Bush To World: Drop Dead! - Part 2

The world is waiting for us to do something about the bush administration!

This is the second installment on international treaties and agreements that the bush administration has withdrawn from or refused to participate in.

Part 1 took a look at:

• UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
• Geneva Conventions
• Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
• Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention
• Optional Protocol to the UN's International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights
• Kyoto Protocol

Treaties and Agreements (Part 2)
Land Mine Treaty, 1997
This treaty banning land mines was signed in December 1997 by 122 nations but not the US. President Clinton stated that landmines were needed to protect South Korea but that the US would sign by 2006.
August 2001. bush disavowed Clinton’s promise to comply.
February 2004. bush officially abandons the landmine prohibition and creates a new policy, one that allows the US military to use 'smart' or self-limiting land mines but also allows, until 2010, "dumb" mines that cannot self-destruct.

UN Human Rights Commission, April 2001
In the Human Rights Commission, the US stood alone in opposing resolutions supporting lower-cost access to HIV/AIDS drugs, acknowledging a basic human right to adequate food, and calling for a moratorium on the death penalty. The HRC saw the handwriting on the wall with regards to bush on human rights and did not re-elect the US to the Commission. Can you blame them?

Money Laundering, May 2001
For all his talk of clamping down on the finances of "terrists," bush refused to participate in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)-sponsored talks on ways to crack down on off-shore and other tax and money-laundering havens. Why? From Joseph Stiglitz, former chief economist of the World Bank, to The Nation, "The answer is, it's in the interests of some of the monied interests to allow this to occur. It's not an accident; it could have been shut down at any time."

US "Echelon" program, May 2001
The bush administration, when asked to explain its use of the Echelon program within the European Union—which has a much better track record of privacy—decided that it did not need to answer to anyone. The Echelon program involves economic espionage and electronic surveillance of phone calls, e-mail, and faxes. Just like home!

International Plan for Cleaner Energy, July 2001
A report commissioned by the G-8 group of industrial nations—US, Canada, Japan, Russia, Germany, France, Italy, UK—on methods of achieving cleaner energy suggested phasing out subsidies for fossil fuels and, instead, increasing financing for renewable energy. As usual, the administration placed oil and gas industry interests ahead of efforts to curb global warming. The US was the only one to reject the task force's recommendations. See there, Iran Study Group, it’s not just you.
October 2006. Officials at the World Bank meet with the G8 to give its proposals on energy and global warming from an "investment" standpoint. Using an assumption of sea levels three feet higher than they are currently, the World Bank proposes nuclear power along with "integrated gasification combine cycle" and "carbon capture and storage," two untested technologies using coal-fired power plants, while ignoring renewable energy. Who do you suppose thought World Bank officials should be making recommendations instead of scientists?

International Conference on Racism, September 2001
163 countries met in Durban, South Africa to achieve progress in defeating racism—not the US, we withdrew. Dubya’s remarks from a PBS interview "We have made it very clear through Colin Powell's office that we will have no representative there so long as they pick on Israel, so long as they continue to say Zionism is racism. If they use the forum as a way to isolate our friend and strong ally, we will not participate."

Enforcing an illegal boycott of Cuba, October 2001
In the UN in October 2001, the General Assembly passed a resolution, for the tenth time, calling for an end to the US embargo. Only three countries voted to let the US do what it wants, the US, Israel, and the Marshall Islands.

UN Agreement to Curb the International Flow of Illicit Small Arms, October 2001
The UN agreement passed, with a treaty to be in place by the end of 2008, in spite of US opposition. Again, the US stands alone...because why? We need to arm Contra rebels? Haliburton has stock in Glock? Oh, here it is...according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the United States accounted for 48 percent of total military spending worldwide in 2005.

Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, 1972
Signed by the United States and the USSR May 26, 1972; entered into force October 3, 1972
December 2001. bush notifies Russia that he is pulling out of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, opening the way for the creation of an anti-missile defense system.
"Today I am giving formal notice to Russia that the United States of America is withdrawing from this almost 30-year-old treaty," bush said in the White House Rose Garden. "I have concluded the ABM treaty hinders our government's ability to develop ways to protect our people from future terrorist or rogue state missile attacks." He also reportedly quipped that "heck, the USSR doesn’t exist anymore. I want my battle toys!" Star Wars anyone?

War Crimes Treaty--International Criminal Court (ICC), 1998
The ICC reserves its jurisdiction for international crimes of the most serious nature, i.e. war crimes, torture, enforced disappearance (rendition), rape, and genocide. This court’s jurisdiction became effective when the treaty entered into force on July 1, 2002. President Clinton signed the treaty.
December 2001. The Senate keeps US military personnel from obeying the jurisdiction of the proposed ICC by adding an amendment to a military appropriations bill.
May 2002. With an abrupt three-sentence letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, dumya "unsigned" the treaty and ended US participation in the agreement
August 2002. Concerned that sovereign nations will be able to prosecute bushco for war crimes (even though the US is no longer a signatory to the treaty), bush pushes through an exemption for U.S. personnel operating in UN peacekeeping operations and, further, demands that other nations agree not to surrender American nationals to the ICC.

From Human Rights Watch

...the U.S Congress has assisted the Bush administration's effort to obtain bilateral impunity agreements. The Congress passed the American Servicemembers' Protection Act (ASPA), which was signed into law by President Bush on 3 August. The major anti-ICC provisions in ASPA are:

• a prohibition on U.S. cooperation with the ICC;
• an "invasion of the Hague" provision: authorizing the President to "use all means necessary and appropriate" to free U.S. personnel (and certain allied personnel) detained or imprisoned by the ICC;
• punishment for States that join the ICC treaty: refusing military aid to States' Parties to the treaty (except major U.S. allies);
• a prohibition on U.S. participation in peacekeeping activities unless immunity from the ICC is guaranteed for U.S. personnel.

However, all of these provisions are off-set by waiver provisions that allow the president to override the effects of ASPA when "in the national interest". The waiver provisions effectively render ASPA meaningless.

June 2003. The bush administration begins threatening in earnest to oppose spending for NATO headquarters and cutting off military aid and other benefits for any government that won’t guarantee permanent immunity for them...er...the US.

It hard to believe that one administration could trash this many treaties as it is but there is one more group to come.