Mensenrechten

Common Dreams bericht: 'U.S. Quits Council Race, Possibly Fearing Defeat. UNITED NATIONS - The United States, which has been lambasted for human rights abuses both by members of its armed forces in Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad and by U.S. law enforcement officials in the Guantanamo detention facility in Cuba, has backed out of a hotly contested race for membership in the newly-created U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC).U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack Thursday confirmed Washington's decision not to run for a seat at the upcoming HRC elections scheduled to take place May 9. The widespread speculation at the United Nations is that the U.S. decision may have been prompted by lingering fears it will not be able to muster the 96 votes needed in the 191-member General Assembly. "Since the voting was expected to be by secret ballot, it was very unlikely that the customary strong-arm tactics and political bullying would have helped the United States to get the necessary votes," an Asian diplomat told IPS. "If the United States contested and lost, it would have been a resounding public slap for a country which is a self-styled promoter of human rights but which still justifies abuses in the name of fighting terrorism," he added. The new 47-member HRC will replace a much-maligned 53-member Human Rights Commission that was once home to countries such as Zimbabwe, China, Sudan, Cuba, Iran and Libya, routinely labeled "human rights violators" by Washington. As of Thursday, Cuba, China, Iran and Libya were all candidates for membership in the HRC -- and with a fair chance of being elected. When the United States ran for a seat in the outgoing Human Rights Commission back in May 2001, it suffered a humiliating defeat and was ousted from the panel for the first time since its creation in 1947.' Lees verder:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0407-07.htm

De Bush Bende

Truthout bericht: 'Yesterday in a letter to President Bush, Rep. Waxman asks for a full accounting of the President's and Vice President's actions in authorizing leaks of classified intelligence about Iraq, while at the same time concealing the President's knowledge of serious doubts about Iraq's pursuit of nuclear weapons. The text of the letter follows:
Thursday 06 April 2006
The President The White House Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
Two recent revelations raise grave new questions about whether you, the Vice President, and your top advisors have engaged in a systematic abuse of the national security classification process for political purposes. News accounts suggest that the White House both (1) leaked classified intelligence information to further its faulty case for war and (2) improperly concealed information regarding your personal knowledge of serious doubts about this intelligence. These actions appear to violate your own executive order on handling classified information and - according to a new memorandum by the Congressional Research Service - represent an unprecedented expansion of the Vice President's role in this process. I request a full accounting of White House actions and full declassification and disclosure of all documents bearing on these critical questions.
Selective Declassification of NIE and Other Iraq Intelligence
According to an article published today in the National Journal, the Vice President's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, claims that you - through Vice President Cheney - authorized him to leak to the press classified information from an October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate in order to blunt criticism from former Ambassador Joe Wilson about your improper use of intelligence in the run-up to war.[1] In testimony before the grand jury investigating the White House's leak of Valerie Plame Wilson's status as a covert CIA operative, Mr. Libby reportedly testified that "the Vice President had advised [Libby] that the President had authorized [Libby] to disclose relevant portions of the NIE."[2] Mr. Libby also reportedly testified that Vice President Cheney himself "authorized him to leak classified information to a number of journalists during the run-up to war with Iraq."[3] Both claims raise serious questions.
First, Mr. Libby's explanation that you authorized the leaks seems to contradict other facts. Mr. Libby claimed that he consulted David Addington, then counsel to the Vice President and now his chief of staff, who advised that your leak authorization "amounted to a declassification of the document."[4] Yet according to the National Journal, "only three people - the President, the Vice President and [Libby] - knew that the key judgments of the NIE had been declassified." It is unclear why your leak authorization would have been concealed in this way if it was truly a declassification. In addition, on July 18, 2003, some time after Mr. Libby leaked this classified information to reporters, your Administration formally declassified portions of the NIE for public release, suggesting that the information had not been declassified until that time.' Lees verder: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040706Z.shtml

Amerikaanse Oorlogsmisdaden

De onafhankelijke Amerikaanse journalist Dahr Jamail schrijft: 'How Massacres Become the Norm. US soldiers killing innocent civilians in Iraq is not news. Just as it was not news that US soldiers slaughtered countless innocent civilians in Vietnam. However, when some rare reportage of this non news from Iraq does seep through the cracks of the corporate media, albeit briefly, the American public seems shocked. Private and public statements of denial and dismissal immediately start to fill the air. We hear, "American soldiers would never do such a thing," or "Who would make such a ridiculous claim?" It amazes me that so many people in the US today somehow seriously believe that American soldiers would never kill civilians. Despite the fact that they are in a no-win guerrilla war in Iraq which, like any other guerrilla war, always generates more civilian casualties than combatant casualties on either side. Robert J. Lifton is a prominent American psychiatrist who lobbied for the inclusion of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders after his work with US veterans from Vietnam. His studies on the behavior of those who have committed war crimes led him to believe it does not require an unusual level of mental illness or of personal evil to carry out such crimes. Rather, these crimes are nearly guaranteed to occur in what Lifton refers to as "atrocity-producing situations." Several of his books, like The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide, examine how abnormal conditions work on normal minds, enabling them to commit the most horrendous crimes imaginable. Iraq today is most certainly an "atrocity-producing situation," as it has been from the very beginning of the occupation.
The latest reported war crime, a US military raid on the al-Mustafa Shia mosque in Baghdad on March 26th, which killed at least 16 people, is only one instance of the phenomena that Lifton has spoken of.' Lees verder: http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/newscommentary/000380.php

Irak 59

De Guardian bericht: 'Amid an internal crisis of credibility, Condoleezza Rice has washed her hands of her department. Since the Iraqi elections in January, US foreign service officers at the Baghdad embassy have been writing a steady stream of disturbing cables describing drastically worsening conditions. Violence from incipient communal civil war is rapidly rising. Last month there were eight times as many assassinations committed by Shia militias as terrorist murders by Sunni insurgents. The insurgency, according to the reports, also continues to mutate. Meanwhile, President Bush's strategy of training Iraqi police and army to take over from coalition forces - "when they stand up, we'll stand down" - is perversely and portentously accelerating the strife. State department officials in the field are reporting that Shia militias use training as cover to infiltrate key positions. Thus the strategy to create institutions of order and security is fuelling civil war. Rather than being received as invaluable intelligence, the messages are discarded or, worse, considered signs of disloyalty. Rejecting the facts on the ground apparently requires blaming the messengers. So far, two top attaches at the embassy have been reassigned elsewhere for producing factual reports that are too upsetting. The Bush administration's preferred response to increasing disintegration is to act as if it has a strategy that is succeeding. "More delusion as a solution in the absence of a solution," said a senior state department official. Under the pretence that Iraq is being pacified, the military is partially withdrawing from hostile towns in the countryside and parts of Baghdad. By reducing the number of soldiers, the administration can claim its policy is working going into the midterm elections. But the jobs the military doesn't want to perform are being sloughed off on state department "provisional reconstruction teams" (PRTs) led by foreign service officers. The rationale is that they will win Iraqi hearts-and-minds by organising civil functions.' Lees verder:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1747665,00.html

Westers Terrorisme 7

Channel 4 bericht over Westerse huurlingen die zonder reden onbewapende Irakese burgers beschieten. "We don't know whether it was an innocent civilian or whether that was an insurgent - we don't know, because we never stop". The words of a former security consultant, explaining the story behind the video footage. Zie: http://www.channel4.com/player/playerwindow.html?id=4089&vert=news Zie ook: http://stanvanhoucke.blogspot.com/2005/12/westers-terrorisme-2.html

De Oorlogsstaat 38

Het gezicht van de oorlog: 'Iraqi insurgents drag burning US pilot. While the USA is preoccupied with deporting Mexican undocumented workers, the war in Iraq is still raging resulting in the death and maiming of a rapidly increasing number of US occupation soldiers. On Saturday at 5:30 pm, Iraqi insurgents shot down a AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter which was conducting a combat air patrol about 10 miles southwest of Baghdad.In a statement, the U.S. military confirmed that two US pilots had died, The video below shows Iraqi insurgents dragging Captain Timothy Moshier, 25, of Bethlehem, New York. The video was first shown by MSNBC News.' Zie: http://www.aztlan.net/iraqi_insurgents_drag_burning_us_pilot.htm

Ray McGovern

Via Information Clearing House kunt u luisteren naar een interview met Ray McGovern. 'Retired CIA Official Says Bush Is A War Criminal. An in-depth interview with former high-level CIA analyst Ray McGovern; McGovern talks about his work as an advisor to Bush 1 and his belief that Bush 2 is a war criminal and should be tried for crimes against humanity. Zie:
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12628.htm