From: "Bob Goodsell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Phone campaign for this week Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 18:52:20 -0500
Pardon my lack of humility, but I just had what I think is a great idea. We start a campaign called "Don't Stand For It!" which encourages people to call their congresspeople asking them not to stand and applaud any pro-war statements that Bush makes in his State of the Union address. If none of you can tell me why this isn't a great idea in the next few hours, I'll send out a general e-mail that can be forwarded to anyone that has the phone numbers and links to addresses. Maybe I can get MoveOn or TrueMajority to push it. I have so often been disgusted to see both sides of the aisle stand and applaud even the most ridiculous statements coming from presidents, and it has to send a very bad statement to others in the world. We used to laugh at the unanimity of the Politburo in Moscow, but is Congress any different? Let's call and tell them not to stand for it! ------------------- Call the permanent (France, Russia, China + US and UK)) and non-permanent (Bulgaria, Cameroon, Guinea, Mexico, Syria, Angola, Chile, Germany, Pakistan, Spain) members of the UN Security Council and ask them not to support a war against Iraq. Receiving a thousand phone calls would send a clear message of non-support from the American people, and help the SC members resist the overtures and bribes of the US administration. To pass a resolution, the SC must generate nine "yes" votes and no vetoes (contact info is at the end of this e-mail). Working in our favor is the fact that the rotating presidency of the Security Council is held in January by France, and in February by Germany, two clear foes of an attact against Iraq. Also remember to call (202-456-1111) and email <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> the administration EVERY DAY to express your opposition to the Iraq war. ------------------- Short of a 'Smoking Gun,' Allies Ask Why the Rush? January 22, 2003 By JULIA PRESTON NY Times UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 21 - Pakistan and Bulgaria have a lot in common these days. They are both recent but energetic allies of the United States, both members of the Security Council - and both hesitant to authorize war against Iraq in the near future. "If the inspectors say they want some time, I think that time should be given," the Pakistani foreign minister, Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, said of United Nations arms inspections in an interview today. In a separate interview, the Bulgarian foreign minister, Solomon Passy, said, "We will still invest the maximum effort to avoid a military solution." At a meeting of Council foreign ministers here on Monday, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell met considerable resistance from three other permanent, veto-bearing Council members - China, Russia and especially France - to military action against Iraq in coming weeks. The chief weapons inspectors will give a report to the Council on Monday, and American officials have said that they might use that event to make their case for war. But in private meetings with 12 other ministers, Mr. Powell also heard much reluctance from the 10 nonpermanent members, diplomats said today. Many of them argued that the inspections are just starting to work to pressure Iraq to disclose its illegal weapons, diplomats said. They said that without a "smoking gun" to prove Baghdad's defiance, they would have a hard time at this point convincing skeptics at home that war is justified. "We still have to work with public opinion," Mr. Passy said. Generally the nonpermanent members have much less influence than the permanent powers. But during the long negotiations over Resolution 1441, which set up the current inspections, the United States strengthened its hand against opposition from France by diligently marshaling votes from the nonpermanent members. For adoption, Council resolutions require nine votes in favor and no vetoes. The profile of the nonpermanent members was raised this year with the arrival on the Council of Germany, which is more powerful economically than Europe's permanent member countries, France and Britain. The German foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, said on Monday that Iraq must comply with Council resolutions, but he warned that premature war could unleash a new wave of terrorism. Mr. Kasuri said it is crucial for Pakistan, which just joined the Council on Jan. 1, to have an air-tight case against Iraq to present at home to avoid a destabilizing anti-American backlash. "We have to present this in a way that people know it is not a selective application of Security Council resolutions," he said. He pointed to several decades-old resolutions seeking a solution to Pakistan's bitter fight with India over the territory of Kashmir, which he said have not been enforced the way Washington wants to enforce resolutions on Iraq. His country, he said, feels no sympathy for President Saddam Hussein of Iraq, who has lent his backing to India in the Kashmir dispute. "Nobody has anything to do with Saddam," he said. Pakistan remains keen to preserve strong relations with the Bush administration, he said, but is in a "particularly difficult situation" because of the tensions created in the Muslim country by its support for the United States war to topple the Taliban in Afghanistan. "When you talk of time, it doesn't mean unlimited time, so that everybody will forget about the situation in Iraq," Mr. Kasuri said. He said it should be up to the weapons inspectors to decide how much time they need and when to declare that the inspections have failed. Bulgaria has been on the Council for a year, and has repeatedly proved its loyalty by voting with Washington. It was an early and avid supporter of the United States in the negotiations over Resolution 1441. Bulgaria was invited to become a member of NATO in November with decisive backing from the United States, and Mr. Passy made it clear that Sofia will side with the Bush administration if it forces a decision on war by the end of this month. Mr. Hussein has not paid the $2 billion he owes Bulgaria for engineering work and equipment contracts from the 1980's, and is the country's biggest foreign debtor, Mr. Passy said. "Saddam will never return this debt," he said. "We can have this money back one day with a different government in Iraq." Bulgaria has "in principle" offered military assistance to the United States for a war against Iraq, he said, including use of an air base for refueling and a military unit trained to assist soldiers who have faced chemical and biological weapons. Yet he insisted that it was important to keep the Security Council united. "We shall be working until the very last possibility is exhausted for a peaceful solution to be found," he said. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/22/international/middleeast/22NATI.html?ex=10 44251829&ei=1&en=f5d65f332e527942 ---------------------- UN Security Council Members with Veto Power Représentant Permanent Permanent Representative Ambassador S.E M. Jean-David Levitte French Mission to the UN One Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza 245 East 47th Street, 44th Floor New York, N.Y. 10017 phone: (212) 308-5700 fax: (212) 421-6889 http://www.un.int/france/frame_anglais/accueil_frame/accueil_ang.htm email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------- Ambassador Sergey Lavrov Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations 136 East 67th Street New York, N.Y. 10021 phone: (212) 861-4900/4901/4902 fax: (212) 628-0252 http://www.un.int/russia/home.htm#english [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------- Ambassador Wang Yingfan Mission of the People's Republic of China to the UN 350 East 35th Street New York, N.Y. 10016 phone: (212) 655-6100 fax: (212) 634-7626 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.china-un.org/eng/index.html Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan Permanent Representative and Ambassador Wang Yingfan Tel: 212-655-6191 Fax: 212-481-2998 Deputy Permanent Representative and Ambassador Zhang Yishan Tel: 212-655-6123 Fax: 212-481-2998 Political Affairs Section Tel: 212-655-6141 Fax: 212-634-7625 ---------------------------- Britain at the United Nations One Dag Hammarskjold Plaza 28th Floor 885 Second Avenue New York, NY 10017 E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: (212) 745 9250 Fax: (212) 745 9316 ---------------------------- To also contact non permanent members: http://www.un.org/Docs/scinfo.htm#MEMBERS Bulgaria H.E. Mr. Stefan TAFROV Ambassador , Permanent Represantative Permanent Mission to the United Nations 11 East 84th Street New York NY 10028, USA phone (212) 737-4790, fax (212) 472-9865 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Cameroon Son Excellence Martin BELINGA EBOUTOU Ambassadeur Extraordinaire et Plénipotentiaire Représentant Permanent du Cameroun auprès de l'ONU 22 East 73rd Street New York, NY 10021 U.S.A. email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Téléphone : +1(212)-794-2296 Fax : +1 (212)-249-0533 -------------------------- Guinea (If you have contact information, please send it to me immediately. -- Bill) -------------------------- Mexico (If you have the Ambassador's name, please send it to me immediately. -- Bill) Two United Nations Plaza 28th floor, New York, NY 10017. Tel: (212) 752.0220 / Fax (212) 688.8862 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Syria (If you have contact information, please send it to me immediately. -- Bill) -------------------------- Angola S.E. Dr. ISMAEL GASPAR MARTINS Embaixador Extraordinário e Plenipotenciário Representante Permanente da República de Angola nas Nações Unidas [EMAIL PROTECTED] Missão Permanente da Républica de Angola nas Nações Unidas 125 East 73rd St. New York, N.Y. 10021 Tel: (212) 861-5656 Fax (2l2) 861-9295 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Chile Embajador Juan Gabriel Valdés Misión Permanente de Chile ante Naciones Unidas 305 East 47th Street 10th Floor New York, NY 10017 Estados Unidos Fono (212) 832 3323 Fax (212) 832 0236 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Germany (If you have the Ambassador's name, please send it to me immediately. -- Bill) 871 United Nations Plaza (First Ave. betw. 48th & 49th Streets) New York NY 10017 Tel: (212) 940-0400 Fax: (212) 940-0402 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Pakistan Ambassador Munir Akram 8 East, 65th Street New York NY- 10021 Tel: 212-879-8600 Fax 212-744-7348 E-mail Pakistan @un.int -------------------------- Spain Misión Permanente de España en Naciones Unidas. 823 United Nations Plaza, 9th floor New York, NY 10017 Tlfno. (212) 661 1050 Fax (212) 949 7247 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]