IRAN : Stop the war on Iran before it starts! SIGN THE PETITION !

Stop the war on Iran before it starts!
Sign online : http://www.stopwaroniran.org/statement.shtml

It is with grave concern that we observe the growing threat of a new U.S. war—this time against the people of Iran.

The media is filled with reports of an alleged nuclear threat posed by Iran and the assumed need for the U.S. to take military action. These reports recall the "Weapons of Mass Destruction" stories issued in the months leading up to the war on Iraq.

In the lead up to the illegal invasion of Iraq, the Bush Administration asserted that Iraq possessed massive stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction and that it was capable of launching an attack - nuclear, chemical and biological - on the U.S. within 45 minutes.

President Bush said that the U.S. had to attack immediately, and could not "wait for the final proof — the smoking gun — that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud." We all know now that this propaganda campaign was a complete fabrication created to justify a war of aggression.

Now we see reports that are all too similar being made to justify military action against the people of Iran. Taking Iran to the UN Security Council is a prelude for unilateral action. Just as in the case of Iraq, none of the claims made by the U.S. government stand up to unbiased scrutiny. Iran has submitted to the most intrusive and humiliating inspections, above and beyond what is required by Nuclear Weapons Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). None of the inspections have found any evidence that Iran is developing a nuclear weapons program.

There is only one government that has used nuclear weapons against civilian populations, and that same country has the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction on the planet. Most dangerous and incredible it is at this very moment developing a new generation of tactical nuclear weapons that it intends to use, not merely to threaten. That country is, of course, the United States. Shouldn’t any real discussion of the dangers of nuclear weapons include the weapons stockpiled by the Pentagon and the history of U.S. aggression and interventions?

Iran has suffered greatly at the hands of the U.S. We recall the U.S. overthrew the democratically elected government of Dr. M. Mossadegh and returned the Shah to the Peacock Throne - ‘the proudest achievement of the CIA’. For 25 years the Shah ruled Iran with an iron fist for the benefit of U.S. oil corporations before the people of Iran, in the millions, overthrew his tyranny at a terrible cost in lives. For the past 27 years U.S. sanctions have impeded Iran’s right to development and brought great suffering to the people.

It is essential that all voices opposed to the devastation of a new war in the Middle East speak out now. We urge an immediate end to Washington’s campaign of sanctions, hostility, and falsehood against the people of Iran. We oppose any new U.S. aggression against Iran. We need funds for human needs, not endless war for empire.

Initial Signers (add your name)

 

Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, Detroit Archdiocese*, Founding President, Pax Christi*

The Most Rev. Filipe C Teixeira, OFSJC, Diocesan Bishop, Diocese of Saint Francis of Assisi, CCA

Michael Parenti, author

Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General

Howard Zinn, author, historian

George Galloway, MP, Britain

Tony Benn, MP, Britain

Denis J. Halliday, former UN Assistant Secretary-General

Harold Pinter, 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature

Margarita Papandreou, former First Lady of Greece

Ardeshir Ommani, co-founder of American-Iranian Friendship Committee (AIFC)

Ervand Abrahamian, Prof. ME History, Author, Between Two Revolutions

David N. Rahni, Professor and scholar, NY

David Sole, President UAW, Local 2334*, Detroit

Steve Gillis, President, USWA Local 8751*

Fellowship of Reconciliation, Nyack, NY

Thomas Koppel and Annisette, of the Scandanavian Popular Music Band Savage Rose

 

Dirk Adriaensens, coordinator SOS Iraq, exec. committee Brussells Tribunal)

Fatemeh Abdollahzadeh, Professor, Central Conn State University*, New Britain, CT

Dirk Adriaensens, coordinator SOS Iraq, exec. committee Brussells Tribunal

Amir Hossein Afrassiabi, Architect/poet, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Moji Agha, Founder, Universal Coalition For Interfaith And Intercultural Knowledge And Action (UCIIKA)*, Tucson, AZ

Sima Aprahamian, Asst. Prof. & Fellow, Sociology-anthropology & Simone De Beauvoir Institute*, Montreal, Canada

Hani Y. Awadallah, President, Arab American Civic Organization

Axis of Logic

Dr. Barbara Nimri Aziz, Executive producer of RadioTahrir-WBAI-NY

Afshin Babazadeh, Poet, London, United Kingdom

Brian Barraza, AMAT, Association of Mexican American Workers

Sharon Black, All Peoples Congress

Hamid Bonyadi, Legal advisor/Advocate, Attorney At Law, Teheran, Iran

Jean Bricmont, Brussels Tribunal

Brookline PeaceWorks

John Catalinotto, Editor - Metal of Dishonor

Ed Childs, Chief Steward, Unite Here Local #26*

Michel Collon, writer, publicist, Stop USA

Gerry Condon, Vietnam war deserter/antiwar activist, Director, Soldier Say No / Project Safe Haven

Heather Cottin, Freeport Community Worklink Center*

Tiphaine Dickson, attorney

LeiLani Dowell, Queers for Peace & Justice

Gregory Elich, author, researcher

Elena Everett, Chair, NC Green Party*, Co-Chair, GPAX (Green Party Peace Action Committee)*

Leslie Feinberg, Nat’l Lgbt Caucus Co-chair, National Writers’ Union/UAW*, Jersey City, NJ

Sara Flounders, International Action Center

Lenora Foerstel, Vice Pres. Women for Mutual Security*

John Bellamy Foster, Editor, Monthly Review*, Eugene, OR*

Tiokasin Ghosthorse, First Voices Indigenous Radio

Peter Gilbert, FIST - Fight Imperialism, Stand Together

Farrukh Sohail Goindi, Foundation for Democracy-Pakistan

Teresa Gutierrez, NY Committee to Free the Cuba 5

Samia Halaby, Defend Palestine, NYC

Bagher R. Harand, Upper Grandview, NY

Klaus Hartmann, Chairman, German Freethinkers Association

Jesse Lokahi Heiwa, QueerJustice.org

Imani Henry, Playwright/Performer

Nellie Hester Bailey, Harlem Tenants Council

Sherif Hetata, MD, novelist,International Coordinating Committee of the Mediterranean Social Forum*

Connie Hogarth, director, Connie Hogarth Center For Social Action, Manhattanville College*, Purchase, NY

Larry Holmes, Troops Out Now Coalition

Eric Hooglund, Editor, Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies, Hamline University*, St. Paul MN

Yoomi Jeong, Korea Truth Commission

Berta Joubert-Ceci, Philadelphia International Action Center

Charlotte Kates, NJ Solidarity - Activists for the Liberation of Palestine

Khadouri al-Kaysi, Committee to Support the Iraqi People

Nada Khader, Director of WESPAC* Foundation

Beth Lamont, NY Humanist Society*

Dustin Langley, No We Wont Go counter-recruiting network

The Audre Lorde Project

Robert Merrill, Ph.D.,Professor, Maryland Institute College of Art*, Baltimore, MD

MLK, Jr. Bolivarian Circle, Boston

Morteza Mohit, Glendale, CA

Monica Moorehead, Millions for Mumia

Milan Neuberg, President, The Party of Democratic Socialism, Czech Republic

New England Human Rights for Haiti

Erik-Anders Nilsson, Jersey City Peace Movement

Eleanor Ommani, American-Iranian Friendship Committee (AIFC)

Goli Ostadiar, Stop War with Iran, Tehran, Iran

John Parker, LeftBooks.com

Pam Parker, shop steward, Washington/Baltimore Newspaper Guild(WBNG) #32035

Rostam Pourzal, Iranian Cultural Association*, Washington DC

Ralph Poynter, New Abolitionist Movement*

Minnie Bruce Pratt, Lesbian Author/activist, National Writers Union*, Jersey City, NJ

Anne Pruden, 1199 SEIU delegate*

Milos Raickovich, composer, New York

Sami Ramadani, Senior Lecturer, London Metropolitan University*, London, United Kingdom

Mohammad Reza Rasaei, PhD, Univerity Of Tehran*, Tehran, Iran

Gloria Rubac, Steward, Houston Federation of Teachers, Local 2415*

Nawal El Saadawi, Writer and Psychiatrist, President, Arab Women’s Solidarity Association*,

Nader Sadeghi, Associate Professor of Surgery, George Washington University*, Washington, DC,

Roudabeh Shafie, Founder, Action Iran, London, United Kingdom

Njeri Shakur, Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement

Reza Shirazi, Radio Producer, Fairfax Public Access TV*, Fairfax, VA

Nana Soul, Artists and Activists United for Peace

Annie & Buddy Spell, Covington Peace Project, Covington LA

Lynne Stewart, attorney

Lynne Stewart Defense Committee

Johnnie Stevens, Peoples Video Network

Brenda Stokely, New York City Labor Against the War

Kambiz Sur Esrafil Jahangir, Founder/Secretary General, Iranian Diaspora Against Defamation And Aggression, San Diego, CA

David Swanson, Co-Founder, After Downing Street, Charlottesville, VA

Mark Lewis Taylor, Professor of Religion & Culture, Princeton Theological Seminary*

Nadje Tesich, Author, Playwright, Poet

Usavior, Artists and Activists United for Peace

Tony Van Der Meer, Prof. Univ. of Massachusetts*, Boston, MA

Saeed Vaseghi, Professor, Brunel University*, London, United Kingdom

Klaus von Raussendorff, Association for International Solidarity*, Germany

Michael Tarif Warren, attorney

Dave Welsh, Delegate, San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-CIO*

Walter Williams, People Judge Bush