Friday, January 20, 2006

Crimes Against Humanity IS the Issue!


January 20, 2006

Friends,

I'm writing to let you know about an exciting and important event--the final session of the International Commission of Inquiry into Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration. This session will be held on Jan 20-22, this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The first two days, the session will be at Riverside Church (see details below), and the final day it will be at Columbia Law School. It will hear testimony from government whistle blowers, experts and eyewitnesses speaking about the war and occupation in Iraq, torture and indefinite detention, attacks on global public health, destruction of the global environment and the lethal nature of the Bush administration to Hurricane Katrina. At this peoples' tribunal, people who know will speak the unspeakable--that the many foul things the Bush administration is doing aren't the result of well meaning mistakes or inept bungling. That they come down to crimes against humanity and war crimes!

Participants will include: former Abu Ghraib commander, Gen. Karpinski, former UN weapons inspector, Scott Ritter, attorneys for detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Detention center, Iraqi journalist, Dahr Jamail. The Katrina session will feature survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Attorney Chokwe Lumumba will head this prosecution team. The judges at the session will include South African author, Dennis Brutus, and former US diplomat, Ann Wright. Harry Belafonte will make opening remarks on Friday night.

The content of this tribunal can play an important role today. It can help give shape and further impetus to the debate that's raging in the US and around the world about how to look at the Bush administration and what to do in response to its actions. And it has added significance because of the times it's occurring in. Coinciding with the confirmation vote on another fascist Bush is putting on the Supreme Court, the exposure of Bush's domestic spying program, court cases over secret camps, torture and indefinite detention. Also this weekend, as controversy rages over New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin having said that his city should be a majority Black one, this tribunal will present witnesses who will make clear that Bush & co are looking at Hurricane Katrina as an opportunity to drive Black people out of New Orleans.

All this points to the danger Bush & Company pose to people around the world and in the US as well. And it underscores the critical importance of the kind of testimony that will be presented at this tribunal. I want to especially call to your attention the session on an indictment of the Bush administration for the lethal nature of the Bush response to Hurricane Katrina on Sunday at 3 PM at the Columbia Law School. We will hear from survivors of the hurricane, from experts on flood control and the environment and from activists, who will lay bare how the actions and inactions of Bush & Company caused massive suffering and loss of life before, during and after Hurricane Katrina.

I urge you to spread the word on the Bush Crimes Commission to everyone interested in justice and everyone who wants to know what's really going on. The Commission's sessions this weekend are as follows:
Friday, 5:30-9:00 PM at Riverside Church, 91 Claremont Avenue entrance at 119th Street, Manhattan. (#1 IRT to 116th or 125th Stations.)

Saturday, 10:15 AM - 5:00 PM at Riverside Church (see address above).

Sunday, 1:00 PM - 6:00 PM at Columbia Law School, 116th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, Manhattan. (#1 IRT to 116th Street Station.)

For more information, please go to www.bushcommission.org.

In Struggle

Carl Dix, national spokesperson, Revolutionary Communist Party
----------------------------
Crimes Against Humanity IS the issue

Jan 20-21 The Riverside Church
Jan. 22 Columbia University Law School
Friday 6:00 Keynote by Harry Belafonte
On January 20, 21, and 22, 2006 an unprecedented line-up of witnesses will present their evidence before the International Commission on Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration.
The Commission hearings will be held at The Riverside Church and the Columbia University Law School in Manhattan
The proceedings will powerfully raise the central issue of our day, the issue those in power have declared out of order and out of bounds: Is the Administration of George W. Bush guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity? This act of conscience, defiance and truth can change the way millions see this administration, and help reshape the entire debate about the Bush administration.
Testimony from internationally-known experts and whistle-blowers, including
former commander of Abu Ghraib prison Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, former British ambassador Craig Murray (speaking for the first time in the U.S., and quoted January 16 by Al Gore), ex-UN arms inspector Scott Ritter, and many others, will be delivered before a distinguished jury of conscience.
Go to www.bushcommission.org for the full schedule and to register online.
FRIDAY EVENING and SATURDAY: The Riverside Church , 91 Claremont Avenue , Manhattan
SUNDAY, January 22, 1 - 5 pm, Columbia University Law School, 116th Street & Amsterdam Avenue, Manhattan
The indictments allege war crimes and crimes against humanity authorized by the Bush Administration in relation to:

1) Wars of Aggression, particular reference to Iraq and Afghanistan;
2) Torture and Indefinite Detention ;
3) Destruction of the Global Environment, distortion of science and obstruction of efforts to stem global warming;
4) Attacks on Global Public Health and Reproductive Rights , potentially genocidal effects of enforcing abstinence- only, global gag rule; and
5) Failure of Bush administration, despite foreknowledge, to protect life during and after Hurricane Katrina.
The commission was organized by the Not in Our Name Statement of Conscience and is endorsed by: Center for Constitutional Rights, National Lawyers Guild, After Downing Street.org and others, including Former Sen. James Abourezk, former British MP Tony Benn, authors Gore Vidal and Howard Zinn, poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and actor Edward Asner.

www.bushcommission.org