THE JIMMY CARTER BRIGADE

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Ramsey Clark Plans 'Emergency March' to Stop Israel
By Alison Espach
CNSNews.com Correspondent
July 28, 2006

(CNSNews.com) - Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, alongside various anti-war and Muslim groups, announced plans this week for a "National Emergency March on Washington" to stop what he said was U.S. funding of the "Israeli war machine."

Clark claimed that U.S. funding to Israel, which is battling Hizballah terrorists in southern Lebanon, is grounds for impeaching President Bush. "If we'd acted on impeachment before now, Lebanon wouldn't be subjected to this misery," said Clark at the National Press Club Thursday. "If we fail to act now, who is next?"

The National Council of Arab-Americans, Partnership for Civil Justice, Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, and the ANSWER Coalition are partnering to show their dissent of U.S.-Israeli policy in a march planned near the White House on Aug. 12.

"It is important to let the people of Lebanon and the people of Palestine know that even though the Bush administration speaks in our name -- spending our tax dollars to fund and finance these wars both in Iraq and in Lebanon -- it does so without the consent of the American people," said Brian Becker, national coordinator for the ANSWER Coalition.

The Palestinian-dominated Hamas and Iranian-funded Hizballah are not considered terrorist organizations by ANSWER, and the group claims that they should not be labeled as such by the Bush administration. Becker said that both groups are widely supported by political parties that include at least 30 to 40 percent of the people.

"So was the Nazi party," said Ariel Cohen, Ph.D., a senior research fellow from the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation.

Cohen said Hizballah consists of the "troops founded, funded, trained and equipped by the Islamic republic of Iran," continued Cohen. "With the statement yesterday, the number two of al-Qaeda -- Ayman al- Zawahiri -- declared solidarity with Hizballah."

"Oh Muslims everywhere, I call on you to fight and become martyrs in the war against the Zionists and the Crusaders," al-Zawahiri said in a video message Thursday.

However, Becker said the only purpose of using the label "terrorist" is to demonize regimes that are opposed to U.S. occupation. "The characterization of Hizballah as a terrorist organization by the Bush administration must be understood in exactly the same way that they conducted the demonization campaign against the Iraqi government under the Saddam Hussein era," said Becker.

"Which is simply to find a rationale to justify terrorist actions against the people who live in Lebanon," he continued, "just as the Bush administration needed to find an explanation to carry out its war crimes, its crimes against humanity and its state-sponsored terrorism against the people of Iraq."

While Clark, ANSWER and the United Nations do not list Hamas as a terrorist organization, Australia, Canada, Israel, the United States and the European Union do. Hamas, a political arm of the Palestinian government, has orchestrated multiple suicide bombings in Israel.

Hizballah is listed as a terrorist organization only by Israel and the U.S., although the European Parliament said in 2005 that it recognized evidence of terrorist activity from Hizballah. Both Hamas and Hizballah began as resistance movements to the State of Israel.

"The terror that is being waged right now is the terror carried out by the Israeli government with the full backing of the United States government," said Becker.

The leftist groups criticized the U.S. for sending precision-guided bombs to Israel as part of what they called a multi-million dollar arms deal allowing Israel to draw from it when necessary. They called it a direct violation of the Arms Export Control Act -- an act that allows the president to export arms as long as they do not aid terrorists or kill civilians.

"The U.S. rushed 5,000 pound bombs to Israel so that they could bomb in Lebanon and Palestine. Not because they are blowing up buildings, because they are blowing up human beings," said Mounzer Sleiman, founding member of National Council of Arab-Americans and independent military and political analyst.

But Cohen believes people like Clark, Becker and Sleiman are trying to misinform the American public.

"These people are masters of disinformation," said Cohen. "The U.S government would not violate the Arms Expert Control Act. Israel has received in the past and is receiving now sophisticated technology from the United States and is developing by itself sophisticated technology that it provides to the United States under collaborative agreements."

Sleiman also alleged that Israel's attacks are a product of the U.S. efforts to gain control of the Middle East for its oil reserves, using Israel as its pawn.

"The main aim of this war is not to free captured soldiers. It is not even to remove Hizballah. It is purely and simply to bring Lebanon down on its knees and bring about its disintegration," said Sleiman. "Apparently this is a condition Condi Rice called 'the birth of the Middle East.'"

Cohen disagreed. "This is not about Israel. The al-Zawahiri statement says that they want to impose their version of Islam, their dark ages version of Islam from Spain to Iraq.

"This is an attack on the West, on the U.S. interests and the U.S. ally Israel," he continued. "And the idea is to weaken Israel to make her bleed. Then if the U.S. inserts its forces there or Europeans insert their forces there, to make them bleed."