Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 20. August 2004 / Timeline August 20, 2004
Version 3.519. August 2004, 21. August 2004
08/20/2004
Adopted by the national executive board of Asian Pacific
American Labor Alliance (APALA) Friday, August 20, 2004
END U.S. OCCUPATION OF IRAQ - BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
WHEREAS, there is general agreement in the United States and
throughout the world that Iraq did not possess weapons of mass
destruction that posed an imminent threat to this country or to
Iraq's neighbors, and that the government of Iraq had few if any
discernable ties to those who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks on the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon; and
WHEREAS, the pretexts for war have been systematically revealed to
have been fabricated, manipulated, exaggerated, or distorted to
justify an invasion of Iraq planned long before September 11, 2001;
and
WHEREAS, the federal government has approved $150 billion in public
funds for the U.S. war in Iraq, draining those funds away from
domestic priorities including transportation, health care, and
national security; and
WHEREAS, the military invasion and continued occupation of Iraq has
actually increased the level of international terrorism and made
the U.S. and the world less, not more safe and secure; and
WHEREAS, the Bush administration doctrine of "unilaterlism and
pre-emptive military assault" has isolated the U.S. in the
international community of nations and alienated even long-time
international allies of the U.S.; and
WHEREAS, the post-war U.S. occupation has provided a profit bonanza
for U.S. and other multinational corporations awarded no-bid
contracts for work in Iraq, while providing to the Iraqi people
little or none of the promised reconstruction, restoration of
electric power, water and sanitation; and
WHEREAS, the occupation of Iraq has been treated by the Bush
administration as a golden opportunity to create a model of
wholesale privatization and corporate domination intended to pave
the way for this model to be imposed elsewhere in the world,
including in the U.S.; and
WHEREAS, working families in the United States have paid a heavy
price for the U.S. involvement in Iraq with the deaths of nearly
900 U.S. military personnel - with more than 5000 others wounded -
since the start of the war on March 19, 2003, and the death of as
many as 13,000 or more Iraqi civilians and the wounding, maiming,
and dislocating of tens of thousands of other civilians; and
WHEREAS, the Bush Administration has used the Iraq War and the "War
on Terrorism" as a platform to advocate for restrictions of civil
liberties, with measures such as the Patriot Act; and
WHEREAS, the war and occupation of Iraq has engendered an
atmosphere of hostility and discrimination toward immigrants and
people of color generally, and has led to the victimization,
stereotyping, and, in some cases, arrest and detention of innocent
people; now therefore be it
RESOLVED, that the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO
recognizes the courage and sacrifices of U.S. military personnel
who have faced extraordinary dangers in the U.S. war in Iraq and
who now want to come home; and
RESOLVED, that Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO calls
on the National AFL-CIO to demand an immediate end to the US
military occupation of Iraq and speedy return of all U.S. military
personnel to their homes and families, and to support the repeal of
the Patriot Act and the reordering of national priorities toward
the human needs; and be it finally
RESOLVED. that Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO, in
recognition and furtherance of its position in opposition to
current U.S. policy in Iraq, will affiliate with and help actively
support and promote U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW) to protect
our members, their families, communities and jobs, and the lives
and livelihoods of working people everywhere.
08/20/2004
Ashcroft defends interviews with protesters
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/08/21/MNG2A8CA2C1.DTL&type=printable
- Anna Badkhen, Chronicle Staff Writer
Attorney General John Ashcroft defended recent FBI interviews of
political activists across the country Friday, saying federal
agents questioned only protesters the government believed were
plotting to firebomb media vehicles at the Democratic National
Convention in Boston last month or might have known about such
plots.
Political activists and civil rights advocates scoffed at
Ashcroft's explanation, calling his defense of the interviews part
of a government campaign to intimidate protesters. "They see that
activists are trying to send a message, and they don't want
activists getting their message out," said Rachael Perrotta, 24,
one of the protesters interviewed by the FBI. "They want to
marginalize us. I think it's a smear campaign by the FBI and the
federal government to discredit the protest movement."
Amid government warnings that terrorists might want to disrupt this
year's election, federal agents have interviewed political
activists around the nation in recent weeks. Protesters and FBI
officials said the agents questioned the activists about potential
violence during the national political conventions and other
election-year events. Lawyers, civil liberties activists and
several Democratic congressmen have criticized the interviews as
political harassment, saying they were designed to stifle protests
and violated the protesters' First Amendment rights. At a news
conference in Washington on Friday, Ashcroft called these
accusations an "outrageous distortion." "We interviewed a very
limited number of people that we believed were either participating
in a plan to criminally and violently disrupt the Democratic
National Convention, or individuals that might have known something
about that plan," Ashcroft said.
Before the Democratic convention, U.S. Secret Service and police
officials had warned of an alleged plot by self-described
anarchists to throw homemade explosives, known as Molotov
cocktails, at vans of television crews covering the convention. The
warning was based on claims of an informant who described such a
plot, a senior U.S. law enforcement official told the Associated
Press this week. New York City law officers also have warned of
potential violence for the Republican convention, which starts Aug.
30. Authorities anticipate that hundreds of thousands of protesters
will descend upon the city, and some groups have announced they are
planning to "disrupt" the convention, although no groups have
mentioned using bombs or any other weapons. Gary Bald, assistant
director of the FBI's counterterrorism division, said the bureau
does not have enough evidence to move against any group or person
who might be plotting violent protests in New York. Federal
investigators have infiltrated some organizations and are
monitoring Internet sites that publish protest plans for updates
about potential violence.
Protesters who say they have been interviewed by the FBI denounced
Ashcroft's allegations that they would target the media, calling
his claims a pretext for a political crackdown. "I am a media
relations coordinator. The thought that I would be involved in
anything like this is just so preposterous," said Perrotta, who is
managing media coverage for an antiwar, anti-Bush march from Boston
to New York called DNC2RNC that began after the Democratic
convention. Perrotta said the four FBI agents who interviewed her
in Boston last month never asked her specific questions about
firebombing television trucks during the Democratic convention. She
said they asked general questions about violence during national
political events. Perrotta said she had never heard any of her
fellow political activists talk about using bombs. "This includes
anarchist groups and liberal groups," she said. She said the FBI
was "spreading a lie."
Bill Dobbs, spokesman for United for Peace and Justice, a
national coalition of more than 800 antiwar groups whose 250,000
members plan to march across New York on Aug. 29, also said he had
not heard of any plans to throw homemade bombs at the media. "This
sounds like classic fear-mongering by law-enforcement on the eve of
a major protest," Dobbs said. "It poisons the atmosphere."
Other activists questioned Ashcroft's assertion that the FBI
interviewed only a "handful" of protesters. Ann Beeson, associate
legal director of American Civil Liberties Union, said she was
aware of dozens of interrogations in Colorado, a handful more in
Missouri, and several in New York and Massachusetts. Joe Parris, an
FBI spokesman, has said federal agents had interviewed "around 25"
activists in different states.
Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University,
said the government's treatment of political activists was
reminiscent of the anti- Communist crackdowns of the Cold War era.
"The Ashcroft Justice Department has taken ... a perverse interest
in peace demonstrators," Turley said. "Pretty soon federal prisons
are gonna look a lot like the streets of San Francisco."
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