This past week, more than 150 people rallied against torture in Sierra Vista, Arizona, culminating in a mile-long march to the main gate of Ft. Huachuca, home of the U.S. Army Intelligence Center where interrogators are trained. The protesters delivered a message saying: "Rogue assassinations and torture have damaged the soul of our nation and tarnished our image around the world.”This past week, more than 150 people rallied against torture in Sierra Vista, Arizona,... more
An American citizen has filed a suit, arguing that FBI agents allegedly involved in his interrogation and transfer to other countries violated his constitutional rights. The suit claims U.S. officials repeatedly threatened the man with torture, forced disappearance, and execution in order to coerce him to confess to wrongdoing in which he had not engaged.An American citizen has filed a suit, arguing that FBI agents allegedly involved in... more
The New York Times reports that top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were intended to silence their criticism and buy their support after Blackwater security guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007.The New York Times reports that top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized... more
Religion plays a large part in Israel's claims to the land it lies on and Palestinian hopes for statehood.
The King's Torah is the title of a book written by Yitzhak Shapira, an Israeli Rabbi living in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, and it is complicating an already seemingly intractable political conflict.
The book offers a theological backing to Jews killing those perceived to be violating Jewish commandments or threatening the Jewish nation.
Are such calls harmless or do they drive official policy and manipulate the masses?
And what about Palestinian extremist rhetoric, what harm does it cause?
We discuss religious extremism among the occupier and the occupied, and the damage done to peace prospects.
Inside Story discusses with guests Lamis Andoni, a Middle East analyst, Rabbi Yehiel Grenimann, from Rabbis for human rights, and Gerald Steinberg, a chair of political studies and director of the conflict resolution program at Bar Ilan University.
This episode of Inside Story aired on Wednesday, November 11, 2009.Religion plays a large part in Israel's claims to the land it lies on and Palestinian... more
A former British ambassador to Uzbekistan said in a recent lecture that the CIA relied on intelligence from tortured prisoners the agency sent to that country. He said: "I'm talking of people being raped with broken bottles. I'm talking of people having their children tortured in front of them until they sign a confession. I'm talking of people being boiled alive."A former British ambassador to Uzbekistan said in a recent lecture that the CIA relied... more
Opponents of the Goldstone report might well be hoping that after its lopsided condemnation in the US House of Representatives and successful relegation back to the UN's Human Rights Commission, the report will become little more than an historical footnote in a decades-long conflict.
This might in fact occur, given the imbalance of power between the contending sides. But historians can do a great deal with footnotes.
When the glare of history is finally shone upon the whole affair, it might well turn out that the reasons for such vehement opposition from US politicians, and only tepid (at best) support for it among other major powers, have far more to do with their own geostrategic interests than with protecting Israel.
Back story
The report, written by South African jurist Richard Goldstone, has caused uproar in Israel and the US for its alleged bias against Israel and avoidance of serious criticism of Hamas. The condemnation, House Resolution 867, passed by a 344-36 vote.
Before the vote on the resolution, Goldstone sent a letter to members of Congress refuting most of the allegations contained in it. But his rebuttal did not lead to substantive changes in the report's accusations and apparently had no effect on the vote.
Given the way in which opposition to the report unfolded it would be easy to conclude that this is merely another case of the vaunted Israel lobby shutting down any debate over Israel's actions in the Occupied Territories.
Yet while Israel's supporters no doubt took the lead in pushing the resolution, there is a back story to this drama that has likely played an equally, if not more important, role in the firestorm it has generated.
Why would the House go so far out of its way to stamp out even the consideration of war crimes accusations against Israel? And why would Barack Obama, the US president, have pressured Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, not to push the report in the UN when he had to know that such actions would cost Abbas most of his little remaining credibility among Palestinians?
Accessory to war crimes
There are two reasons for this.
Firstly, if Israel is guilty of committing systematic war crimes across Gaza and the West Bank, then the US, which supported, funded and armed Israel during the war, is an accessory to those crimes.
Goldstone explains in no uncertain terms that Gaza was not an aberration in terms of Israel's treatment of Palestinians.
Rather, it marked not only a continuation of Israel's behaviour during the 2006 invasion of Lebanon, but "highlights a common thread of the interaction between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian civilians which emerged clearly also in many cases discussed in other parts of the report.
It referenced continuous and systematic abuse, outrages on personal dignity, humiliating and degrading treatment contrary to fundamental principles of international humanitarian law and human rights law".
"The Mission concludes that the treatment of these civilians constitutes the infliction of a collective penalty on those persons and amounts to measures of intimidation and terror. Such acts are grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and constitute a war crime," the report says.
Put simply, if there is blood on Israel's hands, than it is has dripped all over America's shirt.
Israel could not and would not have engaged in the level of wholesale destruction of Gaza painstakingly catalogued in the report without the support of the outgoing Bush administration, and acquiescence of the incoming Obama administration.
ContinuedOpponents of the Goldstone report might well be hoping that after its lopsided... more
In a landmark case, twenty-three Americans, mostly CIA operatives, have been convicted in Italy for kidnapping a Muslim cleric from the streets of Milan in 2003. They were all tried in absentia after the United States refused to hand them over. The convictions turn them into international fugitives who risk arrest abroad. The case marks the first time any American has been convicted for taking part in a so-called “extraordinary rendition.” We go to Rome to speak with the Italian prosecutor who brought the case, Armando Spataro, and get comment from international law and human rights attorney Scott Horton. [includes rush transcript]In a landmark case, twenty-three Americans, mostly CIA operatives, have been convicted... more
The Saudi air force has attacked rebels in northern Yemen following Wednesday's killing of a Saudi security officer in a border area, reports have said.
'Successive air strikes'
In a statement on its website on Wednesday, the group said Saudi warplanes and helicopters had dropped >>>>>phosphorus bombsOK, let me get this right..if an Arab country uses phosphorus BOMBS it is OK but if... more
"LONDON (Reuters) - Leading banks have funded arms manufacturers, whose products include cluster bombs, to the tune of $5 billion in the past two years, despite an international accord to ban such weapons, a study said Thursday.
The report by Profundo consultancy and several NGOs said the banks loaned money to companies whose products include cluster bombs or their components.
It did not say the funds went directly to make cluster bombs. The manufacturers could use the money for any of their production lines.
The top five loan providers were Bank of America, Citigroup , JP Morgan, Barclays and Goldman Sachs, the study said.
The researchers used publicly available information, such as that supplied by stock exchanges and financial databases, to produce their study.
According to the research, the banks have provided financing for diversified manufacturer Textron, aerospace and defense group Alliant Techsystems and defense contractor Lockheed Martin , all based in the United States.
Cluster bombs, which open in mid-air and scatter a multitude of bomblets over a wide area, have killed and maimed tens of thousands of civilians, campaigners say.
Nations agreed to outlaw cluster bombs in May 2008. The resulting convention will come into force when 30 countries have ratified it -- 23 have already done so.
Neither the United States nor Britain, where the top five loan providers are based, have yet ratified the treaty.
The Convention on Cluster Munitions includes a ban on assisting anyone to make the bombs.
Bank of America and JP Morgan declined to comment while Citigroup and Goldman Sachs also had no immediate reaction.""LONDON (Reuters) - Leading banks have funded arms manufacturers, whose products... more
The Bosnian Serb leader/ war criminal is set to appear in UN Tribunal for his crimes of genocide. Recently, he "boycotted" his appearence earlier this month because he believed that he didn't have enough time to review the prosecutor's evidence and witness statements.
Read article for more.The Bosnian Serb leader/ war criminal is set to appear in UN Tribunal for his crimes... more
Turkey's public broadcaster TRT has removed scenes of Israeli violence against Palestinians from a television series that caused a diplomatic dispute with Israel. Producer Selcuk Cobanoglu told the Milliyet daily a scene showing Israeli soldiers shooting a row of blindfolded Palestinians was cut from the second episode.Turkey's public broadcaster TRT has removed scenes of Israeli violence against... more
BERLIN (AP) -- Nazi hit man Heinrich Boere goes on trial Wednesday for the execution-style killings of three Dutch civilians during World War II.
Boere has admitted to gunning down the three men as part of a Waffen SS death squad. They were killed in retribution for partisan attacks in Holland as the tide of World War II turned against the Nazis.
But for more than six decades after the war, he managed to avoid punishment - first escaping from a prisoner of war camp in the Netherlands, then successfully eluding the courts in Germany.
The 88-year-old Boere goes on trial at the state court in Aachen, charged with the murders of a bicycle-shop owner, a pharmacist and another civilian.
It will be the first time that Teun de Groot sees the confessed killer of his father - the bicycle shop owner - with his own eyes.
"I don't think he can get out of it in any way now," de Groot said in a telephone interview from his home in Heiloo, Netherlands.
"I would be a little disappointed if he got less than natural life (in prison), which is only a few years for him anyway," he added. "You know when you owe a debt, it grows with time. Well, he should actually have to pay interest."
Boere volunteered for the Nazis' fanatical Waffen SS only months after Adolf Hitler's forces had overrun his hometown of Maastricht and the rest of the Netherlands.
After fighting on the Russian front, Boere ended up back in Holland as part of a notorious death squad code-named "Silbertanne," or "Silver Pine." Made up largely of Dutch SS volunteers like himself, they were tasked with reprisal killings of their countrymen for resistance attacks on collaborators.
In statements after the war to Dutch authorities - which prosecutor Ulrich Maass said now form an important part of his case - Boere detailed the killings, almost shot-by-shot.
In a 2007 interview with the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, he justified the actions, saying he was sorry for what he had done but that it "was another time, with different rules."
Boere's attorney, Gordon Christiansen, declined to comment before the trial on how he planned to counter the confessions.
Maass said the defense could try the familiar argument that Boere was following orders, but he did not think it would be successful.
The trial is scheduled over 13 days through Dec. 18, but could last longer if more time is needed. Sessions are expected to be limited to about three hours per day because of Boere's age and poor health.
In addition to the Dutch court documents, Maass said it is possible that the only other known surviving member of Silbertanne, who was Boere's partner on the first killing but has already been convicted and served his time, might come from the Netherlands to testify.
Boere was captured by the Allies at the end of the war and spent two years as a POW in the Netherlands, but managed to break out of his camp and flee to Germany before he could be brought to trial.
He was sentenced in absentia to death in the Netherlands in 1949 - later commuted to life imprisonment - but then managed to escape any jail time, with German courts both refusing to extradite him and to force him to serve the Dutch sentence in Germany.
The Associated Press was the first to report in early 2008 that state prosecutors in Dortmund had quietly reopened the case, in a last-ditch attempt to bring charges against him.
Silbertanne, consisting of 15 SS men, is believed to be responsible for 54 killings. Boere was convicted in the Netherlands of three of them, which he detailed in statements to Dutch police after his arrest now preserved in the court file, obtained by The AP.By DAVID RISING
Associated Press Writer
BERLIN (AP) -- Nazi hit man Heinrich... more
Can you see the drone is this photo...neither can he...
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- A U.N. human rights investigator is warning the United States that its use of unmanned warplanes to carry out targeted executions may violate international law.
Philip Alston says the U.S. will increasingly be perceived as carrying out indiscriminate killings in violation of international law unless the government explains the legal basis for targeting particular individuals and the measures it is taking to comply with international humanitarian law which prohibits arbitrary executions.
His comments Tuesday came as the U.S. has increased the use of Predator drones in Afghanistan and Pakistan and is considering stepping up their use even further against al-Qaida and Taliban targets.
Alston, the U.N. Human Rights Council's investigator on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions, told a news conference the U.S. response - that the Geneva-based council and the U.N. General Assembly have no role in relation to killings during an armed conflict - is untenable.
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JERUSALEM, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Hoping to defuse a U.N. report fiercely critical of its war in Gaza, Israel plans to set up a team to double-check internal inquiries that cleared its forces of serious wrongdoing, a political source said on Sunday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak "hope this move will put the issue to rest", the source, a government aide speaking on condition of anonymity, said.
The source was referring to international demands that Israel set up an independent domestic investigation into war-crimes allegations.
Israel bombarded and invaded the Gaza Strip last December in what it said was a response to rocket fire by Palestinian Hamas. It refused to cooperate with the United Nations fact-finding mission under South African jurist Richard Goldstone, citing bias concerns..........JERUSALEM, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Hoping to defuse a U.N. report fiercely critical of its... more
Let’s Talk Live! Host James Cox, Interviews POKER FACE!
I will be discussing the bands politics and their new album Peace or War
Poker Face has been dubbed the leading truth/freedom band in the Union. Through the use of various multi-media sources, this four piece band has made it their mission to expose the lies & scandals coming out the Union’s Capitol.
With a sound that is unmistakably their own, Poker Face mixes a variety of styles & orchestrations to take you on a true musical journey.
Band members are: Paul Topete, Dennis Beidler, Brett Griffiths & Rich Valentin.
Call in Telephone Number for the show: (347) 633-9636
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Let’s Talk Live! 9PM EST 10/26 Guest Poker Face http://bit.ly/F2NTV #Revolution #Teaparty #PFPM #C4L #YAL #BlogtalkRadio #Freedom #Liberty
Twitter:
Let’s Talk Live! 9PM EST 10/26 Guest Poker Face http://bit.ly/F2NTV #Revolution #PFPM #YAL #BlogtalkRadio #Freedom #Liberty #347-633-9636Let’s Talk Live! Host James Cox, Interviews POKER FACE!
I will be discussing the... more
"(CNN) -- Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic intends to skip the start of his war crimes trial because he says he has had too little time to prepare, a spokeswoman for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia said Thursday.
The trial is still expected to begin on Monday despite Karadzic's intended absence, which he announced in a letter to the court, the spokeswoman said.
"The tribunal judges control court proceedings. They are the only relevant body that can make a decision about the readiness of the case for trial," she said.
Karadzic, who is defending himself, faces genocide charges and nine other counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity against Bosnian Muslims, Bosnian Croats and other non-Serbian civilians during the brutal and bloody dissolution of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
The conflict introduced the phrase "ethnic cleansing" into the lexicon describing war crimes, as different factions in multi-ethnic Yugoslavia sought to kill or drive out other groups.
Karadzic was arrested last year after more than a decade on the run and was found to have been living in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, and practicing alternative medicine in disguise.
In a letter dated Wednesday and made public Thursday, Karadzic complains that he has not been given the relevant case material on time -- and he says the volume of material would have been too much to go through even if he had received it promptly.
"I ask Your Excellencies -- why and how is it possible that the prosecution is allowed to literally bury me under a million of pages, only to start disclosing relevant material many months after my arrest?" he writes. "Why and how is it possible that the prosecution is allowed to file its final indictment against me on the eve of the planned trial date?"
Karadzic says he should not be penalized for representing himself.
"No lawyer in this world could prepare defense within this period of time," he writes. "I hereby inform you that my defense is not ready for my trial that is supposed to begin as scheduled, on the 26th of October, and that therefore I shall not appear before you on that date."
He promised to continue his preparations in "the most intensive way" and inform the court when he is ready."
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View link for more. Share your thoughts and opinions on this story."(CNN) -- Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic intends to skip the start of his... more
The trail of Radovan Karadzic set to start without him, he is being indicted for war crimes inculding the genocide of Bosnian Muslims
In July 1995 Serb forces murdered 8,000 Muslim men in the U.N.-protected Srebrenica enclave
His refusal to show up at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal is a blow to survivors who hold him responsible for tens of thousands of deaths during the brutal 1992-95 Bosnian war.
"The Karadzic trial is really the trial that the Yugoslavia tribunal was designed for," said Michael Scharf, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
Karadzic claims he is boycotting his trail, which many see as a chance for the tribunal to make amends for Milosevic's ill-fated trial, which dragged on for four years before his fatal heart attack.
Milosevic was Karadzic's political mentor and president of the former YugoslaviaThe trail of Radovan Karadzic set to start without him, he is being indicted for war... more
This shows the non-ending human rights abuse in Israel and in the occupied Palestine.
** I found this video while looking for a song. Let me know what you think...This shows the non-ending human rights abuse in Israel and in the occupied Palestine.... more
Al Jazeera is officially less biased than Fox News.... wow..and we wonder why therest of the world hates us
i am merely relay this.. it is al-jazeera.. i am assuming they are biased but this is afirly good reporting.. they could learn from the FOX NEWS model..
i found this interesting
About 1,400 Palestinians – the majority of them civilians - and 13 Israelis were killed during Israel's three-week war on Gaza between December and January, which had the stated aim of stopping rocket attacks by Palestinian fighters from the coastal territory.
still unbiased... of course i cant speak Arabic so i am only assuming that this is a proper translatiion of what is on the "real" siteAl Jazeera is officially less biased than Fox News.... wow..and we wonder why therest... more
