NATIONAL SECURITY NEWS

Volume I Number 1 paid for by Bowman2000 Presidential Campaign Committee Dec 1999

5115 S. A1A Hwy, Ste 206, Melbourne Beach, FL 32951 (321) 952-0601 e-mail: 2000@rmbowman.com

Reform Party Nomination

Having accepted candidacy at the Reform Party National Convention in Dearborn, Michigan, in July, Dr. Bowman (recipient of the President’s Medal of VFP) gave his first stump speech at the Veterans For Peace convention in Philadelphia. It was a fitting kickoff to a campaign aimed at abolishing war, as well as poverty, homelessness, hunger, and lack of health care. In August, he met all the requirements of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), and became the first candidate officially accepted by the Reform Party.

In October, Pat Buchanan entered the race. Donald Trump may also decide to get in. The consensus among Reformers is that the nomination will go to either Bowman or Buchanan — Bowman because of his credibility and popularity with long-time party members, and Buchanan because of his name recognition and fundraising experience. The delegate count is fairly even so far, but the nomination goes to whoever gets the popular vote in the Reform Party’s July 2000 national mail-in primary (open to all registered voters who request a ballot). Join the Reform Party by May 15th to be assured of a primary ballot.

This is an opportunity for peace activists to do more than protest, demonstrate, and complain. By getting behind Dr. Bowman’s candidacy, they can take control of the Reform Party, win the White House, and make the fundamental changes they have so far only dreamed about.

$12.6 Million Up For Grabs

Because of Ross Perot’s performance in 1996, the Reform Party nominee will receive 12.6 million dollars in federal funding to use in the general election campaign. A serious candidate with that much money can capitalize on the enormous dissatisfaction with both major parties, and win. Jesse Ventura proved even a not-so-serious candidate can win. So those of us in the peace movement have two choices: (1) We can sit on our hands and let Pat Buchanan get the $$ for his radical right agenda, or (2) We can work, organize, and vote for someone who has devoted 18 years to progressive causes, get him the money, put him in the White House, change America, and change the world. Why not? We can do it. Let’s get working!

The Battle in Seattle

Looking every bit like the Emperor’s Storm Troopers from the Star Wars movies, Seattle police used tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets to stir up and terrorize tens of thousands of peaceful demonstrators protesting the World Trade Organization.

At first it appeared that the window smashers were local punks taking advantage of the unrest. But then it became clear that they were too well organized. Eyewitnesses from our Campaign saw these masked "anarchists" later handcuffing and arresting innocent demonstrators. They were goons probably hired by the WTOs multinational banks and corporations to discredit the nonviolent protests. The demonstrations were too big to be ignored, so they instigated violence and focused the press’s attention on it.

Coverage of the meeting itself dwelled on differences between the U.S., the European Union (EU), and the Third World. The fact is that the WTO is unpopular with people in all these regions, including delegates themselves. Coverage made it appear that negotiations between nations were going on. In reality, the rules are made by the corporations and banks. Governments, including our own, have very little to say. They have done the bidding of the wealthy elite and ceded their sovereignty to faceless corporate functionaries operating in secret, deciding which national laws are to be overturned. Already, several US laws protecting workers and the environment have been thrown out by Al Gore’s WTO.

We need a strong government to assert its sovereignty and protect the people, including future generations, from the transnational giants. Instead, our government, decked out in riot gear, protected the foreign giants from the American people who tried to peacefully protest the demise of our nation.

The people will not stand for this. It will change. The question is, "Will that change be brought about peacefully through a return to our Constitution, or will it be violent and engulf innocent immigrants and Americans of non-European descent?" The answer will depend on whether the people listen to a voice of reason and firm resistance or a firebrand encouraging intolerance and hate. We don’t need a "KrystallNacht" here. "America First" sounds too much like "Deutchland Uber Alles." Read what Pat Buchanan has said and written. Scary! Then work like crazy to elect Bob Bowman.

Why I’m Running For President

by Bob Bowman

This country needs a president committed to peace, freedom, economic justice, human rights, and the interests of working Americans ... and I’m ready.

In my Air Force career, I served in 34 different countries and flew 101 combat missions in Vietnam. I’ve seen war, and I don’t like it. As an executive in both government and industry, I’ve been on both sides of the military-industrial complex, and I know how it works. Eisenhower was right. For the last 18 years, I’ve been a whistle-blower and watchdog for the American people, exposing the lies and misdeeds of our corporate-controlled government. I know how the global robber barons of the New World Order elite are stealing the American people blind, and I know how to fix it. The Republicans and Democrats can’t. They’re bought and paid for, wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Trilateral Commission, the G8, the World Bank, the IMF, and the World Trade Organization. Through the Republocrat parties, the world’s billionaires direct U.S. policy for their own profit.

This has included a series of agreements (NAFTA & GATT) falsely portrayed as supporting free trade, but in reality promoting free investment, overturning U.S. laws, and putting American workers in competition with those in the Third World. The resulting decrease in standard of living has made America number one among industrialized nations — number one in child poverty, number one in the gap between rich and poor, number one in unimmunized children, number one in teen pregnancy, number one in deaths by gunfire, number one in poverty among the elderly, number one in citizens without medical coverage, number one in homeless veterans, number one in citizen incarceration ... and yet has a trillion dollars worth of new weapons on the books — weapons to fight corporate wars. It’s time for our priorities to change.

The big-money domination of politics has also resulted in a series of wars, from Vietnam to Kosovo — wars which are never in the interest of those fighting them, or of the families left behind ... wars which only serve the insatiable greed of the global investor class. There is a direct connection between economic injustice, the wars being waged against any country not capitulating to the New World Order, and our political system. We must sever the connection between big money and political power. Thanks to Ross Perot, that’s what the Reform Party stands for, and that’s why I’m running for President of the United States.

I’ve been told that it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to be president. Nevertheless, I am one. I’m also a career military officer, the father of seven children, and the grandfather of nineteen. I’ve been a corporate slave, a song-and-dance man, a stuffy college professor, an itinerant preacher, a fighter pilot, a radio talk show host, and a husband to the same wonderful woman for 43 years. One thing I have never ever been is a politician — and I don’t intend to become one. (I’m not even a lawyer. I hope you won’t hold that against me!)

I’m going to Washington to restore power to the people. Once that’s done, I’ll go back to being a part-time rocket scientist, a part-time bishop, and a full-time troublemaker.

Once the people are back in control, all sorts of things become possible. No longer forced to compete with Chinese slave labor, American workers can support their families with one job, not three. Ross was right. The unfair trade policies of NAFTA and GATT must be abolished. And if I am elected, they will be!

With the people in control, every American can have good health care, run not by HMOs or insurance companies or the government, but by their doctor. It’s time to kick the insurance companies out of the health care business, break the stranglehold of the for-profit hospital conglomerates and HMOs, and finally join the rest of the civilized world with a doctor-run single-payer national health system.

With the people in control, we can greatly reduce the tax burden on workers and small businesses. By severing the connection between employment and health care, we can eliminate payroll taxes completely. Start-up businesses shouldn’t have to worry about taxes at all until they become profitable. Right now, the the tax burden falls on small businesses which use American suppliers and hire American workers, while the big multinationals use offshore suppliers, offshore slave labor, offshore bank accounts, and avoid US taxes altogether. It’s time for the giant multinationals who sell their products here to pay their fair share of taxes.

With the people in control, the Defense budget can be used for our real security needs and the needs of the people in our military services, not to buy useless nukes and unneeded cold war weapons just to satisfy the greed of the weapons manufacturers. I was very fortunate. I came back in one piece from my 101 combat missions in Vietnam. Many were not so lucky. Veterans of the Vietnam War came home afflicted with Agent Orange, unappreciated, and traumatized by what they saw and what they were asked to do. More Vietnam vets have died of suicide than were killed in combat.

Tens of thousands of Gulf War veterans have had their lives destroyed by a combination of depleted uranium, anthrax vaccine, and chemical weaponry. They are still being told it’s all in their head. Our men and women in uniform deserve better than that. It’s time for us to take care of those who put everything on the line for us and for our security.

Most importantly, with the people in control, Americans can be freed of the threat of nuclear terrorism. This is by far the biggest threat we face today. It threatens our security far more than did the Soviet Union at the height of its power. Not a single weapon in our vast arsenal can protect us from a terrorist attack. Our enormous nuclear stockpile is useless, and cannot deter a man willing to die (and kill) for what he believes. Some people, including the other presidential candidates, look to "Star Wars" to defend us. It can’t. I directed all the Department of Defense "Star Wars" programs under Presidents Ford and Carter, when their existence was secret. When Reagan turned it into a crash program to develop new offensive weapons disguised as defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff asked me to warn the American public and Congress about what they called "this military lunacy." I did. Having left my lucrative position as an executive in the aerospace industry, I gave over 5,000 speeches on "Star Wars."

We were successful. Congress protected the ABM Treaty and kept Reagan from deploying "Star Wars." Now, Clinton is resurrecting it. And it is still detrimental to our national security. Even if these weapons worked, they would only be useful against isolated ballistic missiles. But no terrorist is going to use such a high-tech, complex, costly, visible, traceable means of delivery. No, he’s just going to float his nuke up the Potomac River on a barge or fly it into Red Square in a Cessna or smuggle it into the country in a bale of marijuana ... or deliver it in a Ryder rental truck. No "Star Wars" system can do any good against a nuclear terrorist.

The other candidates don’t have a clue what to do about this. They don’t understand the nature of the threat. You see, we are the target of terrorists because our government is feared and hated. It is hated because it has done hateful things to people all around the world. Our government has deposed elected leaders and supported brutal dictators who have sold out their own people to the multinational corporations. It did it in Iran. It did it in Chile. It did it over and over again in Central America. As Clinton found out, it did it in Greece decades ago, and the people still remember. More recently, our government has been responsible for the deaths of half a million children in Iraq. We love our country, but fear our government. Well, so do people around the world, and for good reason. The only way we can make ourselves secure from the threat of nuclear terrorism is to get control of our government and stop it from doing hateful things in our name. We may sometimes have a bad government, but we are a very good people. It’s time for us to have a government that reflects the values and goodness of the American people.

Our values and goodness are not reflected by a government which uses our youth and our money to train death squads in the techniques of torture, intimidation, and assassination. It’s time for The School of the Americas to be closed.

Our values and goodness are not reflected by a government which gives Most Favored Nation status to the butchers of Tianenmen Square and places an illegal secondary embargo on the impoverished people of Cuba. It’s time to end the embargo of Cuba and put principle before profit in our dealings with China.

The people in many nations live in fear of a hated national police. Oflten armed, trained, and paid by the U.S. government, these institutions trample human rights; they shoot first, and ask questions later. But it could never happen in this country ... or could it? Recent events with respect to Waco and Ruby Ridge must give us pause. The FBI was supposed to be an investigative body, not a national police force. It’s time to get the FBI, the CIA, the DEA, the INS, the IRS, and the ATF under control or disarm them altogether. Americans should not live in fear of their own government!

Finally, our values and goodness are not reflected by — and we will no longer accept — a government which sends our sons and daughters around the world to kill Arabs so the oil companies can sell the oil under their sand, making us the target of terrorists. It’s time for us to be the good guys. No more Iraqs. No more El Salvadors. No more Kosovos.

These are not isolated acts of stupidity. They are part of a long bloody history of foreign policy conducted for the financial interests of the wealthy few. It is a new colonialism, it endangers our national security, and it must end.

As President, I will use the men and women in our armed forces to protect our borders, not the financial interests of Folgers, Chiquita Banana, and Exxon. This is not isolationism, it is common sense, it is in the interest of our people, and it is obeying our Constitution for a change. Every Republocrat president in recent memory has committed impeachible offenses by violating our founding document. It’s time for a President to give more than lip service to his oath of office, and to treat the Constitution like it mattered!

We must build an America at peace with the world and with its own people ... an America that seeks not to be king of the hill nor subservient to the World Trade Organization, but to be a responsible sovereign member of the family of nations ... an America that is free of the threat of nuclear terrorism because it is no longer feared and hated ... an America that leads the world — not by dominating and manipulating other nations, but by earning their respect and admiration ... an America that leads the world — not with military might, but with its vision, its compassion, its democracy, its productivity, its standard of living, its treatment of its own people, and its goodness. That’s the kind of America I want to build, and that’s why I’m running for President.

And I can win, but I can’t do it alone. We must unite those of the left and the right, conservatives and liberals, disenchanted Democrats and repulsed Republicans, doves and hawks — because there is one great cause on which we all agree. We must take political power from the multinational corporations and banks, the arms merchants, and the lobbyists and restore it to the people of America. This is our challenge, and together we can do it.

On inauguration day, as the first president since Kennedy not owned by the industrialists and bankers, I will close the School of the Americas, end the sanctions against Iraq and the embargo of Cuba, halt the breakup of Yugoslavia, abolish the CIA, pull out of the WTO, bring our overseas troops home, and pardon Leonard Peltier and Mumia Abu Jamal. Your job is to keep them alive long enough, and to get me elected. Thank you, and God bless you!

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