Close Guantánamo! No to Criminalization of Resistance!

Across the country and worldwide, actions demanded that the U.S. concentration camp at Guantánamo be immediately closed and all those held released or charged in public U.S. courts. Actions took place at Guantánamo itself, in Washington, DC, hundreds of cities across the U.S. and in Britain, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Turkey and elsewhere. The protest in Washington, DC specifically targeted the courts, demanding that they uphold their responsibility to enforce the immediate release of the prisoners and closing of a concentration camp the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in 2004.

Guantánamo itself represents the broad impunity of the government and the deepening Constitutional crisis the U.S. faces. The existing arrangements, within the three branches of government and between the government and the people have failed, but no new Constitution has been established. Bush, and the Office of the President more generally, is increasingly usurping power and concentrating it in the executive. Guantánamo, with its open and continued detention without charges, torture and refusal to abide by the court rulings, all show the dangerous direction of the government. At a time when conditions are calling for a government and constitution that favors the people and defends their rights, the U.S. is going backward to rule by kings, to detentions, torture and lynchings of any and all who resist. It is this resistance that is the target.

Faced with increasing resistance, against Guantánamo, in Iraq, in Palestine, among U.S. soldiers and in the U.S. broadly, the government is again attempting to create an atmosphere of intense fear and intimidation. On the fifth anniversary of the Guantánamo concentration camp, the Pentagon sanctioned a blacklist of about 500 lawyers and 120 law firms involved in defending the Guantánamo detainees. A top Pentagon official threatened these lawyers, attempting to sow doubt about them by implying that defending the prisoners makes them supporters of terrorism.

The message was clear. If top lawyers at top law firms can be targeted, including the barely veiled threat of being accused of lending material support to terrorists and ending up in Guantánamo themselves, then certainly everyone else is also a target. And like Guantánamo itself, this attack is aimed at eliminating basic concepts of justice, including no detention unless charged with a crime, innocent until proven guilty, the right to legal representation and the right to a fair trial. In this manner it serves to legitimize executive rule and impunity and make it appear normal.

Similarly, the recent law passed against the Palestinian people is an effort to sanction impunity internationally and create the notion that the U.S. has sole authority to decide the governments of each country, to openly interfere in elections, including blackmailing and bribing political parties and elected officials in other countries, to determine content of educational books, and so forth. It is acting to criminalize the right to be of the peoples, their collectives, their organizations, their leaders and striving to make this acceptable. Indeed it is striving to criminalize the conception of resisting and defending those that resist.

Laws cannot sanction impunity and still be legitimate as laws, still have integrity and fidelity to a system of laws and norms that are upheld. A constitution that cannot block this impunity and a government that fails to do so must be replaced. As the peoples step up their resistance by defending their rights, working to solve this problem of a new constitution and new arrangements of governance that empower the people and defend them, here and abroad, is on the agenda.

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International Delegation Protests at Guantánamo

Close Guantánamo Concentration Camp & Pay Reparations Now

On January 9-13, an international delegation of former prisoners and families of current prisoners, and representatives of women and peace organizations, lawyers and human rights organizations traveled to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba to demand that the U.S. immediately close the hated concentration camp and pay reparations to the prisoners and their families for the crimes of torture and illegal detention committed against the prisoners.

January 11 marked the fifth anniversary of the Guantánamo concentration camp and not a single prisoner has been charged, tried or convicted of any crime during that period. What has occurred is the brutal torture, inhuman conditions and degrading treatment of the people being unjustly held, with the direct approval of President George W. Bush, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and top military generals. The Guantánamo concentration camp is a crime and must be closed now!

The delegation in Cuba includes Asif Igbal, a former prisoner released without charges after years of abuse, and Zohra Zewawi, whose son was jailed, tortured and mutilated in Guantánamo. Anti-war activists Cindy Sheehan of Gold Star Families for Peace, Medea Benjamin of CodePink and Global Exchange, and Colonel Ann Wright, a long-time army officer and U.S. diplomat who resigned in protest against the war in Iraq, are also part of the delegation.

The group will travel to Guantanamo, a 14-hour drive from Havana, and march right to the gates of the U.S. Naval Base that illegally occupies Cuban land. The action at the Naval Base in Cuba is part of an International Day of Action January 11 to close Guantanamo. In the U.S. protests will take place in Washington, DC and New York City, plus dozens of cities throughout the country, including outside the U.S. Southern Command in Miami. Demonstrations are also being held in Australia, England, Holland, Poland and elsewhere.

Together demonstrators are standing against the crime of torture and the broad attack on rights that Guantánamo represents. These include the impunity of the president to brand anyone, without charges or crimes committed, as an enemy combatant and confine them indefinitely in military concentration camps like Guantánamo; elimination of habeas corpus; refusal to abide by the law of the land, including the Geneva Conventions, and all international law forbidding torture. Demands include repeal of the Military Commissions Act that sanctions government impunity and blocks charging top officials for the crimes of Guantanamo. They also call for shutting down all the U.S. torture prisons, like Abu Ghraib, Bagram and the secret CIA camps.

For interviews with delegates traveling to Cuba contact:

• Medea Benjamin: U.S. phone 415-235-6517 or medea@globalexchange.org.

• Catherine Murphy: Cuba 011-53-5-283-2210

• Dana Balickii: U.S. phone 707-280-9074

For U.S. protests contact:

• Matt Daloisio, 201-264-4424.

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90 People Arrested

Hundreds March to Supreme Court to Demand Closure of Guantánamo

As part of more than 1000 demonstrations across the country and worldwide, including at the U.S. Guantánamo concentration camp in Cuba, hundreds of people marched through the streets of Washington, DC on January 11. The day marked the fifth anniversary of the day people were first imprisoned at the hated concentration camp. Protests demanded that Guantánamo be immediately closed and those responsible charged for crimes of torture and crimes against humanity. Many actions were also directed at ending the war against Iraq and rejecting government plans to send more troops.

In Washington, DC two hundred of the marchers wore hoods and orange jumpsuits, representing the prisoners of Guantánamo. Fifty of the lawyers defending Guantánamo prisoners also marched, despite government threats against them that same day. Together with hundreds of others they marched from the Capitol to the Supreme Court, ending at the U.S. Federal District Court House, where Guantánamo prisoners should rightly have their day in court.

After filing a motion with the Chief Judge of the Federal Court, dozens of activists gathered inside the atrium of the court house and began reading the names of the people at Guantánamo — people who have not been charged, who have committed no crime, but have been tortured and repeatedly humiliated. Some of those at Guantánamo were teenagers when first imprisoned. Other activists entered the court house to file habeas corpus petitions, demanding the government produce the prisoners and charge them in open court as required by law. They remained in the courthouse to await the presentation of the prisoners. Many others dropped banners reading “Shut Down Guantánamo” from the balconies overlooking the atrium. At the same time activists outside blocked the doors. The two together, inside and out, held the entrance for several hours. The activists inside were then ordered to leave and when they refused, 90 people were arrested. They were later released on misdemeanor trespass charges.

The courts were targeted as they have the power to call for the immediate release of the prisoners. The Supreme Court, in particular, which ruled the detentions unconstitutional and called for the people held at Guantánamo to have their day in U.S. courts, could demand closure of the concentration camp. They have refused to do so, no doubt fearing the sharp intensification of the Constitutional crisis such an action would trigger.

Protesters, not waiting for the courts or Congress, continue to rely on their own efforts and are strengthening their organizations in the course of discussions, meetings and demonstrations that defend the rights of the prisoners.

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Call To Action

International Day of Action to Shut Down Guantánamo

Witness Against Torture

On January 11, 2002, twenty hooded and shackled men shuffled off a plane from Afghanistan, arriving at the U.S. prison at Guantánamo. In an attempt to sidestep the Geneva Convention protections for prisoners of war, the Bush administration created a new category of “enemy combatant” for these men captured in the “war on terror.”

Since that time, more than one thousand men and boys have been imprisoned at Guantánamo. Accounts of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment have been condemned by the United Nations, Human Rights Watch and other reputable bodies. The prisoners have resorted to hunger strikes as a way of protesting their treatment. Many have attempted suicide; three men killed themselves on June 10th 2006. Desperation, fear and frustration mark their confinement.

Five years later, not a single prisoner has been charged, tried or convicted of any crime. Many have been released because no evidence has been found against them, but more than 430 men remain in indefinite detention without hope of release. The United States has abandoned law and justice.

January 11, 2007 marks five years of unjust imprisonment, isolation, beatings, interrogation and abuse for these men. We must say: no more. We must say: no longer. For our nation of laws, for our democracy, for our humanity and theirs, we demand small but essential steps to help return our nation to the best of our own traditions.

We call on the United States government to:

• Repeal the Military Commissions Act and restore Habeas Corpus.

• Charge and try or release all -detainees.

• Withhold funds for the proposed $125 million construction of new military courts at Guantánamo.

• Clearly and unequivocally forbid torture and all other forms of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, by the military, the CIA, prison guards, civilian contractors, or anyone else.

• Pay reparations to current and former detainees and their families for violations of their human rights.

• Shut down Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram and all other U.S. prisons overseas, including secret CIA detention facilities.

We mark January 11, 2007 as a day of national shame. But we can also mark it as a day of citizen action. How? By acting on behalf of our fellow human beings in Guantánamo, their bereaved families and all victims of the “war on terrorism.”

We declare January 11, 2007 an International Day of Action to Shut Down Guantánamo. In Washington, DC we will march from the Supreme Court to the U.S. Federal Court. At the Supreme Court, Guantánamo Lawyers and others will address the press. Individuals will then proceed to Federal Court, taking on the names and identities of the men in Guantánamo and submitting Habeas petitions on their behalf. With our action and our bodies, we will forge the path that the Center for Constitutional Rights and other legal advocates demand on behalf of their clients. Outside the Federal Court on Constitution Avenue, people will read testimonies and names of prisoners, perform street theater and hand out information. There will be solidarity demonstrations from Amsterdam to Boise, Idaho and a National Call-In Day to Congress.

We invite you to come to Washington and participate, either as an individual or as part of an affinity group. If travel is not an option, join or plan an action in your own community. Around the country, groups are planning vigils and actions at courthouses, federal building and public squares. In other countries, the focus will be on U.S. Embassies and military facilities. For a full list of both National and International actions, visit www.witnesstorture.org

If you plan on coming to DC, we encourage you to form affinity groups and be in touch with organizers ahead of time for details on the scenario. Contact Matt Daloisio (Daloisio@earthlink.net) or Frida Berrigan (Frida.Berrigan@gmail.com).

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Government Targets Lawyers Defending Guantánamo Prisoners

January 11, 2007 Demonstrators including fifty Guantanamo Lawyers denounce the U.S. Supreme Court for it's refusal to demand closure of Guantanamo.

Top officials from the Pentagon and Department of Justice (DoJ) are targeting the lawyers defending the hundreds of people held at the Guantánamo concentration camp at the U.S. Naval base in Cuba. The government is targeting the lawyers simply for defending the people at Guantánamo, all unjustly imprisoned and humiliated, with many tortured and subjected to other cruel punishment.

The Pentagon began the public attack on the lawyers on January 11, the fifth anniversary of the Guantánamo concentration camp at the U.S. Naval base on occupied land in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. It was the same day as more than 1000 demonstrations occurred in the U.S. and worldwide to demand Guantánamo be immediately closed and the Iraq War ended now.

Deputy Assistant Secretary Charles “Cully” Stimson, speaking on Federal News Radio (widely heard by government officials and other) specifically urged the law firms involved in defending Guantánamo prisoners — who have not been charged with any crime — to block their lawyers from providing any services. Stimson utilized a 14-page list naming the lawyers and their firms, drawn up by a radio talk-show host to serve as a blacklist for targeting “lawyers representing terrorists.” Stimson, naming more than a dozen specific law firms, then emphasized, “I think, quite honestly, when corporate CEOs see that those firms are representing the very terrorists who hit their bottom line back in 2001, those CEOs are going to make those law firms choose between representing terrorists or representing reputable firms.”

About 500 lawyers currently provide free (pro bono) services. The cases involve habeas corpus appeals, demanding that the government produce the prisoners in public U.S. courts and charge them or release them. While the Supreme Court in 2004 ruled the prisoners must be produced in court, the government has refused to abide by the ruling. Now it is targeting the lawyers.

It is a basic tenant of the U.S. legal system that everyone, whatever the charge, is innocent until proven guilty and entitled to legal representation. In addition, it is a well-known fact that none of the people at Guantánamo have been charged with terrorism, none are in any way connected with September 11, and even by the Pentagon’s estimate at least 92 percent are not guilty of any crime. Only 10 of the more than 800 people sent to Guantánamo have been charged at all.

Stimson also threatened the lawyers and their firms and attempted to further discredit them by implying they were receiving funds from terrorists. When asked in the radio interview who was paying for the legal representation, Mr. Stimson said, “It’s not clear, is it? Some will maintain that they are doing it out of the goodness of their heart, that they’re doing it pro bono, and I suspect they are; others are receiving moneys from who knows where, and I’d be curious to have them explain that.”

The Wall Street Journal also joined in the government’s “smear and fear” campaign. Robert L. Pollock, a member of the Journal’s editorial board, cited the list of law firms and quoted an unnamed “senior U.S. official” as saying, “Corporate CEOs seeing this should ask firms to choose between lucrative retainers and representing terrorists.”

And to make certain everyone got these points, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales a few days later said that the main reason the people at Guantánamo have not been tried is that the lawyers are standing in the way! Gonzales, claiming the government is trying to bring the prisoners to trial, said, “It’s not for lack of trying [by the government]. We are challenged every step of the way.” According to the government, the problem is not broad government impunity and elimination of rule of law, but those attempting to uphold rule of law and defend those victimized by the government.

The spokesperson for the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which organizes the representation of the people held at Guantánamo said, “The only delay in charging, trying or releasing detainees has been by the Bush administration.” He added, “We have been trying for five years to get their cases heard in federal court, and the Bush administration has continued to try to circumvent two Supreme Court rulings and do everything in its power to keep the men at Guantánamo from challenging their detention. Only 10 of the 775 men who have been imprisoned at Guantánamo have even been designated for the military commissions, which are a sham tribunal to begin with.”

This past summer the Supreme Court, in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, ruled the military commissions unconstitutional and that the Guantánamo prisoners must have their day in public court. They refused however to require the closing of this unconstitutional, illegal concentration camp. They instead called on Bush to pass legislation. This was done, with Congress, through passage of the Military Commissions Act (MCA). The MCA attempts to make government impunity and tyranny “legal,” by eliminating habeas corpus, giving the president power to brand anyone an enemy combatant and impose indefinite military detention, giving the president power to decide what constitutes torture and if the Geneva Conventions apply — meaning he can continue torture and indefinite detentions on his say so — and making it illegal to charge top government and military officials, including the president, secretary of defense and others, for the crimes of torture already committed.

Lawyers and civil rights advocates and organizations across the country have roundly denounced the government attack and the MCA itself as illegal, unconstitutional and contributing to the complete elimination of rule of law. CCR and others are stepping up their resistance, including participating in the demonstrations January 11 at the Supreme Court and U.S. Federal Court hearing the Guantánamo cases, where 90 people were arrested demanding that Guantánamo be closed now.

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U.S. Law Deans Oppose Stimson Attack

More than 130 deans of U.S. law schools signed a statement released Monday expressing their dismay at comments made last week by the Pentagon’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Detainee Affairs Charles “Cully” Stimson in a radio interview targeting lawyers and their firms for representing Guantánamo prisoners, who have been charged with no crimes. Their cases to date involve habeas corpus challenges calling for the government to charge them or release them. The deans wrote, “We are appalled by the January 11, 2007 statement of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Charles “Cully” Stimson, criticizing law firms for their pro bono representation of suspected terrorist detainees and encouraging corporate executives to force these law firms to choose between their pro bono and paying clients.

“As law deans and professors, we find Secretary Stimson’s statement to be contrary to basic tenets of American law. We teach our students that lawyers have a professional obligation to ensure that even the most despised and unpopular individuals and groups receive zealous and effective legal representation. Our American legal tradition has honored lawyers who, despite their personal beliefs, have zealously represented mass murderers, suspected terrorists, and Nazi marchers. At this moment in time, when our courts have endorsed the right of the Guantánamo detainees to be heard in courts of law, it is critical that qualified lawyers provide effective representation to these individuals. By doing so, these lawyers protect not only the rights of the detainees, but also our shared constitutional principles. In a free and democratic society, government officials should not encourage intimidation of or retaliation against lawyers who are fulfilling their pro bono obligations.

“We urge the Administration promptly and unequivocally to repudiate Secretary Stimson’s remarks.” The president has so far refused to do so.

The statement was drafted and circulated by Dean Harold Hongju Koh of Yale Law School and Dean Emily A. Spieler of Northeastern University School of Law. Other signors included those from Berkeley, Boston College, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Loyola, Stanford, University of Pennsylvania, University at Buffalo, and many others from schools in Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Utah, Montana, and many others. The Pentagon did say that Stimson, a deputy assistant secretary, did not represent the views of the Pentagon. But he has not been fired or even reprimanded and the Pentagon did not withdraw the threat contained in his statements that lawyers representing Guantánamo prisoners could themselves be charged with providing material support to terrorists, especially if they are paid for their services.

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Guantánamo Lawyer Responds to Attacks

Bush Trying to Deny Prisoners a Fair Hearing

David Cynamon

The Bush Administration has reached a new low in its contempt for the law as it applies to Guantánamo.

Yesterday, [January 11], in an interview on Federal News Radio, Cully Stimson, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs, listed a number of the law firms, including ours, who are representing detainees, and then suggested that our corporate clients should boycott us for having the temerity to represent “terrorists.” He also stated that he expected this to become a bigger news story; the Department of Defense obviously is working with friendly media representatives to push the issue.

Apparently, the Bush Administration has no good answers to the legal and moral travesties at Guantánamo, so they have decided to fall back on good old-fashioned lawyer bashing in a desperate effort to change the subject. It is bad enough that they have consistently flouted the Supreme Court’s 2004 ruling that the detainees are entitled to habeas corpus. Now they are attempting to prevent the detainees from having legal counsel at all. It is truly incredible that Stimson, an attorney himself, does not appear to understand or care about the fundamental obligation of lawyers to represent unpopular and indigent clients.

We and the other habeas counsel are very proud of the work we are doing on behalf of the Guantánamo detainees, and we are confident that the vast majority of our corporate clients feel the same way. The true “news story” here is not that prominent law firms are trying to get the detainees a fair hearing but that the Bush Administration is trying to deny them one.”

David Cynamon is a partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, one of the law firms targeted and involved in Project Kuwaiti Freedom to secure release of Guantánamo prisoners from Kuwait.

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CCR & Amnesty International, USA

President Bush: You Must Close Guantánamo

Center for Constitutional Rights

On January 11, 2007, the 5th anniversary of the arrival of the first detainees at the U.S.controlled detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) urge President Bush and his administration to close down the Guantánamo prison.

On the steps of the United States Supreme Court, participants cautioned that the men at Guantánamo should not then be sent to other U.S. detention facilities like Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan or secret black sites, nor should the government send them to be held indefinitely and abused by other countries as their proxy. AIUSA and CCR called on the United States government to charge and try or release all detainees; to unequivocally forbid torture and all other forms of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment by the military, the CIA, prison guards, and civilian contractors; and to repeal the October 2006 Military Commissions Act and restore the right of habeas corpus.

“Guantánamo Bay prison has become a symbol around the world for human rights abuse and for wrong-headed policies enacted in the name of the war on terror,” said Larry Cox, Amnesty International USA Executive Director. “It has brought shame to our nation. By continuing to detain people indefinitely without access to courts and outside the rule of law, this administration has placed the United States squarely on the wrong side of history and in defiance of domestic and international law. Mr. President, shut down Guantánamo…”

More than 750 men have been imprisoned at Guantánamo without access to a court of law; many have been released without charge after years in indefinite detention, approximately 395 remain. Prominent figures from all political backgrounds have expressed fear that the treatment of the detainees endangers U.S. soldiers should they be captured and has been ineffective in gathering intelligence.

“Five years ago, the Bush administration brought the first detainees to Guantánamo hooded and shackled in an attempt to create an offshore penal colony free from the rule of law and hidden from the eyes of the world,” said CCR President Michael Ratner. “The unprecedented overreaching of executive authority that has followed, the documented programs of torture and abuse, and the repeated defiance of the rulings of the Supreme Court have undermined the United States’ position in the world, undone 800 years of Western legal tradition and destroyed the lives of hundreds of men who were only ever guilty of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The government’s own documents show that 92 percent of the detainees at Guantánamo have absolutely no affiliation with Al Qaeda. It is time to shut down Guantánamo as well as Bagram and all other unlawful U.S. prisons and black sites overseas.”

For over five years, Amnesty International has voiced its concern about the Guantánamo detainees’ treatment and conditions of detention — especially the lack of access to lawyers, courts and -families — and has repeatedly requested access for independent human rights groups and the United Nations. Amnesty International has interviewed released detainees to shed light on prison conditions; observed, commented and reported on military commissions’ proceedings and provided advice and comments to Congressional offices on pertinent legislative priorities; and mobilized tens of thousands of activists to write, call and visit their legislators to demand that the human rights of people in detention are respected. […]

Five years ago, one month after the first detainees arrived at Guantánamo, CCR filed the first challenge to the Bush administration’s attempt to create a prison camp outside the rule of law. The Center won the landmark Supreme Court case Rasul v. Bush in 2004 and has continued to lead the legal battle for the detainees, representing them in more than 200 cases currently in the courts and training and leading a group of 500 pro bono attorneys from around the country to work on these cases. CCR has engaged in diplomatic efforts with countries around the world to safely repatriate former detainees; mounted legal challenges and mobilized thousands of activists to fight the Bush administration’s attempts to do away with habeas corpus and the Geneva Conventions; charged Rumsfeld and other high-ranking officials with war crimes in a complaint in Germany; published numerous reports and firsthand accounts by former detainees on the conditions at Guantánamo; and worked with international bodies, the UN, human rights organizations and foreign governments to bring an end to the Bush administration’s unlawful detention policies.

At the rally on January 11 at the White House, Amnesty International members dressed in Guántanamo-style orange jumpsuits to highlight the plight of the detainees, and 50 pro bono attorneys who represent Guantánamo detainees were there to show support for their clients.

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Repeal S.2370 Attacking Palestine's Right to Be

Voice of Revolution denounces the law recently passed attacking the Palestinians and their right to be. We demand that S.2370 be repealed immediately and that the U.S. act to immediately end the occupation of Palestine and respect all United Nations’ resolutions concerning Palestine.

The law serves to criminalize the Palestinian people and government simply for existing. It includes specific attacks on Hamas, which currently heads the Palestinian government, and thus serves to criminalize political organizations and those who vote for them. It calls for direct U.S. interference in government inside Palestine, to block funds, both from the U.S. and internationally for humanitarian assistance, and to interfere in the work of the United Nations by blocking participation of Palestinian representatives (see article below).

The law claims to give the Office of the President authority to determine if Palestine even exists. The president can refuse to “certify” the government of Palestine and if he does so, “the territory controlled by the Palestinian Authority should be deemed to be in use as a sanctuary for terrorists or terrorist organizations.” The law specifically provides blackmail money to be used to bribe members of the Palestine legislature.

In passing this law, just as they did with the Military Commissions Act, Congress is sanctioning U.S. impunity and tyranny and attempting to make it “legal.” And even with all the authority given to the president, Bush claimed he could usurp more. Proclaiming the power of a “unitary executive,” he said he could choose to implement the law or not and that Congress could not interfere.

The law is no doubt an example of the type of “laws” the U.S. will pass to sanction complete impunity and tyranny against the peoples, in the U.S. and worldwide. The government is taking such actions because they can — but they are certainly not reckoning with the power of the peoples to resist.

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President Signs S.2370

All-Sided Attack on Palestinians Right to Be

President George Bush signed into law the so-called Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006 at the end of last year. The Act (also known as S.2370) is a brutal attack on the struggle, rights, identity, and history of the Palestinian people, on their very right to be. It is one of many measures taken by the U.S. to criminalize the Palestinians, their government and fighting organizations. As is increasingly the case with U.S. laws, such as the Military Commissions Act, many provisions of S.2370 are themselves illegal.

One of the main features of S.2370 is that it targets the government elected last year, headed by Hamas. It also criminalizes any “individual” or “entity” connected to Hamas. Known for its resistance to U.S.-Israeli aggression and for providing many social services and programs for Palestinians, Hamas secured a historic electoral victory a year ago, giving powerful expression to the will of the Palestinian people to determine their own affairs.

To impose its dictate and punish the Palestinians for exercising their rights, the law establishes, in the name of “peace” and “good governance,” that it shall be “the policy of the United States” to impose U.S.-style democracy on the Palestinians and to “urge members of the international community to avoid contact with and refrain from supporting” Hamas “until it agrees” to stop resisting U.S.-Israeli crimes.

The law stipulates that “Assistance may be provided under this Act to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Authority only during a period for which a certification described in subsection (b) is in effect.” A “certificate” is a determination made by the president alone that waives one or more provisions of the law under certain circumstances. Sometimes called “waiver authority,” “certificates” are temporary and must be renewed by the president.

According to S.2370, “The President may only exercise the waiver authority” by “consulting with, and submitting a written policy justification to” the Committee on International Relations and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives, and the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate. Clearly, Bush does not need the approval of Congress, only to consult. In this way, the law is consistent with the usurping of power by the President to brand countries, political organizations and individuals as enemies subject to military attack, while Congress is turned into a consultative body. Its role as a decision-making body is eliminated.

Whenever the president decides to refuse certification, Palestine is branded as a “sanctuary for terrorism” and thus subject to U.S. invasion. Section 4 specifies that “during any period for which a certification… is not in effect with respect to the Palestinian Authority, the territory controlled by the Palestinian Authority should be deemed to be in use as a sanctuary for terrorists or terrorist organizations.”

To qualify for the “certificates,” the law essentially requires Palestinians to give up their struggle for their national and social liberation and submit to U.S.-Israeli aggression and dictate. As part of its attack on Palestinian history and memory of their own development and struggles, the law includes the demand that Palestinians rewrite their “educational materials, including textbooks” to reflect the U.S.-Israeli version of history and events. Also targeting resistance, another provision states that no funds “be made available for the purpose of recognizing or otherwise honoring individuals who commit, or have committed” acts of resistance against U.S.-Israeli crimes.

Criminal U.S. Interference in Palestine’s Government

As well, S. 2370 calls for U.S. interference and blackmail in the government of Palestine, itself a crime by international law, by providing additional “assistance” to “individual members of the Palestinian Legislative Council who the President determines are not members of Hamas” “for the purposes of facilitating” U.S.-style democracy.

It also interferes in the work of the United Nations, which is also contrary to U.S. obligations as host country. Section 5 denies visas to “any alien who is an official of, under the control of, or serving as a representative of the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority during any period for which a certification…is not in effect with respect to the Palestinian Authority.” “[T]he President of the Palestinian Authority and his or her personal representatives, provided that the President and his or her personal representatives are not affiliated with Hamas…and members of the Palestinian Legislative Council who are not members of Hamas” are exempted from this provision. This is another blatant form of blackmail, where the U.S. will only permit those governments it accepts to participate in UN activities. The precedent is being set with Palestine, but it can certainly be extended to other countries branded as “terrorist” by the U.S.

In addition, the Attorney General is given authority under S. 2370 to ensure that no Palestinian Authority representation is permitted in the U.S. when a “certification” is not in effect with respect to the Palestinian Authority.

The law also restricts the travel of “officials and representatives of the Palestinian Authority and of the Palestine Liberation Organization, who are stationed at the United Nations in New York City to a 25-mile radius of the United Nations headquarters building during any period for which a certification…is not in effect with respect to the Palestinian Authority.”

Non-Governmental Organizations Also Targeted

Section 3 of the new law, “Limitation on Assistance for the West Bank and Gaza,” establishes that “Assistance may be provided under this Act to nongovernmental organizations for the West Bank and Gaza only during a period for which a certification described in section 620K(b) is in effect with respect to the Palestinian Authority.” Exceptions include: “Assistance to meet food, water, medicine, health, or sanitation needs, or other assistance to meet basic human needs” and “Assistance to promote democracy, human rights, freedom of the press, non-violence, reconciliation, and peaceful coexistence, provided that such assistance does not directly benefit Hamas.” Non-governmental organizations will be audited by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

It is generally recognized that basic necessities will not be permitted. Hamas is a main provider of food, water, medicine and social services, so the phrasing that assistance is possible only if it does not “directly benefit Hamas,” in fact means these basic necessities will not be permitted.

To further emphasize such restrictions, the section titled “Oversight and Related Requirements” states that before any “assistance” is provided “to nongovernmental organizations for the West Bank or Gaza” the Secretary of State shall ensure that “such assistance is not provided to or through any individual or entity that the Secretary knows, or has reason to believe, advocates, plans, sponsors, engages in, or has engaged in” what it calls “terrorist activity.” It is well known that the U.S. brands all resistance by the Palestinians, and the organizations developing the resistance, as “terrorist.”

As additional blackmail money, Section 10 provides $20 million for fiscal year 2007 in the form of the “Israeli-Palestinian Peace, Reconciliation and Democracy Fund.” These funds are to promote U.S.-style democracy “through Palestinian and Israeli organizations” recognized by the U.S.

Plan to Block International Funds

The Act also directs “the United States Executive Director at each international financial institution to use the voice, vote, and influence of the United States to prohibit assistance to the Palestinian Authority…during any period for which a certification…is not in effect with respect to the Palestinian Authority.” In this manner, the U.S. is demanding that all countries submit to U.S. dictate concerning the legitimacy of governments — not that of the people of that country, not even that of the United Nations, but of the U.S. alone.

Section 9 maintains that “No funds authorized or available to the Department of State may be used for or by any officer or employee of the United States Government to negotiate with members or official representatives of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade” “unless and until such organizations” disarm and give up their struggle against U.S.-Israeli aggression and for their social and national rights.

Section 11 requires the Secretary of State to provide the “appropriate congressional committees” (listed above) with a report, “Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment” of S. 2370 “and annually thereafter,” that “(1) describes the steps that have been taken by the United States Government to ensure that other countries and international organizations, including multilateral development banks, do not provide direct assistance to the Palestinian Authority for any period for which a certification…is not in effect with respect to the Palestinian Authority; and (2) identifies any countries and international organizations, including multilateral development banks, that are providing direct assistance to the Palestinian Authority during such a period, and describes the nature and amount of such assistance.”

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Executive Dismisses Congress Again

Bush Declares Authority
to Interpret and Ignore Laws

President George W. Bush now regularly issues signing statements where he usurps the authority to both interpret laws and decide what he will and will not uphold. This is true despite the fact that in the laws passed, Bush is given broad and often illegal authority. In the White House press release announcing the signing of S.2370, a law against the Palestinian people and government, Bush gives himself, not the law, ultimate authority over any actions taken regarding the Palestinians. He also emphasizes that he is not accountable to Congress and laws passed by them. Indeed, he includes in the signing statements the authority of the “unitary executive,” and that Congress cannot interfere.

Contrary to the law's wording, which specifically states what U.S. policy is to be, Bush says, “My approval of the Act does not constitute my adoption of the statements of policy as U.S. foreign policy.” Reflecting the trend to concentrate power in the executive he goes on to declare that “Given the Constitution’s commitment to the presidency of the authority to conduct the Nation’s foreign affairs, the executive branch shall construe such policy statements as advisory.” Again, despite direct wording to the contrary, he decrees that he is not obliged to even consult with Congress, and may, at most, only notify Congress of his actions.

To treat the Act’s provisions as “mandatory” rather than “advisory” would, says Bush, “impermissibly interfere with the President’s constitutional authorities to conduct the Nation’s foreign affairs, including protection of American citizens and American military and other Government personnel abroad, and to supervise the unitary executive branch.”

Bush also declares his “constitutional authority to withhold information” that he says “could impair foreign relations, national security, the deliberative processes of the Executive, or the performance of the Executive’s constitutional duties.” Other determinations, such as those “including the authority to receive ambassadors and other public ministers,” will be made by him and not Congress.

To date Congress has not challenged these assertions and usurping of power by the Office of the President.

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Hundreds of Organizations Oppose Brutal
U.S. Law Against Palestine

In a broad effort to oppose the brutal U.S. law aimed at eliminating Palestine, hundreds of organizations denounced the bill and signed petitions opposing it. They called on President George W. Bush to refuse to sign the bill that included many illegal provisions. It also includes draconian economic and diplomatic sanctions against the Palestinian people for exercising their right to vote (see article above).

More than 425 organizations, representing many thousands of people, signed a petition demanding that Bush not sign the bill into law. The petition read in part:

“[Bill S.2370], introduced after the recent Palestinian legislative election which resulted in a Hamas victory, goes far beyond reiterating the current U.S. ban on direct assistance to the Palestinian Authority; it also calls for many troubling provisions that would punish and isolate the Palestinian people for exercising their right to vote. This unconstructive approach would only perpetuate the status quo of violence, military occupation, and human rights violations rather than promoting dialogue and a just, peaceful resolution to the conflict.

“The provisions include restricting U.S. humanitarian aid; designating Palestinian territory as a “terrorist sanctuary” thus triggering restrictions on U.S. exports; prohibiting official Palestinian diplomacy or representation in the United States in a way counter-productive to promoting dialogue and a just peace; reducing U.S. dues to the United Nations because some of its bodies were created by the UN to advocate for Palestinian human rights; and denying Palestinians the ability to receive assistance through international financial institutions.” As one activist put it, “People should not be sanctioned for voting.”

More than a dozen Jewish groups were among those signing the petition. These included organizations in Boston, New York City and Oakland, California. As well many church groups signed, as did anti-war organizations and many student and youth groups all demanding an end to the occupation and defending the rights of Palestine.

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Gaza Humanitarian Crisis Caused by Occupation

Israel’s Human Rights Organizations Demand Israel Respect International Law

Israeli Information Center for Human Rights

Nine Israeli human rights organizations recently issued an unprecedented joint call to the international community to ensure human rights in the Gaza Strip. The statement comes in light of the dire humanitarian situation there:

• Some 80 percent of the population is extremely poor, living on less than $2 a day. A majority of the population is dependant on food aid from international donors.

• In the past four months, the Israeli military has killed over 300 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Over half of those killed were unarmed civilians who did not participate in the fighting. Among the dead, 61 were children.

• About 70 percent of Gaza’s potential workforce is out of work or without pay.

• On June 28, Israel bombed Gaza’s only independent power station, which produced 43 percent of the electricity needed by the residents in Gaza. Since then, most of the population has electricity between 6 and 8 hours each day, with disastrous consequences on water supply, sewage treatment, food storage, hospital functioning and public health.

•The Gaza Strip is almost entirely sealed off from the outside world, with virtually no way for Palestinians to get in or out. Exports have been reduced to a trickle; imports are limited to essential humanitarian supplies.

Israel cannot shirk its responsibility for this growing crisis. Even after its Disengagement in 2005, Israel continues to hold decisive control over central elements of Palestinian life in the Gaza Strip:

1. Israel continues to maintain complete control over the air space and territorial waters.

2. Israel continues to control the joint Gaza Strip-West Bank population registry, preventing relocation between the West Bank and Gaza, and family unification.

3. Israel controls all movement in and out of Gaza, with exclusive control over all crossing points between Gaza and Israel, and the ability to shut down the Rafah crossing to Egypt.

4. Israeli ground troops conduct frequent military operations inside Gaza.

5. Israel continues to exercise almost complete control over imports and exports from the Gaza Strip.

6. Israel controls most elements of the taxation system of the Gaza Strip, and since February has withheld tax monies legally owed to the Palistine Authority (PA), amounting to half of the total PA budget.

The broad scope of Israeli control in the Gaza Strip creates a strong case for the claim that Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip continues, along with an obligation to ensure the welfare of the civilian population. Regardless of the legal definition of the Gaza Strip, Israel bears legal obligations regarding those spheres that it continues to control. Israel has the right to defend itself. However, all military measures taken by Israel must respect the provisions of international humanitarian law.

The following Israeli human rights organizations call on the international community to ensure that Israel respects the basic human rights of residents of the Gaza Strip, and that all parties respect international humanitarian law: B’Tselem: the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, Association for Civil Rights in the Israel, Amnesty International–Israel Section, Bimkom: Planners for Planning Rights, HaMoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual, Gisha: Center for the Legal Protection of Freedom of Movement, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, Rabbis for Human Rights.

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