For further information contact: Arjun Makhijani: (301) 270-5500 Bob Schaeffer: (941) 395-6773 For release at a press conference, Wednesday, 19 February 2003, 10 a.m. Eastern time, National Press Club, Washington, D.C. P R E S S    R E L E A S E Open Letter From U.S. to Rest of the World Opposes Pre-emptive Military Action by the United States Against Iraq Nearly 2,000 Signatories Cite Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King and Express Solidarity Across National Borders in Opposing U.S. War Policy Era of Weapons of Mass Destruction Must End Washington, D.C., February 19, 2003: In a world troubled and increasingly restive about U.S. determination to wield its military power in any manner it sees fit, a large number of people in the United States are sending an open letter to people everywhere, openly proclaiming their differences with US policies on a number of fronts. The letter criticizes the United States for setting itself above the law. It eschews support for a U.S.-led war even if inspections should fail "in part because the United States insists on a prerogative of using nuclear weapons, and because it may have ulterior motives, unrelated to the issue of disarmament." "I believe the open letter from the people of the United States to the rest of the world states the case against war as persuasively as any I have seen," said Professor (emeritus, Boston University) Howard Zinn, historian and author of the A People's History of the United States. "It is a statement that should be seen by people all over this country as well as in other countries of the world. I hope it will be widely endorsed." "People around the world and in the United States are opposing U.S. policy on Iraq because we seek a peaceful resolution of conflicts," said Dr. Michael Klare, who is Five College Professor of Peace and World Security Studies, based at Hampshire College in Massachusetts. "We are reaching out to people everywhere from the United States because we believe that U.S. policy is terribly misguided and dangerous. We must work together for peace and disarmament." The letter has gathered nearly 2,000 signatories in a little over two weeks. The signatories include farmers, professors, students, and administrators in colleges and universities, high school students, a Colorado cowboy, clergy, immigrants, peace activists, local elected officials, environmentalists, grandmothers and mothers, musicians, artists, veterans, and other concerned people. In reaching out to the world, they cite Mahatma Gandhi's rejection the kind of patriotism that "sought to mount the distress, or exploitation, of other nationalities" and affirm their determination not to "allow the ill-considered and short-sighted military and energy policies of the U.S. government to separate us from the fellowship of other human beings across national borders." "I don't want to be despised as a warmongering person when I travel abroad just because the government of the United States is bullying the rest of the world," said Roxanne Turnage, Executive Director of the CS Fund and one of the charter signatories of the letter. "I'm hopeful that this letter can tell the world's people that the pro-war message they hear through the US media does not reflect my opinion or that of many, many others in this country. I want to work with everyone, regardless of nationality, to seek peace and justice by non-violent means." The letter supports the disarmament of Iraq; it also denounces all weapons of mass destruction as illegal and immoral. It urges an end the era of weapons of mass destruction in the world. "Double standards regarding the rule of law and about weapons of mass destruction are not only wrong, they are downright dangerous," said Dr. Arjun Makhijani, president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. "Security and environmental protection are now deeply connected. Oil is the central element in that connection," said Dr. Brent Blackwelder, President of Friends of the Earth, USA. "Oil leads to half the world's carbon dioxide emissions, and it is at the epicenter of the world's most troubled area. It's an indication of the bankruptcy of U.S. energy policy that thirty years after the Arab oil embargo, the lifeline of the West still runs through the Persian Gulf." The open letter was sent to the Security Council on February 13. In his forwarding letter, Dr. Makhijani urged the Council's members "to take inspiration from the lives of Mahatma Gandhi and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., who were never browbeaten by threats of military force. The path of disarmament by inspections has the support of a majority of the world's people. Please represent this majority." "The development of weapons of mass destruction anywhere in the world is contrary to universal norms," said Dr. John Burroughs, Executive Director of the New York-based Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy, www.lcnp.org. "The United States can't claim leadership in disarmament if it asserts the right to use nuclear weapons itself." Daniel Ellsberg, author of Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers, whose release of those papers accelerated the end of the Vietnam war, said "A war on Iraq is going to increase the risks of terrorism and play right into Osama bin Laden's hands. It will make for more recruits for him because it will make many more people even angrier than they are." "I signed this letter because it joins the calls for peace, justice, economic equity, and environmental sanity," said Dr. Jenice View, Executive Director of the Just Transition Alliance. "I believe joining those issues is essential to making lasting progress." The letter and the list of signatories are posted on the website of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research at http://www.ieer.org/openletter/index.html. -30- Available on this website: Letter to the United Nations Security Council based on the Open Letter Open Letter in many languages: (Arabic) | (Chinese) | Deutsch (German) | English | Español (Spanish) | Français (French) Hebrew (Hebrew) | Hindi (Hindi) | (Japanese) | (Korean) | (Russian) | Urdu (Urdu)