[casi] A last minute plea to CASI members--pls edorse and send CASI

[nagy <nagy@DELETETHISgwu.edu>]

Dear Alun et al.,

  I am comming to the conclusion that the deal struck with the devil by AI and
many of their ilk, is to attack the proximate cause of torture and other
attrocities, but underplay the underlying causes such as the lust for looting
the world and full specral dominance by empires such as  the U.S.

   The win for AI is that it is not hassled by the U.S.G., but the downside is
that AI  is never permitted (or self-censors itself ) to refrain from
sustained attack  on underlying causes if these are the policy of a super
power like the U.S. gov.

   Case in point, the ad campaign that AI  rightly directs at select  evil
dicttators while never hinting  that said dictators  were set up and are kept
in power by the U.S. gov.

   E.g., has AI  made a a high visibility "prisoner of conscience" of Rollings
and other members of the Int. Solidarity Team rotting in Israeli jails or
being kicked out of Isreal or being beaten,  or being denied entry into
Istrael for acting  nonviolently on the premeise that all people are entitled
to human rights, even Palestinians? Wonder if the  the horrific murder of the
woman run over by an armored Istrael gov. buldozer which then backed up and
ran her over a second time did not turn into a big deal at AI or similar big,
respectable gropus of its ilk. Am I wrong about all or any of this?
I hope so, but doubt it....

   The worse example of "worthy" vs "unworthy" victims is provided by  the
International  Holocaust Museum here in D.C., largely funded by the U.S.Gov.
IHM   mandate includes preventing genocide. the IHM has issued genocide alerts
and warnings, but never on the  impending 3rd genocide of Iraq  by US
government's  causual procrastination in permitting, contrary to Geneva, water
treatment plants running out of clorine in S. Iraq  in a matter of just a very
few days. This situation is particularly ghastly in view of the speculative
nature of IHM genocide alerts and warning on comparatively flimsy speculation
in the case of "worth" victims. This stands in stark contrast with the
depletion of chlorine which cause genocide on a grand scale and  was reported
even by the BBC as early as April (but not reported on since, if memory
serves).


    As usual, Bert raisis the urgent questions that are all too often ignored
by "respectable"  high profile intellectuals and their insitutes, tragiically
all to often  in my view, by  CASI itself.

   For an really original argument that U.S. policy on Iraq falls into a
special category that is not technically genocide because it is even  worse
than genocide, see Gordon's article in the Yale law journal re int.
law and justice.


 hanging on, mosty  out of a sense of ethic responsibilit a la Szilard to
hope,

Tom

  Please CASI contributers respond with your inate courage and compassion to ,
to describe and produce actions which can be quickly adopted to shame the
US/UK to do the right thing before yet another genocide "happens" in Iraq. To
quote another Brit(?), I swear it's not too late.


>===== Original Message From Alun Harford <alunharford@yahoo.com> =====
>--- Bert Gedin <gedinbert@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Dear Tom & List,
>>
>> It may be very useful to lobby Amnesty
>> International, esp. as you have
>> unique knowledge, in these matters. And for others
>> too. Personally, I have
>> reservations about AI. Whilst I certainly wouldn't,
>> as some dismiss the
>> organisation out of hand (I am a member), I really
>> do wonder if, re.
>> sanctions on Iraq, AI didn't keep an unduly low
>> profile. They would say, so
>> I believe, that sanctions were outside their remit.
><snip>
>They are far from being outside their remit!
>Amnesty International's vision is of a world in which
>every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined
>in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other
>international human rights standards.
>
>
>Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
>
>Article 3.
>Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security
>of person.
>
>Alun Harford
>
>__________________________________
>Do you Yahoo!?
>The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo.
>http://search.yahoo.com

Tom
Thomas J. Nagy, Ph.D.
Assoc. Prof. of Expert Systems
George Washington Univeristy Sch. of Business & Public Mgt.
Washington, D.C. 20052
home.gwu.edu/~nagy


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