WHY DIDN’T THE US-LED WESTERN COUNTRIES DARE ENOUGH TO LAUNCH MILITARY PUNITIVE STRIKE AGAINST ISRAEL FOR PRODUCING, STORING AND USING CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS AGAINST (PALESTINIAN) CIVILIANS?
by Syarif Hidayat
The USA, the renowned World Preacher of Human Rights and Democracy has set the world rule of law “that all countries which used chemical weapons against civilians or suspected of producing or storing weapons of mass destruction (WMDs-Nuclear, Chemical and Biological weapons) must be punished by devastating or destroying that countries as well as killing their citizens indiscriminately using all kind of modern and deadly WMDs” except when the culprits are Israel and the US-led western countries.
The people in the corridors of Power in Washington and the US-led western civilization regimes leaders are awfully silent about millions of innocent people including old men, women, children and babies who were and are being killed by their war machines in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen and Somalia in their so-called War on Terror as well as in their covert operations in Syria … and the worst thing is that they merely call those innocent victims as collateral damages.
Under the guise of hypocritical declarations of “war of Liberation” to liberate Iraq from the West so-called Dictator Saddam Hussein that turned out to be the killing of millions of Iraqi people indiscriminately, “war to hunt for Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda and Talibans” in Afghanistan that turned out to be the killing of hundreds of thousands of Afghan people indiscriminately and the “humanitarian” war to “save” the Libyan people from the West so-called Dictator Muammar Gaddafi that turned out to be the killing of hundreds of Libyan people indiscriminately and the Zionist and US-led imperialists covert operation in Syria, the U.S-led western regimes were in fact aiming to occupy Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya and gain control of the world oil reserves and international oil trade as well as dominate the whole Middle East and Africa by their military powers (and ultimately the whole world).
Either Syria or Iran could be the next (Syria is actually now in the process of being punished)!
Faithful Servants
Israeli forces often have been using many kind of internationally banned weapons including chemical weapons against Palestinian civilians, but always got away freely. Why? This could be the answer:
Barack Obama, the other US leaders and the US-led western regimes leaders as well as the US-led western media leaders serve the Zionist Israel day and night well!
“You can help us or we ‘will overthrow the world’.” – Chaim Weizmann, first president of the State of Israel.
READ THESE VERSES OF THE TALMUD:
Baba Mezia, 114b“The Jews are called human beings, but the non-Jews are not humans. They are beasts.”
Nidrasch Talpioth, p. 225-L: “Jehovah created the non-Jew in human form so that the Jew would not have to be served by beasts. The non-Jew is consequently an animal in human form, and condemned to serve the Jew day and night.”
Midrasch Talpioth (fol. 225d): “God created them [Jews] in the form of men for the glory of Israel . But Akum were created for the sole end of ministering unto them [the Jews] day and night. Nor can they ever be relieved from this service. It is becoming to the son of a king [an Israelite] that animals in their natural form, and animals in the form of human beings should minister unto him.”
Facts speak for themselves correctly and objectively that the Israelis through the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobbyists could bully American leaders and Congressmen to support and finance Israeli actions in the occupied lands as well as support its political interests worldwide, while American leaders and the congressmen could not be brave enough to stand up against the Israelis bullying!!
“Who will ever suspect then that ALL THESE PEOPLES WERE STAGE-MANAGED BY US ACCORDING TO A POLITICAL PLAN WHICH NO ONE HAS SO MUCH AS GUESSED AT IN THE COURSE OF MANY CENTURIES?” – Protocol of the Elders of Zion —13, para 6
Barack Obama’s American ideals:
“Hope is what led a band of colonists to rise up against an empire; what led the greatest of generations to free a continent and heal a nation; what led young women and young men to sit at lunch counters and brave fire hoses and march through Selma and Montgomery for freedom’s cause. Hope is what led me here today–with a father from Kenya, a mother from Kansas; and a story that could only happen in the United States of America. Hope is the bedrock of this nation; the belief that our destiny will not be written for us, but by us; by all those men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is; who have courage to remake the world as it should be.” – BARACK OBAMA, speech, Jan. 3, 2008.
”The promotion of human rights cannot be about exhortation alone. At times, it must be coupled with painstaking diplomacy. I know that engagement with repressive regimes lacks the satisfying purity of indignation. But I also know that sanctions without outreach — condemnation without discussion — can carry forward only a crippling status quo. No repressive regime can move down a new path unless it has the choice of an open door.” – BARACK OBAMA, Nobel Lecture, Dec. 10, 2009
The reality:
It seems that Barack Obama, the first Black American president, has now already forgotten his roots that makes his situation is worse than merely a Zionist puppet. Had he not forgotten his roots, this Afro-American president would still have some empathy toward the Zionist and Imperialist oppressed people like Libyans, Bahrainis, Yemenis, Palestinians, Africans, Iraqis, Afghans, Pakistanis and Syrians.
I am very sorry for the Africans who mostly experienced being oppressed and many of them also being tortured inhumanely by Western imperialists and colonialists and now it seems their sufferings are also simply being forgotten by their westernized new generation. Some of the new African generation who have become leaders especially in the west – they even themselves become oppressors!
THE TRUE FACE OF PREACHER OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY:
The US-led western regimes “War on Terror” (THAT IS ACTUALLY THE US WAR FOR OIL AND HEGEMONY IN THE WORLD as well as The Smoke Screen for War against Islam and Muslims) buries all presumption of innocent. This could mean that the US-led western regimes forces have been and are killing many innocent people including old men, women, children and babies in the Muslim countries freely at will!
But when a few of their men killed, they would make noises around the world including forcing the UN to make a resolution to apply a severe punitive economic sanction or launch an allied western military action against the country where the accident took place or against the alleged culprits by deploying all kind of deadly war machines to terrorize the people of that country and hunt the culprits. If they couldn’t find the real culprits, it is almost certain they would produce scapegoats and send them to the infamous US Guantanamo Torture camp.
… but I am also very sorry for the fine young American men and women soldiers who are being sent into the wrongful wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and the intervention in Libya as well as covert operation in Syria, the wars that seem to benefit only the multiple interests of the Military Industrial Complex and the Zionist corporate world; and not the families of the young men and women soldiers!
The US and Israeli WMD Double Standards:
CIA DOCUMENTS REVEAL ISRAELI STOCKPILE OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS
The Israeli Nuclear, Biological and Chemical weapons manufacturing facility at Dimona, Negev desert as viewed from satellite (image by sodahead.com)
A newly-discovered document of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency revealed Monday (9 September 2013) by Foreign Policy magazine shows that the U.S. agency had decisive evidence dating back to at least the 1980s that Israel had a stockpile of chemical and biological weapons.
The revelation comes in the midst of the reported use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government on August 21st.
The document revealed by Foreign Policy magazine on Monday shows that, in addition to building up a nuclear stockpile of an estimated three hundred nuclear weapons during the 1960s and 70s, the Israeli military also developed an extensive stockpile of chemical and biological weapons.
The 1983 document stated that U.S. spy satellites had identified “a probable CW [chemical weapon] nerve agent production facility and a storage facility… at the Dimona Sensitive Storage Area in the Negev Desert. Other CW production is believed to exist within a well-developed Israeli chemical industry.”
“While we cannot confirm whether the Israelis possess lethal chemical agents,” the document adds, “several indicators lead us to believe that they have available to them at least persistent and nonpersistent nerve agents, a mustard agent, and several riot-control agents, marched with suitable delivery systems.”
The single page of a larger CIA report was discovered at the Ronald Reagan Library in California in its unredacted form – the report had been released several years ago to the National Archives, but was heavily censored.
According to the Foreign Policy report, “Israeli historian Avner Cohen, in his 1988 book Israel and the Bomb, wrote that Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion secretly ordered that a stockpile of chemical weapons be built at about the time of the 1956 war between Israel and Egypt. The CIA, on the other hand, believed that Israel did not begin work on chemical weapons until either the late 1960s or the early 1970s.
The article included the following assessment from the 1983 CIA report: “Israel, finding itself surrounded by frontline Arab states with budding CW [chemical weapons] capabilities, became increasingly conscious of its vulnerability to chemical attack. Its sensitivities were galvanized by the capture of large quantities of Soviet CW-related equipment during both the 1967 Arab-Israeli and the 1973 Yom Kippur wars. As a result, Israel undertook a program of chemical warfare preparations in both offensive and protective areas.”
The Israeli government has harshly criticized the Syrian government for its alleged use of chemical weapons three weeks ago, and has encouraged President Obama’s pledge to respond militarily.
Israel did sign the Convention to Ban Chemical Weapons, but the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) never ratified the treaty. Israel has never opened its nuclear facility or its chemical weapons stockpile to international inspections.
Chemical and Biological Weapons
Israel possesses a comprehensive arsenal of chemical and biological weapons. According to the Sunday Times, Israel has produced both chemical and biological weapons with a sophisticated delivery system, quoting a senior Israeli intelligence official, “There is hardly a single known or unknown form of chemical or biological weapon . . .which is not manufactured at the Nes Tziyona Biological Institute.”
The same report described F-16 fighter jets specially designed for chemical and biological payloads, with crews trained to load the weapons on a moments notice.
In 1998, the Sunday Times reported that Israel, using research obtained from South Africa, was developing an “ethno bomb; “In developing their “ethno-bomb”, Israeli scientists are trying to exploit medical advances by identifying distinctive a gene carried by some Arabs, then create a genetically modified bacterium or virus…
The scientists are trying to engineer deadly micro-organisms that attack only those bearing the distinctive genes.” Dedi Zucker, a leftist Member of Knesset, the Israeli parliament, denounced the research saying, “Morally, based on our history, and our tradition and our experience, such a weapon is monstrous and should be denied.”
Using one crime against humanity to cause another
William A. Cook in his article titled “Using one crime against humanity to cause another” published in http://mwcnews.net writes, Unfortunately, tragically, British Foreign Minister William Hague’s empathy for those mutilated by chemical weapons does not apply to the UK’s allies, the United States and Israel, as the heinous picture below attests: the children of Palestine seared to death by white phosphorus during Israel’s savage invasion of Gaza during this 21st Century, the Christmas slaughter of the innocents (2008-2009), a repetition of Herod’s pathology from the first century, when the Roman appointed King of the Jews attempted to control those who could live and those who could die.
How fortunate for William Hague to forget this earlier use of illegal chemical weapons to save embarrassment for his country’s allies while verbally savaging his perceived enemies.
While the rest of the world debates whether chemical agents were used, what kind were used, and who used them, whether or not this attack should be or must be the determinant of action required because the “red line” has been crossed, whether the west must wait for the UN inspectors to report to their superiors, whether or not we have already acted illegally against International law by arming and training these rebels, or whether there is any known consequences should we attack Syria, one concern, it seems to me, rides high above all others, how can the United States and Israel be the determiners of who will use chemicals of mass destruction since they are culpable of this crime multiple times over in this very century?
Witness the bombing of Baghdad, the attempted erasure of Fallujah, again and again, and the US supported invasion of Gaza. How hypocritical of the British Secretary to claim righteousness to invade a sovereign nation when he and his nation have been allies to such mayhem?
Here the righteous stand in all their finery, their striped ties set against the blue pin-striped suits, lashing at the people of the world for not getting upset that they do not want more wars despite the “evidence” that they fail to present, after all they are the government and the people must trust them.
IDF uses white phosphorus in urban areas
Well here is evidence, the picture taken in Gaza and should you have the stomach for it, hundreds of pictures taken as the invasion there unfurled (see Operation Cast Lead, a video stream put together by Dr. Arthur Billy and made available on You Tube). But there’s more evidence coming right from the perpetrator of this slaughter as reported by Idan Landau: “It doesn’t photograph well. (the white phosphorus)” In all honesty, the man is right.
This item caught me by surprise. The IDF is giving up white phosphorus? Wait a minute; the IDF never used white phosphorus during Cast Lead. So how exactly do you give up something you never had? Chemical weapons are something the Syrians use, no?
Okay, after a while the army did remember that it had been confused, and it did use white phosphorus, but only in open territories and not against people.
Okay, then the IDF remembered that it got it wrong again and that it did use white phosphorus in urban areas. Two hundred bombs, actually. But this was only in order to create a “smoke screen,” and there is nothing wrong with that. And if there was something wrong, it’s insignificant and unintentional, and it would be thoroughly investigated, so that no stone is left unturned.
That’s all well and good, except that at least 12 Gazans met their horrific death this way, burned to death by white phosphorus. Among them were three women, six children and a 15-month-old baby girl.
Dozens more suffered burns from the material which continues to burn through flesh and tissue until it reaches the bone. Doctors in Gaza were helpless in treating the unfamiliar burns. Israel didn’t give them time to prepare themselves; white phosphorus shells hit Al-Quds Hospital and completely burned the top two floors.”
There’s the evidence and proof that neither Kerry, Obama, Cameron or Hague can produce. And shouldn’t we be able to see photos taken of this tragic event by phone cameras as happened in Gaza?
The allies are those guilty of the use of this horrific weapon but we fail to condemn ourselves and certainly not our “democratic, only friend” in the mid-east, Israel. But why condemn if we control the UN and make it impossible to bring Israel to the international court as the Goldstone Report stated must be done.
And so we continue this inevitable march to disaster granting impunity to the cause, the nation that drew the red line Obama has to address or be unbelievable forever after. How prescient that we provide a point of absolute action that can be used by our own CIA, Mossad, and mercenaries, blame the Syrian government for false flag operations, and attack regardless of truth and evidence to support it.
What else justifies the only excuse our governments use to not provide transparent evidence: it can’t be revealed because it would aid the enemy in determining our sources of information.
Let me close with some further observations by Idan Landau that cannot be refuted yet were never allowed to be presented to the International courts. Had that happened perhaps Hague’s attempt to use the use of chemical weapons to day would not have been necessary.
Unfortunately, tragically, William Hague’s empathy for those mutilated by chemical weapons does not apply to the UK’s allies, the United States and Israel, as the heinous picture below attests: the children of Palestine seared to death by white phosphorus during Israel’s savage invasion of Gaza during this 21st Century, the Christmas slaughter of the innocents (2008-2009), a repetition of Herod’s pathology from the first century, when the Roman appointed King of the Jews attempted to control those who could live and those who could die.
How fortunate for William Hague to forget this earlier use of illegal chemical weapons to save embarrassment for his country’s allies while verbally savaging his perceived enemies.
While the rest of the world debates whether chemical agents were used, what kind were used, and who used them, whether or not this attack should be or must be the determinant of action required because the “red line” has been crossed, whether the west must wait for the UN inspectors to report to their superiors, whether or not we have already acted illegally against International law by arming and training these rebels, or whether there is any known consequences should we attack Syria, one concern, it seems to me, rides high above all others, how can the United States and Israel be the determiners of who will use chemicals of mass destruction since they are culpable of this crime multiple times over in this very century?
Witness the bombing of Baghdad, the attempted erasure of Fallujah, again and again, and the US supported invasion of Gaza. How hypocritical of the British Secretary to claim righteousness to invade a sovereign nation when he and his nation have been allies to such mayhem?
Horrific death
Here the righteous stand in all their finery, their striped ties set against the blue pin-striped suits, lashing at the people of the world for not getting upset that they do not want more wars despite the “evidence” that they fail to present, after all they are the government and the people must trust them. Well here is evidence, the picture taken in Gaza and should you have the stomach for it, hundreds of pictures taken as the invasion there unfurled (see Operation Cast Lead, a video stream put together by Dr. Arthur Billy and made available on You Tube).
But there’s more evidence coming right from the perpetrator of this slaughter as reported by Idan Landau:
“It doesn’t photograph well. (the white phosphorus)” In all honesty, the man is right.
This item caught me by surprise. The IDF is giving up white phosphorus? Wait a minute; the IDF never used white phosphorus during Cast Lead. So how exactly do you give up something you never had? Chemical weapons are something the Syrians use, no?
Okay, after a while the army did remember that it had been confused, and it did use white phosphorus, but only in open territories and not against people.
Okay, then the IDF remembered that it got it wrong again and that it did use white phosphorus in urban areas. Two hundred bombs, actually. But this was only in order to create a “smoke screen,” and there is nothing wrong with that. And if there was something wrong, it’s insignificant and unintentional, and it would be thoroughly investigated, so that no stone is left unturned.
That’s all well and good, except that at least 12 Gazans met their horrific death this way, burned to death by white phosphorus. Among them were three women, six children and a 15-month-old baby girl. Dozens more suffered burns from the material which continues to burn through flesh and tissue until it reaches the bone.
Doctors in Gaza were helpless in treating the unfamiliar burns. Israel didn’t give them time to prepare themselves; white phosphorus shells hit Al-Quds Hospital and completely burned the top two floors.”
There’s the evidence and proof that neither Kerry, Obama, Cameron or Hague can produce. And shouldn’t we be able to see photos taken of this tragic event by phone cameras as happened in Gaza?
The allies are those guilty of the use of this horrific weapon but we fail to condemn ourselves and certainly not our “democratic, only friend” in the mid-east, Israel. But why condemn if we control the UN and make it impossible to bring Israel to the international court as the Goldstone Report stated must be done.
And so we continue this inevitable march to disaster granting impunity to the cause, the nation that drew the red line Obama has to address or be unbelievable forever after. How prescient that we provide a point of absolute action that can be used by our own CIA, Mossad, and mercenaries, blame the Syrian government for false flag operations, and attack regardless of truth and evidence to support it.
What else justifies the only excuse our governments use to not provide transparent evidence: it can’t be revealed because it would aid the enemy in determining our sources of information.
Let me close with some further observations by Idan Landau that cannot be refuted yet were never allowed to be presented to the International courts. Had that happened perhaps Hague’s attempt to use the use of chemical weapons to day would not have been necessary, William A. Cook concludes his article.
Israeli forces killed 2,300 in Gaza under blockade
Israeli forces have killed nearly 2,300 Palestinians and injured 7,700 in Gaza over the last five years, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
Some 27 percent of the fatalities in Gaza were women and children, the UN agency said in a report highlighting the effects of Israel’s blockade.
The land, sea and air blockade of Gaza entered its sixth year. Under the blockade, exports have dropped to less than 3 percent of 2006 levels.
“The continued ban on the transfer of goods from Gaza to its traditional markets in the West Bank and Israel, along with the severe restrictions on access to agricultural land and fishing waters, prevents sustainable growth and perpetuates the high levels of unemployment, food insecurity and aid dependency,” UNOCHA said.
Israel’s naval blockade has undermined the livelihood of 35,000 fishermen, and farmers have lost around 75,000 tons of produce each year due to Israeli restrictions along Gaza’s land border, it added.
Meanwhile, Israeli restrictions on imports have led to the growth of the smuggling trade. At least 172 Palestinians have been killed working in tunnels under Gaza’s border with Egypt, the report said.
Despite the risks, young men are still drawn to tunnel work in Gaza, where more than half the youth is unemployed and 44 percent of people are food insecure.
Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Thursday that the blockade was necessary because Gaza’s ruling party Hamas is a “terrorist organization.”
“All cargo going into Gaza must be checked because Gaza is controlled by Hamas, an internationally recognized terrorist organization,” Regev told Reuters in response to a petition by 50 aid groups, including six UN agencies, calling on Israel to lift the blockade.
“In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
(HSH)
Bibliotheque:
GLOBAL MARCH FOR PEACE! 
THE GENOCIDE OF PALESTINIANS BY ISRAEL
by Francis Boyle
Source: http://mwcnews.net
The Palestinians have been the victims of genocide as defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. I say that because of my practical experience: On 8 April 1993 and 13 September 1993 I single-handedly won two World Court Orders on the basis of the 1948 Genocide Convention that were overwhelmingly in favor of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina against Yugoslavia to cease and desist from committing all acts of genocide against the Bosnians in violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention. This was the first time ever that any Government had won two such Orders in one case since the World Court was founded in 1921. On 5 August 1993 I also won a so-called Article 74(4) World Court Order for Bosnia against Yugoslavia for genocide. According to I.C.J. Statute Article 74(4), when the full World Court is not in session in The Hague, the President of the Court exercises the full powers of the Court and can issue an Order to the parties in a lawsuit that is legally binding upon them.
Article II of the Genocide Convention defines the international crime of genocide in relevant part as follows:
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group such as:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
As documented by Israeli historian Ilan Pappe in his seminal book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006), Israel’s genocidal policy against the Palestinians has been unremitting, extending from before the very foundation of the State of Israel in 1948, and is ongoing and even now intensifying against the 1.75 million Palestinians living in Gaza as this Tribunal convenes here today. As Pappe’s analysis established, Zionism’s “final solution” to Israel’s much-touted and racist “demographic threat” allegedly posed by the very existence of the Palestinians has always been genocide, whether slow-motion or in blood-thirsty spurts of violence. Indeed, the very essence of Zionism requires ethnic cleansing and acts of genocide against the Palestinians. For example, concerning the 2008-2009 Israeli slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza – so-called Operation Cast-lead — U.N. General Assembly President Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, the former Foreign Minister of Nicaragua during the Reagan administration’s contra-terror war of aggression against that country which was condemned by the World Court, condemned it as “genocide.”[1]
Certainly, Israel and its predecessors-in-law—the Zionist agencies, forces, and terrorist gangs—have committed genocide against the Palestinian people that actually started on or about 1948 and has continued apace until today in violation of Genocide Convention Articles II(a), (b), and (c). For over the past six and one-half decades, the Israeli government and its predecessors-in-law—the Zionist agencies, forces, and terrorist gangs—have ruthlessly implemented a systematic and comprehensive military, political, religious, economic, and cultural campaign with the intent to destroy in substantial part the national, ethnical, racial, and different religious group (Jews versus Muslims and Christians) constituting the Palestinian people. This Zionist/Israeli campaign has consisted of killing members of the Palestinian people in violation of Genocide Convention Article II(a). This Zionist/Israeli campaign has also caused serious bodily and mental harm to the Palestinian people in violation of Genocide Convention Article II(b). This Zionist/Israeli campaign has also deliberately inflicted on the Palestinian people conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction in substantial part in violation of Article II (c) of the Genocide Convention.
Nevertheless, apologists for Israel have argued that since these mass atrocities are not tantamount to the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews, therefore they do not qualify as “genocide.” Previously, I had encountered and refuted this completely disingenuous, deceptive and bogus argument against labeling genocide for what it truly is, when I was the Lawyer for the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina arguing their genocide case against Yugoslavia before the International Court of Justice. There the genocidal Yugoslavia was represented by Shabtai Rosenne from Israel as their Lawyer against me. Rosenne proceeded to argue to the World Court that since he was an Israeli Jew, what Yugoslavia had done to the Bosnians was not the equivalent of the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews and therefore did not qualify as “genocide” within the meaning of the 1948 Genocide Convention.
I rebutted Rosenne by arguing to the World Court that you did not need an equivalent to the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews in order to find that wholesale atrocities against a civilian population constitute “genocide” in violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention. Indeed the entire purpose of the 1948 Genocide Convention was to prevent another Nazi Holocaust against the Jews. That is why Article I of the Genocide Convention clearly provided: “The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.” (Emphasis supplied.) You did not need six million dead human beings in order to constitute “genocide.”
Furthermore, in support of my successful 1993 genocide argument to the World Court for Bosnia, I submitted that Article II of the 1948 Genocide Convention expressly provided: “In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethical, racial or religious group, as such…” (Emphasis supplied.) In other words, that to be guilty of genocide a government did not have to intend to destroy the “whole” group as the Nazis intended to do with the Jews. Rather, a government can be guilty of genocide even if it intends to destroy a mere “part” of the group. Certainly Yugoslavia did indeed intend to exterminate all Bosnian Muslims if they could have gotten away with it, as manifested by their subsequent mass extermination of at least 7,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in July of 1995. I would later become the Attorney-of-Record for the Mothers of Srebrenica and Podrinja at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (I.C.T.Y.). In that capacity, I convinced the I.C.T.Y. Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte to indict Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for every crime in the I.C.T.Y. Statute for the atrocities he inflicted upon the Bosnians, including two counts of genocide — one count of genocide for Bosnia in general, and the second count of genocide for Srebrenica in particular. Milosevic died while on trial in The Hague after the I.C.T.Y denied his Motion to Dismiss these charges after the close of the Prosecution’s case.
But in 1993 it was not necessary for me to argue to the World Court that Yugoslavia intended to exterminate all the Bosnian Muslims. Rather, I argued to the World Court that at that point in time the best estimate was that Yugoslavia had exterminated about 250,000 Bosnians out of the population of about 4 million Bosnians, including therein about 2.5 million Bosnian Muslims. Therefore, I argued to the World Court that these dead victims constituted a “substantial part” of the group and that the appropriate interpretation of the words “or in part” set forth in Article II of the Genocide Convention should mean a “substantial part.”
The World Court emphatically agreed with me and rejected Rosenne’s specious, reprehensible, and deplorable arguments. So on 8 April 1993 the International Court of Justice issued an Order for three provisional measures of protection on behalf of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina against Yugoslavia that were overwhelmingly in favor of Bosnia to cease and desist from committing all acts of genocide against all the Bosnians, both directly and indirectly by means of its Bosnian Serb surrogates. This World Court Order for the indication of provisional measures of protection was the international equivalent of a U.S. domestic Temporary Restraining Order and Injunction combined. The same was true for the Second World Court Order with three additional provisional measures of protection that I won for the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina against Yugoslavia on 13 September 1993. The same was true for the Article 74(4) Order I won for Bosnia against Yugoslavia from the World Court on 5 August 1993.
In its final Judgment on the merits in the Bosnia case that was issued on 26 February 2007, the World Court definitively agreed with me once and for all time that in order to constitute genocide, a state must only intend to destroy a “substantial part” of the group “as such”:
198. In terms of that question of law, the Court refers to three matters relevant to the determination of “part” of the “group” for the purposes of Article II. In the first place, the intent must be to destroy at least a substantial part of the particular group. That is demanded by the very nature of the crime of genocide: since the object and purpose of the Convention as a whole is to prevent the intentional destruction of groups, the part targeted must be significant enough to have an impact on the group as a whole. That requirement of substantiality is supported by consistent rulings of the ICTY and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and by the Commentary of the ILC to its Articles in the draft Code of Crimes against the Peace and Security of mankind (e.g. Krstić, IT-98-33-A, Appeals Chamber Judgment, 19 April 2004, paras. 8-11 and the cases of Kayishema, Byilishema, and Semanza there referred to; and Yearbook of the International Law Commission, 1996, Vol. II, Part Two, p. 45, para. 8 of the Commentary to Article 17).
In other words, in order to find Israel guilty of genocide against the Palestinians, it is not required to prove that Israel has the intention to exterminate all Palestinians. Rather, all that is necessary is to establish that Israel intends to destroy a “substantial part” of the Palestinians. Furthermore, in paragraphs 293 and 294 of its 26 February 2007 Bosnian Judgment, the World Court found that you did not even need 250,000 exterminated Bosnians in order to constitute genocide — let alone six million exterminated Jews. Rather, even the seven thousand exterminated Bosnian Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica were enough to constitute genocide. According to the World Court, these victims constituted about one-fifth of the Srebrenica community.
Starting in 1948 Israel obliterated about 500 Palestinian villages from off the face of the earth, literally reducing them to rubble now scattered across the Palestinian countryside in order to prevent their ethnically cleansed inhabitants from ever again returning to their homes because they no longer exist. And the list of Israeli genocidal massacres of Palestinian communities is quite extensive. To name just a few of Israel’s most notorious acts of anti-Palestinian genocide: Deir Yassin, Tantura, Sabra and Shatilla, Jenin, Nablus, and repeatedly and continuously Gaza. As we meet here today, Israel is “deliberately inflicting on the [1.75 million Palestinians in Gaza] conditions of life calculated to bring about [their] physical destruction in whole or in part” in gross and flagrant violation of Genocide Convention Article II(c).
In order to prevent yet another and predictable wholesale slaughter and acts of genocide by Israel against the Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem, and elsewhere, we most respectfully request this Tribunal to condemn Israel guilty as charged for genocide as well as for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Article I of the Genocide Convention requires: “The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.” The Genocide Convention has been incorporated into the Charter of Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal by means of Article 10.
Pursuant thereto, it is respectfully submitted that this Tribunal must “undertake to prevent and to punish” Israel for its genocide against the Palestinians by finding Israel guilty as charged. Should this Tribunal find Israel guilty as charged for genocide, it will then trigger the solemn obligation found in Article I of the Genocide Convention for every state in the world community to likewise “undertake to prevent and to punish” Israel for its ongoing genocide against the Palestinians. The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal must issue this shot heard around the entire world on behalf of the Palestinians by finding Israel guilty of genocide against them.
This is exactly what the International Court of Justice did for Bosnia and the Bosnians in 1993 when it ruled against Yugoslavia on genocide. The World Court deliberately shook up the entire world and propelled humanity to act to save Bosnia and the Bosnians from annihilation and extermination by Yugoslavia. Bosnia and the Bosnians are still alive today thanks in significant part to that 1993 World Court ruling on genocide.
I am respectfully asking the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal to do the same today for Palestine and the Palestinians. Shake up the entire world! Get humanity to act to save Palestine and the Palestinians from further annihilation and genocide by Israel! Make sure that Palestine and the Palestinians are still alive twenty years from now! Convict Israel for genocide!
Thank you. And may God be with you when you retire to deliberate upon your Judgment.
GENOCIDE IN GAZA
by Francis Boyle
Source: mwcnews.net
“What we’re seeing in Gaza now, is pretty much slow-motion genocide against the 1.5 million Palestinians who live in Gaza…. If you read the 1948 Genocide Convention, it clearly says that one instance of genocide is the deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of a people in whole or in part,” stated Francis A. Boyle, professor of International Law at the University of Illinois in Champaign. “And that’s exactly what has been done to Gaza, since the imposition of the blockade by Israel; then the massacre of 1,400 Palestinians, two-thirds of whom were civilians, in Operation Cast Lead. And that also raises the element in the Genocide Convention, of murder, torture, and things of that nature.”
Boyle spoke to {EIR} on Jan. 15, 2010, giving his assessment of Gaza, one year after the Israeli attacks. He stressed that he was speaking only for himself.
While the Israelis stopped the artillery bombardment and air strikes just before the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2009, the deaths of Palestinians continue-from lack of medicines, infrastructure, clean water, and everything else that the world community-as shown in emergency aid to Haiti-{knows} is necessary to sustain human life.
But no international action has been taken to stop genocide in Gaza-despite the finding by the UN’s Goldstone Report that Israel committed war crimes in the wanton destruction of civilian infrastructure, and in the killing of civilians, and despite the Jan. 21, 2010 letter by more than 50 members of the U.S. Congress to President Obama that due to “the unabated suffering of Gazan civilians,” he must press to end the Israeli blockade.
Similarly, according to Turkish Prof. Bulent Aras, there is almost no hope for a peace agreement, or for ending the growing isolation of Israel from the international community, unless Gaza is opened and reconstruction begins. Aras was speaking on a Jan. 14 conference call, sponsored by the Turkish SETA and New America Foundations in Washington, D.C. He was addressing the recent tensions between Israel and Turkey after the Israeli Foreign Ministry insulted the Turkish ambassador, and on the collapse of the Turkish-mediated Israel/Syria negotiations, which ended with the Israeli attacks on Gaza.
According to Boyle, the question of the Gaza opening must be immediately taken up by the Obama Administration. “We need all the openings to Gaza, the crossings from Egypt and Israel, opened immediately. {Massive} provision of humanitarian assistance, medical supplies to Gaza-exactly what Obama’s doing today, with respect to Haiti-I support that! But why aren’t they doing it to Gaza? You have 1.5 million people over there.
“Unless this step is undertaken, certainly on Gaza, relieving the people of Gaza with massive humanitarian relief supplies, I really think we’re going to see a dog-and-pony show,” being run by the Obama White House, and the sending of Sen. George Mitchell to the region.
So far, what the U.S. has done is, “once again, provid[ed] diplomatic cover for Israel to stall and delay its objectives, and meanwhile, they continue to steal Palestinian lands, destroy their orchards, destroy their olive fields, and build more settlements. This has been going on, right from the beginning of the Middle East peace negotiations in 1991, when I was legal advisor to the Palestinians and the Syrians at that time.”
But, “miracles can always happen: Look at the darkest days of the apartheid regime in South Africa, and all of that collapsed,” said Boyle. “Well, here we have another apartheid regime, Israel. It’s apartheid to its core, it always has been. This whole situation could turn around and collapse very quickly-I just don’t know. But I’ll hang in there, certainly, with the Palestinians.”
And recent events in the field of international law lead Boyle to say that, as in the case of Chilean fascist Pinochet, law may catch up with Israeli criminals.
No Immunity Under Nuremberg Codes
Few international figures can speak in as much detail about the decades-long fight against Israeli war crimes, and the political blocks to prosecuting them, than Professor Boyle, who has led successful campaigns at the United Nations to bring war criminals-for example, those who committed crimes against the citizens of Bosnia-Herzogovina in the 1990s Balkan War-before an international tribunal.
Even before “Operation Cast Lead,” Boyle had proposed that the UN General Assembly establish an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel (ICTI) as a “subsidiary organ” under UN Charter Article 22. Boyle’s proposal has been endorsed by Malaysia and Iran, and supported in General Assembly debates by some dozen Arab and Muslim nations.
His work on bringing Israelis to justice for war crimes goes back much further-to the 1982 massacres at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon, conducted under the watch of top Israeli officials like Gen. Ariel Sharon and Gen. Amos Yaron.
Boyle told {EIR}, “I think that I was probably the first lawyer ever to file a lawsuit against a major Israeli war criminal-that was back in about 1986, when I represented several women who were next of kin of the victims of the massacre of Sabra and Shatila, and I sued General Yaron, whose forces were occupying the Sabra and Shatila camps, and the whole massacre took place under his direction and control.”
“I sued him … about 1986. Eventually I lost the lawsuit, when the Reagan Administration entered the lawsuit through the State Department, and claimed that Yaron, since he was being admitted to the country and accredited as Israel’s military attache to Washington-which we tried to stop, and indeed, we held up for quite some time-had diplomatic privileges and immunities, could not be sued.”
“I dealt with that issue, saying that under the Nuremberg principles, there are no privileges and immunities in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity.” But the court decided that because Yaron got a “formal certification” by the Reagan Administration, “this was a political question and the Court could not do anything to the contrary.” But that was not the end of it. Since then, he has followed “all the lawsuits against Israeli war criminals” internationally, “and they’ve really taken off, and they will take off” further. In the U.S. he says, “because of the pretty much Zionist control and domination of the American judiciary, none of these lawsuits have gotten anywhere,” he says, but “abroad, they are making progress…. “I advise the Belgian lawyers. They filed another lawsuit, 20 years later [in 2002], against Yaron, Sharon, Elie Hobeika, and [Gen. Rafael] Eitan for the massacre at Sabra and Shatila,” which was a criminal case. Boyle explained that the 2002 case came to an end {only after the Belgian law was changed by the Parliament under pressure}-because someone else had sued U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld under the same law. Rumsfeld threatened Belgium and NATO unless that law was rescinded, and Parliament killed it.
“But, at this point, it doesn’t matter: The genie is out of the bottle. Twenty-five years ago, or so, when I filed that lawsuit [over Sabra and Shatila], there weren’t too many lawyers qualified to do that work. Today, with the expansion of the human rights community, you have all sorts of lawyers qualified to do that work, and they’re doing it.” Asked about recent arrest warrants issued in Britain against Israeli officials, Boyle exclaimed, “That’s starting now! They’re going after them in Britain; they’re going after them in Belgium…. “So, I think, eventually, we’re going to get one of these people, just like the human rights lawyers in Britain got General Pinochet. Indeed, now we know, that before Israeli government officials travel abroad, they have to get legal advice as to where they can travel-which is good. Unfortunately, they can still pretty much freely travel here to the United States! And that’s all they really care about.
“But they’re really in a sort of pariah status now, in many other countries, especially in Europe. And that will continue, for sure.”
Open Gaza Now; End Apartheid
Nearly 30 years after Boyle’s first lawsuit, U.S. policy still gives Israel impunity for war crimes, beginning with Gaza.
“In the Obama Administration, they are continuing to aid and abet the genocidal Israeli policies against the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza,” Boyle told {EIR}. Just recently, the U.S. “pressured the Egyptians to build a steel wall on the border of Gaza, to cut off Gaza, to stop the tunnels that were bringing food, relief supplies, medicines, and everything else to the people,” he revealed. And it was done with the assistance of U.S. Army engineers. This “makes a mockery of the claim by the Obama Administration and the alleged efforts by Senator Mitchell, to reconvene the Middle East peace negotiations,” he said. And unless Mitchell and the Obama Administration are prepared to do something-immediately-to stop the war crimes in Gaza, then the mission will be just another “dog-and-pony show.”
“When President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton called for Netanyahu to freeze the settlements, and Mitchell did, too, Netanyahu stood up to them and forced them to back down.
“So-I’m not questioning Senator Mitchell’s good faith and intentions and experience-but if Netanyahu has already successfully stood him down on the settlements, how is he going to get Netanyahu to do anything? Secondly, how is he possibly going to engage in any type of good faith negotiations between Israel and Palestine, brokering them, when he-Senator Mitchell-Obama, and Clinton, are working with the Israelis and the Egyptians, to starve 1.5 million Palestinians? How can this be done?”
According to Boyle, Obama had already decided on the track of “toeing the line” for Israel during the 2008 campaign, when in response to Republican John McCain’s claim that he was “soft” on supporting Israel, Obama promised Jewish voters in Florida that he would appoint Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff. “Now, Emanuel is an agent of the AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee], which, in turn, is an agent of the Israeli government…. [David] Axelrod is a Zionist; Dennis Ross is now at the White House, he’s a Zionist…. [Most of] the cast of characters there in the White House … are Zionists,” Boyle said.
“Fortunately, Senator Mitchell, in charge of these negotiations, is not. But I really don’t know how much freedom Senator Mitchell has to do anything under these circumstances.”
One State Solution Is Better Than Two-State Solution
There are international actions in the works to use every possible avenue to stop the war crimes against the Palestinians, and Boyle is involved in many of them.
“Right after Operation Cast Lead ended, I did advise Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President,” says Boyle, “to send in a declaration, under Article 12, paragraph 3, of the Rome Statute for the International [Criminal] Court, accepting the jurisdiction of the Court, and requesting prosecution of the Israelis, high-level Israeli officials, for what they did to the people of Gaza. And President Abbas did do this….
“Just recently the ICC prosecutor, [Luis] Moreno-Ocampo, did make a public statement to the effect that he is investigating this, for two reasons: 1) to determine, do the Palestinians have sufficient government and state capacity to make this declaration; and then, 2) were war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israel against the Palestinians part of Operation Cast Lead?
“That statement by Moreno-Ocampo was [issued] before the Goldstone Report came out, and Goldstone determined that, in fact, Israel had committed war crimes and crimes against the Palestinians…. “Right now, as we speak, the Council of Foreign Ministers of the League of Arab States has proposed a resolution to be submitted to the Security Council for Palestine to be admitted as a UN member-state, with the 1967 boundaries. “Admission to the UN is done by the General Assembly, but it must be upon recommendation by the Security Council. The problem there, is, of course, it could be subject to a veto by the Obama Administration. I don’t know what position they are going to take on this: I would hope they are going to abstain. Certainly, the votes for the admission of Palestine to the United Nations are there.
“Right now, today, the State of Palestine is recognized bilaterally {de jure} by about 126 states. It has all the rights of a UN member-state, except the right to vote; it has state membership in the League of Arab States, the Islamic Council Organization [ICO], and then, also, in the advisory proceedings by the World Court on Israel’s [Separation] Wall, the State of Palestine was invited to participate in a state capacity.
“So, that is another initiative. Now, the problem is, Israel is claiming, fatuously, that somehow, this is going to interfere with the peace process. Well, first, right now, there is no peace process. But, second, this is ridiculous, because if Palestine is admitted to the United Nations with the 1967 boundaries, we will have two states at the UN: We will have Israel and we will have Palestine, and we will have the [UN Resolution] 242 boundaries. Even Netanyahu has recently stated that he is favor of two states, {mirabile dictu}! Obama has stated he’s in favor of two states. Even Bush said he was in favor of two states!
“This would be-as I saw it originally in my advice to President Abbas-a way to produce two states, for two people, living in peace and both bound by the requirements of the United Nations Charter for the peaceful resolution of international disputes, that would overcome the fact that there are no Middle East peace negotiations going on right now. So, those are three initiatives, I want to have taken myself.” Boyle has a fourth initiative, which is gathering international steam-disinvestment.
“Back in 2000, I did call for the establishment of the Israeli disinvestment campaign, and have worked quite hard to push that. That’s a grassroots movement. Certainly in my lifetime, which goes back to civil rights for African-Americans, the only progressive change we have ever seen in this country is by a grassroots movement by the common, ordinary, everyday people of America. And, as of 2000, the Palestinians did not have a grassroots movement in their support, so I decided to set one off, and it’s doing quite well. Indeed, it’s take off worldwide.”
Dershowitz Accused of War Crimes
On one issue-the Jewish settlements in the occupied lands-Israel has {already} been found, by an international court, to be in violation of international law. This has caused a firestorm of reaction from Israel, and its apologists, like Harvard’s Alan Dershowitz. But, Boyle and a number of other American human rights advocates have taken Dershowitz on, and are ready to do it again.
The settlements are “clearly illegal and criminal,” said Boyle. “All the settlements, as the World Court ruled in the advisory opinion on the [Separation] Wall, all these settlements violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, and a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention is a war crime. All these so-called settlers are committing war crimes, except the children, who are obviously not old enough to formulate a criminal intent.
“Indeed, Alan Dershowitz began attacking the World Court for this ruling and attacking their credibility, and this, that, and the other.
“Well, Dershowitz is not a trained international lawyer; he’s not a trained human rights lawyer. I debated him once, and he sort of gratuitously conceded that I was the expert on these subjects. “But in any event, what Dershowitz was not aware of, was that in the advisory committee proceedings, the American judge, Thomas Buergenthal, {who is a Holocaust survivor, himself}, joined the ruling-he dissented against a lot of other things by the World Court [International Court of Justice]-but Judge Buergenthal ruled that the settlements violate the Fourth Geneva Convention. And to Judge Buergenthal’s credit-I’ve known him for many years; I have a lot of respect and admiration for him-he made this ruling.
“So, in other words, Dershowitz was attacking the integrity of a Holocaust survivor. But of course, that doesn’t surprise me: He attacked [Prof.] Norman Finkelstein’s mother; he also attacked Prof. Israel Shahak, one of the leaders of the peace movement in Israel, himself a Holocaust survivor, unfortunately, no longer with us, but a great man.
“I’ve dealt with [Shahak], I have great respect, and indeed, he was going to have a lecture tour here in the United States, in, I guess, the Fall of 1990, and he was coming to speak in Champaign, [Ill.], and the organizers of his lecture tour asked me if I would put him up in my home as my guest, in order to conserve on expenses, and I agreed. And I was greatly looking forward again to meeting Professor Shahak…. But as you know, with the Gulf crisis, Professor Shahak decided to cancel his lecture tour and stay home with his own people, which was certainly understandable.
“Dershowitz couldn’t care less. Whatever kind of outright character assassination he has to apply to anyone, even Holocaust survivors like Judge Buergenthal, Professor Shahak, Norman Finkelstein’s mother, it doesn’t bother Dershowitz. Indeed, my understanding is, he’s trying to run to become President of Israel, to take Peres’s place. Well, fine, it would be great to get him out of Harvard Law School-my dis-alma mater!-and ship him over to Israel with all the other war criminals over there. “In fact, I say that, because Dershowitz admitted, publicly, that he is part of a Mossad committee that authorized the assassination of Palestinians.
“You can find that article on counterpunch.org, by Prof. [Liquat Ali] Khan. Well, the Palestinians are all protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention, and for Dershowitz to authorize their murder is a war crime. So, Dershowitz is a {prima facie} war criminal, who should be prosecuted himself.
“And there he is, teaching at the Harvard Law School, and advocating torture, crimes against humanity, war crimes against the Palestinians. As you know, he said, `Well, we should just be obliterating their villages. You know, if they do this, there’s a terror bombing here, we [should] destroy one of their villages.’
“And, of course, Dershowitz also advocates torture here, in America. The guy’s shameless.
“I remember, [when] I started [at Harvard], Dershowitz started as an assistant professor, and his first big case was defending a pornographic film star in `Deep Throat.’ Dershowitz likes to present himself as some great defender of the First Amendment…. Well, as Catherine McKinnon has, I think, taught us all, pornography is a form of violence against women: It’s a human rights matter. So, it doesn’t surprise me that Dershowitz started his career defending pornographers and pornography, and was and still is greatly proud of it-and now he moves on to defending war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and in addition, over the years, became a war criminal himself.
“But the sum of it is, he’s still teaching there at Harvard Law School. So, I hope he goes back to Israel and becomes President, sure! Be great to see him go: Bon voyage.”
Pentagon Reverses Position and Admits U.S. Troops Used White Phosphorus Against Iraqis in Fallujah!!
The U.S. government has now admitted its troops used white phosphorus as an incendiary weapon against Iraqis during the assault on Fallujah a year ago. Chemical weapons experts say such attacks are in violation of international law banning the use of chemical weapons. We speak with columnist George Monbiot and the news director of RAI TV, the Italian TV network that produced the film “Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre.” [includes rush transcript]
The U.S. government has now admitted its troops used white phosphorus as an incendiary weapon against Iraqis during the assault on Fallujah a year ago.
Chemical weapons experts say such attacks are in violation of international law banning the use of chemical weapons.
Peter Kaiser, of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, said, “Chemicals used against humans or animals that cause harm or death through the toxic properties of the chemical are considered chemical weapons.”
White phosphorus is often compared to napalm because it combusts spontaneously when exposed to oxygen and can burn right through skin to the bone.
The Pentagon”s admission comes after a week of denials that it used white phosphorus as a weapon in Fallujah. While reporters have noted the use of white phosphorus since the war began, it only became a major story last Tuesday when Italian state broadcaster RAI TV aired the documentary “Fallujuah: The Hidden Massacre.”
On that same day Democracy Now aired an excerpt of the documentary and interviewed Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, the director of the Pentagon’s Combined Press Information Center in Baghdad. During our show Boylan denied the claims made in the documentary that white phosphorus was used as a weapon to target Iraqis.
Lt. Col. Steve Boylan interviewed on Democracy Now, Nov. 8, 2005..
But the Pentagon was caught in a lie after it was revealed that an official Army publication called Field Artillery magazine had disclosed that the Army had in fact used white phosphorus as a weapon.
The magazine, in its March-April issue, reported “[White Phosphorus] proved to be an effective and versatile munition… [and] as a potent psychological weapon against the insurgents in trench lines and spider holes.”
The magazine went on to report “We fired “shake and bake” missions at the insurgents, using WP [White Phosphorus] to flush them out and HE [high explosives] to take them out.”
On Tuesday, Lt. Col. Barry Venable, another Pentagon spokesperson, admitted on the BBC that white phosphorus was used as an offensive weapon to target insurgents.
Lt. Col. Barry Venable interviewed on BBC.
The Pentagon has defended its use of white phosphorus by claiming it is a not chemical weapon and that it was only used against Iraqi insurgents, not civilians. However even this would have been illegall according to the Army’s own rules of combat. In 1999 the Army published a handbook that read, “It is against the law of land warfare to employ WP against personnel targets.”
An Iraqi human rights team has reportedly gone into Fallujah to investigate the use of white phosphorus as a weapon by U.S. forces.
Maurizio Torrealta, News Editor for the Italian state broadcaster RAI and co-producer of the documentary “Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre.”
George Monbiot, a columnist for the Guardian of London. He published an article titled “The US Used Chemical Weapons in Iraq–And Then Lied About It.”
Note: We contacted Pentagon spokesperson Lt. Col Barry Venable yesterday but he refused to come on the program.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: While reporters have noted the use of white phosphorus since the war began, it only became a major story last Tuesday when Italian state broadcaster, RAI TV, aired the documentary, Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre. On that same day, Democracy Now! aired an excerpt of the documentary here in the United States and interviewed Lieutenant Colonel Steve Boylan, the director of the Pentagon’s Combined Press Information Center in Baghdad. During our broadcast, Boylan denied the claims made in the documentary that white phosphorus was used as a weapon to target Iraqis.
LT. COL. STEVE BOYLAN: I know of no cases where people were deliberately targeted by the use of white phosphorus. Again, I did not say white phosphorus was used for illumination. White phosphorus is used for obscuration, which white phosphorus produces a heavy thick smoke to shield us or them from view so that they cannot see what we are doing. It is used to destroy equipment, to destroy buildings. That is what white phosphorus shells are used for.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Lieutenant Colonel Steve Boylan, speaking on Democracy Now! last Tuesday. But the Pentagon was caught in a lie after it was revealed that an official Army publication called Field Artillery magazine had disclosed the Army had, in fact, used white phosphorus as a weapon. The magazine in its March/April issue reported, quote, “White phosphorus proved to be an effective and versatile munition and a potent psychological weapon against the insurgents in trench lines and spider holes.” The magazine went on to report, quote, “We fired ‘shake and bake’ missions at the insurgents using W.P. [white phosphorus] to flush them out and H.E. [high explosives] to take them out.” On Tuesday, Lieutenant Colonel Barry Venable, another Pentagon spokesperson, admitted on the BBC that white phosphorus was used as an offensive weapon to target insurgents.
Video Link:
http://www.democracynow.org/2005/11/17/pentagon_reverses_position_and_admits_u
Daraya FSA Israeli Zionist terrorists in Syria with Zionist weapons in their hands!
PM BIBI TENYAHOO’s office recruits students as paid social media propagandists for Israel !!
The report from Ha’aretz is followed by the two 2012 reports by Ali Abuminah, who broke the story.
Prime Minister’s Office recruiting students to wage online hasbara battles
PMO and national student union to create covert units at universities to engage in diplomacy via social media; unit heads to receive full scholarships.
By Barak Ravid, Ha’aretz
August 13, 2013
The Prime Minister’s Office is planning to form, in collaboration with the National Union of Israeli Students, “covert units” within Israel’s seven universities that will engage in online public diplomacy (hasbara).
The students participating in the project, who would post on social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter on Israel’s behalf, will be part of the public diplomacy arm of the PMO, but would not identify themselves as official government representatives.
About a week ago, the outgoing deputy-director general of the Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Ministry, Daniel Seaman, sent a document to the government tender committee seeking to exempt the national student union from being chosen as the partner in the project through a public bidding process.
The PMO is looking to invest close to NIS 3 million to recruit, organize and fund the activities of hundreds of university students, as part of the country’s public diplomacy effort.
The Public Diplomacy Ministry is being closed and its staff are being integrated into the national public diplomacy unit in the Prime Minister’s Office. Seaman, who previously served as head of the Government Press Office and also ran as a candidate in the Likud party primaries, is expected to assume a new position shortly – that of head of an office with the very official sounding name of “the interactive media unit.” In practice, this is the entity that is expected to coordinate the public diplomacy efforts of the Prime Minister’s Office on the Internet and social networks.
Seaman informed the public tender committee that the Prime Minister’s Office was interested in having the student union recruit up to 550 students with knowledge of foreign languages from Israel’s seven universities. The student union is to publicize the project among tens of thousands of students and be responsible for the screening process, which will include submission of resumes, submitting answers to questionnaires, providing translation samples and participating in individual interviews. It is also the student union that is to provide computers and work space for a project headquarters on each campus.
Seaman informed the committee that the diplomacy units at each university would take direction from staff at the Prime Minister’s Office, but its public face would be one of an independent student entity. “The entire idea of the setup is based on activity of students and by students,” Seaman wrote to the committee. “The idea requires that the state’s role not be highlighted and therefore it is necessary to insist on major involvement by the students themselves without any political link [or] affiliation.”
It is apparent from Seaman’s document that a diplomacy group will be set up at each university and structured in a semi-military fashion. The head of the unit will be a student “senior coordinator,” who will receive a full scholarship from the Prime Minister’s Office. Working under the senior coordinator will be three other student coordinators, each of whom will head one of three desks, responsible for languages, graphics and research. These coordinators will get smaller scholarships. A group of student activists, who will receive nominal student stipends, will work under each coordinator. The Prime Minister’s Office will fund a total of NIS 2.78 million in scholarships for the program in the upcoming academic year.
“In light of the success in the battle for awareness during the Pillar of Defense Operation [the Israeli military operation against the Gaza Strip in November of last year] and the experience gained in activating a large number of situation rooms on university campuses and work with students in general, it was decided to establish a permanent structure of activity on the Internet through the students at academic institutions in the country,” Seaman wrote. “The students are an organized population that is familiar with, and active on, the Internet on an ongoing basis, trained in use of the field, [who] live and speak the language of the .”
The Prime Minister’s Office said in response that the project is designed to strengthen Israel’s public diplomacy and adapt it to changes in how information is being consumed. “The national public diplomacy unit in the Prime Minister’s Office places an emphasis on social network activity,” the office stated. “As part of this, a new pro-Israel public diplomacy infrastructure of students on Israeli campuses is being established that will assist in advancing and disseminating content on the social networks, particularly to international audiences.”
Sources in the Prime Minister’s Office said the main subjects that the campus-based units will deal with are diplomatic- and security-related issues, efforts to combat the boycott of Israel and anti-Semitism and the delegitimization of Israel. The students will emphasize Israel’s democratic values, freedom of religion, pluralism and “other subjects that give expression to the Israeli government’s public diplomacy policy.” The Prime Minister’s Office added that similar efforts with students were successful in recent years. “This model significantly advances Israel’s public diplomacy capabilities so that concurrent with messages conveyed by the country’s official spokespeople, content will also be conveyed that has been developed and disseminated by the students that is adapted to social media.”
THE US LEADERS SERVE ISRAEL DAY AND NIGHT WELL!!!
Israeli official: U.S. would notify us ‘hours’ ahead of an attack; Defense Minister Ya’alon: Israel is ready to deal with consequences of U.S. strike.
By Gili Cohen and Reuters | Sep. 8, 2013 |
The Israeli army has set up an Iron Dome anti-rocket battery in the Jerusalem area Sunday, as part of its preparations for a possible American-led strike in Syria. Meanwhile, an Israeli official said Sunday that the U.S. would notify Israel hours in advance of a strike on Syria, and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said that whatever the U.S. decided to do would affect Israel.
This is the first time an active missile defense system has been deployed in the Jerusalem area. The battery joins three additional Iron Dome systems recently deployed in Gush Dan, near Tel Aviv, and in northern Israel, near Haifa and in the Galilee. The Israel Defense Forces was reportedly also considering deploying another battery in northern Israel.
The chances of Israel being attacked are low, a high-ranking IDF officer said last Wednesday. However, he said, Israel’s defense systems have been prepared for the eventuality that a western attack on Syria could make Israel a target of rocket fire.
“Even though the likelihood of such a scenario is low, we have a clear responsibility to prepare for any scenario in order to protect our citizens,” he said.
Last Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a statement regarding the escalation of international pressure on Syria. “The State of Israel is prepared, and there is no reason to change daily routine, but if someone tries to harm Israeli citizens – the IDF will respond forcibly.” The prime minister added the IDF decided to deploy additional Iron Dome batteries despite the fact that Syria is not expected to attack Israel.
While formally on the sidelines of the Syrian crisis, Israel fears coming under reprisals from its northern foe should the United States launch strikes to punish Damascus for alleged use of chemical weaponry. Asked how much advance notice Israel would get from its U.S. ally about such attacks, an Israeli official briefed on contacts with Washington told Reuters: “Hours.”
But Amos Gilad, the head of the Defense Ministry’s diplomatic-security bureau, said separately Israel was, like the rest of the world, in the dark at present. “Will the United States attack? Will it not attack? What will the consequences be? All of these things are unknowns,” Amos Gilad said in a speech at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Herzliya.
Speaking at the same event, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said that Israel is ready to deal with the consequences of a potential U.S. assault.
“We are prepared for the consequences of American action or the absence of such action,” he said. Although Israelis are saying that Israel is not involved and is not intervening in the Syrian civil war, “if they harm our interests, the country is prepared for the consequences of American action if it is indeed carried out,” Ya’alon said. “And any such decision will have an impact on us. As we understand it, our neighbors, particularly the Syrian regime, understand that anyone who challenges us will be met with the power of the Israel Defense Forces.”
Speaking at Air Force House in Herzliya, Ya’alon said that after a situation assessment on Sunday by the government’s diplomatic-security inner cabinet, Israelis are still advised to maintain their regular routines. The defense minister called on Israelis to go about their daily lives, whether it involves planning for a vacation over the fall Jewish holidays or other plans, which he said would “take place without being affected.”
“The American move, which is expected to get Congressional approval or fail to be approved in the near future, is related to the role of the United States and its conception of itself as having moral and political responsibility to maintain the global order,” Ya’alon stated.
“What in essence is being challenged by both the Syrian regime and by those that support it and those that are supported by it as a supporter of terrorism is the global order in which governments and leaders have responsibility as sovereigns over their territories and responsibility for their actions.”
IRAN WARNS THAT US WILL SET MIDDLE EAST ON FIRE IF IT ATTACKS SYRIA
Monday, 09 September 2013
Iran’s new foreign minister has warned that the United States and Western powers will set the Middle East “on fire” if they go ahead with an attack on Syria.
Mohammad Javad Zarif described the West as an “advocate of war” in his speech during a visit to Iraq. “We are concerned that short-sighted people are beating the drums of war,” said Zarif, “and that this will ignite the whole region.”
The Shia-led government in Baghdad has been committed to a neutral position towards the Syrian conflict and opposes any Western military intervention, believing that it would destabilise Syria’s neighbours, including Iraq, even more.
Zarif was received by his Iraqi counterpart, Hoshyar Zebari, and is expected to meet with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki during his stay in Baghdad.
WHY DIDN’T THE US INVADE ISRAEL WHEN IT USED CHEMICAL WEAPONS ON PALESTINIANS?
by http://www.apartheidexists.com/why-didnt-the-u-s-invade-israel-when-it-used-chemical-weapons-on-palestinians/
I want you to remember this picture when you think of Israel’s use of chemical weapons every time someone parrots the talking points of the Israeli government. This picture was taken in Gaza, Palestine; this is a war crime.
No this isn’t photoshopped. If this isn’t a war crime then I don’t know what is.
WHY DIDN’T THE US INVADE ISRAEL WHEN IT USED CHEMICAL WEAPONS ON PALESTINIANS?
Now – when discussing Israel’s use of chemical weapons – I have heard many justifications, excuses and obfuscations to minimize the criminal element of “Operation Cast Lead” that lasted just over 3 weeks from December 28th, 2008 to January 18th, 2009. The timing of Operation Cast Lead is important since the U.S. and the world was focused on the horror of an economic downward spiral and the hope of a new way forward … President Barack Obama was waiting for his inauguration at this point. Now – many Israel advocates like to claim that this isn’t illegal and that Israel used white phosphorous (which is irrefutable and the Israeli government acknowledges) only as a smoke screen.
Under international law – white phosphorous may be used as a smoke screen but not on civilian populations. Gaza is one of the most densely populated ares in the world and Israel’s use of white phosphorous is very clearly being used over civilian areas. Operation Cast Lead resulted in between 1,166 and 1,417 Palestinian and 13 Israeli deaths; 4 of them were from friendly fire. The United Nations conducted an investigation and released the now famous Goldstone report which acknowledged that Israel’s use of white phosphorous was indeed a war crime. It was after significant pressure and a couple of years later – the author retracted his report’s findings. The United Nations Human Right Council, however, still found Israel guilty of war crimes and they ordered that Israel compensate Palestinian families for the damage caused by the Israeli government. They wrote HERE:
The approval of USD 85 million worth of United Nations projects remains pending. Israel recently released 20,000 tons of construction materials for Gaza’s private sector. However, the border closures and restrictions on passage through border crossings continue to seriously negatively affect the population of the Gaza Strip. Over 75 per cent of the units needed to replace homes destroyed during Operation Cast Lead have not been constructed. Gaza’s unemployment rate remains high. This combines with the urgent demand for construction materials to reconstruct homes, schools and other infrastructure to result in thousands of people continuing to risk their lives to work in tunnels along the border with Egypt.
If another country took this kind of action – the U.S. would be invading them. Not only did the U.S. not invade Israel, we give them money to continue their human rights violations and we continue to veto any resolution to hold Israel accountable on the UN security council. And we wonder why so many other countries hate the U.S. Quite simply – we live by double standards. We support democracy only if its the result we want i.e. Gaza 2006, Iran 1953, Guatemala 1954, Congo 1960, Dominican Republican 1961, South Vietnam 1963, Brazil 1964, and Chile 1973 (source) to name only a select few not including many attempted coup attempts like Venezuela 2002.
The double standard continues for the use of chemical weapons. President Obama is looking to attack Syria after an apparent chemical weapons attack although there are reports that these chemical weapons attack were in fact not committed by the Syrian government (source). President Obama claims that we must set a red line for those countries willing to utilize chemical weapons; he has however not taken the same stance with the Israeli government despite countless human rights violations. One of the most ironic elements of this entire situation is that the #1 force pushing for an attack on Syria is Israel and their lobbying arm AIPAC (source).
Israel’s military has said that it will not use white phosphorous “for the time being” with two exceptions that the state attorney would not disclose in a public hearing in front of the Israeli High Court; the Israeli High Court dismissed a petition to make the use of white phosphorous illegal (source). So – the Israeli military can’t be held accountable externally because the U.S. blocks any resolutions on the UN Security Council and it won’t be held accountable internally because the Israeli High Court has prioritized the promises of the military over “right and wrong”.
The impact of white phosphorous:
Photo Fady Awan Gaza City January 8 2009
Palestinian Mohamed Ahmed is treated for burns at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on January 12, 2009.
Ghada Abu Halima, 21, who was gravely injured by IDF white phosphorus in Gaza. Abu Halima later died!
Remember these images when someone tries to make excuses for Israel’s use of chemical weapons on the Palestinian people.
FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES CORRECTLY AND OBJECTIVELY THAT NO COUNTRY IN THE WORLD INCLUDING THE SO-CALLED SUPER POWER-USA DARE ENOUGH TO SUBMIT A RESOLUTION TO THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL CALLING FOR REMOVAL OF ISRAELI CHEMICAL WEAPONS PROGRAM!!!
The US-led Western Regimes Double Standards:
U.N. draft resolution calls for removal of Syria’s chemical arms program
France submitted on Friday a draft resolution to the U.N. Security Council for the deployment of inspectors in Syria to “oversee the dismantlement and destruction of all elements” of the country’s chemical weapons program.
The French draft resolution, obtained by Al Arabiya, demands the Syrian government to provide unfettered access to its chemical weapons sites and allow international inspectors to make surprise visits to locations of their choice.
This, according to the document, is to ensure that there is no more production, use or transfer of chemical weapons.
The draft resolution also calls for deploying a U.N. mission in Syria to investigate the use of chemical weapons and refer the perpetrators to the International Criminal Court.
The draft resolution states that if Syria does not comply with the measures it will be subject to further measures under Chapter VII of the Security Council, which authorizes the use of military force.
A senior U.S. official had said that the resolution would not include the potential use of military force due to Russian opposition.
The officials, who briefed a group of reporters on condition of anonymity, said the United States would instead insist that the resolution include a range of consequences should Syria refuse to give up chemical weapons in a verifiable way, according to Reuters.
Those consequences could include sanctions, one official said.
Independently of the United Nations, U.S. President Barack Obama has threatened the use of force in response to an Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack in Syria that U.S. officials say killed around 1,400 people. Officials said he still retains that option.
VLADIMIR PUTIN ASKS: “WHAT ABOUT ISRAEL’S NUCLEAR WEAPONS?”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has asked the big question that has been the elephant in the corner as the debate continues about Syria’s possession and use of chemical weapons: What about Israel’s nuclear weapons?
Putin was speaking in defence of Moscow’s position on the Syrian crisis, in particular the chemical weapons issue. Observers were surprised by the reference to Israel’s nuclear arsenal, which is normally off-limits in such international forums, and Putin’s attempt to link the caches of weapons of mass destruction in both countries. The Russian president pointed out that Syria’s chemical weapons have served as a counter to the threat posed by Israel’s nuclear weapons; he called for the Middle East to be a nuclear-free zone.
Continuing to deny the Syrian regime’s responsibility for the chemical weapons attack last month, Putin presented “technical” evidence collected by his advisers. “The attack used an old Soviet shell of a kind no longer used by the Syrian army,” he claimed.
As the war of words between Russia and the US continued on this issue, Secretary of State John Kerry tried unsuccessfully to persuade his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi to back a “binding” UN Security Council resolution to remove the Syrian chemical. Nevertheless, Kerry praised China’s support for a political solution, “the only available and possible solution”. The Secretary of State also urged the UN Security Council to vote as soon as possible on the text of a possible resolution that would oblige Syria to respect a plan to dispose of its chemical weapons.
President Bashar Al–Assad has vowed to hand over his regime’s chemical weapons but warned that this could take many months and millions of dollars before the process is complete. In an interview with Fox News, Assad stressed that the ideology of the rebels in his country should be a cause for serious concern not only in Syria but also in neighbouring countries and even the United States. It is not a civil war, he insisted, but “an attack by Al-Qaeda”. Up to 15,000 Syrian soldiers have been killed so far, claimed Assad, but he expressed his government’s willingness to offer an amnesty, “even for those whose hands are stained by Syrian blood”, as an act of national reconciliation. Commentators have pointed out the significance of Assad’s offer, coming as it has after a spokesman for his government said that the conflict is at an “impasse”.
In an interview with Britain’s Guardian newspaper, Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, Qadri Jamil, said that the Syrian authorities will ask for a ceasefire in the event that the “Geneva 2 Conference” goes ahead. He added that neither side in the conflict is able to win but insisted that there would have to be international monitors for any ceasefire.
The easing of the threat of military action against the Syrian regime has had a positive effect on Lebanon already, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister has claimed. Heading back to Moscow after talks in Damascus, Sergei Ryabkov noted that the flow of refugees across the border into Lebanon appears to have slowed. “If there is a war, however, it will have a negative effect not only on Syria but Lebanon and other neighbours,” he said.
http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/europe/7470-qwhat-about-israels-nuclear-weaponsq-asks-putin#sthash.52YgyL6T.dpuf