|
We The People Foundation For
Constitutional
Education, Inc.
2458 Ridge Road, Queensbury,
NY 12804
Telephone: (518) 656-3578 Fax: (518) 656-9724
www.givemeliberty.org info@givemeliberty.org
March 19, 2007
Dr. Condoleezza Rice
VIA FACSIMILE (202) 647-2283
U.S. Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520
Subject: Conference Speaker
Dear Secretary Rice:
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 U.S. Department of State 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 former President Jimmy Carter
and Professors Maersheimer and Walt.
Dr. Rice, we just finished studying
"Palestine Peace Not Apartheid." We see this book as more of
a statement of facts, to be admitted or denied by all
thinking people, especially by those in Israel, Palestine
and the United States.
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 State Department 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 and the
Palestinian National Authority participate in the Conference
for the purpose of admitting or denying facts as presented
by Jimmy Carter and the two Professors in their reports.
Please let me know if you are able to
have a representative join us on Thursday, March 29th, at
8:30 am. We would like to hear your thinking on the subject
as framed.
Thank you for your attention and
consideration of this request.
Sincerely yours,
Bob Schulz
Chairman |
