LATEST NEWS FROM PERDANA GLOBAL PEACE ORGANISATION

By Victoria Stewart

“Whatever you might think about lawyers, they are the canaries in the mineshafts of democracy. And they are coming after the lawyers.” ~~~ Frances Boyle

“We need to shut this city down by doing non-violent civil disobedience.” ~~~ Cindy Sheehan
Over the past few months I have talked to many people about the worsening situation in the Middle East and the US. I’ve talked with family and friends, with strangers in grocery stores and gas stations and with activists and advocates who have been moved to action by the atrocities and crimes of George W. Bush and his regime. I’ve spoken with people who, in the words of Tom Palumbo, have “taken it to the streets,” people who have been arrested, harassed and publicly vilified for expressing their beliefs. And I have spoken with people who are afraid to speak out. But somehow, it was the pragmatic, reasoned words of Dr. Francis A. Boyle that brought fresh urgency to my nightmares.

Dr. Boyle > , who teaches law at University of Illinois College of Law,
Urbana-Champaign, is an internationally recognized expert in international law and human rights. His vita reads like a chronology of the human rights movement of the last thirty years and his books have been hailed for legal and political brilliance. His latest book, “Protesting Power: War, Resistance and Law, offers legal information and political insights for those who protest. A vocal opponent of George W. Bush and one of the first to call for impeachment, Dr. Boyle’s articles and interviews are widely published and many are available online.

In March, 2003, Congressman John Conyers convened an emergency meeting of his top advisors to discuss introduction of Bills of Impeachment against President Bush, Vice President Cheney and then Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and then Attorney General Ashcroft. Francis Boyle and Ramsey Clark were asked to argue the case for impeachment. Dr. Boyle made the closing argument in the debate.

“The point I chose to make was historical. The Athenians lost their democracy to incessant war. The Romans lost their Republic to a dictator. We are not immune to the laws of history. If Americans don’t act now we could lose our Republic.”

Although Congressman Conyers did not decide to bring Articles of Impeachment against George Bush and members of his administration, Francis Boyle has continued to oppose the illegal actions of this government. He has drafted several Bills of Impeachment and works tirelessly to restore the Constitution

Congress has certainly betrayed the American people and the country by ignoring the clear mandate given by the voters in 2006 to end the war and stop Bush’s all-out assault on the Constitution.

“The Democratic Congress has been complicit with everything Bush Jr. has done. The new spy legislation passed just before they went on vacation is truly Orwellian. This ‘Protect America Act’ retroactively approved the illegal and criminal spying operation that has been conducted against the American people, and gutted FISA. And it is a joke and a fraud for them to say they don’t have enough votes to stop the war. They only need to sit on their hands and let the money run out. It is dissembling and disingenuous to say they must vote.”

Each day calls for impeachment grow louder and stronger as more and more Americans join the fight to reclaim our country yet Congress still refuses to act. And so the question is, what can we do to force Congress to do its job and uphold the Constitution?

“Cindy Sheehan, who is a very brave woman and has become the spokesperson for the peace movement, has the right idea. When Nancy Pelosi refused to consider impeachment and would not represent her constituents, Cindy Sheehan announced that she was running against Pelosi. And Harold Burbank in Connecticut just announced that he will run against (Congressman Christopher) Murphy if Murphy doesn’t submit articles of impeachment against Cheney and Rice and Bush. That’s what we need. We need to put the fear of the Almighty into these people. We need to put up candidates and run against them.”

Many people seem to be turning to the elections in 2008 as an answer. Certainly, the media is covering the campaigns as if some solution will be offered up in 14 months. How important is it to begin impeachment proceedings now? Dr. Boyle thinks it is critically important…

“I don’t think we have 14 months. I don’t know if we’ll get to the elections. I believe we are going to attack Iran. We now have three carriers in the Persian Gulf. And if we attack Iran, of course, it would cause the whole region to erupt in violence. The draft would be reinstated. I believe Bush would ask for a formal declaration of war, which he doesn’t have now with Afghanistan or Iraq, and I think Congress would give him that. With a formal declaration he would become a Constitutional dictator. And then we would really see the police state tactics kick in. If at least one member of Congress filed a bill of impeachment it would de-legitimize them in the eyes of the military and the intelligence community. It would give some ammunition to those in the Pentagon who don’t want to go to war with Iran. I think this is very important.”

And while most of us have an innate sense that what faces our country now is very different than threats in the past, Dr. Boyle has an experiential understanding.

“You have to understand. These neo-cons are not conservatives in the traditional sense. They are not following the philosophy of Edmund Burke. I know these people. I went to the University of Chicago with them. Wolfowitz, Khalilzad, Shulsky and the rest. I went through the same training. I was supposed to be one of them. Leo Strauss, the Neocon founder, ran the Department of Political Science. Strauss’ mentor in Germany was Karl Schmidt, the most notorious Nazi law professor of that benighted era. Schmidt tried to justify in legal terms every atrocity the Nazis inflicted. These are the people we are dealing with. They aren’t conservatives. They are really Neo Nazis.”

“Nazi” and “fascist” are words that are often used too casually in writing and conversation. The realty that these people are in charge of the government of the United States and in control of our military is a terrifying truth to confront. Dr. Boyle understands with whom we are dealing.

“These are extremely dangerous people. They are very bright and they are cunning and ruthless and they have almost no morals. What they want is absolute control. What we have to understand here is that we are one step away from detention camps and martial law.”

Dr. Boyle is not content with warnings, however. In addition to running candidates against members of Congress who refuse to do their job, Dr. Boyle has other suggestions for what we can do to stop this rush into expanding wars and the loss of constitutional democracy.

“We have to have massive, non-violent civil resistance. We all need to step in and do our part. We need more marches in Washington, DC and local marches. During Viet Nam, Daniel Ellsberg was in the Pentagon during a demonstration against the war and he said that was when he decided to leak the Pentagon Papers, when he saw that demonstration. We have to go all out. And the late, great Phil Berrigan talked about organizing a national strike before he was diagnosed with cancer. I think we need to get that organized. We need a massive campaign of peaceful opposition. We all need to do what our conscience tells us to do.”

A few weeks ago I stood in an airport parking lot and talked to my son who was flying back to the west coast about what to do if martial law is declared. It was not a conversation I ever expected to have but it was a necessary conversation. Dr. Boyle understood that, also.

“That’s why I work full-time every day fighting-so that our children will have a future. That’s what every parent needs to do.”
(c) 2007 Victoria Stewart is the associate editor of Issues & Alibis magazine.

Francis A. Boyle
Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820 USA
217-333-7954 (Voice)
217-244-1478 (Fax)
(personal comments only)

By Niloufer Bhagwat (first published in Feb 2006)
The discussions and resolutions on nuclear fuel enrichment by Iran, in proceedings of the International Atomic Energy Agency, have been projected by the insidious propaganda of the very governments in readiness for a criminal nuclear strike on Iran, as issues which will determine the fate of the people of Iran in the Security Council or otherwise. This has been orchestrated through the global Corporate media, led by Fox, BBC, CNN and other channels and newspapers around the world, hungering on behalf of banks, financial institutions and corporations of the belligerent powers and their covert allies, to militarily devour yet another country ’s national budget and resources. Iran will be the fourth in the series of countries occupied through military strikes and “shock and awe ” bombings, beginning with the former Yugoslavia, followed by Afghanistan and Iraq.
Learned commentators have explained ,the intricacies of the negotiations and the objective position ,on the permissible peaceful uses of nuclear energy in keeping with the provisions of the Non Proliferation Treaty. Few have focussed on the real reasons for yet another war, critical for an understanding of the contemporary situation, that this entire debate on nuclear fuel enrichment in the IAEA, has been a smokescreen intended for those still gullible, to camouflage the financial meltdown of dramatic proportions of the US and UK economy among other dependent economies, which is the real reason for the impending nuclear strike on Iran, by the foremost unbridled representatives of capitalism.
The impending financial meltdown, with far reaching political consequences, hurtling the world into a nuclear war, is the direct consequence of a pattern of economic development dictated by global corporate policy. As a consequence of this policy, some countries are holding enormous reserves of dollars, subsidizing the US economy to the extent of more than $ 2. 6 billion a day, to prop up the dollar as the world’s reserve currency, without the manufacturing and economic clout to sustain this role, with a view to maintain a captive US market , consuming goods manufactured abroad. The dollar is being used to support a global economic system, which is a “charade “, and against working citizens all over the globe .The system has enabled diverse transnational companies, including companies from the US, Japan, China and Europe, among other companies, operating from cheap labour markets in China and elsewhere, to obtain profits, by retaining the export markets within the United States. It is estimated that 80% of the world’ s savings are invested in US government bonds, from the national budgets of several countries including China, Japan, South Korea, West Asia, Europe among other regions of the world, at the expense of their citizens.
Ron Paul, Republican Congressman in the US House of Representatives, who cannot even be remotely faulted for being a pall bearer of US capitalism, in a detailed presentation to the US House of Representatives on 15th February 2006, followed by another intervention on 16th February 2006, called the bluff of the US administration on the issue of the war against Iran. The Congressman without quibbling, stated before Congress , in detailed presentations, that the war on Iraq, the imminent military strike contemplated against Iran, and the coup attempt in Venezuela, were all directly related to the decline of the dollar as the world’ s reserve currency, and the policy decision of these governments to shift the petroleum trade to the Euro/ basket of currencies emphasising that -

“ā€¦ For the most part the true victims aren’t aware of how they pay ā€¦ The license to create money out of thin air allows the bills to be paid through price inflation. American citizens, as well as the average citizens of Japan, China and other countries suffer from price inflation which represents the “tax ” that pays the bills for our military adventures ā€¦everything possible is done to prevent the fraud of the monetary system from being exposed to the masses who suffer ā€¦As long as foreign recipients take our dollars for real goods and are willing to finance our extravagant consumption and militarism, the status quo will continue ā€¦Using force to compel people to accept money without real value can only work in the short term it ultimately leads to economic dislocation , both domestic and international and always ends with a price to be paid ā€¦ā€¦”
Other vital data is now available from objective sources , on the health of the US and consequently of dependent economies . Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in President Reagon ’s administration, and former Assistant Editor of the Wall Street Journal, in a series of impassioned articles titled,” The True State of the Union”, and ” Nuking the US economy “, has made the startling observation, that the ” decline in some manufacturing sectors have more in common with a country undergoing saturation bombing during war than with a super-economy”. Roberts refers to what citizens protesting in Europe, North America and throughout the world, had already made obvious, now belatedly conceded by Stephen Roach of Morgan Stanley at the recently held Davos conference, that the ” win -win ” situation for the industrialized countries, from the ideology of free trade and the WTO globalization had not been realized, which Corporate CEOs and their hired economists had projected, and continue to project. As a consequence of the nature of disastrous economic and fiscal policy , the Federal US debt was estimated to be as high as $8.2 trillion. Quoting the economist Charles McMillon, from the 19th January 2006 issue of “Manufacturing and Technology News”, the former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury informs us, that the US has lost 17% manufacturing jobs and its trade surplus in manufactured Advance Technology Products, and did not “earn enough to cover any part of its import bill for oil, autos or clothing “, becoming “wholly dependent on Asia to finance its massive deficits and foreign wars”. Paul Roberts observes that with the ” hemorrhaging red ink in every direction, ” within the United States economy, ” the dollar could hardly survive as the world’s reserve currency.”
It is in these statistical facts and figures on the US and other economies of the highly industrialized countries, that the truth of the preemptive military strike on Iran is being revealed , the real reasons for the voting pattern in the IAEA of several governments, including the quislings. The preparations for a war on Iran is seen as an urgent measure with bipartisan support from both parties Republicans and Democrats in the United States, Labor and Conservative in the UK, despite the occupation of Iraqi oil fields and the devouring of the Iraqi national budget, to shore up their economies, by retaining the hegemony of the petrodollar , as the denominated reserve currency for oil and hydrocarbon transactions, as against the proposed oil bourse in Iran, which would provide an alternative currency / basket of currencies for the trade in petroleum . The prevention of the switch over , by military means , is to prop up the fast declining dollar. The other objectives of the military strike are to plunder the national resources, budget, treasury , and savings of the people of Iran, to provide unearned income for the corporations of belligerent powers and their collaborators by providing reconstruction and other contracts from Iranian revenues, similar to what was done by the invasion of Iraq, and in a different way in Afghanistan; where the drug trade was revitalized, through war lords and drug lords, to maintain the flow of liquidity into Western Banks and financial institutions , while camouflaging the use of drug money by the financial system , by incarcerating African Americans and others , the economically and socially deprived citizens , for minor drug related offences ,as cheap labour for the prison industry of the United States .
Simultaneously, and of critical importance, is the use of the ” unending war” by the very governments waging war, to prevent a revolt of working people and democratic sections within the USA, UK and other countries, directly related to growing unemployment, declining incomes and pauperization; to use poverty and jingoism to recruit unemployed youth for the military from the working class, middle income and rural farming communities as a ” reserve army of the unemployed “. Democratic rights and personal freedoms have been suppressed by ” anti-terror ” legislation, to prohibit organizational protests by citizens against war, erosion of constitutional rights, protective labour laws and hard won social security measures.
The reports of the establishment of ‘Northcom’, the first military command to control the homeland and holding of the military exercise ‘Granite Shadows ‘, are intended for domestic military operations , against the people of the United States. The contracts awarded to Halliburton, to build large-scale deportation centres around the country, is part of the military front of the same unending war, of which Iran is another theatre. The war is aimed as much against the people of the United States, UK and others as against Iran. The difference this time round is , that the attack on Iran, is planned with micro nuclear weapon precision attacks, to be executed directly or from the military outposts/bases of countries like Israel, closely allied to Corporate interests in the US, UK and Europe .The military objective is to speedily subjugate the people of Iran, with earth penetrating nuclear bunker busters or mini nukes and depleted uranium munitions, produced on an assembly line basis, camouflaged as “bunker busters “, to avoid a protracted ground war.
Swift nuclear attacks on Iran are aimed at restricting the deployment of more ground troops, with a view to avoid the prospect of many more casualties for the occupying forces , after the experience of Iraq, where the Iraqi Resistance has firmly held down the US, UK and coalition ground forces , and cannot be defeated. The strategy is aimed at avoiding demoralizing of military forces and citizens of the United States, UK and those of other belligerent countries, at the very outset of the war , by a swift subjugation of Iran, to avoid a public outcry on increasing casualties, even though body bags/ military coffins are now returned by stealth under cover of darkness.
It is the economic and financial denouement of the foremost Capitalist powers, attempting to use a preemptive unjustified nuclear precision strike on Iran, in the heart of Asia, to shore up the dollar and corporate rule within these countries, which is what governments subservient to Corporate interests, voting on the recent resolutions against Iran, in the forum of the International Atomic Energy Agency, have sought to camouflage and conceal from citizens and in legislatures around the world. The cynical manner in which this exercise has been carried out, is evidence of the reckless and diabolical policies, which have led to a third global war, within a short historical span of less than a hundred years, for colonial and imperialist domination of the world’s resources and markets. Till date there is not a single credible report of the IAEA, reporting , that Iran is anywhere near to becoming a credible nuclear weapon state, posing any threat whatsoever to the United States or to any other country. Hypothetically, even if Iran was in breach of the NPT, the use of a military attack on such facilities, is prima facie not the right solution, as such an attack would directly lead to consequences which the Non Proliferation Treaty was enacted to prohibit, the radiation fall out effects of any nuclear attack or war. Moreover the world has not been informed, as to what was the response from the United States among others, to the proposal of the Government of Iran , for a nuclear free zone for the whole of West Asia, inclusive of Israel and the Mediterranean and adjacent sea lanes, and why negotiations on the proposal have not commenced.
The propaganda ploy , to justify a military attack having weakened, there is an attempt to reinforce the case for war, by utilizing the Iranian President Ahmedinejad ’s emotional reaction and verbal retaliation, to Israel ’s repeated threats of preemptive military strike on Iran’s nuclear energy program, by his rhetorical question, whether the Arab world should pay for the crimes of the ” holocaust ” ; a crime perpetrated in Europe and the questioning of the right of the State of Israel to exist. Notwithstanding the Iranian President ’s insensitive questioning , of the precise numbers of Jewish victims, the debate initiated by the Iranian President, highlights the convenient amnesia of the ruling classes in Europe and the world to “others “, though a part of the same indivisible humanity, killed by the same “holocaust “, of fascism. The Slavs, Romas, Ukrainians, Russians, citizens of the former Republics of the USSR, citizens of other countries of Europe who were among the 50 million dead. Millions were killed in Asia and the Far East including people of China, Korea, Philippines, of other countries of South East Asia, including soldiers sent to the war fronts in Europe and the Pacific in the Second World War and in events which preceded it; apart from the earlier holocausts of Native Americans, African slaves, of the indigenous and colonized people among others in recent history .
The Iranian President ’s questioning of the nature of the racist and Apartheid State of Israel , has to be assessed in the context of the orchestrated statements of the present military and political leaders of Israel threatening Iran with preemptive military strikes.
It is widely known that Israel is in gross violation of the Non Proliferation Treaty (through its completed covert nuclear program). Yet sanctions and preemptive military strikes have never been contemplated against Israel, despite Israeli aggression against neighboring states, the continuous seizure and occupation of the homeland of the Palestinian people , and the decision of the International Court of Justice on the illegal construction of a wall by Israel, an indictment of the government of Israel as a racist and apartheid state, a view which is supported by eminent Jewish citizens of South Africa, with experience of life under apartheid . That Israel has an unusual track record of violating every principle of International Law , is well known , including the ongoing economic blockade of the Palestinian people , continuous shooting without provocation of Palestinian men , women and children , attacks on UN agencies and its personnel and the illegal attack on Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor For several years Israel is in violation of every single resolution of the Security Council and the General Assembly on vacation of territories of the Palestinian people , has resorted to terrorist attacks on Palestinian towns and villages with impunity , without any action by the US, UK ,among other governments . On the other hand Israel cannot survive without subsidies from US taxpayers.
It is in this context and the backdrop of military threats to Iran from Israel , that the issue of the constitutional legitimacy in International Law of the State of Israel has been raised by President Ahmedinejad , in language which shocked diplomatic opinion more than the indiscriminate bombings and killings of the Afghan and Iraqi people and military occupation of whole countries, reflecting on the world of diplomacy . There has been no serious questioning of the issue whether Israel as a racist and apartheid state , can claim to legitimately exist on the basis of a resolution of the United Nations , which mandated the creation of two states a State of Palestine and a State of Israel on existing territories ; with equal citizenship rights for the Palestinian and Jewish people .As none of the conditions of this UN Resolution under which Israel claims legitimacy have been fulfilled , namely the creation of the state of Palestine, which raises the question of Israel ’s legitimacy in International Law , and the need to implement the original UN resolution in substance and spirit by the people residing in Israel and Palestine . Apart from the fact that democratic Jewish opinion is opposed to a racist apartheid state , being used as an outpost of imperialism , deflecting the debate from economic and exploitative systems , to attacks on alleged racial and religious characteristics , which fascism has used and continues to use and the historical reality , that the Jewish people were never persecuted in the Islamic world, where religions and cultures co-existed in harmony .
However , it must be stressed that Israel is as much a pretext for the threatened military attack on Iran , as the resolutions of the IAEA , and there are more players to this unfolding global tragedy . At the recently held, 42nd Annual Security Conference for Europe, from 3rd Feb - 5th February, appropriately at Munich, Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, representing the alliance of three political parties the CDC, SDP and CSU, formed after the electorate in Germany had rejected and disabled all three parties, from independently forming a government, oblivious to the fascist destruction of Europe only 60 years ago, sought a pivotal role for NATO and announced a complete agreement of the European Union , which in real terms implies the concurrence of major European Banks , financial institutions and Corporations , with US security plans , policies and doctrines , notwithstanding the rejection by French voters among others , of the Constitution and policies of the European Union .
Significantly and ominously the proceedings at Munich, included a veiled threat from Angela Merkel to the Russian Federation, to fall in line, declaring that ” Russia ’s conduct on the issue of Iran could be the test of future relations “. American delegates at the conference were even more belligerent on Russia, a veiled hint by representatives of US and European Banks and Corporations to the world, that Syria and Iran are neither the first nor the last staging posts of this unending war, a warning that the people of the Russian Federation and China can ignore only at their peril.
Even though, China at this conference reasserted ” multilateralism “, within the framework of the United Nations Charter, as the correct forum for the resolution of disputes; the harsher economic and political ground realities are the interest of Chinese Companies and comprador elements, in China ’s political hierarchy, ironically in a party, which calls itself the Communist party of China, collaborating in the operations of major US and other Transnational Companies in China, and the quid quo pro obtained from the United States in negotiations , of special and most favoured economic relationship for China , which have led to the non exercise by China , and of Russia ( for different reasons ), of their veto power in the Security Council ,borne out by events leading up to the Gulf War in 1990 and the illegal sanctions imposed on the people of Iraq by the Security Council .
At Munich -2006, the NATO Secretary General Jaep de Hoop Scheffer , and other speakers underlined, that NATO must build links with nations such as “Australia , New Zealand , South Korea and Japan ” . This reference is significant for the global military alliance progressively unfolding, partially reflected in the voting in the IAEA, including the split in the non-aligned movement. NATO at this conference has now declared itself to be ” a globally operating alliance; a unique political and military instrument.”
In this murky atmosphere, it was left to the representative of Cuba to reiterate before the IAEA, that it is the permanent members of the Security Council who are in continuous breach of the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty, including of Article VI which mandates that :
” Each of the Parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.”

The Cuban representative, speaking on the resolution before the International Atomic Energy Agency, reflected the view of the large majority of citizens across continents by emphasizing that:
” The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons has become a profoundly discriminatory instrument whose main purpose today, is to protect the interests of the “nuclear club “. To interpret its letter and spirit in an arbitrary manner and to violate its provisions to incorporate new clauses which discriminate against our countries is simply inadmissible ā€¦ā€¦. ”
” The nuclear powers that have turned this debate into the order of the day are the same ones that devote countless resources to making their nuclear war heads and missiles accurately and deadly. They are the states in flagrant non-compliance with nuclear disarmament provisions, obligations that ought to be wholly metā€¦”
” The government of the United States has proclaimed and exercised its alleged right to unleash preventive and unilateral wars. Its new nuclear doctrine provides for the use of nuclear weapons on non-nuclear weapon states or on supposed or undefined enemiesā€¦.. ”
The US Congress, throwing caution aside, despite its previous resolutions for war in Afghanistan and Iraq, exposed as without any factual basis, unconstitutional and flawed, in violation of the UN Charter and International Law; recklessly voted last week by 400 for and 4 votes against, to refer Iran to the Security Council. This resolution, factually incorrect, stated that - “on February 4, 2006, the IAEA Board of Governors reported Iran ’s non-compliance with its IAEA safeguard obligations to the Security Councilā€¦” Whereas the factual position is, that till date, there is no such report on Iran by the IAEA of ” non-compliance”. A report has yet to be made by the IAEA, for which another meeting has been scheduled.
The ” drumbeat ” of the US Congress for war , cannot deflect from the strength of world opinion, wholly aware , that it is the government of the United States, which threatens countries with nuclear attack, and is the only State to have used nuclear weapons in the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, on non military targets, to send a threat to the rest of the world, even as Japan initiated the procedure for surrender. There has been an extensive campaign by scientists and veterans in the United States and globally, on the use of radioactive depleted uranium munitions , by the US military on civilians, combatants and non-combatants, including on its own solders in former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, in Iraq (in two wars). The uses of prohibited weapons such as Agent Orange, Napalm, White Phosphorous and Chemical weapons by US forces in Vietnam and in Iraq, have aroused a public outcry and condemnation throughout the world.
Recent US military nuclear doctrines have sent shock waves across continents. The Nuclear Posture Review 2001 of the US military was promulgated four years ago, much prior to the present discussions on Iran. OPLAN (Operation Plan) 8044 and its global strike scenario CONPLAN 8022, specifically authorize preemptive and nuclear strike against Iran and North Korea and against non -nuclear states .The bulletin of Atomic Scientists report, that despite the demise of the “Cold War “, the coverage of targets in Russia, China, Iran and the DR of Korea by nuclear -powered ballistic submarines has increased.
On 5th December 2005, 16 Congressman sent a message of concern to President Bush, emphasizing, that this ” drastic shift in nuclear policy threatens the very foundation of nuclear arms control as a system for over 35 years “. The failure on part of the United States to fulfil its obligations under Article VI of the Non Proliferation Treaty, to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, its withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, were not matters of concern to the US Congress passing a resolution, as a preparatory to a nuclear attack on Iran, influenced by the ” best and brightest” Corporations controlling US policies, despite the message of former President Jimmy Carter to the White House, condemning the US government, as the ” prime culprit in global nuclear proliferation ” .
Inexorably, the world is being driven by the predominant economic and political system , into a nuclear war, with the announcement from more than one Chancery, including from the French President, that preemptive military strike, using nuclear weapons, is the declared form of warfare.
It is no longer possible to escape from the reality that the protagonists of a decaying and degenerate system, a galaxy of the world ’s Corporations and their CEOs, are destroying wealth, resources and livelihood across continents, in direct proportion to creating it, in what is the third global war for resources and markets, characteristic of capitalism in crisis in the last 100 years of its existence ; apart from the earlier century and more of colonial wars, and the brutal localized and regional conflicts, waged by the same forces in the 20th Century in Vietnam , Latin America , Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia . More than fulfilling the scientific analysis made of the productive and destructive capacities of capitalism.
Humanity is at the crossroads. However , governments and mainstream political parties, including political parties in opposition, are unresponsive to the mounting agony and distress of people from one society to another, as these parties have arrived at an understanding or adjustment with criminilized economic and political systems. Many of those projected by the media as leaders, have been placed in office or in key positions in political parties, from one country to another, by one of the most anti-human financial oligarchy in the history of mankind. These political formations survive and occupy the political space, through enormous financial contributions overt and covert, from diverse corporations and their political touts, to control policy and assist in the diversion of the political debate.
The political situation is made more complex by the fact that the establishment left parties, many of the existing socialist and communist parties, in Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, Australia and elsewhere, even those with a historical past of revolutionary activities and grass root struggles, have acquiesced in the policies of “globalization”, which is imperialism, implemented in the present historical stage through the WTO .As a consequence, most of these establishment parties though claiming to be to the left , are no longer in the vanguard for change , in a tortuous historical situation , where wars of aggression and occupation of societies , are adjuncts to globalization/ imperialism and not merely issues of foreign policy .
New formations, organizations and movements are required to resist this suicidal, genocidal and omnicidal direction of policies. It is the on the ground political conditions in each society, which will determine the nature and form of resistance, the manifesto for change and reconstruction. No political, economic, social and justice system is built in abstract, it is based on the nature of economic classes and social groups within a society, their special needs and their inter se relations. Constitutions and laws are only the superstructure , based on existing economic, social and political relations. A political movement must reflect the necessity , to alter equations, which are unjust and invidious, which the great revolutions in Europe and heroic National Liberation Movements in Asia, Africa and Latin America set out to achieve ; leaving their task unfinished, for reasons which must be analysed, both the achievements and deficiencies, with a view to take forward the positive aspects, and discard the distortions and deficiencies focussing urgently on the challenges which confront us, rather than on recrimination .
Some of the sparks have survived. There are new stirrings, free from bureaucratic structures, collectively changing governments in countries in Latin America. Defending the gains, influencing policy, are thousands and millions from their workplace, from city squares and streets, and they have found unusual leaders from amongst themselves. Leaders who believe in transparency of position and policies, on the voluntary participation of working people to change their own destiny , a continuous dialogue with others, to remake societies and their own lives , free from the tyranny of party or state bureaucracies; reveling in the celebration of the winds of freedom sweeping across a tortured continent. A mass movement built on a non-negotiable manifesto for change, to rectify economic and social injustice, producing leaders from amongst the oppressed, is more difficult to subvert.
On the other hand , an economic and political system, which has to declare war, to use the resources of its society , for military budgets unprecedented in world history, to use nuclear weapons to protect the artificial value of its currency , on which Corporations across continents feed for profits; reducing its own society and those of the occupied countries to vast concentration camps, is a system rotting at its core.
Judge Mohammed Shahbuddin ( Guyana ) in his historic opinion on the ‘ Illegality of Nuclear Weapons ‘ of the International Court of Justice , quoting from the scholar and historian Ibn Khaldun ’s ‘ The Muqaddimah , An Introduction to History ‘, reminds us that “Laws have their reason in the purposes they have to serve ā€¦ā€¦ā€¦jurists mention ā€¦ā€¦.that injustice invites the destruction of civilization with the consequences that the species will be destroyed ā€¦ā€¦ā€¦therefore laws are based upon the effort to preserve civilizationā€¦ā€¦.A civilized society is not one that knowingly destroys itself or knowingly allows itself to be destroyed ” .
Resistance to save humanity with alternative strategies , is not an option in these circumstances for what is at stake for millions is existence itself, and there is a gentler , happier world to win .

SOURCES
1. Ron Paul , The End of Dollar Hegemony ( before the US House of Representatives 15.2.2006 ) Information Clearing House 16.2.2006 .
2. Ron Paul , Silence the War Drums ( before the US House of
Representatives , 16.2.2006) Information Clearing House 20.6.2006.
3. Paul Craig Roberts , The True State of the Union , Counterpunch
1. 2.2006.
4. Paul Craig Roberts , Nuking the US Economy , Counterpunch ,
11.2.2006.
5. Chris Floyd , High Crimes and Low Comedy in the Bush
Imperium , Globalresearch .ca, 20.2.2006.
6. M.K. Bhadrakumar , The Changing Face of Security , The Hindu,
20.2.2006.
7. Jack A. Smith , Bush ’s War Plan include the Use of Nuclear Weapon,
Globalresearch .ca , 9.2.2006.
8. Opinion of Judge Mohammed Shahbudeen ( Guyana ) , Advisory
Opinion 1996 of the International Court of Justice, On the legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, sought by the United Nations General Assembly

Taken from ANSWER Coalition. (Act Now To Stop War And End Racism)
September 15, 2007 will mark the 25th anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila Massacre. From September 15-17, 1982, Lebanese fascist paramilitaries, under the watchful eyes of the Israeli military occupiers, slaughtered more than 2,000 Palestinian residents of two refugee camps in Beirut. The overwhelming majority of those murdered were women, children and elderly men. Thousands of people will march on September 15 in Washington DC to demand the immediate end of the war in Iraq. On that day we, along with people throughout the world, will also remember and salute the victims of the Sabra and Shatila Massacre. The Arab people, throughout the Middle East must have justice and self-determination.

In June 1982, the Israeli military (IDF), with full support of the Reagan regime, launched a massive invasion of Lebanon. The objectives of the invasion were to destroy the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), then based mainly in Lebanon, and install a puppet government in Beirut. The U.S. continually re-supplied the IDF throughout the war.

The invasion of Lebanon culminated in the Sept. 15-17 rampage through two disarmed Palestinian refugee camps by 1,500 fighters of the racist and fascist Lebanese Forces, one of the right-wing Lebanese organizations allied with Israel.

For the entire summer of that year, the IDF mercilessly bombed the Lebanese capital, killing more than 20,000 people, the vast majority of them civilians. In September 1982, a ceasefire agreement was forced upon the Lebanese and Palestinians resisting the assault. Palestinian refugees made up more than 10 percent of Lebanon’s population of 3 million at the time.

Under the agreement, PLO military forces would be evacuated to Tunisia. In return, the safety and security of the Palestinian refugee camps would be guaranteed. Among the signers of this agreement were the governments of the United States and Israel.

The security guarantee was critical, because it was well known to all parties that the Lebanese Forces and other racist and fascist militias would butcher the residents of the camps if they were left unprotected.

By Sept. 15, with the PLO fighters gone, the IDF had completely surrounded the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in west Beirut. The remaining inhabitants of the camps were nearly all women, children or elderly men.

However, Ariel Sharon, then Israel’s defense minister, along with the Israeli commanders on the ground declared that they believed there were still PLO fighters hiding in the camps.

Using this pretext, Sharon ordered that the Lebanese Forces (LF), commanded by Elie Hobeika, be allowed enter the Palestinian camps to “clean out terrorist nests.”

A weekend of unimaginable horror ensued. The LF first went door-to-door, forcing the terrified inhabitants out into the streets and dividing them into groups.

Shortly after they entered the camps, an LF commander radioed Hobeika, who was in the presence of Israeli officers. The LF commander asked Hobeika what he should do with the women and children, to which Hobeika responded angrily, shouting over his radio: “You know exactly what to do!” (BBC documentary, ā€œThe Accused,ā€ 2001)

The slaughter then began in earnest. For the next 36 hours, the LF raped, tortured and slaughtered, wiping out nearly the entire population of more than 2,000 Palestinians and Lebanese living in Sabra and Shatila.

Israeli officers and cabinet ministers, including Ariel Sharon–who as defense minister bore overall responsibility for the occupation of Lebanon–were repeatedly informed of what was going on. When the Israelis finally instructed Hobeika to pull the LF forces out on Sept. 17, the LF asked for, and received, a one-day extension to “finish their work.”

Once the hideous images of the Sabra and Shatila massacre were flashed around the world, the anger and revulsion were so great that even Israel had to set up an official commission of inquiry the following year. The Kahan Commission found Sharon “indirectly responsible” for the massacre. He was forced to resign as defense minister, although not from the Israeli cabinet. Two decades later, Sharon ascended to Israelā€™s highest office, prime minister.

Sabra and Shatila was neither Sharonā€™s first nor last massacre. The fact that this war criminal could commit such widely known acts and yet go on to become prime minister is the clearest sign of the Israeli stateā€™s profoundly racist character.

Twenty-five years after the Sabra and Shatila Massacre, Sharonā€™s successors with massive support from Washington continue their occupation of Palestine and brutal repression of the Palestinian people.

The aim of the 1982 massacre was to break the spirit of the Palestinian people and crush their resistance by means of an extraordinarily horrific terrorist act. It failed to achieve that objective.

Today, the struggle of the Palestinian people for self-determination, including the fundamental right of those living in exile to return to their homeland, continues. What is taking place now in Palestine, just 600 miles from Iraq, cannot be separated from the larger struggle against U.S. occupation and domination in the region.

The Arab American and Muslim communities have been in the forefront of building the U.S. anti-war movement, protesting the criminal U.S. war in Iraq and demanding justice for the Palestinian people.

On September 15, 2007 the ANSWER Coalition and others in the anti-war movement will join with justice-minded people around the world in paying tribute to the victims of a terrible crime committed a quarter-century ago, and stand as always in solidarity with the struggling people of Palestine.

A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.answercoalition.org/
info@internationalanswer.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389
New York City: 212-694-8720
Los Angeles: 213-251-1025
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
Chicago: 773-463-0311

Submitted by Sonja Karkar, Australians for Palestine
Email info@australiansforpalestine.com
PO Box 2099, Hawthorn VIC 3122 Fax: 03 9818 5009 www.australiansforpalestine.com.

Introduction
On 30 August 2007, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) released a report which found that poverty in the Occupied Palestinian Territories has reached ā€œunprecedented levelsā€ due to the economic siege forced on the population over seven years. This siege culminated in the punitive sanctions imposed by the international community in January 2006 after the Hamas party was democratically voted into government. Not surprisingly, this has caused the number of Palestinians living in ā€œdeep povertyā€ to almost double to more than one million people - statistics similarly reported by Oxfam International in April 2007 and also OCHA. In effect, the Palestinians are facing the worst humanitarian and economic crisis in all their years under Israelā€™s occupation.

According to this annual report, it is Israelā€™s closure policy that has punitively restricted the movement of people and goods resulting in the separation of the Palestinians from regional and world markets. These restrictive measures have led to a completely isolated Gaza and a West Bank that is unable to compete in foreign markets because Israelā€™s
movement restrictions have created exorbitant production costs pricing their goods out of the competitive markets. As a consequence, the Palestinians are almost totally dependent on Israel and international food aid. The report calls for all international support to be ā€œnon-distortingā€ by working to open up alternative trading routes with Egypt and Jordan so as to rectify the ā€œdevelopment distortions wrought by occupation and containmentā€. It places economics squarely in the centre of any solution for peace and liberalisation and suggests ā€œa development-driven approach to trade rather than a trade-driven approach to developmentā€. The main target should be poverty reduction, while at the same time concentrating efforts on building public institutions, authorities and capacities that would reform for statehood rather than reform for a transitional government. As well, production and trade need to be developed and expanded. It suggests that the focus should be on limiting the vulnerability of the Palestinians and creating ā€œan appropriate and effective policy space that minimises the economic impact of Israeli security measuresā€ hitherto given too much emphasis under the Agreement on Movement and Access. While the recommendations seek an economic solution to the escalating poverty, it does point out that even if Israelā€™s restrictions are lifted, the Palestinian economy will not survive. Therefore, the suggested strategic framework for guiding the re-routing process is at best a band-aid solution. Harvard Professor Sara Roy explains it thus: ā€œRecommendations designed to promote sustainable socio-economic recovery (and there are many) must first seek a political, not an economic, solution. For the crux of the problem between Palestinians and Israelis is occupation and Israelā€™s continued repressive control of Palestinian lands and resources.ā€ Israelā€™s punitive measures have destroyed the Palestinian economy.

The report states that Israelā€™s occupation ā€œhas caused a sustained contraction in the supply capacity of an already shattered economyā€. Much of the erosion in productive capacity - and even more concerning, the populationā€™s ability to feed itself - can be attributed to the intensification of Israelā€™s illegal settlement building, the construction of the illegal Apartheid Wall and the razing and expropriation of Palestinian land which has devastatingly fragmented the agricultural sector. Its complex security measures have dramatically increased Palestinian transaction costs which has eroded the competitiveness of Palestinian exports. Also, the 1994 Protocol on Economic Relations between Israel and Palestine was never favourable to Palestinian economic policy-makers, disallowing monetary, exchange rate, industrial, trade and other policy options that would have assisted in economic recovery, and perhaps, might even have helped manage the current crisis. In effect, Israel has deliberately and consistently impeded any progress made by the Palestinians to improve their economic situation. For this reason, alternative measures to alleviate the humanitarian crisis must be sought even if they are second-best solutions pending the liberation of the Palestinian people from Israelā€™s occupation.
Effects of sanctions since 2006
ā€¢ 71 per cent of public sector employees now fall under the national poverty line of US$385 per household per month
ā€¢ 46 per cent of public sector employees lack enough food to meet their basic needs
ā€¢ 53 per cent of household incomes in Gaza have declined by more than half
ā€¢ Exports declined by 3 per cent and imports rose by 20 per cent
ā€¢ Reliance on imports rose to 86 per cent of the GDP with a US$500 million loss to the economy
ā€¢ PAā€™s revenue was halved to under US$600 million after Israel refused to transfer US$800 million in tax revenues
ā€¢ The trade deficit is now 73 per cent of GDP ā€“ 30 per cent higher than its 30-year average
ā€¢ The budget deficit is estimated at $791 million (19 per cent of GPD)
Current economic reform targets are unrealistic.

The report notes that it is highly unlikely the PA will be able to effect proper economic governance by restricting public wage growth, avoiding aid dependency, managing a transparent balanced budget, pursuing a liberal economy, and creating transparent and accountable institutions in the lead-up to statehood against a background of Israelā€™s unrelenting assaults on the Palestinian economy and society. Expecting ā€˜good governanceā€™
from a transitional government and achieving it ā€œbefore the State of Palestine can enter the community of nationsā€ as if the economy was not subject to the most draconian restrictions of Israelā€™s occupation, is entirely unrealistic.
Reform proposals
With Palestinian trade so heavily dependent on Israel, UNCTADā€™s report strongly recommends the integration of the Palestinian economy with Arab regional and global markets and that efforts should go into re-routing exports through Egypt and Jordan. It says that while the best option would be the construction of a Palestinian seaport in Gaza, in the interim, such trade routes would at least reduce dependence on Israeli transport facilities, provided that Israel commits to allowing regular and predictable transit between the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Egypt and Jordan. The report argues that sustained economic policy reform should, in fact, happen at the grassroots level where the poor can be directly helped and where the right conditions for governance can be fostered to bring about a viable Palestinian State.
Breaches and obligations
As an Occupying Power, Israel has an obligation under the Fourth Geneva Convention to ensure the well-being of the Palestinian civilian population. By undermining the Palestinian economy, it jeopardises the basic necessities for survival and this cannot be justified on security grounds. Under the Movement and Access Agreement of November 2005, Israel is required to open the main crossing points in the Gaza Strip. By not doing so, it violates two of the most basic tenets of international law ā€“ the principal of proportionality and the principal of distinction.
Australian action
ā€¢ DEMAND THAT ISRAEL STOP ITS RESTRICTIVE PRACTICES IN THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES AND ALLOW ALTERNATIVE TRADE
ROUTES TO BE OPENED FOR THE PALESTINIAN EXPORT MARKET SO THAT THE POOR CAN BENEFIT
ā€¢ DEMAND THAT ISRAEL END THE OCCUPATION
References:
United Nations Conference on Trade and Commerce (UNCTAD), ā€œReport on UNCTAD assistance to the Palestinian peopleā€, 30 August 2007
BRIEFING PAPER No.38 7 September 2007
Prepared by SK/AFP