Återvänd till första inlägget. Klicka här.
Denna text är anonymiserad. Två personers namn har ersatts med
"Förste Anonymiserad" och Andre Anonymiserad":
From leif@lege.com Thu Mar 13 07:20:39 2003
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2003 01:47:29 +0100 (MET)
From: Leif Erlingsson <leif@lege.com>
To: Förste Anonymiserad
Cc: sdh@lege.net
Subject: Re: [sdh]: Re: Så,
kan kyrkans äldster rädda amerika och den amerikanska konstitutionen? --
(Was: Re: [sdh]: På en annan mailinglista -- som finns utlagd på webben --
påpekade min bror Ulf Erlingsson att själva den springande punkten är...)
Resent-Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2003 01:47:43 +0100
Resent-From: sdh@lege.net
________________________________________________________________
|
| Klicka på "Svara alla" för att svara till listan: sdh@lege.net
|_______________________________________________________________
Svar på Förstes mail tisdagen den 11 mars 2003:
Hej Förste och alla.
För att detta uttömmande svar ska bli läsbart så har jag använt
mig av fotnötter för att illustrera eller dokumentera mina
påståenden. När det t.ex. står [1] så innebär det en referens
till texten under rubrik FOTNOT 1. Själva detta svarsmail är på
430 rader eller 7 A4-sidor text. Men dessutom finns här 3545(!)
rader eller 54 A4-sidor källmaterial=fotnötter. Totalt med
medsända fotnötter är det alltså fråga om 61 A4-sidor text.
Eftersom jag har velat ordna det medskickade källmaterialet=
fotnötterna i en någotsånär logisk och strukturerad ordning, så
refereras tyvärr inte fotnötterna i numerisk ordning i texten,
och inte heller refereras alla fotnötter från texten.
Angående Andre Anonymiserads mail om orsak till krig
Trots detta inläggs magnitud så svarar det inte specifikt på
Andre Anonymiserads motivering för kriget: Att syftet skulle
vara att stoppa ett krig; att stoppa terrorismen.
-- Jo, många av källdokumenten=fotnötterna ger svar på tal på
Andres påstående, men jag kommenterar det inte i min egen text
nedan. Istället avser jag svara separat på Andres påstående.
Mitt framtida svar till Andre kommer dock, det kan jag redan nu
avslöja, att bygga bland annat på fotnötterna [21] [24] [30]
[31] [38] [39] [42] [44] [45] samt på ytterligare källor jag har
som dokumenterar The Project for the New American Century, eller
PNAC, en tankesmedja i Washington som startade 1997 och som 1988
hade följande prominenta medlemmar: (Från ett brev 1988 till
President Clinton som uppmanade honom att sända trupper till
Bagdad):
«Who is PNAC? Its members include:
* Vice President Dick Cheney, one of the PNAC founders,
who served as Secretary of Defense for Bush Sr.;
* I. Lewis Libby, Cheney's top national security assistant;
* Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, also a founding
member, along with four of his chief aides including;
* Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz,
arguably the ideological father of the group;
* Eliot Abrams, prominent member of Bush's National Security
Council, who was pardoned by Bush Sr. in the Iran/Contra
scandal;
* John Bolton, who serves as Undersecretary for Arms Control
and International Security in the Bush administration;
* Richard Perle, former Reagan administration official and
present chairman of the powerful Defense Policy Board;
* Randy Scheunemann, President of the Committee for the
Liberation of Iraq, who was Trent Lott's national security
aide and who served as an advisor to Rumsfeld on Iraq in
2001;
* Bruce Jackson, Chairman of PNAC, a position he took after
serving for years as vice president of weapons manufacturer
Lockheed-Martin, and who also headed the Republican Party
Platform subcommittee for National Security and Foreign
Policy during the 2000 campaign. His section of the 2000
GOP Platform explicitly called for the removal of Saddam
Hussein;
* William Kristol, noted conservative writer for the Weekly
Standard, a magazine owned along with the Fox News Network
by conservative media mogul Ruppert Murdoch.»
( Blood Money http://truthout.org/docs_03/022803A.shtml )
On Tue, 11 Mar 2003, Förste Anonymiserad wrote:
> Oavsett vilken sida man har valt (om man nu har valt sida)
> så är det lätt att måla upp en lite skev bild av
> verkligheten.
Jag tror att det är en sorts process att "svänga in" mot en
balanserad och realistisk verklighetsbild, en process som kräver
ett eget engagemang. Under denna resas gång kan det ibland bli
"lite ryckigt", men bara det blir en bra diskussion så reder
sånt ut sig. Ju mer man förstår ju mer balanserad blir också
bilden. De allra värsta misstankarna om onda motiv visar sig
kanske vara överdrivna, när alla pusselbitarna börjar falla på
plats. Men det som istället framträder är inte mycket bättre
det. (Se t.ex. fotnot 42, näst-näst-näst sist i detta mail
[42]. Se gärna även den näst sista fotnoten. [44])
> Om man är pro-USA i denna fråga kanske det kan
> vara lätt att tala om USA som frihetens beskyddare som ska
> rädda ett folk från förtryck. Om man å andra sidan är mer
> pro-Irak i just denna fråga så ser man kanske Bush/USA som
> den stora ångvälten som är villiga att skövla och förstöra
> för någon luddig anledning (olja?) och att inte ge freden en
> chans.
Jag är pro-USA, pro-Konstitiutionen, pro-Mänskliga Rättigheter
och följaktligen anti-Bush, anti-Saddam men pro-Irak. Om man
okritiskt ser G W Bush administrationen som mänskliga rättig-
heters och [den amerikanska] konstitutionens försvarare då kan
man lätt blanda ihop detta med att vara anti mot USA. Och
eventuellt även blanda ihop anti-Saddam men pro-Irak med att
vara för Saddam.
Jag förstår dock vad det är du vill ha sagt.
Såsom vardande pro-Mänskliga Rättigheter så ser jag verkligen
G W Bush administrationen (men inte USA) som den stora ångvälten
som är villig att skövla och förstöra av hittills luddiga skäl,
som dock tycks klarana mer och mer: »It is too simple to
explain the upcoming war as 'blood for oil', as did millions of
placards last weekend, for Rove and Wolfowitz are ideologists
beyond the imperatives of profit. They represent an unlikely
and formidable alliance forged between the gritty Texan
Republicans who took over America, fuelled by fierce
conservative Christianity, and a faction of the East Coast
intelligentsia with roots in Ronald Reagan's time, devoted to
achieving raw, unilateral power.« [42] (Jag samlade ihop de
källor jag ville hänvisa till innan jag skrev ihop detta
svarsmail, därför är mina fotnötter inte alls i nummerordning.
Fotnot 42 är den _näst-näst-näst-sista_ fotnoten, nästan längst
ned i mailet.)
> Om man har hamnat i det läge (inte Lege) där man för fram
> sina "fakta" är det lätt att man blir en aning onyanserad i
> sina uttalanden som kanske kan uppfattas som hatiska åsikter
> mot den ena aller andra parten. Även om det inte har varit
> ens vilja. Man vill ju gärna att det man vill ha sagt ska
> uppfattas på rätt sätt. Det är en konst i sig som jag tror
> att alla misslyckas med från gång till annan.
. . . tell me about it . . .
Men jag undrar lite över dina fnuttar kring "fakta"? Antyder du
att det är något fel på de fakta jag för fram eller är det bara
att det blir ensidigt med fakta till stöd bara för en synvinkel?
Jag försöker ibland presentera information till stöd för andra
synvinklar och jag välkomnar varmt alla sådana initiativ. Det
finns böcker och analyser till stöd för att ett Irak-krig nu
skulle vara nödvändigt, men jag anser mig veta att fakta inte
stöder en sådan ståndpunkt. Dessutom är jag som alla säkert
förstått ytterst oroad över avvecklingen av grundläggande
Mänskliga Rättigheter i USA, och är övertygad om att när väl
kriget på allvar startar (om det nu startar ska jag väl skriva,
för efter helgen tycks det finnas ett visst hopp för fred ändå)
så kommer helt visst avvecklandet av medborgerliga rättigheter i
USA också att komma igång på allvar. [32], se speciellt hemliga
arresteringar och på lösa grunder upphävda medborgarskap
(»secret arrests«, »stripped of citizenship«) [33], (»sweeping
expansion of anti-terrorism act«, »decrease judicial review and
public access to information«, »reduce or eliminate judicial
oversight over surveillance, authorize secret arrests, create a
DNA database based on unchecked executive "suspicion," create
new death penalties, and even seek to take American citizenship
away from persons who belong to or support disfavored political
groups«) [36] [37].
Jag undrar om det inte snarare är så att de fakta jag
presenterar -- trots att de är sanna -- är så otroliga att många
vägrar tro på dem. Ungefär som flertalet svenskar inte vill
höra evangeliet om man knackar på och ber att få berätta om det.
Jag skulle själv inte tro på det jag säger om jag inte genom
en hel del arbete verifierat att det är sant.
> Mina inlägg är
> inte riktad mot att någon har valt sida. Jag har bara
> försökt redogöra för varför jag har valt att inte välja
> mellan George B eller Saddam H.
Det hade jag -- erkänner jag -- missat. Jag trodde faktiskt
fast och fullt att du hade tagit ställning för G W B. Mina
ursäkter för förutfattad mening! Själv har jag tagit ställning
_mot_ båda dessa herrar, men för Lag, Rätt, Mänskliga
Rättigheter och medmänsklig kärlek. Liksom för Internationell
Rätt, mellanstatliga förbund, etc. Somliga hävdar att man i
så fall måste kriga med Irak. Jag försöker visa att detta är
fel, samtidigt som jag vill visa att ett amerikanskt krig i Irak
i dag kommer att leda till ännu större inskränkningar i just de
Mänskliga Fri- och Rättigheterna i USA -- och i andra länder --
än vad som i dag redan är fallet. [2] [5] [7] [8] [9], »good,
virtuous, and holy principles may be perverted by corrupt and
wicked men« [10], »legislators ought to be chosen on account of
their intelligence, honor, integrity, and virtue; and not
because they belong to some particular party clique« [15] (samma
fotnot ger även en bra kommentar till de olika mutförsök Bush-
administrationen har gjort mot olika medlemsstater i Säkerhets-
Rådet i FN för att förmå dem att rösta för krig -- mutförsök som
går ut på att USA skulle blunda för vissa brott mot de Mänskliga
Rättigheterna bland annat [43]), [20] [28] [29] [30] [32] [33]
[36] [37] [38] [39] [40].
>
> > On Tue, 11 Mar 2003, Förste Anonymiserad wrote:
> >
> > > Det är min fasta övertygelse att kyrkans profet gör de
> > > uttalanden som behövs för medlemmarnas bästa. Det är
> > > säkerligen bättre att lyssna på vad profeten säger än att
> > > sprida hat oavsett om det är riktat mot USA eller Irak.
>
> Nedanstående citat kan kanske vara en väckarklocka för oss
> alla. Vi som har en tendens att tolka alldeles för mycket. I
> Liahona mars 2003, sid 22 står det följande:
>
> "En del som inte är bemyndigade vill tala å brödernas vägnar
> och påstår att deras budskap innehåller det "kött" som
> bröderna skulle lära ut om de bara inte var tvungna att
> undervisa om "mjölken" först."
Det du varnar för är något jag noga försöker tänka på när jag
skriver och uttalar mig. Den linjen vill jag inte passera. Men
det är också så att vi redan har fått undervisning om rätt och
fel. Vi har redan fått det "kött" du antyder att somliga av oss
skulle lägga i brödernas mun. Vi får inte låta överdriven
försiktighet hidra oss från att göra gott. Detta tror jag är en
mycket karakteristisk åkomma bland Sista Dagars Heliga -- kanske
särskilt här i vårt land? [16] [17]
I Discourses of Brigham Young 13:176, p.470 så kan vi läsa
Joseph Smiths välkända yttrande om hur han leder de heliga:
"I do not govern them at all. The Lord has revealed certain
principles from the heavens by which we are to live in these
latter days." Herren har sålunda uppenbarat vissa principer
från himlarna och det är i enlighet med dessa principer vi
förväntas leva i dessa sista dagar. Profeten behöver därför
inte påpeka sådant som redan i överflöd har lärts ut till oss i
alla år, såsom mänskliga rättigheter: "inherent rights" eller
alltså med andra ord "unalienable rights" (orden är inte mina,
de är John Taylors och den amerikanska självständighets-
förklaringens) [2] [5] [7] [8] [9]. (Siffrorna refererar till
fotnötter nedan. Speciellt John Taylors The Gospel Kingdom har
mycket att säga oss i dag. [1])
Nu kunde någon (felaktigt) _tolka_ vissa av fotnötterna ovan,
kanske speciellt [8] (som även är JD, 22:295-296, October 9,
1881), som att vi Sista Dagars Heliga alltid ska försvara den
sittande administrationen i vårt land, oavsett vad den gör.
Men den tolkningen är -- precis som du varnar för när du skriver
om oss som har en tendens att tolka alldeles för mycket ovan --
en övertolkning. För »We are called of God to be an upright
people, a virtuous people, an honorable people. We are called
upon to maintain correct principles, and to introduce them among
the peoples of the earth, and especially among the people of
this nation. -- JD, 25:93, February 10, 1884. By and by, you
will find they will tear the Constitution to shreds, as they
have begun now. They have started long ago to rend the
Constitution of our country in pieces; and in doing so they are
letting loose and encouraging a principle which will react upon
themselves with terrible consequences. For if lawmakers and
administrators can afford to trample upon justice, equity, and
the Constitution of this country, they will find thousands and
tens of thousands who are willing to follow in their wake in
the demolition of the rights of man, and the destruction of all
principles of justice, and the safeguards of the nation. But we
will stand by and maintain its principles and the rights of all
men of every color, and every clime. We will cleave to the
truth, live our religion, and keep the commandments of God, and
God will bless us in time and throughout the eternities that
are to come. -- JD, 26:38-39, December 14, 1884.« [16] Och
»we have reason to deplore [our governments] maladministration,
and I call upon our legislators, our governors and president to
pause in their careers and not to tamper with the rights and
liberties of American citizens, nor wantonly tear down the
bulwarks of American and human liberty. God has given to us
glorious institutions. Let us preserve them intact and not
pander to the vices, passions, and fanaticism of a depraved
public opinion. -- JD, 23:65-66, April 9, 1882.« [17]
Vi är alltså kallade (»APPEAL FOR AN ENLIGHTENED PUBLIC
OPINION« [17]) att ha en _upplyst_ åsikt. Att alltså bilda oss
en uppfattning och att försvara rätta principer, att försvara
[den amerikanska] konstitutionen mot orättfärdiga lagstiftare
och administratörer (här tänker jag G W Bush, Högsta Domstolen,
etc). Vi är kallade att uppräthålla alla rättvisans principer
och alla »safeguards of the nation«, som ska förhindra att dessa
fråntas det amerikanska folket (och därmed snart alla andra folk
också). Låt oss _bevara_ de underbara institutioner som Gud har
givit det Amerikanska folket!!!!
Övergreppen mot dessa gudagivna principer var många redan 1882.
När väl Irak-krigen kommer igång på allvar, om det kommer igång
på allvar, så kan vi vara övertygade om att de sista säkerhets-
spärrarna kommer att monteras ned, till hurra-rop från en
»depraved public opinion. -- JD, 23:65-66, April 9, 1882.« [17]
[32] [33] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40]
Kyrkan behöver inte göra något särskilt officiellt uttalade mot
avskaffandet av mänskliga fri- och rättigheter eller mot
avskaffandet av de säkerhetsspärrar som ska garantera att inte
den politiska friheten går förlorad i USA. Vi har alla gått i
kyrkan i åratal och tagit del av undervisning. Vi har
skrifterna. Vi har lyssnat på profeterna. Budskapet är en-
tydigt, tills en profet framträder och säger: "nej, nu gäller
inte allt det där ni har lärt er, nu ska vi istället göra så
här...".
Profeten har sökt inge oss mod och lugn inför de oroliga tider
vi har framför oss, men om vi har mod och är frimodiga så utövar
vi självfallet våra medborgerliga rättigheter så länge vi har
kvar dem, att skaffa oss kunskap, att kalla våra lagstiftare,
våra guvernörer och presidenten att stanna upp, att inte ta bort
de amerikanska medborgarnas rättigheter och friheter, att inte
avsiktligt riva ned de bålverk som skyddar amerikansk och
mänsklig frihet. [17] Det var en amerikan som kom på idén med
FN. Nu finns det amerikaner -- de kallar sig Republikaner --
som vill riva ned och förstöra FN (se slutet av
http://texasgop.org/library/RPTPlatform2002.pdf -- FN heter UN
på engelska). Min bror Ulf misstänker att det kanske kan vara
ett av skälen för Irak-kriget, att göra FN irrelevant.[30]
Men FN står i dag som den enda något så när trovärdiga garanten
för Internationell Rätt. Utan detta bålverk går vår värld en
mycket mörk tid till mötes. Det finns många som har eller
utvecklar kärnvapen, som USA, Frankrike, Ryssland, Kina, Indien,
Pakistan, Nord-Korea, Iran -- dock inte Irak just nu.[41] När
det enda något så när trovärdiga forumet för att på icke-krigisk
väg lösa mellan-statliga konflikter -- genom Bush-
administrationens svek, och deras svek som uppriktigt och med
full kunskap om vad Bush-administrationen står för ändå till
100% stöder den i detta -- är på väg att göras irrelevant, då
kommer resultatet att kunna bli ett och annat kärnvapenkrig, och
vi får verkligen uppleva vad »"eld, stormar och rökmoln i
främmande länder . . . krig och rykten om krig och om
jordbävningar på många ställen . . . då jorden är i hög grad
oskärad . . . och [med] alla slags vederstyggligheter"« [45]
egentligen innebär...
För att kunna bestämma sig för om man kan stödja "Team Bush" så
måste man -- tycker jag -- ta ställning till de skäl som anges
för krig. »It still confuses many Americans that, in a world
full of vicious slimeballs, we're about to bomb one that didn't
attack us on 9/11 (like Osama); that isn't intercepting our
planes (like North Korea); that isn't financing Al Qaeda (like
Saudi Arabia); that isn't home to Osama and his lieutenants
(like Pakistan); that isn't a host body for terrorists (like
Iran, Lebanon and Syria). I think the president is genuinely
obsessed with protecting Americans and believes that smoking
Saddam will reduce the chances of Islamic terrorists' snatching
catastrophic weapons. That is why no cost - shattering the U.N.,
NATO, the European alliance, Tony Blair's career and the U.S.
budget - is too high.« [44] »The case for war has been
incoherent due to overlapping reasons conservatives want to get
Saddam.« [44]
Men för att kunna ta ställning till de skäl som anges för krig
så måste dessa skäl vara begripliga (för fler personer än Tony
Blair [28]). Just att inget begripligt skäl har presenterats
för allmännheten har självklart gjort att konspirationsteorierna
har florerat. Och de skäl som ändå har angetts har snabbt
visats inte hålla vatten, se t.ex. [41]. Jag känner mig -- med
all rätta -- manipulerad av "Team Bush".
Även om vi bortser från utrikes- och säkerhetspolitiken så sker
det mycket underliga saker i USA nuförtiden. Oljebolag slipper
massor av miljölagar och överhuvud taget tycks inte längre
miljön vara någon som helst prioritet i USA. Jag ska inte
trötta er med sådana artiklar, men jag har sett åtskilligt som
går 180° tvärs med allt vad omsorg om moder jord och dess
innevånare heter. Förklaringen är väl inte långsökt, Bush är
ju en oljefamilj.
Men hur blev Bush så stor? Här anas en ohelig allians: »'Rove
and Bush came to an important strategic conclusion,' writes Lou
Dubose, Rove's biographer. 'To govern on behalf of the corporate
Right, they would have to appease the Christian Right.' Bush's
six years as Texas governor were a dry run for national domestic
policy - steered by Rove - as President: lavish favours to the
energy industry, tax breaks for the upper income brackets and
social policy driven by evangelical zeal. Bush had been
governor for only a year when, as Rove says, it 'dawned on me'
he should run for President; two years later, in 1997, he began
secretly planning the campaign.« [42] Åter känner jag mig
manipulerad, för i det presidentvalet där G W Bush blev vald --
där jag visserligen inte själv kunde rösta, men där jag
funderade på hur jag skulle röstat om jag kunde -- så var jag på
vippen att tänka "Bush". Ändå kände jag mig obehaglig till mods
med det och tänkte att det inte kändes ett dugg obehagligt när
jag tänkte på Al Gore. Jag hoppas i dag att jag skulle ha valt
Al och inte Bush om jag hade kunnat rösta i det där valet, men
säker kan jag inte vara. Många amerikaner har säkert varit i
samma situation, och liksom jag så är det säkert många som i dag
känner sig manipulerade.
Bush har alltså vänt sig _både_ till den kristna högern -- som
jag väl själv får räkna mig till -- men uppenbarligen FÖR ATT
KUNNA REGERA FÖR FÖRETAGS-HÖGERNS RÄKNING. Inte för folkets,
alltså. Och detta är inte rätt. [7] [14] [15] Genom
manipulation av den kristna högerns rättfärdiga känslor har USA
alltså fått ett djupt orättfärdig administration som mycket
snart helt har avskaffat grundläggande mänskliga fri- och
rättigheter först i USA, men snart även i stora delar av resten
av världen.
Om vi inte protesterar.
/ Leif Erlingsson
PS: Jag ville bara nämna detta intressanta fakta om PNAC: »The
Project for the New American Century seeks to establish what
they call 'Pax Americana' across the globe. Essentially, their
goal is to transform America, the sole remaining superpower,
into a planetary empire by force of arms. A report released by
PNAC in September of 2000 entitled 'Rebuilding America's
Defenses' codifies this plan, which requires a massive increase
in defense spending and the fighting of several major theater
wars in order to establish American dominance. The first has
been achieved in Bush's new budget plan, which calls for the
exact dollar amount to be spent on defense that was requested by
PNAC in 2000. Arrangements are underway for the fighting of the
wars.« ( Blood Money http://truthout.org/docs_03/022803A.shtml )
( http://newamericancentury.org/publicationsreports.htm eller
http://newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf )
Översikt över fotnötter (texten i fotnötterna/referenserna
följer lite längre ned):
1: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kapitel 29,
p.306-311. "Mormonism And The American System";
The mormon position with regard to the American
nation (A Doctrine of Inherent Rights).
2: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.306:
Inherent Rights.
3: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.306:
Some Legal Rights.
4: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.306-307:
The Political Mission Of The Saints.
5: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.307:
To Maintain Human Rights.
6: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.307:
The Constitution Of The United States.
7: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.307-308:
Administrators of government corrupting constitution
(denna mening är ej en del av The Gospel Kingdom).
8: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.308:
Be true to the Constitution of the United States.
9: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.308:
The Fundamental Law And Inherent Rights.
10: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.309:
The Constitution: An Entering Wedge For A New Era.
11: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.309-310:
The [Inspired] Constitution.
12: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.310:
Legislatures.
13: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.310:
The Rights Of Man.
14: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.310:
Policy And Administration.
15: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.310:
Parties And Politics.
16: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.310:
Calling Of The Latter-day Saints. [The people of
this nation Will Tear The Constitution To Shreds.
We are called upon to maintain correct principles.]
17: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.311:
Appeal For An Enlightened Public Opinion.
18: Några brev till redaktören för Meridian Magazine
med anledning av broder Geoffrey Biddulphs artikel
The Book of Mormon and War. Dessa förekommer som
fotnötter 19 - 29 nedan.
19: Charlene Nelson, brev till Meridian, "Ironic".
20: Charlene Nelson, brev till Meridian, contempt for
inalienable rights.
21: Charlene Nelson, brev till Meridian, blood thirst.
22: Charlene Nelson, brev till Meridian, offensive war.
23: Charlene Nelson, brev till Meridian, missionary
opportunities.
24: Charlene Nelson, brev till Meridian, imperialistic
encroachment in the affairs of other nations.
25: Charlene Nelson, brev till Meridian, subjugation and
occupation.
26: Charlene Nelson, brev till Meridian, what standard of
peace have we offered Hussein?
27: Charlene Nelson, brev till Meridian, "Observe
good faith and justice towards all Nations".
28: Connie, Logan, Utah, brev till Meridian, it's the
Constitutional and legal dither that is the issue.
29: Connie, Logan, Utah, brev till Meridian, secret
courts with secret agendas.
30: Själva den springande punkten är.
31: Discourses of Brigham Young, s.366-367.
32: Patriot Act II, Terrorists R Us, and other stories:
Detta är ett antal aktuella texter som med all
önskvärd tydlighet visar vad som har hänt och
framför allt vad som håller på att hända med
mänskliga rättigheter, "inherent rights" eller
"unalienable rights" i dagens Förenta Stater -- i
strid mot all rättfärdighet och även mot den
Amerikanska konstitutionen (se bl.a. fotnot 16 men
egentligen fotnötterna 1 - 17, och många andra).
Texterna förekommer nedan som fotnötter 33 - 40.
33: Ashcroft Out of Control -- Ominous Sequel
to USA Patriot Act
34: The Center for Public Integrity -- Who They Are
35: Commentary -- Even in Wartime,
Stealth and Democracy Do Not Mix
36: Special Report -- Justice Dept. Drafts
Sweeping Expansion of Anti-Terrorism Act
37: Web link to a draft of ``Patriot Act II''
38: Terrorists R Us -- American citizen is indignant
about American government's actions
39: The U.S. shouldn't seek to emulate world's tyrants
40: Librarians Try to Alter Patriot Act
41: Some Evidence on Iraq Called Fake
42: Two men driving Bush into war
43: Concerns About The Undecided Six to be Seduced --
G W Bush administrationen försöker muta sig till ett
FN-godkännande för krig
44: The Xanax Cowboy -- You might sum up the
president's call to war Thursday night as
"Message: I scare."
45: "Saliga är de som skapar frid" -- Fred är av
yttersta vikt och den vädjar om vårt engagemang.
Fotnötter följer:
FOTNOT 1: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kapitel 29,
p.306-311. "Mormonism And The American System";
The mormon position with regard to the American
nation (A Doctrine of Inherent Rights).
Huvuddelen av detta kapitel förekommer som fotnötter
2 - 17 nedan. Det finns mycket av stort värde för
den nuvarande världssituationen i dessa inspirerade
ord, så läs hela!
_______________________________________________________________
|
|
| John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, Chapter 29, p.306
|
|
| Mormonism And The American System
|
| THE MORMON POSITION WITH REGARD TO THE AMERICAN NATION (A
| Doctrine of Inherent Rights)
|
FOTNOT 2: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.306:
Inherent Rights.
| INHERENT RIGHTS. -- There are certain principles
| that are inherent in man, that belong to man, and that were
| enunciated in an early day, before the United States
| government was formed, and they are principles that
| rightfully belong to all men everywhere. They are described
| in the Declaration of Independence as unalienable rights,
| one of which is that men have a right to live; another is
| that they have a right to pursue happiness; and another is
| that they have a right to be free and no man has authority
| to deprive them of those God-given rights, and none but
| tyrants would do it. These principles, I say, are
| unalienable in man; they belong to him; they existed before
| any constitutions were framed or any laws made. Men have in
| various ages striven to strip their fellow men of these
| rights, and dispossess them of them. And hence the wars, the
| bloodshed, and carnage that have spread over the earth. We
| therefore are not indebted to the United States for these
| rights. We were free as men born into the world, having the
| right to do as we please, to act as we please, as long as we
| do not transgress constitutional law nor violate the rights
| of others.
|
FOTNOT 3: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.306:
Some Legal Rights.
| SOME LEGAL RIGHTS. -- Being organized, then, into a
| government such as it is -- that is, the name of a
| government, the name of a legislature, the name of a free
| people -- being organized as we are, what next? We are
| necessarily obliged to look after our affairs as men, our
| political affairs. Our mission to the world is a mission of
| peace. The gospel proclaims peace on earth and good will to
| man.
|
FOTNOT 4: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.306-307:
The Political Mission Of The Saints.
| THE POLITICAL MISSION OF THE SAINTS. -- Our mission
| is to call upon this nation and all nations to repent of
| their sins, of their lasciviousness, adulteries,
| fornications, murders, blasphemies, and of all dishonest and
| corrupt practices. But in this we use no force. Having laid
| these matters before them, they have their free will to
| receive or reject. . . . As politicians or statesmen they
| must at least give us the benefit of the Constitution and
| laws. These, as a portion of the body politic, we contend
| for as part of our political rights. We do not claim, nor
| profess, nor desire to interfere with any man's religion or
| conscience. We have nothing to do with their religion, nor
| they with ours. Religious faith or belief is not a political
| factor. The Constitution has debarred its introduction into
| the arena of politics; and every officer of the United
| States has pledged himself under a solemn oath to abide by
| and sustain that instrument, and not one of them can
| interfere with it [religion] without a violation of his
| oath. . . .
|
FOTNOT 5: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.307:
To Maintain Human Rights.
| TO MAINTAIN HUMAN RIGHTS. -- Another thing God
| expects us to do, and that is to maintain the principle of
| human rights. . . . We owe it to ourselves as men, we owe it
| to our families, our children, and to posterity. We owe it
| to the lovers of freedom in this land, of which there are
| thousands, yea, millions, who despise acts of oppression and
| tyranny. We owe it to all liberty-loving men to stand up for
| human rights and protect human freedom, and in the name of
| God we will do it. . . .
|
| Joseph, the despised of his father's house, became
| their deliverer. Moses, the foundling and outcast of Egypt,
| became the deliverer and law-giver of Israel. Jesus, the
| despised Nazarene, introduced principles that revolutionized
| the moral ideas and ethics of the world. And it may not be
| among the improbabilities, that the prophecies of Joseph
| Smith may be fulfilled and that the calumniated and despised
| Mormons may yet become the protectors of the Constitution
| and the guardians of religious liberty and human freedom in
| these United States -- JD, 23:262-266, October 8, 1882.
|
FOTNOT 6: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.307:
The Constitution Of The United States.
| THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. -- I will
| tell you what I think about the Constitution. I have just
| the same opinion of it that Joseph Smith had, and he said it
| was given by inspiration of God. The men did not know this
| who wrote it. The men did not know it who adopted it.
| Nevertheless it is true. There is an embodiment of
| principles contained therein calculated to bless and benefit
| mankind.
|
FOTNOT 7: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.307-308:
Administrators of government corrupting constitution
(denna mening är ej en del av The Gospel Kingdom).
| "What do you think about the government of the
| United States as a government?" I think it is a good deal
| ahead of most governments, but I think the administrators
| are apostatizing very fast from the principles that the
| fathers of this nation instituted. It has become quite a
| question nowadays, whether men can be preserved in their
| rights or not, whether men can worship God according to the
| dictates of their conscience or not, or whether we are
| living in a land of freedom or not. What is the matter? Why,
| they are like the religionists. How is it with them? They
| profess to believe in the Bible. They do believe it shut,
| but when you open it, they deny it. The people of this
| nation profess to believe in the Constitution. They do until
| it comes to be applied to the people, and then they do not.
| That is perhaps too broad a saying, but I will say there are
| many who feel like this -- not all by a long way. There are
| thousands and tens of thousands who are imbued with the same
| principles as were the framers of the Constitution and who
| desire to see human freedom perpetuated. . . .
|
FOTNOT 8: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.308:
Be true to the Constitution of the United States.
| We would say then in regard to religionists if you
| profess a religion be true to it. If you profess to believe
| in the Bible when shut, believe it when open, and practice
| its principles. We would say to men who profess so much
| loyalty and patriotism to the government, be true to your
| institutions, be true to the Constitution of the United
| States, as we say to all our people to be true to the same.
| We expect the Latter-day Saints to be so, and to be subject
| to law, to avoid lawlessness of every kind and interference
| with men's rights in any shape. -- JD, 22:295-296, October
| 9, 1881.
|
FOTNOT 9: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.308:
The Fundamental Law And Inherent Rights.
| THE FUNDAMENTAL LAW AND INHERENT RIGHTS. -- There is
| an inherent principle of right planted in the human bosom,
| which God has placed there and which man never could, can
| not now, nor ever will uproot -- principles of inherent
| right which all intelligent men, when they have sought for
| the truth with unbiased mind and desired sincerely to know,
| have invariably found. Governed by the principles of right,
| and uninfluenced by party, power, or wealth, there have
| always been men inspired by an infallible divine afflatus,
| who have recognized an innate, inalienable principle of
| justice and equity, in every age and among all nations, and
| the records of the Babylonians, the Medo-Persians, the
| Greeks, Romans, and more modern nations bear ample testimony
| to this fact. The principle of right is implanted in the
| human bosom and inherent in the human family, among all
| governments that have ever existed, and men of virtue,
| honor, and truth have always arrived at the same conclusions
| that we have.
|
| John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, p.308-309:
|
| The founders of our government, under the
| inspiration of the Almighty, and goaded by an oppressive
| power, discovered the same elements, the same principles,
| the same ideas that we have, and enunciated those eternal
| principles and made them known to the world, -- "that all
| men are born free and equal and have a right to life,
| liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The founders of the
| French Republic, about the same time, made a declaration
| almost verbatim. It is the violation of the natural rights
| of man that has deluged the earth with blood in all ages.
| These principles were enunciated by Joseph Smith; he
| believed in them, so do we, in the right to think, in the
| right to speak, in the right to act, in the right to do all
| things that are right and good and proper, but not in the
| right to interfere with any other man's rights, any other
| man's religion, any other man's principles. These are our
| views. . . . The worst wish we have for the human family is
| that the principles enunciated in our Constitution may
| reverberate over the wide earth, and spread from shore to
| shore, until all mankind shall be free. -- JD, 14:267,
| December 17, 1871.
|
FOTNOT 10: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.309:
The Constitution: An Entering Wedge For A New Era.
| THE CONSTITUTION: AN ENTERING WEDGE FOR A NEW ERA.
| -- It is true that the founders of this nation, as a
| preliminary step for the introduction of more correct
| principles and that liberty and the rights of man might be
| recognized, and that all men might become equal before the
| law of the land, had that great palladium of liberty, the
| Constitution of the United States, framed. This was the
| entering wedge for the introduction of a new era, and in it
| were introduced principles for the birth and organization of
| a new world.
|
| The Prophet Joseph Smith said that the Constitution
| of the United States was given by the inspiration of God.
| But good, virtuous, and holy principles may be perverted by
| corrupt and wicked men. The Lord was opposed by Satan; Jesus
| had his Judas; and this nation abounds with traitors who
| ignore that sacred palladium of liberty and seek to trample
| it under foot. Joseph Smith said they would do so, and that
| when deserted by all, the elders of Israel would rally
| around its shattered fragments and save and preserve it
| inviolate. But even this, good as it was, was not a perfect
| instrument. It was one of those steppingstones to a future
| development in the progress of man to the intelligence and
| light, the power and union that God alone can impart to the
| human family. -- JD, 21:31, April 9, 1879.
|
FOTNOT 11: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.309-310:
The [Inspired] Constitution.
| THE CONSTITUTION. -- We believe that our fathers
| were inspired to write the Constitution of the United
| States, and that it is an instrument, full, lucid, and
| comprehensive; that it was dictated by a wise and foreseeing
| policy, and does honor to the heads and hearts of its
| framers; that it is the great bulwark of American liberty;
| and that the strict and implicit observance of which is the
| only safeguard of this mighty nation. We therefore rest
| ourselves under its ample folds.
|
FOTNOT 12: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.310:
Legislatures.
| LEGISLATURES. -- We believe that all legislative
| assemblies should confine themselves to constitutional
| principles; and that all such laws should be implicitly
| obeyed by every American.
|
FOTNOT 13: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.310:
The Rights Of Man.
| THE RIGHTS OF MAN. -- We believe that all men should
| have a right to do good; a perfect freedom of action; and be
| protected in that right; "free trade and sailors' rights";
| but that no man is free, or at liberty to do wrong, or
| transgress law.
|
| We believe that all men are responsible to God for
| their religious acts, and therefore ought to have perfect
| freedom of conscience.
|
FOTNOT 14: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.310:
Policy And Administration.
| POLICY AND ADMINISTRATION. -- We believe that the
| president, governors, judges, and governmental officers
| ought to be respected, honored, and sustained in their
| stations; but that they ought to use their positions and
| power, not for political emolument, or party purposes; but
| for the administration of justice, and equity, and for the
| well being and happiness of the people.
|
FOTNOT 15: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.310:
Parties And Politics.
| PARTIES AND POLITICS. -- We believe that legislators
| ought to be chosen on account of their intelligence, honor,
| integrity, and virtue; and not because they belong to some
| particular party clique.
|
| We believe that the high party strife, logrolling,
| wirepulling, and political juggling, and spoliation, are a
| disgrace to any politician; that they are beneath the
| dignity of an American, and disgraceful and humiliating,
| alike to the people and statesmen of this great republic.
|
| We believe that legislative enactments ought to be
| for the good of the whole, and not for any particular
| location or district; and that anything else is at variance
| with the spirit and genius of our institutions.
|
| We believe that although there is much to lament,
| and room for very great improvement, both in our executive,
| judiciary, and legislative departments, that we have the
| most liberal, free, and enlightened government in the world.
| . . . -- The Mormon, February 17, 1855.
|
FOTNOT 16: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.310:
Calling Of The Latter-day Saints. [The people of
this nation Will Tear The Constitution To Shreds.
We are called upon to maintain correct principles.]
| CALLING OF THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS. -- We are called
| of God to be an upright people, a virtuous people, an
| honorable people. We are called upon to maintain correct
| principles, and to introduce them among the peoples of the
| earth, and especially among the people of this nation. --
| JD, 25:93, February 10, 1884.
|
| John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, p.310-311:
|
| By and by, you will find they will tear the
| Constitution to shreds, as they have begun now. They have
| started long ago to rend the Constitution of our country in
| pieces; and in doing so they are letting loose and
| encouraging a principle which will react upon themselves
| with terrible consequences. For if lawmakers and
| administrators can afford to trample upon justice, equity,
| and the Constitution of this country, they will find
| thousands and tens of thousands who are willing to follow in
| their wake in the demolition of the rights of man, and the
| destruction of all principles of justice, and the safeguards
| of the nation. But we will stand by and maintain its
| principles and the rights of all men of every color, and
| every clime. We will cleave to the truth, live our religion,
| and keep the commandments of God, and God will bless us in
| time and throughout the eternities that are to come. -- JD,
| 26:38-39, December 14, 1884.
|
FOTNOT 17: John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, kap. 29, s.311:
Appeal For An Enlightened Public Opinion.
| APPEAL FOR AN ENLIGHTENED PUBLIC OPINION. -- We have
| no fault to find with our government. We deem it the best in
| the world. But we have reason to deplore its
| maladministration, and I call upon our legislators, our
| governors and president to pause in their careers and not to
| tamper with the rights and liberties of American citizens,
| nor wantonly tear down the bulwarks of American and human
| liberty. God has given to us glorious institutions. Let us
| preserve them intact and not pander to the vices, passions,
| and fanaticism of a depraved public opinion. -- JD,
| 23:65-66, April 9, 1882.
|
|______________________________________________________________
FOTNOT 18: Några brev till redaktören för Meridian Magazine
med anledning av broder Geoffrey Biddulphs artikel
The Book of Mormon and War. Dessa förekommer som
fotnötter 19 - 29 nedan.
_______________________________________________________________
|
| Some of the LETTERS TO THE EDITOR for Meridian Magazine
| http://meridianmagazine.com/letters/ in regards to an
| article there named The Book of Mormon and War
| by Geoffrey Biddulph:
|
FOTNOT 19: Charlene Nelson, brev till Meridian, "Ironic":
| Ironic
|
| I find it ironic that Brother Biddulph's essay "The Book of
| Mormon and War" comes the very day after Elder Nelson said
| "As a church, we must renounce war and proclaim peace".
|
| Brother Biddulph makes assertions about bin Laden, the New
| World Order, righteous war and recent history that are
| questionable, but for brevity I will only answer his last
| six, summarizing points.
|
FOTNOT 20: Charlene Nelson, brev till Meridian, contempt for
inalienable rights:
| 1 - We do not know if President Bush "sincerely wants to do
| the Creator's will." Indeed, his support of the Patriot Act
| shows a contempt for the inalienable rights our Creator has
| bestowed.
|
FOTNOT 21: Charlene Nelson, brev till Meridian, blood thirst:
| 2 - There does seem to be a blood thirst among many
| Americans. In our war in Afghanistan we killed more
| innocents than did the terrorists of 9-11. We carelessly
| dismissed this as "collateral damage". But since not a
| single Afghani was involved in that attack, why should they
| bear the cost of "collateral damage"? It seems that too many
| wanted "an eye for an eye, a life for a life", were "drunk
| with anger" and didn't much care if the revenge was wreaked
| on those responsible for the 9-11 attacks or not.
|
FOTNOT 22: Charlene Nelson, brev till Meridian, offensive war:
| 3 - There is no justification of an offensive war. I think
| D&C 98: 33-37 pretty much condemns that. Japan's attack on
| Pearl Harbor was a "preemptive attack" but there are no
| Americans who thought it justified. Brother Biddulph says
| preemptive war "is justified by the threat of an opponent
| who is clearly trying to develop nuclear and chemical
| weapons and use them for regional and, if possible, world
| domination." Many countries fall into that category--Russia,
| China and North Korea for example. Not only do these
| countries have greater weapons capability than Iraq but have
| made real threats of imminent attack. Yet we've never seen
| the need for "preemptive" action against these countries.
|
FOTNOT 23: Charlene Nelson, brev till Meridian, missionary
opportunities:
| 4 - The hope of increased missionary opportunities can
| never justify the killing of thousands. God loves His Iraqi
| children as much as He does Americans. Do you honestly
| believe that He wants us to kill people just so we can then
| go teach them the gospel? I find that argument repugnant.
|
FOTNOT 24: Charlene Nelson, brev till Meridian, imperialistic
encroachment in the affairs of other nations:
| 5 - It is precisely because of our imperialistic
| encroachment in the affairs of other nations that we face
| the threat of terrorism and war. We currently have US troops
| in over 200 nations! We still have soldiers in Bosnia, (we
| were supposed to be out in 18 mos. That was 8 years ago.)
| Haiti, Panama, Kuwait, Korea, Saudi Arabia to name just a
| few.
|
FOTNOT 25: Charlene Nelson, brev till Meridian, subjugation and
occupation:
| There was never any attempt to rebuild Iraq after the Gulf
| War. Instead Iraq has endured 10 years of subjugation and
| occupation. Our boycotts have caused the death of millions
| of Iraqi children from starvation and lack of medicine. What
| must Heavenly Father think when He hears the anguished cries
| of these millions of parents who could do nothing to save
| their children?
|
FOTNOT 26: Charlene Nelson, brev till Meridian, what standard of
peace have we offered Hussein?
| 6 - What standard of peace have we offered Hussein? We've
| issued ultimatums, demanded his total compliance with UN
| resolutions, encouraged his people to assassinate him,
| boycotted his country and starved his people. I don't recall
| any offers of rebuilding, feeding or any "massive economic
| aid".
|
FOTNOT 27: Charlene Nelson, brev till Meridian, "Observe
good faith and justice towards all Nations":
| The words of our first president still ring true: "Observe
| good faith and justice towards all Nations. Cultivate peace
| and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this
| conduct; and can it be that good policy does not equally
| enjoin it?"
|
| Sincerely,
| Charlene Nelson
| Casselton, ND 58012
|
FOTNOT 28: Connie, Logan, Utah, brev till Meridian, it's the
Constitutional and legal dither that is the issue:
| Missed Something
|
| I thought Brother Biddulph's article in Meridian Magazine
| was very insightful on the current situation we find
| ourselves with regard to going to war. It seems to me,
| however, you have missed something very important. It isn't
| whether or not we should go to war against Iraq, it's the
| Constitutional and legal dither we find ourselves in that is
| the issue. Certainly Saddam Hussein is an evil man who is
| definitely a threat not only to the U.S., but to all the
| world, including his Arab neighbors. I would love to see the
| Iraqi people freed of this monster, but I don't want the
| U.S. to be alone in this struggle. We are also the example
| to all the world of how government ought to run. What
| example are we setting to North Korea, China and other rogue
| states if we employ a policy of regime removal? We become a
| rogue nation of the worst kind because we're the most
| powerful nation on earth! If we go to war in Iraq, or
| anywhere, we need the support of the world, and in
| particular the Arab nations that have hitherto been very
| supportive of us. We need to do things legally. To just
| march in with our military might and strength on a mission
| of regime removal, is flatly uncharacteristic of our
| previous foreign affairs policies. Preemptive strikes should
| be undertaken when there is smoking gun evidence that our
| country and/or our allies are in immediate danger. So far,
| the Bush administration has not produced any such evidence
| (except in the mind of British PM Tony Blair). If he had,
| all nations would be rallying around him to get Saddam
| rather than encourage weapons inspection first.
|
FOTNOT 29: Connie, Logan, Utah, brev till Meridian, secret
courts with secret agendas:
| Since Sept 11, we have seen secret courts with secret
| agendas, the rights and privacy of ordinary US citizens
| denied, due process of law denied and citizens held without
| charge or access to legal counsel --- all in the name of
| Homeland Security and now the Senate is debating whether or
| not to give the president unlimited powers of war,
| circumventing Congress' Constitutional authority. In short,
| if Mr. Bush's plans are legislated and implemented, we will
| no longer have separation of powers in this country and all
| people will be subject to police surveilance, secret courts
| (tribunals, they're called). Not at first, of course, but
| eventually, the Bill of Rights will be worthless.
|
| I'm agreeing with you that we have a horrid tyrant in
| Saddam, but I wonder if our own president isn't setting
| himself up to be a king -- and tyrant--- himself.
|
| Connie
| Logan, Utah
|______________________________________________________________
FOTNOT 30: Själva den springande punkten är:
_______________________________________________________________
|
| Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2003 13:56:24 +0100 (MET)
| Subject: [uscrisis]: Ulf Erlingsson påpekade på en annan
| mailinglista -- som finns utlagd på webben -- att själva
| den springande punkten är...
|
| Ulf Erlingsson påpekade på en annan mailinglista -- som
| finns utlagd på webben -- att själva den springande punkten
| i den nuvarande diplomatiska situationen är, kan USA ( &
| Storbritannien ) inleda ett anfall utan en FN-resolution som
| auktoriserar krig, eller kan man det inte?
|
| Som han påpekar, svarar man "Ja" på denna fråga, så innebär
| det att du kastar bort all internationell lag, allt som
| skapades efter WW I och speciellt efter WW II för att
| försvara freden -- en ansträngning vars ursprung faktiskt
| föddes i President Woodrow Wilsons hjärna. Det innebär att
| återgå till någon slags stenåldersmentalitet.
|
| Om USA ändå invaderar Irak, och FN ingenting gör, då är
| verkligen FN irrelevant. Då kommer Bush att ha lyckats göra
| FN irrelevant, vilket faktiskt är ett av hans uttryckliga
| mål (eller iallafall målet i hans hemstats partiprogram --
| se http://texasgop.org/library/RPTPlatform2002.pdf ). Ulf
| tror att detta är vad Bush försöker åstadkomma.
|
| Men, om George Walker Bush har felkalkylerat motståndarnas
| drag -- alltså de andra 190 länderna i FN, eller 188 om man
| räknar bort Afganistan och Irak -- då kommer inte FN att
| spela döda. Inte bara har de rätten att introducera
| ekonomiska sanktioner mot USA (de kunde t.ex. förbjuda Mr
| Bush & Co. att resa utomlands, och de kunde frysa
| amerikanska tillgångar utomlands). Viktigare ändå, de kunde
| förbjuda användandet av USA-dollar i tredjeparts-
| transaktioner. Det skulle kunna sända den amerikanska
| ekonomin i ett fritt fall som skulle få Sovjetunionens
| kollaps att blekna i jämförelse. Således har USA en svag
| punkt, och Bush försvagar den för varje dag: Ekonomin.
|
| Om FN gör det så har USA bara två val: Att ge upp eller att
| deklarera en ny "ondskans axelmakter" bestående av 188
| länder (ok, 185, om man räknar bort Storbritannien,
| Australien och Israel, som kanske ställer sig på USA:s
| sida). Och sedan måste man invadera ett ansenligt antal av
| dessa 185 länder. Lite som "Fästning Världen", såsom Hitler
| hade sitt "Fästning Europa". Ulf skriver att han inte tror
| att USA har skuggan av en chans att göra något annat än att
| ge upp. Men, skriver han, priset kommer att ha varit att
| förlora imperiet. USA kommer att överleva, men det kommer
| inte längre att vara ett globalt imperium.
|
| Ulf avslutar med att skriva att detta är hans profetia...
| eller snarare, hans värsta mardröm, vilket är varför han
| försöker att säkerställa att det inte kommer att inträffa.
|______________________________________________________________
FOTNOT 31: Discourses of Brigham Young, s.366-367:
_______________________________________________________________
|
| Of one thing I am sure; God never institutes war;
| God is not the author of confusion or of war; they are the
| results of the acts of the children of men. Confusion and
| war necessarily come as the results of the foolish acts and
| policy of men; but they do not come because God desires they
| should come. If the people, generally, would turn to the
| Lord, there would never be any war. Let men turn from their
| iniquities and sins, and, instead of being covetous and
| wicked, turn to God and seek to promote peace and happiness
| throughout the land, and wars would cease. We expect to see
| the day when swords shall be turned into ploughshares,
| spears into pruning hooks, and when men shall learn war no
| more. This is what we want. We are for peace, plenty and
| happiness to all the human family. 13:149.
|
| Our traditions have been such that we are not apt to
| look upon war between two nations as murder; but suppose
| that one family should rise up against another and begin to
| slay them, would they not be taken up and tried for murder?
| Then why not nations that rise up and slay each other in a
| scientific way be equally guilty of murder? "But observe the
| martial array, how splendid! See the furious war horses,
| with their glittering trappings. Then the honor and glory
| and pride of the reigning king must be sustained, and the
| strength and power and wealth of the nation must be
| displayed in some way; and what better way than to make war
| upon neighboring nations, under some slight pretext?" Does
| it justify the slaying of men, women, and children that
| otherwise would have remained at home in peace, because a
| great army is doing the work? No: the guilty will be damned
| for it. 7:137.
|
| The very Indians who massacre men, women, and
| children on the plains, have their religious ceremonies and
| pray to their God for success in killing men, women, and
| children. The French and Austrians meet and slay one another
| by hundreds and thousands; and thousands of women and
| children who were not engaged in battle are also sacrificed
| by the folly of those Christian wars. The instigators of
| those wars are just as guilty of murder, before God, as the
| Indians are for killing the men, women, and children who are
| passing through their country. What is the difference in the
| eyes of our Father and God? It is just as much murder to
| kill, unjustly, a million at a blow as it is to kill one,
| though Dr. Young has stated that "One murder makes a
| villain; millions make a hero." Were I to make war upon an
| innocent people, because I had the power, to possess myself
| of their territory, their silver, gold, and other property,
| and be the cause of slaying, say fifty thousand strong,
| hale, hearty men, and devolving consequent suffering upon
| one hundred thousand women and children, who would suffer
| through privation and want, I am very much more guilty of
| murder than is the man who kills only one person to obtain
| his pocket-book. 7:137.
|______________________________________________________________
FOTNOT 32: Patriot Act II, Terrorists R Us, and other stories:
Detta är ett antal aktuella texter som med all
önskvärd tydlighet visar vad som har hänt och
framför allt vad som håller på att hända med
mänskliga rättigheter, "inherent rights" eller
"unalienable rights" i dagens Förenta Stater -- i
strid mot all rättfärdighet och även mot den
Amerikanska konstitutionen (se bl.a. fotnot 16 ovan
men egentligen fotnötterna 1 - 17, och många andra).
Texterna förekommer här nedan som fotnötter 33 - 40.
Översikt över fotnötterna 33 - 40:
33: Ashcroft Out of Control -- Ominous Sequel
to USA Patriot Act
34: The Center for Public Integrity -- Who They Are
35: Commentary -- Even in Wartime,
Stealth and Democracy Do Not Mix
36: Special Report -- Justice Dept. Drafts
Sweeping Expansion of Anti-Terrorism Act
37: Web link to a draft of ``Patriot Act II''
38: Terrorists R Us -- American citizen is indignant
about American government's actions
39: The U.S. shouldn't seek to emulate world's tyrants
40: Librarians Try to Alter Patriot Act
FOTNOT 33: Ashcroft Out of Control
Ominous Sequel to USA Patriot Act
_______________________________________________________________
|
| http://truthout.org/docs_03/030403D.shtml
| http://truthout.org/docs_03/printer_030403D.shtml
| http://villagevoice.com/issues/0310/hentoff.php
|
|
| Ashcroft Out of Control
| Ominous Sequel to USA Patriot Act
| By Nat Hentoff
| Village Voice
|
| Friday 28 February 2003
|
| Many of the new security measures proposed by our
| government in the name of fighting the "war on terror" are
| not temporary. They are permanent changes to our laws. Even
| the measures that, on the surface, appear to have been
| adopted only as long as the war on terror lasts, could be
| with us indefinitely. Because, as Homeland Security director
| Tom Ridge himself has warned, terrorism is a "permanent
| condition to which America must . . . adjust." - American
| Civil Liberties Union, January 29
|
| Since September 11, 2001, a number of us at the Voice
| have been detailing the Bush administration's accelerating
| war on the Bill of Rights - and the rising resistance around
| the country. This battle to protect the Constitution, and
| us, has entered a new and more dangerous dimension.
|
| On February 7, Charles Lewis, head of the
| Washington-based Center for Public Integrity, received a
| secret, but not classified, Justice Department draft of a
| bill that would expand the already unprecedented government
| powers to restrict civil liberties authorized by the USA
| Patriot Act. This new bill is called the Domestic Security
| Enhancement Act of 2003. Lewis, in an act of patriotism -
| since this still is a constitutional democracy - put the
| 86-page draft on the center's Web site, where it still
| remains ( http://publicintegrity.org/ ).
|
| On the evening of February 7, Charles Lewis discussed
| this new assault on our fundamental liberties on Bill
| Moyers's PBS program, Now.
|
| Three days later, on the editorial page of the daily New
| York Sun, primarily a conservative newspaper, Errol Louis
| wrote: "[The] document is a catalog of authoritarianism that
| runs counter to the basic tenets of modern democracy."
|
| I have the entire draft of the bill. Section 201 would
| overturn a federal court decision that ordered the Bush
| administration to reveal the identities of those it has
| detained (imprisoned) since 9-11. This sequel to the USA
| Patriot Act states that "the government need not disclose
| information about individuals detained in investigations of
| terrorism until . . . the initiation of criminal charges."
|
| Many of the prisoners caught in the Justice Department's
| initial dragnet were held for months without charges or
| contact with their families, who didn't know where they
| were. And these prisoners were often abused and out of reach
| of their lawyers - if they'd been able to find a lawyer
| before being shifted among various prisons. When, after much
| pressure, the Justice Department released the numbers of the
| imprisoned, there were no names attached, until a lower
| court decided otherwise.
|
| Under the proposed Ashcroft bill reversing that court
| decision, for the first time in U.S. history, secret arrests
| will be specifically permitted. That section of bill is
| flatly titled: "Prohibition of Disclosure of Terrorism
| Investigation Detainee Information." In Argentina, those
| secretly taken away were known as "the disappeared."
|
| Moving on, under Section 501 of the blandly titled
| Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003, an American
| citizen can be stripped of citizenship if he or she "becomes
| a member of, or provides material support to, a group that
| the United States has designated as a 'terrorist
| organization,' if that group is engaged in hostilities
| against the United States."
|
| Until now, in our law, an American could only lose his
| or her citizenship by declaring a clear intent to abandon
| it. But -- and read this carefully from the new bill -- "the
| intent to relinquish nationality need not be manifested in
| words, but can be inferred from conduct." (Emphasis added).
|
| Who will do the "inferring"? A member of the Justice
| Department. Not to worry. As John Ashcroft's spokeswoman,
| Barbara Comstock, says of objections to this draft bill:
| "The [Justice] department's deliberations are always
| undertaken with the strongest commitment to our Constitution
| and civil liberties." (This is a faith- based
| administration.)
|
| What this section of the bill actually means is that if
| you provide "material support" to an organization by sending
| a check for its legal activities -- not knowing that it has
| been designated a "terrorist" group for other things it does
| -- you can be stripped of your citizenship and be detained
| indefinitely as an alien. While South Africa was ruled by an
| apartheid government, certain activities of the African
| National Congress were categorized as "terrorist," but many
| Americans provided support to the legal anti-apartheid work
| of that organization.
|
| Under Section 302 of John Ashcroft's design for our
| future during the indefinite war on terrorism, there is
| another change in our legal system. Under current law, the
| FBI can collect DNA identification records of persons
| convicted of various crimes. But under the USA Patriot Act
| II, the "Attorney General or Secretary of Defense" will be
| able to "collect, analyze, and maintain DNA samples" of
| "suspected terrorists." And as Georgetown law professor
| David Cole notes - "mere association" will be enough to
| involve you with suspected terrorist groups. What does
| "association" mean? For one thing, "material support," under
| which you could lose your citizenship.
|
| In reaction to the stealth with which the Justice
| Department has been crafting this invasion of the Bill of
| Rights, Democratic senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, ranking
| minority member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on
| February 10: "The early signals from the administration
| about its intentions for this bill are ominous. . . .
|
| "For months, and as recently as just last week, Justice
| Department officials have denied to members of the Judiciary
| Committee that they were drafting another anti-terrorism
| package. There still has not been any hint from them about
| their draft bill."
|
| Leahy continued: "The contents of this proposal should
| be carefully reviewed, and the public must be allowed to
| freely engage in any debate about the merits of any new
| government powers the administration may seek."
|
| But where is the debate in Congress or in the media?
| After a few initial press stories about the USA Patriot Act
| II, there has been little follow-up. To be continued here.
|
| (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this
| material is distributed without profit to those who have
| expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
| information for research and educational purposes.)
|
|______________________________________________________________
FOTNOT 34: The Center for Public Integrity -- Who They Are
_______________________________________________________________
|
| These guys are the defenders of integrity, truth, moral etc.
| They are the good guys. But they expose the bad guys.
| Good source.
|
| The Center for Public Integrity
| http://publicintegrity.org
|
| Who We Are
|
| The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan,
| tax-exempt organization, was founded by Charles Lewis
| following a successful 11-year career in network television
| news.
|
| The quality of the Center's work, in just over a decade, has
| firmly established the organization as an institutional
| presence in Washington, D.C. With our hard- earned
| reputation for "public service journalism," the Center is
| distinct from most other non- governmental organizations,
| because of our high-quality, well- documented, investigative
| research.
|
|______________________________________________________________
FOTNOT 35: Commentary
Even in Wartime, Stealth and Democracy Do Not Mix
_______________________________________________________________
|
| http://publicintegrity.org/dtaweb/report.asp?ReportID=506&L1=10&L2=10&L3=0&L4=0&L5=0
| http://publicintegrity.org/dtaweb/report.asp?ReportID=506&L1=10&L2=10&L3=0&L4=0&L5=0&Task=Print
|
|
| Commentary
| Even in Wartime, Stealth and Democracy Do Not Mix
|
| By Charles Lewis
|
| WASHINGTON, Feb. 12, 2003 -- A few days ago, the Center for
| Public Integrity obtained a copy of draft legislation that
| the Bush Administration has quietly prepared as a bold,
| comprehensive sequel to the USA Patriot Act. This proposed
| law would give the government breathtaking new powers to
| further increase domestic intelligence-gathering,
| surveillance and law enforcement prerogatives, and
| simultaneously decrease judicial review and public access to
| information.
|
| We took the unprecedented (for us) step of posting the
| entire bill on our Web site.
| http://publicintegrity.org/dtaweb/report.asp?ReportID=502&L1=10&L2=10&L3=0&L4=0&L5=0
| [
| justice_dept__drafts_sweeping_expansion_of_anti-terrorism_act.txt
| http://publicintegrity.org/dtaweb/downloads/Story_01_020703_Doc_1.pdf
| ]. Why? Because democracy is supposed to be a contact
| sport, with many and diverse participants, and we quickly
| discovered that practically no one on Capitol Hill in either
| party or in the national news media had ever even heard of
| the Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003, much less
| read it. Senate inquiries about the likelihood of ``Patriot
| II'' legislation have been publicly and privately rebuffed
| for months, dozens of specific written questions to the
| Justice Department about implementation of the first Patriot
| Act simply never answered.
|
| In a national crisis atmosphere of fear, paranoia and
| patriotism in the wake of September 11th, the Bush
| Administration introduced and got the Patriot Act enacted
| into law almost unanimously in just a few weeks, warp speed
| for Congress. The Senate Judiciary Committee had an hour and
| a half hearing in which Attorney General John Ashcroft
| testified but took no questions. In the House, meanwhile,
| there was no testimony from opponents of the bill.
|
| So now, with troops amassing on the border of Iraq, we learn
| that for months the staff of Attorney General John Ashcroft
| has been
| secretly planning another tectonic shift in the historic
| constitutional balance between security and liberty, further
| encroachments against the hard-earned, legally protected,
| right-to-know about our government in this country. Was the
| Bush Administration waiting for the bombs bursting in
| Baghdad to spring this latest, urgent, national security
| legislation on the American people and Congress, another
| drive-by mooting of our customary democratic discourse and
| deliberative processes? I don't know, but it is certainly
| not an unfair question to ask, given recent events.
|
| What seemed to be merely self-serving shenanigans by the
| latest occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in the months
| prior to September 11th actually now appears to have been
| the dawn's early light of a wholesale assault on access to
| information in this country.
|
| It was before the worst terrorist act on American soil that
| George W. Bush, in his last hours as governor of Texas, had
| his official records packed up and shipped to his father's
| presidential library, attempting to remove them from the
| usual custody of the Texas State Library and Archives and
| the strong Texas public information law. Similarly, so was
| Vice President Richard Cheney's refusal to release basic
| information about his meetings with energy company campaign
| contributors on government time and property. So was the
| secret Justice Department subpoena of Associated Press
| reporter John Solomon's telephone records to attempt to
| learn the identity of a confidential source. The Reporters
| Committee found that ``the Justice Department did not
| negotiate with Solomon or his employer, did not say why the
| reporter's phone records were essential to a criminal
| investigation, and did not explain why the information could
| not be obtained any other way.''
|
| In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Ashcroft issued a
| chilling memorandum about the Freedom of Information,
| advising federal officials that ``when you carefully
| consider FOIA requests and decide to withhold records, in
| whole or in part, you can be assured that the Department of
| Justice will defend your decisions unless they lack a sound
| basis or present an unwarranted risk of adverse impact on
| the ability of other agencies to protect other important
| records.'' Just three weeks later, with no fanfare or public
| debate, President Bush signed Executive Order 13233, sharply
| restricting public access to the White House documents of
| former presidents, including Ronald Reagan and his father.
|
| Within six months of the September 11 attacks, in no fewer
| than 300 separate instances, federal, state and local
| officials restricted access to government records by
| executive order or proposed new laws to sharply curtail
| their availability, according to the National Conference of
| State Legislatures.
|
| Separately, in March 2002, the Washington Post reported that
| President Bush secretly had dispatched roughly 100 senior
| civilian officials from every Cabinet department and some
| independent agencies in a ``shadow government'' to live and
| work at two secret, fortified locations outside Washington.
| Bush reportedly implemented and maintained this classified
| ``Continuity of Operations Plan'' for half a year without
| notifying Congress or the American people. Bush acknowledged
| setting up the secret operation, which he said he had ``an
| obligation as the President'' to do ``. . . This is serious
| business.''
|
| So are secret trials and undisclosed detentions, DNA
| databanks and military tribunals, expanded computer and
| other government surveillance, renewed political spying by
| local police departments and preventing the Environmental
| Protection Agency from distributing health and safety
| information about chemical company facilities to the public.
| But now, with the full text online of the new Domestic
| Security Enhancement Act of 2003, perhaps there can actually
| be a public conversation about these measures.
|
| I don't know why this President and his appointees have such
| an unhealthy, Nixonian obsession with secrecy, such disdain
| for providing information to the public. Arrogantly
| stonewalling and stiff-arming entirely reasonable requests
| for information from Congress and journalists merely stoke
| the fires of skepticism, suspicion and distrust.
|
| Abraham Lincoln once said, ``I'm a firm believer in the
| people. If given the truth, they can meet any national
| crisis. The great point is to give them the real facts.''
| The Bush Administration needs to recall the advice of
| America's most revered president, the first Republican to
| occupy -- and win re-election -- to the White House.
|
|
|
| Staff
|
| Charles Lewis
| Founder and Executive Director
| In 1990, Charles Lewis authored the Center's premiere study,
| America's Frontline Trade Officials. In addition to
| prompting a General Accounting Office Investigation and a
| Justice Department ruling, the study was used by four
| presidential candidates in 1992. The Center has published
| over 100 investigative reports, and Lewis has been the
| author of several of them, including The Cheating of
| America, The Buying of the President, The Buying of the
| Congress and The Buying of the President 2000. Since 1992,
| Lewis has spoken on corruption or journalism in Belarus,
| Belgium, Denmark, England, France, Hungary, Ireland, Russia,
| Sweden and South Africa. In early 1997, he traveled to the
| troubled Ferghana Valley region of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan
| and Kyrgystan in Central Asia as part of a Council on
| Foreign Relations conflict-prevention delegation. From 1977
| to 1988, he did investigative reporting at ABC News and CBS
| News, most recently as a producer for 60 Minutes assigned to
| correspondent Mike Wallace. In 1998, the John D. and
| Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation awarded Lewis a MacArthur
| Fellowship. He is a native of Newark, Delaware, and holds a
| master's degree from Johns Hopkins University School of
| Advanced International Studies and a B.A. in political
| science with honors and distinction from the University of
| Delaware.
|______________________________________________________________
FOTNOT 36: Special Report -- Justice Dept. Drafts
Sweeping Expansion of Anti-Terrorism Act
_______________________________________________________________
|
| http://publicintegrity.org/dtaweb/report.asp?ReportID=502&L1=10&L2=10&L3=0&L4=0&L5=0
| http://publicintegrity.org/dtaweb/report.asp?ReportID=502&L1=10&L2=10&L3=0&L4=0&L5=0&Task=Print
|
|
| Special Report
| Justice Dept. Drafts Sweeping Expansion of Anti-Terrorism
| Act
|
| By Charles Lewis and Adam Mayle
|
| (WASHINGTON, Feb. 7, 2003) -- The Bush Administration is
| preparing a bold, comprehensive sequel to the USA Patriot
| Act passed in the wake of September 11, 2001, which will
| give the government broad, sweeping new powers to increase
| domestic intelligence-gathering, surveillance and law
| enforcement prerogatives, and simultaneously decrease
| judicial review and public access to information.
|
| The Center for Public Integrity has obtained a draft, dated
| January 9, 2003, of this previously undisclosed legislation
| and is making it available in full text
| http://publicintegrity.org/dtaweb/downloads/Story_01_020703_Doc_1.pdf
| (12 MB). The bill, drafted by the staff of Attorney General
| John Ashcroft and entitled the Domestic Security Enhancement
| Act of 2003, has not been officially released by the
| Department of Justice, although rumors of its development
| have circulated around the Capitol for the last few months
| under the name of ``the Patriot Act II'' in legislative
| parlance.
|
| ``We haven't heard anything from the Justice Department on
| updating the Patriot Act,'' House Judiciary Committee
| spokesman Jeff Lungren told the Center. ``They haven't
| shared their thoughts on that. Obviously, we'd be
| interested, but we haven't heard anything at this point.''
|
| Senior members of the Senate Judiciary Committee minority
| staff have inquired about Patriot II for months and have
| been told as recently as this week that there is no such
| legislation being planned.
|
| Mark Corallo, deputy director of Justice's Office of Public
| Affairs, told the Center his office was unaware of the
| draft. ``I have heard people talking about revising the
| Patriot Act, we are looking to work on things the way we
| would do with any law,'' he said. ``We may work to make
| modifications to protect Americans,'' he added. When told
| that the Center had a copy of the draft legislation, he
| said, ``This is all news to me. I have never heard of
| this.''
|
| After the Center posted this story, Barbara Comstock,
| director of public affairs for the Justice Dept., released a
| statement
| http://publicintegrity.org/dtaweb/downloads/Story_01_020703_Doc_3.pdf
| saying that, "Department staff have not presented any final
| proposals to either the Attorney General or the White House.
| It would be premature to speculate on any future decisions,
| particularly ideas or proposals that are still being
| discussed at staff levels."
|
| An Office of Legislative Affairs ``control sheet''
| http://publicintegrity.org/dtaweb/downloads/Story_01_020703_Doc_2.pdf
| that was obtained by the PBS program "Now With Bill Moyers"
| http://pbs.org/now/ seems to indicate that a copy of the
| bill was sent to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert and
| Vice President Richard Cheney on Jan. 10, 2003. ``Attached
| for your review and comment is a draft legislative proposal
| entitled the "Domestice Security Enhancement Act of 2003,"''
| the memo, sent from ``OLP'' or Office of Legal Policy, says.
|
| Comstock later told the Center that the draft "is an early
| discussion draft and it has not been sent to either the Vice
| President or the Speaker of the House."
|
| Dr. David Cole, Georgetown University Law professor and
| author of Terrorism and the Constitution, reviewed the draft
| legislation at the request of the Center, and said that the
| legislation ``raises a lot of serious concerns. It's
| troubling that they have gotten this far along and they've
| been telling people there is nothing in the works.'' This
| proposed law, he added, ``would radically expand law
| enforcement and intelligence gathering authorities, reduce
| or eliminate judicial oversight over surveillance, authorize
| secret arrests, create a DNA database based on unchecked
| executive "suspicion," create new death penalties, and even
| seek to take American citizenship away from persons who
| belong to or support disfavored political groups.''
|
| Some of the key provision of the Domestic Security
| Enhancement Act of 2003 include:
|
| Section 201, ``Prohibition of Disclosure of Terrorism
| Investigation Detainee Information'': Safeguarding the
| dissemination of information related to national security
| has been a hallmark of Ashcroft's first two years in office,
| and the Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003 follows in
| the footsteps of his October 2001 directive to carefully
| consider such interest when granting Freedom of Information
| Act requests. While the October memo simply encouraged FOIA
| officers to take national security, ``protecting sensitive
| business information and, not least, preserving personal
| privacy'' into account while deciding on requests, the
| proposed legislation would enhance the department's ability
| to deny releasing material on suspected terrorists in
| government custody through FOIA.
|
| Section 202, ``Distribution of "Worst Case Scenario"
| Information'': This would introduce new FOIA restrictions
| with regard to the Environmental Protection Agency. As
| provided for in the Clean Air Act, the EPA requires private
| companies that use potentially dangerous chemicals must
| produce a ``worst case scenario'' report detailing the
| effect that the release of these controlled substances would
| have on the surrounding community. Section 202 of this Act
| would, however, restrict FOIA requests to these reports,
| which the bill's drafters refer to as ``a roadmap for
| terrorists.'' By reducing public access to ``read-only''
| methods for only those persons ``who live and work in the
| geographical area likely to be affected by a worst-case
| scenario,'' this subtitle would obfuscate an established
| level of transparency between private industry and the
| public.
|
| Section 301-306, ``Terrorist Identification Database'':
| These sections would authorize creation of a DNA database on
| ``suspected terrorists,'' expansively defined to include
| association with suspected terrorist groups, and noncitizens
| suspected of certain crimes or of having supported any group
| designated as terrorist.
|
| Section 312, ``Appropriate Remedies with Respect to Law
| Enforcement Surveillance Activities'': This section would
| terminate all state law enforcement consent decrees before
| Sept. 11, 2001, not related to racial profiling or other
| civil rights violations, that limit such agencies from
| gathering information about individuals and organizations.
| The authors of this statute claim that these consent orders,
| which were passed as a result of police spying abuses, could
| impede current terrorism investigations. It would also place
| substantial restrictions on future court injunctions.
|
| Section 405, ``Presumption for Pretrial Detention in Cases
| Involving Terrorism'': While many people charged with drug
| offenses punishable by prison terms of 10 years or more are
| held before their trial without bail, this provision would
| create a comparable statute for those suspected of terrorist
| activity. The reasons for presumptively holding suspected
| terrorists before trial, the Justice Department summary memo
| states, are clear. ``This presumption is warranted because
| of the unparalleled magnitude of the danger to the United
| States and its people posed by acts of terrorism, and
| because terrorism is typically engaged in by groups --
| many with international connections -- that are often in a
| position to help their members flee or go into hiding.''
|
| Section 501, ``Expatriation of Terrorists'': This provision,
| the drafters say, would establish that an American citizen
| could be expatriated ``if, with the intent to relinquish his
| nationality, he becomes a member of, or provides material
| support to, a group that the United Stated has designated as
| a "terrorist organization".'' But whereas a citizen formerly
| had to state his intent to relinquish his citizenship, the
| new law affirms that his intent can be ``inferred from
| conduct.'' Thus, engaging in the lawful activities of a
| group designated as a ``terrorist organization'' by the
| Attorney General could be presumptive grounds for
| expatriation.
|
| The Domestic Security Enhancement Act is the latest
| development in an 18-month trend in which the Bush
| Administration has sought expanded powers and
| responsibilities for law enforcement bodies to help counter
| the threat of terrorism.
|
| The USA Patriot Act, signed into law by President Bush on
| Oct. 26, 2001, gave law enforcement officials broader
| authority to conduct electronic surveillance and wiretaps,
| and gives the president the authority, when the nation is
| under attack, to confiscate any property within U.S.
| jurisdiction of anyone believed to be engaging in such
| attacks. The measure also tightened oversight of financial
| activities to prevent money laundering and diminish bank
| secrecy in an effort to disrupt terrorist finances.
|
| It also changed provisions of Foreign Intelligence
| Surveillance Act, which was passed in 1978 during the Cold
| War. FISA established a different standard of government
| oversight and judicial review for ``foreign intelligence''
| surveillance than that applied to traditional domestic law
| enforcement surveillance.
|
| The USA Patriot Act allowed the Federal Bureau of
| Investigation to share information gathered in terrorism
| investigations under the ``foreign intelligence'' standard
| with local law enforcement agencies, in essence nullifying
| the higher standard of oversight that applied to domestic
| investigations. The USA Patriot Act also amended FISA to
| permit surveillance under the less rigorous standard
| whenever ``foreign intelligence'' was a ``significant
| purpose'' rather than the ``primary purpose'' of an
| investigation.
|
| The draft legislation goes further in that direction. ``In
| the [USA Patriot Act] we have to break down the wall of
| foreign intelligence and law enforcement,'' Cole said. ``Now
| they want to break down the wall between international
| terrorism and domestic terrorism.''
|
| In an Oct. 9, 2002, hearing of the Senate Judiciary
| Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism, and Government
| Information, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher
| testified that Justice had been, ``looking at potential
| proposals on following up on the PATRIOT Act for new tools
| and we have also been working with different agencies within
| the government and they are still studying that and
| hopefully we will continue to work with this committee in
| the future on new tools that we believe are necessary in the
| war on terrorism.''
|
| Asked by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) whether she could
| inform the committee of what specific areas Justice was
| looking at, Fisher replied, ``At this point I can't, I'm
| sorry. They're studying a lot of different ideas and a lot
| of different tools that follow up on information sharing and
| other aspects.''
|
| Assistant Attorney General for Legal Policy Viet Dinh, who
| was the principal author of the first Patriot Act, told
| Legal Times last October that there was ``an ongoing process
| to continue evaluating and re-evaluating authorities we have
| with respect to counterterrorism,'' but declined to say
| whether a new bill was forthcoming.
|
| Former FBI Director William Sessions, who urged caution
| while Congress considered the USA Patriot Act, did not want
| to enter the fray concerning a possible successor bill.
|
| "I hate to jump into it, because it's a very delicate
| thing," Sessions told the Center, without acknowledging
| whether he knew of any proposed additions or revisions to
| the additional Patriot bill.
|
| When the first bill was nearing passage in the Congress in
| late 2001, however, Sessions told Internet site NewsMax.Com
| that the balance between civil liberties and sufficient
| intelligence gathering was a difficult one. ``First of all,
| the Attorney General has to justify fully what he's asking
| for,'' Sessions, who served presidents Reagan and George
| H.W. Bush as FBI Director from 1987 until 1993, said at the
| time. ``We need to be sure that we provide an effective
| means to deal with criminality.'' At the same time, he said,
| ``we need to be sure that we are mindful of the
| Constitution, mindful of privacy considerations, but also
| meet the technological needs we have'' to gather
| intelligence.
|
| Cole found it disturbing that there have been no
| consultations with Congress on the draft legislation. ``It
| raises a lot of serious concerns and is troubling as a
| generic matter that they have gotten this far along and tell
| people that there is nothing in the works. What that
| suggests is that they're waiting for a propitious time to
| introduce it, which might well be when a war is begun. At
| that time there would be less opportunity for discussion and
| they'll have a much stronger hand in saying that they need
| these right away.''
|
|
|
| About the authors
|
| Charles Lewis
| Founder and Executive Director
| In 1990, Charles Lewis authored the Center's premiere study,
| America's Frontline Trade Officials. In addition to
| prompting a General Accounting Office Investigation and a
| Justice Department ruling, the study was used by four
| presidential candidates in 1992. The Center has published
| over 100 investigative reports, and Lewis has been the
| author of several of them, including The Cheating of
| America, The Buying of the President, The Buying of the
| Congress and The Buying of the President 2000. Since 1992,
| Lewis has spoken on corruption or journalism in Belarus,
| Belgium, Denmark, England, France, Hungary, Ireland, Russia,
| Sweden and South Africa. In early 1997, he traveled to the
| troubled Ferghana Valley region of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan
| and Kyrgystan in Central Asia as part of a Council on
| Foreign Relations conflict-prevention delegation. From 1977
| to 1988, he did investigative reporting at ABC News and CBS
| News, most recently as a producer for 60 Minutes assigned to
| correspondent Mike Wallace. In 1998, the John D. and
| Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation awarded Lewis a MacArthur
| Fellowship. He is a native of Newark, Delaware, and holds a
| master's degree from Johns Hopkins University School of
| Advanced International Studies and a B.A. in political
| science with honors and distinction from the University of
| Delaware.
|
| Adam Mayle
| James R. Soles Fellow
| Adam Mayle is the recipient of the 5th Annual James R. Soles
| Fellowship at the Center. A native of Viola, Delaware, he
| graduated from the University of Delaware cum laude with a
| triple major in Economics, Russian Language and Literature,
| and International Relations with honors.
|
|
| _ _ _
|
|
| Also see
|
| http://pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_lewis2.html
| http://pbs.org/now/printable/transcript_lewis2_print.html
|
|
| Now with Bill Moyers
|
| Transcript - Bill Moyers interviews Chuck Lewis
|
| MOYERS: Chuck Lewis, whom you just saw in that piece is with
| me now. He is the Executive Director of the nonpartisan
| Center for Public Integrity, the organization responsible
| for obtaining that document. Chuck Lewis, thank you for
| joining us.
|
| LEWIS: Thank you.
|
| MOYERS: The Patriot Act was passed six weeks after 9/11. We
| know now that it greatly changed the balance between liberty
| and security in this nation's framework. What do you think
| -- what's the significance of this new document, called the
| Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003?
|
| LEWIS: I think the significance is it just deepens and
| broadens, further extends the first Patriot Act. That act in
| 2001, they had six weeks, which was not a lot of time to
| throw something together. Now there's been 18 months of all
| kinds of things that have happened and court decisions that
| have tried to roll back some of the Patriot Act.
|
| And other concerns, law enforcement, people have, and so
| they've had time to sift and sort what they want. And it's
| arguably might be a more thorough rendering of all the
| things law enforcement and intelligence agencies would like
| to have in a perfect world. It's sort of how I look at it,
| and I think it's a very tough document when it comes to
| secrecy and surveillance.
|
| I understand the concerns about fear of terrorism. And it
| certainly?
|
| MOYERS: We all have those?
|
| LEWIS: We all have those and there are things in the
| legislation that make sense, and that are reasonable, I
| think for any American. But there are other things that
| really take some of the Patriot Act civil liberties issues
| that folks were concerned about and go even further. And I
| think it's gonna be very controversial. Some of these
| sections are gonna be debated for weeks and months.
|
| MOYERS: So many of these powers latent in this draft
| legislation were powers that were taken away from the
| intelligence community some years ago because they were
| abused.
|
| LEWIS: That's right.
|
| MOYERS: Do you see any protection in here against potential
| abuse?
|
| LEWIS: I don't think there's very much -- there's a lot
| more authority and power for government. There's less
| oversight and information about what government is doing.
| That's the headline and that's the theme. And the safeguards
| seem to be pretty minimal to me.
|
| MOYERS: I just go through here, you know? "Will give the
| Attorney General the unchecked power to deport any
| foreigner?"
|
| LEWIS: Right.
|
| MOYERS: Including lawful permanent resident aliens. It would
| give the government the power to keep certain arrests secret
| until an indictment is found never in our history have we
| permitted secret arrests. It would give the government power
| to bypass courts and grand juries in order to conduct
| surveillance without a judge's permission. I mean these do
| really further upend the balance between liberty on the one
| hand and security on the other.
|
| LEWIS: Well, they do. They reduce judicial oversight with
| the secret intelligence courts instead of saying the court
| may do this now it's the court will do this. They can have
| ex parte conversations where they go into the judge without
| anyone else around. In terms of information about detainees,
| not only can they detain anyone they'd like to detain, there
| is no public information about it.
|
| Journalists cannot find out the names of -- we detained
| over a thousand people after September 11th because we
| thought they might all be terrorists. Not one of them was
| really found with any criminal charges to be a terrorist.
| And we don't know the names of almost all those people,
| still. And so it does appear that everything that folks
| might be concerned about with the Patriot Act, this is times
| five or times ten is what I look at it. I see it very
| serious.
|
| MOYERS: You and I have had this kind of discussion often, we
| go back a long way together. The foundation that I serve on
| has been a big supporter of yours and you've been a big
| supporter of our journalism. If we were fighting terrorists
| instead of being journalists, wouldn't we want this kind of
| power in our hands?
|
| LEWIS: Well, we would, but we operate in a democracy and
| there's other considerations. I mean I think, you know,
| there's no question, if you're in law enforcement, this is
| gonna make it easier for you to do your job. The problem is,
| we have a history in our country, just in our lifetime, in
| the last quarter century.
|
| Where we've seen FBI and CIA abuses of ordinary citizens.
| Where mail has been opened, where homes have been broken
| into. Where infiltration has occurred in political groups.
| Informants have been used, misused. People's lives have been
| ruined. People have committed suicide because of the
| pressures brought against them by the government, by these
| kinds of secret intelligence agencies.
|
| This is not a completely crazy idea to worry about the power
| of the government. And it was curbed and rolled back in the
| '70s. And there is something obviously occurring here in the
| public space around the whole issue of liberty and security
| right now.
|
| And it is clearly changing and it's moving towards security.
| And the question for us as a people is what is the right
| balance. And I think my biggest personal concern is that
| there ought to be a debate about this. So the Patriot Act
| jammed through Congress in six weeks.
|
| There was a Congressional -- there was a Senate hearing
| that lasted an hour and a half, there were no questions to
| the Attorney General by the senators. This is too important
| for our country. Whatever anyone's point of view, this
| should be a conversation that the country should have.
|
| And if I'm afraid they're waiting for a war or something and
| then they're gonna pop this baby out and then try to jam it
| through.
|
| MOYERS: You mean that if it were not rolled out and
| discussed publicly until the United States has had war in
| Iraq, people might not pay as much attention to it as they
| would now.
|
| LEWIS: They wouldn't pay as much attention and you know, our
| worries and our fears are gonna be different than they are
| now. And there will be less of -- all these things will
| melt away. These are nice concerns about liberties but we'll
| be at war. And we'll have presidents and attorneys general
| and other government officials telling us things. And I just
| see a -- I see that it wouldn't work quite as easily for
| them if it comes out in the next few weeks as opposed to
| then.
|
| MOYERS: Congressman Burton, Dan Burton, of Indiana, a very
| conservative congressman, who is Chairman on the Committee
| on Government Reform. He said recently, "An iron veil is
| descending over the executive branch."
|
| Now your forte is moving information around in Washington
| trying to find out what's going on. Would you agree with
| what Congressman Burton has said here?
|
| LEWIS: I absolutely agree with what he's saying. I mean
| there have been 300 roll-backs of the Freedom of Information
| Act since September 11th. All over America, at the state and
| local level, as well as the federal government. The Attorney
| General sent a message to every federal employee, when in
| doubt, deny any Freedom of Information request.
|
| We have other things like presidential papers being sealed
| off. We have reporters trying to cover things in Afghanistan
| being locked in a warehouse and not able to file their
| stories. Even before September 11th, we had one reporter's
| home phone records seized by a grand jury without telling
| him or his news organization.
|
| There's a lot of things happening with information, access
| to information, and efforts to stop journalism that I have
| not seen in 20 plus years of watching Washington and
| journalism and government interact. And it's not just
| information. It's not information for information's sake.
| This is about health, safety, lives?
|
| MOYERS: What do you mean?
|
| LEWIS: Well, you have this whole thing in this current draft
| legislation that there's a worst case scenario type
| requirement that every company that is making hazardous or
| toxic materials has to make that information available to
| the public. So if something terrible does happen they know
| that it's possible that it could happen and there's some
| sort of assessment about it. Well now that is not gonna be
| required. Chemical companies will not have to tell the world
| about these problems.
|
| And they will -- the citizens in that community will not
| have access to that information in an easy accessible way.
| And that's new and that affects their life. If some problem
| occurs, they're unrelated to the terrorism. Something just
| goes wrong, they will not know anything about that in their
| community.
|
| So we're rolling back health and safety and environmental
| and other considerations and sensitivities that have been in
| our culture now for decades. Are melting away because of --
| all in the name of fighting terrorism.
|
| MOYERS: What would be the Attorney General's justification
| for wanting to restrict access to information about toxic
| chemicals?
|
| LEWIS: Well, the -- I haven't heard one. But I think the
| rationale is that terrorists could get information about a
| chemical plant and its security, bad security, inadequate
| security and somehow then bring about a threat.
|
| But the problem is sunlight is the best disinfectant. If
| these plants have bad security or they're not being well run
| and they're actually unsafe it's usually exposing it and
| talking about it and the public being aware of it that ends
| up improving the plant or the facility or whatever it is.
|
| I actually find that that's how change occurs usually. And
| so the ostensible rationale is to keep it away from
| terrorists. But I think it's also a rationale to protect
| companies frankly in this instance. Well I happen to know
| that's been the chemical lobbyist's dream for a long time.
|
| A long time before 9/11. They did not want this information
| made available.
|
| LEWIS: I see a lot of opportunism here around the fear and
| paranoia in the wake of September 11th. And taking advantage
| of the insecurity that we all feel today. And that is, to
| me, incredibly offensive. And that's why a conversation
| about it, there's 40 sections in this thing. The public
| needs to have a sense what exactly are we getting here.
| There needs to be a chewing over. This should not jam
| through Congress. This should be out there and being -- be
| talked about. I mean the realm between public and private,
| between foreign and domestic, all these things have morphed
| into the citizen against all of this out there -- this
| morass of regulations and rules and intrusions. And at the
| same time they can come after you, get your credit card
| data, your library records, your Internet searching,
| everything. And they'll decide whether or not you're a
| suspect or not.
|
| Whether or not they like you. If you're a disfavored
| political group, or from the wrong ethnic background, then
| you might become on the radar screen of some folks that you
| don't know about, you can't find out about, and they can do
| things. They have -- this is incredible power.
|
| MOYERS: One of the provisions in here as I understand it is
| that the government could actually strip citizenship from
| someone if -- for example, if you were found, according to
| this, if you were found making what you thought was a
| legitimate contribution to some non profit organization.
|
| LEWIS: Right.
|
| MOYERS: Foundation. And months from then, that foundation
| were deemed by the government or that organization were
| deemed by the government to have been in some way supporting
| terrorists, you could lose your citizenship because of your
| contribution, even if you didn't know?
|
| LEWIS: That's right.
|
| MOYERS: That you were contributing to an organization like
| that.
|
| LEWIS: No, that's absolutely -- they have that power. They
| can also extradite all over world, even if we don't have
| treaties. I mean, some of the things in here are -- strain
| credulity for legal scholars. They're not sure, they've
| never seen these kinds of provisions trotted out. I mean, a
| lot of the question is if it does pass Congress, what would
| the courts do with it later.
|
| I mean I think there are some legitimate issues there.
|
| MOYERS: What do you make of this -- This is the document
| that went from the Department of Justice with this draft
| legislation to certain very key people in government. Among
| them, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert and Vice
| President, Richard Cheney, for their comments on this
| obviously confidential document.
|
| Why the Speaker of the House and the Vice President and not
| the committee chairman of the Judiciary Committee in the
| Senate or the appropriate committee in the House?
|
| LEWIS: It's a way to say you've consulted Congress to some
| extent by sending it to the Speaker and not really
| consulting Congress.
|
| As far as I can tell, and we have not polled every member or
| anything like that, but it appears that virtually no one on
| Capitol Hill, except for the Speaker, has seen this
| legislation. I'm talking about the people at the judiciary
| committees in the House and Senate don't have this
| legislation. And have even been kind of yanked around a
| little bit for months about whether there will even be
| legislation.
|
| MOYERS: The House Judiciary Committee actually asked the FBI
| a few months ago how it has used the new powers that had
| been given to it under the Patriot Act. And the Justice
| department said, "We can't tell you that information, it's
| classified."
|
| And this prompted then-Congressman then Bob Barr, from
| Georgia, another conservative, by the way, he said the
| attitude of the Justice Department seems to be that even
| Congress isn't entitled to know how they are using the
| authority that Congress gave them.
|
| LEWIS: It's incredible. I mean, if Congress doesn't have
| oversight over the Justice Department and these programs,
| who does? That's how it's supposed to work in our
| constitution and in our set up for government.
|
| MOYERS: That's one of your real concerns, isn't it? That
| there's no oversight when secrecy is this tight.
|
| LEWIS: Absolutely. The Congress is the people's chance to
| monitor the executive branch. That is the only? it is the
| closest branch of government to the people. The House
| members are up for election every two years. If the House of
| Representatives and the Congress in general cannot keep a
| watch on the executive branch and cannot be informed about
| their activities. There's something very serious here.
|
| MOYERS: Chuck, I hear people out there in the audience
| thinking, you know, I'm scared. We're -- this is a new
| ballgame, to put it trivially. War on terrorists, they came
| on 9/11, we keep getting reports they're coming again, who
| knows where it'll happen. Everybody's scared.
|
| You guys are living in Lotus Land, you journalists talking
| about this sort of thing. Because we really want the
| government to protect us from another World Trade Center
| attack on the Pentagon, which is not far from where your
| office is in Washington.
|
| LEWIS: Right.
|
| MOYERS: What about that?
|
| LEWIS: Look, I wanna be protected by the government as much
| as anyone.
|
| But actually, in some ways that's beside the point. There
| are also freedoms and rights and liberties that, you know,
| millions of Americas have fought for over 200 years to make
| sure that this is a special kind of country. And isn't it
| possible that to be secure and have liberties?
|
| Why give all the power and authority and have no oversight
| and accountability. What are the safeguards. And that's the
| question.
|
| MOYERS: When someone inside government, inside the Justice
| Department, presumably, gives you a confidential document
| marked, "Not For Distribution," The Domestic Security
| Enhancement Act of 2003, knowing that this administration
| has been cracking down on watchdogs and leaks from inside
| government, do you consider this person a patriot?
|
| LEWIS: I really do. I think it takes incredible guts to take
| something that bothers someone, and for whatever reason,
| they feel they must give it out. And they know they're gonna
| be polygraphed, they're gonna be questioned. There's gonna
| be a clampdown found, there's gonna be a witch-hunt after
| this occurs. They could very likely not only lose their job
| but-- maybe worse.
|
| MOYERS: Be sued by the government?
|
| LEWIS: Be sued by the government and otherwise ruined
| professionally. That is the most incredible kind of courage.
| And I have an incredible respect for anyone who does that.
|
| MOYERS: I should make this clear this is not marked "Top
| Secret" -- this is not a classified document. It is
| stamped "Confidential" but nobody is betraying the Secrets
| Act.
|
| LEWIS: Yeah, that's right, I mean, I've -- I'm glad to say
| that that's right.
|
| MOYERS: There was a story this week in Congressional
| Quarterly, which is a very respected non- partisan journal
| in Washington. It says "Pentagon's proposed changes strike
| some as difficult, dangerous and destabilizing." And one of
| the things Donald Rumsfeld wants is wavers of environmental
| laws so that troops can conduct more "realistic exercises."
|
| And then this magazine, which is non-partisan, says this is
| part of the administration's broad campaign to run the
| federal government more like a private business. And with
| private businesses you have more control over employees, you
| have more control over information. Do you see that
| developing as a syndrome of this administration?
|
| LEWIS: I think it's incredible what's happening. I see a
| wholesale assault on access to information in this country
| that has not really been seen, I have to just say it, since
| Richard Nixon.
|
| When you look at the roll-backs of freedom of information,
| when you look at things like meeting with energy companies
| with the Vice President. It's simple things though in
| government property with government officials getting paid
| by taxpayer money and it's not available to the public.
|
| When you see some of the things that we have talked about
| earlier with reporters from detainees to military actions
| not being able to see things. I see a lot of very aggressive
| behavior by government officials towards the act of getting
| information out and information itself. I think that we're
| in a very unusual situation right now. And it really worries
| me actually.
|
| MOYERS: Chuck Lewis, Center for Public Integrity, thank you
| very much.
|
| LEWIS: Thank you.
|
|______________________________________________________________
FOTNOT 37: Web link to a draft of ``Patriot Act II''
_______________________________________________________________
|
| http://publicintegrity.org/dtaweb/downloads/Story_01_020703_Doc_1.pdf
|
|______________________________________________________________
FOTNOT 38: Terrorists R Us -- American citizen is indignant
about American government's actions
_______________________________________________________________
|
| Terrorists R Us
|
| http://english.pravda.ru/letters/2003/03/11/44221.html
|
|
|
| Pravda.RU:Editorial:More in detail
|
| 12:46 2003-03-11
| Terrorists R Us
| American citizen is indignant about American government's
| actions
|
| Many Americans could not believe it when they heard that
| U.S. authorities have kidnapped two small children in their
| ever- expanding ``War on Terrorism.'' Many of us thought it
| was a misprint, misinformation. After all, the USA has
| always stood for freedom, justice, and the American way.
| Then WorldNetDaily news website published an article
| confirming that the U.S. has, indeed, kidnapped the small 7
| and 9 year old sons of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who
| purportedly is the masterminded of the 9-11 attacks.
|
| I don't know how my fellow countrymen feel, but I declare
| that even if Khalid had killed a million innocent people, it
| is a grave offence against humanity and the God above us, to
| kidnap children. Such a heinous act makes us no better than
| the Nazi Gestapo, who also said that it ``could save lives''
| if they tortured whole families for information.
|
| I cannot believe that the broadcast media is holding still
| for this for one moment. Any respect decent Americans once
| had for the networks and syndicates has now evaporated,
| because no broadcast voices are yet raised up to defend even
| small children from the viciousness of ``win at any cost''
| bureaucrats.
|
| Any government that regards tiny children as pawns to be
| exploited in its ``War On Terror,'' which is more truly a
| war on individual rights, needs to hear from sane men.
| Unfortunately, there seems to be no voice, no accommodation
| for such sane men in any U.S. media. Only Pravda will print
| articles such as this, which says a lot about freedom of the
| press in America.
|
| It is time to choose. Terrorist cell, or terrorist NATION?
| Which is the greater threat?
|
| Our government has almost daily issued terrorist threat
| warnings, assigning various colors for ``alerts.'' Yet no
| one says what we were supposed to do with such information.
| The government that took our guns away, even though it
| claims we are ``at war,'' sends us citizens out unarmed.
| Because we foolishly let them.
|
| U.S. based airline pilots, all absolute captains of their
| ships, are so blind to their Natural Rights that they beg
| their government for permission to protect their passengers
| with handguns. PERMISSION!! And they're still begging while
| the debauched Congress hides behind the guns of hundreds of
| armed guards, making more laws saying no to them and
| everyone else.
|
| In the many months since 9-11, there have been thousands of
| ``terrorist alerts,'' but there has been not one, repeat,
| NOT ONE terrorist attack as predicted. The same
| ``intelligence'' agencies that didn't have one whiff of the
| pending 9-11 tragedy are now receiving more money, more
| power and yet more money -- to protect us just like they did
| before 9-11.
|
| Now the government has sunk to an all-time low. While
| countless legislators rush to indict and pass more and more
| laws against child abuse, it kidnaps two little children,
| not only away from their family, but away even from their
| own country and culture, transporting them into the U.S. for
| confinement and interrogation.
|
| Never, in my wildest imagination did I think that the
| country for which I am willing to die would sink so low, so
| despicably as to torture anyone, especially children, for
| any reason whatsoever since no reason whatsoever would ever
| suffice. We attacked and ended whole nations for doing such
| things. Yet now we are committing the same horrible crimes.
| And I guarantee that this will finally kill us, politically
| and, worse, spiritually.
|
| We have met the terrorists, and they are us.
|
| Jack Duggan
| Especially for PRAVDA.Ru
|
|______________________________________________________________
FOTNOT 39: The U.S. shouldn't seek to emulate world's tyrants
_______________________________________________________________
|
| http://www.freelancestar.com/News/FLS/2003/032003/03092003/901478
|
|
| The U.S. shouldn't seek to emulate world's tyrants
|
|
|
| ASHINGTON--During his State of the Union address, President
| Bush spoke about the horrifying torture techniques Saddam
| Hussein uses on prisoners in Iraq. He described the use of
| electric shock, burning with hot irons, acid, and rape. He
| said that the Iraqi government arrests and tortures children
| to get their parents to confess to crimes. President Bush
| concluded: "If this isn't evil, then evil has no meaning."
|
| Millions of Americans heard the president say that torture
| is evil; I can't believe that many disagreed with his
| chilling words. Yet somehow, when it comes to how the United
| States should treat captured terrorists like Khalid Shaikh
| Mohammed, some people find it convenient to forget basic
| principles of right and wrong.
|
| Commentators cavalierly suggest that al-Qaida detainees be
| tortured without mercy to force them to reveal what they
| know. Officials in President Bush's administration, speaking
| off the record of course, boast about beating detainees to
| "soften them up" for interrogations. One unnamed official
| told the Wall Street Journal this week that Mohammed might
| be sent "to some other country that'll let us pistol whip
| this guy." Another even said that the United States had
| "access" to Mohammed's elementary-school-age children and
| would use it to pressure him to talk.
|
| What the pro-torture crowd ignores is that, in addition to
| being illegal and immoral, this brutal practice has been
| thoroughly discredited as an interrogation technique. Sure,
| it's possible to get a suspect to talk by inflicting pain.
| But as Col. Gerald York, former chief of operations for the
| Defense Intelligence Agency, says, there is no way of
| knowing if a tortured prisoner is telling the truth. More
| likely, he "will tell you things that you may want to hear
| just to stop the torture."
|
| Or, as a current intelligence official told USA Today this
| week: "If you violate the process by jumping in and
| rubber-hosing some SOB, you're going to get bad information
| 100 percent of the time."
|
| Experienced law-enforcement professionals will tell you that
| torture is a wonderful technique for getting false
| confessions out of innocent people. It is a lousy method for
| getting the truth out of guilty people. That's why all over
| the world, in countries like Sudan, China, and Iraq, torture
| is used not for legitimate investigative ends, but to punish
| and humiliate whoever the police take into custody.
|
| America has nothing to gain by emulating the world's most
| brutal dictatorships. Indeed, we have everything to
| lose--our humanity, and our moral authority as a champion of
| democratic values.
|
| Remember: The Bush administration has said it is dedicated
| to promoting democracy and human rights in the countries of
| the Arab world where terrorism has its roots. It has rightly
| condemned countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Syria for
| repressing and brutalizing their people. But how can America
| continue to do that if, as has been reported, it turns over
| prisoners to the secret police in the very same countries so
| they can be tortured? That is the mother of mixed messages.
|
| And what will happen the next time an American soldier is
| captured and tortured by an enemy force? What will we say if
| an American citizen is imprisoned and brutalized in a
| foreign dungeon? Will the United States be able to complain
| if it is engaging in the same barbaric practices itself?
|
| That doesn't mean that American interrogators need be polite
| to al-Qaida terrorists. No one objects to subjecting
| detainees to long hours of aggressive interrogations--to the
| painstaking, professional, and lawful techniques that have
| time and again produced results even with the most hardened
| subjects.
|
| But if the United States doesn't respect longstanding legal
| prohibitions against torture and other cruel and inhumane
| treatment, then no one will. This obviously means that the
| Bush administration must reject the gruesome techniques that
| it condemns when Saddam Hussein employs them.
|
| It also means rejecting the techniques some people
| euphemistically refer to as "torture lite"--depriving
| suspects of sleep or shackling them in excruciating
| positions for days on end. Even in Israel, which has
| suffered the worst kind of terrorism for decades, the courts
| have absolutely forbidden these practices. If an American
| POW were subjected to them, Americans would be rightly
| outraged.
|
| Keep in mind, President Bush has said to the world that the
| war on terrorism is fundamentally about values; he has
| pledged that, as it fights, the United States will always
| stand for "the non-negotiable demands of human dignity." If
| America believes that, it cannot adopt the values of the
| enemy it is fighting, or claim, like the terrorists do, that
| the ends justify the means. To win this war, we all have to
| practice what we preach.
|
| TOM MALINOWSKI is Washington advocacy director for Human
| Rights Watch.
|
| Date published: 3/9/2003
|
|______________________________________________________________
FOTNOT 40: Librarians Try to Alter Patriot Act
_______________________________________________________________
|
| http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/03/10/LIBRARIES.TMP
|
| http://truthout.org/docs_03/031203F.shtml
| http://truthout.org/docs_03/printer_031203F.shtml
|
|
| Librarians Try to Alter Patriot Act
| Bob Egelko and Maria Alicia
| San Francisco Chronicle
|
| Monday 10 March 2003
|
|
| Santa Cruz Warns Readers that FBI May Spy on Them
|
| Along with the usual reminders to hold the noise down
| and pay overdue fines, library patrons in Santa Cruz are
| seeing
| a new type of sign these days: a warning that records of the
| books they borrow may wind up in the hands of federal
| agents.
|
| The signs, posted in the 10 county branches last week
| and on the library's Web site, also inform the reader that
| the USA Patriot Act "prohibits library workers from
| informing you if federal agents have obtained records about
| you."
|
| "Questions about this policy," patrons are told, "should
| be directed to Attorney General John Ashcroft, Department of
| Justice, Washington, D.C. 20530."
|
| Library goers were swift to denounce the act's
| provisions.
|
| "It's none of their business what anybody's reading,"
| said Cathy Simmons of Boulder Creek. "It's counterproductive
| to what libraries are all about."
|
| "I'm not reading anything they'd be particularly
| interested in, but that's not the point," said Ari Avraham
| of Santa Cruz. "This makes me think of Big Brother."
|
| The Justice Department says libraries have become a
| logical target of surveillance in light of evidence that
| some Sept. 11 hijackers used library computers to
| communicate with each other.
|
| But the signs ordered by the Santa Cruz library board --
| a more elaborate version of warnings posted in several
| libraries around the nation -- are adding to the heat now
| being generated by a once-obscure provision of the Patriot
| Act.
|
| Section 215 of the act allows FBI agents to obtain a
| warrant from a secret federal court for library or bookstore
| records of anyone connected to an investigation of
| international terrorism or spying.
|
| Unlike conventional search warrants, there is no need
| for agents to show that the target is suspected of a crime
| or possesses evidence of a crime. As the Santa Cruz signs
| indicate, the law prohibits libraries and bookstores from
| telling their patrons, or anyone else, that the FBI has
| sought the records.
|
| The provision was virtually unnoticed when the Patriot
| Act, a major expansion of government search and surveillance
| authority, was passed by Congress six weeks after the Sept.
| 11, 2001, attacks. But in the last year, Section 215 has
| roused organizations of librarians and booksellers into a
| burst of political activity, and is being cited increasingly
| by critics as an example of the new law's intrusiveness.
|
| SANDERS' REPEAL BILL
|
| Even as a leaked copy of a Bush administration proposal
| to expand the Patriot Act was circulating, Rep. Bernie
| Sanders, Ind-Vt., introduced a bill last week to repeal the
| library and bookstore provisions -- the first bill in the
| House, and the second in Congress, seeking to roll back any
| part of the Patriot Act.
|
| Sanders, who voted against the Patriot Act, said he
| decided to target a "particularly onerous" provision that
| affects large numbers of people. His Freedom to Read
| Protection Act would allow library and bookstore searches
| only if federal agents first showed they were likely to find
| evidence of a crime.
|
| The bill's 23 co-sponsors include four Bay Area
| Democrats -- Reps. Barbara Lee of Oakland, Lynn Woolsey of
| Petaluma, Sam Farr of Carmel and Pete Stark of Fremont.
|
| The Bush administration has refused to say how it has
| used Section 215 -- prompting a Freedom of Information Act
| lawsuit by library and bookseller organizations -- and has
| made few public comments on the issue. One statement by a
| high-ranking Justice Department official, however, may have
| inadvertently helped to fuel the rollback efforts.
|
| In a letter to an inquiring senator, Assistant Attorney
| General Daniel Bryant said Americans who borrow or buy books
| surrender their right of privacy.
|
| A patron who turns over information to the library or
| bookstore "assumes the risk that the entity may disclose it
| to another," Bryant, the Justice Department's chief of
| legislative affairs, said in a letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy,
| D-Vt.
|
| 'INHERENTLY LIMITED' RIGHT
|
| He said an individual's right of privacy in such records
| is "inherently limited" and is outweighed by the
| government's need for the information, if the FBI can show
| it is relevant to an "investigation to protect against
| international terrorism or clandestine intelligence
| activities."
|
| Bryant's letter, dated Dec. 23, was slow to surface
| publicly but is now being held up by library and bookstore
| associations as evidence of the menace of government
| surveillance.
|
| "Bookstore customers buy books with the expectation that
| their privacy will be protected," said the American
| Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, which represents
| independent bookstores. "If (Bryant) is in any doubt about
| this, he can ask Kenneth Starr, who outraged the nation by
| trying to subpoena Monica Lewinsky's book purchases."
|
| "I find it profoundly disturbing that an assistant
| attorney general asserts that we have lost the right to
| privacy in that kind of information," said Deborah Stone,
| deputy director of the American Library Association's Office
| for Intellectual Freedom. "The republic was founded on the
| premise that you don't have to share your thoughts."
|
| Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo said Bryant
| was merely pointing out that patrons voluntarily turn over
| information to libraries and bookstores and shouldn't be
| surprised if others learn about it. Corallo also said the
| provisions pose no threat to ordinary Americans, only to
| would-be terrorists.
|
| Before demanding records from a library or bookstore
| under the Patriot Act, he said, "one has to convince a judge
| that the person for whom you're seeking a warrant is a spy
| or a member of a terrorist organization. The idea that any
| American citizen can have their records checked by the FBI,
| that's not true."
|
| U.S. DECIDES WHO IS TERRORIST
|
| Once the government decides someone is a terrorist,
| Corallo said, "We would want to know what they're reading.
| They may be trying to get information on infrastructure.
| They may be looking in the public library for information
| that would allow them to plan operations."
|
| Responding to such positions, the leaders of the
| 64,000-member American Library Association passed a
| resolution in January calling the Patriot Act provisions "a
| present danger to the constitutional rights and privacy
| rights of library users" and urging Congress to change the
| law.
|
| And while the views of individual librarians are
| apparently more varied than those of their association, a
| recent nationwide survey found that most felt the Patriot
| Act went too far.
|
| Nearly 60 percent of the 906 librarians who replied to a
| University of Illinois questionnaire between October and
| January believed that the law's so-called gag order -- which
| prohibits libraries from disclosing that the FBI has
| requested their records -- was unconstitutional.
|
| Asked if they would defy an agent's nondisclosure order,
| 5.5 percent said they definitely would, and another 16.1
| percent said they probably would -- even though the law
| makes such defiance a crime.
|
| "At each board meeting I tell them we have not been
| served by any (search warrants)," she said. "In any months
| that I don't tell them that, they'll know."
|
|
| (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this
| material is distributed without profit to those who have
| expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
| information for research and educational purposes.)
|
| E-mail the writers at begelko@sfchronicle.com and
| mgaura@sfchronicle.com.
| San Francisco Chronicle
|______________________________________________________________
FOTNOT 41: Some Evidence on Iraq Called Fake
_______________________________________________________________
|
| http://truthout.org/docs_03/031003B.shtml
| http://truthout.org/docs_03/printer_031003B.shtml
| http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59403-2003Mar7.html
|
| IMAGE TEXT: A slide shown by U.S. Secretary of State Colin
| L. Powell to the U.N. Security Council shows aluminum tubes
| that Powell said were intended to be used to build the
| centrifuges needed to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.
| (State Department Handout Via AP)
|
|
| Some Evidence on Iraq Called Fake
| U.N. Nuclear Inspector Says Documents on Purchases Were
| Forged
|
| By Joby Warrick
| Washington Post Staff Writer
|
| Saturday, March 8, 2003; Page A01
|
| A key piece of evidence linking Iraq to a nuclear weapons
| program appears to have been fabricated, the United Nations'
| chief nuclear inspector said yesterday in a report that
| called into question U.S. and British claims about Iraq's
| secret nuclear ambitions.
|
| Documents that purportedly showed Iraqi officials shopping
| for uranium in Africa two years ago were deemed "not
| authentic" after careful scrutiny by U.N. and independent
| experts, Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the
| International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told the U.N.
| Security Council.
|
| ElBaradei also rejected a key Bush administration claim --
| made twice by the president in major speeches and repeated
| by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell yesterday -- that Iraq
| had tried to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes to use in
| centrifuges for uranium enrichment. Also, ElBaradei reported
| finding no evidence of banned weapons or nuclear material in
| an extensive sweep of Iraq using advanced radiation
| detectors.
|
| "There is no indication of resumed nuclear activities,"
| ElBaradei said.
|
| Knowledgeable sources familiar with the forgery
| investigation described the faked evidence as a series of
| letters between Iraqi agents and officials in the central
| African nation of Niger. The documents had been given to the
| U.N. inspectors by Britain and reviewed extensively by U.S.
| intelligence. The forgers had made relatively crude errors
| that eventually gave them away -- including names and titles
| that did not match up with the individuals who held office
| at the time the letters were purportedly written, the
| officials said.
|
| "We fell for it," said one U.S. official who reviewed the
| documents.
|
| A spokesman for the IAEA said the agency did not blame
| either Britain or the United States for the forgery. The
| documents "were shared with us in good faith," he said.
|
| The discovery was a further setback to U.S. and British
| efforts to convince reluctant U.N. Security Council members
| of the urgency of the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass
| destruction. Powell, in his statement to the Security
| Council Friday, acknowledged ElBaradei's findings but also
| cited "new information" suggesting that Iraq continues to
| try to get nuclear weapons components.
|
| "It is not time to close the book on these tubes," a senior
| State Department official said, adding that Iraq was
| prohibited from importing sensitive parts, such as tubes,
| regardless of their planned use.
|
| Iraqi President Saddam Hussein pursued an ambitious nuclear
| agenda throughout the 1970s and 1980s and launched a crash
| program to build a bomb in 1990 following his invasion of
| neighboring Kuwait. But Iraq's nuclear infrastructure was
| heavily damaged by allied bombing in 1991, and the country's
| known stocks of nuclear fuel and equipment were removed or
| destroyed during the U.N. inspections after the war.
|
| However, Iraq never surrendered the blueprints for nuclear
| weapons, and kept key teams of nuclear scientists intact
| after U.N. inspectors were forced to leave in 1998. Despite
| international sanctions intended to block Iraq from
| obtaining weapons components, Western intelligence agencies
| and former weapons inspectors were convinced the Iraqi
| president had resumed his quest for the bomb in the late
| 1990s, citing defectors' stories and satellite images that
| showed new construction at facilities that were once part of
| Iraq's nuclear machinery.
|
| Last September, the United States and Britain issued reports
| accusing Iraq of renewing its quest for nuclear weapons. In
| Britain's assessment, Iraq reportedly had "sought
| significant amounts of uranium from Africa, despite having
| no active civil nuclear program that could require it."
|
| Separately, President Bush, in his speech to the U.N.
| Security Council on Sept. 12, said Iraq had made "several
| attempts to buy-high-strength aluminum tubes used to enrich
| uranium for nuclear weapons."
|
| Doubts about both claims began to emerge shortly after U.N.
| inspectors returned to Iraq last November. In early
| December, the IAEA began an intensive investigation of the
| aluminum tubes, which Iraq had tried for two years to
| purchase by the tens of thousands from China and at least
| one other country. Certain types of high-strength aluminum
| tubes can be used to build centrifuges, which enrich uranium
| for nuclear weapons and commercial power plants.
|
| By early January, the IAEA had reached a preliminary
| conclusion: The 81mm tubes sought by Iraq were "not directly
| suitable" for centrifuges, but appeared intended for use as
| conventional artillery rockets, as Iraq had claimed. The
| Bush administration, meanwhile, stuck to its original
| position while acknowledging disagreement among U.S.
| officials who had reviewed the evidence.
|
| In his State of the Union address on Jan. 28, Bush said Iraq
| had "attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes
| suitable for nuclear weapons production."
|
| Last month, Powell likewise dismissed the IAEA's
| conclusions, telling U.N. leaders that Iraq would not have
| ordered tubes at such high prices and with such exacting
| performance ratings if intended for use as ordinary rockets.
| Powell specifically noted that Iraq had sought tubes that
| had been "anodized," or coated with a thin outer film -- a
| procedure that Powell said was required if the tubes were to
| be used in centrifuges.
|
| ElBaradei's report yesterday all but ruled out the use of
| the tubes in a nuclear program. The IAEA chief said
| investigators had unearthed extensive records that backed up
| Iraq's explanation. The documents, which included
| blueprints, invoices and notes from meetings, detailed a
| 14-year struggle by Iraq to make 81mm conventional rockets
| that would perform well and resist corrosion. Successive
| failures led Iraqi officials to revise their standards and
| request increasingly higher and more expensive metals,
| ElBaradei said.
|
| Moreover, further work by the IAEA's team of centrifuge
| experts -- two Americans, two Britons and a French citizen
| -- has reinforced the IAEA's conclusion that the tubes were
| ill suited for centrifuges. "It was highly unlikely that
| Iraq could have achieved the considerable redesign needed to
| use them in a revived centrifuge program," ElBaradei said.
|
| A number of independent experts on uranium enrichment have
| sided with IAEA's conclusion that the tubes were at best ill
| suited for centrifuges. Several have said that the
| "anodized" features mentioned by Powell are actually a
| strong argument for use in rockets, not centrifuges,
| contrary to the administration's statement.
|
| The Institute for Science and International Security, a
| Washington-based research organization that specializes in
| nuclear issues, reported yesterday that Powell's staff had
| been briefed about the implications of the anodized coatings
| before Powell's address to the Security Council last month.
| "Despite being presented with the falseness of this claim,
| the administration persists in making misleading arguments
| about the significance of the tubes," the institute's
| president, David Albright, wrote in the report.
|
| Powell's spokesman said the secretary of state had consulted
| numerous experts and stood by his U.N. statement.
|
|
|
| _ _ _
|
|
| Go To Original:
| Los Angeles Times -- latimes.com
| http://latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-intel8mar08,1,1716906.story?coll=la%2Dhome%2Dheadlines
| http://latimes.com/templates/misc/printstory.jsp?slug=la%2Dfg%2Dintel8mar08§ion=%2Fnews%2Fnationworld%2Fworld
|
|
|
| Top Inspectors Criticize CIA Data on Iraqi Sites
| By Bob Drogin and Greg Miller
| LA Times Staff Writers
|
| Saturday 08 March 2003
|
| Blix and Elbaradei reject key intelligence claims. Some U.S.
| officials admit quality is poor.
|
| UNITED NATIONS -- On the eve of a possible war in Iraq, a
| question looms increasingly large: If U.S. intelligence is
| so good, why are United Nations experts still unable to
| confirm whether Saddam Hussein is actively concealing and
| producing illegal weapons?
|
| That troubling issue erupted Friday when top U.N. weapons
| inspectors expressed frustration with the quality of
| intelligence they have been given.
|
| "I would rather have twice the amount of high-quality
| information about sites to inspect than twice the number of
| expert inspectors to send," Hans Blix, who heads the U.N.
| Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, told the
| Security Council.
|
| Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy
| Agency, went further, charging that documents provided by
| unidentified states may have been faked to suggest that the
| African country of Niger sold uranium to Iraq between 1999
| and 2001.
|
| He said inspectors concluded that the documents were "not
| authentic" after scrutinizing "the form, format, contents
| and signatures ... of the alleged procurement-related
| documentation."
|
| ElBaradei also rejected three other key claims that U.S.
| intelligence officials have repeatedly cited to support
| charges that Iraq is secretly trying to build nuclear
| weapons.
|
| Although investigations are continuing, ElBaradei said,
| nuclear experts have found "no indication" that Iraq has
| tried to import high-strength aluminum tubes or specialized
| ring magnets for centrifuge enrichment of uranium.
|
| Inspectors also have found "no indication" of
| "nuclear-related prohibited activities" in newly erected
| buildings or other sites identified by satellite, ElBaradei
| said.
|
| "After three months of intrusive inspections, we have to
| date found no evidence or plausible indication of the
| revival of a nuclear weapons program in Iraq," ElBaradei
| said.
|
| Bush administration officials insist that they are providing
| all relevant information to the U.N. teams. But some
| officials privately acknowledge that the quality and
| quantity of intelligence are thin.
|
| "We have some information, not a lot," said one U.S.
| official familiar with the CIA's daily "packages" of
| material it delivers to a Canadian official at the U.N. who
| handles intelligence issues for Blix.
|
| Although U.N. teams have conducted nearly 600 inspections of
| about 350 sites since November, only 44 were of new sites
| based on fresh tips.
|
| The issue spilled into Congress this week when Sen. Carl
| Levin (D-Mich.) accused the administration of deliberately
| withholding information on suspected Iraqi weapons
| facilities from Blix's teams.
|
| Levin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services
| Committee and a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee,
| said the inspectors have been given "only a small fraction"
| of the sites that appear on classified lists circulated in
| the intelligence community.
|
| He warned of a "nightmare scenario" if U.S. troops are
| attacked with weapons of mass destruction from sites that
| could have been inspected had the CIA shared information.
|
| Levin also accused the White House of seeking to undermine
| the inspection process, saying the administration has
| withheld data in part "because they genuinely believe the
| inspections were useless and said so from the beginning."
|
| But CIA officials rejected the charges. In a letter to key
| lawmakers released Thursday night, CIA Director George J.
| Tenet said the agency has "provided detailed information on
| all of the high-value and moderate sites" to the United
| Nations.
|
| Tenet said the CIA has shared information on "all but a
| handful" of sites -- even those deemed of "lower interest"
| -- with the current weapons inspectors or those who worked
| in Iraq between 1991 and 1998. Blix's team has visited "far
| more than half of these 'lower interest sites,' " Tenet
| said.
|
| He said the CIA shared its analysis of Iraq's 12,000-page
| Dec. 7 declaration to the United Nations of its weapons
| programs and inventory. Both U.S. and U.N. officials sharply
| criticized the document as untruthful and incomplete.
|
| "We've briefed them on missiles, we've briefed them on the
| nuclear program, we've briefed them on chemical weapons, on
| biological weapons, on a whole range of subjects," Tenet
| added.
|
| A U.S. intelligence official said some of the information
| the CIA has compiled is of such low value that it would not
| be useful to inspectors.
|
| "You don't swamp the U.N. with everything we have ever
| heard," the official said. Asked whether the CIA would
| withhold important information, the official said, "The
| logic of that escapes me."
|
| Other officials said that the CIA has shared its best data
| with inspectors, but that the information may not be enough.
| One congressional source said the intelligence community has
| identified "hundreds" of suspect sites, including dozens
| that are of "top" or "high" value.
|
| But even in this category, the intelligence can be meager,
| the source said, and often the sites appear on the list more
| because the CIA wants to learn more about them than because
| of existing evidence the agency possesses.
|
| Only one tip from U.S. intelligence is known to have
| produced results. In January, inspectors recovered a cache
| of documents at the home of an Iraqi nuclear scientist.
| Although the seizure made headlines, the documents concerned
| Iraq's long-abandoned efforts on laser enrichment of uranium
| and did not answer current questions about Iraqi weapons.
|
| Other U.S. officials blamed Blix for failing to publicly
| announce new evidence that he revealed in his 173-page
| "working document" of unresolved disarmament issues.
| Officials were surprised to read that the inspectors
| recently found an Iraqi drone with a 24 1/2-feet wingspan,
| which may violate U.N. rules.
|
| According to a copy of the document, inspectors are still
| trying to determine whether the drone can fly more than 93
| miles, the limit set by U.N. regulations. But a senior U.S.
| official insisted that it "could be used to distribute or
| disperse" chemical or biological agents and thus was a
| danger.
|
| "It should have been in [Iraq's weapons] declaration, and
| it's surprising it was not in Blix's report" to the Security
| Council on Friday, the official said.
|
| The role of U.S. spying was brought into high relief Feb. 5
| when Secretary of State Colin L. Powell presented the
| council with a dramatic display of U.S. satellite images,
| bugged conversations, defector accounts and other
| intelligence to buttress his claims that Iraq is
| deliberately deceiving the U.N. teams.
|
| But Blix subsequently challenged Powell's interpretation of
| at least one of the satellite images. And on Friday, Blix
| said inspectors cannot yet verify claims by "intelligence
| authorities" that Iraq is shifting illegal weapons by truck
| to avoid detection, that it is producing and storing weapons
| in underground bunkers, and that it has built mobile
| laboratories to produce germ warfare agents.
|
| Inspectors have found "food testing mobile laboratories and
| mobile workshops ... as well as large containers with seed
| processing equipment," Blix said. "No evidence of proscribed
| activities has so far been found."
|
| In response, Powell blamed Baghdad. "If Iraq genuinely
| wanted to disarm, we would not have to be worrying about
| setting up means of looking for mobile biological units --
| they would be presented to us," he told the council.
|
| "The inspectors should not have to look under every rock, go
| to every crossroads, peer into every cave for evidence, for
| proof," he added.
|
| Powell did not repeat a charge he made this week that Iraq
| is secretly building Al-Samoud 2 missiles while it is
| destroying others under U.N. auspices.
|
| The charge, which President Bush repeated in his news
| conference Thursday night, surprised Blix's staff.
|
| An aide said U.S. officials had not provided information
| that inspectors can use to check -- and presumably stop --
| such illegal activities.
|
| Drogin reported from the United Nations and Miller from
| Washington. Times staff writer Robin Wright in New York
| contributed to this report.
|
| (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this
| material is distributed without profit to those who have
| expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
| information for research and educational purposes.)
|
|______________________________________________________________
FOTNOT 42: Two men driving Bush into war
_______________________________________________________________
|
| http://guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,901118,00.html
|
|
| Two men driving Bush into war
|
| Ed Vulliamy in New York profiles the religious figures
| behind a 'Texanised presidency' who believe war will mean
| America is respected in the Islamic world
|
| Sunday February 23, 2003
| The Observer
|
| Behind President George W. Bush's charge to war against
| Iraq, there is a carefully devised mission, drawn up by
| people who work over the shoulders of those whom America
| calls 'The Principals'.
|
| Lurking in the background behind Bush, his Vice-President,
| Dick Cheney, and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are the
| people propelling US policy. And behind them, the
| masterminds of the Bush presidency as it arrived at the
| White House from Texas, are Karl Rove and Paul Wolfowitz.
|
| It is too simple to explain the upcoming war as 'blood for
| oil', as did millions of placards last weekend, for Rove and
| Wolfowitz are ideologists beyond the imperatives of profit.
| They represent an unlikely and formidable alliance forged
| between the gritty Texan Republicans who took over America,
| fuelled by fierce conservative Christianity, and a faction
| of the East Coast intelligentsia with roots in Ronald
| Reagan's time, devoted to achieving raw, unilateral power.
|
| Rove and Wolfowitz have worked for decades to reach their
| moment, and that moment has come as war draws near. Bush
| calls Rove, depending on his mood, 'Boy Genius' or 'Turd
| Blossom'. Rove is one of a new political breed - the master
| craftsmen - nurturing a 24-year political campaign of his
| own design, but careful not to expose who he really is.
|
| His Christian faith is a weapon of devastating cogency, but
| he never discusses it; no one knows if his politics are
| religious or politics are his religion. A Christmas Day
| child born in Denver, as a boy he had a poster above his bed
| reading 'Wake Up, America!' As a student, he was a fervent
| young Republican who pitched himself against the peace
| movement.
|
| His first bonding with Bush was not over politics, but the
| two men's ideological and moral distaste for the Sixties -
| after Bush's born-again conversion from alcoholism to
| Christianity. Rove was courted by George Bush Snr during his
| unsuccessful bid to be the Republican presidential candidate
| for 1980.
|
| But Rove's genius would show later, on Bush senior's
| election to the White House in 1988, when he co-opted the
| right-wing Christian Coalition - wary of Bush's lack of
| theocratic stridency - into the family camp.
|
| Conservative Southern Protestantism was a constituency Bush
| Jr befriended and kept all the way to Washington, defining
| both his own political personality and the new-look
| Republican Party.
|
| When Rove answered the call to come to Texas in 1978, every
| state office was held by a Democrat. Now, almost all of them
| are Republican. Every Republican campaign was run by Rove
| and in 1994 his client - challenging for the state
| governorship - was a man he knew well: George W. Bush.
|
| 'Rove and Bush came to an important strategic conclusion,'
| writes Lou Dubose, Rove's biographer. 'To govern on behalf
| of the corporate Right, they would have to appease the
| Christian Right.'
|
| Bush's six years as Texas governor were a dry run for
| national domestic policy - steered by Rove - as President:
| lavish favours to the energy industry, tax breaks for the
| upper income brackets and social policy driven by
| evangelical zeal.
|
| Bush had been governor for only a year when, as Rove says,
| it 'dawned on me' he should run for President; two years
| later, in 1997, he began secretly planning the campaign. In
| March 1999, Bush ordered Rove to sell his consulting firm -
| 'he wanted 120 per cent of his attention,' says a former
| employee, 'full-time, day and night'.
|
| Rove hatched and ran the presidential campaign, deploying
| the Bush family Rolodex and the might of the oil industry
| and unleashing the most vigorous direct-mailing blizzard of
| all time. 'If the devil is in the details,' writes Dubose,
| 'he had found Rove waiting to greet him when he got there.'
|
| By the time George W. became President, Rove was the hub of
| a Texan wheel connecting the family, the party, the
| Christian Right and the energy industry. A single episode
| serves as metaphor: during the Enron scandal last year, a
| shadow was cast over Rove when it was revealed that he had
| sold $100,000 of Enron stock just before the firm went
| bankrupt.
|
| More intriguing, however, was the fact that Rove had
| personally arranged for the former leader of the Christian
| Coalition, Ralph Reed, to take up a consultancy at Enron -
| Bush's biggest single financial backer - worth between
| $10,000 and $20,000 a month.
|
| This was the machine of perpetual motion that Rove built.
| His accomplishment was the 'Texanisation' of the national
| Republican Party under the leadership of the Bush family and
| to take that party back to presidential office after eight
| years. Rove is unquestionably the most powerful policy
| adviser in the White House.
|
| Militant Islam was another world from Rove's. However, on 11
| September, 2001, it became a new piece of political raw
| material needing urgent attention. Rove and Bush had been
| isolationists, wanting as little to do with the Middle East
| - or any other corner of the planet - as possible. But
| suddenly there was a new arena in which to work for
| political results: and, as Rove entered it, he met and was
| greeted by a group of people who had for years been as busy
| as he in crafting their political model; this time, the
| export of unchallenged American power across the world.
|
| Rove in theory has no role in foreign policy, but Washington
| insiders agree he is now as preoccupied with global affairs
| as he is with those at home. In a recent book, conservative
| staff speech writer David Frum recalls the approach of the
| presidency towards Islam after the attacks and criticises
| Bush as being 'soft on Islam' for his emphasis on a
| 'religion of peace'.
|
| Rove, writes Frum, was 'drawn to a very different answer'.
| Islam, Rove argued, 'was one of the world's great empires'
| which had 'never reconciled... to the loss of power and
| dominion'. In response, he said, 'the United States should
| recognise that, although it cannot expect to be loved, it
| can enforce respect'.
|
| Rove's position dovetailed with the beliefs of Paul
| Wolfowitz, and the axis between conservative Southern
| Protestantism and fervent, highly intellectual, East Coast
| Zionism was forged - each as zealous about their religion as
| the other.
|
| There is a shorthand view of Wolfowitz as a firebrand hawk,
| but he is more like Rove than that - patient, calculating,
| logical, soft-spoken and deliberate. Wolfowitz was a Jewish
| son of academe, a brilliant scholar of mathematics and a
| diplomat. When he joined the Pentagon after the Yom Kippur
| war, he set about laying out what is now US policy in the
| Middle East.
|
| In 1992, just before Bush's father was defeated by Bill
| Clinton, Wolfowitz wrote a blueprint to 'set the nation's
| direction for the next century', which is now the foreign
| policy of George W. Bush. Entitled 'Defence Planning
| Guidance', it put an onus on the Pentagon to 'establish and
| protect a new order' under unchallenged American authority.
|
| The US, it said, must be sure of 'deterring potential
| competitors from even aspiring to a larger regional or
| global role' - including Germany and Japan. It contemplated
| the use of nuclear, biological and chemical weaponry
| pre-emptively, 'even in conflicts that do not directly
| engage US interests'.
|
| Wolfowitz's group formalised itself into a group called
| Project for the New American Century, which included Cheney
| and another old friend, former Pentagon Under-Secretary for
| Policy under Reagan, Richard Perle.
|
| In a document two years ago, the Project pondered that what
| was needed to assure US global power was 'some catastrophic
| and catalysing event, like a new Pearl Harbor'. The document
| had noted that 'while the unresolved conflict with Iraq
| provides immediate justification' for intervention, 'the
| need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf
| transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein'.
|
| At a graduation speech to the Military Academy at West
| Point, Bush last June affirmed the Wolfowitz doctrine as
| official policy. 'America has, and intends to keep,' he
| said, 'military strengths beyond challenge.'
|
| At the Pentagon, Wolfowitz and his boss Rumsfeld set up an
| intelligence group under Abram Schulsky and the Under-
| Secretary for Defence, Douglas Feith, both old friends of
| Wolfowitz. The group's public face is the semi-official
| Defence Policy Board, headed by Perle. Perle and Feith wrote
| a paper in 1996 called 'A Clean Break' for the then leader
| of Israel's Likud bloc, Binyamin Netanyahu; the clean break
| was from the Oslo peace process. Israel's 'claim to the land
| (including the West Bank) is legitimate and noble,' said the
| paper. 'Only the unconditional acceptance by Arabs of our
| rights is a solid basis for the future.' At the State
| Department, the 'Arabist' faction of regional experts
| favouring the diplomacy of alliances in the area was drowned
| out by the hawks, markedly by another new unit with favoured
| access to the White House.
|
| And in Rove's White House, with his backing, the circle was
| closed and the last piece of the jigsaw was put in place,
| with the appointment of Elliot Abrams to handle policy for
| the Middle East, for the National Security Council.
|
| Abrams is another veteran of Reagan days and the 'dirty
| wars' in Central America, convicted by Congress for lying
| alongside Colonel Oliver North over the Iran-Contra scandal,
| but pardoned by President Bush's father.
|
| He has since written a book warning that American Jewry
| faces extinction through intermarriage and has counselled
| against the peace process and for the righteousness of Ariel
| Sharon's Israel. He is Wolfowitz's man, talking every day to
| his office neighbour, Rove.
|
|______________________________________________________________
FOTNOT 43: Concerns About The Undecided Six to be Seduced --
G W Bush administrationen försöker muta sig till ett
FN-godkännande för krig
_______________________________________________________________
|
| http://truthout.org/docs_03/031203D.shtml
| http://truthout.org/docs_03/printer_031203D.shtml
|
| Original in French here:
| http://www.liberation.fr/page.php?Article=94167
|
|
| Concerns About The Undecided Six to be Seduced
| By Pascal Riche
| La Liberation
|
| Saturday 6 March 2003
|
| The weekend promises to be a great moment in the history
| of "checkbook diplomacy''. Six countries, non-permanent
| members of the Security Council, "undecided'' have rejected
| the American war's logic. But their position could change in
| exchange for concessions. Washington needs to convince five
| of the six to obtain the nine vote majority necessary for
| the adoption of a Security Council resolution. For his part,
| Dominique de Villepin will be visiting Angola, Cameroon, and
| Guinea in the next few days to defend the French position.
|
| Guinea - More money and fewer human rights
|
| Guinea, which presides over the Security Council this
| month, is one of the 15 poorest countries on the planet.
| Ties with the former French colonial power have become quite
| distant since independence in 1958. As far as aid is
| concerned, the United States comes in first, ahead even of
| France, with 50 million dollars a year. The majority of the
| population is Muslim, but the war with Iraq is not the
| principle preoccupation of public opinion. Last month,
| Washington and London sent emissaries to Conakry. There,
| they promised President Lansana Conte an aid increase,
| notably to treat the problem of 300,000 Liberian and Sierra
| Leonese refugees. To get Guinea's vote, Washington (or
| Paris) could promise to close their eyes to the human rights
| situation.
|
| Angola - Oil Contract Blackmail
|
| Up till now, Angola has held the line against
| Washington, which is surprising given the extent this
| country depends economically on the United States. It is
| emerging from a 27 year civil war. Several million refugees
| live in precarious conditions. It is one of the most corrupt
| countries in the world: nearly a billion dollars of aid
| money disappear there every year. Angola is the sixth U.S.
| oil supplier (ahead of Kuwait) and does not care to see that
| position jeopardized. American investments sustain the
| economy. Exxon Mobil concluded a three billion dollar
| contract. Washington accords 90 million dollars a year in
| aid to the country, which could be reduced in the case of a
| "no'' or increased in the case of a "yes''. Moreover, Angola
| hopes to access AGOA (Africa Growth and Opportunity Act)
| benefits, an American commercial preference system for
| Africa, refused for Luanda up till now because of the human
| rights situation.
|
| Mexico - Immigration Agreement Suspended
|
| Legislative elections are coming up and the very great
| majority of voters are against the war. But 80 % of Mexico's
| foreign trade is with its big northern neighbor. Moreover,
| Mexico is waiting for the United States to agree to sign a
| treaty that will clarify immigration issues and regularize
| illegal Mexican immigrants. President Fox calls for
| Washington and Paris to compromise: a delay of the war until
| month-end, along with an ultimatum to Saddam.
|
| Chili - Free-Trade Agreement Hostage
|
| President Lagos has made speeches in favor of peace. But
| Chili has been very discrete about its voting intentions.
| European diplomats fear that "if the Mexicans give in to
| Washington, the Chileans will follow''. America's principal
| lever to induce Santiago's compliance is trade: the American
| Congress has still not given the green light to an important
| free trade agreement with the United States.
|
| Cameroon - Bartered Commercial Assistance
|
| President Paul Biya is not interested in quarrelling
| with Paris, which accords his country substantial aid, but
| he is afraid to turn his back on the world's superpower. The
| American ambassador called on him to prepare a "prestige
| visit'' to Washington. But the United States may also
| threaten to reduce the commercial ties with this country.
| African countries have no right to AGOA's commercial
| preference system unless they avoid participation in
| activities harmful to the national security of the United
| States or its foreign policy.
|
| Pakistan - Kashmir in the Balance
|
| Pakistan has received large amounts of American aid as
| thanks for its support in the war against terrorism.
| President Pervez Musharraf clearly has a strategy of
| tightening his bonds with the world's superpower. But the
| Muslim Pakistani population is very hostile to a war against
| Iraq, which will strengthen the hand of Islamic extremists.
| Politically therefore, Musharraf has an interest in holding
| the line against Bush. But Islamabad fears that if it
| doesn't support the U.S., the American scales will tip
| towards its hereditary enemy, India, in the Kashmir crisis.
|
| (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this
| material is distributed without profit to those who have
| expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
| information for research and educational purposes.)
|
|______________________________________________________________
FOTNOT 44: The Xanax Cowboy -- You might sum up the
president's call to war Thursday night as
"Message: I scare."
_______________________________________________________________
|
| http://truthout.org/docs_03/031103E.shtml
| http://truthout.org/docs_03/printer_031103E.shtml
| http://nytimes.com/2003/03/09/opinion/09DOWD.html
| http://nytimes.com/2003/03/09/opinion/09DOWD.html?pagewanted=print
|
|
| The New York Times -- nytimes.com
| Editorial/Op-Ed
| March 9, 2003
| The Xanax Cowboy
| By MAUREEN DOWD
|
|
|
| The Xanax Cowboy
| By Maureen Dowd
| The New York Times
|
| Sunday 9 March 2003
|
| You might sum up the president's call to war Thursday
| night as "Message: I scare."
|
| As he rolls up to America's first pre-emptive invasion,
| bouncing from motive to motive, Mr. Bush is trying to sound
| rational, not rash. Determined not to be petulant, he seemed
| tranquilized.
|
| But the Xanax cowboy made it clear that Saddam is going
| to pay for 9/11. Even if the fiendish Iraqi dictator was not
| involved with Al Qaeda, he has supported "Al Qaeda-type
| organizations," as the president fudged, or "Al Qaeda types"
| or "a terrorist network like Al Qaeda."
|
| We are scared of the world now, and the world is scared
| of us. (It's really scary to think we are even scaring
| Russia and China.)
|
| Bush officials believe that making the world more scared
| of us is the best way to make us safer and less scared. So
| they want a spectacular show of American invincibility to
| make the wicked and the wayward think twice before crossing
| us.
|
| Of course, our plan to sack Saddam has not cowed the
| North Koreans and Iranians, who are scrambling to get nukes
| to cow us.
|
| It still confuses many Americans that, in a world full
| of vicious slimeballs, we're about to bomb one that didn't
| attack us on 9/11 (like Osama); that isn't intercepting our
| planes (like North Korea); that isn't financing Al Qaeda
| (like Saudi Arabia); that isn't home to Osama and his
| lieutenants (like Pakistan); that isn't a host body for
| terrorists (like Iran, Lebanon and Syria).
|
| I think the president is genuinely obsessed with
| protecting Americans and believes that smoking Saddam will
| reduce the chances of Islamic terrorists' snatching
| catastrophic weapons. That is why no cost - shattering the
| U.N., NATO, the European alliance, Tony Blair's career and
| the U.S. budget - is too high.
|
| Even straining for serenity, Mr. Bush sounded rattled at
| moments: "My job is to protect America, and that is exactly
| what I'm going to do. . . . I swore to protect and defend
| the Constitution; that's what I swore to do. I put my hand
| on the Bible and took that oath, and that's exactly what I
| am going to do."
|
| But citing 9/11 eight times in his news conference was
| exploitative, given that the administration concedes there
| is no evidence tying Iraq to the 9/11 plot. By stressing
| that totem, Mr. Bush tried to alchemize American anger at Al
| Qaeda into support for smashing Saddam.
|
| William Greider writes in The Nation, "As a bogus
| rallying cry, `Remember 9/11' ranks with `Remember the
| Maine' of 1898 for war with Spain or the Gulf of Tonkin
| resolution of 1964. . . ." A culture more besotted with
| inane "reality" TV than scary reality is easily misled. Mr.
| Greider pointed out that in a Times/CBS News survey, 42
| percent believe Saddam was personally responsible for the
| attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, and in an ABC
| News poll, 55 percent believe he gives direct support to Al
| Qaeda.
|
| The case for war has been incoherent due to overlapping
| reasons conservatives want to get Saddam.
|
| The president wants to avenge his father, and please his
| base by changing the historical ellipsis on the Persian Gulf
| war to a period. Donald Rumsfeld wants to exorcise the
| post-Vietnam focus on American imperfections and
| limitations. Dick Cheney wants to establish America's
| primacy as the sole superpower. Richard Perle wants to
| liberate Iraq and remove a mortal threat to Israel. After
| Desert Storm, Paul Wolfowitz posited that containment is a
| relic, and that America must aggressively pre-empt nuclear
| threats.
|
| And in 1997, Bill Kristol of The Weekly Standard and Fox
| News, and other conservatives, published a "statement of
| principles," signed by Jeb Bush and future Bush officials -
| Mr. Rumsfeld, Mr. Cheney, Mr. Wolfowitz, Scooter Libby and
| Elliott Abrams. Rejecting [Bush] 41's realpolitik and
| shaping what would become [Bush] 43's pre-emption strategy,
| they exhorted a "Reaganite policy of military strength and
| moral clarity," with America extending its domain by
| challenging "regimes hostile to our interests and values."
|
| Saddam would be the squealing guinea pig proving America
| could impose its will on the world.
|
| With W., conservatives got a Bush who wanted to be
| Reagan. With 9/11, they found a new tragedy to breathe life
| into their old dreams.
|
| (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this
| material is distributed without profit to those who have
| expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
| information for research and educational purposes.)
|
|______________________________________________________________
FOTNOT 45: "Saliga är de som skapar frid" -- Fred är av
yttersta vikt och den vädjar om vårt engagemang.
_______________________________________________________________
|
| http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,89-16-338-13,00.html
|
|
| The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
| General Conference October 2002 Swedish
|
|
| "Saliga är de som skapar frid"
|
| Äldste Russell M Nelson
| i de tolv apostlarnas kvorum
|
|
|
| Fred är av yttersta vikt och den vädjar om vårt engagemang.
|
| Bland de mest minnesvärda av alla våra familjeutflykter är
| våra resor till det heliga landet. Våra besök till den delen
| av världen har förändrat våra liv. Men nu är det heliga
| landet en kaotisk häxkittel och är oåtkomligt för dem som
| vill resa dit för att växa andligen. Så gott som alla delar
| av världen hemsöks av terrordåd utan tidigare like.
| Förvirring drabbar många som ber för fred men som med
| fruktan möts av terrorns fasa.
|
| Fred kontra stridighet
|
| De svåra tider som vi lever i har det profeterats om i
| skrifterna. Våra dagar har beskrivits som dagar av "eld,
| stormar och rökmoln i främmande länder . . . krig och rykten
| om krig och om jordbävningar på många ställen . . . då
| jorden är i hög grad oskärad . . . och [med] alla slags
| vederstyggligheter".[1]
|
| Den profetian är en genklang av en tidigare uppteckning i
| skrifterna som talar om den andra generationen[2] av
| människor som levde på jorden: "På den tiden hade Satan
| stort herravälde bland människorna och rasade i deras
| hjärtan, och från den tiden var det krig och
| blodsutgjutelse; en människa lyfte handen mot sin egen
| broder . . . i maktlystnad."[3] Sedan Kain och Abel,[4]
| Esau och Jakob,[5] och Josef, som såldes till Egypten,[6]
| levde, har fiendskapens eld underblåsts av familjefejder.
|
| Hat bland bröder och grannar har i dag gjort heliga städer
| till sorgens platser. När jag tänker på hur svårt det är på
| sådana platser påminns jag om ett gammalt ordspråk:
| "Bespottare uppviglar staden, de visa stillar vreden."[7]
|
| Läran kan vägleda oss
|
| Skrifterna belyser både orsaken till och botemedlet mot
| mänsklighetens sjuka hat: "Den naturliga människan är fiende
| till Gud och har varit ända ifrån Adams fall samt skall så
| förbliva i all evighet, såvida hon icke giver efter för den
| Helige Andens maning och avkläder sig den naturliga
| människan och bliver en helig genom Herrens, Kristi,
| försoning."[8]
|
| Frid kan endast råda när den naturliga instinkten att strida
| trängs undan av en beslutsamhet att handla efter en högre
| lag. Att komma till Kristus, som är "Fridsfursten",[9] är
| vägen till frid på jorden och välvilja människorna
| emellan.[10] Han har gett oss löftet: "Saliga är de som
| skapar frid, de skall kallas Guds barn."[11]
|
| Jesus lärde människorna hur man ska behandla varandra. Han
| tillkännagav de två stora buden: För det första, "älska
| Herren, din Gud av hela ditt hjärta och av hela din själ och
| av hela ditt förstånd",[12] och för det andra, "älska din
| nästa som dig själv".[13]
|
| Sedan sade han: "Älska era ovänner och be för dem som
| förföljer er."[14]
|
| Han gav oss den gyllene regeln: "Allt vad ni vill att
| människorna skall göra er, det skall ni också göra dem."[15]
| Denna princip kan man finna i nästan varje större religion.
| Även andra, till exempel Konfucius och Aristoteles, lärde ut
| detta.[16] Trots allt började inte evangeliet med ett barns
| födelse i Betlehem. Det är evigt. Det förkunnades i
| begynnelsen för Adam och Eva. Delar av evangeliet finns
| bevarade i många kulturer. Även hedniska mytologier har
| berikats av fragment av sanningar från tidigare
| tidsutdelningar.
|
| Närhelst den gyllene regeln påträffas, och hur den än ges
| uttryck, utgör den det moraliska rättesnöret i Guds rike.
| Den förbjuder att någon inkräktar på en annans rättigheter.
| Den är lika bindande för nationer och samfund som för
| individer. Den ersätter med barmhärtighet och tålamod
| vedergällningens handlingssätt: "Öga för öga och tand för
| tand".[17] Om vi skulle hålla fast vid detta gamla och
| improduktiva sätt skulle vi snart bli både blinda och
| tandlösa.[18]
|
| Innebörden i att behandla andra som man själv vill bli
| behandlad är lätt att förstå. Och det visar hur dyrbar varje
| Guds son och dotter är.[19] Skrifterna ber föräldrarna att
| undervisa sina barn att inte "strida [eller] kiva[s] med
| varandra" och att inte "tjäna djävulen, vilken är mästaren i
| synd". I stället ska vi "lära dem att älska varandra och att
| tjäna varandra".[20]
|
| Jesus undervisade om vikten av förlikning och att lösa
| konflikter i ens eget liv. Han sade:
|
| "Den som är vred på sin broder är skyldig inför
| domstolen. . . .
|
| Därför, om du bär fram din gåva till altaret och där kommer
| ihåg att din broder har något emot dig,
|
| så lämna din gåva framför altaret och gå först och försona
| dig med din broder, och kom sedan och bär fram din
| gåva."[21]
| Mästaren lärde oss: "Förlåt om ni har något emot någon. Då
| skall också er himmelske Fader förlåta er era överträdelser.
|
| Men om ni inte förlåter skall inte heller er himmelske Fader
| förlåta er era överträdelser."[22]
| Jesus förkunnade att en domens dag skulle komma. Var och en
| kommer att redovisa sitt jordiska liv och hur de har
| behandlat andra människor.[23]
|
| Medborgerliga plikter
|
| Buden att älska Gud och vår nästa är sammanlänkade. Vi kan
| inte älska Gud fullt ut utan att älska vår nästa. Vi kan
| inte älska vår nästa fullt ut utan att älska Gud. Alla
| människor är verkligen bröder och systrar eftersom Gud
| verkligen är vår Fader. Trots detta är skrifterna fyllda av
| berättelser om osämja och stridighet. Skrifterna fördömer
| skarpt anfallskrig, men understödjer en medborgares plikt
| att försvara sin familj och sin frihet.[24] Eftersom "vi
| tror på att erkänna konungar, presidenter, styresmän och
| domstolar samt att lyda, ära och understödja lagarna",[25]
| kan denna kyrkas medlemmar kallas att verka i militärtjänst
| i många nationer. "Vi tro, att regeringar instiftades av Gud
| till människornas nytta och att människorna skola avlägga
| räkenskap för honom för sina gärningar i förhållande till
| dem, med avseende såväl på de lagar de stifta som dem de
| handhava till samhällets bästa och säkerhet."[26]
|
| Under andra världskriget, när kyrkans medlemmar tvangs
| strida på motsatta sidor, bekräftade första presidentskapet
| att "staten ansvarar för det samhälleliga styret av dess
| medborgare eller undersåtar, för dess politiska välmåga och
| för att driva politiska beslut, på både nationell och
| internationell nivå . . . Men kyrkan själv har inte något
| ansvar för dessa beslut, [annat] än att uppmana sina
| medlemmar att vara . . . lojala mot sitt land."[27]
|
| Det är möjligt att uppnå fred
|
| På grund av jordens mångåriga historia av fiendskap anser
| många att de inte kan hoppas på fred. Jag är inte av samma
| åsikt. Det är möjligt att uppnå fred. Vi kan lära oss att
| älska våra medmänniskor runt om i världen. Vare sig de är
| judar, muslimer eller kristna som vi, vare sig de är
| hinduer, buddister eller något annat, kan vi leva
| tillsammans med ömsesidig beundran och respekt, utan att
| frångå vår religiösa tro. Det vi har gemensamt är större än
| det som skiljer oss åt. Fred är av yttersta vikt och den
| vädjar om vårt engagemang. Gamla testamentets profeter gav
| inte upp hoppet och det får inte heller vi göra. Psalmisten
| sade: "Gud är vår tillflykt och vår starkhet, en hjälp i
| nöden, väl beprövad."[28] "Han stillar strider över hela
| jorden."[29]
|
| Fader Abraham fick ett unikt tillnamn: "Guds vän".[30] Frid
| var en av Abrahams främsta prioriteter. Han sökte vara en
| "fridsfurste".[31] Hans inflytande kan påverka oss storligen
| i vår nutida strävan efter frid. Hans söner Ismael och Isak
| hade olika mödrar, men övervann ändå sina motsättningar för
| att nå ett gemensamt mål. När deras far dog arbetade de
| tillsammans för att begrava sin upphöjde fars jordiska
| kvarlevor.[32] Deras efterkommande skulle mycket väl kunna
| följa deras exempel.
|
| Abrahams efterkommande har gudomligt fastställda
| möjligheter. Herren förkunnade att Ismael skulle bli ett
| stort folk[33] och att Abrahams, Isaks och Jakobs avkomma
| skulle välsigna alla jordens folk.[34]
|
| Sålunda är Abrahams efterkommande -- anförtrodda stora
| löften om obegränsat inflytande -- i en nyckelposition för
| att skapa frid. Utvalda av den Allsmäktige kan de använda
| sin kraftfulla resurs till att skapa frid.
|
| För att nutida politiska problem ska lösas kommer det att
| krävas mycket tålamod och medling. Framgången skulle
| kraftigt öka om den söktes under bönens inverkan.
|
| Jesaja profeterade om hopp i vår tid. Han talade om Israels
| insamling och kyrkans återställelse genom profeten Joseph
| Smith, och sade:
|
| "På den dagen skall Herren för andra gången räcka ut handen
| för att friköpa en rest av sitt folk . . .
|
| Han skall resa ett baner för hednafolken och samla de
| fördrivna av Israel och de kringspridda av Juda från jordens
| fyra hörn."[35]
|
| Dessa profetior om hopp blir verklighet om nationernas
| ledare och invånare tillämpar Jesu Kristi undervisning. Vi
| skulle då leva i en tid av frid och utveckling utan tidigare
| like. Det förflutnas barbariska dagar skulle vara över. Krig
| med dess ohyggligheter skulle förvisas till minnets
| korridorer. Nationernas mål skulle förenas. De som skapar
| frid skulle vara ledande bland medlarna, de skulle bistå de
| nödställda och skänka hopp till de ängsliga. Sådana
| patrioter skulle hyllas av framtida generationer och vår
| evige Gud skulle tilldela dem härlighet.
|
| Världens hopp är Fridsfursten -- vår Skapare, Frälsare,
| Jehova och Domare. Han erbjuder oss det goda livet, ett rikt
| och evigt liv. Ett fridfullt, ja, framgångsrikt liv kan ges
| dem som lever efter hans bud[36] och går längs fridens väg
| som han berett. Detta förkunnar jag för hela världen.
|
| Kyrkans medlemmar
|
| Vad förväntar sig Herren av oss som medlemmar i Jesu Kristi
| kyrka av Sista Dagars Heliga? Som kyrka måste vi "tala emot
| krig och förkunna frid".[37] Som enskilda medlemmar måste vi
| "sträva efter det som tjänar friden".[38] Vi bör vara
| fridsstiftare. Vi bör leva fridsamt -- som gifta par,
| familjer och grannar. Vi bör följa den gyllene regeln. Vi
| har skrifterna från Judas efterkommande tillsammans med det
| som Efraims efterkommande skrev.[39] Vi bör använda oss av
| dem och utvidga vår kärlekskrets så att den omsluter hela
| den mänskliga familjen. Vi bör sprida gudomlig kärlek och
| den återupprättade religionens lärosatser bland våra
| medmänniskor och vänner. Vi bör tjäna dem efter vår förmåga
| och våra möjligheter. Vi bör hålla våra normer på en hög
| nivå och stå för det som är rätt. Vi bör fortsätta att samla
| det skingrade Israel från jordens fyra hörn och erbjuda dem
| de förordningar och förbund som beseglar familjen
| tillsammans för evigt. Dessa välsignelser ska vi föra ut
| till alla jordens folk.
|
| Om vi lever på detta sätt kommer vår Mästare att välsigna
| oss. Han gav oss följande löfte: "Frukta inte, ty jag är med
| dig, se dig inte ängsligt om, ty jag är din Gud. Jag styrker
| dig, jag hjälper dig, jag uppehåller dig med min
| rättfärdighets högra hand."[40]
|
| Hans himmelska verk är vårt. Vi ska verka för att
| mänskligheten ska uppnå evig härlighet. Och som
| fridsstiftare ska vi kallas Guds barn. Detta vittnar jag om
| i Jesu Kristi namn, amen.
|
|
|
| SLUTNOTER
|
| 1. Mormon 8:29-31; se också Andra Timoteusbrevet 3:1-7,
| 12-13; Läran och förbunden 45:26-27.
| 2. På Sets tid, Adam och Evas son.
| 3. Moses 6:15.
| 4. Se Första Moseboken 4:8-10.
| 5. Se Första Moseboken 27:41.
| 6. Se Första Moseboken 37:28.
| 7. Ordspråksboken 29:8.
| 8. Mosiah 3:19.
| 9. Jesaja 9:6.
| 10. Se Lukas 2:14.
| 11. Matteus 5:9; se också Tredje Nephi 12:9; JST, Matthew
| 5:11.
| 12. Matteus 22:37.
| 13. Matteus 22:39; se också Lukas 10:27; Läran och förbunden
| 59:5-6.
| 14. Matteus 5:44.
| 15. Matteus 7:12; se också Lukas 6:31; Tredje Nephi 14:12.
| 16. Se B H Roberts, New Witnesses for God, 3 band
| (1909-1911), 3:492-493.
| 17. Matteus 5:38; se också Andra Moseboken 21:24-27; Tredje
| Moseboken 24:20.
| 18. Se Joseph Stein, Fiddler on the Roof (1964), s 142.
| 19. Se Matteus 25:40; Läran och förbunden 18:10.
| 20. Mosiah 4:14-15.
| 21. Matteus 5:22-24; se också Tredje Nephi 12:22-24; JST,
| Matthew 5:24-26.
| 22. Markus 11:25-26; se också JST, Mark 11:27-28.
| 23. Se Matteus 12:36; Romarbrevet 14:10-12; Första
| Johannesbrevet 4:16-21; Alma 41:3; Tredje Nephi
| 27:16-22.
| 24. Se Alma 43:45-47; 46:11-12, 19-20; 48:11-16.
| 25. Trosartiklarna 1:12.
| 26. Läran och förbunden 134:1.
| 27. James R Clark, sammanst, Messages of the First
| Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
| Saints, 6 band (1965-1975), 6:155-156.
| 28. Psaltaren 46:1.
| 29. Psaltaren 46:9.
| 30. Jakob 2:23; se också Andra Krönikeboken 20:7; Jesaja
| 41:8. För länge sedan ingick vår Skapare förbund med
| Abraham som skulle gälla i "tusen släktled" (5 Mos 7:9;
| se också 1 Krön 16:15; Ps 105:8). Det ska uppfyllas i de
| sista dagarna (se 1 Nephi 15:13, 18; L&F 124:58;
| 132:30).
| 31. Abraham 1:2.
| 32. Se Första Moseboken 25:9. Abrahams ursprungliga namn,
| Abram, betyder "upphöjd fader" (se Bible Dictionary,
| "Abraham", s 601).
| 33. Se Första Moseboken 21:13, 18.
| 34. Se Första Moseboken 17:19; 21:12; 22:18; 28:13-14;
| 35:9-12; Andra Moseboken 32:13; Femte Moseboken 9:5;
| Abraham 2:11; JST, Genesis 17:25.
| 35. Jesaja 11:11-12; se också Romarbrevet 15:12.
| 36. Se Andra Krönikeboken 20:20; Matteus 6:24-33; Johannes
| 10:10; Första Nephi 2:20; 4:14; Andra Nephi 1:9, 20;
| 4:4; Jarom 1:9; Mosiah 1:7; 2:22, 31; Alma 9:13; 36:1,
| 30; 37:13; 38:1; 48:25; 50:20; Helaman 3:20; Läran och
| förbunden 64:34.
| 37. Läran och förbunden 98:16.
| 38. Romarbrevet 14:19.
| 39. Se Hesekiel 37:16-19; Andra Nephi 3:12.
| 40. Jesaja 41:10.
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