SIGN online petition at iacenter.org/africa/libyawarpowersact to send messages to House and Senate Foreign Relations Committees, congressional leaders, the Obama administration, the U.N. Secretary-General, Security Council, General Assembly President and member states, and the national and international media. On May 19 the war against Libya reached its 60-day mark. On that date this criminal war will be in explicit violation of the War Powers Act.
The War Powers Act is a U.S. law that grew out of the struggle against the war in Vietnam. It requires a president involved in a military conflict lasting longer than 60 days to come before Congress for authorization to continue the war. Knowing that this war is immoral, illegal and based on lies, the Obama administration has refused to address the reasons behind initiating yet another war after years of death and destruction in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.
In the past 61 days of a war that was promoted as a "humanitarian intervention" to enforce a "no-fly zone," the U.S. and NATO have conducted more than 2,500 bombing missions. A May 13 NATO bombing killed 11 Islamic religious leaders and injured 47 other members of a highly publicized, unarmed religious peace delegation of 150 Imams and other Islamic leaders. The NATO command has acknowledged the attack occurred.
This was a deliberate, targeted massacre by U.S./NATO aircraft. The religious leaders were gathered to attempt a meeting of peace and reconciliation with the NATO-supported opposition. The attack occurred in the city of Brega, which is 500 miles east of Tripoli and close to the area under opposition control. Since time immemorial, in every country and culture, peace delegations, religious delegations and unarmed envoys traveling under white flags have been accorded respect and safe passage, especially in war zones.
U.S./NATO Command, with reconnaissance predator drones that are able to read a license on a car, knew exactly what this large, highly respected Islamic peace delegation was, where the delegates were staying and what their announced purpose was. This latest NATO airstrike is a most grievous war crime. It is an unprecedented new level of international lawlessness and it reveals a dangerous escalation of the war on Muslim people. It comes on top of the ongoing criminal assassination attempts on Col. Gadhafi that have already killed his son and three of his grandchildren.
NATO bombs have hit numerous civilian targets including the Libyan Down's Syndrome Society, a school that provided speech therapy, handicrafts and sports sessions for disabled children. NATO Planning Staff claim that "All NATO targets are military targets," And the New York Times reports that Gen. Sir David Richards, Britain's top military commander, is propsing that NATO target Libyan "infrastructure," including electrical power grids and fuel dumps, in government held areas. Such targeting would be an attack on the civilian population that would constitute a war crime according to the Geneva Conventions.
We believe the people of Libya, North Africa, the Middle East, the U.S. and the world deserve a debate on the need to immediately end this war. With the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression having a continued impact on the peoples of the U.S. and the world, we must stand up and demand the end to the bombings and other destabilization efforts against Libya, and all other forms of hostility against this African country.
We need money for jobs, housing, food, health care, and quality education -- not for war and destruction. Tell Congress, the White House and the corporate media that the illegal and criminal war on Libya must end now.
Stop the bombs! End the war!
SIGN online petition at iacenter.org/africa/libyawarpowersact
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