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THE GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
MEDIA RELEASE
For immediate release:
Monday, February 10, 2003
Contacts:
Nancy Allen, Media Coordinator, 207-326-4576, nallen@acadia.net
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, scottmclarty@yahoo.com
Mark Dunlea, Chair of the Green Party of New York State, 518-286-3411, Dunleamark@aol.com
GREENS CHALLENGE POWELL'S SPEECH AT THE U.N.
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Powell offered no evidence that proves the need
for invasion, say Greens; Powell speech shows that the U.S.
illegally concealed information from the U.N. inspectors; British
intelligence cited by Powell is now discredited.
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Green antiwar events in New York planned for
February 14 will urge the U.N. to oppose Bush's war; Greens to join
antiwar rallies across the US on February 15
WASHINGTON, DC -- "Nothing in Powell's speech
proved that the U.S. needs to launch an invasion of Iraq," said
John Halle, Green member of the New Haven, Connecticut Board of
Aldermen. "It's not news that Saddam is a lying dictator. What
Powell presented was evidence that Iraq must be watched and contained by
the U.S. in cooperation with other nations under the U.N. umbrella, with
sustained U.N. inspections."
Greens say that Secretary of State Colin Powell
presented no proof to the U.N. that Iraq was an imminent threat to the
U.S. or any other nation, or that Iraq even has the means to deliver any
weapons of mass destruction that Powell insists he possesses.
"Saddam already knows any attack he makes will
draw massive retaliation on Iraq," added Santa Monica, California
Mayor pro tem Kevin McKeown, a member of the national committee of the
Green Party of the United States. "He has no motivation to use his
weapons unless he is invaded, leaving him nothing to lose. U.S. military
intervention for a regime change not only exposes our soldiers to
desperate Iraqi retaliations, it threatens increased anti-American
terrorism worldwide and unneeded burdens on a domestic economy already
struggling with challenges in education and social justice."
McKeown has placed an item against the war on the
Santa Monica City Council agenda, and will carry the Green position
against the war to a 'Peace at the Beach' rally on Saturday, February
15, one of many antiwar events planned by United for Peace and Justice
and other groups for the Los Angeles area, New York, and other cities
that day. The Green Party of New York State and the national party have
planned the following events for February 14 in New York :
Green Party press conference: Friday, February 14,
noon to 1 p.m. in the Presbyterian Conference Room on the 7th floor at
777 UN Plaza, SW corner at East 44th Street and First Avenue.
Speakers, other details to be announced.
Green Speakout Against the War in Iraq: Friday,
February 14, 7 to 10 p.m. at St. Mary's Church in Harlem, 514 West 126
Street (at Amsterdam Avenue). At the press conference, Green Party
officials will present the national and global Green positions against
the war and will call for the U.N. to oppose Bush's preemptive invasion.
Party members cite troubling questions raised by Powell's speech before
the U.N. on February 5:
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The evidence presented by Powell of Saddam's
alleged development of weapons was withheld from the U.N. inspectors
when it was first uncovered a few months ago. U.N. Resolution 1441
required that this intelligence should have been shared and supplied
to the inspectors so they could carry out their mission.
"The U.S., in violation of the resolution, may have held this
information under wraps for later use in order to discredit the
inspections and justify an invasion," said Beth Moore Haines,
Media Coordinator for the Green Party of California.
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Some of Powell's credibility has been undermined
by revelations that the British intelligence dossier he praised and
cited was based on information that has long been publicly
available, with intelligence as much as 12 years old. 11 pages of
the 19-page dossier reproduce material plagiarized from an article
by Ibrahim al-Marashi, an American grad student, and published in
September, 2002 in the Middle East Review of International Affairs,
and articles by Sean Boyne and Ken Gause that appeared in Jane's
Intelligence Review in 1997 and in November, 2002. Some of the
original language has allegedly been altered to suggest that Iraq
has been assisting terrorist groups.
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'The plagiarism scandal suggests that, like the
British dossier, the Powell speech was a cut-and-paste propaganda
job," said Jim Maceda, Treasurer for the Green Party of New
York State. "It's possible that the growing embarrassment
to the Blair government might lead Bush to launch the invasion
earlier, in order to knock criticism of Powell's presentation out of
the news."
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Powell noted that Ansar al-Islam, the armed
Islamists linked with al-Qaeda, hold territory in Iraq. But Ansar
al-Islam is located in a U.S.-protected, autonomous Kurdish zone in
northern Iraq, outside of Saddam's authority. "If Abu
Musab Zarqawi's camps in Iraq are connected to al-Qaeda, why didn't
the U.S. already attack them as part of the War on Terrorism after
September 11, 2001?," asked Carl Romanelli of the Green Party
of Pennsylvania. "It's as if the U.S. preserved Ansar
al-Islam for later use for leverage over Iraq and an excuse for an
invasion."
Powell offered no proof that Baghdad has had any
control over or involvement with Zarqawi's network, or over any transfer
of funds or weapons to Ansar al-Islam," added Texas Green Robbie
Franklin and former Treasurer of the nationa party.
"Ansar al-Islam's stated mission is to overthrow
Saddam's secular government and replace it with a Muslim theocracy, not
to make friends with Saddam. Powell also neglected to mention that some
U.S. allies, such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia, have also harbored al-Qaeda
leaders. This so-called evidence, along with reports from
anonymous and unverifiable sources and some vague aerial photographs and
recorded conversations that can be subject to various interpretations,
amounts to a possible 'Gulf of Tonkin' excuse for an invasion."
(In the Gulf of Tonkin incident, the Johnson
Administration fabricated a report of an attack on U.S. vessels in order
to expand the Vietnam War in 1964.)
Other Green news:
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Led by newly elected Green member David Segal,
the City Council of Providence, Rhode Island joined the list of
cities, now numbering 69, that have passed resolutions against the
war on Iraq.
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Greens are urging President Bush and Congress to
repudiate Rep. Howard Coble, chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on
Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, for his remarks justifying
internment of Americans based on their ethnicity, specifically the
confinement of Japanese Americans during World War II. "Coble's
comments are especially troubling at a time of increased ethnic
profiling, such as the F.B.I.'s plan to count mosques," said
Brandon Campos Lacy, chair of the Lavender Caucus of the Green Party
of the United States.
MORE INFORMATION
The Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org
National office: 1314 18th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Green Party of New York State
http://www.gpnys.org
Green Party antiwar mobilization page
http://www.gp.org/peace.html
United for Peace & Justice
http://www.unitedforpeace
U.S. city councils that have passed resolutions
against the war on Iraq
http://www.citiesforpeace.org
search: irq, fpol, pce, trr
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