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Posted 7:47 PM
by Mary
Human Rights Denial Deserves Impeachment
by Peter Phillips
Human Rights belong to people collectively. To believe in rights for some and not others is a denial of the humanness of people worldwide. Yet, denial is exactly what Congress and George W. Bush did with the signing of the Military Commission Act of 2006. The new official U.S. policy is that torture and suspension of due process are acceptable for anyone the president deems to be a terrorist or terrorist supporter. This act is the overt denial of the inalienable rights of human beings propagated in our Declaration of Independence and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Our famous words, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness," did not declare that some men (and women) are without unalienable rights. Our independence was founded on the belief that all men and women are recognized by this nation as having innate rights derived from their humanness.
Likewise, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, created by the United Nations in 1948 and signed and ratified by the U.S. Congress, specifies in its preamble that "recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world."
The Universal Declaration of Human rights is a treaty that legally binds the United States government. Article 10 states that "everyone is entitled to full equality, to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him," and Article 5 specifically prohibits torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
For the U.S. government to unilaterally declare that our country will not comply with international human rights laws, nor uphold the core values of our nation's foundation is an indication of extremism that supersedes the values and beliefs of the American people. When such an extremism exists, we may need to take seriously the founders' declaration that, " to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, - That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
The U.S. government is actively torturing people to death. One need only read the 44 official U.S. military autopsy reports on civilian detainees from Afghanistan and Iraq in 2002 to 2004 posted on the American Civil Liberties website to see the horrendous details of deaths by "strangulation," "asphyxiation" and "blunt force injuries."
The Military Commission Act retroactively approved the use of torture to the beginning of the 9/11 Wars. Congress's reaction to the ACLU report in October of 2005 was to pass legislation banning further use of the Freedom of Information Act to request documents on current military operations.
We are in a time of extremism, permanent war, and the unilateral manifestation of ethnocentrism and power by an openly public cabal of people in the U.S. government. Those in power are set on the U.S. military domination of the world. They seem willing to defy the foundational values of the American people to achieve their ends. We have no choice but to declare openly our belief in universal human rights and demand the immediate impeachment of George W. Bush and Richard Cheney and a full accounting of those in their administration.
Peter Phillips is a professor of sociology at Sonoma State University and director of Project Censored. He is co-editor with Dennis Loo of the new book "Impeach the President: The Case Against Bush and Cheney."
Posted 4:09 PM
by Mary
UNITED NATIONS -Voicing deep concern at the rising death toll from Israeli operations in northern Gaza, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today urged Israel to refrain from “further escalating an already grave situation” and called on Palestinian militants to stop firing rockets at Israeli civilian targets.
“Military operations in populated areas inevitably cause civilian casualties, and in this operation several civilians have already been killed and wounded, including women and at least one Palestinian child,” Mr. Annan said in a statement issued by his spokesman.
“The Secretary-General urges Israel to exercise maximum restraint, do their utmost to protect civilians and to refrain from further escalating an already grave situation. He also calls on Palestinian militants to stop firing rockets against Israeli civilian targets,” the statement added.
“All concerned should remember that continuing violence is liable to make the search for a just and lasting peace in the region even more difficult.”
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) warned that the Israeli operation is taking place in an area densely populated by Palestinian refugees, with more than 10,000 students going to UNRWA schools and more than 400 Agency staff affected.
It said between 30 and 40 women today were collected inside two of its elementary schools, where their mobile phones were taken from them by Israeli soldiers. It confirmed that two of the women subsequently suffered gunshot wounds.
An ambulance was initially forbidden entry but the injured women have since been taken to Beit Hanoun hospital, it added.
Posted 4:03 PM
by Mary
UNITED NATIONS - / www.MaximsNews.com, UN/ - 12 November 2006 -- Exercising its veto in the Security Council Saturday, the United States blocked a draft resolution that won the endorsement of 10 other members and would have called for a United Nations fact-finding mission in response to a recent Israeli operation in Gaza resulting in at least 18 civilian deaths.
Sponsored by Qatar, the draft would have condemned Israeli military operations in Gaza as well as Palestinian rocket fire into Israel, while calling for an immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and a cessation of violence by both parties.
Four countries – the United Kingdom, Denmark, Japan and Slovakia – abstained on the text, which would have requested that Secretary-General Kofi Annan establish within 30 days the fact-finding mission on the 8 November incident in Beit Hanoun, where some eight children were among the dozen and a half people killed.
The action followed a day of debate in the Council on Thursday. At that meeting, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Angela Kane voiced shock at the Beit Hanoun incident.
She called on Israel to review the implications of its military actions and on the Palestinians to stop rocket attacks by militants, while urging both sides to return to the negotiating table.
The draft resolution would have called on the diplomatic Quartet – made up of the UN, United States, European Union and Russian Federation – to take immediate steps to stabilize the situation, including through the possible establishment of an “international mechanism for the protection of the civilian populations.”
The representative of the United States joined other Council members in voicing deep regret over the loss of life in Beit Hanoun, while noting that the Israeli authorities had admitted that the incident had been a mistake and intended to conduct an investigation.
