War crimes

Who’s The ‘Low Life Scum:’ Kissinger or CODEPINK?

January 31, 2015 Medea Benjamin, http://www.codepink.org Resist! CODE PINK, Henry Kissinger, War crimes, War Criminal, Wars and Militarism

Sen. McCain denounced CODEPINK activists as “low-life scum” for holding up signs reading “Arrest Kissinger for War Crimes” and dangling handcuffs next to Henry Kissinger’s head during a Senate hearing. McCain called the demonstration “disgraceful, outrageous and despicable,” accused the protesters of “physically intimidating” Kissinger. If Senator McCain was really concerned about physical intimidation, perhaps he should have conjured up the memory of the gentle Chilean singer/songwriter Victor Jara. After Kissinger facilitated the September 11, 1973 coup against Salvador Allende that brought the ruthless Augusto Pinochet to power, Victor Jara and 5,000 others were rounded up in Chile’s National Stadium. Jara’s hands were smashed and his nails torn off; the sadistic guards then ordered him to play his guitar. Jara was later found dumped on the street, his dead body riddled with gunshot wounds and signs of torture. Or, Kissinger’s role in the brutal 1975 Indonesian invasion of East Timor, which took place just hours after Kissinger and President Ford visited Indonesia. They had given the Indonesian strongman the US green light—and the weapons—for an invasion that led to a 25-year occupation in which over 100,000 soldiers and civilians were killed or starved to death.

ICC Launches Probe Into Israeli War Crimes In Palestine

January 18, 2015 Staff, www.america.aljazeera.com Organize! ICC, Israel, Palestine, War crimes

Israel's fear that Palestinian recognition by the International Criminal Court would bring unwelcome scrutiny of its military actions took a step closer to fruition on Friday, when the the ICC announced a preliminary probe into possible war crimes committed in occupied territories. Chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda vowed “full independence and impartiality” in "examining the information available." The probe was procedural, she said, and would determine whether evidence of possible war crimes by Israel or by Palestinian entities required formal investigation. The announcement follows the Palestinian Authority’s agreeing to the court's founding treaty and recognizing its jurisdiction dating back to the eve of last summer's Gaza war. Israel is not party to the treaty, nor is the United States. While Palestinian membership in the ICC doesn't automatically incur U.S. punishment, existing legislation requires that any Palestinian case brought against Israel at the court could trigger an immediate cutoff of U.S. financial support.

Blackwater Lobbyist Will Manage House Intelligence Committee

December 21, 2014 Lee Fang, www.republicreport.org Educate! Corruption, Intelligence, Torture, War crimes

For the House Intelligence Committee, which oversees government intelligence operations and agencies, the changing of the guard means a lobbyist for Academi, the defense contractor formerly known as Blackwater, is now in charge. Congressman Devin Nunes (R-CA), the incoming chairman of the Intelligence Committee when the House reconvenes in January, announced that Jeff Shockey will be the new Staff Director of the committee. As a paid representative of Academi, Shockey and his firm have earned $80,000 this year peddling influence on behalf of Academi. In previous years, the House Intelligence Committee has investigated Blackwater over secret contracts with the Central Intelligence Agency. Now, the shoe is on the other foot. - See more at: http://www.republicreport.org/2014/blackwater-lobbyist-will-manage-the-house-intelligence-committee/#sthash.VbuZ2iOX.dpuf

Shouldn’t People Be Held Accountable For These Crimes?

December 10, 2014 Nick Wing, www.huffingtonpost.com Organize! Torture, War crimes

The redacted summary of the senate report on torture describes horrific, macabre crimes. Below are some of the worst. People need to be held accountable for these actions from the lowest CIA agent who carried them out to the president of the United States who admitted torture in his presidential biography. On Tuesday, the Senate Intelligence Committee released the long-awaited summary of its torture report, revealing horrific details about the CIA's post-9/11 detention and interrogation program. Many of the details in the report are sickening and graphic. They are perhaps made only more disturbing by the overarching conclusion that the torture and "enhanced interrogation" employed by the CIA failed to produce the types of significant intelligence that had been used to defend the program in the past. You can go here to read the unsealed summary of the report, including a section on initial findings and hundreds of pages of declassified documents. Below is a compilation of some of the most abhorrent details from it.

Torture Report: UN Official Calls For Prosecution Of US Officials

December 9, 2014 Staff, www.PopularResistance.org Educate! Torture, War crimes, Wars and Militarism

Finally the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's report on torture has been made public. The report is a 500 page redacted summary of a much larger 6,000 page report based on a four year investigation by the committee. The torture used by the United States was much more brutal than had been previously acknowledged. In addition, it was much less effective at uncovering terrorist plots or preventing acts of terrorism. It resulted in torture victims making up false information. The report also shows how the CIA lied to the media, public and Congress. The number of people subjected to torture was 119 and at least 26 of the prisoners, about 21%, should never have been arrested but some of these innocent victims were held for months before being released. The New York Times, which summarized seven key findings of the report, editorialized that "report raises again, with renewed power, the question of why no one has ever been held accountable for these seeming crimes

Exalted War Criminal Makes The Mass Media Rounds

September 14, 2014 Peter Hart , www.fair.org Educate! Argentina, Cambodia, Chile, Media, Vietnam, War crimes, War Criminal

The former national security adviser seems to be everywhere lately. He made an appearance at an event with other former secretaries of state, leading Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank (9/3/14) to call him "the most celebrated foreign-policy strategist of our time," and to note that of those gathered, "the wisest, as usual, was Kissinger." Of course, a clear vision of Kissinger would help too. The record is well-documented, from backing a coup in Chile ("We will not let Chile go down the drain") to supporting the dirty war in Argentina to Indonesia's bloody campaign in East Timor. Kissinger is most closely associated with the wars in Vietnam and Cambodia. Of the latter, he famously delivered this order: "A massive bombing campaign in Cambodia. Anything that flies on anything that moves." Credible estimates of the number of people killed as a result of this order range as high as 800,000.

Why We Oppose The War On ISIS

September 12, 2014 Staff, www.PopularResistance.org Educate! Iraq, ISIS, Obama, Syria, War crimes, Wars and Militarism

Below are views of people whose voices are not often heard in the corporate media but who have worked on issues of militarism and war for many years. We asked people who recognize that war is not the answer to complex foreign policy issues for their views on President Obama’s recent speech declaring war on ISIS. Obama did not use the word “war” as he prefers to explicitly state what is really happening by talking about “air strikes” and “counter terrorism.” In reality his speech was a declaration of war. And, he says it will last three years, which we suspect underestimates the war-quagmire he is beginning. As we have said in previous columns President Obama needs to get (1) authorization for the use of military force from Congress, and (2) authorization from the United Nations before the attack he has announced. He is not pursuing either but instead has taken on the power to send the United States into a new war on his own.

Lawyers: Israel’s Crimes Should Be Investigated

August 24, 2014 Marjorie Cohn, mrzine.monthlyreview.org Organize! Gaza, Israel, Palestine, War crimes

The National Lawyers Guild (NLG), Center for Constitutional Rights, International Association of Democratic Lawyers, Arab Lawyers Union, and American Association of Jurists (Asociación Americana de Juristas)sent aletter on Friday, August 22 to Fatou Bensouda, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), urging her to initiate an investigation of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity committed by Israeli leaders and aided and abetted by U.S. officials in Gaza. Under the Rome Statute, the ICC has the power to hold individuals criminally accountable for the most serious of crimes. "In light of the extreme gravity of the situation in the occupied Gaza Strip, in particular the large number of civilian casualties and large scale destruction of civilian property, including schools, mosques and hospitals, and the ongoing incitement to genocide perpetrated by Israeli political figures and leaders, the [NLG] and endorsing organizations strongly urge the Office of the Prosecutor to use its power under Article 15 of the Rome Statute to initiate a preliminary investigation" of crimes within the ICC's jurisdiction.

UN Names Panel To Investigate War Crimes In Gaza; Israel Slams It

August 12, 2014 Stephanie Nebhay, www.reuters.com Organize! Gaza, Human Rights, Israel, Palestine, War crimes

The United Nations on Monday named experts to an international commission of inquiry into possible human rights violations and war crimes committed by both sides during Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip. Israel, however, dismissed the inquiry as a U.N. Human Rights Council "kangaroo court". The U.N. statement said the independent team will investigate "all violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law ... in the context of the military operations conducted since 13 June 2014." A month of war, marked by Israeli air strikes on Gaza and rockets fired by Hamas militants into Israel, has killed 1,938 Palestinians and 67 Israelis while devastating wide tracts of densely populated Gaza. The panel is to report by March 2015 to the U.N. Human Rights Council. Israel has long accused the 47-member state forum of bias against it. Navi Pillay, the top U.N. human rights official, said on July 31 she believed Israel was deliberately defying international law in its military offensive in Gaza and that world powers should hold it accountable for possible war crimes.

Lawyers Petition To Rescind John Yoo’s Endowed Chair

July 27, 2014 Sarah Rockwood, www.dailycal.org Resist! College, Education, Student Activism, Student protest, Torture, War crimes

UC Berkeley students, alumni and a group of lawyers in the Bay Area initiated an online petition last week to rescind UC Berkeley School of Law professor John Yoo’s recent faculty chair endowment. Students and anti-torture groups protested Yoo’s role in drafting the legal documents in 2002, which advised on the use of controversial interrogation techniques while he was deputy assistant attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel. The San Francisco chapter of national anti-war group World Can’t Wait led a demonstration in 2012 against his employment at UC Berkeley.

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 »

Daily movement news and resources