Author: Apian

“I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do.”  (Helen Keller (1880-1968)

“I am more interested these days in creating peace than in fighting those who created this war and want it to continue.  Now I am interested in strategies that create peace through reconciliation…. I’m going off to study peace, reconciliation and healing.” Diary, July 5, 2005

Today is the day of the London bombing.  It is hard not to see it through the memories of the Omagh bombing, August 15, 1998.  I have been crying all day.  The editor boyfriend says we are all children of the same God, and feeling like a child during times like this is the proper orientation.  What God allowed this to happen today?  How do you stop a war?  How do you prevent the next one?  Call this diary “The Methodology of Peace.“

TWENTYONE YEARS AGO IN NORTH CAROLINA

Twenty-one years ago I was working in the education department of a major hospital in North Carolina – as an adjunct to the Neonatal Intensive Care Nursery, Infant death & disability was so bad in NC at the time that it rivalled Albania.

So I started a book project, “Reducing Infant Death & Disability in North Carolina, A Community Approach.”  I defined the problem as having 13 causes… and I went to the TOP experts in those 13 fields, and asked them to contribute no more than 6 pages on their topic/target area/solution strategies.  This project resulted in a very good little book and everyone was most pleased with the community effort to save children’s lives.

The fellow who contributed the chapter on Nutrition had worked in the LBJ administration.  The woman who wrote the chapter on Preventing Teenage Pregnancy was the head of that project in Raleigh, NC at the time.  There were chapters on Transportation (most prenatal clinics were beyond the reach of low-income women) Employment Advocacy (many employers would not give pregnant women time off for pre-natal care)

There was a chapter on the Prevention of Preterm Labor.  This was an extremely important chapter, as the administration of labor-stopping drugs to women in pre-term labor could have damaging effects on mother and child.  The inside dope on this problem was the lowest intervention possible:  Native American women knew that if a woman is in pre-term labor the cure is to rest her on her left side, hold her hand and to get her to drink as much water as is humanly possible.  Imagine!! Saving lives without dangerous and expensive drugs!

At the end of that year, because of projects targeting problem areas in NC health care and access to care, and lobbying efforts, and improvements in medicine, most importantly developments in natural and synthetic lung surfactants for premature infants, the infant death and disability rates for that one hospital improved by 100 more children saved.  That was 2,100 lives ago.

HOW DO YOU STOP A WAR?

Well, the way that worked in 1984 is the same way I plan to approach this one.  Go to the top experts and ask them to contribute no more than 6 pages.  “How Do You Stop A War?”  When I say I’m going to school, I mean it.  and my way of going to school is to ask those who know.  I am going back to the childhood message I got from Dr. King about non-violence.  

He preached that message in the shadow of trees used for lynching.  He preached that message in front of the church where three little girls going to church got blown up by a bomb.  He preached that message when the US was rocked by hatred and violence.

HOW DO YOU STOP A WAR?

And the one I’ll leave you with.  Can you believe that once there was a US President who said this?

“Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind…War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.” — John F. Kennedy

BRING ME YOUR VIEWS.  HOW DO YOU STOP A WAR?

Anyone who wants to bring their answers here, or their resources of answers others have made to this question, you are sincerely appreciated.  And your answer is no more or less important than anyone else’s because you know as well as I that no one can stop a war, and unless a lot of someones try this impossible task perpetual war is what we have to look forward to.

““The purpose of terrorism is to terrorize the people.  We will not live in terror.”  Prime Minister Tony Blair, July 7, 2005

HOW DO YOU STOP A WAR?

Relatives of Cyrus Kar of Los Angeles

This story just in today from the Washington Post: 5 Americans Held By U.S. Forces In Iraq Fighting.  The ACLU has filed suit today in behalf of one of the Americans being held by the US in Iraq, the film-maker Cyrus Kar of Los Angeles.

The five being held are the first Americans being held under charges of aiding/abetting/participating in the Iraqi insurgency.  Three are Iraqi Americans, one is Iranian American and one has dual Lebanese-American citizenship.

I don’t remember a story like this one since John Walker Lindh, the US citizen who was taken captive by US forces in Afghanistan, and shipped to a US prison, Guantanamo.  John Walker Lindh was one of the first prisoners taken from Afghanistan to Cuba, and one of the first cases of prisoner abuse to hit the news.  One big difference here is that these are American citizens, where Lindt had given up his citizenship.  Another difference is that Lindh had trained and was part of the Afghani forces fighting against the US forces.  He was part of the Taliban army, wore a uniform and was bearing arms.

These five Americans, rounded up in the last three months are being held on suspicion, and the case of at least one of them, Cyrus Kar, is, (to quote Jack Straw in the DSM), “pretty thin.”

Cyrus Kar is a film-maker from Los Angeles.  Two months ago he arrived in Iraq to work on an historic film about Cyrus the Great of Persia.  He was stopped almost immediately after his arrival in Iraq and searched.  Five washing-machine timers were found in his car.  After months of questioning and searches of his files and L.A. home, nothing was found and the FBI said he was clean.  Yet, he is still held.

“We don’t understand why they won’t let him come home, especially since the government said he hasn’t done anything wrong,” Shahrzad Folger, Kar’s first cousin, said in a statement released yesterday.

The second thing this story brings to my mind is the House on Un-American Activities.  That was the Red Scare during the 50’s.  I remember some of this, and the fear was all pervasive.  Many people left the United States to emmigrate to England where they could work and publish under another name.

The reason these fears hit me boom-boom-boom is because I had a conversation with my Italian editor last evening about the future of American Iraqi relations.  Things do not look good at all.  Even if the US withdrew all troops from Iraq, her view on reconciliation is that there will be none.  And all this while I have been working for the right reason in the best way I know how, publishing everywhere and anywhere I could get printed, and these sources include: Electronic Iraq, Iraq News Network, AlJazeerah and Uruknet.  If it were the fifties in the US I could be hauled up before the HUAC.

So when I saw this story in the Washington Post it gave me quite a fright.  I think we should do all we can to support the ACLU in their efforts to gain the release of Cyrus Kar, and to make every effort to guarantee proper representation for the other four Americans held on suspicion of aiding and abetting the Iraq1 resistance/insurgency.

For more on this story see:

Five Americans Held in Iraq as InsurgentsGoogle News Search

ACLU:

ACLU, 125 Broad Street,
18th Floor New York, NY 10004

I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do.  (Helen Keller (1880-1968)photo of Helen Keller)

For the past four years there has not been a day gone by that I did not do something to try to end the war in Iraq, to try to relieve the suffering, to try and stop the criminal insanity.  Some four years ago the way I tried was to give 20% of my earnings to Medicins Sans Frontieres.  They broke through the embargo against Iraq.  They got food and medical supplies through. What did I do?  I wrote and I talked.  Gave speeches and talks and raised money.  And I wrote.  And today was no different.  I wrote.  I published.  But today I changed my ways.  I will not fight this war the way I have fought in the past.  I have a new way.  I am finding my way out of the dark towards the end of the war in Iraq.
Since then I am asking myself today, was there anything I didn’t try?  Well, I didn’t lay down on any runways to try and prevent warplanes from taking off.  I didn’t disable any war machinery or cause any material damage.  I didn’t do any violence.  I did some civil disobedience.  I marched and marched, one day twenty miles in a day.  I assembled anti-war materials for distribution.  I worked with groups and groups and groups.  I did secretarial, I fetched coffee.  I made lunch and washed dishes.  And I wrote.

What was driving my machine for all these years?  It was a hatred of war and a hatred of George Walker Bush.  Him and his whole cabinet which I see today like a many-headed Hydra.  Cut off one head, and another appears in its place.  I can’t even begin to think about Gonzales as a Supreme Court Justice.  I can’t do it.  Gonzales is the main author of the torture policies, the main facilitator for such horror camps as Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib.  Was the torture systemic, systematic and widespread?  Yes, it was US policy.  Gonzales wrote that policy.  He ordered Bybee to write that policy.  

No sane person could think of Gonzales as a Supreme Court Justice.  It would break one’s mind… to put Gonzales and Justice into one sentence… that is such a contradiction as to prove that Orwell saw it all.  We are living in the world of Newspeak.  It’s just a matter of time before Big Brother (who apparently fell off his bike in Scotland today) has completed his mission.  We are all smiling benignly at evil.

Not me, boy.  The thing is all my strategies have not worked.  I had too much hate in me.  Too much anger.  Too much rage.  I was getting burnt out and exhausted and I was achieving nothing, just my ruined health, some articles, and a few really nice letters.  I knew I was wrong, but I couldn’t figure out how.  Activism was the right thing.  Resistance was the right thing.  Sending money when one could and supporting others in the anti-war field was the right thing.  Then why didn’t I feel right?

Two days ago that changed.  I had a day of peace.  I felt peaceful and slept peacefully.  For a day it was as if the war in Iraq had stopped for a cease-fire.  (peace-fire I called it)  And when I came to life again, after a deep sleep, I could see clearly how to change my ways.

Now, has anything changed really?  No, I will do everything I have done before, and maybe even more, now that I am not so likely to burn-out and knock myself out doing stuff that just doesn’t work.  But fundamentally there has been a profound shift, and it is back to the childhood message I got from Dr. King about non-violence.  

He preached that message in the shadow of trees used for lynching.  He preached that message in front of the church where three little girls going to church got blown up by a bomb.  He preached that message when the US was rocked by hatred and violence.

Now, it’s been a long, long time.  And I do not remember what I was taught when I was a child.  I remember what my mother taught me about Dr. King and Mahatma Ghandi, and I remember my mother.  But I do not remember what I knew then.  And I do not remember what I studied.  So I am going back to school.  And on my way to school I will sing a song I do remember:

Ain’t gonna study war no more,
Ain’t gonna study war no more.
Ain’t gonna study war no more.

Here is some more that I am studying:

And the one I’ll leave you with.  Can you believe that once there was a US President who said this?

“Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind…War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.” — John F. Kennedy

While You Slept

I travelled to Persia, to Alexandria, and to the granite shores of home
I wept with an old love and buried a child while you slept
The earth was red with Wyoming clay, into it salt mothers tears
And the husband like stone and him with the whiskey for courage
For me the clay and a year of dirt and solitude

A year with wolves and bears and coyotes and rattlesnakes.
A year with moose and elk and skunks and prairie dogs.
A year of mice woodchucks, rabbits and slugs.
Seed packets, empty whiskey bottles, and plans of medieval gardens.
And not a human soul.  Not a living soul.  Not a whisper or a word.
Just the occasional roar of a distant tractor.

While you slept the war in Iraq was held in a peace fire.  
For eight hours there was not a bomb or a death.
For eight hours there was not a crime committed.
And the plowshares made of all the armaments beaten, even they were still;
While the workers rested in fragrant fields, while you slept.

July 5, 15:02 GMT

(Illustration: Vincent Van Gogh: “Rest From Work” (After Millet) 1889-1890)

I tried this earlier, and got five signatures. Today you have a chance to sign a REAL Declaration of Independence. Declare yourself independent of the illegal war in Iraq. Say “Not In My Name.” Un-ratify the war in Iraq. Declare yourself independent from all those who said, “We know it’s illegal, but what can you do?” Declare yourself independent from all those who say they have no voice, no vote. Declare your non-support for George Bush and his genocidal mission in Iraq. Stop the madness. Do something sane. Join with all these other voices (including Veterans for Peace and National Lawyers Guild) and say no to the war in Iraq. Celebrate Independence Day in a Significant Way. Sign the Declaration of the World Tribunal on Iraq. End this war and bring the troops home

“The attack on Iraq is an attack on justice, on liberty, on our safety, on our future, on us all” – The WTI Jury of Conscience
PRELIMINARY DECLARATION OF THE JURY OF CONSCIENCE WORLD TRIBUNAL ON IRAQ; July 4, 2005
FINAL SESSION: ISTANBUL 23RD -27TH JUNE 2005

WORLD TRIBUNAL on IRAQ DECLARATION

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

JOIN WITH THESE SIGNATORIES

Happy 4th of July!  Celebrate Independence Day in a Significant Way.  Sign the Declaration of the World Tribunal on Iraq.  End this war and bring the troops home!

PRELIMINARY DECLARATION OF THE JURY OF CONSCIENCE WORLD TRIBUNAL ON IRAQ  

July 3, 2005
ISTANBUL 23RD -27TH JUNE 2005

WORLD TRIBUNAL on IRAQ DECLARATION

  `The attack on Iraq is an attack on justice, on liberty, on our safety, on our future, on us all’ – The Jury of Conscience

In February 2003, weeks before war was declared on Iraq, millions of people protested in the streets of the world. That call went unheeded. No international institution had the courage or conscience to stand up to the aggression of the US and UK governments. No one could stop them. It is two years later now. Iraq has been invaded, occupied, and devastated. The attack on Iraq is an attack on justice, on liberty, on our safety, on our future, on us all.

The legitimacy of the World Tribunal on Iraq is located in the collective conscience of humanity. This, the Istanbul session, was the culmination of a series of 20 hearings held in different cities of the world focusing on the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq.

We the Jury of Conscience, from 10 different countries, met in Istanbul. We heard 54 testimonies from a panel of advocates and witnesses who came from across the world, including from Iraq, the United States and the United Kingdom.

The World Tribunal on Iraq met in Istanbul from 24-26th of June 2005. The principal objective of the WTI is to tell the truth about the Iraq war as clearly as possible, and to draw conclusions that underscore the accountability of those responsible and underline the significance of justice for the Iraqi people.

I. Overview

1.  The reasons given by the US and UK governments for the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq in March 2003 have proven to be false. The real motive was to control and dominate the Middle East. Establishing hegemony over the Middle East serves the goal of controlling the world’s largest reserves of oil and strengthening the position of the US’s strategic ally Israel.
2.  Blatant falsehoods about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and a link between Al Qaeda terrorism and the Saddam Hussein régime were manufactured in order to create public support for a “preemptive” assault upon a sovereign independent nation.
3.  Iraq has been under siege for years. The imposition of severe inhuman economic sanctions at the end of the first Gulf war in 1991; the establishment of no-fly zones in the Northern and Southern parts of Iraq; and the concomitant bombing of the country were all aimed at degrading and weakening Iraq’s human and material resources and capacities in order to facilitate its subsequent invasion and occupation. In this enterprise the US and British leaderships had the endorsement of a complicit UN Security Council.
4.  In pursuit of their agenda of empire, the Bush and Blair blatantly ignored the massive opposition to the war expressed by millions of people around the world. They embarked upon one of the most unjust, immoral, and cowardly wars in history.
5.  The Anglo-American occupation of Iraq of the last 27 months has led to the destruction and devastation of the Iraqi state and society. Law and order have broken down completely, resulting in a pervasive lack of human security; the physical infrastructure is in shambles; the health care delivery system is a mess; the education system has ceased to function; there is massive environmental and ecological devastation; and, the cultural and archeological heritage of the Iraqi people has been desecrated.
6.  The occupation has intentionally exacerbated ethnic and confessionnal divisions in Iraqi society, with the aim of undermining Iraq’s identity and integrity as a nation. This is in keeping with the fam liar imperial policy of divide and rule.
7.  The imposition of the UN sanctions in 1991 caused untold suffering and thousands of deaths. The situation has worsened after the occupation. At least 100,000 civilians have been killed; 60,000 are being held in US custody in inhuman conditions, without charges; thousands have disappeared; and torture has become virtually routine.
8.  The privatization, deregulation, and liberalization of the Iraqi economy has transformed the country into a client economy that serves the Washington Consensus. The occupying forces have also accomplished their primary goal of acquired control over the nation’s oil.
9.  Any law or institution created under the aegis of occupation is devoid of both legal and moral authority. The recently concluded election, the Constituent Assembly, the current government, and the drafting committee for the Constitution are therefore all illegitimate.
10.  There is widespread opposition to the occupation. Political, social, and civil resistance through peaceful means is subjected to repression by the occupying forces. It is the brutality of the occupation that has provoked a strong armed resistance and certain acts of desperation. By the principles embodied in the UN Charter and in international law, the popular national resistance to the occupation is legitimate and justified. It deserves the support of people everywhere who care for justice and freedom.

II. Findings and Charges

On the basis of the preceding findings and recalling the Charter of the United Nations and other legal documents quoted in the appendix, the jury has established the following charges.

A. AGAINST THE GOVERNMENTS OF THE US AND THE UK

1.  Planning, preparing, and waging the supreme crime of a war of aggression in contravention of the United Nations Charter and the Nuremberg Principles.  Evidence for this can be found in the leaked Downing Street Memo of 23rd July, 2002 in which it was revealed that: “military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were fixed around the policy.” Intelligence was manufactured to willfully deceive the people of the US, the UK, and their elected representatives.

2.  Targeting the civilian population of Iraq and civilian infrastructure, by intentionally directing attacks upon civilians and hospitals, medical centers, residential neighborhoods, electricity stations, and water purification facilities in violation of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights (“ICCPR”), Articles 7(1)(a), 8(2)(a)(i), and 8(2)(b)(i). The complete destruction of the city of Falluja in itself constitutes a glaring example of such crimes.
3.  Using disproportionate force and indiscriminate weapon systems, such as cluster munitions, incendiary bombs, depleted uranium (DU), and chemical weapons. Detailed evidence was presented to the Tribunal by expert witnesses that leukemia had risen sharply in children under the age of five residing in those areas which had been targeted by DU weapons.
4.  Failing to safeguard the lives of civilians during military activities and during the occupation period thereafter, in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, Articles 13 and 27, and the ICC Statute, Articles 7 (1)(a) and 8(2)(a)(i). This is evidenced, for example, by “shock and awe” bombing techniques and the conduct of occupying forces at checkpoints.
5.  Using deadly violence against peaceful protestors, beginning with, among others, the April 2003 killing of more than a dozen peaceful protestors in Falluja.
6.  Imposing punishments without charge or trial, including collective punishment, on the people of Iraq, in violation of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Geneva Conventions, and customary international law requiring due process. Repeated testimonies pointed to “snatch and grab” operations, disappearances, and assassinations.

7.  Subjecting Iraqi soldiers and civilians to torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment in violation of the Geneva Conventions, the ICCPR, other treaties and covenants, and customary international law. Degrading treatment includes subjecting Iraqi soldiers and civilians to acts of racial, ethnic, religious, and gender discrimination, as well as denying Iraqi soldiers Prisoner of War status as required by the Geneva Convention. Abundant testimony was provided of unlawful arrests and detentions, without due process of law. Well known and egregious examples occurred in Abu Ghraib prison as well as in Mosul, Camp Bucca, and Basra. The employment of mercenaries and private contractors to carry out torture has served to undermine accountability.

8.  Re-writing the laws of a country that has been illegally invaded and occupied, in violation of international covenants on the responsibilities of occupying powers, in order to amass illegal profits (through such measures as Order 39, signed by L. Paul Bremer III for the Coalition Provisional Authority, which allows foreign investors to buy and takeover Iraq’s state-owned enterprises and to repatriate 100 percent of their profits and assets at any point) and to control Iraq’s oil. Evidence listed a number of corporations that had profited from such transactions.
9.  Willfully devastating the environment, contaminating it by depleted uranium (DU) weapons, combined with the plumes from burning oil wells, as well as huge oil spills, and destroying agricultural lands. Deliberately disrupting the water and waste removal systems, in a manner verging on biological-chemical warfare. Failing to prevent the looting and dispersal of radioactive material from nuclear sites. Extensive documentation is available on air, water pollution, land degradation, and radiological pollution.
10.  Actively creating conditions under which the status of Iraqi women has seriously been degraded contrary, to the repeated claims of the leaders of the coalition forces. Women’s freedom of movement has been severely limited, restricting their access to education, livelihood, and social engagement. Testimony was provided that sexual violence and sex trafficking have increased since the occupation of Iraq began.
11.  Failing to protect humanity’s rich archaeological and cultural heritage in Iraq, by allowing the looting of museums and established historical sites and positioning military bases in culturally and archeologically sensitive locations. This took place despite prior warnings from UNESCO and Iraqi museum officials.

12.  Obstructing the right to information, including the censoring of Iraqi media, such as newspapers (e.g., al-Hawza, al-Mashriq, and al-Mustaqila) and radio stations (Baghdad Radio), targeting international journalists, imprisoning and killing academics, intellectuals and scientists.

13.  Redefining torture in violation of international law, to allow use of torture and illegal detentions, including holding more than 500 people at Guantánamo Bay without charging them or allowing them any access to legal protection, and using “extraordinary renditions” to send people to torture in other countries known to commit human rights abuses and torture prisoners.

B. Against the Security Council of United Nations

1.  Failing to protect Iraq against a crime of aggression.
2.  Imposing harsh economic sanctions on Iraq, despite knowledge that sanctions were directly contributing to the massive loss of civilian lives and harming innocent civilians.
3.  Allowing the United States and United Kingdom to carry out illegal bombings in the no-fly zones, using false pretense of enforcing UN resolutions, and at no point allowing discussion in the Security Council of this violation, and thereby being complicit and responsible for loss of civilian life and destruction of Iraqi infrastructure.
4.  Allowing the United States to dominate the United Nations and hold itself above any accountability by other member nations.
5.  Failure to stop war crimes and crimes against humanity by the United States and its coalition partners in Iraq.
6.  Failure to hold the United States and its coalition partners accountable for violations of international law during the occupation, and giving official recognition to the occupation, thereby legitimizing an illegal invasion and becoming a collaborator in an illegal occupation.

C. Against the Governments of the Coalition of the Willing

Collaborating in the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

D. Against the Governments of Other Countries

Allowing the use of military bases and air space, and providing other logistical support, for the invasion and occupation.

E. Against Private Corporations

Profiting from the war with complicity in the crimes described above, of invasion and occupation.

F. AGAINST THE MAJOR CORPORATE MEDIA

1.  Disseminating the deliberate falsehoods spread by the governments of the US and the UK and failing to adequately investigate this misinformation. This even in the face of abundant evidence to the contrary. Among the corporate media houses that bear special responsibility for promoting the lies about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, we name the New York Times, in particular their reporter Judith Miller, whose main source was on the payroll of the CIA. We also name Fox News, CNN and the BBC.

2.  Failing to report the atrocities being committed against Iraqi people by the occupying forces.

III. Recommendations

Recognising the right of the Iraqi people to resist the illegal occupation of their country and to develop independent institutions, and affirming that the right to resist the occupation is the right to wage a struggle for self-determination, freedom, and independence as derived from the Charter of the United Nations, we the Jury of Conscience declare our solidarity with the people of Iraq.

We recommend:

1.  The immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the coalition forces from Iraq;
2.  That coalition governments make war reparations and pay compensation to Iraq for the humanitarian, economic, ecological, and cultural devastation they have caused by their illegal invasion and occupation;
3.  That all laws, contracts, treaties, and institutions established under occupation which the Iraqi people deem inimical to their interests, should be considered null and void;
4.  That the Guantanamo Bay prison and all other offshore US military prisons be closed immediately; that the names of the prisoners be disclosed, that they receive POW status, and receive due process;
5.  That there be an exhaustive investigation of those responsible for crimes of aggression and crimes against humanity in Iraq, beginning with George W. Bush, President of the United States of America; Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; and other government officials from the coalition of the willing;
6.  That we initiate a process of accountability to hold those morally and personally responsible for their participation in this illegal war, such as journalists who deliberately lied, corporate media outlets that promoted racial, ethnic and religious hatred, and CEOs of multinational corporations that profited from this war;
7.  That people throughout the world launch actions against US and UK corporations that directly profit from this war. Examples of such corporations include Halliburton, Bechtel, Carlyle, CACI Inc., Titan Corporation, Kellog, Brown and Root (subsidiary of Halliburton), DynCorp, Boeing, ExxonMobil, Texaco, British Petroleum. The following companies have sued Iraq and received “reparation awards”: Toys R Us, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Shell, Nestlé, Pepsi, Phillip Morris, Sheraton, Mobil. Such actions may take the form of direct actions such as shutting down their offices, consumer boycotts, and pressure on shareholders to divest.
8.  That soldiers exercise conscience and refuse to enlist and participate in an illegal war. Also that countries provide conscientious objectors political asylum.
9.  That the international campaign for dismantling all US military bases abroad be reinforced.
10.  That people around the world resist and reject any effort by any of their governments to provide material, logistical, or moral support to the occupation of Iraq.

We, the Jury of Conscience, hope that the specificity of these recommendations will lay the groundwork required for a world where the international institutions will be shaped and reshaped by the will of people and not fear and self-interest, where journalists and intellectuals will not remain mute, where the will of the people of the world will be central, and human security will prevail over state security and corporate profits.

+++++++++++++

I did some searching on Booman Tribune and couldn’t find this declaration.  I am posting the whole thing, but if readers think this is too much, I’ll edit it down.

There are a couple of things I’m passionate about. Branzburg v. Hayes is one of them. I first became familiar with this case through an editorial by Floyd J. McKay in the Seattle Times on May 8, 2005 and now this case is something like gospel to me. All journalists, hardcopy or netnews journalists should, in my opinion, become thoroughly familiar with Branzburg v. Hayes (1972)

Here is the passage that gets my guts churned up:

There remain those situations where a source is not engaged in criminal conduct but has information suggesting illegal conduct by others. Newsmen frequently receive information from such sources pursuant to a tacit or express agreement to withhold the source’s name and suppress any information that the source wishes not published. Such informants presumably desire anonymity in order to avoid being entangled as a witness in a criminal trial or grand jury investigation. They may fear that disclosure will threaten their job security or personal safety or that it will simply result in dishonor or embarrassment. Branzburg v. Hayes, 1972

There’s more:
Keeping the Government Out of the Newsroom
A First Amendment Imperative?
By Jane E. Kirtley

The relationship between the press and the government has always been an uneasy one. The framers of the Bill of Rights recognized this tension. That’s why we have a First Amendment: to guarantee the media’s independence by keeping the government out of the newsroom. But what does the First Amendment really do? We know it forbids Congress to make laws “abridging” press freedom. The Supreme Court has interpreted that to mean that statutes may neither single out the news media for special punishment, nor impose unique duties on them. On the other hand, laws that apply to anyone can usually be enforced against the press with impunity, unless doing so would pose a substantial threat to the exercise of First Ammendment rights.

Most journalists would say that the most significant threats to their independence occur when the government attempts to use them as its investigators, eroding a line that should be fixed and immutable. Reporters cultivate a variety of sources, many of whom are reluctant to speak directly to the authorities for any number of reasons. Government employees may wish to reveal wrongdoing, but anticipate retaliation or worse if they do so through internal channels. Individuals with information about criminal activity may harbor legitimate fears about their own safety or liberty if they “go public” with it((Source: Keeping the Government Out of the Newsroom)

BRANZBURG V. HAYES IN THE NEWS:

Divulge Sources, 4 More Reporters Told
New York Sun
NY – Jun 29, 2005

(This article is loaded with trouble.)

‘Ms. Dalglish conceded that the proposed reporters’ privilege law is troubling because it requires someone in government to determine who is and isn’t acting as a journalist, but she said those concerns must now take a backseat. “Does it make me nervous to have Congress making those decisions? Yeah, it does. But it makes me more nervous to have a bunch of journalists going to jail,’ she said.”

Why I believe this case is vitally important:
On June 30, 2005 Congressman Conyers and 51 other members of Congress filed a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request for Downing Street Memo documents from the US government. Since the 29th of May the people of the United States have depended entirely on news reports from the UK about this story. The only investigative journalism that has been done on this story has been net news. (Christian Science Monitor almost made it, and the Washington Post almost did, too, but these papers are playing catch-up with the UK news, net news bloggers… with RAWSTORY in the lead.)

What we are looking for, and what we have been waiting for is a break in the story on the US side. It has not come. The protections are just not there for any journalist to report criminality in government at the level we are looking at… the entire Bush administration… and every branch of government is involved in the illegal war in Iraq… Congress, too, I’m sorry to say.

On this score, I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect any journalist to risk his/her job for a story like this. He/she will lose his/her job, his/her place in the pecking order, or his/her mind. What we can expect is that with brave souls like Congressman Conyers in the lead, we can form a second rank of citizens, and include citizen journalists in that rank. But first we need the whistleblowers. Here are some:
National Security Whistleblowers Coalition
 Veterans Affairs Whistleblowers Coalition
Government Accountability Project

Who Is Minding The Shop?

 THE REPORTERS COMMITTEE FOR FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

It is now 129 days since the first of the Downing Street documents was leaked to the UK press. In all that time not one scrap of evidence has surfaced from the US side. I think this makes quite clear why Congressman Conyers and 51 other members of Congress have submitted an FOIA request for US documents.

If you know of any morewhistleblowers, or any protections for journalists working on the US side of the DSM story, please contact me. Thanks.

Here is from today’s Star Newspaper, Ireland.  Once again I am typing it out because you can’t get it off the net, and neither can I.  On Tuesday I quoted from an article in the Irish Times,  “Paying 10,000 Euros a day for US military overflights has not really registered on the Irish taxpayers’ radar”  Tom Clonan, June 25, 2005, and the Americans didn’t know what to make of it.  The US doesn’t get Irish news and views.  But the whole world is watching and expressing it’s horror and disbelief of GWB’s war and policies.  Today’s article is not listed on the web either:

<More from Niall O’Dowd>

<snip>

For More On This Story:

“Shannon””overflights””IAA””US””military””Eurocontrol”: 10

Google Web Search Shannon overflights US military Eurocontrol

“Shannon””CIA””US””military””Iraq”: 43,100

Google Web Search Shannon CIA military Iraq

Anti-War Group Stands Trial

By Mairead Carey

IRISH ABROAD

It’s time for the US, UK, Australia and Ireland to join together in an international coalition to reckon the costs of the illegal war in Iraq and to lay the bill at GWB’s feet.  My choice is AfterDowningStreet.org Coalition.

“52 House members file FOIA request

minutes.”

RAWSTORY: BREAKING JUNE 30, DSM FOIA

“Representative John Conyers, Jr., (D-MI)

House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member,

along with 51 other Members today submitted a

broad and comprehensive FOIA request to the

White House, the Department of Defense, and

the Department of State seeking any and all

documents and materials concerning the

Downing Street Minutes and the lead up to the

Iraq war, RAW STORY has learned.”

“In addition, the Members also formally

requested that the House Committees on

Judiciary, Armed Services, International

Relations, and the Permanent Select Committee

on Intelligence commence hearings on the

Downing Street Minutes.”

Well, things are coming along nicely.

I ran two searches on diaries to see if this was covered.. so for now I’ll go with it.

The letter:

(The bold part is mine. The typos are mine. I typed and filed off of a picture file.)

BUSH WAS WARNED IN 2004 NOT TO “STAY THE COURSE”

We found the smoking bullet in the smoking gun of the Downing Street Memos, that being the massive pre-war bombing campaign intended to provoke Saddam into war. Now here is the “massive intelligence failure. Bush and Rumsfeld had the intelligence and it came from the Pentagon. But they failed to read it, and they failed to understand it. George Bush is the “massive intelligence failure.”

Some excerpts:

Urgent Appeal From The People of Fallujah:

World Tribunal on Iraq

Al Gore:

CCR’s Olshansky:

Here’s Marie From Newsday:

And finally, this:

AND NOW, OUR FEARLESS LEADER:

Thanks to Kos for Daily Kos and for fighting the good fight.