From jad@ckuxb.att.com Ukn Jan 28 17:49:06 1993 Received: from att-out.att.com by css.itd.umich.edu (5.67/2.2) id AA03000; Thu, 28 Jan 93 17:49:03 -0500 Message-Id: <9301282249.AA03000@css.itd.umich.edu> To: pauls@css.itd.umich.edu Date: Thu, 28 Jan 93 17:44:55 EST From: jad@ckuxb.att.com Status: RO X-Status: Article 19757 of alt.conspiracy: Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy,alt.activism,alt.society.civil-liberty,alt.individualism,alt.censorship,misc.headlines,soc.culture.usa,misc.activism.progressive Subject: Part 12, Within America's Soul, Hitler is Victorious Message-ID: <1993Jan27.002834.9087@mont.cs.missouri.edu> Followup-To: alt.conspiracy Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu Keywords: Within America's Soul, Hitler is Victorious Sender: news@mont.cs.missouri.edu Nntp-Posting-Host: pencil.cs.missouri.edu Organization: UVA. FREE Public Access UNIX! Approved: map@pencil.cs.missouri.edu Lines: 145 Working with Ramsey Clark in opposing Bush's Persian Gulf War, attorney Michael Ratner composed the following legal declaration: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * INITIAL LEGAL MATERIALS The modern law of war and peace is generally agreed to begin with the publication in 1625 of De Jure Belli ac Pacis by Hugo Grotius. Grotius believed the care to preserve society was the source of all law. He recognized the primary importance of preventing war. Still, with war the common condition of the Europe in which he lived, he sought to identify rules of war which would limit its horror. While for many the idea of rules of war is a contradiction, it is such rules that international law struggles to establish in its care to preserve society until war itself is abolished. Central to all modern efforts to limit war has been the desire to protect civilians, non combatants and resources and facilities essential to their survival. With the growth of technology in warfare, efforts have been made for over 150 years to prohibit or restrict uses of weapons of mass destruction and those causing unusually cruel or painful death or injury. An essential standard throughout the rules of armed conflict is the prohibition of the use of excessive force and affliction of wanton death or destruction. The concept of proportionality, that force be carefully limited to that required to defend or achieve legitimate military ends, is integrated into the laws of war in all its applications. For purposes of identifying criminal acts in the planning, preparation and execution of the Gulf conflict, a handful of basic laws are most important. Sections 22 and 23 of the regulations annexed to Hague Convention No. IV, Respecting Laws and Customs of War on Land (1907), for example, establish the principles that the means and manner of waging war are not unlimited and that weapons causing unnecessary suffering are prohibited. The Charter of the United Nations is basic to the hope for peace. It is the appropriate place to begin any legal analysis of crimes against peace and war crimes in our times. U.S. military service manuals provide Rules of Engagement for U.S. Forces taken largely from customary international law and the developing laws of armed conflicts. The United States Constitution, and particularly, Article I, section 8 and Article II, section 2, allocate powers over war and peace between the Congress and the President. Numerous federal criminal statutes proscribe activity affecting peace or prohibited in war. There are many other Covenents, Conventions, treaties, regulations, and draft codes that are important to a complete analysis. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is an important statement because a respect for the rights of others is necessary to any real peace. The texts and partial texts of three key and binding sources of international law are set forth as follows: I. United Nations Charter pp II. Principles of the Nuremberg Tribunal pp III. Geneva Conventions pp I. CHARTER OF THE UNITED NATIONS WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women, and of nations large and small, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,... Article 2 The Organization and its Members, in pursuit of the Purposes stated in Article 1, shall act in accordance with the following Principles: l. The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its members. * * * 3. All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered. * * * 4. All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations. Chapter Vl of the Charter is devoted to Pacific Settlement of Disputes. Its Article 33 states: Chapter Vl PACIFIC SETTLEMENT OF DISPUTES Article 33 l. The parties to any dispute, the continuance of which is likely to endanger the maintenance of internation- al peace and sucurity, shall, first of all, seek a solution by negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice. 2. The Security Council shall, when it deems necessary, call upon the parties to settle their disputes by such means. [JD: You can help Ramsey Clark in his struggle for justice by calling his International Action Center in New York City at (212) 633-6646.] (to be continued) * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The American Public is evidently in dire need of the truth, for when the plutocracy feeds us sweet lies in place of the bitter truth that would evoke remedial action by the People, then we are in peril of sinking inextricably into despotism. So, please post the episodes of this ongoing series to computer bulletin boards, and post hardcopies in public places, both on and off campus. The need for concerned people, alerting their neighbors to overshadowing dangers, still exists, as it did in the era of Paul Revere. That need is as enduring as society itself. John DiNardo