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CURRENT UPDATES: June 12, 2003
Dear Friends, No one was more surprised than us at recent reports that maybe the Pentagon and White House cooked the books (so to speak) on weapons of mass destruction evidence. We were shocked (shocked, I tell you) to hear such things. All sarcasm aside, the fact that the justifications for war are beginning to be questioned is an important development and one that should be expanded. The National Intelligence Estimate- now under investigation by the Central Intelligence Agency- provided support for the White House's claims that Iraq had chemical weapons, was trying to develop biological agents and was seeking to rebuild its nuclear infrastructure. Essentially, it played a major role in making the case for war to the nation and the world. We are reminded once again of Senator Hiram W. Johnson's observation in 1917 that "The first casualty when war comes is truth." Take a look at the section on the search for WMD, and truth. Bill and Michelle are off to France for the Paris Air Show, certain to be amazingly interesting and entirely enraging. Included in this update is a beforehand take on the show by Frida and a link to a commentary on Common Dreams by Michelle, look for many follow up articles when they return. We are also pleased to introduce you to our new summer intern Ceara Donnelley, a senior at Yale University. In between studying for the LSATs, Ceara will be lending invaluable research assistance to Bill as he starts writing his book on war profiteers for the Nation. In her two weeks here she's already contributing to our email update with 'G8: Set Your Globe Straight' - which looks at Amnesty International's recently released annual report on the state of human rights worldwide, and the G8 summit held in Evian, France, and its focus on the post-9/11 war on terror and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. In this update:
For some, the big news from Evian is not the discussions of nuclear weapons, Iraq, or strengthening the economy, but the long anticipated handshake between French President Jacques Chirac and our own George W. Bush. Do these jovial photos signal a true warming of relations, and a chance for proud Americans to once again raise a glass of burgundy and nibble Brie without having their patriotic credentials questioned? More than wine drinking and cheese eating is at stake for some Americans - U.S. weapons makers have big bucks on the line at the Paris Air Show in mid-June. In the wake of French opposition to the war in Iraq, the Pentagon announced that it was scaling back participation in the 2003 Paris Air show to signal the United States' displeasure with France's opposition to Washington's "preemptive war" to topple Saddam Hussein's regime. Concretely, this means that the Pentagon won't be sending military aircraft and pilots at taxpayer expense to help impress the assembled sheiks, generals, and procurement executives who gather in Paris every two years looking to restock their arsenals. Following the Pentagon's lead, a number of U.S. defense contractors announced they were scaling back or forgoing participation in the June 2003 Paris Air Show. Vance Coffman, CEO of defense giant Lockheed Martin, told Aviation Week and Space Technology that "the basic thought is 'don't break the relationship- just send a message.'" His company's plans on cutting its participation in the 2003 Air show in half. A number of smaller U.S. defense companies are not going at all and other big companies, like Raytheon and Northrop Grumman, are also cutting back. But opting out of the Air Show is a pretty expensive way to deliver a message to the French government… much more costly than pouring a couple of bottles of Sancre down the gutter. In the wake of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the Paris Air show was a weapons-selling free for all, with the Pentagon and U.S. arms merchants out in force, and 150 Gulf War veterans on hand to praise the weapons systems they used in the war. The approach worked. In the months after the show, sales of U.S. military airplanes and helicopters exceeded $6 billion. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. The Congressional Record reveals that U.S. Government and industry arms sales rose to $31 billion in Fiscal Year 1992 and t he almost doubled for FY93 to $59 billion. The Air Show wasn't the only factor driving these sales, but it certainly helped "grease the wheels." Some contractors are definitely hoping for a repeat at the 2003 Air Show and industry leaders are positioning themselves above the fray of national politics. As the head of one defense company told Aviation Week and Space Technology, "the industry is too global and we're all too dependent on international partners to allow such disagreements to interfere with our business." John Douglas, the head of industry lobby group Aerospace Industries Association, agreed that the central question companies should be asking right now is "what are the interests if the companies, quite apart from those of the countries themselves." In short, Douglas and his allies in the global arms industry want to keep selling arms, regardless of the transitory interests of the governments that happen to be in power in Washington, or Paris, or Bonn, or London. It's exactly this kind of thinking that helped build up Saddam Hussein's arsenal in the first place, but don't expect arms industry executives to mention that little bit of dirty laundry - after all, they profited from building up Hussein, and they profited from taking him down. Meanwhile, the rest of us that are stuck footing the bill - in financial, security, and humanitarian terms. The Paris Air Show: The Show Will Go On
II. G8: SET YOUR GLOBE STRAIGHT - War for National Security or Global Insecurity? Amnesty International's 2003 Report on Human Rights since 9/11 By Ceara Donnelley, Intern Amnesty International recently released its annual report on the state of human rights worldwide, and like the G8 summit currently held in Evian, France, its focus is the post-9/11 war on terror and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Yet unlike the meeting of the world's most powerful leaders, Amnesty shines critical light on the dark underbelly of the quest, led by President George W. Bush, to pursue greater international stability by unilaterally picking off ambiguously nuclear regimes. The underside of the aggressive pursuit of nuclear disarmament in nations such as Iraq, Iran, and North Korea, and the ubiquitous call for greater national security, has been a stunning array of human rights violations abroad and at home. During initial stages of military actions in Iraq, as New York Times editorialist Aryeh Neier pointed out in early April, other despots of the world hastened to do some internal "maintenance" while the world's attention was riveted to the Persian Gulf. In Zibabwe, Cuba, and Belarus, independent journalists and voices of opposition were harshly silenced as Operation Iraqi Freedom rumbled on. Relative silence met the silencing itself-the whereabouts of Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction stole the headlines. Diversions created by President Bush's belligerent answer to international insecurity and terrorism, though exhaustively detailed in Amnesty's report, are not the only links between 9/11, the war on terror, and human rights around the world. In 2002, not only did "forgotten" conflicts in Côte d'Ivoire, Colombia, Burundi, Chechnya and Nepal take a toll on human rights, but the overwhelming sense of an urgent need in all countries to bolster national security encouraged flagrant abuses of human rights. In the post-9/11 United States, new governmental policies towards immigrants and the detainment of prisoners of war set a dangerous precedent: "Governments around the world appeared to take on board the message that human rights standards could be jettisoned in time of emergency." The report also notes, "Greater emphasis on security, far from making the world a safer place, has made it more dangerous by curtailing human rights and undermining the rule of international law; by shielding governments from scrutiny; by deepening divisions among people of different faiths and origins; and by diverting attention from festering conflicts and other sources of insecurity." The quest for security has also fostered insecurity by shifting all attention to the nuclear programs of hostile regimes, countries wherein the illicit trade of small arms and light weapons is often the most entrenched and difficult to combat. Amnesty targets this failure, pointing out that "while governments and the media debated the real or supposed danger of weapons of mass destruction, millions of people faced death and injury in conflicts fueled by the sale and transfer of arms to known human rights abusers." The transfer of small arms is an integral component to the most violent abuses of human rights, yet the tunnel vision of the current administration prioritizes the discovery of potentially non-existent nuclear weapons programs over more effective measures to halt the illicit trade of small arms and light weapons. The G8 Summit: Small Arms no Big Problem? That small arms trade and human rights abuses work in tandem to truly undermine security is not completely lost on the G8 countries. Yet with the focus in Evian on publicizing a shaky U.S.-European rapprochement, creating strategies to meet the threat of nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea, and on the worsening economy, the big problem of small arms was recognized only by the nations' foreign ministers, and not their leaders. Where the 2002 summit in Calgary produced an agreement among G8 leaders to "support efforts by African countries and the United Nations to better regulate the activities of arms brokers and traffickers and to eliminate the flow of illicit weapons to and within Africa," the issue was not thoroughly revisited in Evian. As the French Embassy reports: "G8 Foreign Ministers discussed the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons. They stressed the difficulties encountered in tension and post-conflict zones plagued with this trade could be better apprehended through a regional approach that would help achieve concrete results. They supported the Meeting of States on the illicit trade in small arms to be held at the United Nations in New York in July 2003, under Japanese chairmanship." One wonders whether the U.S. delegate stuck around for the meeting, or ducked out early with his boss. After arriving late, President Bush left the G8 summit early for meetings in Egypt. Apparently the administration fears it might spread its diplomacy too thin by currying favor in Europe and the Middle East. The Meeting of States on the illicit trade in small arms, now officially supported by the G8 Foreign Ministers, is to be held from July 7-11 at the UN in New York City. The Arms Trade Resource Center will be working closely with organizers to alert the public to the paramount importance of this summit, which provides a forum to reflect on the efficacy of past, present, and future strategies to combat the illicit trade and transfer of small arms. RESOURCES: For more information, see IANSA.org
III. The search for WMD, and truth There has been a lot of good analysis on President Bush's "Weapons of Mass Distraction." Jim Lobe's Inter Press Service article "Credibility Gap, Anyone?" is excellent. The Council for a Livable World has issued an action alert, mobilizing people to tell Congress to hold hearings about U.S. intelligence on Iraq. WMD FOUND IN IRAQ: IN 1991 INCIDENT
For years, Gulf War veterans have fought with the government to get health care for what they say are war-related illnesses, including exposure to Iraqi chemical warfare agents. On June 2, Congress' investigative arm, the General Accounting Office, issued a report saying the military's studies of U.S. troops' exposure to chemical agents were deeply flawed, vastly underestimating exposure levels. What did the GAO study and why was this so important to Gulf War veterans? Steven Robinson was interviewed by TomPaine.com's Steven Rosenfeld. NOW IS THE TIME FOR TRUTH TELLING
Candidate Wants Probe of Rescue of Jessica Lynch
ON ANOTHER RELATED NOTE
It just didn't wash. To highlight some of this, people started showing up at military bases throughout the United States, demanding the right to inspect their own arsenals. Now that all the evidence points to the administration willfully manipulating and overstating the intelligence to fit their war plan, the time is ripe for another wave of "citizen inspections." And luckily there is a new tool to help us do that: A FIELD GUIDE FOR CITIZEN WEAPONS INSPECTIONS On this website citizens can learn how to organize their own "citizen weapons inspection teams" to challenge military bases, corporate facilities, weapons labs and other facilities involved in producing and storing WMDs. Resources include: · A five-minute video of an actual citizen inspection of a U.S. nuclear submarine base
IV. Upcoming Events 1. EPIC's 5th Annual IRAQ FORUM and LOBBY DAYS
Iraq is under military occupation. Looting and lawlessness prevails, undermining efforts to deliver emergency aid and reestablish essential public services. Despite growing threats, Pentagon officials remain unwilling to allow the UN a major role in Iraq. Instead, they appear intent on installing Ahmed Chalabi in power, backed by a U.S. military presence not popular election. Now more than ever the Iraqi people need your advocacy and support. Join us for a Summer of Solidarity with the People of Iraq. The summer begins June 14-17 2003 with EPIC's 5th Annual IRAQ FORUM and LOBBY DAYS in Washington DC. THE IRAQ FORUM (Saturday, June 14, 2003) is a day-long educational seminar with some of the most knowledgeable experts on Iraq and U.S. policy. This event joins policy experts, educators, human rights advocates, concerned citizens, students and others concerned about Iraq's uncertain future. It provides firsthand accounts of life in post-war Iraq, updates on humanitarian and security conditions, and insights about the prospects for a free, just and peaceful Iraq. REGISTER ONLINE TODAY at epicalert.c.tclk.net Also register for June 15-17 for EPIC's high-powered advocacy training and Lobby Days ADVOCACY TRAINING (Sunday, June 15) provides participants with training, knowledge and confidence to effectively advocate for the Iraqi people, whether you're new to Capitol Hill or a seasoned grassroots lobbyist. LOBBY DAYS (Monday, June 16, and Tuesday, June 17) immediately follows a weekend of speakers and advocacy training. Meet with your elected officials and other key congressional offices to discuss humanitarian and human rights conditions in Iraq. Help us hold our elected representatives accountable for the consequences of this war. During Lobby Days, we will deliver the Citizens' Humanitarian Pledge (epic-usa.org/signon) to Members of Congress and the Administration. Early registration is strongly encouraged. 2. Nuclear Policy Research Institute Symposium on the Health Effects of Depleted Uranium Munitions New York Academy of Medicine
In 2003, depleted uranium munitions were used again in the Iraq war. A controversial material, depleted uranium is a byproduct of the uranium enrichment process and is used in anti-tank weapons and possibly other weapons systems. NPRI will hold its first scientific symposium in June 2003 to explore what is currently known about the health effects of depleted uranium munitions. Key experts from a variety of fields will convene at the New York Academy of Medicine to present their findings, answer questions and review current policies. Presentations will be made by:
For more information - www.nuclearpolicy.org 3. International SOS: SpeakOut at STRATCOM What would you say if the largest nuclear weapons holder in the world, wanted to resume nuclear testing and start building NEW nuclear weapons? S O S! International SOS:
STRATCOM is the place to say NO New Weapons of Mass Destruction! Located at Offutt Air Force Base outside Omaha, NE, STRATCOM is US Strategic Command. It is the command and control for all US nuclear capabilities which now includes land, air, sea and even space based nuclear weapons. Defense Department officials plan to meet at STRATCOM the week of August 4th to discuss implementation of recent proposals for a new generation of nuclear weapons. Make your voice heard, NO New Weapons of Mass Destruction! For more information contact info@SOS2003.com or visit www.SOS2003.com for updates Reports | Recent News Coverage | Updates
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