How to End the War Crimes in Gaza

Bernie Suarez

Some people may read this and say, no way, this is not a solution but I challenge your belief and I offer that this is indeed an effective and powerful way to move forward as a humanity with regard to the ongoing atrocities in Gaza.

Is there actually a way to end the war crimes in Gaza? There is, but the answer lies in our humanity not in politics, politicians, or a rigid ideology. Ideologies that result in human deaths are ideologies of hatred no matter how anyone spins it. We, as a humanity, must find a way of ending ideologies of hatred that serve political purposes. With acknowledgement of this first step we can then move forward to real solutions.

Investigating Gaza War Crimes

Dees Illustration

Stephen Lendman

On August 11, Human Rights Council (HRC) President Baudelaire Ndong Ella announced the formation of an "independent, international commission of inquiry" into war crimes committed during Israel's Operation Protective Edge. 

International human rights law expert Professor William Schabas was appointed to chair a three-person panel. His special focus is genocide. 

Other members include international law, criminal law, human rights and extradition law expert, Amal Alamuddin, and former UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Doudou Diene. 

Israel Murders Gazan Health Workers

Dees Illustration

Stephen Lendman

Israel wages genocidal wars without mercy. Even doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers and other health workers are targeted. 

Civilians are as vulnerable as combatants. It's longstanding Israeli policy. 

On August 7, Amnesty International (AI) headlined "Mounting Evidence of deliberate attacks on Gaza health workers by Israeli army." 

Former prime minister Ehud Barak once outrageously called it "the most moral army in the world." It's a lawless, ruthless killing machine. 

South Africa’s “Dr. Death” Again Evades Sentencing

Janet Phelan

Dr. Wouter Basson, whose work as head of the South African apartheid government’s biological and chemical warfare unit earned him the nickname “Dr. Death,” has again evaded sentencing. 

Basson was first arrested in 1997, following the dissolution of the apartheid government. His much publicized trial in Pretoria High Court in the years 1999-2002 produced outcries of judicial bias by his prosecutors. With 200 witnesses against him, who testified to his involvement in multiple assassinations as well as fraud and embezzlement during his tenure as head of Project Coast, Dr. Basson was the sole witness in his defense. He was acquitted of all sixty seven charges against him. The legal contortions executed by the Judge Hartzenberg—all resulting in Basson’s acquittal—eventuated in the State moving to have the judge recused. Hartzenberg, however, refused to step down from the case. 

Israeli War Crime: Video Shows Sniper Killing of Wounded Gaza Civilian

Global Research

Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada

A video has emerged of the targeting and killing by a sniper of a Palestinian civilian in Gaza City’s Shujaiya neighborhood where Israeli shelling killed dozens of civilians and caused massive destruction early on Sunday morning.

The video, documenting a war crime, was uploaded to YouTube by the International Solidarity Movement, which described the incident in a 20 July press release:

Palestine vs. Israel: An Immoral Conflict Devoid of Balance

Steven MacMillan
Activist Post

The recent Israeli bombardment of Gaza is the latest example of the lack of equilibrium in a conflict that has been intermittently fought since the establishment of Israel in 1948. Following the killing of 3 Israeli teenagers last month, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the 4^th largest military on the planet to conduct air, land and sea attacks on the densely populated Gaza Strip, which has left over 340 Palestinians dead – 75% of which are civilians, compared to 5 Israelis killed.

Netanyahu was quick to blame Hamas for the killings of the Israeli citizens that provided the sole justification for the military campaign. Yet Hamas has never taken responsibility for the attack – an anomaly for the group as most operations conducted are for political objectives – leading many to believe it was an Israeli false flag attack to justify further military occupation. The recent agreement reached between Hamas and Fatah is a deal that terrifies the Israeli establishment and is a major factor in the onslaught that has been seen on Gaza. Israel has been attempting to split and fragment the Palestinian population for decades, with the prospect of a unified people in the West Bank and Gaza unacceptable to the Israeli elite.

Are you SERIOUSLY 'Ready for Hillary'?!

Truth Stream Media



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Timeline to Veterans For Peace's Vote to Impeach Obama (2009-2013)

By Philip C. Restino, Jr. - Central Florida Veterans For Peace

The July 22, 2013 broadcast of the radio program "Peace Talk" hosted by Phil Smith of the Southeast Alaska Veterans For Peace Chapter 100 on ktoo Alaska Public Radio in Juneau, AK featured guest Phil Restino of the Central Florida chapter of Veterans For Peace to tell the story behind Veteran For Peace Resolution 2011-7 calling on the U.S. Congress to immediately begin impeachment proceedings against the Democrat President Obama for war crimes ... the same war crimes cited, and then some, in Veterans For Peace's prior public call for impeaching the Republican President Bush. Also discussed was the current VFP Resolution 2013-10 to be voted on this Saturday August 10th at the Veterans For Peace National Convention in Madison, WI. The archive of the complete 1-hour broadcast can be accessed here.

For those still not aware of the fact, the rank and file membership of Veterans For Peace (VFP) on its 3rd year of trying passed at its 2011 national convention a resolution calling on the U.S. Congress to immediately begin impeachment proceedings against the Democrat President Obama for war crimes.

What The Bradley Manning Verdict Tells Us About America

Youtube

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War Crimes of Bush and Obama Explained

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Jeremy Scahill Discusses America's War Crimes

Reason

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Epidemic of Birth Defects and Cancer in Iraq: America's Toxic Legacy

image source

Stephen Lendman

America's Gulf War, intermittent bombings in the 1990s, the 2003 war, and aftermath left a toxic legacy. 

Children born with two heads reflect it. Some had only one eye. Missing sockets look like the inside of an oyster. They're milky and shapeless. 

Some children had tails like a skinned lamb. One or more had a monkey's face. Girls had their legs grown together. They were half fish, half human.

Miscarriages are frequent. Hundreds of newborns have cleft pallets, elongated heads, overgrown or short limbs, and other malformed body parts. Some are too gruesome to view.

Susan Rice for National Security Advisor

Stephen Lendman

Previous articles discussed her. Calling her controversial stops short of accurately characterizing her. Moral depravity explains best. Vishay Prashad calls her the "queen of interventionist hawks."

South African journalist Getahune Bekele said she's a "consummate ally of grubby despots."

Ray McGovern says she believes "hawkishness" is "safer" for career advancement than "thoughtful diplomacy." Reuters called her "sharp-tongued."

Others condemn her bloody hands. Banality of evil describes her. Death and destruction don't bother her. She was quoted once saying, "The only thing we have to do is look the other way."

More on Rice below. Reports suggest humanitarian warmonger Samantha Power will replace her as UN ambassador. Senate confirmation is needed. She and Rice played leading roles in urging "humanitarian war" on Libya.

We're All Bradley Manning

image source

Stephen Lendman

On June 3, trial proceedings began. They'll last well into summer. What's ongoing reflects much more than Manning alone. We're all in this together. Freedom in America is on trial. 

Post-9/11, it's been on the chopping block for elimination. Convicting Manning of anything compromises what is too important to lose. 

He deserves praise, not prosecution. His fate is ours. That's what's fundamentally at stake. Everyone stands to win or lose with him.

In his February plea statement, he said he wanted to "spark a domestic debate on the role of the military and our foreign policy in general as it related to Iraq and Afghanistan."

Americans have a right to know the "true costs of war," he stressed. He called war logs given WikiLeaks "some of the most important documents of our time." 

He chose ones he believed "wouldn't cause harm to the United States." Washington's "obsessed with capturing and killing people," he said.

No One Will Hold Henry Kissinger Accountable

The skullduggery of Henry Kissinger is well known, but little has been done about it.

image source

Aaron Dykes

As the unofficial envoy of the Rockefeller Empire and a member of the Bilderberg Group, the Council on Foreign Relations, Aspen Institute, Bohemian Grove, Trilateral Commission, etc., Kissinger is at the heart of the power structure and closely tied to many underhanded deeds as well as big plays for global power.

As National Security Advisor under presidents Nixon and Ford, and for a time also concurrently Secretary of State under the same presidents, Kissinger wielded enormous power and effectively operated on behalf of the shadow government agenda – often over the president’s head.

Informally, he has continued shaping policy as a top advisor to numerous high-level figures, including presidents and cabinet members, since his official time in office during the 1970s.

The case for war crimes and crimes against humanity outlined by Christopher Hitchens (including killing as many as half a million civilians in the secret bombings of Laos and Cambodia during the Vietnam War), as well as his participation in various assassinations, coups and destabilization efforts throughout the world contrast sharply with his status as a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, ostensibly for negotiating the withdrawal of American forces in Vietnam (as dubious and hypocritical as the prize has proven to be).

Obama at Annapolis

Stephen Lendman

Obama represents the worst of rogue leadership. He's a war criminal multiple times over. He's guilty of numerous other crimes. He belongs in prison, not high office.

On May 24, he addressed Naval Academy graduates. Why any showed up they'll have to explain. So does why those doing so didn't diss him.

The 2013 graduates include 1,047 men and women. Nearly three-fourths are navy ensigns. The others are marine lieutenants, three air force ones, and 16 foreign exchange students.

Midshipmen are required to take an Oath of Office, stating:

Having been appointed a midshipman in the United States Navy, do you solemnly swear (or affirm) that you will support and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter, so help you God.

Key is supporting, respecting and abiding by constitutional principles. They include all US ratified treaties and conventions. They're automatically US law under the Constitution's Supremacy Clause (Article VI, Clause 2). Supporting a war criminal president constitutes a flagrant violation. Perhaps Naval Academy instruction omits fundamental rule of law principles.

Media Responses to Obama's Speech

Anthony Freda Art

Stephen Lendman

They didn't surprise. Media scoundrels support his worst policies. His neoliberal harshness is endorsed. His alliance with monied interests gets no coverage. 

His crimes of war, against humanity and genocide go unmentioned.

His partnership with Israel against Palestine isn't explained. His systematic disdain for rule of law principles gets ignored.

Responses to his Thursday speech were largely positive. Challenging them follows below. 

US to Delist and Arm American-Killing Terror Cult

Continuity of Agenda: Neo-Cons and Obama administration sponsor global terror against Iran. 

Tony Cartalucci, Contributor

As the US government confirms that terrorists involved in the Benghazi, Libya US consulate attack were indeed the very militants funded, armed, and provided air support in last year's bid to overthrow the government of Libya, yet another disturbing announcement has been made. Terror organization Mujahedeen e-Khalq (MEK) will be delisted by the US State Department in order to clear legal obstacles in the way of overtly arming and funding the terrorists in pursuit of a proxy war with Iran, the LA Times reported in their article, "U.S. to remove Iranian group Mujahedin Khalq from terrorist list."

Image: MEK is just one of many terrorist organizations, that despite being listed by the US State Department as such, still receives weapons, training, cash, and political support from the US government. This is a pattern seen repeated in Libya and most recently in Syria - each case spun and excused with a myriad of lies wrapped in false, constantly shifting narratives. 

France to Fund/Arm Al Qaeda in Syria

Meanwhile, US-backed terror rips across Iraq, as Saudi-Qatari coddled Iraqi vice president is sentenced to death. 

Tony Cartalucci, Contributor

The French government has ignored the will of voters who ousted warmonger Nicolas Sarkozy in recent elections, and is continuing its unpopular military adventurism abroad, as well as its support for militant terrorism across the Arab World.

France has announced that it will be funding and arming terrorists operating along Syria's borders, offering them heavy weapons, just as they did in Libya last year. In fact, the US-British and UN-listed terrorists assisted into power in Libya, are now leading death squads currently ravaging Syria - disingenuously portrayed as "indigenous" "freedom fighters" by the Western press.

Image: Hollande (right) after paying lip service to French voters, set out almost immediately to betray campaign promises to end foreign military adventurism, and is in fact picking up right where ousted Nicolas Sarkozy left off, leading the West's destabilization and destruction of Syria through funding the very Libyan terrorists his predecessor assisted into power in Tripoli. 

NATO's Pan-Arab Terrorist Blitzkrieg of Syria and Algeria

Tony Cartalucci, Contributor

Western policy makers admit that NATO's operations in Libya have played the primary role in emboldening Al Qaeda's AQIM faction (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb). The Fortune 500-funded Brookings Institution's Bruce Riedel in his article, "The New Al Qaeda Menace," admits that AQIM is now heavily armed thanks to NATO's intervention in Libya, and that AQIM's base in Mali, North Africa, serves as a staging ground for terrorist activities across the region.

Image: NATO's intervention in Libya has resurrected listed-terrorist organization and Al Qaeda affiliate, LIFG. It had previously fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now has fighters, cash and weapons, all courtesy of NATO, spreading as far west as Mali, and as far east as Syria. The feared "global Caliphate" Neo-Cons have been scaring Western children with for a decade is now taking shape via US-Saudi, Israeli, and Qatari machinations, not "Islam." In fact, real Muslims have paid the highest price in fighting this real "war against Western-funded terrorism."

AQIM, like their Libyan counterparts, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) are both listed by the US State Department as "Foreign Terrorist Organizations." Likewise, both the UK Home Office (.pdf, listed as GSPC) and the UN recognize both organizations as terrorists.