Yes- the president works for us! There is so much more the Bush administration can do to end the genocide in Darfur and he needs to know that the people are holding him accountable during his last year in office. Our power as a grassroots constituency lies in our ability to channel our voices into one loud demand for action. For the next couple of months, we’ll be working our connections with members of Congress and influential political leaders to ensure the president hears our demand to make Sudan a priority. If we ramp up the pressure from the American people and from Congress, the president has to listen. So sign onto the campaign and tell President Bush to “SEAL the Deal” by Sticking to his promises, Enforcing UNAMID, Applying an all-Sudan solution, and Lobbying China.

There are substantial actions the president can take to end genocide in Darfur. Tell President Bush to “SEAL the Deal” by Sticking to his promises, Enforcing UNAMID, Applying an all-Sudan solution, and Lobbying China.

Specifically, we are asking the president to:
Stick to his promises:

• Enforce the Sudan Accountability and Divestment act, which prohibits any and all federal contracts with worst offending companies
• Immediately introduce a resolution to the UN Security Council that mandates international sanctions on all agents obstructing the deployment of UNAMID and the Darfur Peace Process
• Make good on his promise to facilitate the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA)

Enforce UNAMID
Do everything in his power to financially, logistically, and diplomatically support the deployment of the joint United Nations African Mission in Darfur (UNAMID).
Apply an All-Sudan Solution
Work closely with the U.S Special Envoy to Darfur, Ambassador Richard Williamson, to employ more coordinated, forceful and comprehensive diplomacy with the various actors in Sudan.
Lobby China
Work with Congress and employ all available economic and political tools to encourage positive and meaningful Chinese engagement with the government in Khartoum.

President Bush has taken significant action to end atrocities in Sudan in his first seven years in office. Specifically, he has:

• Brokered the Comprehensive Peace Agreement -
  In the first years of his administration, President Bush worked hard to broker a peace agreement that ended a 21-year-long civil war between Northern and Southern Sudan. Full implementation of his agreement, known as the North-South Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), would enable the people of Sudan to address the resource allocation and power-sharing grievances that are at the root of the country’s conflicts. It also would pave the way for free and fair national elections in late 2009.
  
  Bush’s brokerage of the North-South agreement was a major victory that the US government should be proud of. However, the agreement is at risk of falling apart if Sudan does not feel pressure to properly implement it.
• Rhetoric -
  President Bush has made many statements about the genocide in Darfur. “The brutal treatment of innocent civilians in Darfur is unacceptable — it is unacceptable to me, it is unacceptable to Americans, it’s unacceptable to the United Nations. This status quo must not continue.” – President George W. Bush (From Whitehouse.gov). His rhetoric has exceeded any other world’s leader, as evidenced by his frequent use of the word genocide.
• Diplomacy -
  Last year, President Bush appointed Andrew Natsios as his part-time Special Envoy to Sudan in order to create diplomatic solutions to the Darfur crisis. During his tenure,however, Natsios was also a professor at Georgetown University. Natsios resigned in late 2007, and President Bush appointed Ambassador Richard Williamson to take his place. It is still not clear if Williamson is full-time, or whether he will be allocated the necessary staff to do his job effectively. Because of this ambiguity, we are asking the President to collaborate with Richardson to ensure his work as Special Envoy proves effective.
• Sanctions -
  On May 29, 2007, President Bush ordered the U.S. Department of the Treasury to block the assets of three Sudanese individuals involved in the violence and to sanction 31 companies owned or controlled by the Government of Sudan. Those sanctions include restrictions on imports from and exports to Sudan, an asset freeze against the government of Sudan, and a prohibition on U.S. arms sales or transfers to Sudan.
• Darfur Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Assistance -
  Congress, with the president’s support, has allocated over $4 billion in humanitarian, peacekeeping, and development assistance to the people of Sudan and Eastern Chad since 2005. Additionally, Congress and the president have agreed to cover 25% of the cost of the hybrid UN-AU Darfur peacekeeping operation. The US government also funded the construction and maintenance of 34 Darfur base camps for the over 7,000 AU peacekeepers and provides over 40,000 metric tons of food aid monthly as the largest food donor. Because the area is so insecure, however, the delivery of food aid is often obstructed by raiding militias and thieves.

Click here to see the official White House fact sheet on what the president had done for Darfur

STAND is a non-partisan organization. We believe that stopping genocide requires political will from both the right and the left. That’s why we’re asking all presidential candidates to commit to making Darfur a priority through our Ask the Candidates campaign. It’s not enough for candidates to just recognize that there is a genocide – we’ve had almost 5 years of empty rhetoric. We need a president with a plan of action, and we want the candidates to articulate that plan to us before we elect them. Learn more about the Ask the Candidates campaign at www.askthecandidates.org

All executive power in the federal government is vested in the President of the United States, although power is often delegated to his/her cabinet members and other officials. The United States Cabinet is composed of the most senior appointed officers of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States.

Traditionally, the most powerful and relevant Cabinet members are the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defense, and the Attorney General. In recent years, the Secretary of Homeland Security has risen to a level of significance that is arguably closer to the "big four" than to the other cabinet offices.

Secretary of State - Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of the Treasury - Henry Paulson
Secretary of Defense - Robert Gates
Attorney General - Michael Mukasey
Secretary of Homeland Security - Michael Chertoff
See the rest on Wikipedia

Tell President Bush to “SEAL the Deal” by Sticking to his promises, Enforcing UNAMID, Applying an all-Sudan solution, and Lobbying China. Read STAND’s statement to the president, sign on to the campaign, and start organizing on your campus or in your community. Check out these ideas for action.

Definitely! There are a number of individual actions you can take to tell President Bush to “SEAL the Deal” by Sticking to his promises, Enforcing UNAMID, Applying an all-Sudan solution, and Lobbying China.

• Call 1-800-GENOCIDE and communicate your demands to the White House.
• Write a letter to President Bush and mail it to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500, or email it to comments@whitehouse.gov
• Organize an event that emphasizes President Bush’s responsibility to end genocide in Darfur. See ideas here.
• Sign up to receive updates on the campaign! You can receive weekly campaign updates by signing up at www.standnow.org.

Thanks for recognizing that organizing a national campaign to end genocide costs money! All donations to STAND are tax deductible, and 55% of all donations fund the Genocide Intervention Network’s Civilian Protection Program in Darfur. You can donate here.

Make sure to check out all the helpful materials STAND has assembled or visit the following websites for more info.

• White House Fact Sheet on Darfur
• US State Department on Darfur
• ENOUGH report on an All-Sudan Solution