Create Your Own Petition to Make Change

The U.S. military wants to extend the lease on the State of Hawai'i property as it provides access to the 110,000 acres of adjacent U.S. government-owned land at the largest U.S. military firing range. The Army calls the 132,000-acre range on Hawaii island the “Pacific’s premier training area.” Pōhakuloa Training Area (PTA), with a 51,000-acre “impact area,” is used heavily by Hawaii-based and visiting international military forces. It is the largest live-fire range in Hawaii and supports full-scale combined arms field training from the squad to brigade (approximately 3,500 soldiers) level. The Army set a 40-day public "scoping" period for the Environment Impact Statement (EIS). Written comments should be submitted via the EIS website at 808ne.ws/357ek2V. Hawaiian cultural practitioners Clarence Ku Ching and Mary Maxine Kahaulelio filed suit against the Hawai'i State Department of Land and Natural Resources in 2014 claiming the state breached its trust duties by failing to enforce the lease. Four years later, State Circuit judge Gary Chang ruled in 2018 in Ching and Kahaulelio’s lawsuit (Ching v. Case) that the DLNR failed to care for the Big Island property, lacking inspections over the first nearly 50 years of the lease. Judge Chang said that the state has a duty to "mālama ʻāina" and called two DLNR inspection reports “grossly inadequate” and ordered the state to develop and potentially execute a plan to obtain adequate funding for a compre­hensive cleanup of the land. After Judge Chang’s order, DLNR said that as the landlord of the property, it would work with the Army to develop a formal inspection, monitoring and reporting process, which has been virtually non-existent. However, the Hawaii Supreme Court overturned part of the order. Hawai'i State organizations that support this petition are: Hawai'i Peace and Justice; Veterans for Peace-Chapter 113-Hawai'i; Cancel RIMPAC Coalition; Golden Rule Anti-Nuclear Sailing Ship: Women's Voices Women Speak; Malu Aina Center for Non-Violent Education and Action; Peace Action-Maui; National and International Organizations that support this petition: World Beyond War; Peace Action; Popular Resistance; Background Links: VIDEO: Mauna Kea Observatory Directors Give Update https://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2019/08/25/video-mauna-kea-observatories-directors-give-update Hawaii Has Failed To Take Care Of Pohakuloa https://www.civilbeat.org/2019/08/hawaii-has-failed-to-take-care-of-pohakuloa/ Ching v. Case Ruling https://law.justia.com/cases/hawaii/supreme-court/2019/scap-18-0000432.html

ENDORSED by the National Lawyers Guild and Veterans for Peace .... We are citizens of the United States who urge you to deny the extradition request of our government. If Julian Assange is delivered to the United States it will be a momentous setback for press freedom. The correct decision is to NOT extradite Assange for the following reasons: (1) The Extradition Treaty between the UK and USA prohibits extradition for a political offense. (Ref a) It says "extradition shall not be granted if the competent authority of the Requested State determines that the request was politically motivated." The essence of Assange's "crime" is that he published documents and videos which revealed the reality of US military and political actions. (2) Assange would not get a fair trial in the US. He has been publicly prejudged by prominent political leaders. Secretary of State Pompeo declared Wikileaks is a "non-state hostile intelligence service." (Ref b) Former Vice President Joe Biden has called Julian Assange a "hi-tech terrorist." (Ref c) (3) These charges would set a precedent where the US claims the right to seize a citizen of any country and to judge them by US laws without the rights of a US citizen. (Ref d) (4) The US breached Assange's right to client-lawyer confidentiality. During the last year at the Ecuadoran Embassy, a contractor for US authorities spied on Assange 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including during his private meetings with lawyers. (Ref e) This case goes to the heart of the public's right to know what is being done in their name. The information provided by whistleblower Chelsea Manning, and published by Assange's Wikileaks, primarily concerned the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq. Many people, including former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, say the invasion violated international law and breached the UN Charter. (Ref f) Yet there has been little or no accountability. Instead, US authorities seek to punish and imprison for life a journalist and publisher who dared to broadcast the actual consequences of this aggression, scenes such as shown in the video "Collateral Murder." (Ref g) The Trump administration seeks to criminalize what was previously considered a press freedom. Already the model of the Assange indictment has been copied by the Brazilian government in a criminal complaint against journalist Glenn Greenwald. A NY Times op-ed warned, "This blunt approach gives the government enormous leverage over journalists and, in the United States, provides them with a detour around First Amendment concerns. If these cases become templates that prosecutors in the United States and other nations follow, virtually every investigative reporter will become vulnerable to criminal charges and imprisonment." (Ref h) We are counting on British independence and justice. Do not extradite Julian Assange to the United States! References a) https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/243246/7146.pdf b) https://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/328730-cia-director-wikileaks-a-non-state-hostile-intelligence-service c) https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/dec/19/assange-high-tech-terrorist-biden d) https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2020/01/23/wikileaks-editor-us-is-saying-first-amendment-doesnt-apply-to-foreigners-in-assange-case/ e) https://thegrayzone.com/2019/10/10/cia-spied-on-julian-assange-in-ecuadorian-embassy/ f) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/16/iraq.iraq g) https://collateralmurder.wikileaks.org/ h) https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/26/opinion/greenwald-brazil-reporter.html

A group of around 50 people from more than 12 countries drafted the Manifesto in recent weeks. Many prominent people are supporting it. People in general are more awake to the absurdity of a planet in which the richest 8 people have more wealth than the poorest 3.8 billion than ever before as this pandemic spreads. We are circulating this widely in multiple languages to help frame the debate and actions moving forward, raising global demands that address the inequity resulting from decades of neoliberal economic policies and rampant and unbridled militarism.