Dead Babies Against Bush

Miscreants, Murderers, and Malefactors: Imperial Conquest, Torture, and a Little Matter of Genocide

2006-02-28T10:24:00.000-08:00

by Jason Miller
Acting with impunity and wielding the moral authority of pedophiles, Bush and his fellow Neocons have decimated what was left of America's good name while severely crippling our nation’s capacity for advancing and protecting human rights. Setting a sanguineous course in their reckless pursuit of wealth and power, they have afflicted humankind with their perverse agenda. With alarming consistency, these sociopaths have demonstrated their utter disregard for humanity and the well-being of our planet.

While the US has a history of imperialism, deep cruelty, and mass murder, including slaughtering one million civilians in the conquest of the Philippines, legalizing the institution of slavery, and committing the Native American genocide, by World War II America had arguably begun to demonstrate a reasonable level of commitment to humanitarian ideals. While it was a long, painful process, Abolitionists, Women Suffragists, Populists, Labor Activists, Civil Rights Protestors, and the like forced the United States to strive for truly noble causes. From the end of World War II up until the 1960's, one could reasonably conclude that the nation primarily responsible for the defeat of militaristic fascism in both Europe and Asia had earned a degree of moral authority, in spite of its remaining flaws.

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here…

Vietnam marked the beginning of America's descent into a fetid moral sewer, high-lighted (or more appropriately low-lighted) by the deaths of 3,000,000 Vietnamese civilians and the devastating after effects of Agent Orange (compliments of Monsanto). America's light as a beacon of hope for humanity was rapidly extinguished. Ignoring Eisenhower's prescient warning, his successors chose the sword over the plowshare repeatedly. Funneling outrageous percentages of our precious resources into the coffers of the bloated and malevolent military industrial complex, they carried out murderous agendas through direct military intervention, covert CIA operations, and proxies like the Shah of Iran. Sadly, under the last 7-8 presidencies, Democrat and Republican alike, the United States government has evolved into the most powerful terrorist organization on the planet.

Bush and his criminal cohorts have assured US victory in its race to the bottom. Dropping the cloak of altruism, they have come out of the closet and revealed their wicked proclivities. In openly murdering innocent civilians and torturing suspected terrorists under the pretenses of "pre-emptive" military action and the nebulous “War on Terror”, Israel’s Neocon operatives have secured America's place in the pantheon of egregious violators of human rights. Despite having stolen the last two elections, these depraved war criminals continue to act in the name of the American people as they repeatedly urinate and defecate on virtually everything that was truly virtuous in our nation.

Perhaps torture and murder are the values of this “Christian nation”…

Human Rights First recently released a particularly damning and extremely well-researched report entitled Command's Responsibility. I spent several hours perusing this disturbing analysis of homicides committed by our own government (to further the cause of “spreading freedom and democracy”). A shocking number of alleged enemy combatants have been murdered by the US military and the CIA. Apparently justice vanishes without a trace if one is of Middle Eastern descent and suspected of terrorism.

According to the report, 100 such individuals have died since August of 2002. By the US military’s own admission, 34 of those cases were "suspected or confirmed homicides". Human Rights First determined that the "facts suggest death as a result of physical abuse or harsh conditions of detention" in 11 additional cases. The report also reveals that 8 US detainees "were tortured to death".

How is the "bastion of human rights" policing itself? "Only 12 detainee deaths have resulted in punishment of any kind for a US official." Human Rights First also uncovered the facts that "while the CIA has been implicated in several deaths, not one CIA agent has faced a criminal charge". The harshest sentence issued for those responsible for torture-related deaths? An unbelievable slap on the wrist: five months in jail for homicide! Meanwhile, America's "justice system" eagerly metes out the death penalty for murder, mostly to our poor and/or black citizens. Just ask California’s “Terminator”.

Israeli peace of mind and oil are worth the annihilation of millions of human beings, aren’t they?

Still high enough on hubris to believe the Bush Regime is righteous in passing judgment and proclaiming that Iraq, Iran, and North Korea form an "Axis of Evil"? While you are grabbing stones to cast at this trio for their deplorable records on human rights, consider the acts of barbarism, terrorism, and deceit the United States has committed against the first member of the so-called "Axis" over the last two decades. Since Reagan swaggered into office, America has been committing genocide against the Iraqi people in multiple ways. Bear in mind that these "evil" Iraqis never attacked the United States or its citizens. Their crime? Ostensibly it was that their tyrannical leader, Saddam Hussein, needed to be deposed, they possessed weapons of mass destruction, they were a threat to the United States, and eventually were complicit in 9/11. But for those who live in reality, the Iraqis’ true "sins" were possessing vast quantities of oil, daring to sell their oil for Euros instead of the almighty Dollar, and posing a "threat" to poor little Israel, a nation bristling with military firepower and enjoying the unflinching support of the most powerful military in the history of humanity.

As an aside, if the “infinitely benevolent” United States bore the responsibility of removing Hussein to “liberate the Iraqis”, a question naturally arises. Which nation will liberate the world from Bush and his team of despicable Neocons?

A Little Duplicity, a little hypocrisy…whatever it takes, right?

In 1982, the Reagan Regime removed Iraq from the State Department's list of nations sponsoring terrorism. This enabled US corporations, including members of the military industrial complex, to capitalize on the abundant profits to be had in the Iraqi marketplace. In 1983, Ronald Reagan sent special envoy Donald Rumsfeld to meet with US ally Saddam Hussein to "normalize relations" which had been terminated during the Arab-Israeli War of 1967. Despite full knowledge that Hussein used chemical weapons against Iran and on the Kurds of his own nation, the United States continued its cozy relationship with Saddam. The United States and its allies in Western Europe provided Hussein with military helicopters and the precursor agents necessary to manufacture the very weapons of mass destruction which later became one of the pretexts for the Neocon invasion of Iraq.

Former US Assistant Secretary of Defense Noel Koch said this about American support of Hussein:

"No one had any doubts about the Iraqis' continued involvement in terrorism....The real reason was to help them succeed in the war against Iran."

Confirming the initial US acts of genocide against the Iraqi people through its support of Hussein are some quick facts provided by the US State Department. Bear in mind that Hussein was an American ally when these atrocities occurred:

-- Documented chemical attacks by the regime, from 1983 to 1988, resulted in some 30,000 Iraqi and Iranian deaths.

-- Human Rights Watch estimates that Saddam's 1987-1988 campaign of terror against the Kurds killed at least 50,000 and possibly as many as 100,000 Kurds.

-- The Iraqi regime used chemical agents to include mustard gas and nerve agents in attacks against at least 40 Kurdish villages between 1987-1988. The largest was the attack on Halabja which resulted in approximately 5,000 deaths.

-- 2,000 Kurdish villages were destroyed during the campaign of terror.

Leave it to American ingenuity to find a better way…

Ongoing US support of Hussein became virtually impossible when he invaded Kuwait, a US ally which had slant-drilled $14 billion worth of oil from Iraq (using equipment supplied by a United States corporation). Despite United States Ambassador April Glaspie's assurances to Hussein that the US "takes no position" in the conflict (just days before Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait), Bush the elder unleashed the US military beast on Hussein. The US war machine defeated Iraq by burying thousands of Iraqi troops alive, employing depleted uranium, and murdering thousands of retreating Iraqis during the Basra Road Massacre.

Research by Beth Osborne Daponte, who ran afoul of "straight shooter" and then Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney for "inflating" body counts related to the Gulf War, and who has since been exonerated, published by two scholarly journals, and awarded a teaching position at Carnegie Mellon University, demonstrates that 205,500 Iraqis died as a result of the Gulf War. Perhaps the rulers of the American Empire tired of committing genocide through their proxy, Hussein. Recasting him as an enemy certainly increased their capacity to eliminate the Iraqi people.

Keeping our hands clean while “killing them softly”

Shortly after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait (on August 6, 1990), the United Nations, under intense pressure from the US, imposed severe economic sanctions on Iraq. A year later, with Iraq defeated, the sanctions continued. From the initial implementation of these draconian measures, the United States utilized its powerful influence within the UN to ensure that the sanctions remained in place. The alleged targets of the sanctions were Saddam Hussein and his government. However, the people of Iraq were the ones brutally victimized by this twelve year campaign of economic terror.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, by late 1995, over a million Iraqis (including 567,000 children) had died as a direct result of the economic sanctions. Based on UNICEF's research, 4,500 children were dying each month and 825,000 Iraqi children were at risk of suffering acute malnutrition.

Demonstrating the Clinton Regime’s complicity in the Iraqi genocide, Secretary of State Madeline Albright appeared on 60 Minutes in May of 1996. When asked about reports of the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children due to the sanctions, she stated:

"We think the price is worth it."

Even the Oil for Food Program implemented in 1996 (to enable Iraq to exchange its oil on the world market for food and humanitarian supplies) failed to stem the tide of suffering and death. Supporters of the American Empire claim that corruption, inefficiency and abuse caused the failure of this "noble rescue effort". However, despite the fact that the program did not end the misery for Iraqi civilians (regardless of the reasons), the US saw to it that the sanctions remained in place until Bush II launched his illegal invasion. To protest the ongoing sanctions, United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator Dennis Halliday ended his 34 year career with the UN in 1998.

Noam Chomsky has postulated that the ultimate goal of US foreign policy in Iraq is to reduce it to a sparsely populated nation, providing the American Empire with a readily attainable, strategically located piece of real estate sitting atop one of the largest oil reserves in the world.

Evidence does exist to support Chomsky's speculations. Slow Motion Holocaust by Stephanie Reich and The Secret Behind the Sanctions by Thomas Nagy both reference DIA documents which expose US intent with respect to the economic sanctions:

Reich: A series of recently revealed Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) reports show that the US attack on Iraq's civilian population was deliberate and calculated. A DIA report of January 1991 stated that sanctions would prevent the import of chemicals and equipment required for the provision of safe drinking water, resulting in epidemics. A second DIA report listed as likely causes of epidemics in urban areas the fact that US bombing had destroyed water, electrical and waste disposal systems, and had largely ended distribution of preventive medicines. The report itemized the predicted disease outbreaks, highlighting those that strike children. A third DIA report dated March 1991 explicitly connected outbreaks of gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases to the war, stated that children in particular were affected, and noted that potable water had been reduced to 5% of prewar supplies.

Nagy: Over the last two years, I've discovered documents of the Defense Intelligence Agency proving beyond a doubt that, contrary to the Geneva Convention, the U.S. government intentionally used sanctions against Iraq to degrade the country's water supply after the Gulf War. The United States knew the cost that civilian Iraqis, mostly children, would pay, and it went ahead anyway.

Patience is not a Neocon virtue

Once the Bush Regime seized power, the "slow motion holocaust" was no longer satisfactory. In enabling or causing 9/11, they had the Pearl Harbor they needed to launch ”full speed genocide". Spinning incredibly absurd yarns linking Saddam Hussein to Osama bin Laden while "proving" that Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (and the means to unleash them), the nefarious ones whipped the American public into a "patriotic" fervor. Driven by fear of the "terrorists" and the lies of the mainstream media, the American public zealously supported the "Shock and Awe" campaign.

Conveniently, the Neocons and their media handmaidens neglected to inform the American public that as a former ally, the US had a degree of complicity in Saddam's crimes against humanity. They also failed to mention that our government had committed similar offenses during the Gulf War and had engaged in the passive mass murder of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis by strong-arming the UN into maintaining the economic sanctions for 12 years. Or perhaps by Neocon moral reckoning, two wrongs do make a right and they decided it would be frivolous to rehash America's "heroic efforts" to end Hussein's tyranny.

In December 2005, George Bush himself publicly admitted that his Regime bears responsibility for at least 30,000 Iraqi civilian deaths since the start of the illegal Occupation in 2003. The Lancet Journal released a study in October 2004 which concluded that the number was close to 100,000 at that time. A more recent study referenced in an article in The Canadian places the number at 250,000. The Neocons certainly have accelerated the pace of the Iraqi genocide.

“Collateral Damage” in the Homeland

Iraqis are not the only victims of the Empire's most recent efforts to exterminate them. Americans are reaping the wages of Bush's sins against the Iraqi people. Over 2300 Americans have died carrying out the twisted bidding of Rumsfeld and company. Hundreds of billions of wasted US taxpayer dollars, virtually certain federal bankruptcy, and the steady asphyxiation of domestic programs which benefit the poor, the sick, the elderly, the working people, and most importantly, our children, closely parallel the passive mass murder perpetrated through the US-driven UN economic sanctions against Iraq. Want evidence? Look to New Orleans.

In light of the Downing Street Memo, which clearly demonstrates that Bush constructed a false case to justify the invasion of a country that posed no real threat to the United States, based on the accompanying needless deaths of American soldiers, and considering the resulting economic sanctions placed upon the American people, Congress has a sacred obligation to truly represent the interests of its constituents and remove Bush and his fellow criminals from office. It is time to impeach Bush and Cheney. Once removed from office, these two and the rest of the cabal need to face trial at the International Criminal Court for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

We the People and the Iraqis deserve better

Click the link below to take action:

"Congressman John Conyers has introduced three new pieces of legislation aimed at censuring President Bush and Vice President Cheney, and at creating a fact-finding committee that could be a first step toward impeachment."

Americans are not an evil lot, but we are culpable for having allowed a string of truly despicable human beings to perpetrate the Iraqi genocide that has been taking place since the Reagan Regime. The monstrous psychopaths now infesting the White House have taken malevolence to a whole new level. Let us remind ourselves that The White House belongs to us and that Bush serves us.

Bush and his rotten associates are guests in our home and ultimately, mere public servants. One simple step that you can take toward evicting and firing them is to click on the linked paragraph above to email your Congress Member with a demand that they support Conyers’ courageous initiatives. Remember, removal from the White House will put these scoundrels one step closer to the Big House and to suffering the consequences they so richly deserve.

Jason Miller is a 39 year old activist writer with a degree in liberal arts. When he is not spending time with his wife and three sons, researching, or writing, he is working as a loan counselor. He is a member of Amnesty International and an avid supporter of Oxfam International and Human Rights Watch. He welcomes responses at willpowerful@hotmail.com or comments on his blog, Thomas Paine's Corner, at http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/.

Images of the War that George Bush STARTED

2006-01-29T06:48:00.000-08:00

NEW YORK CITY IS HAUNTED!

2005-12-28T22:55:00.000-08:00

WE WILL NOT REST - AND WE WILL NOT LET YOU SLEEP

PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN!!!

2005-08-26T05:58:00.000-07:00

What are the long term effects of torture on the victim? The answers are easily obtained, from numerous reputable sources. Less readily understood by the average person is what the long term effects might be on the torturer.

In order to understand the terrible truths of that question, you first have to know what the torturer either already knows, or finds out very quickly. You have to know that torture is a poor method of interrogation. Were that not the case, our military would have taught those techniques in all their military police and intelligence units, everywhere on the globe. The only place they were taught by our military prior to this era was the infamous School of The Americas (in 2001 renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) in Fort Benning, GA., a special training facility for Latin American military personnel.

Every torturer finds out sooner or later what many behavioral researchers already know - torture is an unreliable form of interrogation, but it's an excellent form of terrorism. If law enforcement or military personnel used torture on an american citizen in the course of an interrogation, they'd not only lose their job, depending on the severity of the torture - particularly if of the types taught at the WHISC - they'd likely face criminal charges with special circumstances. Torture is one of the most serious crimes a citizen can commit in the US, and it carries heavy penalties.

How does someone inflict so much pain on numerous fellow human beings, without changing themselves forever? They don't. How do torturers cope with those changes? Some smile, nod, and remain calm at all times. They stop feeling anything at all. While they can take or leave their occupation, they don't tend to initiate it on their own - nor do they initiate any other messy activity unless strongly compelled to do so by an authority figure. Some spend their whole lives dead inside. Easily identified, they're the ones who nod and turn away when their spouses, children, and everyone in their lives leaves them. Those are the "safe" ones, they only destroy the ones they're ordered to destroy, themselves, and their families. They have standards and practices, gruesome as they may be, and will never cross certain pre-established lines.

Others remain dispassionate only as long as they're under orders. In familial situations where they're the authority figure (as parents), or perceive themselves to be (as spouse), they can become volatile and dangerous. They expect to be obeyed without question or hesitation, and can mete out punishments to family members (and others they feel are under their authority) that strongly resemble their "work habits".

The most dangerous are those who actively come to enjoy torturing unwilling victims.

America, I've got some really terrifying news for you. There are people in our country who ENJOY inflicting extreme pain and physical damage on innocent men, women, and oh God Help Us, yes, children. When I say "in our country" I mean they could be anywhere, but some are almost certainly in and around Fort Benning, GA ; Fort Hood, TX ; Arlington, VA ; San Diego, CA ; and Washington D.C.

People who live in the vicinity of those cities in particular need to watch out for their children. Don't assume that civilians are safe. The Fay/Jones Report lists 44 counts of abuse at Abu Ghraib. It includes head blows and other physical assault, sodomy, rape, stripping prisoners of their clothing, forcing detainees to masturbate and perform sex acts, the use of unmuzzled dogs and other atrocities. There were 44 tortures between July 03 and Feb 04. Interrogators from CACI International, Inc., of Arlington, VA, and translators from Titan Corporation, San Diego, CA, are connected to 16.

We need to find out who and where these torturers are. Some of them are human time bombs. Not everyone who tortures remains dispassionate or seeks help. Some develop a taste for it, and some specifically develop a fetish for torturing children. The annals of criminal psychology are abundantly clear on that point. Some of the torturers will torture one or more of us, and some of them will torture our children - unless we can identify them, and remove them from free society.

Why is this so imperative? Because unlike the twisted souls who suffer rampant sadism who are accustomed to sublimating their illness, into sex-play for pay and other quasi-acceptable pastimes, torturers of children, once so warped, tend to remain in the same mode. They don't hire a dominatrix or become sport hunters, they predate on children in the same manner in which they were taught and expected to carry out their "duty". Those who "overcome" the sickness on their own usually do so via suicide. Others seek out children, and torture them. In foreign military situations, killing the tortured children would be counterproductive to both the espoused goal of interrogation, as well as the actual goal of terrorizing a civilian populace. Here at home, a torturer will always know that after they're done, they can't let the victim live to identify them.

A last word on this, for now. If you're seeking medical or psychiatric treatment in those cities, well, go to another city. Doctors and psychiatrists employed in Iraq and at Gitmo were apparently involved in the torture. Let's face it - are these people you want anywhere near your mind or body?

What was it Donald Rumsfeld wrote? "Make sure this happens!!"

He made it happen, not just to the tortured, but also to vulnerable and impressionable young citizen-soldiers of our national guard, whom he has turned into torturers and made victims of his own inhuman barbarism.

RESOURCES :

US military in torture scandal
Use of private contractors in Iraqi jail interrogations highlighted by inquiry into abuse of prisoners by Julian Borger in Washington
Friday April 30, 2004 The Guardian

Prison Interrogation for Profit
Private contractors face legal action for crimes in Abu Ghraib
by David Phinney, Special to CorpWatchSeptember 15th, 2004

TORTURE AT ABU GHRAIB
American soldiers brutalized Iraqis. How far up does the responsibility go?
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
Issue of 2004-05-10Posted 2004-04-30

Torture and Its Consequences
1-01-1995 by Hernán Reyes
Extract from TORTURE, Volume 5, Number 4, 72-76 p., 1995
An ICRC viewpoint

EIGHT LESSONS OF TORTURE
Based on [The Center for the Victims of Torture]'s experience with torture survivors and understanding the systems in which they have been abused, CVT believes it is important that discussions about the U.S. use of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment not be shaped by speculation but rather through an understanding of how torture is actually used in the world. There are eight broad lessons CVT has learned from working with torture survivors:

OLC's Aug. 1, 2002 Torture Memo ("the Bybee Memo")

A Consequentialist Argument against Torture
Interrogation of Terrorists
Jean Maria Arrigo, Ph.D.
Project on Ethics and Art in Testimony
Joint Services Conference on Professional Ethics
January 30-31, 2003, Springfield, Virginia

The Torture Memo By Judge Jay S. Bybee
That Haunted Alberto Gonzales's Confirmation Hearings
By JOHN W. DEAN
Friday, Jan. 14, 2005

United States Code
TITLE 18 - CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
PART I - CRIMES
CHAPTER 113C - TORTURE

http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/CAT.C.SR.431.En?Opendocument

http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2004/0625torture-Huggins.pdf

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/t/to/torture.htm

http://www.harpercollins.com.au/drstephenjuan/0405news.htm

http://www.survivorsintl.org/SI.1.2_overview.html

http://www.survivorsintl.org/SI.4_resources.html

http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/33479

Rumsfeld orders "MAKE SURE THIS HAPPENS ! !"

Abu Ghraib General Lambastes Bush Administration
By Marjorie Cohn

"When Karpinski inquired, "What's this about photographs?" the sergeant replied, "Ma'am, we've heard something about photographs, but I have no idea. Nobody has any details, and Ma'am, if anybody knows, nobody is talking." When Karpinski asked to see the log books, the sergeant told her that the Criminal Investigation Division had taken everything except for something on a pole outside the little office they were using. "It was a memorandum signed by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, authorizing a short list, maybe 6 or 8 techniques: use of dogs; stress positions; loud music; deprivation of food; keeping the lights on, those kinds of things," Karpinski said. "And then a handwritten message over to the side that appeared to be the same handwriting as the signature, and that signature was Secretary Rumsfeld's. And it said, 'Make sure this happens' with two exclamation points. And that was the only thing they had. Everything else had been confiscated."

posted by ICEKNIFE at 1:14 AM 0 comments

Iraq War Casualties

2005-08-02T23:11:00.000-07:00

These photos show the tip of the iceberg of the suffering of both Americans and Iraqis in the Iraq war. This is considered collateral damage in a $20 trillion oil heist of the #2 oil reserves on the planet, callously masquerading as a compassionate regime change. The occupation and slaughter carries on without an official reason now that Saddam is captured. That the Iraqis resist occupation now seems justification enough for Bush. It may sound strange, but to Bush, the following images are erotically stimulating. Note I am not saying who in particular caused any of these injuries, just that this is the sort of suffering happening to both sides as the result of the war.

http://mindprod.com/politics/iraqwarpix.html

War in the eyes of a child by Michelle Hopkins

2005-07-02T23:11:00.001-07:00

Image

This beautiful, moving, yet disturbing image is one in a series of oil paintings on exhibit now at Fraserview Mennonite Brethren Church.

"In the past 18 years, the army in Uganda has enslaved over 20,000 children," says artist Helen Broadfoot. "The use of child soldiers is common around the world."

Broadfoot's War Child Gallery was born out of one mother's painful discovery of the daily, worldwide atrocities against children in the name of war and conflict.

"It started over a year ago with the Iraq war," says Broadfoot. "I found it so upsetting, so many casualties, or as President Bush called them, necessary collateral damage, most of them children and women. I felt I had to do something... I just wasn't sure what."

Offended by Bush and sickened by visions of dying babies and children, but not knowing what to do, Broadfoot e-mailed renowned U.S. linguistics professor, author and lecturer Noam Chomsky. She asked the humanitarian what a "mere Canadian artist" could do to highlight the atrocities of the world.

"I told him I wanted to paint the 10 great lies that have harmed humanity, and asked him what they were," she explained during a telephone interview from her Pender Harbour home. "He actually e-mailed me back with these words: 'You know far better than I that any creative artist needs confidence, more than anything else. And that can only come from within.'"

http://www.oilpaintingforpeace.com/

Only the Grief of the Children: - A Must See

2005-07-02T23:11:00.000-07:00

The political Committee of the Mujahideen Central Command - Communiqué no. 10: Text/Video

Video

Exhibit 14

Exhibit 15

Exhibit 16, 17

"There will come a close day Bush, when you damn the day you invaded the cradle of civilizations our country only to steal! We have the owth of God!

-Rafidan - The Political Committee"

Depleted Uranium-Related Birth Defects in Iraq

2005-06-02T23:11:00.000-07:00

UNEP/UNCHS Balkans Task Force (BTF)

The potential effects on human health and the environment arising from possible use of depleted uranium during the 1999 Kosovo conflict.

A preliminary assessment October 1999

U.S. Charged With War Crimes The Evidence File

2005-05-02T23:11:00.000-07:00

Court case against General Franks in Brussels

Twenty victims of war crimes committed by U.S. troops during the recent war against Iraq are filing charges before the federal prosecutor of Belgium for violations of International Humanitarian Law.

The complaint is directed against soldiers—who are not identified at this stage—who have committed war crimes. It mentions General Tommy Franks in particular for ordering war crimes and for not preventing others from committing them or for providing protection to the perpetrators.

The plaintiffs have been seriously injured or have lost relatives as the result of:

- the use of cluster bombs
- attacks on the civilian population including journalists
- acts of aggression against health services and other Iraqi infrastructure
- looting protected by or under orders from the U.S. army.

The plaintiffs and their relatives likewise have reason to fear the devastating effects of depleted uranium munitions used by the U.S. army. Their effects have already been highlighted in the previous wars against Iraq, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan.

Millions of demonstrators throughout the world have voiced their opposition to the war on Iraq. Opinion polls showed that everywhere, between 70 and 80% of the population condemned this war of aggression.

In defiance of the people's will, the Bush administration violated international law by attacking Iraq without the permission of the Security Council and refusing to respect the ban on the use of force included in the UN Charter. In the field, U.S. troops also committed many war crimes, as attested by many sources.

The plaintiffs demand an independent inquiry to identify those responsible for the war crimes of which they were victims. They are also asking for those guilty to be brought to justice.

The complaint was filed in Brussels on the basis of the Belgian law on "universal jurisdiction" as amended on May 7, 2003. The law, as amended, gives the Belgian government the option of filing a case before the International Criminal Court (ICC) or forwarding it to the country of origin of the accused.

The United States, however, has not ratified the Statutes of the ICC, thus rendering a transfer to this court impossible. As for referring the case to the courts of the country of origin, the law demands that the latter afford guarantees of impartiality. That is not the case with American lawcourts for the moment for a number of reasons:

As soon as the possibility of filing charges was announced, the spokespersonof the State Department demanded demanded the intervention of the Belgiangovernment to prevent the judiciary from investigating the case.

The attitude of the Bush administration clearly shows there is no guaranteethat the United States executive would not exercise the same type ofpressure on the courts of the country. It should be recalled that thissame administration refuses the prisoners detained in Guantanamo any kindof legal status, has set up special secret courts to try people accused of" terrorism " and detains hundreds of foreigners for unlimitedperiods and without due process. It has this shown its intention tointervene in judicial procedure and its total lack of respect for the mostbasic rights of the defence.

Congressman Gary Ackerman of New York has introduced a bill to forbid allcollaboration with any state trying to exercise universal jurisdiction,and in particular with Belgium.

The victims' testimonies have been documented by doctor Colette Moulaert and doctor Geert Van Moorter, who were on a humanitarian mission for the NGO Medical Aid for the Third World and stayed in Baghdad throughout the offensive. The Coordination STOP USA, which was active against the war in Belgium, will support the plaintiffs and will provide information on the case worldwide.

Howard Zinn on Iraq

2005-04-01T23:11:00.000-08:00

I think the problem is, I think this gentleman thinks that Bush is America, or that the government is America. And therefore if you criticize this government, or if you criticize the president that you are unamerican. America is the people of this country. It is the principles on which this country stands. It is possible for the government to be unamerican. It is possible for Bush to be unamerican.

I think if you criticize this government, that you are acting in the spirit of democracy, you are acting in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence says that governments are not holy. Governments are set up for certain purposes to protect life, liberty, equality and the pursuit of happiness. When the government becomes destructive of those rights, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish the government. So certainly that means you should have the right to criticize the government without being called unamerican.

Face the horror of the reality that you've created

2005-03-17T23:11:00.000-08:00

That’s me, a marine, a murderer of civilians’

“I was a sergeant with the Third Marine Battalion during the invasion, in the spring of 2003.”“We killed more than 30 people. That was the first time that I had to face up to the horror that my hands were soiled with the blood of civilians. We laid down cluster bombs on them. - “We ended up massacring innocent civilians – men, women, and children."

U.S. Marines Engaged in Mock Executions of Iraqi Juveniles
The documents the ACLU released today, describe substantiated incidents of torture and abuse by U.S. Marines, including:

holding a pistol to the back of a detainee’s head while another Marine took a picture (Karbala, May 2003)

ordering four Iraqi juveniles to kneel while a pistol was "discharged to conduct a mock execution" (Adiwaniyah, June 2003)

severely burning a detainee’s hands by covering them in alcohol and igniting them (Al Mumudiyah, August 2003), and shocking a detainee with an electric transformer, causing the detainee to "dance" as he was shocked (Al Mumudiyah, April 2004).

Cluster bombs liberate Iraqi children

2005-03-07T23:11:00.000-08:00

THE ROVING EYE By Pepe Escobar

AMMAN - The horror. The horror. And unlike Apocalypse Now, there are real, not fictional images to prove it. But they won't be seen in Western homes. The new heart of darkness has emerged in the turbulent history of Mesopotamia via the Hilla massacre. After uninterrupted, furious American bombing on Monday night and Tuesday morning, as of Wednesday night there were at least 61 dead Iraqi civilians and more than 450 seriously injured in the region of Hilla, 80 kilometers south of Baghdad. Most are children: 60 percent of Iraq's population of roughly 24 million are children.

Future of Iraq Portal

2005-02-28T23:11:00.000-08:00

A linksite focusing on empowering the Iraqi people.

DEAD BABIES AGAINST BUSH

2005-02-25T23:11:00.000-08:00

DEAD BABIES AGAINST BUSH ACTION PACK ADVENTURE KIT #1 PHASE ONE: SEEN

DEAD BABIES AGAINST BUSH

Action Pack Adventure Kit # 1

Phase One: SEEN

Dead Babies Against Bush is a No Strings Revolution, without leaders, borders, or hierarchy, generated by PEACHCRACKER ARTPEACE. It's based on a simple but expansive three-phase plan. Each level of this plan is designed to heighten public awareness of the vast numbers of Iraqi babies and children our government has murdered, maimed, and driven insane.

The first part is Phase One: Seen. It's based entirely on printed images and words. This is a good place to discuss what's in this kit:

1. The introduction. You're soaking in it.
2. Equipment list: That which is essential, and things that may come in handy.
3. Web Links to useful photos and source data.
4. Suggestions on use of materials: What to make with the images and words.
5. Suggestions on placement: Where you can makes best use of what you make.
6. The E-Mail Address for Phase One: Seen (which is dbabphase1@fastmail.fm ) and your DEAD BABIES AGAINST BUSH Blog, which is http://tinyscreams.blogspot.com.
7. Future Phases - Watch List: Items to look out for, that'll be useful for phases two and three.

Ok, sounds... odd. How will we know when phase one is over? That's up to you. How will we know when phase two starts? You'll get the kit for it, or get word of it, maybe the same way you got this one. No one knows who wrote this, no one signed the first emailed copies, don't sign yours when you copy and paste this to others. Do send it around. Make sure people who feel strongly about this subject get a chance to get involved.

How exactly does phase one work? You collect the pictures and source data from the links, use them as you will, but try to limit use of dramatic effect with the photos. Let them stand on their own. No need to embellish the facts, no drama called for that's not right there in plain facts. Want to express yourself creatively? Do it in your layout, in your presentation, and your placement of it. What sort of printed material, do we mean posters, flyers, brochures, inserts, or what? Yup. We do, and just about anything else you can think of. Where do we want them put up or delivered? Everywhere! Because SEEN is a PEACHCRACKER ARTPEACE project, there's a variation on the theme you're encouraged to try... life size images of the children, placed to look real, or like ghosts. Feel free to haunt a nation who won't be able to turn away, the way we're haunted by these children. Ok, with us so far?

The intro is over. DING. You may turn the page.

2. Equipment List

You're gonna need access to a printer. Other wise it just doesn't work, unless you have your own source of photos. We're not going to tell you which ones to use - dead, dying, maimed, or just horrified and lost, but make sure they're children or babies, and that the photos come from Iraq. Since you need a printer, it goes without saying you'll need paper or poster stock. If you're going to paste the images up, you'll need something to do that with, like tacks, staples and a staple gun, or an adhesive like glue, chewing gum, or fluid and semi-solid bodily secretions. If you plan to compose something, you'll need either a computer program that does that sort of thing, like Photoshop, or you can use the old tried and true scissors and paste method.

Spread this e-mail around. Print it up, pass it around. Include as much or as little of it as you see fit. To qualify for any insane contests that crop up, be sure to include either the initials DBAB or the name DEAD BABIES AGAINST BUSH in/on your work.

3. Web Links To Useful Source Data and Photos:

Pictures:

http://irregulartimes.com/dead.html

http://www.progressiveaustin.org/iraqivic.htm

http://www.aztlan.net/iraqichildrenhorror.htm

http://www.robert-fisk.com/

Statistics:

http://www.iraqbodycount.net/database/

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7170.htm

http://www.seacoastpeaceresponse.org/w8.htm

http://www.occupationwatch.org/print_article.php?id=1632&print=1

Personal Accounts:

http://www.motherspeak.org/interviews.html

http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?list=type&type=21

http://www.mcc.org/areaserv/middleeast/iraq/interviews/index.html

http://www.allourchildren.org/stories/iraqichildren/photo_essay.html

http://www.operationiraqichildren.org/

Blogs in Iraq: (Please be considerate if asking for materials, these people have been through hell)

http://afamilyinbaghdad.blogspot.com/

http://www.friendsofdemocracy.info/

http://ayadrahimtriptoiraq.blogspot.com/

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

http://neurotic-iraqi-wife.blogspot.com/

http://rosebaghdad.blogspot.com/

http://www.roadstoiraq.com/

http://moslawi.blogspot.com/

http://iraquna.blogspot.com/

http://kurdo.blogspot.com/

http://hammorabi.blogspot.com/

4.Suggestions on Use of Materials:

You're the artist, all we're going to suggest is FOCUS. Target your material to the place you put it, and the people you're trying to reach. Your best underground punk zine style isn't going to appeal to the nice ladies at the seniors home any more than the doves and ivy trim will appeal to the club trade. Use text sparingly, let the images work for themselves. The higher the resolution, the more visceral and real it becomes for the viewer.

5. Suggestions on Placement:

Hey, as flyers in windshields at a specific car parking lot, giant murals plastered on a wall, single sheets stapled to telephone poles, inserts slipped into papers in a machine or into a free local paper, pamphlets handed out at a park or in a cafe, sheets stuffed in mailboxes in apartment buildings, life-sized cardboard figures nailed to wooden stands, transparencies stuck to windows.... and anywhere else you can think of.

Leave the material on transportation, in cabs and on buses, in doctors waiting rooms, and on campuses. Get permission to put them up in the windows of local businesses. Anywhere they'll be SEEN.

6. The E-Mail Address for DBAB PHASE 1 is dbabphase1@fastmail.fm; e-mail us with jpgs of your work, let us know how it's going! And hey, this just in, try http://tinyscreams.blogspot.com for the DEAD BABIES AGAINST BUSH BLOG!

7. Future Phases Watch List:

Phase two is audio, and you'll need sounds of war, children screaming, etc.... don't try to fake it with movie sound track, get it from news, radio, and the web when possible. You'll also be looking for echokillers and FX talkboy pens, that sort of thing. Phase three involves baby dolls, start collecting, you want as many as possible, and no, the condition of the dolls isn't important, we're going to do horrible things to them anyway.

FINAL NOTE, AND DICSLAMER (yeah, I know how to spell disclaimer)

Get expressive, have your work seen, but don't interpret that as encouragement towards illegal activity. We're not condoning it, and you shouldn't need to go that far. If you do, your art must be pretty weak. Don't stoop, SOAR! It ain't about fear of a repressive system, it's about respect for your neighbors and yourself.

ROCK DA WORLD, NO SHAME IN OUR GAME, WE CAME TO ACCUSE, AND WE KNOW WHO TO BLAME!

DEAD BABIES AGAINST BUSH, PEACHCRACKER ARTPEACE, WE THE PEOPLE WILL NOT BE SILENT! LOOK INTO THE FACES OF THE CHILDREN AND WEEP FOR YOUR IMMORTAL SOUL, AMERICA!

The rest, children of light and shadow, is entirely in your hands.

posted by ICEKNIFE at 1:09 AM