tagged w/ crimes against humanity
-
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/11/2009111174626931966.html
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.
Continuedhttp://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/11/2009111174626931966.html
Opponents of... more
-
-
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE59S4DL20091029?sp=true
"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
-
-
Amnesty International says Israel is denying Palestinians fair access to water. A report released Tuesday accuses Israel of violating international law by restricting Palestinians' water access. Israel has rejected the allegations. (Oct 27)Amnesty International says Israel is denying Palestinians fair access to water. A... more
-
-
The head of a Texas anti-death penalty group has accused that state's governor of scuttling an investigation into a possible wrongful execution for political reasons.The head of a Texas anti-death penalty group has accused that state's governor of... more
-
-
This is part of the documentary-Daughter of Violence. searching for sponsorship for master delivery of this documentary and distribution.This is part of the documentary-Daughter of Violence. searching for sponsorship for... more
-
-
This is part of the documentary-Daughter of Violence. searching for sponsorship for master delivery of this documentary and distribution.This is part of the documentary-Daughter of Violence. searching for sponsorship for... more
-
-
This is part of the documentary-Daughter of Violence. searching for sponsorship for master delivery of this documentary and distribution.This is part of the documentary-Daughter of Violence. searching for sponsorship for... more
-
-
This is part of the documentary-Daughter of Violence. searching for sponsorship for master delivery of this documentary and distribution.This is part of the documentary-Daughter of Violence. searching for sponsorship for... more
-
-
This documentary is about Daughters of Violence of Kashmir. These Kashmiri daughters have lost their parents as victims of militancy in Kashmir. For these daughters, the word parental love has become a distant concept, one that can only be imagined, never felt. The most obvious example of this is orphaned children, who must suffer from images of death, loss and absolute tragedy.
But, these daughters are living with smiles at Abode of Smiles (Basera-e-Tabassum), Kashmir. BeT is an abode which belongs to the daughters without parents whom the society calls as orphans. The basic thought of BeT is Orphaned but not alone.That`s why these daughters are saying- Don`t tell us orphan, please.
This is part of the documentary-Daughter of Violence. searching for sponsorship for master delivery of this documentary and distribution.This documentary is about Daughters of Violence of Kashmir. These Kashmiri daughters... more
-
-
The report of Goldstone led UN Commission reports of Israeli war crimes and Gaza last winter "focuses overwhelmingly on Israel's actions," said Friday a senior U.S. diplomat.
Although it acknowledges, to a lesser extent, Hamas war crimes, the Goldstone report has angered Israel.
From December 27, 2008 to January 18, 2009, the Israeli army launched a major ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, called Operation Cast Lead in response to Hamas rocket attacks on the Israeli town of Sderot. Sstatistics show 1400 Palestinian deaths of which 926 were civilians including 313 children and 116 women. On the Israeli side, 13 people were killed, including 3 civilians.
Eight months after the attack, a report from the Committee of the Council of Human Rights was released in New York. Result of months of investigation by former prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda resulted in a 575 page document in which South African Richard Goldstone accused the Israeli armed forces 'of acts amounting to war crimes and perhaps, in certain circumstances, crimes against humanity'.The report of Goldstone led UN Commission reports of Israeli war crimes and Gaza last... more
-
-
Watch Goldstone interview on Democracy Now!
Subject: Letter to the editor of the New York Times
In Response the article published: September 15, 2009. Title: 'Inquiry Finds Gaza War Crimes From Both Sides' http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/16/world/middleeast/16gaza.html?hp
Neil MacFarquhar misrepresents 575-page report. The title should read:
'Goldstone Reports Israel Guilty of Massive War Crimes and Also Faults Hamas'
That’s what a true headline would have read. I greatly object to the title, Inquiry Finds Gaza War Crimes From Both Sides. I would challenge that your Mr. MacFarquhar did not read the whole of Mr. Goldstone’s 575-page report on the three-week war in Gaza.
'To start the report basically is consistent with the findings of the other human rights organizations, that Israel targeted civilians, Israel targeted civilians who were carrying white flags, Israel systematically targeted the Palestinian infrastructure. The findings were consistent with those of the other human rights organizations: Israel is guilty of a very significant number of war crimes. And also, the findings which were—other reports, the same conclusions, that the Palestinians were not using hospitals to hide Hamas officials. There’s no evidence that the ambulances Israel targeted were carrying Hamas militants or ammunition. And most significantly, in terms of the coverage during the Gaza massacre, the report found, as did Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, there’s no evidence whatsoever—and I would want to underline that—there’s no evidence whatsoever that Hamas was guilty of human shielding. But on the other hand, there is significant evidence, actually copious evidence, that Israel was guilty of human shielding.
The report found that the Palestinians were guilty of war crimes because of its indiscriminate and intentional firing on civilians in Israel. I’m not trying to make any apologies, but I want to get the facts right. The Goldstone report, like the Amnesty report and the others, you have to look carefully at the proportions. About nine-tenths—literally, about nine-tenths of the Goldstone report, like the Dugard report, like the Amnesty report, about nine-tenths was devoted to Israeli war crimes; about one-tenth was devoted to Palestinian war crimes. And you have to understand why, because you have to look at the comparable damage. The ratio of killings was about a hundred to one: about—exactly thirteen on the Israeli side, about fourteen hundred on the Palestinian side. If you look at the damage, the damage is actually quite astonishing. Israel just systematically blasted everything in sight and reduced it to rubble, whereas on the Israeli side they say that several houses were damaged and one was almost completely destroyed. So if you look at the facts, the facts on the ground, the proportions in the reports, including the Goldstone report, are correct. It’s about ten to one.
And that’s why today’s headline in the New York Times is so misleading. It’s like a Pravda headline. It says the Goldstone report finds both sides guilty of war crimes. Well, that’s technically true, but an accurate headline would have read, “Goldstone reports Israel guilty of massive war crimes and also faults Hamas.” That’s what a true headline would have read.'
And again: Goldstone Reports Israel Guilty of Massive War Crimes and Also Faults Hamas. That’s what a true headline would have read.
MacFarquhar has done a great disservice to your readers by using this preposterous headline. Please ask this reporter to read the 575-page report in full before he writes and titles an article on the three-week war in Gaza. And please pass this on to
Mr. MacFarquhar.
GoldbeanWatch Goldstone interview on Democracy Now!
Subject: Letter to the editor of the... more
-
-
David Cole, editor of Torture Memos: Rationalizing the Unthinkable, on what may be one of the darkest moments in the last half century of US history, possibly longer: the authorization of torture by high level officials in the Bush administration. Cole's new book lays out the case against the architects of US torture policy. But will they be prosecuted?David Cole, editor of Torture Memos: Rationalizing the Unthinkable, on what may be one... more
-
-
GRITtv
-
added this
-
1 month ago
- |
-
Jean Pierre Bemba Gombo, former vice-president of Congo accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, could be free wainting for the beginning of the process. "His detention is not necessary to ensure his appearance at trial".
Victims and witnesses are starting to be afraid: he could find a way to escape in a country which had not ratified the Treaty of Rome and will not cooperate with the ICC.Jean Pierre Bemba Gombo, former vice-president of Congo accused of war crimes and... more
-
-
Jane Burgermeister
I have filed criminal charges in Austria against Baxter and Avir Green Hills Biotechnology for producing and distributing contaminated bird flu vaccine material this winter, alleging that this was a deliberate act to cause a pandemic, and also to profit from that pandemic.
Avir and Baxter AG are headquartered inside the Vienna City limits, where I live, and so fall within the jurisdiction of the Vienna City Prosecutor.
In the paperwork I filed with the Vienna City Courthouse on Wednesday, April 8th, 2009, after consulting lawyers, I present evidence of intent to cause harm by Baxter and Avir, citing, among other things, the fact that Baxter uses Biosafety Level 3 regulations to prevent just such a contamination of ordinary flu with the bird flu virus.
Also, I suggest that there are reasonable grounds for believing that Baxter is part of a secret bioweapons programme and that there are plans to release weaponised bird flu on the world’s population soon.
Furthermore, I present evidence to support the notion that Baxter is a smaller entity operating within a bigger aggregate of entities that belong to an international organised crime group, which I maintain can be identified with the group known informally as “The Illuminati”.
I allege there is evidence the US “Illuminati”-controlled government plans to release the bird flu on the US population in the near future, citing bird flu drills, FEMA camps, mass graves among other facts.
Flowing from their obligations as a signatory to the UN Convention for the Punishment and Prevention of Genocide, I argue that Austrian courts are bound by law to prosecute any individuals or organisations when there is reasonable proof that they are involved in planning any genocide, including US officials.
In an era of global crime organisations, I argue it is more necessary than ever that Austrian courts leverage international laws to protect the Austrian people as well as people all around the world against the bird flu and other threats, posed in particular by the “Illuminati” global racketeering influenced organised crime syndicate.
As evidence for Baxter’s participation in a secret, black international bioweapons programme, I cite reports that the “bird flu” virus was resurrected by US bioweapons scientists from the Spanish Flu virus in 1996 and also note that Baxter has patented a highly pathogenic bird flu virus mutation, something difficult to account for if Baxter is not doing research into weaponised bird flu strains.
As evidence that Baxter deliberately manufactured and distributed the contaminated material, I note the way the Biosecurity Level 3 regulations were systematically subverted at Baxter’s facilities in Orth an der Donau.
I also note the reports in the media that the contaminated material was sent to 16 laboratories with a false or incorrect llabel as evidence of intent to deceive staff in outside laboratories into thinking they were handling relatively harmless material and into taking fewer precautions, so increasing their risk of being infected by the bird flu and acting as pandemic bird flu carriers into the general population.
I argue the fact that at least 36 to 37 laboratory staff were treated preventatively for bird flu and normal flu in hospital underlines the danger that they could have been infected with the bird flu, and could have sparked a pandemic.
In addition, I present arguments for classifying Baxter’s production facilities for the vaccination material for the bird flu — specifically the use of 1,200 liter bioreactors and vero cell technology — as a dual biological weapons programme. This is because it would allow a huge amount of contaminated vaccine material to be produced rapidly if any live bird flu virus material ever got into the bioreactor in the first place.
I argue that the production and distribution of contaminated bird flu material by Baxter to 16 labs this winter showed that every safety control failed – and that anotJane Burgermeister
I have filed criminal charges in Austria against Baxter and Avir... more
-
-
mae37
-
added this
-
3 months ago
- |
-
Beautiful model Kim Kardashian got upset when she was criticized for her interracial romance with African-American New Orleans Saints star Reggie Bush. Actually there were remarks made about their decision to go on a...Beautiful model Kim Kardashian got upset when she was criticized for her interracial... more
-
-
Here’s Kim Kardashian kicking off July 4th celebration at the Sierra Mist Beach house in Malibu yesterday.Here’s Kim Kardashian kicking off July 4th celebration at the Sierra Mist Beach... more
-
-
anaani
-
added this
-
4 months ago
- |
-
A U.N. inquiry accused Israel on Tuesday of gross negligence and recklessness in attacks on U.N. property in the Gaza strip during fighting between the Jewish state and Palestinian militants in January.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who appointed the four-person inquiry board in February, said he would seek compensation for damage put at more than $11 million but would not follow the panel's call for further investigations.
Israeli officials rejected the report as one-sided, saying it ignored the fact that Israel was fighting a war against a "terrorist" organization -- the militant group Hamas.
Israel's armed forces conducted their own investigation into the conduct of the December-January Gaza campaign and said last month it had found no serious misconduct by troops, who had acted within international law.
Israel launched the campaign to try to halt Palestinian rocket fire from the Hamas-controlled strip. More than 1,000 Palestinians were killed but the sides differ over how many were combatants. Israel lost 10 soldiers and three civilians.
The U.N. inquiry led by Briton Ian Martin, a former head of rights group Amnesty International who later joined the United Nations, investigated nine incidents of damage to U.N. property and faulted Israel in seven of them. It blamed Hamas in one case and could not establish responsibility in another.
In several cases, the report found Israel had "breached the inviolability of United Nations premises," had not respected U.N. immunity and was responsible for deaths and injuries.A U.N. inquiry accused Israel on Tuesday of gross negligence and recklessness in... more
-
-
Kepano
-
added this
-
6 months ago
- |
-
An unidentified man talks to an injured of a suicide attack at a local hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan Friday, March 27, 2009. A suicide bomber blew himself up in a mosque packed with hundreds of worshippers for Friday prayers in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 48 people and injuring scores more, officials said.
(AP Photo/Mohammad Iqbal)
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/
2009.03.26 (Yala, Thailand) - Muslims shoot a 46-year-old Buddhist woman, then set her on fire.
2009.03.26 (Pattani, Thailand) - Mujahideen storm a school, injure the principal and shoot a teacher to death.
2009.03.26 (Narathiwat, Thailand) - Militant Muslims shoot a female grocery owner to death and injure her 70-year-old husband.
2009.03.26 (Tank, Pakistan) - A Shahid suicide bomber detonates at a restaurant, killing a dozen patrons.
2009.03.26 (Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan) - Three Sunnis are shot to death in a sectarian drive-by attack.
2009.03.26 (Helmand, Afghanistan) - Nine local police are gunned down when armed religious extremists attack a checkpoint.An unidentified man talks to an injured of a suicide attack at a local hospital in... more
-
-
The brigade commander of the unit linked to alleged “wanton killings” in Gaza launched his own investigation after hearing of the charges, speaking with actual eyewitnesses, all of whom said that the alleged killings did not took place. The original charges, based only on hearsay and rumors, have therefore been refuted and should be retracted.
The brigade commander’s findings were reported in the Israeli newspaper Maariv, in a story titled IDF Investigation Refutes the Testimonies About Gaza Killings. According to the story (translation by CAMERA):
Two central incidents that came up in the testimony, which Danny Zamir, the head of the Rabin pre-military academy presented to Chief of Staff Gaby Ashkenazi, focus on one infantry brigade. The brigade’s commander today will present to Brigadier General Eyal Eisenberg, commander of the Gaza division, the findings of his personal investigation about the matter which he undertook in the last few days, and after approval, he will present his findings to the head of the Southern Command, Major General Yoav Gallant.
Regarding the incident in which it was claimed that a sniper fired at a Palestinian woman and her two daughters, the brigade commander’s investigation cites the sniper: “I saw the woman and her daughters and I shot warning shots. The section commander came up to the roof and shouted at me, 'Why did you shoot at them?’ I explained that I did not shoot at them, but I fired warning shots.”
Officers from the brigade surmise that fighters that stayed in the bottom floor of the Palestinian house thought that he hit them, and from here the rumor that a sniper killed a mother and her two daughters spread.
The other alleged incident, the killing by a sniper of an elderly woman, also seems not to have taken place:
Regarding the second incident, in which it was claimed that soldiers went up to the roof to entertain themselves with firing and killed an elderly Palestinian woman, the brigade commander investigation found that there was no such incident.
It seems the both Ha’aretz and the New York Times, which gave these stories great play despite a clear lack of evidence, should be composing forthright corrections – preferably to be run on the front page.
CAMERA’s first report on this subject, which includes full details of the charges and links to the initial reports in Ha’aretz and the New York Times, follows below.
March 22, 2009
Questions Raised about Charges of “Wanton Killing” in Gaza
Less than a month after Israel concluded operations in Gaza, some of the soldiers who served there met at the pre-military academy they had attended to discuss their experiences in the fighting. As the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz has reported, the head of the academy, Danny Zamir, arranged the gathering, and at the outset he condemned the Israeli operation for setting “new limits for the army’s ethical code and that of the State of Israel” and for sowing “massive destruction among civilians.”
Later in the discussion Zamir went further, stating:
I think it would be important for parents to sit here and hear this discussion. I think it would be an instructive discussion, and also very dismaying and depressing. You are describing an army with very low value norms, that's the truth.
Since, as Ha’aretz put it, Zamir “does not hide his political opinions,” it seems likely that his former students at the left-leaning Kibbutz-affiliated school knew what Zamir wanted to hear at the meeting, and that only a self-selected group attended. In any event, some of the attendees certainly did not disappoint Zamir, who had been imprisoned by the IDF in 1990 for refusing to serve in the West Bank. They recounted tales of “murder in cold blood,” including seemingly eyewitness accounts of a sniper shooting a woman and two of her children merely because they made a wrong turn, and another sniper killing an old woman.
Zamir wrote an article about theThe brigade commander of the unit linked to alleged “wanton killings” in Gaza... more
-
-
Ethiopian media this week highlighted ongoing negotiations to resolve a border dispute between the country and Sudan this week, following speculations in the Sudanese media that Addis Ababa had ceded its territory to Sudan.
In its anchor article of the week, state-run daily, the Ethiopian Herald highlighted Ethiopia's growing trade relations with Sudan and noted that a simmering border dispute that arose from the non-demarcation of the common border was not a threat to relations.
"Infrequent misunderstanding occurring between the countries (Ethiopia-Sudan) has not given way to hinder their age-long relations," the newspaper stated in an article, headlined: "Ethio-Sudanties, border issues."
The paper said although the border issue, arising from an agreement reached between the two states in 1906 in which a British military official clearly marked the border between Ethiopia and Sudan, disagreements have arisen from tribal groupings around the region, who frequently utilised land belonging to the other state on both sides of the border.
"There are numerous territorial claims that can surface at any time, though not as precarious as the border issues with Somalia and Eritrea," a columnist wrote in the 15 January edition, which featured Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's comments on the issue.
The newspaper said large areas around the border remained "stateless" as a result of lack of government presence on either side, which makes it more porous.
"As we know it, inter-state rivalries are the causes of the neighbouring uprisings that have their roots in shared economic and political problems," the Herald wrote.
These border wars, the newspaper noted, arise from pastoralist communities using the resources on either side of the border and often claiming land ownership.
According to the paper, an agreement has been reached between Ethiopia and Sudan to resolve such disagreements, allowing those who had settled along the border between the two countries to occupy the land undisturbed by the new agreement.
"When we say we have reached an agreement that we have agreed that the Sudanese people can till land, we are referring to the land on the Sudanese border which is clearly demarcated by Guyen line," Meles was quoted as saying on the issue.
Major Guyen is the British military officer who demarcated the border and whose decision the Ethiopian government says must be respected by both sides.
The newspaper explained that Ethiopians who used the land around the border after the Ethiopian troops gained control of the region would be allowed to continue owning the land they have and cannot be displaced by the Sudanese forces from the area.
The agreement signed by the two sides allows citizens on both sides to keep their land even after fresh demarcation is done on the border.
Addis Ababa - 17/01/2009
http://www.afriquejet.com/news/africa-news/ethiopian,-sudanese-border-negotiations-catch-media-attention-2009011719811.htmlEthiopian media this week highlighted ongoing negotiations to resolve a border dispute... more
-
