9-19-06, 9:04 am

The Bush administration last week put to Congress legislation that would give immunity from prosecution for war crimes to CIA operatives and others who engage in “tough” interrogations of prisoners. This, even as Bush denied his government condones torture. At the same time it was being reported that the US military has created a global network of overseas prisons, keeping 14,000 prisoners beyond the reach of established law.

George W Bush’s drive to promote a global “war for civilisation” against a sham “Islamic fascism” is intended to try and justify the crimes against humanity and acts of aggression being committed by his administration.

But it is also the posturing of a man attempting beat up fear and loathing as elections loom. (It is the tactic also being run here in Australia by the Howard Government as it once again demonises Muslims.) The Bush administration is feeling the clammy hand of fear, and the threats to it arise not only from what may be voters’ perceptions in the November polls. The world is changing rapidly, the poor and downtrodden of the developing nations are on the move, including on the US’s doorstep.

In Cuba’s capital Havana the 14th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit has just concluded. Attended by representatives of 118 nations, it finalised its work at its last session on Sunday (see article page 8).

Speaking at the final session, Cuban First Vice-President Raul Castro stated that “important documents and initiatives were approved, including the reaffirmation of the positions of the Non-Aligned Movement countries on the principal political, economic and social issues of our time and the most significant regional and sub-regional problems for our countries.”

The Havana Declaration, approved by the summit, contains the aims and principals and role of the NAM for a “solid framework of action based on the regulations that must guide international relations in order to achieve a more just and equitable world”, a sharp contrast to the warmongering and fascistic agenda of the Bush Government and those tied to its coat tails.

Raul Castro spoke of the enormous challenges that confront the nations of the Third World, including the use of force, threats, coercion and violations of the principles of international law.

Hugo Chávez, the President of Venezuela, one of a growing number of Latin American countries breaking the grip of US imperialism, greeted the “brothers and sisters from Asia, Africa and Europe” at the summit, saying “You who are visiting Our Caribbean, this Latin America, like your nations colonised, overwhelmed and massacred over the centuries”, and quoted Tupac Katari, one of the massacred Indigenous people: “I will die today, but some day I will come back made into millions.”

They are words that will echo in the White House.

From The Guardian