mobility, has been
charged with causing £200 worth of damage to the outer fence
and £600 damage to the inner one. Sue and Morag were charged
with causing £200 worth of damage to the outer fence and
£600 damage to the buildings. Sue also has disabilities
physical and hearing impairments.
The trio, who were released from custody this morning, were
delighted with the progress they had made in again exposing poor
security at the base and in highlighting UK hypocrisy over weapons
of mass destruction, writes Trident Ploughshares.
06/24/2004
In Aceh, the declaration of martial law on May 19, 2003, has had an
extraordinary human cost. While it is impossible to verify the
precise number of extra-judicial incarcerations and killings,
accounts suggest that more than 1300 people have been killed in the
past year, the majority of whom have been civilians. Indonesia's
National Commission on Human Rights' (Komnas HAM) ad-hoc team for
Aceh recently reported on the "attacks against unarmed civilians,
including victims who were murdered, tortured, sexually abused or
raped, or others who the court had not yet proved were rebels."
The report also cited kidnapping, child abuse, arson, and robbery.
The Komnas HAM team alleged that most violations were committed by
the Indonesian security forces, including both high level political
and military authorities, though some deaths have been attributed
to the rebel Free Aceh Movement. The conflict has also generated
massive refugee flows across international borders, with thousands
of others displaced internally.
In Papua, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and
the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention have long documented human
rights violations. Recently, the Indonesian military's creation of
a militia has exacerbated tensions between indigenous Papuans and
migrants. A military campaign in the Central Highlands has led to
an inestimable number of civilian deaths and significant population
displacement. The fate of those hiding in the Papuan forests
remains unknown, as military authorities have prohibited provision
of humanitarian assistance. Human rights organizations have endured
intimidation and threats by government security forces operating
with impunity, writes http://www.etan.org.
06/24/2004
Inkompetente Bush-folk og ingen suverænitet i Irak
Af Jan Øberg
Fil.dr., direktør for den Transnationale Stiftelse i Lund,
Sverige
Når det går så skidt for den amerikansk-ledede
besættelse af Irak har det først og fremmest at
gøre med at hele projektet var urealistisk. Samtlige
antagelser, det byggede på, var fejlagtige. Et alvorligt
storhedsvanvid og en beruselse i våbnenes magt parret med
yderst begrænset intellektuel og moralsk magt har bidraget
til denne tragedie. Og ingen synes at kunne få et alternativ
til USA op at stå. Det er dét jeg blandt andet
forsøger at sige i Forudsigelig Fiasko. Konflikten med Irak
og Danmark som besættelsesmagt, der udkom for nogle uger
siden.
Men der er også en overset grund. Hvis man forestiller sig at
USA gerne ville gøre noget rigtigt godt for Irak, ville man
så ikke forvente at de havde udvalgt deres bedste diplomater,
områdeeksperter og administratorer?
Jo, men sådan er det ikke. De amerikanere, der det sidste
års tid har kørt Irak kommer fra det yderste
højre i det Republikanske Parti, Israel-lobbyen,
forsvarsministeriet Pentagon, krigen mod terror og myndighederne
for Hjemlandets Forsvar.
Det er strategiske eksperter, der er fortalere for Missilforsvaret
(eller Stjernernes Krig), folk fra konservative tænketanke,
det militærindustrielle kompleks og CIA, fra private
konsulentfirmaer, lejesoldat-firmaer og olieindustrien; det er
veteraner fra Vietnam og Balkan. Der er naturligvis ingen
kvinder.
Paul Bremer, den øverste amerikanske leder af Irak, er
sikkerhedspolitisk høg og har i 20 år samarbejdet med
den formodede krigsforbryder Henry Kissinger og er selv ekspert i
terrorbekæmpelse. En af hovedmændene bag forbrydelserne
i Abu Ghraib-fængslet har gjort noget lignende som
fængelsinspektør hjemme i Pennsylvania.
Stort set ingen af disse "ugly Americans" har - så vidt jeg
har kunnet undersøge det på Internettet - nogen som
helst uddannelse i relevante emner som nations-(gen)opbygning,
konfliktløsning, forhandling, forsoning eller behandling af
efterkrigs-traumer. De har ingen fagkundskab vedrørende det
civile samfunds betydning eller demokratiske processer; de taler
stort set ikke arabisk og har ikke før deltaget i
udviklingsarbejde i den Tredje Verden.
Disse koloni-herrer plejer selvsagt amerikanske snarere end
irakiske interesser.
For et par uger siden lavede amerikanerne en raid på Ahmed
Chalabis organisation. Bush-regimet havde tænkt at han skulle
køre Irak nu efter "suverænitets-overdragelsen" den
30. juni, men han faldt i unåde. Chalabi er en kendt mytoman,
formodentlig dobbeltagent, der har fyldt Washington med løgn
om Iraks masseødelæggende våben - hvilket CIA i
mange år har aflønnet ham og hans private hær
for. Han står for resten til 22 år i jordansk
fængsel for at have tømt nogle banker dér. Han
har boet omkring 50 år i udlandet.
Irak har netop fået en ny - udpeget - regering. Statsminister
Allawi er selvfølgelig eksil-iraker og CIA- og MI6-mand samt
en af kilderne til forvirringen om masseødelæggende
våben. Og så er der USA's kommende ambassadør i
Bagdad, en ambassade der skal blive historiens største med
omkring 3000 ansatte og smækfuld af CIA og lytteudstyr, det
egentlige magtcentrum i landet. Han hedder Negroponte - sort bro.
Han har været USA's FN-ambassadør og har stået
bag alle amerikanske løgnehistorier i og manipulation af FN
og dets sikkerhedsråd, blandt andet bag at FN's missioner
blev tvunget ud af Irak forud lige inden krigen.
Han var Reagans ambassadør i Honduras og formodet ankermand
for Contras-operationerne mod Nicaraguas Sandinist-regering. Han
overvågede bygningen af El Aguacate-basen hvor USA
trænede Contras og hvor der var hemmelige celler og et
torturcenter. I 2001 fandt man 185 lig dér. Han er desuden
kendt for at have fortsat samarbejdet med honduransk politi og
militær på trods af deres totale foragt for
menneskerettigheder. Honduranske MR-ledere såvel som Human
Rights Watch i Washington har udtalt at han må betragtes som
medansvarlig for krænkelserne.
Han er naturligvis den rette til at være det "suveræne"
Iraks egentlige hersker og udvikle de 14 enorme baser USA beholder
i landet.
Med den slags ledere er irakernes fremtid omtrent så
låst som under Saddam. Og den danske regering og folketinget
synes ikke at bryde sig om at ethvert samarbejde med den slags
mennesker besudler vort eget navn og rygte - og sandsynligvis
også øger såvel hadet som terror-risikoen mod
Danmark.
Suverænitetsoverdragelsen til irakerne er ren propaganda.
Intet bliver bedre efter 30. juni, først når
besætterne forlader landet og en ny type FN-mission kommer
på plads i samarbejde med arabiske lande.
06/24/2004
An unarmed Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missile launched
from Vandenberg Air Force Base Wednesday morning towards the
Kwajalein Missile Range in the Marshall Islands.
06/25/2004
Naturklagenævnets
afgørelse i Hesselø-sagen går
våbenfabrikken Weibel Scientific A/S imod.
Kilde: Dahlin, Ulrik: Bejmand til våbenproducent i
Hesselø-sag. I: Information, 06/26/2004.
06/26/2004
U.S.-EU Summit: Agreement on GPS-Galileo Cooperation
US Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs
The White House, Office of the Press Secretary
Washington, DC
June 26, 2004
Today, the United States and the European Union reached an
agreement covering their satellite navigation services, the U.S.
Global Positioning System, and Europe's planned Galileo system.
The U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) is a constellation of 28
satellites and ground support facilities, used for a wide array of
economic, scientific, and military applications. The satellites
broadcast signals that can be converted into precise positioning
and timing information anywhere in the world. In 1998, the European
Union decided to pursue its own satellite navigation system, known
as Galileo, which currently is still in its development phase.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, European Commission
Vice-President Loyola de Palacio, and Irish Foreign Minister Brian
Cowen signed the Agreement on the Promotion, Provision, and Use of
Galileo and GPS Satellite-Based Navigation Systems and Related
Applications. This historic agreement protects Allied security
interests, while paving the way for an eventual doubling of
satellites that will broadcast a common civil signal worldwide,
thereby promoting better and more comprehensive service for all
users.
The agreement ensures that Galileo's signals will not harm the
navigation warfare capabilities of the United States and the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization military forces, ensures that both the
United States and the European Union can address individual and
mutual security concerns, and calls for non-discrimination and open
markets in terms of trade in civil satellite navigation-related
goods and services.
Recognizing the added benefit to civil and commercial users if the
two independent systems were compatible and interoperable, the
United States and the European Union have shared technical analyses
and information, resulting in an agreement to establish a common
civil signal. The additional availability, precision, and
robustness that will be provided by dual GPS-Galileo receivers lays
the foundation for a new generation of satellite-based applications
and services, promoting research, development, and investment that
will benefit business, science, governments, and recreational users
alike.
06/27/2004
Nation's Largest Union Calls for End to U.S. Occupation of Iraq
and Withdrawal of U.S. Troops
Nearly 4000 delegates of Service Employees International Union
(SEIU), the nation's largest with 1.6 million members, voted
unanimously at the union's national convention in San Francisco
today to end U.S. occupation of Iraq and to bring U.S. troops
stationed there home.
The strongly worded resolution pointed to military intervention
aboard and attacks on workers at home. The resolution charged the
Bush administration (backed by a majority in Congress) with
responsibility for declining wages and benefits, deunionization,
cuts in public services, crumbling health care and educational
systems, cuts in veterans benefits, escalating public debt, and
eroding economic, social and personal security.
The union proclaimed, "We cannot solve these economic and social
problems without addressing U.S. foreign policy and its
consequences."
It accused the Bush administration of using "deception, lies and
false promises to the American people and the world" to launch a
"unilateral, preemptive war" in Iraq, causing the death of
thousands of Iraqis and hundreds of U.S. soldiers, and costing
taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.
The resolution aligned SEIU with the principles contained in the
Mission Statement of U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW), a
national network of labor organizations founded in 2003 to oppose
war in Iraq and the Bush administration's foreign policies of
unilateralism, militarism and preemptive war. USLAW has more than
70 affiliated labor organizations, including a dozen SEIU's largest
local unions.
Those principles include
- a just foreign policy based on international law and global justice; an end to U.S. occupation of Iraq;
- redirecting the nation's resources from "inflated military spending" to meeting human needs;
- supporting U.S. troops by bringing them safely home;
- protecting labor, civil and immigrant rights and civil liberties; and
- solidarity with workers around the world struggling for labor and human rights, and those in the U.S.
- who support U.S. foreign and domestic policies that "reflect our nation's highest ideals."
The union resolved to work with all religious, community,
political and foreign policy groups (such as USLAW) that are
committed to a set of principles delineated by SEIU President Andy
Stern in a letter to President Bush in January 2003, which include:
war as a last option, not first resort; peaceful multilateral
solutions to international disputes; a foreign policy that
prioritizes improving the lives of people around the world; and
protecting at home those rights and freedoms the administration
claims it seeks for people abroad.
The resolution was adopted without dissent after a half dozen or
more local union leaders rose to passionately advocate its passage.
The resolution had been submitted by the SEIU International
Executive Board for convention action based on resolutions
submitted by Locals 49, 250, 535, 615, 715, 790, 1199NE, 1199P, and
1199NW.
The full text of the resolution is available on the USLAW website
at
http://uslaboragainstwar.org/article.php?id=5382
U.S. Labor Against War (USLAW)
06/28/2004
NATO ministerrådsmøde starter i Istanbul, Tyrkiet.
06/28/2004
Supreme court rebuffs Bush on rights of 'enemy
combatants'
From today's Congressional Quarterly Midday Update (available at
http://www.cq.com) -
The Supreme Court has "made clear that a state of war is not a
blank check for the president when it comes to the rights of the
nation's citizens." -- Justice Sandra Day O'CONNOR
In a series of decisions, the Supreme Court on Monday repudiated
the Bush administration's strategy of imprisoning alleged "enemy
combatants" without allowing them to challenge their detention in
court. The rulings, involving both U.S. citizens and foreign
nationals, set the stage for Congress to spell out more explicit
ground rules for such cases. Justice Antonin Scalia issued a
pointed call for legislation. The court ruled 6-3 that foreigners
held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have the right
to contest their captivity in federal courts. On another 6-3 vote,
the justices said U.S. citizen Yaser Esam Hamdi, who was captured
in Afghanistan in 2001 and held in the United States, must be
allowed to challenge the basis for his imprisonment before a
"neutral decision-maker." In the third case, brought on behalf of
U.S. citizen Jose Padilla, the court by 5-4 reversed a lower court
on technical grounds, without ruling on its merits.
06/28/2004
FOIA Guidebook
The Justice Department Office of Information and Privacy has
published a newly updated edition of its Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) Guide. The guide is a comprehensive treatment of the act's
provisions, extensively annotated with footnotes to the
ever-growing body of case law. While the principal audience for the
Guide seems to be government attorneys and FOIA officers who must
implement the act, it is also a useful resource for FOIA requesters
seeking insight into FOIA practice and procedure. The full text of
the May 2004 edition of the FOIA guide is now available on the
Justice Department web site at:
http://www.usdoj.gov/oip/foi-act.htm
06/28/2004
USA giver Irak delvis
suverænitet. Ny amerikansk ambassadør i Irak, John
Negroponte, kendt fra Iran-contra-skandalen. USA vil opbygge
verdens største ambassade i Bagdad.
Udlændingestyrelsen samler afviste irakiske
asylansøgere i Sandholmlejren, så de lettere kan
sendes hjem, hvis Iraks nye regering viser sig velvillig.
Kilde: Fisk, Robert: Det er så det nye 'frie' Irak.
I: Information, 07/05/2004.
United States General Accounting Office: Rebuilding
iraq : Resource, Security, Governance, Essential Services,
and Oversight Issues.
Aagaard, Charlotte: Irak-hjemsendelser rykker nærmere.
I: Information, 07/05/2004.
06/28/2004
David Cobb, a California lawyer originally from Texas, has been
nominated to be the Green Party's Presidential candidate. Pat
LaMarche, who has formerly run for Governor of Maine will be Mr.
Cobb's running mate for vice-president.
06/29/2004
Mother protests son's death by inviting media to film coffin - A
Defiant Mother's Message
By Donna Quexada , United for Peace of Pierce County,
Washington
http://ufppc.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=920
Army National Guard Spc. Patrick McCaffrey signed up for the
National Guard on September 12, 2001. On June 22, 2004, he was
killed by Iraqi insurgents near the Iraqi town of Balad. -- His
mother, Nadia, 59, unreconciled to his death and to the Iraq war,
registered her protest this week by inviting the media to film the
return of his flag-draped coffin to Sacramento. -- Though Patrick
McCaffrey did his best to help children in Iraq, his mother said,
he had lost faith in the US mission there. "He called me one
evening," his mother said. "His voice was very heavy. He said, 'I
don't understand why we are here.' In small towns, small villages,
people would scream things at them, throw things at them. There was
resentment." -- She added: "He said we had no business in Iraq and
should not be there."
06/30/2004
World Peace Forum Call for ProposalsWorld Peace Forum
2006
Vancouver, Canada
Bulletin #1, June 30, 2004
Call for Proposals
You've heard of the World Social Forum?
How about a World Peace Forum? In Vancouver in 2006!
For the past year, peace and justice activists in Vancouver have
been organizing and lobbying for a World Peace Forum to be held in
Vancouver. This proposal has gained widespread support. In May,
Vancouver City Council formally endorsed the idea that a World
Peace Forum be held in Vancouver in June 2006. City council has
asked for a concrete proposal to be presented by November this
year.
We are now looking for community input (local/global) to develop a
vision and program for the World Peace Forum. If you are interested
in making World Peace Forum 2006 a reality, here's what you can
do:
- Read this leaflet carefully-for further background information
download the City Peace and Justice discussion paper available
at
http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/committees/peacejustice/
- Discuss the idea of World Peace Forum 2006 with your network or
community group
- Pass a motion endorsing the World Peace Forum and send it to
us
- If you or your affinity group have an idea or project that you
would like to work on as part of the World Peace Forum, write up an
initial proposal (to the extent possible include project goal,
activities, sponsors, budget, site size necessary, and so forth)
and send it to us as soon as possible (first deadline--September
30, 2004). The World Peace Forum will at a minimum provide
infrastructure support (site, promotion).
Background
Why a world peace forum? Global militarism threatens our planet. A
world-wide peace movement re-emerged in opposition to the invasion
of Iraq. The movement is diverse, encompassing the more senior
anti-nuclear movement on the one hand, the newer anti-war movement
on the other, and a host of others. City governments also played an
important role in this renewal and city peace networks exist in
many countries. There are important regional dynamics, both in
terms of peace movements, and in terms of the impact of militarism.
Today, the Middle East is the focus, tomorrow it may be East or
South Asia. A World Peace Forum and, just as importantly the
process leading up to that forum, will have as its goal to help
consolidate the capacity necessary for communication, coordination
and action on a global scale to stop war and end global militarism.
Local governments and social movements working together could
create the critical mass to turn the dream of a world of peace and
justice into a reality.
Why in Vancouver? Vancouver City Council has become active again in
the anti-war movement. It formally opposed the invasion of Iraq,
re-established a peace and justice committee, and is working with
other cities to stop the weaponization of space. It is also
participating in the World Conference of Mayors for Peace emergency
campaign to abolish nuclear weapons (2020 Vision). The anti-war
movement in Vancouver has a long history and has gained new vigour
through the efforts of StopWar.ca and others. Social justice
advocates are active everywhere and the progressive arts and
cultural life is dynamic. And Vancouver is one of the most
cosmopolitan cities on earth with the capacity to help build the
bridges to make a World Peace Forum a reality.
When would it take place? In June 2006. This will give us the time
necessary to organize. We hope to dovetail our work with the World
Urban Forum, which will also be held in Vancouver that month.
What will the World Peace Forum look like? One overarching theme of
this World Peace Forum is the global implications of the invasion
and occupation of Iraq. Another is that local governments and
social action groups can work together to defeat global militarism
and build a world of peace and justice. The World Peace Forum will
be broad in scope, an umbrella under which dialogues for action can
constructively take place. It will allow city representatives,
indigenous peoples, faith groups, women, youth, labour, gays and
lesbians, peoples of colour, seniors, professionals and others to
come together, network and demonstrate to the world the thirst for
peace and justice. It will allow for a major arts and cultural
component, and maximize citizen involvement from the start. It will
be an international event guided in its key decisions through an
ongoing dialogue among the key stakeholders, locally, pan-Canadian
and internationally. It will be multi-layered, including diverse
sessions: research and analysis; delegated meetings for peace
movements; a cities session; women's and anti-racist sessions;
varied workshops and activities (bicycling for peace?), specific
times allotted to regional peace calls (Americas, Middle East,
Asia, Africa, etc), major cultural events, space for
self-organizing, as well as a final day of activities including a
major event that would bring together peace activists at the forum
with the citizens of greater Vancouver, including Victoria. Many of
these events could be simulcast over the Web or shared by other
electronic means.
Who would be invited? Everyone! Based on past experiences, the main
participants will probably be local folk, peace-loving people from
the Americas including the U.S., and a good number of international
participants. In order to ensure a global perspective, special
efforts to provide representative meetings will be essential and we
will work to ensure peace activists from the South (including
developing countries and indigenous peoples) can afford to come.
Those that can't come should be given the chance to participate
from afar via the Web.
Who's organizing the forum?: Two groups are currently leading this
initiative--Vancouver City's Peace and Justice Committee,
and a recently-formed World Peace Forum Society, a group of
individual peace and justice activists who are dedicated to making
this dream a reality. They will be sponsoring a preparatory meeting
of the World Peace Forum on November 26/27 in Vancouver.
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