Open Letter to Kofi Annan and George Walker Bush
Ramsey Clark? Saddam's most persistent apologist-anything he writes/says is
heavily suspect. He even offered to defend the Butcher of Baghdad at his
upcoming trial. Mr. Clark would be advised to collect his fee in advance.
And get ready to defend himself on charges of aid and comfort to the enemy,
embargo violations, and (hopefully) treason. Oh, and Mr. Clark ignores the
fact that the Taliban harbored and Sheltered Al-Queda; they refused to kick
OBL and his thugs out, and paid the price. Saddam's removal did the world
a favor. Picking up the pieces is messy, but when a dictatorship is tossed
out by force, democracy takes time to take root. Hard to stomach for someone
using a bunch of Stalinsts as his supporters.
"= Vox Populi ©" wrote:
wrote:
OPEN LETTER FROM RAMSEY CLARK - to UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan,
members of the UN Security Council, and Our
'Fear and War' President
George Walker Bush
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
January, 29, 2004
Dear Secretary General Annan,
U.S. President George W. Bush again confirmed
his intention to
continue waging wars of aggression in his
State of the Union message
on January 20, 2004.
He began his address:
" As we gather tonight, hundreds of thousands
of American service men
and women are deployed across the world in
the war on terror. By
bringing hope to the oppressed, and delivering
justice to the violent,
they are making America more secure."
He proclaimed:
" Our greatest responsibility is the active
defense of the American
people... America is on the offensive against
the terrorists..."
Continuing, he said:
" ...our coalition is leading aggressive raids
against the surviving
members of the Taliban and Al Qaeda.... Men
who ran away from our
troops in battle are now dispersed and attack
from the shadows."
In Iraq, he reported:
" Of the top 55 officials of the former regime,
we have captured or
killed 45. Our forces are on the offensive,
leading over 1,600 patrols
a day, and conducting an average of 180 raids
a week...."
Explaining his aggression, President Bush
stated:
" ...After the chaos and carnage of September
the 11th, it is not
enough to serve our enemies with legal papers.
The terrorists and
their supporters declared war on the United
States and war is what
they got."
Forget law. No more legal papers, or rights.
Forget truth. The claim
that either Afghanistan, or Iraq declared
war on the U.S. is absurd.
The U.S. chose to attack both nations, from
one end to the other,
violating their sovereignty and changing their
"regimes", summarily
executing thousands of men, women and children
in the process. At
least 40,000 defenseless people in Iraq have
been killed by U.S.
violence since the latest aggression began
in earnest in March 2003
starting with its celebrated, high tech, terrorist
"Shock and Awe" and
continuing until now with 25, or more, U.S.
raids daily causing
mounting deaths and injuries.
All this death-dealing aggression has occurred
during a period, Mr.
Bush boasts, of "over two years without an
attack on American soil".
The U.S. is guilty of pure aggression, arbitrary
repression and false
portrayal of the nature and purpose of its
violence.
President Bush's brutish mentality is revealed
in his condemnations of
the "killers" and "thugs in Iraq" "who ran
away from our troops in
battle". U.S. military expenditures and technology
threaten and
impoverish life on the planet. Any army that
sought to stand up
against U.S. air power and weapons of mass
destruction in open battle
would be annihilated. This is what President
Bush seeks when he says
"Bring 'em on."
President Bush declared his intention to change
the "Middle East" by
force.
" As long as the Middle East remains a place
of tyranny and despair
and anger, it will continue to produce men
and movements that threaten
the safety of America and our friends. So
America is pursuing a
forward strategy of freedom in the greater
Middle East. We will
challenge the enemies of reform, confront
the allies of terror, and
expect a higher standard from our friends."
"...America is a nation with a mission...
we understand our special
calling: This great republic will lead the
cause of freedom."
He extended his threat to any nation he may
choose:
" As part of the offensive against terror,
we are also confronting the
regimes that harbor and support terrorists,
and could supply them with
nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. The
United States and our
allies are determined: We refuse to live in
the shadow of this
ultimate danger."
President Bush's utter contempt for the United
Nations is revealed in
his assertion that the United States and other
countries "have
enforced the demands of the United Nations",
ignoring the refusal of
the U.N. to approve a war of aggression against
Iraq and implying the
U.N. had neither the courage nor the capacity
to pursue its own
"demands".
His total commitment to unilateral U.S. action,
was asserted by
President Bush when he sarcastically referred
to the "permission slip"
a school child needs to leave a classroom:
" America will never seek a permission slip
to defend the security of
our people".
President Bush intends to go it alone, because
his interest is
American power and wealth alone, though he
prefers to use the youth of
NATO countries and others as cannon folder
in his wars.
President Bush believes might makes right
and that the end justifies
the means. He declares:
" ...the world without Saddam Husseins regime
is a better and safer
place".
So U.S. military technology which is omnicidal-
capable of destroying
all life on the planet-will be ordered by
President Bush to make the
world "a better and safer place" by destroying
nations and individuals
he designates.
President Bush presided over 152 executions
in Texas, far more than
any other U.S. governor since World War II.
Included were women,
minors, retarded persons, aliens in violation
of the Vienna Convention
on Diplomatic Relations and innocent persons.
He never acted to
prevent a single execution. He has publicly
proclaimed the right to
assassinate foreign leaders and repeatedly
boasted of summary
executions and indiscriminate killing in State
of the Union messages
and elsewhere.
The danger of Bush unilateralism is further
revealed when he states:
" Colonel Qaddafi correctly judged that his
country would be better
off, and far more secure without weapons of
mass murder. Nine months
of intense negotiations involving the United
States and Great Britain
succeeded with Libya, while 12 years of diplomacy
with Iraq did not."
Forget diplomacy, use "intense negotiations".
If President Bush
believed it was "diplomacy", which maintained
genocidal sanctions
against Iraq for twelve years that failed,
rather than an effort to
crush Iraq to submission, then why didn't
he use "nine months of
intense negotiations" to avoid a war of aggression
against Iraq? He
was President for nearly twenty seven months
before the criminal
assault on Iraq, he apparently intended all
along. Iraq was no threat
to anyone.
What President Bush means by "intense negotiations"
includes a threat
of military aggression with the example of
Iraq to show this in no
bluff. The Nuremberg Judgment held Goerings
threat to destroy Prague
unless Czechoslovakia surrendered Bohemia
and Moravia to be an act of
aggression.
If Qaddafi "correctly judged his country would
be better off, and far
more secure, without weapons of mass murder",
why would the United
States not be better off, and far more secure,
if it eliminated all
its vast stores of nuclear weapons? Is not
the greatest danger from
nuclear proliferation today without question
President Bush's
violations of the Non Proliferation (NPT),
ABM and Nuclear Test Ban
treaties by continuing programs for strategic
nuclear weapons, failing
to negotiate in good faith to achieve "nuclear
disarmament" after more
than thirty years and development of a new
generation of nuclear
weapons, small "tactical" weapons of mass
murder, which he would use
in a minute? Has he not threatened to use
existing strategic nuclear
weapons? The failure of the "nuclear weapon
State Party(s)" to the NPT
to work in good faith to achieve "nuclear
disarmament these past 36
years is the reason the world is still confronted
with the threat of
nuclear war and proliferation.
None of the many and changing explanations,
excuses, or evasions
offered by President Bush to justify his war
of aggression can erase
the crimes he has committed. Among the less
invidious misleading
statements, President Bush made on January
20, 2004 was:
" Already the Kay Report identified dozens
of weapons of mass
destruction-related program activities and
significant amounts of
equipment that Iraq concealed from the United
Nations."
Three days later, Dr. Kay told Reuters he
thought Iraq had illicit
weapons at the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf
War, but that by a
combination of U.N. inspections and Iraq's
own decisions, "it got rid
of them". He further said it "is correct"
to say Iraq does not have
any large stockpiles of chemical or biological
weapons in the country.
He has added that no evidence of any chemical
or biological weapons
have been found in Iraq.
Iraq did not use illicit weapons in the 1991
Gulf war. The U.S. did -
900 tons plus of depleted uranium, fuel air
explosives, super bombs,,
cluster bombs with civilians and civilian
facilities the "direct
object of attack". The U.S. claimed to destroy
80% of Iraq's military
armor. It dropped 88,500 tons of explosives,
7 1/2 Hiroshima's, on the
country in 42 days. Iraq was essentially defenseless.
Tens of
thousands of Iraqi soldiers and civilians
perished. The U.S. reported
157 casualties, 1/3 from friendly fire, the
remainder non combat.
U.N. inspectors over more than 6 years of
highly intrusive physical
inspections found and destroyed 90% of the
materials required to
manufacture nuclear, chemical and biological
weapons. U.N. sanctions
imposed August 6, 1990 had caused the deaths
of 567,000 children under
age five by October 1996, the U.N. FAO reported.
Twenty four percent
of the infants born live in Iraq in 2002 had
a dangerously low birth
weight below 2 kilos, symbolizing the condition
of the whole
population.
In March 2003 Iraq was incapable of carrying
out a threat against the
U.S., or any other country, and would have
been pulverized by U.S.
forces in place in the Gulf had it tried.
More than thirty five nations admit the possession
of nuclear,
chemical and/or biological weapons. Are these
nations, caput lupinum,
lawfully subject to destruction because of
their mere possession of
WMDs? The U.S. possesses more of each of these
impermissible weapons
than all other nations combined, and infinitely
greater capacity for
their delivery anywhere on earth within hours.
Meanwhile the U.S.
increases its military expenditures, which
already exceed those of all
other nations on earth combined, and its technology
which is
exponentially more dangerous.
The U.N. General Assembly Resolution on the
Definition of Aggression
of December 14, 1974 provides in part:
Article 1: Aggression is the use of armed
force by a State against the
sovereignty, territorial integrity or political
independence of
another State;
Article 2: The first use of armed force by
a State in contravention of
the Charter shall constitute prima facie evidence
of an act of
aggression;
Article 3: Any of the following acts ... qualify
as an act of
aggression:
(a) The invasion or attack by the armed forces
of a State of the
territory of another State, or any military
occupation, however
temporary, resulting from such invasion or
attack;
(b) Bombardment by the armed forces of a State
against the territory
of another State or the use of any weapons
by a State against the
territory of another State;
(c) The blockade of the ports or coasts of
a State by the armed forces
of another State;
(d) An attack by the armed forces of a State
on the land, sea or air
forces, or marine and air fleets of another
State.
If the U.S. assault on Iraq is not a War of
Aggression under
international law, then there is no longer
such a crime as War of
Aggression. A huge, all powerful nation has
assaulted a small
prostrate, defenseless people half way around
the world with "Shock
and Awe" terror and destruction, occupied
it and continues daily
assaults. President Bush praises U.S. soldiers'
"...skill and their
courage in armored charges, and midnight raids."
which terrorize and
kill innocent Iraqis, women, children, families,
nearly every day and
average 180 attacks each week.
The first crime defined in the Constitution
annexed to the Charter of
the International Military Tribunal (Nuremberg)
under Crimes Against
Peace is War of Aggression. II.6.a. The Nuremberg
Judgment proclaimed:
" The charges in the indictment that the defendants
planned and waged
aggressive war are charges of the utmost gravity.
War is essentially
an evil thing. Its consequences are not confined
to the belligerent
states alone, but affect the whole world."
To initiate a war of aggression, therefore,
is not only an
international crime, it is the supreme international
crime...
The "seizure" of Austria in March 1938 and
of Bohemia and Moravia from
Czechoslovakia in March 1939 following the
threat to destroy Prague
were judged to be acts of aggression by the
Tribunal even in the
absence of actual war and after Britain, France,
Italy and Germany had
agreed at Munich to cede Czechoslovakia's
Sudetenland to Germany.
The first conduct judged to be a war of aggression
by Nazi Germany was
its invasion of Poland in September 1939.
There followed a long list,
Britain, France, Denmark, Norway, Belgium,
Holland, Luxemburg,
Yugoslavia, Greece. The attack on the USSR,
together with Finland,
Romania and Hungary, was adjudged as follows:
It was contended for the defendants that the
attack upon the U.S.S.R.
was justified because the Soviet Union was
contemplating an attack
upon Germany, and making preparations to that
end. It is impossible to
believe that this view was ever honestly entertained.
The plans for the economic exploitation of
the U.S.S.R., for the
removal of masses of the population, for the
murder of Commissars and
political leaders, were all part of the carefully
prepared scheme
launched on 22 June without warning of any
kind, and without the
shadow of legal excuses. It was plain aggression.
The United Nations cannot permit U.S. power
to justify its wars of
aggression if it is to survive as a viable
institution for ending the
scourges of war, exploitation, hunger, sickness
and poverty.
Comparatively minor acts and wars of aggression
by the United States
in the last 20 years, deadly enough for their
victims, in Grenada,
Libya, Panama, Haiti, the Dominican Republic,
Sudan, Yugoslavia, Cuba,
Yemen with many other nations threatened,
sanctioned, or attacked,
some with U.N. complicity and all without
effective United Nations
resistance, made the major deadly wars of
aggression against
Afghanistan and Iraq possible.
Failure to condemn the massive U.S. war of
aggression and illegal
occupation of Iraq and any U.N. act providing
colorable legitimacy to
the U.S. occupation will open wide the gate
to further, greater
aggression. The line must be drawn now.
The United Nations must recognize and declare
the U.S. attack and
occupation of Iraq to be the war of aggression
it is. It must refuse
absolutely to justify, or condone the aggression,
the illegal
occupation and the continuing U.S. assaults
in Iraq. The U.N. must
insist that the U.S. withdraw from Iraq as
it insisted Iraq withdraw
from Kuwait in 1990.
There must be no impunity or profit for wars
of aggression.
The U.S. and U.S. companies must surrender
all profits and terminate
all contracts involving Iraq.
There must be strict accountability by U.S.
leaders and others for
crimes they have committed against Iraq and
compensation by the U.S.
government for the damage its aggression has
inflicted on Afghanistan
and Iraq, the peoples injured there and stability
and harm done to
world peace.
This must be done with care to prevent the
eruption of internal
divisions, or violence and any foreign domination
or exploitation in
Iraq. The governance of a united Iraq must
be returned to the diverse
peoples who live there, acting together consensually
in peace for
their common good as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Ramsey Clark
The identical letter has been sent to:
Members of the UN Security Council
The President of the UN General Assembly
The Secretary General of the UN
The President of the United States
(Please post this open letter from Ramsey
Clark widely. On March 20
join Ramsey Clark and thousands of others
in the mass protest at Times
Square in New York City to demand "Impeach
Bush" and "Bring the troops
home now," and more. There is more information
on the March 20
demonstration in New York City and those being
held around the
country: http:/unitedforpeace.org/)
--
"Naturally, the common people don't want war;
neither in Russia nor in England nor in America,
nor for that matter in Germany.
That is understood. But, after all, it is the
leaders
of the country who determine the policy and
it is always a simple matter to drag the people
along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist
dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist
dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people
can
always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.
That is easy. All you have to do is tell them
they are being attacked and denounce the
pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing
the country to danger. It works the same way
in any country."
- Hermann Goering, Nazi Reichsmarshall
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