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-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Schulz
[mailto:bob@givemeliberty.org]
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2007 3:47 PM
To: PLOUSA@aol.com
Subject: Conference Speaker
Mr. Nabil Abuznaid
Deputy Ambassador
Palestinian National Authority
1320 18th Street NW
Suite 200
Washington DC 20036
Dear Mr. Abuznaid:
This is a follow-up to our telephone conversation earlier
today.
We are sponsoring a conference at the Alexandria Hilton
Thursday - Saturday, March 29-31, 2007. We are devoting
Thursday morning to a discussion of the question, "Is the
foreign policy of the United States repugnant to the General
Welfare Clause of the Constitution?" (Art. I, Section 8,
Clause 1).
We would very much like to have a representative of the
Palestinian National Authority or the PLO participate in the
discussion.
Our thinking on the subject of America's Foreign Policy vs.
America's Constitution runs as follows.
1. America’s founding document declares, “We hold these
truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and
the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these Rights,
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the governed.”
2. In addition, America’s Constitution declares that the
purpose of Government is to secure the blessings of Liberty
to all the People and their Posterity.
3. “All men” means “all men,” everywhere, even those
within the borders of Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran
Nicaragua, Guatemala, Chile and other “allies” of the United
States, past and present.
4. It is hypocritical for any American President or
Congressman to give financial, political and military
support to any Government that denies, rather than
guarantees the natural, human Rights of the people who live
within its borders, including Due Process and equal
protection under the law.
5. Not only is it hypocritical to do so, it can be
unconstitutional at many levels, as we show in the following
paragraphs A-Q.
A: No country other than the United States has a
Constitution that recognizes that the People living within
its borders have the ultimate power: a Constitution that is
designed to be a set of principles to govern the government.
No other country has a Constitution that is based on the
principles that all People are created equal and are endowed
by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights and that
the role of the Government is to secure those Rights. None
of the people in the Middle East or anywhere else enjoy
“popular sovereignty,” as Americans are meant to. In every
other nation, some person or entity other than the people is
considered sovereign. No Government in the Middle East
guarantees the People within its jurisdiction the same
Rights, Freedoms and Liberties that American are guaranteed
by its Constitution.
B: People within the borders of countries in the Middle East
are discontented and have been agitating for their Natural
Rights -- the same Liberties, Rights and Freedoms guaranteed
to all Americans by their Constitutions, state and federal.
C: However, Governments of those countries are oppressing
People within its borders, meeting the People’s repeated
petitions for redress with repeated injuries, thus defining
the character of the Government as tyrannical.
D: For decades, America has intervened in the internal
affairs of those countries in the Middle East, by providing
financial, military, police and security assistance to its
Government.
E: For decades, tyrannical Governments in the Middle East
have continued to deny the full measure of Liberty to the
People within their borders, but have been able to avoid the
peace table and stay in power due in large measure to the
financial, military, security and police assistance from the
United States.
F: The United States is, therefore, a pretender, feigning
to be what it is not, pretending to be virtuous without
really being so.
G: Oppressed People in the Middle East, and their neighbors
have begun to see the United States as the friend of their
Government and have, as a consequence, become hostile
towards the United States.
H: In response, the Government of the United States has
launched a “War on Terrorism.”
I: The War on Terrorism is transforming America into a
Police State, with an imperial presidency usurping powers of
the People and Congress, and Congress is acquiescing:
unlawful spying on Americans, National Security Letters,
arrests, torture and execution, rendition, military
tribunals, indefinite detention, denial of human rights, the
denial of the right of habeas corpus, secret prisons,
tainted evidence, secret evidence, classified evidence,
denial of Right to counsel, and giant data bases providing
the government with a profile of every American (financial,
health, travel, product purchase, firearm records and much
more).
J: With the Police State has come a loss of individual
Liberties, Rights and Freedoms in America.
K: The historical facts are clear. America’s policy of
intervention in the internal affairs of foreign countries,
including denial of the Right to self-determination and free
trade appears to be a root cause of America’s war on
terrorism, its growing police state and the loss of
individual Liberties at home.
L: The United States, through its policy of intervention and
corrupt influence, appears to be creating the very
“terrorists” that are the target of our “war on terrorism.”
M: It is NOT true that all “terrorists hate us for our
freedoms,” as our President has repeatedly stated. Rather,
it appears “terrorists” do not appear to hate us for who we
are, but for what we do.
N: This “war on terrorism” has needlessly escalated
international hostilities and given rise to military
conflicts, financial waste, human destruction and the rise
of “Police States”, not only in America, but in many
nations around world, resulting in substantial levels of
fear, losses of individual Rights, Liberties and Freedoms –
i.e., the erosion of the General Welfare. Defenders of
natural/human rights are now finding it much more difficult
to criticize their governments.
O: It is not in the national interest and general welfare of
the United States Congress to lay and collect countless sums
of taxes in order to intervene in foreign affairs, deploy
armies and otherwise disrupt the world order and the lives
of millions of this planet’s inhabitants in order to secure
objectives that are morally reprehensible and legally
unjustifiable.
P: It is not in our national interest for Congress to be
laying and collecting taxes that are used to support
governments in the Middle East and elsewhere that are
oppressing People within or outside of their borders. To do
so is to violate Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 (the General
Welfare clause) of the Constitution of the United States of
America.
Q: All this needs to enter the public discourse, given
current events in the Middle East and the recent
publications by Carter and Professors Maersheimer and Walt.
Mr. Abuznaid, I just finished reading "Palestine Peace Not
Apartheid." We see his book as more of a statement of facts,
to be admitted or denied by all thinking people, especially
by those in Israel, in Palestine and here in America.
Carter and Professors Mearsheimer and Walt are certainly
correct when they argue that it is wrong and dangerous to
stifle speech in America on the subject. Unless the facts in
Carter's report can be effectively denied, the United States
is clearly supporting (paying for) Israeli oppression and
apartheid, engendering widespread hatred and hostility
toward the United States. United States tax money is being
co-mingled with revenues collected by the Israeli Government
and used to deny Palestinians their natural rights. Arabs
everywhere appear to be holding this against us.
We would very much like to have a representative of the PNA
participate in the conference, to say whether there is any
statement in Jimmy Carter's report that is not accurate.
We are most interested in exploring whether United States
foreign policy is repugnant to the General Welfare Clause of
the Constitution of the United States of America.
Besides this invitation, I have invited representatives from
the Israeli Government to admit or deny the facts as
presented by Jimmy Carter in his report.
Please let me know if you are able to join us on Thursday,
March 29th, at 8:30 am. We would like to hear your thinking
on the subject as framed. Please note the conference
auditorium seats 500 and the conference will be web cast
live.
Thank you for your consideration.
Bob Schulz
Chairman
We The People Foundation for Constitutional Education, Inc.
518-656-3578
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