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Higgins On Iran

Thank you so much for Julia Hall’s excellent article about Guantanamo Bay (“Eight Days in Guantanamo Bay,” Artvoice, August 14, 2008).

I share Hall’s concerns regarding Brian Higgins’ vote on torture related issues in Congress. She correctly points out that Brian Higgins is the only Democrat in New York who voted in favor of the Military Commissions Act in October 2006. This legislation, strongly supported by George Bush, violates the Geneva Conventions by allowing statements that a person makes while somebody is torturing him or her to be used as legal evidence in the case against him or her.

I am also opposed to Brian Higgins’ support of unilateral US imposed sanctions against Iran. After calling his office to request his position on HR 362, a law currently in Congress which calls on George Bush to impose unilateral sanctions on Iran, I received a letter from him in which he implies he will vote in favor of HR 362. Higgins writes: “I have been a vocal advocate of pursuing talks with Iran. I have cosponsored several pieces of legislation (HR 957, HR 1357, HR 1400) which seek to encourage diplomatic and economic resolution to the Iranian nuclear issue.” Later in the same letter he writes that HR 362 “provide[s] the needed leverage to enhance diplomatic relations with Iran.” Notice how he is lumping diplomatic and economic together here, as though wars start with blood, and economic sanctions do not involve any blood and are in fact just like diplomacy. This really isn’t true. Babies died due to lack of medicine and food in Iraq during the US sanctions. US sanctions would also drastically increase Iranian support for the Iranian government, as well as increase hostilities between US and Iranian officials, which will make diplomacy much more difficult. Sanctions can easily work against diplomacy—they are not the same thing at all.

I respectfully challenge Brian Higgins to explain how unilateral US sanctions against Iran will be different than unilateral US sanctions against Iraq, and also to explain his support of the Military Commissions Act of 2006.

Monica Heavey
Buffalo

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