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| Tiananmen Square June 3-4 incidentGovernment Crackdown on protesters 100s dead 1,000s woundedBeijing, China June 5, 1989 |
Editing by
Carolyn Bennett
This is some of Kucinich's advice on the “us versus them” U.S. foreign policy and the callously malicious assassination justice and global drone
warfare.
U.S. foreign relations violence
“I think we need to move this country away from militarism
and away from war as an instrument of policy,” Kucinich says.
“If [service] means anything, it should mean a new direction
for America away from war and toward giving our young people a real future
where they can use all their talents and ability serving in many different
capacities.”
Alter this course
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| Kucinich Sheehan et al. |
The global war on terror “has been a pretext for aggressive
war.” America must take a “different direction:
- Rejecting war as an instrument of policy
- Reconnecting with the nations of the world, so that we can address the real issues that affect security all over the globe and affect our security at home:
- Getting rid of all nuclear weapons
- Participating in the chemical and biological weapons conventions, the landmine treaty
- Joining the International Criminal Court
- Signing the Kyoto climate change treaty
“The minute we have dichotomous
thinking, ‘us versus them,’ we lose the opportunity to be able to connect with
people.”
Consider far-reaching consequences of U.S. drone war
“These attacks undermine the morals, values and the
strategic goals of the United States. The fact that they are conducted with
complete impunity and with no accountability threatens to set a dangerous
precedent that could unravel the very laws and international standards the U.S.
helped to create.
“Even the most ardent supporter of the current President
should consider the precedent created by granting the President the power to
circumvent the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.”
Fifth Amendment (Constitution of the United States) breach:
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| Drone attack North Waziristan, Pakistan Afghanistan border |
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or
otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand
Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia,
when in actual service in time of War or public danger;
nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb;
nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.
nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb;
nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) has opposed the use of
combat drones against suspected terrorists abroad since the first known attack
in 2004.
In February 2006, he asked the Director of the Central
Intelligence Agency to suspend the use of Predator drones citing the “high toll
in innocent civilian life.”
In the 111th Congress, Kucinich sponsored a bill to prohibit
the extrajudicial killing of U.S. citizens abroad in response to revelations
that the Administration included U.S. citizens on its targeted killing list.
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| Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice |
The Congressman currently is leading a growing number of
Members of Congress in demanding “the President’s legal justifications for
drone strikes.”
American for nonviolence
Dennis John Kucinich (b. October 8, 1946) has been a member
of the United States House of Representatives representing Ohio’s 10th
congressional district since 1997. He was a candidate for the U.S. presidency
in 2004 and 2008; and before entering Congress, Kucinich was Cleveland, Ohio’s 53rd
mayor (1977-1979).
In the U.S. Congress, Dennis Kucinich sits on the House
Committee on Education and the Workforce. In a Congressional career in which he
has stood for bringing articles of impeachment against former U.S. President
George W. Bush and Vice President Richard (Dick) Cheney; and against the 2003 invasion
of Iraq and consistently for nonviolence, for diplomacy, for peace, Kucinich will end his congressional career in January 2013, following
a redistricting by Ohio’s Republican-controlled state legislature that abolished the congressional district in which he serves.
 |
| Hon. Dennis J. Kucinich |
Ralph Nader praises Kucinich as a “genuine progressive.”
Sources and notes
“Dennis Kucinich on Homeland Security,”
Democratic Representative (OH-10), On the Issues,
http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/Dennis_Kucinich_Homeland_Security.htm
Source: 2007 Iowa Brown & Black Presidential Forum Dec
1, 2007
Source: 2007 South Carolina Democratic primary debate, on
MSNBC Apr 26, 2007
“Kucinich Leads Congress in Demanding Accountability and
Transparency for Drone Strikes
Drone Killings a
Stain upon Our Nation,” Washington, May 31, 2012,
http://kucinich.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=297742
Ralph Nader praised Kucinich as “a genuine progressive”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Kucinich_presidential_campaign,_2004
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Kucinich
His Congressional Biography: KUCINICH, Dennis, a
Representative from Ohio; born in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, October 8,
1946; graduated from St. John Cantius, Cleveland, Ohio, 1964; B.A., Case
Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, 1973; M.A., Case Western Reserve
University, Cleveland, Ohio, 1973; member of the Cleveland, Ohio, city council,
1969-1973, 1983; clerk of courts, Cleveland, Ohio, 1975; mayor of Cleveland,
Ohio, 1977-1979; member of the Ohio state senate, 1995-1996; elected as a
Democrat to the One Hundred Fifth Congress and to the seven succeeding
Congresses (January 3, 1997-present); unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic
presidential nomination in 2008. http://kucinich.house.gov/
Images
Behind the News online
Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice
Josh Brolier of WNPJ member group Voices for Creative
Nonviolence writes ...
wnpj.org
http://truthaholics.wordpress.com/2012/04/06/a-good-friday-meditation-the-drone-and-the-cross/
http://alifeconnected.wordpress.com/
Tiananmen Square (Britannica)
Image: A Chinese man temporarily blocking a line of tanks on June
5, 1989, the day after demonstrators were forcibly cleared from Beijing's
Tiananmen Square
June 4 incident: A series of protests and demonstrations in China
in the spring of 1989 that culminated on the night of June 3–4 with a
government crackdown on the demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
Tiananmen Square incident: “From the outset of the incident,
the Chinese government’s official stance was to downplay its significance,
labeling the protesters ‘counterrevolutionaries’ and minimizing the extent of
the military's actions on June 3–4. The government’s count of those killed was
241 (including soldiers), with some 7,000 wounded; most other estimates have
put the death toll much higher. In the years since the incident, the government
generally has attempted to suppress references to it. Public commemoration of
the incident is officially banned. However, the residents of Hong Kong have
held an annual vigil on the anniversary of the crackdown, even after Hong Kong
reverted to Chinese administration. (Britannica)
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