<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.17037" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial" bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=role_document face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>
<DIV>
<DIV>This is a very interesting article!</DIV>
<DIV>Charlie</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 12/1/2010 10:16:51 A.M. Central Standard Time,
david@davidswanson.org writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>Why New
Evidence Demands End to Wars<BR>With Wikileaks Revelations, Peace Community
Redoubles Demand for End to Wars and Voices Support for Whistleblowers<BR>
<DIV class=moz-text-html lang=x-western>
<P class=MsoNormal>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.<BR></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>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."<SPAN>
</SPAN>Secret war planning, secret wars, and lies about wars have become
routine.<SPAN> </SPAN>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.<BR></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>We have long known that the war on terrorism was
increasing, rather than diminishing, terrorism.<SPAN> </SPAN>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.<SPAN> </SPAN>He has urged the United States
to implant microchips in prisoners released from Guantanamo.<SPAN>
</SPAN>And he has urged the United States to illegally and aggressively attack
Iran.<SPAN> </SPAN>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.<SPAN> </SPAN>We see what sort of wars our allies urge
on our presidents. </P>
<P class=MsoNormal>We learn that while dictators urge war, other branches of
the same governments, the people, and the evidence weigh against it.
<SPAN> </SPAN>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.</P>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.<SPAN> </SPAN>The
secrecy that permits this behavior must be broken if the United States'
approach to the world is to change.<SPAN> </SPAN>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.
<P class=MsoNormal>While other countries may offer residency and protection to
Wikileaks' Julian Assange, it is the United States that has most benefitted
from his work.<SPAN> </SPAN>We encourage U.S. cities to offer him
sanctuary.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal>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.<SPAN> </SPAN>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.<SPAN> </SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>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.<SPAN> </SPAN>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.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal>The undersigned express our gratitude to those doing the
job a representative government and an independent media are each supposed to
do.<SPAN> </SPAN>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.<SPAN> </SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>We support the protest of our current wars planned for
December 16<SUP>th</SUP>, 10 a.m., at the White House.<BR></P>Signed,<BR>Medea
Benjamin<BR>Leslie Cagan<BR>Tim Carpenter<BR>Gael Murphy<BR>Cindy
Sheehan<BR>David Swanson<BR>Debra Sweet<BR>Kevin Zeese<BR></DIV>Ann
Wright<BR><BR><BR>
<DIV class=moz-signature>-- <BR>
<META http-equiv=Content-Style-Type content=text/css>
<META content="Cocoa HTML Writer" name=Generator>
<META content=949.54 name=CocoaVersion>
<STYLE type=text/css>
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Times New Roman}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Times New Roman; color: #001af9}
span.s1 {text-decoration: underline}
</STYLE>
<P class=p1>David Swanson is the author of "War Is A Lie"<SPAN class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN></P>
<P class=p1><A title=http://warisalie.org/ href="http://warisalie.org/">http://warisalie.org</A></P>
<P class=p2><SPAN class=s1><A title=http://davidswanson.org/ href="http://davidswanson.org/">http://davidswanson.org</A></SPAN></P>
<P class=p2><SPAN class=s1><A title=http://warisacrime.org/ href="http://warisacrime.org/">http://warisacrime.org</A></SPAN></P>
<P class=p2><SPAN class=s1><A title=http://facebook.com/pages/David-Swanson/297768373319 href="http://facebook.com/pages/David-Swanson/297768373319">http://facebook.com/pages/David-Swanson/297768373319</A></SPAN></P>
<P class=p2><SPAN class=s1><A title=http://twitter.com/davidcnswanson href="http://twitter.com/davidcnswanson">http://twitter.com/davidcnswanson</A></SPAN></P>
<P class=p2><SPAN class=s1><A title=http://youtube.com/afterdowningstreet href="http://youtube.com/afterdowningstreet">http://youtube.com/afterdowningstreet</A></SPAN></P></DIV><BR><BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>