People Refuse to be Pushed Out of the Equation
• ALL U.S. TROOPS HOME NOW
NOT A SINGLE PENNY FOR WAR!
• Support GI Resistance and Rights
• Active-Duty Troops Organize
Against Iraq War
• Military Families Honor Iraqi War Victims & Demand Troops Home Now
• Impeachment by Spring
• Tell the New Congress: Act Now to Bring the Troops Home!
• Human Rights Groups Demand War Crimes Charges Against Rumsfeld
• We the People are Setting the Table Now
People Refuse to be Pushed Out of the Equation
All U.S. Troops Home Now! Not A Single Penny For War!
As the ruling circles attempt to block the drive of the people against war and for rights, emphasizing reliance on the Democrats, the people are instead stepping up their resistance. Many are directly targeting the Democrats and their refusal to take immediate action to end the war. Congress, with its Democratic majority in January, can pass legislation ending the war. It can also stop funding it, as all funding must go through Congress. The Democrats have said since Election Day that they will continue to fund the war.
Many are also demanding that Bush be charged with war crimes and impeached. This includes those organizations that have supported the Democratic Party in the past, such as Democrats.com. They, like many other organizations, including those supporting soldiers refusing to serve, veterans and military families opposing the war, civil rights and immigrant organizations, those organizing for impeachment and the entire anti-war movement, are taking action and insisting that the government submit to their decision. The demand of the people is that their will be implemented now, which means All Troops Home Now! Not A Single Penny for War!
Standing directly against the people, the Democratic Party leadership has also repeatedly said that impeachment is off the table. It has emphasized that it wants to “find a solution” to the war in Iraq, not end it. But the Democrats, and the ruling class as a whole face a dilemma. For the Democrats, and the elections themselves to have any credibility, the Democrats must now deliver on their claim to oppose the war. But U.S. imperialism cannot accept defeat. It requires its world empire, but cannot achieve it. That much the Iraqi resistance has made clear. So too has the resistance of Americans and all the peoples worldwide. How then to deliver and escape defeat?
The Democrats may be able to manage to withdraw some troops from Iraq, but what is far more likely is what Senator Biden, a main leader, calls a “redeployment plan to prevent insurgent control of strategic areas,” with “no fixed timetable.” Biden will become chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January, which is where Congressional legislation on Iraq, if there is any, would likely need to start. He, like Senator Hillary Clinton, is also making clear that the U.S., which has fomented civil war in Iraq, is now blaming the Iraqis the U.S. put in power. Biden says, “We must unambiguously say to the Iraqis, ‘Here is your last, best chance to escape a disastrous civil war with our help, and it is up to you now.’” He is calling to divide Iraq into three parts, with oil revenues controlled by a central (U.S.-controlled) government.
Clearly, the common aim of the imperialists as a class, and thus both their representatives, the Democrats and Republicans, is “preventing insurgent control” in Iraq. They are not working out a plan for withdrawal, they are not in any way respecting sovereignty and the right of the Iraqis to decide their future. Indeed, they are pushing to split and divide the country, much as was done in Yugoslavia.
The Democrats and President George W. Bush alike are also calling on everyone to wait for the plan being put together by the Iraq Study Group, headed by James A. Baker III, secretary of state under Bush’s father. This plan is expected sometime in December and is supposed to be one Bush and Democrats can agree on. For this reason, it will no doubt be a plan the people oppose.
The people do not want to reach agreement with war crimes and crimes against humanity and the criminals who unleash them. We want the criminals charged and impeached and we want the same for anyone who paves the way for them to do so, as Congress has been doing.
Repeatedly the people are making clear that they stand against aggressive war, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Palestine and elsewhere. As one group put it, “The Republicans ought to realize that we have had enough war, lies and corruption. The Democrats should know that we can, as a people, come together for change and that they must support justice in this world by condemning Israeli atrocities or we will not vote for them either.”
The ruling circles are facing defeat inside the country and outside, which will make them even more desperate and dangerous. It is the Democrats who most likely will complete the fascist arrangements being put in place, not block them.
It is the peoples, together, stepping up their organized resistance and refusing to be pushed out of the equation that provides the bulwark against war and fascism. No one can or will wait for the Democrats. On the contrary, the peoples’ consciousness is that there can be no reliance on the Democrats. Ending the Iraq war and winning change depends on our own united efforts. Together it can be done!
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Take Action December 8-10
Support GI Resistance and Rights
Military resisters, their families, veterans and concerned community members are calling for public actions to support GI resistance and to defend their right to conscience. Courage to Resist and many other organizations are urging all those who oppose the war in Iraq to organize and join in actions December 8-10 to demand no court martials for those refusing to serve and to defend the rights of the soldiers to resist. As resisters bring out, the right to refuse military service for reasons of conscience is inherent in the notion of freedom of thought, conscience and religion. It is recognized in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This right is also articulated in Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
A number of the war resisters who we nt to Canada to resist the war, are now returning home to publicly stand against the war and join in organizing efforts. They face court martial and jail time for doing so. We reprint below three of the more recent cases of Iraq war resisters, reprinted from the Courage to Resist newsletter (www.couragetoresist.org).
Ivan Brobeck, AWOL Marine in Canada, Returns on Election Day
“Since I was not willing to return to Iraq, the only option I saw was to go to Canada. I have spent nearly two years there living, working, and married to my wife (who is six months pregnant). Now I feel that I am ready to return to the U.S. and face the consequences of refusing to participate in a war that I do not believe is right.”— U.S. Marine Corps Lance Corporal Ivan Brobeck, 20, of Arlington, Virginia.
Ivan Brobeck will returned to the United States on Election Day to ask President Bush and Congress to bring the troops home now. During a tour of duty in Iraq in 2004 Brobeck witnessed instances of abuse of Iraqi detainees and the killing of Iraqi civilians at military checkpoints. He chose Canada over a second tour in a war that he came to see as illegal and contrary to the interests and moral standards of most Americans.
“I was not willing to go back and fight a war that I did not believe was right, and I didn’t want to put myself in a situation where I would possibly kill an innocent civilian,” Brobeck explains. “Please, President Bush, do what is right; do everything you can to bring our troops home from Iraq.”
Ivan Brobeck intends to surrender to military authorities in Washington, DC on Election Day. He expects to be transferred to Quantico in Virginia where he may face a military court martial for his absence. He is returning in the same spirit that motivated him to enlist at age 17 — a desire to serve his country and to stand for what is right.
Kyle Snyder Continues to Speak Out
Kyle Snyder, AWOL Iraq veteran and war resister, continues to speak out against the war. Snyder returned from Canada to turn himself in to Army authorities at Ft. Knox on October 31, 2006. Now he is once again AWOL after officials at Ft. Knox have reneged on a previous verbal agreement with his attorney, Jim Finery, to discharge Kyle. Kyle remains AWOL and continues to publicly speak out against the war. It is unknown whether or not the Army will attempt to apprehend Kyle.
Your continued action is needed! Let Kyle Snyder and the Army know you support him and will continue to take action to support his courageous stand! We urge you to take continued action to support Kyle. Call the Fort Knox public affairs office 502-624-3351 and e-mailKnoxPAO@Knox.Army.Mil and demand that Ft. Knox Commanding General, Major General Robert M. Williams “Discharge Kyle Snyder with No Punishment Now!”
Agustin Aguayo Imprisoned
“I have come to believe that it is wrong to destroy life, that it is wrong to use war, that it is immoral, and I can no longer go down this path. “ — Agustin Aguayo
Agustin Aguayo is still imprisoned in Germany for following his conscience and refusing a second deployment to Iraq. Please send letters of support to him today! “It makes a huge difference to have the support letters. They help give him resolve and strength,” says Helga Aguayo, Agustin’s wife.
Agustin Aguayo arrived in Germany on Tuesday, October 3, 2006 handcuffed and escorted by several soldiers as he made his way through Frankfurt International Airport. Aguayo was sent back to Germany on a commercial flight less than a week after turning himself in to military custody at Ft. Irwin just outside of Barstow, CA in the Mojave Desert. Agustin was taken to Mannheim prison where he is in pre-trial confinement while the Army reviews his case.
Narrowly escaping a forced deployment to Iraq through a bedroom window at his base apartment at the Schweinfurt, Germany U.S. Army base, Agustin went AWOL on September 2 after his unit was ordered to deploy to Iraq for a second time.
Standing in front of the Mission in Los Angeles, on September 26, Agustin told supporters and the media about his decision to go AWOL and his plans to turn himself in to Ft. Irwin Army base, later that day, to continue his fight for a conscientious objector discharge.
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Petitions Being Organized
Active-Duty Troops Organize
Against Iraq War
Active duty troops are now joining the many veterans and military families to publicly oppose the war against Iraq. This is an indication of the growing resistance within the military, a serious problem for the ruling circles.
Organizers are circulating a petition among active duty troops. They emphasize, “The long-term goal is to end the occupation of Iraq. The short-term goal is to spread the word that service members who feel like we do have a tool to have their voice heard, and it is their duty as a citizen of a democratic society to participate in democracy.”
There are currently several hundred active duty members of the U.S. military who are organizing to petition Congress to demand that U.S. forces be withdrawn from Iraq and brought home now (see appealforredress.org). The petition calls for the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. military forces and bases from Iraq and to bring the troops home. The action is unusual in that active-duty troops are more restricted in their ability to publicly oppose the military and the soldiers could face disciplinary action. They made their actions public before the elections and continue to organize now to demand that Congress act. They are planning to deliver the petitions to Congress by the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday in January.
The organizing efforts by active-duty service members are based in Norfolk, Virginia, a main area for the Navy and Marines. The soldiers are supported by the various organizations of veterans and military families opposing the war, such as Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace, and Military Families Speak Out.
Eric A. Seitz, the Honolulu attorney representing Lieutenant Ehren Watada, one of the soldiers refusing to serve and facing court martial, said “The kinds of resistance and opposition and outrage that military people are now beginning to express has been simmering for quite a while. But it is about to just burst out in huge waves.” If dissent continues to build, more soldiers might refuse to fight, Seitz said, with the petition by the active duty troops a sign of this growing resistance. Pentagon officials might “think they can continue to prosecute a war, but when the troops stop fighting, that is it, they are out of luck,” Seitz said.
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Veterans Day Actions
Military Families Honor Iraqi War Victims & Demand Troops Home Now
Military Families Speak Out
Military Families Speak Out (MFSO), a national organization of people opposed to the war in Iraq who have relatives or loved ones in the military, will organize a memorial in Washington, DC to honor the tens of thousands of Iraqi children, women, and men who have died as a result of the war against Iraq and for the more than 2,800 American service men and women who have been killed. The memorial will take place on Saturday, November 11, 2006 for Veterans Day.
Fifty military families from across the country, including Gold Star families whose loved ones were killed in Iraq, military families with loved ones currently serving in Iraq and those with loved ones who have served and/or are due to deploy, will display an exhibit of more than 2,800 flags and photographs on the National Mall. Earlier this week, more than thirty military families from California, Colorado, Missouri, New Jersey, South Carolina and other states gathered in Washington, DC to deliver petitions to the Pentagon and Congress calling for an end to troop extensions, stop-loss orders, involuntary re-calls, multiple deployments, and other aspects of the “back door draft,” and for all troops to be brought home now.[TOP]
Impeachment by Spring
Democrats.com & afterdowningstreet.org
The case for impeaching Bush and Cheney is overwhelming, and 51 percent of Americans think Democrats should investigate and impeach them. But Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi insists impeachment is “off the table.” We can put it back “on the table” by mobilizing the 51 percent majority that supports impeachment into a powerful grassroots lobbying force.
Here is our plan:
• Collect 1 Million Signatures on our Impeachment Petition
In the first 3 days we have collected over 6,000 signatures on our Petition to Impeach Bush and Cheney. Forward the petition to your friends or print copies of our simplified impeachment petition and collect signatures from friends, co-workers, and neighbors.
• Form 435 Congressional District Impeachment Committees (CDIC)
There are 435 Congressional Districts for the House of Representatives, and we would like to form Impeachment Committees in each one.
Congressional District Impeachment Committees will:
1. Collect petitions
2. Write letters and op-eds to local papers
3. Meet directly with Representatives to persuade them to support -impeachment
4. Organize Town Hall meetings (see below)
Check to see if someone has already created a CDIC in your Congressional District, otherwise start one yourself.
• Hold Impeachment Events on -December 10: Human Rights and Impeachment Day
December 10 is Human Rights Day, and this year we are making it Human Rights and Impeachment Day. Slogan: “Putting Impeachment on the Table.” We encourage you to organize a town hall forum or rally on this day for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney. You can create a public listing of your event, communicate with the people who sign up for your event, secure speakers and resources at our website.
• Pass State and Local Resolutions
Pass impeachment resolutions in your town or city, state, political party, or labor union. Use the petitioning to build a list of local supporters:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/resolutions
• Be a Media Activist
Work the media for impeachment. Audio and Video from Launch of ImpeachForChange in Philadelphia on Veterans Day also available.
• Invite Bush Chain Gang to Your Town
Reduce fear and roadside trash: put them to work.
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Demonstrate in D.C. January 27
Tell the New Congress:
Act Now to Bring the Troops Home!
United for Peace and Justice
Join United for Peace and Justice in a march on Washington, DC, on Saturday, January 27, to call on Congress to take immediate action to end the war.
On Election Day the voters delivered a dramatic, unmistakable mandate for peace. Now it is time for action. On January 27, 2007, we will converge from all around the country in Washington, DC to send a strong, clear message to Congress and the Bush Administration: The people of this country want the war and occupation in Iraq to end and we want the troops brought home now!
Congress has the power to end this war through legislation. We call on people from every congressional district in the country to gather in Washington, DC — to express support for those members of Congress who are prepared to take immediate action against the war; to pressure those who are hesitant to act; and to speak out against those who remain tied to a failed policy.
The peace and justice movement helped make ending the war in Iraq the primary issue in this last election. The actions we take make a difference, and now there is a new opportunity for us to move our work forward. On Election Day people took individual action by voting. On January 27 we will take collective action, as we march in Washington, DC, to make sure Congress understands the urgency of this moment.
Join United for Peace and Justice and many others in this crucial push for peace!
End the Iraq War
All U.S. Troops Home Now
Aggressive War is a Crime
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In Germany
Human Rights Groups Demand War Crimes Charges Against Rumsfeld
Center for Constitutional Rights
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Republican Attorneys’ Association (RAV) and others, represented by Berlin Attorney Wolfgang Kellick, filed a criminal complaint in Germany today alleging that high-ranking U.S. civilian and military officials, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, committed war crimes in Iraq and in the U.S.-controlled Guantanamo Bay prison camp. Additional co-plaintiffs include dozens of international human rights groups from various regions in the world, Nobel Peace Prize winners Aldolfo Perez Esquirel and Martin Almada, as well as Theo van Boven, the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture.
Made possible by Germany’s 2002 universal jurisdiction statute, the complaint was filed on behalf of 11 Iraqi citizens who were victims of gruesome crimes, including severe beatings, sleep and food deprivation, hooding and sexual abuse at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison. Mohammed al Qahtani, a Saudi citizen detained at Guantanamo who was subjected to torture and abuse there under the specific -authorization of Rumsfeld and the supervision of Major General Miller, is also a plaintiff in the case.
Rumsfeld’s resignation last week means that he can no longer try to claim immunity as a head of state or government official. The defendants are alleged to have ordered war crimes, aided or abetted war crimes, or failed to prevent their commission by subordinates, actions that are explicitly criminalized by German law. Under Germany’s 2002 Code of Crimes against International Law (CCIL), the German Federal Prosecutor is entitled to prosecute war criminals irrespective of the location of the defendant or plaintiff, the place where the crime was carried out, or the nationality of the persons involved.
In November 2004, the previous German Federal Prosecutor failed to prosecute an earlier complaint against many of these same defendants. The U.S. pressured Germany to drop the case, which was ultimately dismissed in February 2005 on the eve of a visit by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to Germany. The Federal Prosecutor, who refused to take up a single case under the universal jurisdiction law for the four years since it was passed, has been replaced be a new prosecutor.
In dismissing the case, the first prosecutor stated, “There are no indications that the authorities and courts of the United States of America are refraining, or would refrain, from penal measures as regards the violations described in the complaint.” The passage of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 attempting to immunize officials and others from prosecution in the United States and substantial new evidence show this is not the case, according to attorneys and human rights groups.
“Two years after filing our first case in Germany, the utter and complete failure of authorities in the United States to take any action to investigate high level involvement in the torture program could not be clearer,” said CCR President Michael Ratner. “The recently passed Military Commissions Act, which purports to amnesty the alleged war crimes of U.S. officials, is only the most recent illustration of American unwillingness to prosecute Americans. These crimes are not the work of ‘a few bad apples;’ they were planned and executed at the highest levels of the U.S. government.”
Taking account of extraordinary new information that has come to light over the past two years, the new complaint now charges that former White House Counsel Alberto Gonzalez and former Deputy and Assistant Attorney General John Yoo and Jay Bybee, as well as others are alleged to be the legal architects of the Bush Administration’s “legal torture.” The existence of so-called “torture memos” and the authorization by Secretary Rumsfeld, Lt. General Sanchez and others, of special interrogation techniques that violate humanitarian and human rights law make clear that responsibility for abusive treatment at Abu Ghraib and the other U.S. facilities reaches all the way to the top.
Former Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, a defendant in the earlier complaint as the commanding officer at Abu Ghraib, will now testify in Germany for the plaintiffs’ case. Berlin attorney Wolfgang Kaleck said: “In November 2004, we went to Germany because it was seen as a court of last resort, and in 2006 it still is. There is simply no other place to go except to foreign domestic courts. As we fight for accountability and justice, our worldwide network of human rights organizations and lawyers is working to strengthen universal human rights as the first resort for victims of war crimes wherever we have the opportunity to do so. Seizing advantage of the principle of universal jurisdiction lets us confront war crimes, no matter where they occur or who commits them. Today’s complaint is to be understood as an -attempt, amongst others, to combat torture and deter further crimes.”
“The United States of America, purporting to set moral and legal standards for the world, refuses to seriously investigate the role of those at the top of the chain of command for the crimes committed against hundreds of detainees held in U.S. custody in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, Cuba,” said Sidiki Kaba, FIDH President. “We now call upon the German prosecutor to fulfill her prosecutorial duties in an independent, impartial and objective manner.”
For documents and more information on the case, visit http://www.ccr-ny.org
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Open Letter to Representatives Pelosi and Conyers
We the People are Setting the Table Now
Cindy Sheehan, November 13, 2006
Dear Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Conyers,
I am writing this open letter to you both on the day after Veteran’s Day. A day that has so much more meaning to me since my son Casey was KIA (killed in action) in Iraq for absolutely no reason but to line the pockets of the war machine. I cried in front of his symbolic tombstone at Arlington Northeast in Philadelphia and I dreamed of him before I awakened. Casey’s “tombstone” was planted in the ground directly across from Liberty Hall, which was the birthplace of our Republic. How tragic it was to see 2842 tombstones of our brave young people who have been killed by people who are trampling all over our Constitution and making a mockery out of the separations of power and the original intent of that document. 2842 citizens who were willing to volunteer for service and were killed by people who lied to the world to send them to invade and occupy a country in a war of aggression that has killed almost a million Iraqi citizens. How tragic it is that you both, our newly elected Democratic leadership are already talking about abrogating their constitutional responsibilities, again.
We the people are shocked that you two are already stridently saying over and over again that impeachment is “off the table.” Since the historic November 7 elections, I have talked to a boatload of Americans who want impeachment on the table. We activists worked hard to make these elections about national issues, like the illegal and immoral occupation of Iraq, and the culture of corruption that, especially you, Ms. Pelosi have been railing against for months now. And you, Mr. Conyers, have already written a brilliant and detailed indictment of BushCo. We the people are definitely puzzled by your rhetoric.
We the people put the Democrats back into power because we want to see a change in this country and a rejection of politics as usual. We want politics as unusual. We want to see the issue of impeachment and a speedy and safe withdrawal of our troops from Iraq de-politicized and brought into the realm of “right and wrong” where these issues belong, not “right and left.”
We the people are here to tell you that we are the ones that are going to be setting the table, now. For too many years, we have allowed you people, who are just like us and elected by us and from us, to tell us what the agenda will be. Like I told George in a recent letter to him, a sleeping giant has been awakened in this country and we are not falling asleep again just because the Democrats, only with grassroots involvement and commitment, are back in power in Congress.
It turns our stomachs when you talk about “working” with the Republicans. First of all, these people have allowed BushCo free rein in committing their high crimes and misdemeanors and crimes against humanity. Why would you want to work with murderers, liars, and crooks? When one works with criminals, one becomes complicit and culpable for those crimes. We elected you all to be different, not more of the same.
Secondly, and more importantly, BushCo have openly committed egregious crimes that they have all admitted to. The question really is not should they be impeached, but why haven’t they been impeached, removed from office and criminally charged and tried for these crimes, yet? I believe that when Congressional Representatives and Senators are sworn into office they take an oath to protect the Constitution, not to protect, aid, and abet criminals. The investigation and eventual rubber stamp to begin impeachment proceedings against Nixon was a bi-partisan effort and Nixon wasn’t even investigated for the level of crimes that BushCo should be investigated for.
We realize that you have a tremendous and daunting task before you both. We know for six years that your governmental body has been busy giving its power away to a maniac who has abused and misused that power so incompetently and tragically. However, to say that impeachment can’t be one of the issues that Congress begins immediate work on is not giving you all enough credit. We know that you can do it! We have confidence in your abilities. Impeachment has been done before in our country and it has never before been so urgent.
How many times has George said that the troops aren’t coming home while he is president? How many times has BushCo lied to us and admitted those lies? Or been caught in those lies? How many people have they killed for greed of money and power and how many lives have been destroyed by them? How many laws have BushCo broken and admitted to breaking? How many people have they physically and mentally wounded by torture and by sending our brave young people wrongly to Iraq and not supporting them when they get there? How much longer will you allow them to violate and desecrate everything that we hold dear as Americans and human beings?
We the people demand that you do your duties as officers and protectors of our Constitution and we demand that you do your duties as members of humanity to call a halt to the crimes against humanity of the Bush regime.
When the 110th Congress is seated on January 3, we the people, who also have a duty to our Constitution (We the People is the first line) and a duty to humanity will be walking the halls of your offices to tell you what our agenda is and what we want on the table.
I admire and respect both of you and I know you will do the right thing, but you better heed the will of we the people, or we will find other people who will. I hope you do believe that we want you to represent us and not the special interests of the war machine.
We the people are serious about true change this time and we are willing to walk, work, sit, stand, write, travel, sweat, freeze, be arrested, and scream for these changes.
Impeachment and removal from office are not for the squeamish or faint of heart, but we are neither of those things. We are all brave and (p)(m)atriotic Americans who realize that healing of the political divide that has characterized the Bush regime will only begin when our young people and the people of Iraq see justice for all of the death and misery that BushCo has afflicted humanity with. Our children who have been sent to early graves or have to live the rest of their lives with PTSD or missing limbs, and the people of Iraq (not to mention the victims of Katrina) are crying out for this justice. Justice is meted out everyday in our world and if BushCo are not brought to justice then justice loses its meaning and effectiveness.
Do it for Casey, do it for his buddies, do it for the people of Iraq, do it for the people who were devastated by Katrina, do it to bring legitimacy back to Congress and our Constitution, do it to raise our reputation in the international community, do it just because it is the right thing to do.
See you on January 3rd.
Peace soon, Cindy Sheehan
Activists can contact the potential Madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi at: sf.nancy@us.mail.gov and the potential Chairperson of the Judiciary Committee, Hon. John Conyers, or your personal Congressional Representative at: http://www.house.gov/writerep/
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