JustPeace#10

Hot News

• Green MPs boycotted the state luncheon for Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Monday March 10, and joined the protests against him instead. They also asked Helen Clark to pass on a letter to him that outlines why Australia should not be supporting an attack on Iraq. Read
  
  the letter
  
  .

Hot Action

• DEMONSTRATE your opposition to the war in CHRISTCHURCH, Saturday March 15.
  
  The march leaves from outside Canterbury Museum, Rolleston Ave, at 2 p.m. and goes to Cathedral Square.
• JOIN THE GLOBAL CANDLELIGHT PEACE VIGIL on Sunday, March 16, 7 p.m. – in your home town. Check the
  
  Peace Movement Aotearoa site
  
  for what’s on where. If there is nothing yet organised in your town it’s not too late to organise it! Just find a good site (e.g. a church on a main road), and spread the word. For what is happening globally go to
  
  Global Vigil
  
  .
• RALLY in AUCKLAND on Saturday March 22, 12 noon, QE II Square.
  
  More information from
  
  Global Peace and Justice Auckland
  
  .
• ANTIWAR ACTION KITS available now! Order yours from
  
  
  tim [dot] hannah
  
  [at]
  
  parliament [dot] govt [dot] nz
  
  
  (Tim Hannah)
  
  
  . These handy kits contain a tip sheet on how to get active against the war, a guide to antiwar information and action resources, an antiwar letter-writing guide, a NO WAR! sticker, antiwar leaflets and cards to give away, antiwar speeches, and more. The kits are free, but donations (cheques made out to Green Party – JustPeace) are welcome so that we can produce more publicity materials and spread the peace message ever wider.

Hot Analysis

• How credible are the Bush administration’s claims of an ”imminent threat” from Iraq? In a report entitled ”Target Iraq: Imminent Threat Analysis” Denver University professor of International Studies Alan Gilbert totally debunks the Administration’s claims that Iraq poses an imminent threat because it has links with al-Qaeda, or nuclear weapons, or weapons of mass destruction delivery systems. He also says they amount to deliberate deception. Let’s hope his former student, current US National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, is paying attention. Read the full report at
  
  Priority Peace
  
  .
• Other informed dissenters within Governments are beginning to speak out – at a heavy personal cost.

  Last week Andrew Wilkie, an Australian Intelligence officer resigned in protest at the Australian Government’s support for an invasion of Iraq, saying “war must obviously be justified and it must obviously be an option of last resort. And I’m not satisfied that in this case it is either justified or it is being viewed as an option of last resort.” A former Australian defence force chief, Peter Gration, said “I would be very surprised if it doesn’t represent a current of concern in the intelligence community. I would also expect that it may trigger others to take the same position.”

  The United States, also, has suffered similar resignations. Career diplomat John Kiesling said “until this Administration it had been possible to believe that by upholding the policies of my president I was also upholding the interests of the American people and the world. I believe it no longer.” Kiesling’s letter of resignation is reproduced in full at
  
  ElectronicIraq
  
  .

  Following the
  
  leaking
  
  of the UN spying memo to the British newspaper, the Observer, a worker at the British Government Communications Headquarters has been
  
  arrested
  
  under the Official Secrets Act. The authenticity of the memo has been neither confirmed nor denied, nor has the connection between the memo and the arrest…

  JustPeace is produced by Christine Dann, Tim Hannah and Keith Locke, MP