Tag Archives: Crimes against humanity

Feb 15 2013

Israeli Gaza Airstrikes Violated Laws of War

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drawing by Zeon

By Stephen LENDMAN

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said so. Rarely does HRW do the right thing. Exceptions prove the rule. Most often it’s a reliable imperial partner.

Connections in high places and corporate funding keep it that way. Services rendered in return are expected. Conflicts of interest are rife.

HRW and likeminded sources followers rely on operate like their scoundrel media counterparts. They do it deceptively. They produce one-sided or quasi-real reports on issues mattering most.

Exceptions occur. Even then they fall far short. On February 12, HRW headlined “Israel: Gaza Airstrikes Violated Laws of War.” More on its report below.

International laws of war are clear. They unambiguous. UN Charter provisions explain under what conditions attacking another nation is justified. No others apply.

Article 2(3) and Article 33(1) require peaceful settlement of international disputes. Article 2(4) prohibits force or its threatened use.

Article 51 allows the “right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member….until the Security Council has taken measures to maintain international peace and security.”

Justifiable self-defense is permissible. Articles 2(3), 2(4), and 33 prohibit unilaterally threatening or using force not allowed under Article 51, authorized by the Security Council, or, in the case of America, constitutionally permitted.

Three General Assembly resolutions prohibit non-consensual belligerent intervention. They include:

(1) The 1965 Declaration on the Inadmissibility of Intervention in the Domestic Affairs of States and the Protection of Their Independence and Sovereignty.

(2) The 1970 Declaration on Principles of International Law Concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in Accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.

(2) The 1974 Definition of Aggression.

Washington spurns international, constitutional, and US statute laws with impunity. So does Israel. Doing so constitutes “the supreme international crime against peace.” It exceeds all other high crimes and wrongdoing.

On November 14, Operation Pillar of Cloud began. Israel launched premeditated aggression on Gaza. It wasn’t the first time.

Aggressive wars reflect longstanding policy. Israel’s resume includes decades of crimes of war, against humanity and genocide.

HRW stopped short of explaining. Data cited grossly understated Israeli terror bombing. It raged for eight days. Dozens of attacks occurred daily. Hamas and other resistance groups responded defensively. International law permits doing so.

Palestinian deaths exceeded 160. Numbers injured topped 1,000. Some harmed later died. Most victims were noncombatant men, women, children, infants, the elderly and infirm.

Israel considers them legitimate targets. Rogue states operate that way. Israel is one of the worst. It violates fundamental international law. It does so unaccountably.

It claims a divine right to kill, main, displace, and destroy. It takes full advantage.

It steals Palestinian land for Jews. It punishes them collectively. It does so for praying to the wrong God. It’s been that way for decades.

Continue reading →

Feb 15 2013

Dresden bombing, Britain’s forgotten war crime of WWII

While Britain claims to be an advocate of human rights in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and many other countries around the world, British history itself is corroborating evidence that Britain, the greatest human rights preacher, has also been the most flagrant human rights breacher.

More Thank 500,000 German civilians and refugees, mostly women and children, were slaughtered by Britain’s saturation bombing in 1945, one of the worst massacres of all time.

Over 700,000 phosphorus bombs were dropped on 1.2 million defenseless inhabitants of German city Dresden under Britain’s then Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s order, which not only reduced one of the greatest centers of northern Europe to flaming ruins, but also led to one of the worst war crimes of the Second World War.

Dresden’s bombing in February, 13, 1945 was so relentless that some historians believe it was the height of Winston Churchill’s madness.

“I do not want suggestions as to how we can disable the economy and the machinery of war, what I want are suggestions as to how we can roast the German refugees on their escape from Breslau,” Churchill said once.

Toward the end of the war, Churchill’s desired firestorm was finally created. More than 260,000 bodies and residues of bodies were counted after British Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) assaulted Dresden. However, those who perished in the centre of the city could not be traced, as the temperature in the area reached 1600 degree Centigrade.

Dresden’s citizens barely had time to reach their shelters and those who sought refuge underground often suffocated as oxygen was pulled from the air to feed the flames. Others perish in a blast of white heat, heat strong enough to melt human flesh.

When the bombing started, no one could imagine that in less than 24 hours all those innocent people could die screaming in Churchill’s firestorms.

If there was a war crime, certainly the Dresden tragedy would rank as one of the most sinister of all time. Sadly, however, Churchill, who ordered the slaughter of up to a half million innocent people in this horrifying tragedy, was knighted by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

Continue reading →

Nov 20 2012

Bloodlust in israel: ‘Flatten Gaza, send it back to Middle Ages, they need to die!’

Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai.(AFP Photo / Menahem Kahana)

A new wave of hatred towards Palestine is sweeping through Israel from public figures to the man on the street. This hostility is in sharp contrast to efforts in Cairo, where Arab leaders and Western diplomats are trying to hammer out a peace plan.

While Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) official Nabil Sheath expressed hope Sunday night that negotiations would continue, very different noises were coming out of Israel.

Interior Minister Eli Yishai said Operation Pillar of Defense would continue and likely be expanded, a reference to the possibility that a ground offensive has already been given the go-ahead.

The war in Gaza “must be so painful and difficult that the terror groups will not think twice but a hundred times before they fire missiles against Israel again,” it was reported in The Israel National News.

“Destroy and damage infrastructure, public buildings and government buildings. We must make sure that Hamas will be spending many years rebuilding Gaza, and not attacking Israel,” he continued.

A few days ago he said, “The goal of the operation is to send Gaza back to the Middle Ages, only then will Israel be calm for the next 40 years.”

His words were relatively mild compared to some of the comments that have been coming out of Israel in recent days.

Journalist, Gilad Sharon, the son of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, in an editorial in the Jerusalem Post on Sunday called for Gaza to be flattened like the US flattened the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945 with an atomic bomb.

“We need to flatten all of Gaza. The American’s didn’t stop with Hiroshima – the Japanese weren’t surrendering fast enough – so they hit Nagasaki too. There should be no electricity in Gaza, no gasoline or moving vehicles, nothing. Then they’d really call for a ceasefire,” ranted Sharon.

 

Gilad Sharon, son of the former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.(AFP Photo / Brian Hendler)

 

As the former Prime Minister’s son publicly urged the military to wipe Gaza off the map, a member of the Knesset and the National Unity Party, Michael Ben-Ari, called for Israeli soldiers to kill Gazans without thought or mercy.

“There are no innocents in Gaza, don’t let any diplomats who want to look good in the world endanger your lives – mow them down!” it was reported on the Hakol HaYehudi website.

He also told soldiers to ignore Goldstone; in reference to the UN commissioned Goldstone report on Israel’s 2008-2009 invasion of Gaza, which found evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Israel Katz, the country’s transport minister, has called “for Gaza to be bombed so hard the population has to flee into Egypt.” While Avi Dichter, the minster of home front defense, has urged the IDF to “reformat” Gaza – to wipe it clean with bombs.

Even religious leaders joined the fray, with a prominent Israeli rabbi, Yaakov Yosef, the son of former chief rabbi, Ovadia Yosef, in a sermon at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron blessed IDF soldiers while urging them “to learn from the Syrians how to slaughter the enemy.” Continue reading →

Nov 20 2012

“Israel” Retreats, Prefers Lull

 

The smoke of defeat and retreat emerged Tuesday from “Israel’s” security meeting.

According to “Israeli” media, the forum of top nine ministers has decided that the Zionist entity will attempt to reach a lull.

“A decision was taken that for the time being there is a temporary hold on the ground incursion to give diplomacy a chance to succeed,” an “Israeli” official announced following a late-night session of “Israeli” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s inner circle.

Meanwhile, another official told “Ynet” daily that “the goal is to reach a ceasefire and discontinue the operation.”

“While the massive firing of rockets at “Israel’s” south continues… it appears Operation Pillar of Clouds may be drawing to an end,” the daily commented.

Moreover, it mentioned that a heavy barrage of Gaza rockets was fired at the “Israel” Tuesday morning. Also Tuesday, al-Arabiya reported that “Israel” and the Palestinian factions are expected to sign a ceasefire agreement within a matter of hours. It was also reported that preparations for the signing are already underway in Cairo.

This comes as “Israel” asked Egypt to play the role of mediator during a 24-48- hour ceasefire before the final agreement is signed. Sources revealed that the agreement includes the Palestinian resistance conditions of lifting  the Gaza blockade and the opening of various crossings.
Another “Israeli” official said that the “Israeli” army will continue to act with force in the Gaza Strip.

In this context, “Israeli” airstrikes martyred two Palestinians on the seventh day of “Israel’s” bombardment of the coastal strip. Continue reading →

Nov 5 2012

Insurgents kill 30 Syrian civilians in Idlib

Members of the terrorist Free Syrian Army (File Photo)

Insurgents fighting against the Syrian government have killed at least 30 civilians in the northwest city of Idlib, as they continue their deadly attacks across the country.

The violence took place in the Idlib countryside Harem on Sunday. The accident comes days after a video posted online showed insurgents beating and executing a group of soldiers in Idlib province. The UN and Amnesty International have said that the killings could be the evidence of a “war crime.”

According to Syria’s official news agency SANA, government forces have also clashed with foreign-backed insurgents in Idlib countryside of Maarat al-Noman, killing dozens of terrorists and seizing a large amount of weapons, including RPG rocket launchers.

There are also reposts of clashes between the Syrian army and armed groups in Dayr al-Zawr and Damascus suburbs of Hasrata and Hijera.

Meanwhile, at least 11 people were injured after a car bomb exploded near a government-run labor union and a hotel in the heart of the Syrian capital of Damascus.

“An explosion caused by terrorists went off near to the Dama Rose hotel and the union federation, which left a number of people wounded and causing damage to the area,” Syrian TV said.

The area is close to several security centers and Syrian military headquarters. The Dama Rose hotel in the past was used by UN observers visiting Syria.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of security forces, have been killed in the violence.

Syria accuses Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey as well as some Western countries of fanning the flames violence in the country.

Source: Press TV

Nov 5 2012

Analysts: Syrian army in no danger of collapsing from rebel assaults

A destroyed tank overlooks the main highway on June 17, 2012, running through Rastan, Syria from Damascus to Aleppo

By David Enders | McClatchy Newspapers

ANTAKYA, Turkey — Though degraded by a war of attrition against increasingly capable guerrilla militias, the Syrian military remains a cohesive force capable of continuing its operations for the foreseeable future, according to independent military analysts.

The assessment that the Syrian military remains a potent force contradicts months of suggestions by Obama administration officials that defections and the pace of the increasingly violent conflict is overstretching the military, a theme that’s been voiced repeatedly for months in official State Department briefings.

“We think that the army is increasingly overstretched. We think that the economy is under increasing strain. And we think the rebels are getting stronger,” State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said Aug. 9 in one typical comment.

Yet despite a bombing in July that killed four of President Bashar Assad’s closest advisers – including his minister of defense – Syrian military strategy has changed little from six months ago: using the highly mechanized army – built to fight the Israeli army – to surround rebel-held areas and pound them with artillery and airstrikes before making incursions with infantry and paramilitary forces. Continue reading →

Nov 2 2012

‘US defeat in Syria would be end of US hegemony in Middle East’

The United States is doing everything possible to salvage ‘operation Syria’ and in doing so hedging all their bets on its success, says Eric Draitser, geopolitical analyst from stopimperialism.com. But that strategy, Draitser believes, will fail.

Earlier, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US no longer sees Syria’s foreign-based National Council as a leading opposition force, due to its lack of support on the ground.

The Syrian opposition consists of various rebel militias, many of which have been infiltrated by radical Islamists linked to Al-Qaeda.

A new 51 member “National Initiative Council” is due to be unveiled in Doha next week, and will include only 15 seats for the SNC.

Meanwhile, the SNC is planning to base itself inside Syria, in an attempt to prove its relevance to skeptical international backers. But as Eric Draitser told RT, these efforts may be too little too late to fit into US plans for the region.

RT:Washington’s already suggesting names to represent a new opposition leadership, with the Syrian National Council to have just a few seats – why this shift now? Continue reading →

Oct 26 2012

Top Obama Adviser: Awlaki’s 16-Year-Old Son “Should Have Had a More Responsible Father” If He Wanted Us Not to Kill Him

Robert Gibbs said if US citizen Abdulrahman al-Awlaki didn’t want to be killed he “should have a far more responsible father”

When Robert Gibbs, former White House Press Secretary and a senior adviser to the Obama campaign, was asked why the administration killed the 16-year old son of suspected al-Qaeda member and US citizen Anwar al-Awlaki via a drone strike last year, he said it was the boy’s fault for having a father like Awlaki.

Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, 16-year old son of Anwar al-Awlaki, was killed in a US drone strike last year

Anwar al-Awlaki was killed last year in a drone strike in Yemen ordered by the Obama administration. The killing made headlines particularly because Awlaki was an American citizen, but his constitutional rights to due process were thrown out the window in favor of simply assassinating him.

Awlaki’s 16-year old son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, was also a US citizen and was killed in a separate drone strike in Yemen weeks after his father’s death. Abdulrahman had not been accused of being a member of al-Qaeda or of any act against the United States that could conceivably motivate a US strike. Continue reading →

Oct 25 2012

Libyans Condemn Slaughter of Civilians in Attack on Bani Walid

Protests continue across the country as well as outside the Tripoli `General National Congress` in spite of the recent use of machine guns and anti-aircraft guns to disperse demonstrators incensed at the attacks on Bani Walid

Tripoli, the capital city of Libya is the scene of mass protests against the indiscriminate bombing of Bani Walid, where up to 100 civilians have died and hundreds been wounded, many be illegal chemical weapons, according to recounts published today.

The town has been under siege for many weeks and subjected to rocket attacks from far outside the city but in recent days an assault has taken place on the town attempting to subdue its population to the “authority” of the Tripoli based “ratverment”.

Protests are gathering momentum across the country after the President of the Ratverment, CIA agent of 30 years who returned to Libya only this past year, Mohamed Megarief, tried to get to the town, gave up due to a hail of artillery projectiles, including reactive rockets fired from three positions by militias.

Libyan police and ratverment military forces in Tripoli armed with machine guns and anti-aircraft guns kept protesters away from the venue of the ratverment’s Congress, where they shot at least one protester at a similar protest when some 500 briefly entered the building before being turned back by machine gun fire from Megarief’s guards. Continue reading →