*The following letter by former U.S. Attorney General

Ramsey Clark has been sent to all members of the UN

Security Council, with copies to the UN General Assembly

and Senator Biden of the Senate Committee on Foreign

Relations. Please circulate.*

International Action Center

http://www.iacenter.org

Founded by Ramsey Clark

July 29, 2002

Dear Ambassador,

Any remaining hope the peoples of the United Nations have

to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war

through the United Nations would be crushed by another

United States attack on Iraq.  Threats to attack, invade

and overthrow the government of Iraq by President George

Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary of Defense

Rumsfeld, various cabinet officers and Pentagon officials

have been routine for a year.  The psychological warfare

is itself a crime against peace and violates the U.N.

Charter.  Today's front-page headline story in the New

York Times, "U.S. Exploring Baghdad Strike As Iraq

Option," is typical of the in terrorem intention of the

threats.  The danger to civilian life in Baghdad from such

a strike would be enormous.

THE UNITED NATIONS MUST ACT TO PREVENT AN ATTACK BY THE

UNITED STATES AGAINST IRAQ

If the United Nations is unable to restrain the United

States, a permanent member of the Security Council, from

committing crimes against peace and humanity as well as

war crimes against a nation that has already been violated

by the U.S. beyond endurance, then what is the United

Nations worth?  At the very least, opposition to any

attack or attempt to overthrow the government of Iraq by

force must be publicly expressed by the United Nations.

THE UNITED STATES BOMBED DEFENSELESS IRAQ MERCILESSLY FOR

FORTY-TWO DAYS IN 1991

The U.S. led and glorified the massive assault on Iraq in

January and February 1991.  The Pentagon announced it

conducted 110,000 aerial sorties against the defenseless

"cradle of civilization," dropping 88,500 tons of bombs.

  The widespread bombing destroyed the economic viability

of the civilian society throughout the nation.  It killed

tens of thousands of Iraqi citizens and others.  A major

part of the bombing was directed at civilians and civilian

facilities.  It was less accurate than the recent

indiscriminate attacks in Afghanistan.   U.S. bombs

destroyed Iraqi water systems, electric power

transmission, communications, transportation,

manufacturing, commerce, agriculture, poultry and

livestock, food storage facilities, markets, fertilizer

and insecticide production, business centers,

archeological and historical treasures, apartment houses,

residential areas, schools, hospitals, mosques, churches

and synagogues.

The Pentagon stated its casualties were 156.  One third

were from "friendly fire"; the rest were accidental.  The

U.S. had no combat casualties.

THE UNITED STATES FORCED THE IMPOSITION OF GENOCIDAL

SANCTIONS ON IRAQ IN 1990

The U.S. crafted economic sanctions against Iraq which the

Security Council approved on August 6, 1990, the 45th

anniversary of the U.S. atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima.

  Those sanctions are the direct cause of the very cruel

deaths of more than a million people.  This is the

greatest crime against humanity, in the last decade of the

most violent century in history.  Each painful death of an

individual wasting away?from malnutrition; Kwashiorkor;

the rush of dehydration from contaminated water and from

diseases was  preventable.  The sanctions continue to this

time to cause hundreds of deaths each day.  Every United

Nations agency dealing with food, health and

children--including FAO, WFP, WHO, UNICEF--has proclaimed

the horror, magnitude and responsibility for this human

catastrophe.

The great majority of the deaths caused by the sanctions

are infants, children, the elderly, the chronically ill

and emergency medical cases.  These are the people most

vulnerable to polluted water, malnutrition, and the lack

of medicines and medical equipment and supplies.

U.S. claims that it is the Iraqi government that is

responsible for deaths from shortages of food and medicine

are false.  The U.S. blocked oil sales by Iraq for six

years before appearing to yield to humanitarian pleas to

permit oil sales to purchase food and medicine.  Since

1997, when sales began, it has effectively frustrated and

delayed the Oil for Food program, which does not provide

sufficient income at the levels approved to stop the daily

deterioration of health and growing death rates in Iraq.

Before sanctions there was virtually no malnutrition in

Iraq and free hospital, health services and medicines were

a model for the region.  Its present system of government

distribution of available food staples is a model of

fairness and efficiency, lacking only in quantity and

variety of food.

UNITED STATES MILITARY AIRCRAFT HAVE ATTACKED IRAQ AT WILL

FOR ELEVEN YEARS

The U.S. has engaged in air strikes against Iraq at will

since March 1991, when the massive attacks averaging one

aerial sortie every 30 seconds ended.   Without losing a

single plane, U.S. attacks have killed: cleaning personnel

at the Al Rashid Hotel in Baghdad in a failed attempt to

assassinate Saddam Hussein; scores of people each year in

attacks on radar stations in or near the U.S.-imposed

no-fly zones; all the persons aboard a U.N. helicopter

shot down by U.S. aircraft; and civilians from all walks

of life, including the internationally famous artist and

Director of Iraqis' National Center for Arts, Leila al

Attar.

IRAQ IS NOT A THREAT TO THE U.S., COUNTRIES IN THE REGION

OR OTHERS

The U.S. has falsely claimed that Iraq is working to

develop weapons of mass destruction to attack the U.S.,

Israel, its neighbors and others.  The U.S. claimed its

1991 attacks destroyed 80% of Iraq's military capacity.

  The U.N. inspection efforts claimed to discover and

dismantle 90% of Iraq's post-1991 capacity to develop

weapons of mass destruction.  Iraq, its peoples and

resources are exhausted.  It has a "stunted" generation of

children under age 10 and a debilitated population at all

ages.  It is the victim of the worst crime against

humanity in recent decades.

THE UNITED STATES IS THE GREATEST PURVEYOR OF VIOLENCE ON

EARTH

Two of the highest U.N. officials responsible for U.N.

weapons inspection within Iraq and a principle U.S.

citizen participating in the inspections have resigned,

denounced the sanctions and denied that there is a threat

that Iraq will develop weapons of mass destruction.

The U.S. has more nuclear weapons than all other nations

combined as well as the most sophisticated and numerous

systems for the delivery of nuclear weapons, including the

Trident II submarine fleet.  It possesses the greatest

stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and the most

advanced and extensive research in mass destruction

weaponry in the world.  Military spending by the U.S.

exceeds that of the nine next largest budgets for war

combined.  President Bush has repeatedly declared the

right to strike first.  The U.S. attacked Hiroshima and

Nagasaki with atomic bombs and continues to justify those

acts.

The U.S. has renounced treaties controlling nuclear

weapons and their proliferation; voted against the

protocol enabling enforcement of the Biological Weapons

Conventions; and rejected the treaty banning land mines,

the International Criminal Court and virtually every other

international effort to control and limit war.  The U.S.

War Against Terrorism is a declaration of right by the

U.S. to attack first?anyone, anywhere, on mere suspicion,

or without excuse, unilaterally.

The U.S. wants to overthrow the government of Iraq and

many others in violation of law.  Unless restrained the

chance for peace and global equality of economic, social,

cultural and political opportunity among nations will be

lost.  Which government presents the greater threat to

peace globally or for Mesopotania and its neighbors?the

U.S. or Iraq?

AN ATTACK BY THE UNITED STATES ON IRAQ TO OVERTHROW ITS

GOVERNMENT WOULD BE A FLAGRANT VIOLATION OF THE U.N.

CHARTER, THE NUREMBERG CHARTER AND INTERNATIONAL LAW

If, as promised so many times, the U.S. does attack Iraq

to overthrow its government, it will be the most

notorious, arrogant and contemptuous violation of the

Charter of the United Nations, the Nuremberg Charter and

international law yet experienced, or likely hereafter.

  Only absolute power unrestrained by any rule of law or

standard of human decency openly taunts an intended victim

as President Bush has taunted Iraq.  Because the U.S. has

committed historic injustices against Iraq, most during

his father's presidency, and still seeks dominion in the

region, President Bush, his Vice President and others in

his administration hate Iraq and want finally to destroy

it.

I am writing this letter to you; to each U.N.

Representative of a Security Council Member; the President

of the General Assembly; and President Bush.  This is one

of a series of letters describing and protesting U.S. and

UN wrongs against Iraq.  The threatened wrong addressed

here is the worst.  If twelve years after its devastating

aerial assault and after twelve years of genocidal

sanctions, the omnipresent risk and frequent fact of

random attack with the ever present stalking by U.S.

aircraft and endless threats against its helpless victim,

the U.S. commits its coup d'grace on the people of Iraq to

the silence of the U.N. and wealthy nations of the world,

human shame and impotence will doom us to ever greater

violence.

A U.S. ASSAULT ON IRAQ WILL CAUSE MORE AND GREATER

VIOLENCE; URGENT ACTION BY THE UNITED NATIONS TO PREVENT A

U.S. ASSAULT OF IRAQ IS REQUIRED

I urge you to immediately activate the United Nations, the

General Assembly, the Security Council and all its

agencies to denounce the continuing threats by the United

States against Iraq, to demand immediate cessation of the

threats and to warn the United States that an attack by it

on Iraq will violate the Charter of the United Nations,

international law and the friendship of all who seek peace

and respect the dignity of humanity.

AN ATTACK BY THE U.S. ON IRAQ WOULD VIOLATE THE

CONSTITUTION AND LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES REQUIRING

IMPEACHMENT, TRIAL BEFORE THE U.S. SENATE AND CRIMINAL

CHARGES IN FEDERAL COURTS AGAINST PRESIDENT BUSH AND ALL

OFFICIALS RESPONSIBLE

An attack on Iraq by the United States would also violate

the Constitution and laws of the United States and expose

President Bush to impeachment by the House of

Representatives under the Constitution of the United

States for the highest of crimes, those against peace and

humanity, to judgment by the United States Senate and

trial in federal court for crimes charged.

Unfortunately in recent years our Constitution has been

more honored in the breach than in faithful observance of

the rights it is intended to protect for all.  But the

effort to hold accountable any U.S. authority who

participates in an assault against Iraq will be made here

by those who love their country and for that reason insist

that its acts be just.

Sincerely,

Ramsey Clark

International Action Center

39 W. 14th St., Suite 206

New York, NY 10011

212-633-6646

fax: 212-633-2889

http://www.iacenter.org

iacenter@iacenter.org