Subject: [+Colombia+] Military bases sign-on
letter - pls
distribute widely
From: Across the Americas
<ruthgoring@gmail.com>
Attached and below is a sign-on letter,
generated by the
Fellowship of Reconciliation, on the proposed military base agreement
between
Colombia and the United States. The letter is a response to the growing
tension
in the region provoked by t he announcement of US military sites in
Colombia.
This is an “organizational” sign-on letter;
please endorse either with name, title and organization or as an
organization.
If you distribute to your networks, please include this note.
Please respond by the end of Monday, August 10,
to John
Lindsay-Poland, Fellowship of Reconciliation, at johnlp@igc.org.
If you
have questions, contact John by email or at 510-763-1403.
Many thanks for your concern.
##
Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton
Department of State
2201 C St. NW
Washington, DC 20520
Dear Secretary of State Clinton:
We write to you with urgent concern about the
recently
disclosed negotiations for U.S. military access to seven=2 0military
bases in
Colombia, and their impacts on quickly deteriorating relations in the
Andean
region between those nations and with the United States. We also write
with
fundamental concerns about the effects of the proposed agreement on
drug policy
objectives and on promoting respect for human rights that are central
to our
values.
We affirm what President Obama told hemispheric
leaders
in April, that, “if our only interaction with many of these countries
is
drug interdiction -- if our only interaction is military -- then we may
not be
developing the connections that can over time increase our influence
and have a
beneficial effect.” Yet establishing military installations in the area
with broad and ambi guous mandates is an investment in military
responses to
everything from poverty to bilateral tensions.
A hastily negotiated agreement for access to
military
sites in Colombia presents enormous dangers for the entire hemisphere.
Leaders
from Brazil, Chile, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Nicaragua have
responded
critically and publicly to the proposed installations, with measures
ranging
from suspending diplomatic relations, to suggesting blocking trade.
The potential consequences of aggravated
tensions in the
region are wide and deep. In the context of the coup in Honduras, the
sense of
instability in Latin America is acute. Furthermore, Venezuela is
Colombia’s second largest trading partner, sharing over $7 billion
annually in trade. Even a temporary suspension of bilat eral trade will
create
substantial hardships for many ordinary people. Should relations
between
Colombia and Venezuela deteriorate further, the U.S. military presence
could
lend itself to use by Colombia as a cover for acts that escalate
conflict,
knowing that the United States will act to protect its assets.
In the current context, it is rational for
regional
leaders to see the installation of several U.S. military sites in
Colombia as a
potential threat to their security. The basis for this perception
includes the
following:
* The illegal cross-border attack
by
Colombian forces on a FARC camp in Ecuadorean territory in March 2008,
precipitating a rupture in diplomatic relations between Colombia and
Ecuador,
which20have still not been restored. President Obama indicated at the
time that
he supported this attack.
* The Colombian government has
accused
high-level officials of Venezuela and Ecuador of assisting the FARC,
based on
evidence that is disputed by those governments, giving an international
dimension to the counter-terrorism mission of armed forces in Colombia.
* Although the Manta agreement was
exclusively for aerial counter-drug monitoring and interdiction, U.S.
forces in
Manta carried out operations to arrest undocumented Ecuadorans on boats
in
Ecuadoran waters. Although the proposed access agreement for Colombia
presumably
would prohibit cross-border operations without permission of the third
country,
violations of the agreement for use of the Manta site raise legitimate
doubts
for leaders of neighboring countries.
* The Defense Department says that
it seeks
“an array of access arrangements for contingency operations, logistics,
and training in Central/South America.”
* USSOUTHCOM aims to establish a
base with
“air mobility reach on the South American continent” through the
year 2025, according to the Air Mobility Command.
* Establishing an expanded U.S.
military
presence in Colombia evokes the long and painful history of U.S.
military
interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean.
We are also concerned that the bases agreement
represents
a back-door means for continuing to support the Colombian military,
despite rep
orts in the last year that the military murdered more than 1,000
civilians and
alleged they were guerrillas killed in combat, in order to increase
their body
count. Colombian Defense Ministry sources have said that Colombia is
attempting
to obtain increases in U.S. military aid as part of the base
negotiations. The
Palanquero base itself, which houses a Colombian Air Force unit, was
banned
from receiving U.S. aid for five years because of its role in a 1998
attack
that killed 17 civilians, including six children.
A review of policy in Colombia is needed that
addresses
the serious human rights issues present in the Colombian Armed Forces
and
State, including: the practice of civilian killings reportedly
committed by the
Colombian Army si nce 2002, which the UN High Commissioner on Human
Rights
called “widespread and systematic,” with a 98% rate of impunity; the
persistence and growth of massive forced displacement of rural
Colombians from
their lands, with 380,000 people forced to flee their homes last year;
illegal
surveillance, unfounded accusations, and covert operations against
human rights
defenders, journalists, Supreme Court justices, and opposition party
leaders by
the presidential security agency and (in some cases) by military
intelligence
units. In light of these revelations, the Administration should
reconsider
centering its strategies in the region on an alliance with the
Colombian
military. To broaden relationships with South America and value respect
for
human rights, the
United States should not create a
fortress in
Colombia in concert with the region’s worst rights violators, the
Colombian military.
In addition, the Administration has not yet
conducted a
review of U.S. drug policy in the Andean region that accounts for the
failure
of supply-side policies to have any measurable, long-term impact on the
price,
purity and availability of cocaine in the United States. In any case,
the
international nature of drug trafficking requires a regional approach
that
builds consensus among the nations involved. The Administration should
use the
closing of the Manta base as an opportunity to re-direct resources
toward drug treatment
and prevention programs that actually work in reducing demand for
illegal
narcotics.
20For all these reasons, we urge you to take
the
following steps:
* Suspend negotiations for
expanded U.S.
military access or operations in Colombia, and initiate dialogue with
South
American leaders to address common security concerns in the region,
including
those related to trafficking in narcotics.
* Initiate a review of Colombia
policy that
puts a negotiated solution to the armed conflict and promotion of
respect for
human rights at the center of U.S. objectives.
* Urge President Obama to task
ONDCP
Director Gil Kerlikowske to conduct a review of U.S. drug policy that
seeks to
translate into concrete budget priorities his call for drugs to be
viewed as
“a public health crisis” rather than a “drug war.8 0
We look forward to your response to these
concerns and
requests.
Sincerely,
Cc: Dan Restrepo
Ambassador William Brownfield
Secretary of Defense Gates
##
Across the Americas
P.O. Box 268733 <-- new
Chicago, IL 60626-8733
773-938-1036 (phone and fax)
http://www.acrosstheamericas.org
info@acrosstheamericas.org
____________________
Action in Pennsylvania: Shut Down the Army
Experience
Center - September 12, 2009
Philadelphia teenagers enjoy "killing ragheads"
at the local mall.
Activists affiliated with several dozen groups
on the
east coast will descend on the Army Experience Center at Franklin Mills
Mall in
Philadelphia at 2:00 pm on Sat, Sep. 12, 2009.
Gun-toting youth as young as 13 have been heard
congratulating each other for "killing ragheads" and "wiping out
hajis," but the Army doesn't see it that way. “We want to give
people the opportunity to experience the Army for themselves, so they
have an
understanding of what soldiers do, and they can be proud of their
service,” explains Army Major Larry Dillard, Army Experience Center
Program Manager.
The Army has recently announced that the
Philadelphia
Pilot program has resulted in a decision to launch Experience Centers
across
the country. 140 new recruits have signed up through the $12 Million
center
since it opened last August.
Demonstrators are being encouraged to form
small affinity
groups and *enter the mall through one of several locations. Protesters
are
expected to express their outrage in creative, nonviolent ways. Several
hundred
are expected.
Protesters vow to return on September 12, 2009
See www.shutdowntheaec.net Contact Elaine
Brower
Elaine Brower 917-520-0767
mermaid423@aol.com or Pat Elder - 202-210-3467
patrickelder@verizon.net
-----------
Perhaps you too would like to sign and send
this letter
on.
Marlena Santoyo
-----Original Message-----
From: International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
[mailto:ijan@ijsn.net]
Sent: 2009 August 5 Wednesday 11:24 PM
To: marlsan@cavtel.net
Subject: ACTION ALERT: STOP LEONARD COHEN
CONCERT IN
ISRAEL
Please take 10 minutes to send a letter to
concert
endorser Amnesty International and sign an open letter to Leonard Cohen
ACTION 1: Tell Amnesty International that
Entertaining
Apartheid Israel Deserves No Amnesty!
ISSUED BY: The Palestinian Campaign for
the
Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), Adalah-NY: The
Coalition for
Justice in the Middle East, Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS
Call from
Within (Israel), British Committee for the Universities of Palestine
(BRICUP),
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Jews Against the
Occupation-NYC,
Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (UK), New York Campaign for the
Boycott of
Israel (NYCBI), New York City Labor Against the War, Palestine
Solidarity Campaign
(UK), US Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel
August 5, 2009
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and
Cultural
Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and groups around the world have been calling
for
months for musician Leonard Cohen to cancel his planned September
concert in
Israel. With the international community failing to take action to stop
Israeli
oppression of the Palestinian people, and inspired by the international
boycott
movement that helped bring an end to apartheid in South Africa,
Palestinian
civil society has launched calls for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
(BDS)
against Israel, including an academic and cultural boycott of Israel.
Ninety-three artists, writers and other cultural workers have signed
onto the
Palestinian cultural boycott call. Many dignitaries signed the "No
Reason
to Celebrate" pledge and refused to participate in any artistic or
literary event during Israel's year-long 60th anniversary celebrations.
Feeling the heat of the protests, Cohen and his
PR staff
tried to schedule a small concert in Ramallah to balance his concert in
Israel.
However, Palestinians rejected the Ramallah concert and any claimed
symmetry
between the occupying power and the people under occupation.
Now Cohen and his PR staff are trying to
whitewash the
concert in Israel by using Amnesty International USAs good name.
According to a
July 28th article in the Jerusalem Post, Amnesty International USA will
serve
as sponsor of a new fund. The fund will launder the money raised at
Cohens
concert in Israel by using it to finance programs for peace.
In response, sixteen groups and coalitions
issued a July
30th Open Letter to Amnesty International calling on Amnesty to be true
to its
values and immediately withdraw support for Leonard Cohens
ill-conceived
concert in Israel. The groups noted that by supporting Cohens concert,
Amnesty
International is undermining a successful effort by Palestinian and
international civil society to end Israel's occupation and other
violations of
international law and human rights principles. Amnesty International
also is
partnering in the initiative with Israeli institutions that undermine
peace,
including a bank directly involved in supporting Israeli settlement
construction. The only alleged Palestinian partner has announced it is
not
taking part.
TAKE ACTION
Please email Amnesty International, calling on
Amnesty to
withdraw from support for Cohens concert. Amnesty International is
recognized
by many as defending human rights worldwide, so please be respectful
and
courteous in your message.
You can write and email your own letter, or use
the
sample letter below and email it, or send an editable form letter via
the
website of the New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel:
http://boycottisraelnyc.org/category/629/tell-amnesty-international-entertaining-apartheid-israel-deserves-no-amnesty
Further below, for reference, is the full Open Letter to Amnesty
International.
-If you send your own email, please email your
letter to:
lcox@aiusa.org, cgoering@aiusa.org,
ZJanmohamed@aiusa.org,
ikhan@amnesty.org, ccordone@amnesty.org,
msmart@amnesty.org, drovera@amnesty.org
(Larry Cox, Executive Director of Amnesty
International
USA; Curt Goering, Senior Deputy Executive Director of Amnesty
International
USA; Zahir Janmohamed, Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North
Africa
at Amnesty International USA; Irene Khan, Amnesty International
Secretary
General; Claudio Cordone, Amnesty International (UK) Senior Director,
Malcolm
Smart, Amnesty International (UK) Middle East Director, Research and
Regional
Programs; Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International (UK) Researcher on
Israel and
the Occupied Palestinian Territories)
-If you email your own letter, please cc it
to:
noamnesty4israeliapartheid@gmail.com so
that we can keep track of the responses.
SAMPLE LETTER TO AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Dear Amnesty International,
I hold Amnesty Internationals worldwide work
for human
rights and international law in high esteem. For this reason, I was
very
troubled to learn that Amnesty International has agreed to manage a
fund that
will disburse the proceeds from Leonard Cohens planned concert in
Israel in
September. I call on Amnesty International to be true to your values,
distance
yourself from efforts to normalize Israels occupation and apartheid,
and
immediately withdraw support for Leonard Cohens ill-conceived concert
in Israel.
By supporting Cohens concert, Amnesty
International will
be subverting the worldwide movement to boycott Israel, a non-violent,
effective effort by Palestinian and international civil society to end
Israel's
violations of international law and human rights principles. Accepting
funds
from the proceeds of Cohens concert in Israel is the equivalent of
Amnesty
accepting tainted funds from a concert in Sun City in apartheid South
Africa.
Ninety-three artists, writers and other
cultural workers
have signed onto the Palestinian cultural boycott call. Many
dignitaries signed
the "No Reason to Celebrate" pledge and refused to participate in any
artistic or literary event during Israel's year-long 60th anniversary
celebrations.
In his protest resignation from Amnesty
International
over this issue, Irish author and composer, Raymond Deane, wrote:
"By assisting Cohen in his ruse to bypass this
boycott, Amnesty International is in fact taking a political stance, in
violation of the premise of political neutrality with which it so
regularly
justifies its failure to side unambiguously with the oppressed. Amnesty
is
telling us: resistance is futile, the voice of the oppressed is
irrelevant,
international humanitarian law is a luxury."
Furthermore, the Israeli partners in the
concert, the
Peres Center for Peace and Israel Discount Bank, actively hinder
efforts to
achieve a just peace. A columnist in Israels Haaretz Daily called the
Peres
Center for Peace patronizing and colonial organization that is in the
business
of training the Palestinian population to accept its inferiority and
prepare it
to survive under the arbitrary constraints imposed by Israel. According
to
research by Who Profits, a project of Israels Coalition of Women for
Peace,
Israel Discount Bank is deeply involved in supporting Israels
settlement
enterprise. Israeli settlements violate the very tenets of
international law
that Amnesty International works to uphold.
Finally, the only Palestinian organization
falsely
reported in the July 28th Jerusalem Post article as being a partner in
this
project, the Palestinian Happy Child Center, has confirmed that it is
not
taking part. There is no Palestinian organization participating in this
whitewash.
Thank you for your attention to this vital
human rights
issue. I look forward to learning of Amnesty Internationals withdrawal
of its
support for the Leonard Cohen concert in Israel.
Sincerely,
Your name
Your city and country of residence
____________________________________
ACTION 2: Sign letter to Leonard Cohen
OPEN LETTER TO LEONARD COHEN
from the International Jewish Anti-Zionist
Network
Dear Leonard Cohen,
4
August 2009
You have received many letters asking that you
boycott
Israel; and were sure that many of those who have written to you have
been,
like many of us, fans of yours since the 60s; and that we, and our
families,
know many of your songs word-for-word.
We were struck that you have said you loved the
great
poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca. Within months of
Lorcas
execution by the fascist nationalists, Franco called on Hitler and
Mussolini to
carry out the aerial bombing of Guernica (1937). In the years
following
the defeat of the Spanish movement more that 200,000 people were killed
by the
fascists, including in Nazi concentration camps.
There was always resistance the
experience of
anti-fascists from Spain, including Jewish fighters, who were
transported in
thousands to Nazi concentration camps, famously organized with other
prisoners
to sabotage, go-slow, escape, and if possible survive.
Read and sign the full letter here:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/IJAN_Leonard_Cohen/
__________________________
From: "D'Anne Davis"
<davis12838@yahoo.com>
Subject: Canadian Health Care
The Canadian Health care system is great!!
Super-doo. (If
everyone chips in . . . .)
Because of so much misleading info about it,
this
Canadian union sent a letter to :
Obama; Sebelius (Secretary of
Health), &
all members of Congress
(I just called the union; they verified
they had
composed and sent the letter.)
Dear Friends,
I am writing to you on behalf of the
340,000
members of the National Union of Public and General Employees (Canada)
about
the scurrilous misrepresentations of Canada and our single-payer health
system
in the debate over the future of health care in the United States.
. . . .
You need to know that an objective
examination of
the evidence reveals that Canada’s single-payer health system is the
triumph of values and economics.
Our system speaks volumes about
the
character of our nation. It provides all Canadians with equal access to
care on
the basis of need, not wealth or privilege or status. Previous
generations
understood that sickness doesn’t discriminate and they made the
collective moral decision that health care shouldn’t discriminate
either.
It was a courageous initiative by visionary men and women that changed
us as a
nation and cemented our role as one of the world’s compassionate
societies. We will always defend the proud legacy we have inherited
from
previous generations of Canadians.
. . . .
[O]ur single-payer system is, quite simply, a
good and
sensible idea that serves Canadians extremely well. . . . .
When it comes to health outcomes, on
almost every
critical measure, whether it is life expectancy rates, infant mortality
rates,
or potential years of lost life, Canada rates much better than the U.S.
and
we’re among the best in the world. . . . .[A] very strong majority of
Canadians who use the system are highly satisfied with the quality and
standard
of care they receive.
In terms of controlling costs, health
spending in
Canada is on par with most countries in the Western world and it’s
substantially lower than in the U.S. And yet we devote a smaller
portion of
Gross Domestic Product to health care today than we did over a decade
ago.
It’s totally unthinkable to Canadians to experience bankruptcy due to
medical bills, as do over one million Americans every year. Unlike in
the U.S.,
not a single Canadian who is unemployed has lost the ability to access
health
care during the current economic recession.
In addition, our single-payer system
provides both
small and large businesses in Canada with a clear competitive
advantage.
Employers don’t have to provide basic health care for their workers
– our single-payer system does that. Our businesses also enjoy the
benefits of a healthier and more productive workforce thanks to our
universal
system. Unlike in the U.S. where basic health care is a major source of
labour
relations strife, it’s hardly an issue at the bargaining table in
Canada.
We also enjoy greater labour mobility because workers who don’t have to
worry about losing health benefits are more willing and able to switch
jobs and
move to where the work is.
Finally, what you’re being told about
government-run health care with patients suffering and dying on wait
lists is
nothing but lies. No need for emergency or urgent care is ever
neglected in
Canada. If your doctor says you need the care urgently, you get it,
period.
Moreover, Statistics Canada reports that the median wait time for
elective
surgery is four weeks and the median wait time for diagnostic imaging
like MRIs
is three weeks. And contrary to popular myth, we’re free to choose
whatever doctor we want. And all decisions about care and treatment are
left to
patients and their doctors – there’s no interference by the
government or private insurance companies.
An objective review of the evidence shows
that
Canada’s single-payer system has consistently delivered affordable,
timely, accessible, comprehensive and high-quality care to the
overwhelming
majority of Canadians on the basis of need, not wealth. It has also
contributed
to our international competitiveness and the productivity of our
workforce.
Times of great need, we are told, are the
times
when true leaders emerge and display the ability to separate fact from
fiction
and the courage to set aside political agendas for the sake of the
common good.
The challenge facing health care reform in the U.S. demands that kind
of
ability and courage from each of you.
I would be pleased to speak or meet with
you at
anytime, or if you’re interested we could arrange a “study
mission” to Canada, to ensure you have an accurate picture of the
benefits and popularity of Canada’s most cherished social program.
Please
do not hesitate to contact my office.
Sincerely,
James Clancy
National President
____________________________
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