« Latin America’s Twenty First Century Capitalism and the US EmpireTell Alan Simpson To Just Shut Up »

Where to go from Wikileaks? The Peace Movement Responds

December 3rd, 2010

Cindy Sheehan

Oakland, Ca: While only a tiny fraction of the U.S. diplomatic cables scheduled for publication by Wikileaks have thus far been made available, some conclusions can already be drawn. These cables and the Iraq and Afghan War Diaries provide an opportunity for Americans to see our government for what it is.

Our government is seen here as controlling a global military and espionage empire that impacts every region of the globe and deceives its own population. Secrecy, spying, and hostility have infected our entire government, turning the diplomatic corps into an arm of the CIA and the military, just as the civilian efforts in Afghanistan are described by Richard Holbrooke, who heads them up, as "support for the military." Secret war planning, secret wars, and lies about wars have become routine. The United States is secretly and illegally engaged in a war in Yemen and has persuaded that nation's government to lie about it. The United States has supported a coup in Honduras and lied about it.

We have long known that the war on terrorism was increasing, rather than diminishing, terrorism. These leaks show Saudi Arabia to be the greatest sponsor of terrorism, and show that nation's dictator, King Abdullah, to be very close to our own government in its treatment of prisoners. He has urged the United States to implant microchips in prisoners released from Guantanamo. And he has urged the United States to illegally and aggressively attack Iran. Congress should immediately block what would be the largest weapons sale in U.S. history, selling this country $60 billion in weapons. And Congress should drop any idea of "updating" the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force to permit presidents to unconstitutionally launch more wars. We see what sort of wars our allies urge on our presidents.

We learn that while dictators urge war, other branches of the same governments, the people, and the evidence weigh against it. We learn from a cable from last February that Russia has refuted U.S. claims that Iran has missiles that could target Europe. We learn from September 2009 that the United States and Britain planned to pressure Yukiya Amano, the then incoming head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, to produce reports suggesting Iranian nuclear developments, whether or not merited by the facts, and that National Security Adviser Gen. Jim Jones proposed the propaganda strategy of baselessly tying Iran's nuclear program to North Korea's.

Much of the pressure for war appears to come from within the United States, whose representatives treat the entire world as a hostile enemy to be spied on, lied to, and exploited. The secrecy that permits this behavior must be broken if the United States' approach to the world is to change. Those who have helped to fulfill President Obama's campaign promise of transparency must be protected from his vengeance, while those who have abused positions of diplomatic trust to advance agendas of espionage and war planning must be held accountable.

While other countries may offer residency and protection to Wikileaks' Julian Assange, it is the United States that has most benefitted from his work. We encourage U.S. cities to offer him sanctuary.

Our Department of Justice has granted immunity for aggressive war, kidnapping, torture, assassination, and warrantless spying, while pursuing the criminal prosecution of Bradley Manning for allegedly leaking materials to Wikileaks. Were our government to indict Assange or support the extradition or rendition of Assange from anywhere in the world to Sweden, while maintaining that his work and not the Pentagon's has endangered us, our nation's moral standing would reach a new low.

Our government should cease any actions it is taking to prosecute Julian Assange for absurd criminal charges, to pressure Sweden to do so, or to sabotage Wikileaks' servers.Coverups of leaks have a history in Washington of backfiring in the form of larger leaks and scandals. Our State Department should focus on diplomacy and mutually beneficial partnerships with the world community.

The undersigned express our gratitude to those doing the job a representative government and an independent media are each supposed to do. We demand an end to all overt and covert wars, a ban on the use of State Department employees and contractors in spying or warfare, and a full investigation of the facts revealed in the Wikileaks cables.

-###-

Signed,

Cindy Sheehan Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox

Medea Benjamin CODEPINK

Leslie Cagan
Tim Carpenter Progressive Democrats of America
Gael Murphy United for Peace and Justice
David Swanson WarisaCrime.org
Debra Sweet World Can't Wait
Kevin Zeese Voters for Peace

Ann Wright Veterans for Peace

Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox is a blog and internet radio show.
www.CindySheehansSoapbox.com
www.CindySheehansSoapbox.blogspot.com

Contact Cindy at: Cindy@CindySheehansSoapbox.com

If you're looking for radical, your search has ended!

No feedback yet

Voices

Voices

  • By David Swanson, World BEYOND War I do see a problem with justifying the U.S. Civil War while recognizing the damage done by of regrettable dreams of vengeance... I wasn’t going to read The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates because I’m doing what I can to…
  • By Kathy Kelly, World BEYOND War The Biblical Book of Job chronicles a string of catastrophes relentlessly plaguing the main character, Job, who loses his prosperity, his home, his health, and his children. Eventually, an agonized Job curses his own…
  • LifeSiteNews The president-elect praised the former Democratic congresswomen and said she'll bring a 'fearless spirit' to the intelligence community as a member of his cabinet. President-elect Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he would nominate…
  • Paul Craig Roberts There’s many a slip between cup and lip I have been speaking with MAGA Americans and, as I suspected, there is little comprehension of the vast impediments to renewal. The swamp that Trump is to drain is entrenched and…
  • PDF's for Einstein, Dr. Rosaly M. C. Lopes, Darwin, Lorenzo Langstroth, Marie Curie, Shakespeare & Many More! by Tracy Turner Shakespeare, Curie, Orwell, Hemingway, Dostoevsky, Lopes, Einstein Dr. Rosaly Lopes Director of the Planetary Science…
  • RT.com Speaking just one day after the Republican candidate's US election victory, the Russian president explained Moscow's position on a range of global issues Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed pressing global issues at Sochi's annual Valdai…
  • The Pretender's Magic is their diversity in musical range. Mystifying the sultry blues of "Blue Sun" to the punk-infused anthems like "Brass in Pocket," the band slips into these heterogeneous grooves with greased skids. Chrissie's wide-ranging influences pair with The Pretenders, evolving while retaining core elements of its personality. The eclectic portfolio will consistently deliver a "new" live surprise. Sorry, but there is no raucous Lynyrd Skynyrd "Play Free Bird" here. Everybody has a favorite, many favorites. The diversity of the songs makes every new and old fan curious to learn more about one aspect or another of the band's expression.
  • By Joe Granville When the formula is calculated, it yields a very small probability—around 1.45 × 10⁻¹⁴, or 0.00014%. This result suggests that, mathematically, Trump's victory is extremely unlikely under these assumptions. A centrist in the Tea Party,…
  • by Ellen Brown Buncombe County North Carolina – damage after Hurricane Helene floods. NCDOTcommunications, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Asheville, North Carolina, is known for its historic architecture,…
  • By: Brett Redmayne-Titley "When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty." It is not inaccurate to determine that we, the remaining moral world, are in reality also Palestinian by metaphor. Likewise, we are all individually disenfranchised,…
November 2024
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
 << <   > >>
          1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30

  XML Feeds

powered by b2evolution
FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted articles and information about environmental, political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. This news and information is displayed without profit for educational purposes, in accordance with, Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law. Thepeoplesvoice.org is a non-advocacy internet web site, edited by non-affiliated U.S. citizens. editor
ozlu Sozler GereksizGercek Hava Durumu Firma Rehberi Hava Durumu Firma Rehberi E-okul Veli Firma Rehberi