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THE INSIDE HISTORY OF THE ISRAEL
LOBBY
Former top
CIA analysts Kathleen and Bill Christison give CounterPunchers
the real scoop on the Israel lobby and precisely how powerful
it is. Read
how US presidents from Wilson, through FDR to Truman were manipulated
by the Zionist lobby; how Israel bent LBJ, Reagan and Clinton
to its purpose; how Bush's White House has been the West Wing
of the Israeli government; how Washington's revolving doors send
full-time Israel lobbyists from think-tanks to the National Security
Council and the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans. For all who want a
true measure of the Lobby's power, the Christisons' 8-page dossier,
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Now!
Would somebody please tell me that the
corporate news media is talking about U.S. war crimes in Iraq
besides just the civilians killed in Haditha?!
I can only hope that my fellow
citizens are not being told that this latest outrage tumbling
out of Iraq is some isolated incident; that Herr Rumsfeld will
diligently investigate it, and dispense timely justice to all
guilty parties (below the rank of Lieutenant, of course).
JUST in case your Uncle Bob
or Aunt Sophie has been asking you "Exactly what the hell
is going on in Iraq?" and you're looking for hard facts
to help them get off the fence, here you are.
Keep in mind these are just
a few instances compiled by one citizen sitting in Toledo with
an old computer connected to the internet an indication
that there just might be even more going on.
Keep in mind also, that the
following acts are criminal violations of the law not just because
they are really horrid inhumanities, but because Congress, the
U.S. Constitution, and international law (yes, there are
international laws binding on the U.S.) explicitly prohibit the
very kinds of atrocities now rotting at the feet of George W.
Bush. Each section below begins with the relevant law or treaty
violated in Iraq or Afghanistan. Every one of them, and more,
are documented at the Veterans
For Peace website
Nuremberg
Tribunal Charter
Principle VI: "The crimes
hereinafter set out are punishable as crimes under international
law:
(b) War crimes: murder,
ill-treatmentof civilian population of or in occupied territory;
murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of warplunder of public
or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns, or
villages
Two Afghan prisoners who died
in American custody in Afghanistan in December 2002 were chained
to the ceiling, kicked and beaten by American soldiers in sustained
assaults that caused their deaths, according to Army criminal
investigative reports.
At least 26 prisoners have
died in American custody in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002 in
what Army and Navy investigators have concluded or suspect were
acts of criminal homicide, according to military officials
In Fallujah, 40% of the buildings
were completely destroyed, 20% had major damage, and 40% had
significant damage. That is 100% of the buildings in that city.
(c) Crimes against humanity:
Murder, exterminationand other inhuman acts done against any
civilian populationwhen such acts are donein execution of or
in connection with any crime against peace or any war crime."
"We were tied up and beaten
despite being unarmed and having only our medical instruments,"
Asma Khamis al-Muhannadi, a doctor who was present during the
U.S. and Iraqi National Guard raid on Fallujah General Hospital
told reporters later. She said troops dragged patients from their
beds and pushed them against the wall. "I was with a woman
in labour, the umbilical cord had not yet been cut," she
said. "At that time, a U.S. soldier shouted at one of the
(Iraqi) national guards to arrest me and tie my hands while I
was helping the mother to deliver."
Abu Hammad said he saw people
attempt to swim across the Euphrates to escape the siege. "The
Americans shot them with rifles from the shore," he said.
"Even if some of them were holding white flag or white clothes
over their heads to show they are not fighters, they were all
shot."
Hammad said he had seen elderly
women carrying white flags shot by U.S. soldiers. "Even
the wounded people were killed. The Americans made announcements
for people to come to one mosque if they wanted to leave Fallujah,
and even the people who went there carrying white flags were
killed."
The Geneva
Conventions
Protocol I, Article 75:
"(1)persons who are in
the power of a Party to the conflictshall be treated humanely
in all circumstances(2) The following acts are and shall remain
prohibitedwhether committed by civilian or by military agents:
(a) violence to the life, health, or physical or mental well-being
of persons(b) outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating
and degrading treatment, enforced prostitution and any form of
indecent assaultand threats to commit any of the foregoing acts."
The investigation of the 800th
Military Police Brigade by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba found
that "intentional abuse of detainees by military police
personnel" included the following:
Punching, slapping, and kicking
detainees; jumping on their naked feet
Videotaping and photographing
naked male and female detainees
Forcibly arranging detainees
in various sexually explicit positions for photographing
Forcing detainees to remove
their clothing and keeping them naked for several days at a time
Forcing naked male detainees
to wear women's underwear
Forcing groups of male detainees
to masturbate themselves while being videotaped
Arranging naked male detainees
in a pile and then jumping on them
Positioning a naked detainee
on a MRE Box, with a sandbag on his head, and attaching wires
to his fingers, toes, and penis to simulate electric torture
Placing a dog chain or strap
around a naked detainee's neck and having a female soldier pose
for a picture
A male MP guard having sex
with a female detainee
Using military working dogs
(without muzzles) to intimidate and frighten detainees, and in
at least one case biting and severely injuring a detainee
Protocol I, Art. 70:
"The Parties to the conflictshall
allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of all relief
consignments, equipment and personneleven if such assistance
is destined for the civilian population of the adverse Party."
Convoys sent by the Iraqi Red
Crescent to aid the remaining population (in Fallujah) have been
turned back.
Marked ambulances were repeatedly
shot at by U.S. troops during the April, 2004 siege of Fallujah
and troops prevented the distribution of medical supplies.
In Saqlawiyah, Dr Abdulla Aziz
told IPS that occupation forces had blocked any medical supplies
from entering or leaving the city. "They won't let any of
our ambulances go to help Fallujah," he said. "We are
out of supplies and they won't let anyone bring us more."
Protocol I, Art. 35:
"In any armed conflict,
the right of the Partiesto choose methods or means of warfare
is not unlimitedIt is prohibited to employ methods or means of
warfare which are intended, or may be expected, to cause widespread,
long-term and severe damage to the environment."
On April 1, 2003 the residential
al-Hilla outskirts of Babylon were hit with an undetermined number
of BLU-97 A/B cluster bombs. Each bomb releases 202 bomblets
which scatter over an area the size of two football fields, with
a dud rate of 5%-7%. Immediate reports stated that at least 33
civilians died and around 300 were injured in the attack. Amnesty
International condemned the attack, saying that "the use
of cluster bombs in an attack on a civilian area of al-Hilla
constitutes an indiscriminate attack and a grave violation of
international humanitarian law."
On March 22, 2003, reporters
from CNN and the Sydney Morning Herald - Melbourne Age embedded
with the 1st Battalion 7th Marines at Safwan Hill near Basra
reported air strikes dropping napalm.
Convention III, Art. 5:
"Should any doubt arise
as to whether persons, having committed a belligerent act and
having fallen into the hands of the enemy (are prisoners of war
under this Convention), such persons shall enjoy the protection
of the present Convention
until such time as their status has been determined by a competent
tribunal."
President Bush issued an order
on February 7, 2002, specifying that the U.S. would not apply
the Third Convention to members of Al Qaeda. That order set forth
policies that led to the willful killing, torture, or inhuman
treatment; and great suffering or serious injury to body or health,
of prisoners in U.S. custody in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo
Bay.
Need more documentation? Try
the 1996 War Crimes Act; the U.S. Constitution's Supremacy Clause,
Article VI (par. 2); or the above-mentioned treaties such as
the Geneva Conventions, the Nuremberg Principles, U.N. General
Assembly resolutions, and others.
Just as the news media's fascination
with Abu Ghraib was way after the fact and limited in scope,
so too, is its present fascination with the Haditha killings.
As they used to say during WWII, "There's a war on, ya
know!" Exactly what do Americans think happens when
their nation goes to war?
Dr. Jonathan Shay, a psychologist
with years of experience treating Vietnam vets with PTSD and
author of the seminal "Achilles
in Vietnam," gave his prescription for preventing that
disease and preventing the breakdown of character that would
likely happen to any of us in combat. It wasn't better training,
or better diagnoses, or better drugs. He said "Abolish
war." It's time we took his advice seriously.
Mike Ferner served as a Navy Corpsman during Vietnam
and is a member of Veterans For Peace, whose slogan is "Abolish
War!" He can be reached at: mike.ferner@sbcglobal.net
Now
Available
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Against Israel
By Michael Neumann
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