[governance] Latin America Condemns US Espionage at United Nations Security Council
parminder
parminder at itforchange.net
Sun Aug 25 02:38:32 EDT 2013
See in particular seeking of global standards for Internet regulation,
and global means for prevention and sanctions regarding the the kind of
things the NSA has been doing.... parminder
*http://www.globalresearch.ca/latin-america-condemns-us-espionage-at-united-nations-security-council/5346120
Global Research August 17, 2013*
Latin America Condemns US Espionage at United Nations Security Council
*The foreign ministers of Brazil, Venezuela, Uruguay, Bolivia and
Ecuador fiercely condemned the United States plan for worldwide
espionage, which posed a lethal threat to the democratically elected
governments of these Latin American nations and jeopardized their survival.
By Carla Stea*
/ "The United States appears to be destined by Providence to plague
America with misery in the name of liberty."/ Simon Bolivar
Throughout the day, on August 6, President Cristina Fernandez Kirchner
of Argentina chaired a historic United Nations Security Council meeting
that revealed a seismic shift in geopolitical consciousness and
incipient strength.
The agenda of Security Council meeting 7015 was: /"Cooperation Between
the United Nations and Regional and Sub-regional Organizations in
Maintaining International Peace and Security."/
The prelude to this meeting was held, the prior day, August 5, at a
press stakeout given by Elias Jaua Milano, Foreign Minister of
Venezuela, Hector Timerman, Foreign Minister of Argentina, Antonio de
Aguiar Patriota, Foreign Minister of Brazil, Luis Almagro, Foreign
Minister of Uruguay and David Choquehuanca Cespedes, Foreign Minister of
Bolivia.
They spoke on behalf of Mercosur, the Southern Common Market, following
their meeting with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Their
remarks focused on the expression of outrage contained in the "Annex to
the note verbale dated 22 July from the Permanent Mission of the
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the United Nations addressed to the
Secretary-General, which stated:
"Decision rejecting the acts of espionage conducted by the United
States in the countries of the region." "The President of the
Argentine Republic, the President of the Plurinational State of
Bolivia, the President of the Federative Republic of Brazil, the
President of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay and the President of
the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, having met in Montevideo,
Eastern Republic of Uruguay, on 12 July, 2013, within the framework
of the presidential summit of the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR),
Condemning the acts of espionage carried out by intelligence
agencies of the United States of America, which affect all countries
in the region,
Strongly rejecting the interception of telecommunications and the
acts of espionage carried out in our countries, which constitute a
violation of the human rights, the right to privacy and the right to
information of our citizens, and which also constitute unacceptable
behavior that violates our sovereignty and is detrimental to the
normal conduct of relations among nations,
Considering the advisability of promoting a coordinated approach to
this issue at the regional level,
Decide to:
Work together to guarantee the cybersecurity of the States members
to MERCOSUR, which is essential to defending the sovereignty of our
countries,
Demand that those responsible immediately cease these activities and
provide an explanation of the motives for and consequences of such
activities,
Stress that the prevention of crime and the suppression of
transnational crimes, including terrorism, must be carried out in
line with the rule of law and in strict observance of international law.
Promote the adoption by the relevant multilateral institutions of
standards for the regulation of the Internet which place a
particular emphasis on cybersecurity issues, with a view to
fostering the adoption of standards that guarantee the adequate
protection of communications, in particular to safeguard the
sovereignty of States and the privacy of individuals,
Express our full solidarity with all countries, within and outside
our region that have been victims of such actions,
Promote the joint efforts of the Ministers for Foreign Affairs to
inform the Secretary-General of the United Nations of these
incidents and request prevention and sanction mechanisms on the
issue at the multilateral level
Instruct the delegations of the Member States participating in the
upcoming session of the United Nations General Assembly to jointly
present a formal proposal to that end,
Request the Argentine Republic to submit this matter to the Security
Council for consideration,
Agree to establish a working group to coordinate efforts, together
with the South American Defence Council and the South American
Infrastructure and Planning Council, aimed at carrying out
activities that will render our telecommunications more secure and
reduce our dependence on foreign technology."
The morning session of the August 6 Security Council meeting consisted
primarily of technical diplomatic presentations. Following
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's statement, Cuban Foreign Minister
Rodriguez Parrella opened the meeting, as President of the Community of
Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC):
"The history of Latin American and the Caribbean has changed. Two
hundred years after our independence, the ideas of 'a Nation of
Republics,' and of 'Our America' envisaged by Bolivar and Marti,
respectively, are taking shape. Thus, our Heads of State and
Government decided in the Caracas Declaration that 'in accordance
with the original mandate of our liberators, CELAC must move forward
in the process of political, economic, social and cultural
integration -- based on a wise equilibrium between the unity and
diversity of our peoples ...Upon founding CELAC, our Heads of State
and Government reiterated our commitment to the building of a more
just, equitable and harmonious international order based on respect
for international law and the Charter of the United Nations. ...They
reaffirmed our commitment to the defense of sovereignty and the
right of any state to establish its own political system, free from
threats, aggression and unilateral coercive measures, and in an
environment of peace, stability, justice, democracy and respect for
human rights. CELAC reiterates that there can be no lasting peace
without development and the eradication of poverty, hunger and
inequality ... CELAC has adopted a unanimous position with regard to
some far-reaching topics on the international agenda, such as, for
example, Argentina's legitimate claim in the dispute concerning the
sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands, and -- today on the
anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima -- on so-called nuclear
disarmament."
The representatives of other regional organizations, and the members of
the Security Council delivered their statements throughout the morning
session of the meeting
When the Security Council resumed for the afternoon session, in a
courageous and brilliant tour de force, the Argentine Presidency of the
Security Council availed itself of the opportunity to publicly denounce
espionage in the service of the resurgence of neo-liberal capitalist
imperialism. In an unusual gesture of solidarity and support
(considering that Heads of State chairing Security Council meetings
seldom remain beyond a perfunctory appearance at the morning session),
President Cristina Fernandez Kirchner, Foreign Minister Hector Timerman
and Ambassador Maria Cristina Perceval were present throughout the
afternoon, as the succession of dazzling speeches, delivered by the
Latin American Foreign Ministers of Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia, Venezuela,
Ecuador illuminated the global menace threatened by the United States
National Security Agency programs of surveillance of phone records,
e-mails, web-browsing, those very programs disclosed by former NSA
contractor Edward Snowden.
The foreign ministers of Brazil , Venezuela , Uruguay , Bolivia and
Ecuador fiercely condemned the United States plan for worldwide
espionage, which posed a lethal threat to the democratically elected
governments of these Latin American nations and jeopardized their survival.
It is not surprising that this expression of alarm was voiced by Latin
America, from Argentina through Uruguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil,
Venezuela -- in other words from the Southernmost tip of the huge
southern continent to the Caribbean, for this continent, viewed
imperialistically as the "backyard" of the United States, was for many
tragic decades, crushed by military dictatorships inflicting state
terror with impunity, following the blueprint of destabilization and
overthrow, by the CIA and multinational corporate controlled entities,
of their own democratically elected leaders. The tragic destruction of
Latin America's democratically elected governments included President
Arbenz in Guatemala, 1954; President Goulart in Brazil, 1964; President
Juan Bosch in the Dominican Republic, 1965; President Torres in
Bolivia, 1971; President Allende in Chile, 1973, and more recently the
destabilizations of the democratically elected governments of Honduras
and Paraguay (this is not a complete list)
This more than half-century violation of the will of the people of Latin
America, engineered by agencies of "the Colossus of the North" was a
shattering trauma seared deeply into the consciousness of these leaders,
whose recent triumph over fascist military dictatorships which were
installed and supported by the United States, is a testament to their
moral and intellectual strength and their passion for dignity and
control over their own destinies. The Latin American governments
speaking at the August 6 Security Council are like the canary in the
coal mine: intensely alert and sensitive to imminent or potential
threats of repetition of that horrific period they had endured and so
recently overcome, these governments denounced widespread evidence of
perilous subversive activity, the lethal consequences of which are
predictable and terrifying.
The August 6, 2013 afternoon session of the UN Security Council began
with Mr. Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, Foreign Minister of Brazil, who
stated, in English:
"You, Madam President made my task easier by referring to the
interception of communications and acts of espionage. Such
practices violate sovereignty, harm relations between nations and
constitute a violation of human rights, in particular the right to
privacy and the right of our citizens to information. In that
respect, you have complied with the decision of the States parties
of the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR) who met in Montevideo
last month. Yesterday, the Foreign Minister of MERCOSUR conveyed to
the Secretary-General the position of Argentina , Bolivia , Brazil ,
Uruguay and Venezuela with respect to and in compliance with, that
decision. The matter will also be placed before various United
Nations bodies, in accordance with the decision and the document
circulated under the symbol A/67/946. This is a very serious issue
with a profound impact on the international system. Brazil is
coordinating with countries that share similar concerns for the
benefit of an international order that respects human rights and the
sovereignty of states.
I welcome the timely statement made on 12 July by the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Navi Pillay: 'surveillance
programmes without adequate safeguards to protect the right to
privacy actually risk impacting negatively on the enjoyment of human
rights and fundamental freedoms.' Pillay also mentioned Article 12
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Articles 17 and 18
of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which
established, respectively, that 'No one shall be subjected to
arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or
correspondence,' and that 'Everyone has the right to protection of
the law against such interference or attacks.'
Brazil also associates itself with the repeated appeals by Ms.
Pillay in various forums that efforts to combat terrorism must
necessarily respect human rights and humanitarian law. Her position
was incorporated into the decision of the Heads of State of MERCOSUR
as well as the Presidential Statement (S/PRST/2013/12) adopted by
the Council this morning... Mention should be made of the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)... .a defense alliance that does
not seem to frame its activities clearly under Chapter VIII of the
Charter of the United Nations and has made use of concepts and
strategies that raise problematic and sensitive issues in terms of
the articulation between the regional level and the United Nations
system. We are concerned that, historically, leaders of NATO and
member countries have considered that the organization does not
necessarily require explicit authorization from the Security Council
to resort to coercion.
We are also concerned that NATO has loosely interpreted mandates for
action aimed at promoting international peace and security
authorized by the Security Council. As Brazil has maintained,
including through the Brazilian concept of 'responsibility while
protecting,' (S/2011/701, annex), the Security Council should avail
itself of the institutional means of monitoring the adequate
fulfillment of its mandates.
We are concerned, as well that NATO has been searching to establish
partnerships out of its area, far beyond the North Atlantic,
including in regions of peace, democracy and social inclusion, and
that rule out the presence of weapons of mass destruction in their
territories. It would be extremely grave for the future of the
articulation between regional and global efforts at promoting peace,
as prescribed by the United Nations, if groups of countries started
to unilaterally define their sphere of action beyond the territory
of their own members."
Next, Mr. David Choquehuanca Cespedes, Minister of Foreign Affairs of
Bolivia spoke:
"Preserving peace is not and will not be the result of the existence
of international policemen, but rather as a result of the promotion
of social justice, equity, complementarity, solidarity and respect
between states......I should like to express our rejection and
condemnation of the practice of espionage on the part of the United
States. I should also like to express the grief and indignation of
my people and my Government over the act of aggression experienced
by President Evo Morales Ayma, which has been described by the
international community as offensive, humiliating, discriminatory,
colonialistic, unfriendly and a violation of human rights and
international standards. Given the grave nature of these facts, we
ask the United Nations to clarify these events and to take measures
to guarantee human rights and international law so that no one will
have to suffer such violations again."
Next, His Excellency, Mr. Elias Jaua Milano, Minister of the People's
Power for Foreign Affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and
Pro-Tempore President of the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR) stated:
"Today we join in the pleasure of the Bolivian people on its
national holiday, and recall the commemoration of the 200 years of
the triumphant entry of the liberator Simon Bolivar after having
carried out a successful campaign that began in December of 1812 in
New Grenada. We must always remember that, when united, we South
Americans will achieve independence, equality and democracy for our
peoples....Peace cannot be achieved in the world without social
justice and without eradicating once and for all hunger, poverty,
illiteracy, malnutrition and the wide technological divides, in
other words, without guaranteeing to all the resources necessary for
their full development in equal conditions....The instruments,
declarations, decisions and resolutions of MERCOSUR have sought
democracy and peace in the region, including by preventing coups and
other attempts to frustrate the democratic will of our peoples,
promoted by fascistic movements represented by political and
economic leaders that are found particularly in media corporations.
These movements attack democratic governments and peoples that have
chosen the path of independence, social inclusion and the
grass-roots democratization of our societies.....
The timely and firm action of MERCOSUR along with other regional and
subregional organizations, managed to stop attempted coups in
Paraguay in 1996 and 1999, thereby guaranteeing democratic order.
Similarly, in 2006 and 2007 MERCOSUR condemned and took action to
prevent attempts to divide Bolivia as a way of weakening the
democratic government of President Evo Morales. Likewise, the
Foreign Ministers of the countries members of MERCOSUR condemned the
attempted coup against President Rafael Correa in Ecuador on 30
September 2010, joining with other regional blocs to issue a joint
warning to the world and prevent that crime from taking place.
Although it could not be prevented, MERCOSUR acted decisively in the
parliamentary coup against President Fernando Lugo of Paraguay in
June, 2012. On that occasion the foreign ministers of MERCOSUR and
UNASUR traveled to Asuncion with the intention of starting a
dialogue and preventing the interruption of the constitutional
order. That was not achieved, and the bloc had to temporarily
suspend the Republic of Paraguay until its political, institutional
and democratic situation was normalized through the holding of
elections. More recently, MERCOSUR has been able to circumvent
those situations with peaceful and democratic mechanisms, without
economic blocades, military intervention, indiscriminate bombing or
armed intervention of any kind. We believe that the only way to
defeat violence is with greater democracy and peaceful means.
Mercosur has also participated in issues that affect international
peace and security, such as the coup in Honduras against President
Zelaya...
Unfortunately in recent times we have been concerned to see that
some countries have continued to assert their political, military
and economic power and distorted the very essence of cooperation
between the United Nations and regional and subregional
organizations. They have gone so far as to use the Security Council
as a platform to encourage armed interventions against sovereign
states and peoples with a view to promoting the poorly named regime
change, in contravention of all principles of International Law...
as Foreign Minister of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and as
Pro-Tempore President of MERCOSUR I take this opportunity to
reiterate our firm condemnation of the insult to the office of the
President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, President Evo
Morales, when some European Governments did not permit the
overflight or landing of the aircraft transporting him. That was
not only a hostile, unfounded, discriminatory and arbitrary action,
but also a flagrant violation of the precepts of international law."
"Similarly, we reject the actions of global espionage carried out
by the government of the United States , which undermine the
sovereignty of States and which we have become familiar with through
the revelations of the former security contractor, Edward Snowden.
Given the seriousness of these reports of computer espionage on a
global scale, recognized by the Secretary-General of the
International Telecommunication Union himself, the United Nations
must initiate a broad multilateral discussion that would make it
possible to design agreements to safeguard the sovereignty and
security of States in the light of such illegal practices. MERCOSUR
has begun action to promote a discussion on this matter so that we
can open an appropriate investigation within the United Nations and
punish and condemn this violation of international law."
"We reiterate our condemnation of actions that could undermine the
power of States to fully implement the right of humanitarian asylum.
In this respect, we reject any attempt to pressure, harass or
criminalize a state or third party over the sovereign decision of
any nation to grant asylum, which is enshrined in all international
conventions. Likewise, we express our solidarity with the
Governments of Bolivia and Nicaragua , which, like Venezuela , have
offered asylum to Mr. Snowden, as expressed by the Heads of State of
MERCOSUR in the decision concerning the universal recognition of the
right of political asylum, issued in Montevideo on 12 July. These
three matters were discussed yesterday with the Secretary-General of
the United Nations"
In her remarkable work, entitled "The Shock Doctrine, The Rise of
Disaster Capitalism," (published in 2007) journalist Naomi Klein states,
page 573:
"Though clearly drawing on a long militant history, Latin America 's
contemporary movements are not direct replicas of their
predecessors. Of all the differences, the most striking is an acute
awareness of the need for protection from the shocks of the past --
the coups, the foreign shock therapists, the U.S. trained torturers,
as well as the debt shocks and currency collapses of the eighties
and nineties. Latin America 's mass movements, which have powered
the wave of election victories for left-wing candidates, are
learning how to build shock absorbers into their organizing models. ...
Latin America's new leaders are also taking bold measures to block
any future U.S. backed coups that could attempt to undermine their
democratic victories. The governments of Venezuela, Costa Rica,
Argentina and Uruguay have all announced they will no longer send
students to the School of Americas, the infamous police and military
training center in Fort Benning, Georgia, where so many of the
continent's notorious killers learned the latest I
"counterterrorism" (torture) techniques, then promptly directed them
against farmers in El Salvador and auto workers in Argentina....If
the U.S. military does not have bases or training programs, its
power to inflict shocks will be greatly eroded...
Latin America's most significant protection from future shocks (and
therefore the shock doctrine) flows from the continent's emerging
independence from Washington's financial institutions, the result of
greater integration among regional governments. The Bolivarian
Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) is the continent's retort to the
Free Trade Area of the Americas , the now buried corporatist dream
of a free-trade zone from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego....
Thanks to high oil prices, Venezuela has emerged as a major lender
to other developing countries, allowing them to do an end run around
Washington, and even Argentina, Washington's former 'model pupil'
has been part of the trend. In his 2007 State of the Union Address
(the late) President Nestor Kirchner said that the country's foreign
creditors had told him, 'You must have an agreement with the
International Fund to be able to pay the debt. We say to them,
'Sirs, we are sovereign. We want to pay the debt, but no way in
hell are we going to make an agreement again with the IMF.' As a
result the IMF, supremely powerful in the eighties, is no longer a
force on the continent. In 2005 Latin America made up 80 percent of
the IMF's total lending portfolio, in 2007 the continent represented
just 1 percent -- a sea change in only two years. 'There is life
after the IMF,' Kirchner declared, 'and it is a good life.'"
Having resisted foreign (and domestic) military control, and foreign
(and neoliberal) economic control, the new peril confronting Latin
America's independent governments emanates from the United States'
National Security Agency's electronic surveillance programs, an
insidious new cyber-age method of total social control of the most
private and intimate spaces of their lives -- and identities, their
minds, destroying their capacity to forge networks of solidarity and
obtain the information crucial to their understanding and critical
thinking, without which they are vulnerable to being reduced to the
condition of the "zombies" (so popular in Hollywood's movie narrative),
rendering them confused, docile, easily herded, subjugated, ultimately
exploited and enslaved. This surveillance is tantamount to imposing
total individual and societal control, which is a stealthy form of
isolation, a form of psychological and intellectual solitary
confinement, one of the cruelest forms of torture, which ultimately
leads to the disintegration of the human personality, within an
invisible prison.
This condition is described by the American Civil Liberties Union, and
quoted in Charles Savage's August 8 report to The New York Times:
"Hints of the surveillance appeared in a set of rules, leaked by Mr.
Snowden, for how the NSA may carry out the 2008 FISA law. One
paragraph mentions that the agency 'seeks to acquire communications
about the target that are not to or from the target.' The pages
were posted online by the newspaper The Guardian on June 20, but the
telltale paragraph, the only rule marked 'Top Secret' amid 18 pages
of restrictions, went largely overlooked amid other
disclosures....While the paragraph hinting at the surveillance has
attracted little attention, the American Civil Liberties Union did
take note of the 'about the target' language in a June 21 post
analyzing the larger set of rules, arguing that the language could
be interpreted as allowing 'bulk collection of international
communications, including those of Americans'....Jameel Jaffer, a
senior lawyer at the ACLU said Wednesday that such 'dragnet
surveillance will be poisonous to the freedoms of inquiry and
association' because people who know that their communications will
be searched will change their behavior. 'They'll hesitate before
visiting controversial web sites, discussing controversial topics or
investigating politically sensitive questions. Individually, these
hesitations might appear to be inconsequential, but the accumulation
of them over time will change citizens' relationship to one another
and to the government.'"
The infrastructure for de facto fascist police state and military
control is being established under the guise of counterterrorism, (as,
earlier, similar fascist states were established under the guise of
fighting communism) a phenomena Latin America recognizes and knows from
horrific historic experience. And their historic memory of this has not
yet been expunged: indeed, many of the leaders of Latin America today
were earlier imprisoned and tortured only a few decades ago under such
fascist police and military states (established ostensibly in the name
of anti-communism), including Chile's former, and possibly future
President Michelle Bachelet, Brazil's President Dilma Roussef,
Argentina's late President Nestor Kirchner, and the world famous father
of Argentina's Foreign Minister Hector Timerman, the late Jacobo
Timerman, imprisoned and tortured for two years during the Argentine
military dictatorship's "dirty war." No doubt, Uruguay 's President
Jose Mujica well remembers those horrors, and Chile 's former President
Ricardo Lago spent considerable time in prison during the Pinochet
dictatorship.
Patino Aroca, Foreign Minister of Ecuador, next delivered, at the August
6 Security Council meeting, one of the great speeches in United Nations
history.
"During the recent summit of the Common Market of the South
(MERCOSUR) that took place on 12 July in Montevideo, the States
convened resolved to 'request Argentina to submit the matter of the
massive espionage case uncovered by Edward Snowden for consideration
by the Security Council.' They also resolved to 'demand that those
responsible for those actions immediately cease therefrom and
provide explanations of their motivations and their consequences.'
In similar terms, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our
America spoke at the last Guayaquil summit which was held just five
days ago, when it was decided to 'warn the international community
about the seriousness of these actions, which imply a threat to the
security and peaceful coexistence among our States"...
"Just a few weeks ago the world saw a sequence of events more akin
to a Cold War spy novel than to modern times. On 5 June, leaks
began to appear in publications in major global media outlets, leaks
that were mixed with almost deathly intent and unspooled as a
reality show before global public opinion. The leaks came from a
former 29-year-old American analyst who sought to escape deportation
to his country, where he would be tried for those leaks. After a
journey that began in Hong Kong and was supposed to end in Latin
America, today, it seems to have stopped, but it may not have
completely run its course, despite the granting of asylum by Russia ."
"During those few days in June we saw the size and the discretional
nature of a massive surveillance apparatus that suddenly brought all
the inhabitants of the planet closer than ever to an Orwellian
nightmare. Although at first it appeared to be a simple matter of
wiretapping, it was later discovered that there was discretionary
monitoring of e-mails. While it seemed initially that the apparatus
was being used in operations against organized crime, later we
learned that it was also being used to gain advantage in trade
negotiations with other countries. If we once thought that they
were simply looking at unaffected States, we now know that everyone
--- absolutely everyone, debtors and creditors, friends and enemies,
South and North -- is considered a usual suspect by the authorities
of the United States of America . Now we know that our
communications are permanently monitored by them."
"No one knows yet if Mr. Snowden will once again manage to leak
information that he claims to possess. Of course, it seems that he
will not do it when he is in Russia . In any case, the wounds
opened by those events should be assessed within the main
multilateral forums. They deserve to be so because not only do they
reflect an unacceptable imbalance in the global governance system,
which in no case would help to build a climate of trust and
cooperation between countries, and, in the final analysis, a climate
of peace among nations. They deserve to be assessed because we have
also moved dangerously close to the limits set out by the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights."
"The imbalances to which I refer are clear -- the United States,
like any other countries, has the need to deal with demands related
to its national security, it goes without saying, but those
legitimate demands must be dealt with in a way that does not affect
the rights of individuals or indeed the sovereignty of other
nations. That is to say, limits must be set. However, we are now
faced with the fact that any limits there may have been have
vanished. The national security of the United States has been
placed above all universal moral values."
"Such a drive has meant that the principles of equality and
non-interference in the affairs of States, established in the
Westphalia peace agreement, have now vanished into thin air. The
1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been violated. The
rights to the privacy of correspondence -- article 12 -- and to
freedom of expression and opinion -- article 19 -- the rights of all
citizens of the world, including United States citizens, have been
trampled in the name of a greater goal, that is, national security
-- or rather, for the sake of the profits of the national security
industry."
"What are the limits, really? Has the time not come for the Council
to take up this question again and discuss it? In the end, does
this not pose a threat to global peace? What mutual trust could
possibly exist among nations under such circumstances? We believe
that the time has come for the United Nations to face up to this
matter responsibly."
"As we have seen with the disappearance of such limits, this
situation threatens to build walls between our countries. If it has
not done so already, it could also affect international cooperation
against organized crime; strangely enough, there is even the
possibility that trade negotiations could be disrupted.
Paradoxically, even the very national security of the United States
will suffer from the increase in global mistrust generated by
massive espionage."
"The events to which I have referred have also revealed other very
disturbing realities. To start off with, it has re-ignited the
debate on the right of asylum, which all human beings have, as
enshrined in international law, as well as the ability of any
sovereign state to grant it. This is a right that is granted to
avoid fear of political persecution; its legitimacy can only be
determined by the country granting it. Let us also remember its
peaceful and humanitarian nature, which cannot in any case be
described as unfriendly towards any other State, as established in
General Assembly resolution 2312 (XXII) on territorial asylum. I
should also quote Ms. Navi Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights, on the case at hand: 'Snowden's case has shown
the need to protect persons disclosing information on matters that
have implications for human rights, as well as the importance of
ensuring respect for the right to privacy.'"
"Leaders who should be giving explanations and facing up to the
debate on the limits of what we are discussing, have instead
launched a crusade against the right to asylum -- a full-on
diplomatic offensive against countries that have taken to the global
stage to show interest in such an important case. States in the
Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) have been
under pressure, simply because they are considering a request for
asylum. All those countries have signed the 1954 Caracas Convention
on Territorial Asylum, which is perhaps one of the most important
instruments of the Inter-American human rights system."
"The day the United States signs that treaty -- even the day it
ratifies the San Jose pact, one of the foundations of the
Inter-American system of human rights -- we will be closer to seeing
that country adhere to the Vienna Convention of the Law of Treaties,
and it will become a part of a group of equal nations, committed to
complying with international law."
"Instead of joining this group, we find ourselves with a country
that prefers to lunge forwards and blame the messenger in order to
cloud the message. The final result was that a group of countries
decided to endanger the life of the President of the Plurinational
State of Bolivia , forcing him and his entourage to make an
emergency landing in violation of international norms governing
respectful relations among nations."
"It is not the revelation of the offence that threatens the climate
of understanding among nations, it is the offence itself. In a
fragile world where armed conflicts are barely affected by
international pressure, such actions do not help generate trust but
tension."
"I would like to conclude with two comments."
"First, the Government of Ecuador fully supports the request of the
Bolivian Government that the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights conduct an exhaustive investigation
into the unjustifiable treatment suffered by President Evo Morales
Ayma during his trip from Moscow to La Paz."
"Secondly, massive global, discretionary and unlimited surveillance
must stop. It is for the Security Council to urgently make that
demand of one of its permanent members, since, theoretically, it is
up to this body to maintain peace on our planet. That, too, is the
demand of Latin America , a zone of peace that, through
organizations such as MERCOSUR and ALBA, has demanded an end to
those practices. It is also required by the spirit of coexistence,
which inspired the drafting of the Charter of the United Nations.
It is also the appeal of billions of people in the world who
understand that any action that aims to ensure the security of a
country has its limits, which are the human rights of everyone on
the planet."
The representative of the United States, Mr. DeLaurentis replied:
"Let me address an issue unrelated to our debate that was raised
earlier today, namely, the United States efforts to prevent
terrorism and the recent disclosure of classified information about
techniques we use to do that. All Governments do things that are
secret: it is a fact of modern governing and a necessity in the
light of the threats all our citizens face. Our counter-Terrorism
policy is ultimately about saving people's lives, which is why the
United States works with other countries to protect our citizens and
those of other nations from many threats. All nations should be
concerned about the damage these disclosures can cause to our
ability to collectively defend against those threats."
Contradicting this assertion, a senior United States intelligence
official said, regarding the 'about the target' surveillance that it
"was difficult to point to any particular terrorist plot that would have
been carried out if the surveillance had not taken place." He said it
was one tool among many used to assemble a 'mosaic' of information in
such investigations. "The surveillance was used for other types of
foreign-intelligence collection, not just terrorism investigations," the
official said. This admission that this surveillance is not limited to
preventing terrorism is the most damning indictment of the secrecy of
the program.
The American people, whose taxes pay for these programs, have an
inalienable right to know what are the "other" uses to which these
surveillance programs are being put, in their name. Powerfully refuting
any contention that these surveillance activities are for the purpose of
preventing terrorism is the testimony of United States Senator, Patrick
J. Leahy of Vermont, Chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee,
who said he had been shown a classified list of "terrorist events"
detected through surveillance, and it did not show that 'dozens or even
several terrorist plots' had been thwarted by the domestic program. "If
this program if not effective, it has to end. So far I'm not convinced
by what I've seen," Senator Leahy said, denouncing ' the massive privacy
implications' of keeping records of every American's domestic calls.
What really is the purpose of this NSA program of global surveillance?
Failing to significantly thwart terrorist activity, it must have an
ultimate purpose. The possibilities are terrifying. The hysterical,
desperate and deadly determination to arrest Snowden suggests that he
may have uncovered something further, something so illegal that the
authors of such crimes will not hesitate to endanger the very lives they
claim to be protecting, in order to prevent exposure. The frantic
orchestration of the actions endangering the life of the President of
Bolivia makes this conclusion unavoidable.
The August 6 Security Council meeting under the Presidency of Argentina
re-enforced the credibility of the United Nations. The Government of
Argentina and her courageous sister nations of Latin America have thrown
down the gauntlet on behalf of the majority of the citizens of this planet.
*/Carla Stea i/*/s Global Research's accredited correspondent at the
United Nations headquarters, New York./
--
---
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20130825/fd188cda/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
governance at lists.igcaucus.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing
For all other list information and functions, see:
http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
http://www.igcaucus.org/
Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t
More information about the Governance
mailing list