-Caveat Lector- Colombians unite against U.S. "drug war" on Colombia... Dave Hartley http://www.Asheville-Computer.com http://www.ioa.com/~davehart -----Original Message----- From: Mike Ruppert [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 1999 1:07 AM Subject: Press Conference Tomorrow, Demonstration Thursday From: "Mike Ruppert" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> OK guys - further evidence that the model is going to be flipped. Catherine and I stand on our predictions here that the 1% at the top believe that they can maintain control through this process. This is major. Look at the participants. It is irrelevant whether Brokaw covers this tomorrow night. It is totally relevant that ten million people took to the streets in Colombia on Sunday to demand peace. The paradigm is shifting and our job is to help steer it towards justice. All around people say things can't be fought and yet... I am reminded of a bumper sticker from the 60s that read, "What would happen if they gave a war - and nobody came." Mike Ruppert www.copvcia.com -----Original Message----- From: Sanho Tree (by way of Michael Novick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 1999 3:39 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Press Conference Tomorrow, Demonstration Thursday Friends, This is a reminder of two events this week in protest of the Western Hemisphere Drug Czars Summit. Please forward this to interested parties. I apologize for any crosspostings. Best regards, Sanho PRESS ADVISORY: CONTACTS: Eric E. Sterling, President, Criminal Justice Policy Foundation Tel: (202) 312-2015, Cell: (202) 365-2420 Coletta Youngers, Washington Office on Latin America Tel: (202) 797-2171 Sanho Tree, Institute for Policy Studies Tel: (202) 234-9382 ext. 266, Cell: (202) 422-7952 Press Conference: 10 am, Wednesday, November 3 National Press Club, 14th and F Sts., NW Prominent U.S. and Latin Leaders Reject U.S. Export of Failed Drug War Washington, D.C. - In an open letter to Gen. Barry McCaffrey and other "Hemisphere Drug Policy Makers" meeting here this week, a group of distinguished Americans and Latin Americans call for a halt to the U.S.-led "war on drugs." The letter, signed by a dozen prominent politicians, jurists, doctors, artists and religious leaders, states that "it is time to admit that after two decades the U.S. war on drugs - both in Latin America and in the United States - is a failure." The letter will be released at a press conference, 10 a.m, Nov. 3, 1999 at the National Press Club, 14th and F Streets, NW, 13th Floor. The letter is being distributed to government officials attending the Western Hemisphere Drug Leadership Conference, Nov. 3-5. "Delegates to the summit know that the problem of drugs is a crisis around the world. They know the U.S. Government has been a global leader in pushing an ever-harsher approach toward the problem," said Eric E. Sterling, President of The Criminal Justice Policy Foundation. "The delegates should be encouraged to challenge the American approach, otherwise the problems their nations will face will grow worse, not better." "Leading figures from the hemisphere have signed a letter to the delegates calling for an honest evaluation of the anti-drug strategy. We do not need millions more of American military assistance to pay for arms, helicopters, or toxic herbicides. Drug-related problems can be reduced more effectively by focusing on public health, economic development, and protecting human rights," said Coletta A. Youngers, Washington Office on Latin America. Michael S. Gelacak, Esq., Vice Chairman and Commissioner, U.S. Sentencing Commission, 1990-1998, the government agency that studies Federal criminal sentences and recommends sentences ranges to judges and changes in sentences to Congress, explains that the U.S. militarized anti-drug strategy is not cost effective: "The research shows that $1.5 billion requested to buy arms and equip the Colombian security forces could much more effectively address the hemisphere's drug problem if it were spent on drug treatment in the United States. The RAND corporation's analysis demonstrates that drug treatment is 23 times more effective in countering the cocaine trade than crop control measures in the Andes." Regarding the impact of the government's counternarcotics strategy in the U.S., Rev. Bernard Keels, of the United Methodist Church, said, "The crisis of drug abuse needs real material solutions in America's cities - adequate education and employment opportunities, treatment for domestic violence and child abuse, and fully-funded drug treatment - and a spiritual confrontation that does not attempt to blame others - such as peasants in South America - for our failings as individuals and a society." The letter is attached. The prominent signers of the letter include: Antonio Aranibar, Former Foreign Minister of Bolivia Oscar Arias, Former President of Costa Rica and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Harry Belafonte, Entertainer and Activist Belisario Betancur, Former President of Colombia The Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell, General Secretary, National Council of Churches Jorge Castaneda, Professor of Politics, New York University Violeta Chamorro, Former President of Nicaragua Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Argentine Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirley Fingerhood, Former Justice of the New York State Supreme Court James P. Gray, Judge of the Superior Court, Orange County, California Dr. Howard Hiatt, Former Dean, Harvard School of Public Health Cruz Reynoso, Former Justice of the California State Supreme Court Mario Vargas Llosa, Peruvian writer and Politician Robert E. White, President, Center for International Policy (former U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador and Paraguay) Speakers at the press conference include: * Michael S. Gelacak, Esq., Vice-Chairman and Commissioner, U.S. Sentencing Commission, 1990-1998. * Rev. Bernard Keels, St. Mark's United Methodist Church, Baltimore, MD * Eric E. Sterling, Esq., President, Criminal Justice Policy Foundation * Coletta A. Youngers, Washington Office on Latin America * Frank Smyth, Investigative Journalist * A representative of Andean coca growers. # # # EMBARGOED UNTIL 10:00AM (EST), NOVEMBER 3, 1999 November 3, 1999 A Message to the Hemisphere's Drug Policy Makers: As you meet to develop a hemispheric drug strategy, it is time to admit that after two decades the US war on drugs - both in Latin America and in the United States - is a failure. Despite a 17-fold increase in US drug war spending since 1980, record seizures, arrests, and incarcerations at home, and destruction abroad of hundreds of drug labs and coca and poppy crops, today in the US, illicit drugs are cheaper, more potent, and more easily available than two decades ago. Under the banner of fighting drugs, US military aid to Colombia has skyrocketed: today Colombia is by far the largest recipient of US military aid in the hemisphere - and the third largest in the world after Israel and Egypt. Yet, over the last decade, total drug production in Colombia has risen 260 percent. The escalation of a militarized drug war in Colombia and elsewhere in the Americas threatens regional stability, undermines efforts towards demilitarization and democracy, and has put US arms and money into the hands of corrupt officials and military, police and intelligence units involved in human rights abuses. Before escalating the war on drugs even further, an honest evaluation of the strategy is needed. Drug problems have not been solved because the approach taken - prohibition enforced by a militarized drug war - is fundamentally flawed: * US drug policy disproportionately targets peasant farmers and fails to address the poverty and inequality, widespread throughout the Americas, which are at the root of drug cultivation. * The U.N. estimates that at least 75% of international drug shipments would need to be intercepted to substantially reduce the profitability of drug trafficking. Yet interdiction efforts intercept only 10-15% of the heroin and 30% of the cocaine, according to the most optimistic estimates. * Continued demand in the US ensures that even if drug cultivation, processing and shipment are controlled in one area, they emerge in another. * US prisons are overflowing with more than 400,000 drug offenders. The vast majority of those behind bars are low level dealers; for example, only 5 percent of those jailed for crack are high level dealers. * Current drug strategy can never work given the magnitude of profits from illicit drugs - according to the US government $57 billion annually in the US alone. According to the United Nations, drug trafficking is a $400 billion per year industry, equaling 8% of the world's trade. Has the policy of doing more of the same produced a better result? Clearly the answer is no. The problem is not insufficient funds, firepower or prisons. Rather, a totally new approach is needed. To be effective, US drug control strategy must shift from militarized eradication and interdiction in Latin America and a law-enforcement dominated approach at home. As you meet to discuss the future direction of drug control, we urge you to consider the following points: * When it comes to reducing cocaine consumption, drug treatment is 7 times more cost effective than domestic law enforcement, 10 times more effective than interdiction and 23 times more effective than eradication, according to a RAND Corporation study. * Expanding the US drug war to other countries will merely further expand the failure of drug control throughout the hemisphere while escalating killings and environmental destruction. * Emphasis should be placed on public health, economic development, protecting human rights and pragmatic approaches to reducing drug-related problems. * A long-term solution to the drug market needs to be developed by engaging in a dialogue with the countries and non-governmental organizations in this hemisphere that examines all options to the drug war. Signed: Antonio Aranibar, Former Foreign Minister of Bolivia Oscar Arias, Former President of Costa Rica and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Harry Belafonte, Entertainer and Activist Belisario Betancur, Former President of Colombia The Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell, General Secretary, National Council of Churches Jorge Castaneda, Professor of Politics, New York University Violeta Chamorro, Former President of Nicaragua Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Argentine Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirley Fingerhood, Former Justice of the New York State Supreme Court James P. Gray, Judge of the Superior Court, Orange County, California Dr. Howard Hiatt, Former Dean, Harvard School of Public Health Cruz Reynoso, Former Justice of the California State Supreme Court Mario Vargas Llosa, Peruvian writer and Politician Robert E.White, Former US Ambassador to El Salvador and Paraguay # # # # # PRESS ADVISORY: CONTACTS: November 2, 1999 Eric E. Sterling, President, Criminal Justice Policy Foundation Tel: (202) 312-2015, Cell: (202) 365-2420 Kevin Zeese, President, Common Sense for Drug Policy Tel: (703) 354-5694, Cell: (703) 577-3351 Sanho Tree, Director, Drug Policy Project, Institute for Policy Studies Tel: (202)234-9382, ext. 266, Cell: (202)422-7952 Lisa Haugaard, Legislative Coordinator, Latin American Working Group Tel: (202) 546-7010 Hundreds Will Gather to Protest "Drug Czar" Barry McCaffrey's Export of Failed Drug War to Latin America Washington, D.C.-On Nov. 4, hundreds will protest U.S. efforts to export its failed drug policy to Latin America. U.S. "drug czar" Gen. Barry McCaffrey is hosting the "Western Hemisphere Drug Policy Leadership Conference," Nov. 3-5. United by concerns for human rights, democracy, and an effective drug control strategy, a broad coalition is urging the people of this hemisphere not to follow General McCaffrey=s lead as he wades into a militarized drug war quagmire. The drug economy is driven by demand, but current drug policy gives priority to supply reduction. Until the U.S. provides adequate resources for drug treatment, rehabilitation and prevention, Americans will continue to consume billions of dollars worth of drugs annually and impoverished peasants will continue to grow them. The protest will be held on November 4, 1999, from 5:30 - 7:00 p.m. near the corner of Calvert Street & Connecticut Ave., NW, in Washington, D.C., east of the Omni-Shoreham Hotel where the Drug Czars Conference will be held. The demonstration will include presentations by drug policy experts, concerned clergy, speakers from the Latin American community, and a student speaker. The protest will conclude with a candlelight vigil commemorating the casualties of the drug war: peasants killed by paramilitary death squads, children poisoned by aerial spraying of drug crops, and hundreds of thousands imprisoned on excessive sentences. The "drug czar" is lobbying Congress to send $1.5 billion in anti-narcotics aid to the Colombian military, which has a notorious record for human rights abuses. "We can't solve the problems of drug abuse and addiction here in the U.S. by exporting our failed policies to Latin America," said Kevin Zeese, president of Common Sense for Drug Policy, who will be speaking at the demonstration. "According to the U.S. government's data, illicit drug prices are at all-time lows and drug street purities are at all-time highs B powerful indictments that current U.S. drug policy is an abysmal failure. Furthermore, teenagers report that crack-cocaine and heroin have never been easier to get," he added. Drug Czar Protest, Page 2 "Gen. McCaffrey is pushing Western Hemisphere countries to adopt anti-drug strategies that are a proven failure, that facilitate human rights abuses, and that jeopardize democracy," said Eric E. Sterling, president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, which is helping to organize the demonstration. "Half of the U.S. public gives the federal government failing grades in our anti-drug effort. There is no consensus for current U.S. drug policy. The U.S. failed to treat 3.3 million desperate addicts last year. That's what we should be doing." "Drugs today are cheaper and more available than ever before. Will escalating a failed policy produce a different result? General McCaffrey seems to think so. He has staked his reputation on a futile >supply reduction' strategy and now he is prepared to lay waste to the entire Andean region in a last ditch attempt to save his failed policy," said Sanho Tree, director of the Drug Policy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies. "The conflict in Colombia is driven by social, political, and economic forces B sending guns and helicopters will not remedy poverty and hunger. The region is in desperate need of a Marshall Plan, but General McCaffrey wants to send them Desert Storm." Recently, Gen. McCaffrey=s efforts to export his ineffective, militaristic anti-drug strategy were assailed by protestors in London, England on Oct. 25. Confirmed speakers (Nov 2, 1999, 5:00 p.m.) for the demonstration include: Reverend Roger Butts, Chaplain, The American University, Washington, D.C. Cristina Espinel-Roberts, Co-Chair, Colombia Human Rights Committee Lisa Haugaard, Legislative Coordinator, Latin American Working Group Kris Lotlikar, Students for a Sensible Drug Policy Chad Thevenot, Criminal Justice Policy Foundation Kevin Zeese, President, Common Sense for Drug Policy # # # # DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! 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