The University of Iowa Lecture Committee may be paying Karl Rove $40,000 to speak on campus, but Rove's presence in Iowa City won't be met without opposition.
The UI Anti-war Committee is not opposed to Karl Rove because of his conservative viewpoint. We are opposed to him because his role in crafting Iraq war policy, exposing CIA operative Valerie Plame, and the politically-motivated firings of U.S. Attorney Generals makes him a traitor and a war criminal. If we lived in a functioning democracy, the only place Rove would be expressing his 1st Amendment rights would be inside a courtroom and then a prison cell.
Despite our opposition to Rove's presence on campus, and our disagreement with the UI Lecture Committee's decision to give a traitorous war criminal a $40,000 speaking fee, the UI Antiwar Committee and allies will not prevent Rove from speaking. Instead, we have negotiated a space inside the IMU to protest Rove. We will be protesting in the South Room, directly adjacent to the Main Lounge at 5:30 pm on Sunday February 27. If Rove is protected by the 1st Amendment, then the rights of large segments of the Iowa City community opposed to his presence must also be protected.
We know when Rove is coming into town, where he will be, and who he will be with. However, there are no plans to dog him at this time. The UI Anti-war Committee sees this as an opportunity to further educate the community about Rove's direct involvement in crafting Iraq war policy.
We are calling on federal authorities to arrest Rove in Iowa City for treason, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. If federal authorities are not available at this time, we are calling on the Iowa City Police Department and the University of Iowa Police to hold Rove in custody until such time that U.S. Federal Marshals may be dispatched to pick the traitorous war criminal up.
Supporting evidence and documentation:
Fact: In July 2002, a high-level classified British/UK government document, the Downing Street Memo, was written which reads in part:
"Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."
http://downingstreetmemo.com/
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article387374.ece
Fact: In August 2002, one month after the Downing Street Memo was written, the White House Iraq Group was formed "to sell Iraq War to Congress, Public, and Allies." The White House Iraq Group met once a week at the White House throughout 2002 and 2003, and Karl Rove chaired every meeting. Public rhetoric against Iraq was escalated by the White House Iraq Group, who came up with propaganda terms like "smoking gun" and "mushroom cloud".
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?entity=white_house_iraq_group
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/12/AR2006061200932.html
Fact: Bush Administration officials made at least 935 demonstrably false statements to the American people about the threat posed by Iraq prior to the invasion, according to the Center for Public Integrity.
http://www.publicintegrity.org/WarCard/
Fact: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby exposed Valerie Plame, a CIA operative, because her husband blew the whistle on the Bush Administration's demonstrably false claims.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/18/politics/18rove.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/01/AR2005100101317_pf.html
http://thinkprogress.org/leak-scandal#rove
http://www.npr.org/templates/dmg/dmg.php?prgCode=ATC&showDate=13-Jul-2005&segNum=2&mediaPref=RM&getUnderwriting=0
Fact: Rove has also been implicated in the illegal firings of several U.S. Attorney Generals. The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee recently voted to hold Rove in "contempt" for refusing to testify and hand over documents related to the case. According to CNN:
"Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday in favor of handing out contempt citations to a former and current White House official for failing to comply with subpoenas issued in the investigation into the firings of eight U.S. attorneys last year.
The committee voted 11-7 to cite White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten for refusing to hand over documents related to the firings and to cite former White House adviser Karl Rove for refusing to testify and hand over internal documents."
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/12/13/contempt-citations-recomended-for-rove-bolten/
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