Jack Bussell : State of Maine Room, Portland City Hall, November 12, 2003

It does our hearts good to hear that the "Doing Business in Iraq" conference
was cancelled for whatever reasons. Although WE KNOW it was the moral and
ethical positions taken by the faculty and students of the University of Maine and
the University of Southern Maine, peace, social justice and anti-globalization
groups. It was the power of the people who spoke out that cancelled this
conference.

Paul Bremer, Pro-Consul to Iraq, has said that Iraq is "open for business".
Dennis Sokol, the Bar Harbor businessman and co-founder of the US-Iraq
Business Alliance has said that "... there are diamonds and gold on in the
streets..." We have said "no" and they heard us.

The Alternative Iraq Development Corporation's sole corporate responsibility
is to insure that any business that is to be done in Iraq will be determined
by the will and decisions of the Iraqi people. Not Bremer, not Sokol, not
the other corporate raiders, with frothing mouths, bellying up to the troth
containing the spoils of war, not Bush, not his sycophants, not the rubber
stamp Iraqi Governing Council. Only the Iraqi people should determine their
own destiny, they who have had so little to say about their destiny and who
have sickened and died since 1990. This Doing Business in Iraq conference
was a bad idea to begin with and its cancellation confirms this. It was but
a precursor of change from the aggression of war to the oppression of the
corporation. The continued attempt at American hegemony in Iraq will deny,
once again, the Iraqi people's ability to participate and determine their
own destiny.

As our sons and daughters serve and die in Iraq, the corporate vultures
decided to gather at Black Point Inn to plan the 3rd invasion of this sad
country. This corporate invasion will walk over the bodies of our sons and
daughters and the bodies of the millions of Iraqi's who have died in the
course of the previous two invasions and 12 years of killing sanctions, to
divide up the resources of Iraq. The saddest part of all is that this
invasion will be led by individuals who have sent our sons and daughters out
to die so they may reap the profits without endangering their own lives or
the lives of their families and for this they will pay. Today or Tomorrow.
The People of Maine have spoken. Now we must speak even louder.

We need the following;

1) the immediate cessation of hostilities with the concurrent withdrawal of
ALL American forces and coalition forces to their respective countries. In
other words "Bring Our Troops Home Now";

2) an immediate redirection of the $87 billion to Iraq and Afghanistan for
use, at their discretion, for the immediate rebuilding of their respective
infrastructures so wantonly destroyed by Western forces. Funds to held by
the United Nations and used in response to requests from a legitimate Iraqi
government.

3) the immediate filing of war crime charges against America, Britain, et
al, involved in the subjugation, invasion and support of sanctions, of the
countries of Iraq and Afghanistan, with the duly constituted International
Criminal Court in the Hague;

4) the immediate voting of orders of impeachment against the President, Vice
President, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, the Attorney General of
the United State of America, the National Security Advisor and those staffs
responsible for the devastating, genocidal, immoral and illegal policies
concerning Iraq and Afghanistan during the past years;

Lastly, a concerted and sincere rapprochement to the rest of the world,
with apologies, to truly strive for a working and effective United Nations
and the pursuit of peace.

A.I.D. Inc will remain intact and ready for our next anti-corporate action.
Just shine the Bat Signal, sorry, our corporate logo over City Hall and we
will arrive, with limo, to engage the corporations. Thank you

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