March 18, 2007

Mid-East Policy v. the U.S. Constitution:
GML 2007 to Debate Divisive Question

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Petitions Served on Government

We The People Foundation is pleased to announce the final Agenda and a list of confirmed speakers for our Give Me liberty 2007 conference. You will notice a significant departure in subject matter from what we had in mind when we first decided to sponsor GML 2007. 

But for our review of two publications and a certain clause of the U.S. Constitution, we would have settled on a different agenda months ago.  

The course and speed we were taking to GML 2007 were significantly altered, first when an 82-page Working Paper that was published last year by two university Professors came to our attention, and then, by a 264-page book (actually a detailed historical report) that was published last year by former President Jimmy Carter. 

These two documents caused a great awaking on our part. We discovered one, if not the root cause of the steady growth of a police state in America and the resultant erosion of our individual Rights, Liberties and Freedoms. We were compelled to research the subject further. We found verification of the facts and our deductive reasoning that led to our controversial findings.  

We instinctively felt the Constitution was being violated. We needed to identify the provision(s) of the U.S. Constitution that were at issue and could best be used by the People as a sword to address and solve the problem. We settled on the appropriate constitutional clause and then decided we had no choice but to add the matter to the GML 2007 agenda and begin a search for appropriate speakers.
 

The Two Professors

The Working Paper that caught our attention was published last March by Professor John Mearsheimer from the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago, and Professor Stephen Walt from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. The Working Paper is titled, “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.” 

A link to the Working Paper is provided at the end of this article. Everyone interested in determining a root cause of America’s War on Terrorism and developing Police State is encouraged to read the entire paper.  

We all have our pre-conceived notions regarding Israel, the Palestinians, their Arab neighbors, 9-11 and the “War on Terrorism.” We certainly had ours. However, our minds are always open to facts, more than opinions. The facts presented in the Working Paper, coupled with the facts presented in Carter’s report have produced an Aristotelian concept, a paradigm shift in our thinking. We ask everyone to try to put their pre-conceived notions and prejudices aside and read the Working Paper and Carter’s Book with an open mind.  

As the Professors say in the introduction to the Working Paper, “Some readers will find this analysis disturbing, but the facts recounted here are not in serious dispute among scholars. Indeed, our account relies heavily on the work of Israeli scholars and journalists, who deserve great credit for shedding light on these issues. We also rely on evidence provided by respected Israeli and international human rights organizations. Similarly, our claims about the Lobby’s impact rely on testimony from the Lobby’s own members, as well as testimony from politicians who have worked with them. Readers may reject our conclusion, of course, but the evidence on which they rest in not controversial.”
 

Jimmy Carter
 

Jimmy Carter, has been an enigma to us. On the one-hand he is a Christian to be admired for his service to humanity. On the other hand he appears to be void of Libertarian principles of individualism, self-reliance and limited government.  What is clear to us, however, is that Jimmy Carter stands head and shoulders above all others who have worked to resolve the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, in terms of his hands-on experience, involvement and knowledge of the nature and extent of the issues and his personal knowledge of the roles and relationships of the long line of parties to the conflict. None can effectively challenge his wisdom, sincerity, integrity or credibility when it comes to his efforts on behalf of all the people of the Middle East.  These are some of the reasons why his report, “Palestine Peace Not Apartheid” must be taken seriously.

A Most Egregious Constitutional Tort

What if the fundamental Rights, Liberties and Freedoms of Americans were being curtailed because the United States was becoming a police State? What if the United States was becoming a Police State because it was engaged in a War on Terror?

What if the War on Terror was a result of hostilities directed towards the United States because the United States was annually giving billions of dollars of its tax revenues to the Government of Israel, who was using that money to pay its military to seize and occupy territories belonging to Palestinians -- a people of a different ethnicity and religion -- and to support the tyranny of Apartheid and Ethnic Cleansing against the Palestinians?  

What if tax revenues collected from the People of the United States were being used by Israel as follows: 

• treating the Palestinians worse than cattle, detaining them at will for long periods at hundreds of check points (denying emergency medical care to those who need it and causing produce to rot on farmers’ trucks, etc.);
• arresting, torturing and assassinating thousands without due process; destroying homes, orchards and business places to make room for new Israeli settlements and highways that are off limits to the Palestinians;
• keeping Palestinian cities under intermittent curfews, with some confinements lasting for weeks;
• depriving the Palestinians of their basic natural rights to assemble, speak freely, travel freely, and to fair and public trials in civilian rather than military tribunals;
• imposing indefinite sentences;
• preventing free trade of produce and manufactured goods originating in the occupied territories;
• curtailing the supply of water and foodstuffs into the occupied territories if for the benefit of the Palestinians, resulting in widespread hunger and malnutrition;
• discharging untreated sewage from the new hilltop Israeli settlements into the surrounding fields and villages;
• closing Palestinian schools and universities; arresting educators; closing bookstores, censoring libraries;
• encouraging unemployment;
• intercepting aid meant for the Palestinians and using it for the benefit of Israel, including the razing of more homes and the construction of more settlements and limited access highways?

What if all this was aimed at forcing the Palestinians to leave their ancestral home? 

What if tax revenues collected from the People of the United States were now being used by Israel to build a wall to imprison Palestinians who have not already fled, allowing them to leave for distant countries but never allowing them to return. 

What if the millions of Palestinians who were forced to flee from their homes and farms to settle in refugee camps in neighboring countries, as well as others People of similar ethnicity – Arabians – living in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and elsewhere knew that for 35 years the Congress of the United States had laid and collected taxes from the People of the United States to help Israel humiliate and destroy Palestinian society? 

What if 9-11 would not have occurred if the United States had refused to help Israel humiliate and destroy the Palestinian society? 

What if the current War on Terrorism would not have been initiated if the United States had refused to help Israel humiliate and destroy the Palestinian society? 

What if the Rights, Freedoms and Liberties of the People of the United States were as they were before 9-11 if the United States had refused to help Israel humiliate and destroy the Palestinian society? 

What if the application of the armed forces of the United States against Iraq, Iran, Syria or any other country in the Middle East benefits Israel and no other country, including the United States? 

What if the United States Government was as beloved by the People around the world as it was prior to 1967 because the United States had not provided support of Israeli violations of the United Nations Charter, international law, and the precepts of all major religious faiths? 

The Constitutional Violation

Unless the facts presented by Jimmy Carter and the two Professors can be effectively denied, we, the People have a duty to do everything in our power to hold the Government accountable to the following clause of the Constitution, and thereby arrest and roll back America’s advance toward a Police State and its headlong rush into debt, dependency, and decay – i.e., a rush to the bottom. 

“The Congress shall have power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States ….” Art. I, Section 8, Clause 1

Unless the facts presented by Jimmy Carter and the two Professors can be effectively denied, it is arguable that U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East is repugnant to the General Welfare Clause of the Constitution and U.S. aid to Israel should be suspended, liberating all Americans from long years of bondage to Israel’s misdeeds.   

GML 2007 Agenda and Speakers 

Any conference on the state of the Constitution cannot ignore the reality of the potential link between our support of Israel’s destruction of the Palestine society and our developing Police State with its destruction of our Freedoms, Rights and Liberties.

In brief, our nation’s Mid-East policy appears to have not only brought disastrous injury to the Peoples of the Middle East, but has wrecked havoc at home, resulting in institutionalized attacks upon our Constitution and the unalienable Rights of the People.

Given the importance of these findings to the health of the Republic and continuation of Liberty, we have decided to devote the first half of the opening day of the conference to a discussion/debate on the issue.  

Unless the facts are effectively denied, we, the People of the United States of America have a duty to perform – the defense of our Constitution and the defense of Humanity.  

To that end, we have extended invitations to certain experts to participate in the conference, either directly or by remote satellite hookup, for the express purpose of admitting or denying the facts presented in the Working Paper and in Carter’s Book. 

We have extended invitations to the Government of Israel and the Palestinian National Authority, AIPAC, the Jerusalem Fund/Palestine Center, Al Jazeera and a number of noteworthy scholars and authors. Officials of the U.S. government have also been invited.  Several speakers have accepted our invitation. Negotiations are continuing with others. More on this later. 

Following the conference session on U.S. Foreign Policy, credentialed and accomplished experts will discuss the constitutionality of America’s developing Police State, and its monetary, tax, immigration, firearms, and health care policies and programs.

Click for the latest GML 2007 conference Agenda.

The following is a list of the confirmed speakers. Click on their names for biographical sketches. 

Laurence Kotlikoff          U.S. Bankruptcy and the Federal Reserve System, Prof. Economics, Boston University

Tommy Cryer                 The Direct, Un-apportioned Tax on Labor Is Unconstitutional

Rebecca O’Dell              Current Constitutional Crisis: The Loss of Our Republican Form of Gov’t

G. Edward Griffin            The Quigley Formula: Conspiratorial View of History

James Harper                The National ID card

Chuck Michaels             No Greater Threat To The Republic: The Rise of a National Security State

Jay Stanley                   America’s Developing Police State
 
Rashid Buttar                Absence of Personal Choice In Health Care

Mark Lane                     The Right to Petition For Redress of Grievances, (counsel, landmark RTP lawsuit)

Frosty Wooldridge          Illegal Immigration and the Coming Population Crisis for America

Roy Beck                      Illegal Immigration: No Vacancy Here: Bloom Where You Are Planted

Larry Pratt                     The Full Contours of the Meaning of the Second Amendment

Genie Jennings              Women To Play A Vital Role In Reinvigorating The State Militias

Meria Heller                   America: Past, Present and Future

Joseph Banister             IRS Special Agent Abused For Questioning IRS Authority to Enforce Income Tax

Steve Hempfling             Impermissible Retaliation for Petitioning for Redress of Grievances

Peymon Mottahedeh      The $300,000 Income Tax Challenge 
 

Must-See LIVE Conference Pay-Per-View

We The People is also pleased to announce that it is now offering a LIVE, 3-day Internet webcast of the conference proceedings to everyone who cannot attend the conference in person.

All conference events, including lunch speakers and the controversial session on the Middle-East policy are included in the Pay-Per-View.  Streaming for the PPV supports both dial-up and broadband/cable Internet connections.

The PPV package also includes a FREE video record of the conference on CD/DVD.  Production of the record will commence immediately following the conference. 

Please consider experiencing this most important WTP event LIVE, via the Internet.  Even if you don’t watch a minute of the webcast, you will still have your hard-copy of the conference record that you can share with your friends, family and communities for years to come.

Your PPV donation not only helps us cover the enormous costs involved in hosting and producing this event, but helps us bring our battle to save the Constitution to a wide-ranging audience.

You may want to consider hosting a conference viewing event in your local area so that numerous people can gather together and participate in the conference remotely. Although the PPV is itself copyrighted and cannot be recorded or retransmitted, WTP is encouraging group gatherings of WTP supporters to experience it at such events.

The conference is being streamed by a professional streaming concern that services Fortune 50 companies including Disney. 

Click here to register for the GML 2007 LIVE  Pay-Per-View.


Petitions for Redress Served

Last week, the We The People Foundation formally served every Member of Congress and the President of the United States with seven Petitions for Redress of Grievances.

The Petitions detailed substantive constitutional Grievances regarding the Iraq Resolution, the privately-owned Federal Reserve, the “USA PATRIOT Act”, the federal Income Tax, the North American Union, the infringement of the Second Amendment, and the failure of the President to enforce the Immigration Laws of the United States.

435 Representatives, 100 Senators and the President were each served with a CD-ROM copy of the  seven Petitions for Redress of Grievances, electronically signed by tens of thousands of American citizens.  The package included a transmittal letter and a copy of the Right-to-Petition Educational CD.  Click here to see the transmittal letter that was used to serve the President.  A similar letter was sent to Congress members. 

The transmittal letter requests an official response to the Petitions for Redress or for the elected official to send their representative to meet with the People across from the White House at 3 PM on Friday, March 30th, where the People will be waiting in silent vigil for a response.

Update Related Links

Read the White Paper on the Israel Lobby by Professors Mearsheimer and Walt
Note: This document is 1.2 MB.  Please RIGHT-click to download it onto your computer

Read Schulz's letter to the President transmitting the Petition for Redress

Click here to register for the GML 2007 LIVE  Pay-Per-View.

Click for the latest GML 2007 conference Agenda.