NOT IN OUR NAME
As it becomes
increasingly clear that the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq was
unjustified and sold to us on false pretenses, and that thousands of
detainees around the world are being held with no regard for due process or
international law, let it not be said that the people of the United States
silently acquiesced to these shameful actions. George Bush and the
officials in his Administrations responsible for these abuses do not speak
for us. They do not represent us. They do not act in our name.
The Downing Street Memo
describes a meeting that took place between British Prime Minister Tony
Blair and other high ranking officials in July of 2002. It states that
George Bush had already “made up his mind to take military action” against
Saddam Hussein by that time, and that American “intelligence and facts were
being fixed around the policy” of invasion. If this is true, then the Bush
Administration was engaged in a deliberate attempt to mislead Congress and
the people of the United States about the reasons for invading Iraq.
In so doing, they did not act in our name. The Downing Street Memo can be
viewed at
http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/.
Amnesty International recently
released a report titled “Guantanamo and beyond: the continuing
pursuit of unchecked executive power.” The report estimates that some
70,000 people have been detained by our government outside of the United
States during the “war on terror”, of which only four have been charged for
trial. To view the report, visit
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR510632005. Detainees have
been subjected to shocking treatment while in custody, as evidenced by the
photos taken at Abu Ghraib prison, and several detainees have died during
interrogation. Yet no independent prosecutor has yet carried out an
investigation to determine all those responsible for this widespread
flouting of national and international law. In attempting to evade this
issue, the Bush Administration does not act in our name.
IT IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY to
raise our voices to stop the Bush regime from continuing to abuse its
power. We believe history will judge us sharply should we fail to act
decisively. We therefore make the following calls for action:
- We call on George Bush to answer the questions posed by Congressman
John Conyers concerning the Downing Street Memo (see
http://www.johnconyers.com/.)
If George Bush refuses
to answer these questions candidly, we call on Congress to begin
impeachment proceedings against him.
We call on Attorney
General Alberto Gonzales to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate
high level responsibility for the torture and abuse of detainees in the
“War on Terror”.
Finally, we call on the
media, including <insert name of newspaper in which ad appears>, to
investigate and report vigorously on all Bush Administration abuses of
power, particularly those related to the invasion and occupation of Iraq
and detainee abuse.
