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]http://www.democracynow.org/2009/11/5/italian_prosecutor_in_case_against_cia
In a... 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."http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE59S4DL20091029?sp=true
"LONDON... 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.http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091103/ts_afp/warcrimesserbiabosniaictykaradzic
The... 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
Despite being heavily criticised by Israel, the Goldstone report on the Gaza war was adopted by the UN Human Rights Council this weekend. Can Palestinians or Israelis meet the recommendations of the report to the satisfaction of the UN or will the international community have to intervene?Despite being heavily criticised by Israel, the Goldstone report on the Gaza war was... more
The United States has criticised the Goldstone report into Israel's war on Gaza, calling it one-sided.
In an interview with Al Jazeera's Shihab Rattansi, Justice Richard Goldstone challenged the US government to justify its claims that his findings are flawed and biased.
Goldstone said the attacks on him have become personal and he believes most critics have not even read the report.The United States has criticised the Goldstone report into Israel's war on Gaza,... more
Bethlehem – Ma’an – Richard Goldstone, the former judge who led the UN-mandated fact-finding mission regarding Israel’s winter war on Gaza, challenged the US to justify its objections to his report on Thursday.
Goldstone told Qatar-based broadcaster Al-Jazeera International that US President Barack Obama’s administration “seems to be ambivalent” in its response to his 575-page report on the attack, which killed more than 1,400 Palestinians.
“The Obama administration joined our recommendation calling for full, good-faith investigations both in Israel and in Gaza, but said that the report was flawed,” the South African Jurist told interviewer Shihab Rattansi.
“I have yet to hear from the Obama administration what the flaws in the report that they’ve identified are. I’d be happy to respond to them if and when I know what they are,” he added.Bethlehem – Ma’an – Richard Goldstone, the former judge who led the UN-mandated... more
The Lord's Resistance Army, one of the most feared guerrilla groups in Africa, has moved into Darfur, one of the continent's most troubled regions, intelligence sources in Sudan say.The Lord's Resistance Army, one of the most feared guerrilla groups in Africa, has... more
When Israel unleashed Operation Cast Lead in Gaza almost all Italian newspapers and tv showed a strong pro-Israel bias. When news show Annozero dared to dedicate an episode to the suffering of children caught in the war in Gaza, almost all political forces and journalists in the country wanted to crucify its host Santoro. Yet now there is a UN report that says clearly how things went.When Israel unleashed Operation Cast Lead in Gaza almost all Italian newspapers and tv... more
Tony Blair spoke at the University at Buffalo on Wednesday, October 7. As usual, the University prescreened and censored questions. But one questioner got through by submitting a fake question for review, then asking a real one. Blair looks even more like a liar than usual here. I’m told that University at Buffalo Vice President and Chief Censor Dennis Black nearly burst a vein when he heard the unapproved question being asked.Tony Blair spoke at the University at Buffalo on Wednesday, October 7. As usual, the... more
