INDEPENDENT NEWS

Is Bush Guilty Of Crimes Against Humanity?

Published: Fri 24 Mar 2006 01:44 PM
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IS BUSH GUILTY OF WAR CRIMES AND CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY?
THE EVIDENCE IS IN... THE FINAL VERDICT WILL BE RELEASED SOON...
The Bush Crimes Commission is launching a nation-wide campus tour this week, starting at UC Berkeley -- Speaking the Unspeakable: Is the Bush Administration Guilty of War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity? This is a tour of prominent whistleblowers, eye-witnesses, victims and experts, including excerpts of testimony on video that reveal the stark reality of the Bush Administrations' war crimes and crimes against humanity -- acts that, by their scale or nature, shock the conscience of humankind.
This is a tour of truth tellers. To quote Michael Ratner from this second session: "And so, as [Bertrand] Russell said then, we say today: we are putting the Bush administration on trial. We investigate in order to expose; we document in order to indict; we arouse consciousness in order to create mass resistance. ... Our country and our world are at a tipping point. Tipping toward permanent war, the end of human rights, and the impoverishment and death of millions. We still have a chance, an opportunity to stop this slide into chaos. But it is up to us."
It IS up to us. Your assistance is needed to make this tour possible. This spring we are focusing on the Bay Area, Boston, New York, Los Angeles, DC and possibly the Atlanta area. This is an opportunity to bring this evidence to an audience that urgently needs to be part of this discussion.
* HELP BUILD THIS TOUR. Send in or write to your contacts in colleges and universities.
* Help with publicity for this tour.
* If you can type, contact the National Office (commission@nion.us or 212-941-8086) to help with transcription of the first session of the Commission.
* If you can edit video, please contact us.
* And especially, make your financial contribution on line at www.nion.us/NSOC/sign.htm or send your check payable to Not In Our Name SOC and mail to Not In Our Name SOC, 305 West Broadway #199, NY, NY 10012. We need $2,000 right away to finish producing DVDs of the testimony.
Thank you.
Janet Yip for The Bush Crimes Commission
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Below is a sample of the powerful testimony presented at the Commission. This is an excerpt from Vanessa Brocato's testimony on Indictment #4 Global HIV/AIDS and Reproductive Rights policies, especially the genocidal effects of imposing abstinence-only in the midst of an AIDS pandemic. Vanessa is an International Policy Associate for SIECUS and author of SIECUS PEPFAR [the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief] Country Profiles: Focusing In on Prevention and Youth:
"Though the abstinence-only until marriage programs have been funded in the U.S. since 1981, and have been the focal point of domestic policy, since Bush entered office in 2000, the Bush Administration has the gall to claim in the media and in policy documents, that the PEPFAR prevention strategy is based on the Uganda model. Uganda saw a significant decline in HIV prevention rates and many people are interested in replicating and scaling up this successful approach to prevention. Unfortunately, whatever that approach may have been has been obscured by ideological and political battling. By claiming the approach is based on the Uganda model, the Administration is attempting, of course, to avoid criticism that this is his western initiative being foisted upon developing nations.
"But interestingly, under this ostensibly indigenous approach, funds to deliver abstinence-only until marriage programs go to mainly U.S. based conservative organizations or local organizations with ties to U.S. groups or ties to the U.S. Government. I don't want to misrepresent, there are some local organizations receiving funds, and some HIV/AIDS organizations that used to do comprehensive prevention work, but are now turning to an abstinence-only approach just to receive really badly needed funds. In other cases, the Bush Administration is able to tap into local Christian fundamentalist movements to both implement and support an abstinence-only policy.
"The few organizations with contracts with USAID that predate PEPFAR, which are trying to maintain their comprehensive programming, are now coming under attack by the most conservative elements of our Congress. Their funding is threatened, even if they follow abstinence guidelines, because they are not considered morally capable, sufficiently ideologically in sync, to provide what proponents call, authentic abstinence education.
"PEPFAR has the ominous potential of making large scale impact. And we already have evidence of the U.S. Government's influence derailing good public programming and policy. In Uganda, the Bush Administration has played a major role in reversing the country's HIV prevention approach. The main program for information on sexuality and HIV prevention in Uganda is the Presidential Initiative on AIDS Strategy for Communication to Youth, also called PIASCY, which was launched in 2002. With the President's leadership, a team of stakeholders created educational materials for youths in elementary schools that promoted concepts, such as basic information about sexual health, information on resisting peer pressure to engage in sexual activity, condom use, and human rights. The materials were the basis for monthly HIV/AIDS related assemblies in Uganda's primary schools. PEPFAR support for PIASCY now includes assistance with the development, revision, and distribution of the PIASCY materials. But U.S. support
Read Vanessa's full testimony on line at www.bushcommission.org/Text/Brocato.htm.
ENDS

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