| August 15, 2006 9/11 Call for Freedom from Fear: The only thing we have to fear is fear itself
Quote of the Week: The next war... with Iran? (The New Yorker)
Report Back: U.S. officials seek to avoid risk of war crimes prosecution
Report Back: Update on Iraq
Middle East: FCNL urges U.S. not to sell cluster bombs to Israel
Grassroots Tips: Find out how your members of Congress voted
War is Not the Answer Photo of the Week To read this newsletter online visit www.fcnl.org/email/e-newsletter/15aug06.htm 9/11 Call for Freedom from Fear: The only thing we have to fear is fear itself | Credit: Bette Mastropasqua
(Beachwood, NJ) | The airplane bombing plot in London has rekindled fears of a “terrorist” attack and led to new calls for military action overseas and greater restrictions on civil liberties within the United States. However, five years after the attacks of September 11, 2001, we now know that responding to fear with violence is not the answer. This September 10 and 11, please join with FCNL in a Nationwide 9/11 Call for Freedom from Fear.
| Quote of the Week: The next war... with Iran? (The New Yorker) “Intelligence about Hezbollah and Iran is being mishandled by the White House the same way intelligence had been when, in 2002 and early 2003, the Administration was making the case that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.”
~Seymour Hersh, “Watching Lebanon” (The New Yorker, 8/21/06) Read the rest of the article describing White House preparations for a U.S. war with Iran. Report Back: U.S. officials seek to avoid risk of war crimes prosecution The Bush administration is asking Congress to amend U.S. law to legalize many of the torture techniques used at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. This proposal would also grant immunity to the officials responsible for ordering those interrogation techniques. Under a law passed in the mid-1990s that criminalized violations of the Geneva Convention, those officials could be prosecuted. According to press reports, the amendments drafted by the Bush administration would in effect provide U.S. personnel leeway to “reinterpret” some sections of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention, the international agreement that sets minimum standards for treatment of detainees during wartime. Read Col. Dan Smith’s explanation of why the original War Crimes Statute was approved by Congress. Read the Washington Post report on the administration’s effort to reduce the risk that U.S. officials would be prosecuted for war crimes. Read more on U.S. treatment of prisoners. Quote of the week: Rewriting the Geneva Convention (New York Times) “The administration’s real aim is to keep on using abusive interrogation techniques at the secret prisons run by the Central Intelligence Agency. And it wants to make interrogators — and those who give their orders — immune from prosecution.”
~New York Times editorial, 8/14/06 Read the entire editorial. Report Back: Update on Iraq The vast majority of Iraqis are demanding a timetable for the removal of U.S.-led forces, believing it would make warring factions more willing to negotiate with Iraq’s government for an end to the violence. Read “Iraq: Time for Withdrawal” by former FCNL Senior Fellow Rick McDowell in the July/August FCNL Washington Newsletter. (Free registration required.) Middle East: FCNL urges U.S. not to sell cluster bombs to Israel The New York Times reports that Israel has asked the U.S. for a shipment of M26 cluster bombs, indiscriminate antipersonnel weapons that kill across an area as large as 240,000 square meters. The U.S. should be promoting a cease-fire to protect all parties to the conflict; it should not be fueling the fighting. Read FCNL’s letter urging Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice not to ship these weapons to Israel.
Grassroots Tips: Find Out How Your Members of Congress Voted Have you ever wondered how your members of Congress voted on the legislation you hear about in FCNL’s e-newsletters and action messages? Did you know that you can find out on our website? Enter your zip code in the box at the top of the page to find out how your members voted on key issues identified by FCNL. War Is Not the Answer Photo of the Week 
War is Not the Answer sign at a demonstration
in downtown Indianapolis (September 2005) The War is Not the Answer yard signs are flying out the door. This year FCNL is distributing these yard signs at a monthly rate that is more than two times the rate in 2005. | 
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