worldnetdaily.com Posted: March 15, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Art Moore © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

Could the U.N. use military force to prevent the United States and Britain from waging war on Iraq without a Security Council mandate?

Some anti-war groups are urging the world body to invoke a little-known convention that allows the General Assembly to step in when the Security Council is at an impasse in the face of a "threat to the peace, breach of the peace or act of aggression."

The willingness by the U.S. and Britain to go to war with Iraq without Security Council authorization is the kind of threat the U.N. had in mind when it passed Resolution 377 in 1950, said Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a human-rights group in New York City.

In a position paper, Ratner wrote that by invoking the resolution, called "Uniting for Peace," the "General Assembly can meet within 24 hours to consider such a matter, and can recommend collective measures to U.N. members including the use of armed forces to 'maintain or restore international peace and security.'"

The U.N. taking military action against the U.S.?

"It would be very difficult to say what that means," said Ratner in an interview with WorldNetDaily, emphasizing that he did not believe the situation would evolve to that "extreme."

"I don't consider that within the framework I'm talking about," he said.

Shonna Carter, a publicist for Ratner's group, said she believed it would be legitimate for the U.N. to use military force to stop "U.S. aggression."

"But I doubt it would happen," she said. "I don't think that as part of Uniting for Peace they would include military action, but that would have to be something those countries agreed on. …"

Steve Sawyer, spokesman for Greenpeace in New Zealand – which has joined Ratner's group in the campaign – told WND he was not aware of the U.N. being able to use force under any circumstances.

Ratner explained that Resolution 377 would enable the General Assembly to declare that the U.S. cannot take military action against Iraq without the explicit authority of the Security Council. The assembly also could mandate that the inspection regime be allowed to "complete its work."

"It seems unlikely that the United States and Britain would ignore such a measure," Ratner said in his paper. "A vote by the majority of countries in the world, particularly if it were almost unanimous, would make the unilateral rush to war more difficult."

Uniting for Peace can be invoked either by seven members of the Security Council or by a majority of the members of the General Assembly, he said.

'Ways to make U.N. more important'

Ratner, who also teaches at the Columbia University Law School, told WND that the idea of invoking the resolution "came up when I started thinking about the fact that we could get into a situation where the U.S. may go to war without a Security Council resolution or with a veto."

He had two of his students at the law school research the resolution and now has sent out the word to every U.N. mission in New York.

In addition, about 12 missions a day are being visited by campaigners, he said, and the response has been generally very positive.

He expects there to be support from the 116 countries in the non-aligned movement, who are "already saying inspectors should be given more time."

Greenpeace's involvement has greatly expanded the campaign's reach, he said, since "we're just a small human-rights litigation organization."

"I've done a lot of work with international law and with the U.N.," he said, "and we're always interested in figuring out ways to make the U.N. more important."

Sedition?

A circular e-mail letter promoting the campaign said in the first paragraph that "if Iraq is invaded, it would empower the General Assembly to restore peace, including an authorization to use military action to accomplish this, if necessary."

The letter includes Ratner's name and e-mail address as a contact, but he says he did not send out that particular version, which included the line about the U.N. using military action.

A political science professor at the University of Michigan who forwarded the letter to colleagues, added a note above the text, obtained by WND, that said: "Below you will find an excellent and urgently needed proposal for stopping the war before it starts from the Center for Constitutional Rights. …"

"Please make this major peace action a high priority and forward this message to others," said Susan Wright, who indicated she is with the university's Institute for Research on Women and Gender.

Is Wright essentially urging foreign countries to be willing to take military action against her own country?

"I wouldn't say it's necessarily sedition," said Ratner. "Advocacy is one thing, having the means to carry it out is another. It's not something I would ever recommend."

Art Moore is a news editor with WorldNetDaily.com.

worldnetdaily.com Posted: March 13, 2003 5:00 p.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

Amid new diplomatic setbacks, the United States said today it might go ahead with military action against Iraq without U.N. Security Council authorization.

The U.S. is seeking Security Council support for a proposed resolution – co-sponsored by Britain and Spain – that would give Iraq a few more days to comply with demands for disarmament, but Secretary of State Colin Powell said the new initiative might be pulled.

In that event, said Powell, the U.S. would go ahead with military action under the authority of previous resolutions. British Prime Minister Tony Blair argued today that the most recent mandate, resolution 1441, already gives authority to use force.

"The options remain, go for a vote and see what members say or not go for a vote," Powell told a U.S. congressional committee.

Powell said "all the options that you can imagine are before us and [we will] be examining them today, tomorrow and into the weekend."

Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan hinted this morning that he might entertain a proposal from President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil to convene a summit of world leaders in an attempt to head off war.

"President Lula sent me a message through his foreign minister on Monday night suggesting that maybe we try and bring together a group of world leaders, organize a summit with a group of leaders who are also searching for a compromise to get us out of this crisis," said Annan, in a brief session with reporters upon his return to U.N. headquarters.

The U.N. chief added that it would include "not necessarily council members, but interested heads of state in the world who are not on the council but are genuinely concerned to find a way out."

President Bush has stated he is willing to launch a war without U.N. backing, but his closest ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, facing strong opposition from his Labor Party, is seeking a compromise.

However, today France rejected Blair's proposal, which would set out six conditions for Iraq's disarmament.

French Foreign Minister, Dominique de Villepin insisted that Iraq must be given a realistic deadline to get rid of its weapons of mass destruction.

"It's not about giving a few more days to Iraq before resorting to force but about resolutely advancing through peaceful disarmament," de Villepin said in a statement.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw retorted that the French minister's "extraordinary" statement made a peaceful resolution of the crisis "more difficult," and vowed to continue seeking support for the tests.

"What I however find extraordinary is that without even proper consideration the French Government decided they will reject these proposals adding to the statement that whatever the circumstances France will vote no," he said.

Straw said resolution 1441 placed obligations not only on Saddam Hussein, but on the Security Council members, "to see through the process of disarmament," hopefully by peaceful means, but by force if Iraq chose not to comply.

"What we are seeking to do is by this suggestion, these proposals of these tests, to ensure that even at this late stage there is a means by which Saddam can show reasonably that he is coming in to compliance with his obligations going back to 1991," Straw said.

In his briefing today, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer criticized France for rejecting "the logic of ultimatums."

"France also looked at the British proposal, and they rejected it before Iraq rejected it," he said. "If that isn't an unreasonable veto, what is? So we look at what France is doing, and we wish they were doing otherwise."

Britain has offered to drop one of its tests, a demand for Hussein to appear on Iraqi television and renounce past illegal weapons programs. British diplomats say they also are willing to substantially extend the proposed resolution's March 17 ultimatum, but the U.S. objected to anything more than a "very, very" modest extension.

www.scoop.co.nz Friday, 14 March 2003, 12:08 pm Press Release: United Nations

Includes Video Report: United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan made yet another appeal today for united Security Council action in ridding Iraq of weapons of mass destruction as the 15-member body continued to wrestle over whether to give UN inspectors more time or to declare Baghdad in default by next Monday.

“I think what is important is that governments have to find a way of working together,” Mr. Annan said in reply to reporters’ questions at UN Headquarters in New York. “Regardless of how this crisis or the current issue is resolved, the Council will have to work together, and the Members States will have to work together to deal with the situation in Iraq, in the Middle East and in many other issues.”

The Secretary-General said he had spoken to British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Monday night and “he seemed very genuinely looking for a compromise and a way forward.” He also said Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva had sent him a message proposing a summit meeting of world leaders, not necessarily Security Council members, who are also searching for “a compromise to get us out of this crisis.”

The United States, United Kingdom and Spain have introduced a draft resolution that presents Iraq with a 17 March deadline to cooperate fully with disarmament demands, which France says it will veto. France, Germany, the Russian Federation and other Council members have voiced opposition to action at this time and seek continued and enhanced weapons inspections.

After meeting with the Russian and British Ambassadors on Wednesday, Mr. Annan is holding a series of one-on-one meetings with the remaining Council members today. He is “urging them to continue their strenuous efforts to find compromise and exploring with them what might be done to further their objective to define a united position,” spokesman Fred Eckhard said at a press briefing.

The Council has scheduled closed-door consultations this afternoon to continue discussions on Iraq.

news.pacificnews.org Commentary, Alicia Torres, Pacific News Service, Feb 27, 2003

Beyond gaining support from the military and portions of the underclass, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has channeled the historical, mythical, and to some, mystical figure of 19th century General Simon Bolivar. PNS contributor Alicia Torres examines a popular religion with indigenous roots to find one secret to Chavez's continuing rule.

As Venezuela's fate seems locked between President Hugo Chavez's militant, underclass supporters and the middle class, media and business communities arrayed against him, a third force lurks behind the scenes.

Pacing the labyrinth of Venezuela's popular imagination, the unnamed actor is the magical, long-dead General Simon Bolívar, the nation's founding father. The Bolivar myth, skillfully channeled by Chavez, is key to the former paratrooper's grip on power.

After leading a failed and bloody coup attempt in 1992, Chavez famously spent many months in jail and emerged from his "captivity" with a powerful rhetorical and symbolic ace card. Reaching into the confusing current of Venezuela's political history, he found one untainted image, a myth untouched by decades of rampant political corruption and squandering of the country's vast oil wealth, a messy recent history that started long before Chavez.

Hugo Chavez's deft ability to incorporate into his campaign persona the historical legacy of the brilliant general who liberated half of South America from the control of the 19th century Spanish empire helped propel Chavez to the Venezuelan presidency in 1998 with over 80 percent of the vote. Today, Chavez's cult of personality is centered on his image as Bolívar's heir, the modern-day liberator of Venezuela's poorest.

In the United States, no figure commands the same kind of reverence as Bolívar does in Venezuela. The country's currency, plazas and universities carry his name. His maxims are taught in schools, broadcast on radio and emblazoned on government buildings. Bolívar is a liberator idealized in oral culture by small-town storytellers, and in the lyrics of traditional music such as contrapunto.

Chavistas, as the president's supporters are known, call the areas they control the "liberated zones of the Bolivarian Republic" and adorn offices and homes with giant portraits of Bolívar. Chavez trumpets Bolívar's dream of a politically unified South America, calls his political movement the Bolivarian Revolution and he has organized poor neighborhoods into political cells called Bolivarian Circles.

And, as Chavez well knows, besides the historical Bolivar there is a supernatural one, a figure of popular religious devotion who takes his place alongside other cult figures on home altars.

Alongside the Catholic religion, another spiritual tradition thrives in Venezuela, a popular religion with indigenous, African and Catholic roots called the religion of María Lionza. Based on the worship by Indians of a fertility goddess known as María Lionza, the syncretic faith predates any other touchstone of Venezuela's national identity. Many Venezuelans would not inhabit a home lacking an altar to the religion's principal divinities, each of which represents Venezuela's vibrant ethnic mixture of white, Indian, and black.

These religious altars usually feature a portrait of Simón Bolívar, and the religion's priests hold ceremonies in which the spirit of Bolívar is channeled through a medium who coughs when the general is present, since Bolívar had tuberculosis.

The official Bolívar celebrated in textbooks, statues and hymns still elicits the respect and devotion of Venezuelans, even if they inhabit luxury apartments. But in the figure of Chavez, some in Venezuela, including some of the nation's poorest, also see the spirit of Bolívar incarnate. The tradition of María Lionza has fed Chavez's grip on the country's imagination.

Chavez encourages this by echoing Bolívar's words and making his nationally televised speeches with a portrait of Bolívar placed next to his head. Venezuelans joke that Chavez always sets an extra place at his dinner table for Bolívar, and say that he parades the long hallways of his presidential mansion wearing the famed general's cape. Whether the stories are true or not, Chavez is definitely obsessed with Bolívar's legacy and exploits it to maintain power.

The president's posturing as a 21st century manifestation of Bolívar has helped radicalize the conflict in Venezuela. On one side, he is still revered by a significant part of the population as Venezuela's last hope -- a second liberator. The enraged opposition, on the other hand, thinks Chavez has betrayed Bolívar's legacy and 50 years of Venezuelan democracy with his authoritarian style and incendiary class rhetoric. It's one reason the new Bolivarian Revolution is in danger of ending in a civil war.

Torres has published several books of poetry in Venezuela and was a columnist for Caracas daily El Universal. She currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

news.pacificnews.org News Analysis, Roger Burbach, Pacific News Service, Mar 13, 2003

The "zero-hunger" programs of recently elected Brazilian President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva -- and the country's whole economy - may be threatened by a U.S. war in Iraq.

RIO DE JANEIRO--In Brazil, the U.S. war with Iraq hangs heavily over the country's future, threatening its economy and putting in jeopardy the hunger-fighting programs of recently elected President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva.

"We have no idea what the war will mean. We could be thrown back to a period like the 1930s, when all of Latin America was in a depression," says Marcos Arruda of PACS, an independent research center. Arruda fears that war will make it virtually impossible for Brazil to continue paying its immense foreign debt.

Lula, as the president is known popularly, won election three months ago by promising to mitigate the country's tremendous social and economic inequalities. His "Zero Hunger" program has been launched with pilot projects nationwide, and, as he promised in his campaign, he has formed councils comprised of members of civil society to make recommendations on key policy issues.

Francisco Meneses, a member of the newly formed Council on Food Security, says that the council in its first meeting in January doubled the amount of free food distributed to schools. In February, Meneses says, the council directed the Ministry of Agriculture to move away from its historic policy of supporting agribusiness interests and instead "support cooperatives, small-scale agricultural producers, and food self sufficiency at the local level."

But Lula's plans for transforming Brazil are threatened by the nation's longstanding economic difficulties. One challenge is a bankrupt social security system. Cesar Benajamin, a social policy analyst and leader of the Popular Consultative Movement, blames former president Fernando Henriquez Cardoso's neo-liberal free market policies, which "undermined the country's stable work force, greatly expanded the informal sector, and thereby curtailed the number of contributors to social security."

The number of retired beneficiaries in major states like Rio de Janeiro now significantly exceeds the number of people paying into the system.

"Lula faces a financial time bomb that could explode at any time," says Reinaldo Gonzalves of the Economic Institute of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. "The government is facing a major fiscal crisis because of the skyrocketing debt, both internally and internationally. In the medium or long term, it is unpayable."

When Lula took office, the debt burden had expanded dramatically due to a significant drop in the value of its national currency, the real, in international markets. Today, Brazil's debt is equal to 56 percent of the country's gross domestic product.

To the dismay of many leading figures in Lula's Workers Party, the new government has so far adopted fairly traditional economic measures to deal with its economic problems. To help meet payments on the debt, the Minister of Economy has ordered the government to cut expenditures and to raise the expected budgetary surplus, not including debt payments, from 3.75 percent to 4.25 percent. To stop capital flight the Central Bank has raised interest rates from an already astounding 25.5 percent to 26.5 percent.

The agricultural and anti-hunger policies have not faced the immediate budgetary squeeze of other government programs because the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization, along with the World Bank, see Lula's Zero Hunger program as a global model and pump around $5 billion into Brazil to support it. But "this is only a temporary fix," Gonzalves notes. "These are almost exclusively loans that will add to Brazil's already enormous international debt."

A U.S. war with Iraq will almost certainly affect even the hunger program. Lula's economic advisers already recognize the conflict will have a shock effect on the Brazilian economy, causing a drop in exports and upsetting the country's ability to deal with its debt and capital flows. Threat of war has already shaken Brazil's financial markets.

Lula, who has been outspoken in his opposition to war in Iraq, declared in a recent phone conversation with Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany that he would join Mexico, Chile and Angola -- three members of U.N. Security Council with which Brazil has historic ties -- in voting against a new U.S. resolution authorizing attack on Iraq.

Though few here are optimistic the war can be stopped, some think it may compel Lula to follow through on a more radical agenda. "Sooner rather than later, Lula and his economic advisers will have to break with the past," Meneses says. "A war may well compel him to call for popular mobilization and the formation of participatory councils at the grass roots to challenge the stranglehold of the domestic and the international elites over the Brazilian economy."

PNS contributor Roger Burbach (censa@igc.org) is director of the Center for the Study of the Americas (CENSA) and has written extensively on Latin America and globalization. His next book, "The Pinochet Affair: State Terrorism and Global Justice," will be released by Zed Books this fall.