Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 1. Oktober 2007 / Time Line October 1, 2007
Version 3.5September 2007, 2. Oktober 2007
10/01/2007
Det er nu 55 måneder siden, at USAs præsident Bush erklærede krigen
i Irak for vundet.
10/01/2007
DoD Identifies Army Casualties
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier
who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Sgt. 1st Class Randy L. Johnson, 34, of Washington, died Sept. 27
in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive
device detonated near his vehicle. He was assigned to the 2nd
Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, Vilseck, Germany.
Spc. Ciara M. Durkin, 30, of Quincy, Mass., died Sept. 28 at Bagram
Airfield, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered from a non-combat
related incident. She was assigned to the 726th Finance Battalion,
Massachusetts Army National Guard, West Newton, Mass.
The circumstances surrounding the incident are under
investigation.
Sgt. 1st Class James D. Doster, 37, of Pine Bluff, Ark., died Sept.
29 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked
his unit using an improvised explosive devise and small arms fire.
He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, 4th
Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley,
Kan.
Staff Sgt. Donnie D. Dixon, 37, of Miami, died Sept. 29 in Baloor,
Iraq, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using
small arms fire. He was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters
Company, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood,
Texas.
Sgt. Zachary D. Tellier, 31, of Charlotte, N.C., died Sept. 29 at
Firebase Wilderness, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when
insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire. He was assigned
to the 4th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat
Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.
Sgt. Robert T. Ayres III, 23, of Los Angeles, died Sept. 29 in
Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his
unit using small arms fire. He was assigned to the 3rd Squadron,
2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, Vilseck, Germany.
10/01/2007
An Anniversary to Celebrate If You Oppose
War
By Lawrence S.
Wittner
The largest peace organization in the United States, Peace Action,
is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Yet surprisingly few
Americans know much about it.
Peace Action originated with the National Committee for a Sane
Nuclear Policy (better known as SANE). Responding to an invitation
by Norman Cousins (editor of the Saturday Review) and Clarence
Pickett (the former secretary of the American Friends Service
Committee), 27 prominent Americans met on June 21, 1957 in New York
City and launched an effort to focus American opinion on the
dangers of nuclear weapons testing.
SANE made its debut on November 15, 1957, with a dramatic
advertisement in the New York Times. Signed by 48 well-known
Americans, the ad called for the immediate suspension of nuclear
testing by all nations—an action that they hoped would halt
radioactive contamination and serve as the first step toward a
world freed from the prospect of nuclear annihilation.
This advertisement unleashed a burst of antinuclear activity.
Thousands of people responded—writing letters to SANE’s
tiny national office, re-publishing the advertisement in other
newspapers, and holding local meetings. By the summer of 1958, SANE
had 130 chapters and some 25,000 members, making it the largest
peace group in the United States.
In the following years, SANE became a very visible presence in
American life. Hollywood SANE, organized by Steve Allen and Robert
Ryan, mobilized a bevy of movie stars. In May 1960, SANE held an
overflow rally at Madison Square Garden, with speeches by Eleanor
Roosevelt and other luminaries. Its newspaper ads were signed by
influential world leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Albert
Schweitzer, and Bertrand Russell. The best-known ad featured the
world’s most famous pediatrician, Dr. Benjamin Spock, looking
gloomily at a young child under the headline: "Dr. Spock is
Worried."
These ventures—and others by comparable movements in other
nations—had a major impact upon nuclear weapons policies.
Responding to the popular clamor, the U.S., British, and Soviet
governments agreed in October 1958 to halt nuclear testing as they
negotiated for a test ban treaty. Later, President Kennedy
dispatched Norman Cousins for talks with Soviet Premier
Khrushchev—work that finally led to the Partial Test Ban
Treaty of 1963, the world's first nuclear arms control treaty.
This early triumph, however, was followed by a more difficult
experience. SANE had been an early critic of U.S. military
involvement in Vietnam, and in November 1965 organized the largest
antiwar demonstration up to that time. In 1967, SANE’s
co-chair, Dr. Spock, headed up the Spring Mobilization to End the
War in Vietnam. SANE became the first non-partisan group to oppose
the re-election of President Johnson and the first to support the
peace candidacy of Senator Eugene McCarthy, thereby initiating a
process that drove the president out of office. With the Vietnam
War grinding on under the Nixon administration, SANE played an
active role in the 1969 Moratorium campaign and in the massive
marches on Washington to stop the war. In 1972, it enthusiastically
backed Senator George McGovern’s antiwar campaign for the
presidency. Although Nixon won re-election, the war was doomed. As
Henry Kissinger complained, the war and the peace protests
“shattered the self-confidence” of U.S. officials.
In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, SANE swung back to
highlighting the dangers of the arms race. Nevertheless, the
post-Vietnam War era was hard on peace groups, which suffered from
a sense of exhaustion. SANE survived, but just barely.
SANE began to recover after October 1977. With Soviet-American
détente deteriorating, SANE focused upon backing the SALT II
Treaty and securing economic conversion legislation. Its recovery
quickened thanks to the new Reagan administration’s
militarist program and loose talk of nuclear war, which sparked a
vast upsurge of peace activism around the world. Denouncing the
Reagan administration’s military priorities, SANE condemned
plans for the deployment of new nuclear missiles in Europe and, in
Congress, fought the administration to a near standstill over MX
missiles.
During the early 1980s, just as SANE became a major force, so did a
new organization: the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign. The Freeze
arose in 1979 as the brainchild of Randy Forsberg, a defense and
disarmament researcher. Recognizing that the division among peace
groups rendered them ineffectual, she called on them to unite
behind a proposal for a U.S-Soviet agreement to halt the testing,
production, and deployment of nuclear weapons. When they proved
enthusiastic, she began circulating a “Call to Halt the
Nuclear Arms Race.”
The Freeze campaign made remarkable progress. Holding its first
national conference in March 1981, the Freeze began organizing all
across the country. On June 12, 1982, when peace groups sponsored
an antinuclear demonstration in New York City around the theme of
“Freeze the Arms Race—Fund Human Needs,” it
escalated into the biggest U.S. political demonstration thus far,
with nearly a million participants. That fall, Freeze referenda
appeared on the ballot across the nation. In this largest
referendum on a single issue in U.S. history (covering about a
third of the electorate), the Freeze emerged victorious in nine out
of ten states and in all but three localities. Five different polls
taken during 1983 found average support for the Freeze at 72% and
opposition at 20%. Hundreds of national organizations endorsed the
Freeze, as did more than 370 city councils and one or both houses
of 23 state legislatures.
This popular uprising had a major impact upon government officials.
Horrified by the Freeze campaign, the Reaganites did their best to
discredit and destroy it. For the Democrats, on the other hand, the
Freeze meant political opportunity. In May 1983, the
Democratically-controlled House of Representatives approved a
Freeze resolution by a vote of nearly two to one. In 1984, the
Freeze became part of the Democratic Party’s campaign
platform.
On the defensive, the Reagan administration was forced to modify
its policies. In an effort to dampen popular protest, the President
endorsed the “zero option,” a proposal to remove all
intermediate-range nuclear missiles from Europe. In October 1983,
in the midst of massive demonstrations against the deployment of
U.S. nuclear missiles in Western Europe, Reagan told his startled
secretary of state: “If things get hotter and hotter and arms
control remains an issue, maybe I should go see [Soviet Premier]
Andropov and propose eliminating all nuclear weapons.” And,
over the objections of his advisors, that’s just what he did
propose. Furthermore, in April 1982, shortly after the Freeze
resolution was introduced in Congress, Reagan began declaring
publicly that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be
fought.” He added: “To those who protest against
nuclear war, I can only say: 'I’m with you!' ”
The Freeze also hit paydirt in the Soviet Union. Taking office as
Soviet party secretary in March 1985, Gorbachev was profoundly
influenced by the worldwide antinuclear campaign. His "new
thinking" about war and peace, Gorbachev declared, "absorbed the .
. . demands . . . of . . . antiwar organizations." At international
disarmament conferences, he set aside time to confer with leaders
of SANE and the Freeze.
Responding to advice from antinuclear activists, Gorbachev took
Reagan up on the President's offer of the zero option. Hardline
U.S. officials—who had viewed U.S. government talk of the
zero option as merely a propaganda gesture—were dismayed, but
unable to resist. The result was the signing in 1987 of the
Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty, which eliminated all
intermediate-range nuclear missiles from Europe. This opened the
way for further nuclear disarmament accords, as well as for an end
to the Cold War.
Meanwhile, starting in the mid-1980s, pressure grew to unite SANE
and the Freeze. In 1987, they merged to form SANE/Freeze, presided
over by the Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr.
Thereafter, the new organization—renamed Peace Action in
1993—threw its efforts into halting U.S. nuclear weapons
production, reducing military spending, cutting off funding for
U.S.-backed wars in Central America, and supporting sanctions
against the apartheid regime in South Africa. On a more positive
note, it worked at bettering relations with Gorbachev’s
Soviet Union, creating public support for a peace economy, and
backing the Middle East peace process.
The new organization’s efforts to end nuclear testing proved
particularly successful. In 1992, it helped steer legislation
through Congress that terminated funding for the only kind of U.S.
nuclear tests permitted under the Partial Test Ban Treaty: those
conducted underground. With U.S. nuclear testing now halted, the
new president, Bill Clinton, negotiated a Comprehensive Test Ban
Treaty.
However, despite its political victories and the hopes of its
founders, Peace Action—like most of the peace movement in the
United States and abroad—lost membership and influence after
the late 1980s, thanks to the end of the Cold War and the sense of
crisis that conflict had generated.
Even so, starting in the late 1990s, there were signs of renewed
danger. These included the eruption of many smaller wars, the
Republican-dominated U.S. Senate’s rejection of the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and the militaristic policies of the
new Bush administration.
In response to these alarming developments, Peace Action
experienced another revival. Its membership grew dramatically,
climbing to 100,000. In 2003, Peace Action launched a Campaign for
a New Foreign Policy, mobilizing sympathetic organizations behind a
program of supporting human rights and democracy, reducing the
threat from weapons of mass destruction, and cooperating with the
world community. Forging a close alliance with the Progressive
Caucus in Congress, particularly in connection with ending the Iraq
War, Peace Action also worked successfully to block the Bush
administration’s proposals for new nuclear weapons.
Thus, as Peace Action celebrates its 50th anniversary this year
with events all over the country (including a big bash on the
evening of October 22 at the Alhamba Ballroom, in Harlem) it can
look back upon an impressive record of accomplishments: halting
numerous wars, fostering nuclear arms control and disarmament,
and—overall—creating a saner, more humane world.
10/01/2007
National Security Archive Update, October 1, 2007
Court rules delay in release of presidential papers is
illegal
Fails to Address Authority of Former Vice Presidents to Hold Up
Disclosure of Papers
Washington D.C., October 1, 2007 - A District Court in the District
of Columbia has ruled that an Executive Order issued by President
George W. Bush in 2001, which severely slowed or prevented the
release of historic presidential papers is, in part, invalid. In a
carefully constructed decision, the court held that the Archivist
of the United States acts arbitrarily, capriciously, and contrary
to law by relying on the Executive Order to delay release of the
records of former presidents. The court did not reach the issue of
whether it was permissible for President Bush to extend the
authority over disclosure of presidential papers to a former
president's heirs or to former vice presidents.
The underlying lawsuit, which was filed in November 2001 by the
National Security Archive and other plaintiffs, challenges
President Bush's Executive Order 13,233 that gave former Presidents
and their heirs (as well as former Vice-Presidents for the first
time) indefinite authority to hold up release of White House
records. In finding that the plaintiffs have standing to pursue the
claim, the court specifically referenced the delays experienced by
the National Security Archive for requests pending at the Ronald
Reagan Presidential Library. As the Archive's Director Thomas
Blanton testified in Congress this past March, those delays have
grown from 18 months in 2001 to "an estimate of 78 months (six and
a half years!) [in 2007]."
Archive General Counsel Meredith Fuchs commented, "The court is
enforcing procedural standards, but has avoided the hard questions
about the role former presidents, former vice presidents, and their
heirs can play when it comes to disclosure of presidential
records." She noted, "Unless the Executive Order is reversed or
withdrawn, decisions about the release of records from this
administration may ultimately be made by the Bush daughters."
The decision comes at a time when a bill that would overturn
Executive Order 13,233 is stalled in the U.S. Senate, reportedly
due to a hold placed on the measure by Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY).
The bill, H.R. 1255, was approved in the U.S. House of
Representatives on March 14, 2007 by a vote of 333-93. The White
House has threatened to veto the bill if it is passed in the
Senate.
10/01/2007
National Security Archive Update, October 1, 2007
Declassifying the "fact of" satellite reconnaissance
Washington D.C., October 1, 2007 - Today the National Security
Archive publishes a collection of documents concerning U.S. policy
with regard to acknowledging the "fact of" U.S. satellite
reconnaissance operations--particularly satellite
photoreconnaissance. It was 29 years ago today that President Jimmy
Carter, in a speech at the Kennedy Space Center, acknowledged that
the U.S. was operating photoreconnaissance satellites.
As the documents illustrate, the perceived need to persuade
segments of the public that the U.S. would be able to effectively
monitor Soviet compliance with the strategic arms limitation
agreements served as the catalyst for the acknowledgment. They also
show that the Nixon administration had also considered
acknowledging U.S. satellite reconnaissance activities in 1972 as a
means of providing reassurance that any Soviet cheating would be
detected, but the idea was rejected by national security adviser
Henry Kissinger.
The documents published include memos stating the positions of
various individuals and institutions on the issue in both the Nixon
and Carter administrations, assessments of the risks and benefits
of declassification, an assessment of the reactions to President
Carter's disclosure, and presidential directives from the Carter,
Reagan and Clinton administrations specifying the classification
associated with the "fact of" different types of satellite
reconnaissance.
10/01/2007
The US, media and scholars contribute to war: Stop the
MIMAC!
Nagoya, Japan, October 1, 2007
MIMAC has nothing to do with Mac or MiMac or that sort of thing.
It's the Military-Industrial-Media-Academic Complex, and we have
just witnessed its mode of operation once again during Iranian
President Ahmadinejad's visit to New York.
The Military Industry is solidly anchored in Vice-President
Cheney's and President Bush's offices. The Media - many owned or
influenced by the Military Industrial corporations - managed -
again - to mis-translate, mis-interprete and demonise the Iranian
President. Nobody listened, few cared about checking sources - the
first duty of any professional media person. So the Holocaust
denial and wipe-Israel-off-the-map was repeated - irrespective of
the fact that the man has NEVER said any of it.
When US media promotes propaganda - many around the world behave
like parrots to His Master's Voice.
Academics, then? Whether measurable or not, the image of Columbia
University is that it is a leading one in the world. However, its
President Lee Bollinger behaved to the disgrace of any intellectual
and ought to resign for his unfounded propaganda, instead of
scholarship, and his uniquely bad manners.
If this is the level at one of the best universities, how bad is it
not elsewhere? What is it that compels the majority of scholars
around the world to legitimize senseless, illegal wars instead of
dialogue, respect and peace by peaceful means in accordance with
the UN Charter?
In one word it is MIMAC and not Iran and its President that is a
threat to the world. The friends of the US should now speak up.
Others should raise the possibility of sanctions. China and Japan
should consider stopping their financing of the American MIMAC
before we all end up in a world - possibly nuclear - disaster that
will make Iraq look like a minor event.
We can begin by boycotting any media and news bureau that has
repeated the fabricated statements put into Ahmedinejad's mouth.
Because they promote war, simply, and because there is no excuse
for not knowing what he actually said. You simply can't trust them
on one of the contemporary world's most important issues - like you
could not during the sanctions and the war on Iraq.
A free press does not have the freedom to be limitlessly ignorant
or unprofessional or war-mongering. It does have the freedom and
duty to do honest reporting, check sources and cover peace policies
and peace actors where they clearly exist.
Here are four must-read articles on TFF's website:
Farhang Jahanpour, TFF Associate Ahmadinejhad in New York
http://www.transnational.org/Area_MiddleEast/2007/Jahanpour_AhmedinejadNewYork.html
Virginia Tilley at CounterPunch Putting words in Ahmedinejad's
mouth
http://www.counterpunch.org/tilley08282006.html
Ali Quli Qarai at Information Clearing House Lost in translation:
Ahmedinejad and the media
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18471.htm
And, finally TFF's article collections about the prospect of war
with Iran:
http://www.transnational.org/Area_MiddleEast/Collection_Iran4.html
They all eleganty shoot down the deception, the war propaganda and
the mindlessly repeating reporting.
Please now speak up against politically correct, war-promoting,
scholars. Boycot their institutions, books, scholarships and
grants!
I urge you to speak up against media and journalists who choose to
be part of and promote MIMAC where alternatives so clearly
exist.
Ahmedinejad's visit to New York is yet another indication that it
is time to confront the "old" media that choose to be members of
MIMAC - even if it implies that they won't turn to you for an
expert view or promote your organisation.
Thanks to the Internet, NGOs, activists and scholars are much less
dependent today on the mainstream media than before it. Even
Myanmar's leaders are beginning to see the writing on the wall.
Free media also means choosing freedom from MIMAC and its
media...
Kindly
Jan Oberg
TFF director
TFF
- for peace with passion
10/01/2007
USA opretter the National Intelligence Coordination Center.
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