Activists Support Czech Opponents of Proposed
                      U.S. Military Base




NEW YORK, N.Y., February 25, 2008 -- Protesters will gather on Wednesday, February 27 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm in front of the White House, across from Lafayette Park, to greet Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek with signs opposing a proposed U.S. radar base in the Czech Republic. Mr. Topolánek has been invited to visit President George Bush, where the radar base will be one of the main items on their agenda. The radar is opposed by 70% of the Czech population, and U.S. peace activists are demonstrating at the White House to show that they support the fight against the radar. The protest is coordinated by the Campaign for Peace and Democracy and Foreign Policy in Focus.

The Bush administration is attempting to build a base in Poland to host ten interceptor missiles in concert with the Czech radar base. The Czech and Polish governments hope to finalize an agreement with the U.S. government to accept the bases, but this expansion of the U.S. military presence in Eastern Europe is far from a done deal.

“We are demonstrating to show our support for the Czech group ‘No Bases Initiative’ (Iniciativa Ne základnám), which is leading the fight against the radar in the Czech Republic,” said Joanne Landy, Co-Director of the Campaign for Peace and Democracy. “Washington’s scheme has already produced an ominous response from Russia, which has threatened to direct its missiles toward Poland and the Czech Republic if the U.S. proceeds with the system. Moscow has also threatened to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and to suspend participation in a treaty limiting the deployment of conventional forces in Europe.”

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called Russian concerns “ludicrous,” insisting that the Czech-Polish missile defense is aimed at Iran and not Russia. But there is no credible evidence that a missile threat from Iran exists today. The National Intelligence Estimate released in December 2007 further undermined the credibility of that claim by stating that Iran had discontinued its nuclear weapons program in the fall of 2003. “And far from protecting against such a threat in the future, the anti-missile system and other nuclear escalations will only create even stronger inducements for Iran to seek nuclear weapons,” Landy said.

“The U.S. bases threaten to restart a cold war between the United States and Russia,” according to John Feffer, co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus. “They have little to do with genuine defense and much to do with an aggressive U.S. military policy.”

“No nation has the moral right to possess nuclear weapons, which by their nature are weapons of vast and indiscriminate mass destruction,” Landy added. “The U.S. and other nuclear powers can best reduce the danger of nuclear warfare by taking major steps toward both nuclear and conventional disarmament and refraining from waging or threatening ‘preventive’ war -- not by expanding the nuclear threat. Such steps by the existing nuclear powers would create a political climate that would powerfully discourage new countries from developing their own nuclear weapons.”

THE CAMPAIGN FOR PEACE AND DEMOCRACY (CPD) advocates a new, progressive and non-militaristic U.S. foreign policy -- one that encourages democratization, justice and social change. Founded in 1982, the Campaign opposed the Cold War by promoting "detente from below." It engaged Western peace activists in the defense of the rights of democratic dissidents in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and enlisted East-bloc human rights activists against anti-democratic U.S. policies in countries like Nicaragua and Chile.

FOREIGN POLICY IN FOCUS (FPIF) is a "Think Tank Without Walls" connecting the research and action of more than 800 scholars, advocates, and activists seeking to make the United States a more responsible global partner. It is a project of the Institute for Policy Studies. More information about the U.S. bases strategy in Europe can be found here: http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5005

Campaign for Peace and Democracy, 2790 Broadway, #12, NY, NY 10025.
Tel (212) 666-4001, Cell (646) 207-5203, Fax (212) 866-5847.
Email: cpd@igc.org Web: www.cpdweb.org

Foreign Policy In Focus, Institute for Policy Studies, 1112 16th St.,
Suite 600, NW, Washington, DC 20036; Tel (202-234-9382); Cell (202-294-9128)