Conghaileach
7th March 2003, 17:56
www.thestar.ca
The Toronto Star -Mar. 1, 2003. 01:00 AM
Why does Bush push to silence free speech?
President's obsession threatens stability around the world
By RAMSEY CLARK
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
Former U.S. attorney-general Ramsey Clark met with Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein last Sunday. He wrote this commentary exclusively for the Toronto
Star.
Should a free person be afraid to meet with a demonized "brutal dictator"?
If not, how do we hope to learn, understand, act to avoid violence and war?
If our (U.S.) government says, "You will only be deceived and used, a dupe,
if you meet," doesn't this reveal an intention to exercise arbitrary
control over information on which public opinion is formed that might
affect government plans?
Why did the White House object to the interview with President Saddam
Hussein by Dan Rather, seek to interject rebuttal and rebuke at different
points in the interview, and then complain that a person who lies should
not be allowed to speak in the media?
Because I believe in individual freedom and that the truth can set us free,
I will never accept the command "thou shalt not" reason together.
At this moment, U.S. anger over meetings with Saddam Hussein reflects Bush
administration fears that opposition voices might begin to ask, "Who are
the real aggressors, the greater threats to peace, the most dangerous
terrorists?" Once a person is able to hear all sides and is informed, the
answers cannot be controlled by government propaganda.
During the barely two years of his presidency, George W. Bush has revealed
an unprecedented, uncompromising obsession for war that threatens peace and
economic stability around the world.
He is the head of government of the sole superpower on earth. Its military
is capable of destroying any nation without ever setting foot on it and,
incredibly, President Bush has threatened to use nuclear weapons.
The U.S. has less than six per cent of the world's population, with vast
wealth concentrated in corporate control and personal fortunes that have
created the greatest ó and growing ó gap between rich and poor, and
economic policies that contribute to the same growing gap worldwide.
Bush proclaimed the right and initiated a war of aggression against
Afghanistan, causing thousands of deaths, many civilian, and installing a
government of his choice in Kabul.
He has authorized daily military flights over Iraq which have resulted in
frequent, and in the last few months, daily aerial assaults that have
killed hundreds of people in Iraq without a single U.S. plane being hit or
seriously at risk.
He has proclaimed his intention of "regime change" by military force in
Iraq with an unavoidable consequence of thousands of civilian deaths. U.S.
regime changes in the past brought to power the Shah of Iran, Mobutu in the
Congo, Pinochet in Chile and dozens of other repressive governments
subservient to U.S. interests and power.
Reverberations from President Bush's bellicosity threatening war, even
nuclear assaults, have been heard from India, Pakistan, North Korea ...
Colombia, the Philippines and occupied Palestine.
If Bush's promise to make Iraq a paradise of democracy, "liberty plus
groceries." as the Depression-era Texan congressman Maury Maverick defined
it, ask how the people of North Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Haiti,
Somalia, Sudan and Afghanistan fared after direct U.S. interventions in the
last half-century.
President Bush has authorized and approved assassinations, summary
executions and murders ó and boasted of them, in his State of the Union
message in January. "All told, more than 3,000 suspected terrorists have
been arrested in many countries, and many others have met a different fate
... let's put it this way, they are no longer a problem for the United
States and our friends and allies."
He has authorized and condoned bribery, coercion and retaliation to obtain
his war ends.
Fundamental human rights and civil liberties protected by international law
and the U.S. Constitution have been violated within the United States
against both citizens and aliens and abroad by illegal arrests, secret
detentions, false criminal charges, and interference with rights to
assemble, protest and speak.
He has drastically undermined U.N. authority, threatening it with
irrelevancy, coercing it to follow his command and acting independently and
in defiance of the U.N. Charter.
For Iraq, Bush has authorized a plan of attack called "Shock and Awe," a
massive aerial and missile assault in the first hours and days against a
defenceless people. Any one of the 300 to 400 cruise missiles, which will
strike Iraq the first day, is far deadlier than all the alleged
excessive-range missiles ó (with ranges) less than 200 kilometres ó that
Saddam has been ordered to destroy.
The world has been told "There will not be a safe place in Baghdad ... The
sheer size of this has never been seen before, never been contemplated
before."
How are the people of the world to accept these threats? Are they terrorism
as prelude to genocide?
President Saddam Hussein told Dan Rather, "We will die in Iraq."
If death is by U.S. violence, what will come after?
-----------
International human rights activist Ramsey Clark was U.S. attorney-general
from 1967-69 under president Lyndon Johnson.
The Toronto Star -Mar. 1, 2003. 01:00 AM
Why does Bush push to silence free speech?
President's obsession threatens stability around the world
By RAMSEY CLARK
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
Former U.S. attorney-general Ramsey Clark met with Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein last Sunday. He wrote this commentary exclusively for the Toronto
Star.
Should a free person be afraid to meet with a demonized "brutal dictator"?
If not, how do we hope to learn, understand, act to avoid violence and war?
If our (U.S.) government says, "You will only be deceived and used, a dupe,
if you meet," doesn't this reveal an intention to exercise arbitrary
control over information on which public opinion is formed that might
affect government plans?
Why did the White House object to the interview with President Saddam
Hussein by Dan Rather, seek to interject rebuttal and rebuke at different
points in the interview, and then complain that a person who lies should
not be allowed to speak in the media?
Because I believe in individual freedom and that the truth can set us free,
I will never accept the command "thou shalt not" reason together.
At this moment, U.S. anger over meetings with Saddam Hussein reflects Bush
administration fears that opposition voices might begin to ask, "Who are
the real aggressors, the greater threats to peace, the most dangerous
terrorists?" Once a person is able to hear all sides and is informed, the
answers cannot be controlled by government propaganda.
During the barely two years of his presidency, George W. Bush has revealed
an unprecedented, uncompromising obsession for war that threatens peace and
economic stability around the world.
He is the head of government of the sole superpower on earth. Its military
is capable of destroying any nation without ever setting foot on it and,
incredibly, President Bush has threatened to use nuclear weapons.
The U.S. has less than six per cent of the world's population, with vast
wealth concentrated in corporate control and personal fortunes that have
created the greatest ó and growing ó gap between rich and poor, and
economic policies that contribute to the same growing gap worldwide.
Bush proclaimed the right and initiated a war of aggression against
Afghanistan, causing thousands of deaths, many civilian, and installing a
government of his choice in Kabul.
He has authorized daily military flights over Iraq which have resulted in
frequent, and in the last few months, daily aerial assaults that have
killed hundreds of people in Iraq without a single U.S. plane being hit or
seriously at risk.
He has proclaimed his intention of "regime change" by military force in
Iraq with an unavoidable consequence of thousands of civilian deaths. U.S.
regime changes in the past brought to power the Shah of Iran, Mobutu in the
Congo, Pinochet in Chile and dozens of other repressive governments
subservient to U.S. interests and power.
Reverberations from President Bush's bellicosity threatening war, even
nuclear assaults, have been heard from India, Pakistan, North Korea ...
Colombia, the Philippines and occupied Palestine.
If Bush's promise to make Iraq a paradise of democracy, "liberty plus
groceries." as the Depression-era Texan congressman Maury Maverick defined
it, ask how the people of North Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Haiti,
Somalia, Sudan and Afghanistan fared after direct U.S. interventions in the
last half-century.
President Bush has authorized and approved assassinations, summary
executions and murders ó and boasted of them, in his State of the Union
message in January. "All told, more than 3,000 suspected terrorists have
been arrested in many countries, and many others have met a different fate
... let's put it this way, they are no longer a problem for the United
States and our friends and allies."
He has authorized and condoned bribery, coercion and retaliation to obtain
his war ends.
Fundamental human rights and civil liberties protected by international law
and the U.S. Constitution have been violated within the United States
against both citizens and aliens and abroad by illegal arrests, secret
detentions, false criminal charges, and interference with rights to
assemble, protest and speak.
He has drastically undermined U.N. authority, threatening it with
irrelevancy, coercing it to follow his command and acting independently and
in defiance of the U.N. Charter.
For Iraq, Bush has authorized a plan of attack called "Shock and Awe," a
massive aerial and missile assault in the first hours and days against a
defenceless people. Any one of the 300 to 400 cruise missiles, which will
strike Iraq the first day, is far deadlier than all the alleged
excessive-range missiles ó (with ranges) less than 200 kilometres ó that
Saddam has been ordered to destroy.
The world has been told "There will not be a safe place in Baghdad ... The
sheer size of this has never been seen before, never been contemplated
before."
How are the people of the world to accept these threats? Are they terrorism
as prelude to genocide?
President Saddam Hussein told Dan Rather, "We will die in Iraq."
If death is by U.S. violence, what will come after?
-----------
International human rights activist Ramsey Clark was U.S. attorney-general
from 1967-69 under president Lyndon Johnson.