Outsider Ramsey Clark makes a difference

The L.A. Times printed my letter, and others, today responding to their Saturday article about Ramsey Clark, which trivialized him as an ineffective outsider.

Re “He’s the Ultimate Outsider,” April 26: Ramsey Clark has hardly “forfeited a last chance to make a difference.”

In 1991, after Gulf War I, he founded the International Action Center so the peace movement would have a permanent home. After 9/11, IAC and others formed the ANSWER coalition, the biggest and most active of the antiwar coalitions, which has organized numerous huge peace rallies nationwide.

I’d say he was making quite a difference.

Bob Morris
Encino

Clark’s views on U.S. foreign policy are cogent and shared by many outside the mainstream. The logic behind them is compelling and not difficult to grasp. Attributing them to “private penance,” being “gullible” or suffering from a “willful conscience” is voodoo journalism, and the failure to report Clark’s reasons as he himself sees them is a disservice to your readers.

Arthur Gelmis
Washington


Your profile of Clark got it right that he never was an insider after his stint with government. What you didn’t mention were his two important books, the 1970 “Crime in America” and the 1992 “The Fire This Time: U.S. War Crimes in the Gulf War.”

No former attorney general after Clark ever distinguished himself or herself in any way except Richard M. Nixon’s John Mitchell, who went to prison. Most followed the traditional insider path by parlaying their government service into big bucks as private attorneys.

Sure, Clark is an outsider, but that doesn’t make him “fringe.” He is a highly principled individual who doesn’t toe the party line. That’s what America is supposed to be all about.

Stephen Yagman
Venice

(Yagman is a L.A. lawyer well known for filing suit against LAPD for police brutality. The home page of his law firm says “We are active in protecting the rights of those abused by police brutality and corruption, including Los Angeles and all other police departments“.)

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How the road to war was paved with lies

“Intelligence agencies accuse Bush and Blair of distorting and fabricating evidence in rush to war

The case for invading Iraq to remove its weapons of mass destruction was based on selective use of intelligence, exaggeration, use of sources known to be discredited and outright fabrication, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

A high-level UK source said last night that intelligence agencies on both sides of the Atlantic were furious that briefings they gave political leaders were distorted in the rush to war with Iraq. “They ignored intelligence assessments which said Iraq was not a threat,” the source said. Quoting an editorial in a Middle East newspaper which said, “Washington has to prove its case. If it does not, the world will for ever believe that it paved the road to war with lies“, he added: “You can draw your own conclusions.”

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Massachusetts to legalize gay marriage?

“In just a few months, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts is likely to legalize gay marriage, thus setting off a titanic national struggle. (See my piece, “The Coming Battle.”) Yet neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have any inkling of what is about to hit them.

Once Massachusetts legalizes gay marriage, it will be a domestic culture-war story like no other.”

The author of this story, Stanley Krutz of the reactionary National Review, thinks the ensuing furor will drive moderates to the Republicans. I think quite the opposite will happen.

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National ANSWER conference

We in ANSWER LA are having a regional conference on May 10, The following weekend, May 17-18, there will be a two day national conference in NYC, which I may go to.

It’s billed as the National Conference Against War, Colonial Occupation And Imperialism, with major speakers, workshops, etc.

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The colossal colon is on tour!

Dave Barry explains all. This is NOT satire, the colossal colon is real!

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Bush approval rating slipping

Even Fox News says so

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Stop Sars, or else, warns flu expert

“SARS could become as widespread as flu viruses unless action is taken to destroy it now, a leading Welsh disease expert warned last night.

Professor Ron Eccles of Cardiff University’s Common Cold Centre warned that unless Sars is brought under control now it could become endemic.

He warned that any treatment for the disease was likely to take many years to develop, so there was all the more need to stop the disease in its tracks at this early stage.”

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