Kurdistan!

[Jooboian]

I know that you only asked for one, but I'm feeling generous today.

Israel does target civilians: documented proof

Rania Awwad, Ahmed Bouzid, Rani El-Hajjar, Mazin Qumsiyeh

A startlingly naked illustration of how the mainstream media will view and present the Palestinian-Israeli conflict only from a narrowly delimited perspective came in the form of the brief monolog with which CNN’s Aaron Brown opened the July 22,2002, Newsnight edition. Only hours after a one-ton bomb was dropped in a densely-populated area, killing a Hamas leader along with 9 sleeping children and five other civilians, Aaron Brown said the following: “it seems clear that either the planning was horrible, or that the missile missed his target, or the Israelis simply didn't care who they killed if they got their man, a Hamas military leader. At the risk of provoking an e-mail barrage, we reject the latter possibility. We don't believe the Israeli government would risk killing a couple of hundred people in order to maybe -- maybe -- get one guy.”

Mr. Brown did indeed receive a barrage of protest email following his remarks, but on the very next day he made it clear that he was not impressed. In his July 23 monolog, Mr. Brown said the following: “We said last night, and we believe still, the Israeli government would not launch an assassination attack like the one last night if it believed there was a risk that hundreds of civilians would die. We received scores of notes on that line alone. My mind, despite your best efforts, remains unchanged.”

For the record, let it be know that among the” efforts” to convince Mr. Brown that he betrayed his commitment to honest journalism by rushing to conclusions before any investigation was carried out (Mr. Brown’s July 22 show aired only a couple of hours after the bombings), and that he compounded his breach with the greater breach of ignoring evidence when presented to him, is the following collection of statements from human rights organizations and respected American and Israeli journalists. This collection of quotes was sent to Mr. Brown on July 22, and again after his remarks on the 23rd. But to this day. Mr. Brown has yet to react to the quotes.

You might be able to pass off the above as "Oops" (collateral damage), but you won't be able to with the rest below.

Physicians for Human Rights USA investigated the high number of Palestinian civilian deaths and injuries in the first months of the Intifada, concluded that: "the pattern of injuries seen in many victims did not reflect IDF [Israel Defense Forces] use of firearms in life-threatening situations but rather indicated targeting solely for the purpose of wounding or killing." http://www.phrusa.org/research/foren...ommentary.html

From the BBC, July 5, 2002: “The BBC has obtained video footage which appears to show an incident in the West Bank city of Jenin two weeks ago in which two Palestinian children were killed by Israeli tank fire.... the footage shows a tank firing the first of two shells, at close range, at a group of civilians who are running away. "Jenin deaths video implicates army" - BBC - July 5, 2002 -- See also a July 7, 2002, article by Gideon Levy: "Buried with chocolate in his hand" – Haaretz

In an interview with Ha'aretz reporter Amira Hass, an Israeli sniper described the commands he receives from his superiors: "Twelve and up, you're allowed to shoot. That's what they tell us," he said. "So," responded the reporter "according to the IDF, [the appropriate minimum age group at which to shoot] is 12?" the soldier replied, "According to what the IDF says to its soldiers. I don't know if this is what the IDF says to the media."

Yediot Aharonot (Hebrew Edition, 11/17/00) quoted Tal Etlinger, a "border guard" trained to quell demonstrations as stating that riots at Um Al Fahm (where scores of unarmed Palestinian citizens of Israel were shot and many killed by snipers) were much less violent than Jewish riots (such as in Tiberias) which were "much worse…. but we handle Jewish riots differently..[t]o a demonstration like this we know in advance to come without weapons.. These are the orders from above, and we use only gas."

Human Rights Watch issued a report May 3, 2002 on Israeli atrocities in Jenin stating in part: "[Palestinian] civilians [in Jenin] were killed willfully or unlawfully [by the Israeli military]. . .. [which] used Palestinian civilians as ‘human shields’ and used indiscriminate and excessive force.. . . The abuses we documented in Jenin are extremely serious, and in some cases appear to be war crimes. .." (http://hrw.org/press/2002/05/jenin0503.htm)

Israel has officially acknowledged its policy of using human shields during its military operations. Human Rights Watch (2002) has reported on the coerced use of Palestinian civilians during military operations, and most recently documented the use of Palestinian civilians as "human shields". Human Rights Watch documents one case in which eight Palestinian men, including a fourteen-year-old boy, were taken from their homes and placed on a balcony overlooking Palestinian fighter positions while IDF soldiers fired from behind the men. In another case, IDF soldiers put a sixty-five-year-old Palestinian woman on the exposed roof of her home during a gun battle.

In his report, "A Gaza Diary" (See Appendix), published in the October, 2001, issue of Harper's Magazine, and in his October 30, 2001 Fresh Air interview to NPR, New York Times journalist Chris hedges said:

And I walked out towards the dunes and they were--the--over the loudspeaker from an Israeli army Jeep on the other side of the electric fence they were taunting these kids. And these kids started to throw rocks. And most of these kids were 10, 11, 12 years old. And, first of all, the rocks were the size of a fist. They were being hurled towards a Jeep that was armor-plated. I doubt they could even hit the Jeep. And then I watched the soldiers open fire. And it was--I mean, I've seen kids shot in Sarajevo. I mean, snipers would shoot kids in Sarajevo. I've seen death squads kill families in Algeria or El Salvador. But I'd never seen soldiers bait or taunt kids like this and then shoot them for sport. It was--I just--even now, I find it almost inconceivable. And I went back every day, and every day it was the same.

In a joint statement given by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the International Commission of Jurists, on April 7, 2002, in the wake of the Jenin invasion by the IDF, read in part: "Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International Commission of Jurists want to send a clear, unambiguous message to all parties to this conflict, and to the international community. Stop the deliberate targeting of civilians and other persons protected by international humanitarian law." It went on to say: "In entire cities and towns, ambulances and emergency medical services have ground to a halt. Medical workers and ambulances have been fired upon. The wounded have been denied access to medical treatment; Palestinians have been killed attempting to reach hospitals for routine medical care. Such abuses raise not simply humanitarian issues: they are serious violations of international humanitarian law." (Joint Statement Given in Jerusalem: April 7, 2002 with Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists http://hrw.org/press/2002/04/isrstmnt040702.htm )

Amnesty International issued a report 23 October 2001 stating that it is "gravely concerned at recent reports of random shelling and shootings by the Israeli Defense Force in Palestinian residential areas, among them Jenin, Ramallah, Tulkarm, Bethlehem and Beit Jala, which has left at least 25 Palestinians killed, among them several children, and scores of others injured, in retaliation for the killing of the Israeli Minister of Tourism, Rehavam Zeevi on 17 October."

In an article in the Washington Post, Keith Richburg reported (November 30, 2000; Page A01): "Iyad was shot because he ran too fast. Nshat was shot because he missed his ride. Ronny was shot for throwing a stone. And Abdel Kareem was shot where his two friends died. Iyad, Nshat, Ronny and Abdel Kareem had never met before. But these four young Palestinians now see one another daily, as patients at the Abu Raya Rehabilitation Center."

B'Tselem, the Israeli Human Rights group, reported in October 2001 that "the IDF continues to employ a policy of 'an easy trigger-finger' and demonstrates a disregard for human life." In one Press Release (12 March 2002) B'Tselem stated: "In every city and refugee camp that they have entered, IDF soldiers have repeated the same pattern: indiscriminate firing and the killing of innocent civilians, intentional harm to water, electricity and telephone infrastructure, taking over civilian houses, extensive damage to civilian property, shooting at ambulances and prevention of medical care to the injured." (http://www.btselem.org/ )

In an open letter addressed to leaders of U.S., E.U., Israel, P.A., and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan (July 6, 2001), Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called for the dispatch of international human rights monitors (even while Israel objected) because of the continuing killing of civilians. (http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/07/isr-0706-ltr.htm

The clashes between Israelis and Palestinians since October 2000 have been marked by systematic violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. Civilians have been the main victims of the violence, and an immediate priority must be to bring such violations to an end. At least 470 Palestinians have been killed, most of them unlawfully by Israeli security forces when their lives and the lives of others were not in danger. More than 120 Israelis have been killed, most of them civilians deliberately targeted by armed groups and individuals. The death toll includes more than 130 children.

In a report dated March 14, 2002 (Shooting at Ambulances & IDF Impediments to medical treatment) from the Israeli Human Rights group Btselem, taken from their website http://www.btselem.org/ :

Over the past two weeks (28 February - 13 March), the intentional attacks on medical teams and the prevention of medical teams from treating the sick and wounded have been almost unprecedented. IDF soldiers have fired at ambulances, killing five Palestinian medical personnel who were on duty, wounded several members of ambulance medical teams, and damaging the ambulances. In addition, the IDF prevented medical treatment to the sick and wounded, even leaving people to bleed to death. Hospitals have been unable to function because of the damage to the electricity, water, and telephone infrastructure, and the blocking of access to some of them. As a result, the hospitals are unable to receive the wounded and sick, or obtain food and medicine.

These violations are an integral part of Israeli policy and are accompanied by other grave practices. The matters described in this report are another indication of the IDF's total loss of restraint

The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, B’Tselem, in a report dated March 14, 2002, titled “Shooting at Ambulances & IDF Impediments to medical treatment,” said:

Over the past two weeks (28 February - 13 March), the intentional attacks on medical teams and the prevention of medical teams from treating the sick and wounded have been almost unprecedented. IDF soldiers have fired at ambulances, killing five Palestinian medical personnel who were on duty, wounded several members of ambulance medical teams, and damaging the ambulances. In addition, the IDF prevented medical treatment to the sick and wounded, even leaving people to bleed to death. Hospitals have been unable to function because of the damage to the electricity, water, and telephone infrastructure, and the blocking of access to some of them. As a result, the hospitals are unable to receive the wounded and sick, or obtain food and medicine… These violations are an integral part of Israeli policy and are accompanied by other grave practices. The matters described in this report are another indication of the IDF's total loss of restraint.

Souce: http://www.btselem.org/Download/Ambulances_Eng.doc

Physicians for Human Rights-USA in a report dated November 3, 2000 refute the notion that Israel’s killing of Palestinian civilians is solely a matter of self-defense.

Physicians for Human Rights USA (PHR) finds that the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has used live ammunition and rubber bullets excessively and inappropriately to control demonstrators, and that based on the high number of documented injuries to the head and thighs, Israeli soldiers appear to be shooting to inflict harm, rather than solely in self-defense...PHR's analysis of fatal gun shot wounds in Gaza reveals that approximately 50% were to the head. This high proportion of fatal head wounds suggests that given broad rules of engagement, soldiers are specifically aiming at peoples' heads.

Source: http://www.phrusa.org/research/foren...ael_force.html

Corroborating the report of PHR-USA above, here are excerpts from the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, in a report written by Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, titled "The Message from High Command" , dated February 10, 2002:

An 11-year-old boy was shot in the head from short range while fleeing after he threw stones at Israeli soldiers who were posted at the roadblock next to the refugee camp where he lives. That is the version given by eye-witnesses. It took the boy a week to die, … A 15-year-old boy threw stones at a tank that was besieging the headquarters of a national leader. A soldier shot him in the head from short range, killing him… A soldier in an undercover unit gave hot pursuit to a boy of about nine who had been throwing stones, shot him from behind and killed him.

Further evidence of Israel’s intent in targeting Palestinian civilians is evident from the following interview from a soldier who operated a bulldozer in the Jenin refugee camp and published by the Israeli paper Yediot Aharanot on May 31, 2002:

No one refused an order to take down a house. When they told me to destroy a house I exploited that in order to destroy a few more homes. On the loudspeaker [the Palestinian residents] were warned to get out before I came in. But I didn't give a chance to anyone. I didn't wait. I'm sure that people died inside of those houses. From my perspective we left them a football field, they should play there. The 100x100 was our present to the camp. Jenin will not return to be what it was." [Note: After publication - and in spite of it - the unit to which the man belongs received from the army command an official citation for outstanding service.) Source: http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/kurdi_eng.html

http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/essays/civilians.html

[Jooboian]

Children killed in demonstrations and as a result of reckless IDF fire

During the first months of the intifada children were mostly killed during stone-throwing demonstrations, though in many cases they appear to have been bystanders during these demonstrations.

Sami Fathi Abu Jazzar. On 10 October 2000 Amnesty International delegates witnessed the aftermath of a stone throwing demonstration in Rafah on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip. Israeli soldiers shot at a crowd of some 400 people, mostly primary schoolchildren, who were throwing stones at an Israeli military post. Sami Fathi Abu Jazzar was shot in the head; a live bullet entered his forehead above his left eyebrow, went through the skull diagonally and exited at the back of his head. He died the following day, on the eve of his 12th birthday. Six other children were injured by live fire in the same incident. Amnesty International delegates, including an expert in riot policing, concluded that the lives of Israeli soldiers were not in danger and that their use of lethal force was unjustified, as their position was not only heavily fortified, but there were also two wire fences between the post and the stone throwers, who were some 200 metres away.

Muhammad Ibrahim Hajaj, Ahmed Suleiman Abu Tayah and Ibrahim Reziq Omar, all 14 years of age, were shot dead and several other children were wounded on 1 November 2000 by the IDF in the Gaza Strip, on the road between Netzarim junction and the Karni crossing into Israel, in a place which over the past two years has been a regular demonstration site for children who gather to throw stones at IDF tanks and/or at the IDF tower. Muhammad Ibrahim Hajaj was shot in the neck and Ahmed Suleiman Abu Tayah and Ibrahim Reziq Omar were shot in the head and chest. All three died immediately. Several other children were wounded, including two 10-year-olds who were shot in the abdomen and in the right shoulder. According to eyewitnesses and to medical records, the children were fired on with live ammunition from a distance of about 150 metres.

Fifteen-year-old Muhammad Musbah Isma’il Abu Ghali was shot in the chest from an IDF jeep at Tuffah checkpoint in Khan Yunis, in the Gaza Strip, on the afternoon of 8 November 2000. Two UN staff members who were on their way back from the Mawasi area witnessed the shooting. According to one of them: "There was a group of children standing around the rubble of the demolished houses by the Tuffah checkpoint but they were not throwing stones or demonstrating. Two IDF jeeps arrived and after a moment a soldier fired a single shot which hit Muhammad in the chest and he fell. I knew the boy and I approached him and he said 'My bicycle key is in my pocket'. I asked him if he was OK and he didn't reply and pulled from his pocket the key, three photos and three shekels and then slumped back. The ambulance arrived to take him to hospital and he died on the way."

Khalil Ibrahim al-Mughrabi. On 7 July 2001 three children were shot by IDF sniper fire as they were flying kites and playing soccer in an open space near the border fence at Rafah. Khalil Ibrahim al-Mughrabi, age11, was killed by a high-velocity bullet in the head. Ibrahim Kamel Abu Sussain, age 10, and 13-year-old Suleiman Turki Abu Rijal were also shot and both sustained serious injuries in the abdomen and in the testicles, respectively. The shots came from an IDF post about 800 metres away, and the boys were in a large, open space. According to testimonies given to Amnesty International by Ibrahim Kamel Abu Sussain and by other children who were present at the time of the incident, there were no disturbances or clashes in the area at that time. The IDF claimed that there had been rioting and throwing of fragmentation grenades in the area at the time, but confidential IDF records showed that this was untrue. On 8 November 2001, the IDF informed the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem that it had decided not to initiate an investigation of the incident because there was no suspicion of criminal behaviour by the soldiers. However, a file was attached to the IDFs response, apparently in error, which contained internal records of the IDFs operational de-briefings and the opinions of the IDF Southern Command Judge Advocate and of the Chief Military Prosecutor. These documents, which have been made public by B'Tselem, show that the IDF, in spite of the evidence, decided not to order a Military Police investigation and cleared the soldiers who killed Khalil al-Mughrabi and injured the two other children, and that in its response to B’Tselem the IDF deliberately presented an incorrect version of the incident.

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE020052002

[Jooboian]

Whether you like it or not, Israeli civilian deaths = "collateral damage"!

Liar, Liar! The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Charles E. Carlson Jun 21, 2002


On June 18, a lone Intelligent Bomber hit another bus, "Egged bus no. 32A" traveling from Gilo to the center of Jerusalem. The damage was devastating, killing a reported 19 "persons" and injuring 50, according to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs not too candid report. We have come to call this official agency of the Israeli military the Ministry of Orwellian Truth (MOT for short). It has once again shouted "terrorism," propagandizing what is no more or less than an effective one-man military attack in an all out, life and death war for the Palestinians culture. Israel claims they have no culture.

As Ted Turner, founder of CNN and now a Vice-President of Time Warner, correctly pointed out in an interview with the London Guardian on the same day as the bombing, the Palestinians are making war with the only weapons they have--their bodies. Turner correctly observed that the Palestinians are no more terrorists than the Israelis are themselves. His simple, logical statement brought out a hailstorm of condemnation against the 64-year of billionaire from Americas prostitute media.

CNN LIES:

The June 18, 2002 bus bombing, like almost all those we have studied, was not terrorism; it was a military attack by the inmates against the prison guards who cage them in and rule over their lives. This time the lie is that the bus was a school bus carrying children. As usual, the Israelis have not told us how many military persons were on the bus traveling to their duty stations, nor have they said whether any of the 50 wounded "people" were in the military. The wounded are only identified when it benefits MOT propaganda to do so, for instance, when a child or pregnant woman is wounded it is usually announced. Otherwise, they remain nameless. Two of those killed in the explosion were students--too young for Israels war machine. The rest were adults, some of military age. This is standard propaganda procedure in this war, and it goes unchallenged in the U.S. press.

WHTT readers should already know that buses in Israel almost always carry military personnel, and the majority of Intelligent Bombs target buses. And it should be equally obvious that buses are chosen to get at the military personnel that can be anticipated to be on board, just as air transport planes would be obvious targets if missiles were available. It should also be a reasonable deduction that Israeli riflemen aim at children because they have hit hundreds of children in the heads, often directly between the eyes.

Israel is using the latest bus bombing as another excuse to call for savage revenge. This time Ariel Sharon has announce he will confiscate Palestinian territory in retribution. George Bush and those he can intimidate are supporting this call for more violence.

WHTT has studied and written extensively about bus bombings, as well as the bombing of late night military hangouts, the third most popular target for Intelligent Bombs. For example, We Hold These Truths documented this June 5, 2002 incident:

--17 people were killed and 38 injured when a car packed with a large quantity of explosives struck Egged bus No. 830 traveling from Tel-Aviv to Tiberius at the Megiddo junction near Afula. The bus, which burst into flames, was completely destroyed. The names of 16 of the victims have been released and 13 were Israeli Defense Forces, three of whom were women. We have previously published their name and ranks, but not one American in a hundred knows the bus was carrying about 75 armed military persons, and no one except those who read out reports know that women soldiers are routinely killed in bombings. This fact is never released in the U.S. Press.

The record of past bus bombings is available to all who will look. Bus 32a listed two school-age children among the dead. It also listed four military-age persons, without defining their military status. In Israel, all men serve three years in the military and a long reserve term, so every young male over 18 can reasonably be considered to be either active or reserve military. Women are also drafted.

While bus bombings do kill civilians, almost all the more than 2,000 Palestinians killed by Israelis in the last 18 months were civilians, and over 400 were children. On one day, May 8, nine-year-old Tamar Abu Sirreye of Tulkaram refugee camp was shot to death by Israeli troops while protesting the Israeli presence in the camp with other children. He was hit twice in the chest. In an unrelated killing the same day, Israeli military shot to death Fatima Zakarna (32) and her two children, Basel age five, and Abir age three. All were hit in the head and upper body by fire from a military vehicle while playing in a field in Jenin. Obviously a rifleman does not hit a childs head without aiming, and it is impossible for the sniper not to know he has a three-year-old in his scope.

A DEEPER LOOK AT DECEPTION:

An examination of the entire list of "547 people" (Israelis) who are alleged by the MOT to have been "killed by Palestinian violence and terrorism since September 2000" reveals that only 52 children under "enlistment" age (18) were reported killed by Intelligent Bombers. Using the Israeli official military website numbers, less than 10% were under compulsory military age. Furthermore, the Ministrys own figures are fraught with obvious distortions designed to deceive. Yet the Israelis have the nerve to claim the Palestinians target children.

How can the MOT claim with a straight face that these 547 are the victims of terrorism, when the Israelis own news releases clearly show that at least a third of all those killed are active duty military, and others are of mandatory reserve age? When is it "terrorism" to kill your enemy? Israel and Palestine are at war, are they not? Palestinian civilians die every day. Tens of thousands have been wounded, maimed, arrested, abused, tortured, detained or imprisoned without being charged with anything. When a Palestinian is killed--even a child shot deliberately by an Israeli soldier--that is "war" or "self protection." But when a Palestinian bombs a transport bus full of Israeli soldiers, or expected to be full of soldiers, it is called "terrorism." This is the impact of Israeli propaganda supported by the US press.

Israels official records are available for your examination. In most cases there are military casualties. In a few cases only civilians may have been killed or injured--in other cases no one at all has been killed. From my own observations provided elsewhere in this series, the majority on board buses are usually military; it is a reasonable expectation for a bomber.

Its safe to say that if you throw a rock into a pigpen the hog that squeals is probably the one you hit. Its equally safe to say that, judging from the Israelis own casualty records, the Palestinian Intelligent Bombs target buses, bus and train stations, and bus stops because that is where they are most likely to hit military personnel.

Other lies become apparent upon reading the Israeli reports about "terrorism." The MOT even called it terrorism when 13 armed IDF soldiers were killed while conducting house-to-house searches and arrests in Jenin! The Israelis also lied when they listed 28 dead "people" as the result of the March 27, 2002, "terrorist" bombing of a hotel party. A casualty list obtained from the MOT shows that among those killed were two sergeants, but no mention is made of how many military were present in all

In other words, the MOT makes you figure out for yourself that they are scamming you by trying to make the bombing an all-civilian event, when it was not. Where two IDF soldiers were killed, how many more were present, and how many soldiers does it take to make a war target?

The MOT also referred to a successful Palestinian attack on a military academy on May 7, 2002, that killed four 18-year-old military students. Is this an act of "terrorism?" Is not a military academy run by the military? Who runs West Point or the Air Force Academy, and what do they teach but war? Of course, a military academy is a military target. But the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs calls any attack on any military personnel "terrorism."

On June 20, Haaretz reported, "A mother, three of her children and a man were killed, and eight people were wounded Thursday evening when Palestinian terrorists infiltrated a home in the northern West Bank settlement of Itamar, near Nablus." The wounded mentioned included two soldiers who reportedly killed the attackers. It turns out there was a one hour fire fight so there is no way for us to know what shots killed the children, but we will assume the partisan Israeli report is accurate.

We agree, the death of any child is tragic; including an unborn one, but what you are not told is that a "settlement" in which this took place is actually a hostile armed camp. Palestinians do not consider "settlers: to be civilians, but criminal. Settlements are actually squatter camps inside the west bank on land stolen from some Palestinians, who have probably been displaced to a refugee camp. The Squatters are criminals in the eyes of the Palestinians who are invariable armed and protected by the IDF, as in this case. Every one of the so called settlers knowingly chooses to raise his children in a war zone. These children are exposed to risk by their own parents, and the Israeli government, in effect pay them to squat on contested property. "Settlements" are at the very root of the conflict.

What American farmer or homeowner would allow an armed, hostile squatter settlement to be planted on his land? WHTT report on the 120,000 illegal squatters in Palestine is covered in detail in an excellent report, Are Settlers Squatters by Ellen Cantarow.

The MOT offers a graduate course in fairy tales on its website. One of them is called "Why are Palestinian children being wounded in the conflict?" What about those killed? The title itself brands the story a lie, for those around the world who, like ourselves, are concerned about the thousands of wounded, are much more concerned about the deliberate face-shot assassinations of over 400 Palestinian children, as recorded by numerous Palestinian, European and Canadian doctors who tend the casualties. It is a lie for the Israelis to suggest they only wound children.

The MOT explanation is a transparent pack of lies about children being "caught in crossfire," being used as "human shields," and being "trained" in mosques and schools to throw rocks. None of these apologies explains why snipers shoot children in the face with high-power rifles, sometimes at long range. Are we to believe the Israelis are trying to convince their enemies not to use children as human shields by shooting children in the face? Those who do not know what to believe should read the MOTs own scandalous propaganda pieces. Nothing better exposes a liar than its lies.

http://www.whtt.org/index.php?news=2&id=162

[Jooboian]

Watch the video.

Take No Prisoners

Another proud moment in U.S. Military History.

U.S. Marines execute an Iraqi to the cheers of fellow marines

Transcript:

CNN Presents: Fit To Kill

Aired October 26, 2003 - 20:00 ET

CROWLEY: Wounded, another Iraqi writhes on the ground next to his gun. The Marines kill him -- then cheer.

RIDDLE: Like, man, you guys are dead now, you know. But it was a good feeling.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fire!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah!

CROWLEY: When the battle is over and you are still standing, the adrenalin rush is huge.

RIDDLE: I mean, afterwards you're like, hell, yeah, that was awesome. Let's do it again.

CROWLEY: Inexplicable to some, but not to generations of veterans.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5365.htm

“Marines call executing wounded combatants ‘dead-checking.’ ‘They teach us to do dead-checking when we're clearing rooms,’ an enlisted Marine recently returned from Iraq told me. ‘You put two bullets into the guy's chest and one in the brain. But when you enter a room where guys are wounded you might not know if they're alive or dead. So they teach us to dead-check them by pressing them in the eye with your boot, because generally a person, even if he's faking being dead, will flinch if you poke him there. If he moves, you put a bullet in the brain…’.”
–“Dead Check in Falluja,” Village Voice, 24 November

http://www.internationalist.org/fallujarape0412.html

Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War

ARTICLE 3

In the case of armed conflict not of an international character occurring in the territory of one of the High Contracting Parties, each party to the conflict shall be bound to apply, as a minimum, the following provisions:

1. Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria.

To this end the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons:

(a) Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;

(b) Taking of hostages;

(c) Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment;

(d) The passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.

2. The wounded and sick shall be collected and cared for.

http://law-ref.org/GENEVA/article3.html

Looks to me like your beloved USA is guilty on many counts.

[Jooboian]

Switzerland Documents U.S.-British War Crimes In Iraq

U.S.-British war crimes in Iraq will be verified, documented by Switzerland

By Khaled Schmidt, IOL Correspondent

BONN, April 1 (IslamOnline.net) - 13 days after the launch of U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the Swiss Foreign Ministry has decided to document U.S.-British war crimes against Iraqi civilians on a separate section within its website.

Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy Rey Monday, March 31, was quoted by the German paper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as saying that the section - operational since Monday morning - gathers information and data from credible and documented sources, adding names of new victims would be added on an hourly basis.

The initial data available so far reveals the dirtiness of U.S.-British warmongers, the fakeness of their claims about a clean war, as well as their indifference to the lives of innocent, unarmed Iraqi civilians, Rey, member of the ruling Socialist, Democratic Party, was quoted by the paper as saying.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung quoted the minister as noting that incoming data, days after the start of the invasion, revealed a significant and a dangerous rise in the number of civilian casualties, as a result of attacks carried out by the invading troops.

Switzerland is a founder and a sponsor of the Geneva Convention, related to the prisoners of wars, civilians and human rights during wars, especially the protection of civilians in war zones. In this capacity, it was imperative for us to do our best to see the Convention is applied, especially, the protection of civilians during wars, the paper quoted Rey as saying.

Since she held her post early this year, Rey adopted what she described as “open diplomacy,” said the German newspaper.

It added that in January, 2003, Rey called on the U.S. and Iraq to hold a meeting in Switzerland to try to solve the standoff peacefully. The Americans turned down her proposal.

During this week, Rey plans to hold a conference to co-ordinate humanitarian and aid steps in Iraq, as a complementary step to a similar conference she organized a week before the launch of the invasion.

According to the latest poll about the U.S.-led invasion, among the Swiss citizens, majority of them opposes the invasion and denounces the U.S.-British policies.

Almost all Swiss population have set up white flags on their roofs, as a sign of peace and opposition to the ongoing invasion.

The Swiss government opposes using its airports or airspace by U.S.-British military aircrafts. It also refused expelling Iraqi diplomats, a request sought repeatedly by Washington.

http://www.islam-online.net/english/News/2003-04/01/article06.shtml

[Jooboian]

The media are minimising US and British war crimes in Iraq

The reporting of the Iraqi death toll - both in its scale and account of who is doing the killing - is profoundly dishonest

George Monbiot
Tuesday November 8, 2005
The Guardian

We were told that the Iraqis don't count. Before the invasion began, the head of US central command, General Thomas Franks, boasted that "we don't do body counts". His claim was repeated by Donald Rumsfeld in November 2003 ("We don't do body counts on other people") and the Pentagon last January ("The only thing we keep track of is casualties for US troops and civilians").

But it's not true. Almost every week the Pentagon claims to have killed 50 or 70 or 100 insurgents in its latest assault on the latest stronghold of the ubiquitous monster Zarqawi. In May the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff said that his soldiers had killed 250 of Zarqawi's "closest lieutenants" (or so 500 of his best friends had told him). But last week, the Pentagon did something new. Buried in its latest security report to Congress is a bar chart labelled "average daily casualties - Iraqi and coalition. 1 Jan 04-16 Sep 05". The claim that it kept no track of Iraqi deaths was false.

Article continues
The report does not explain what it means by casualty, or if its figures represent all casualties, only insurgents, or, as the foregoing paragraph appears to hint, only civilians killed by insurgents. There is no explanation of how the figures were gathered or compiled. The only accompanying text consists of the words "Source: MNC-I", which means Multi-National Corps - Iraq. We'll just have to trust them.

What the chart shows is that these unexplained casualties have more than doubled since the beginning of the Pentagon's survey. From January to March 2004, 26 units of something or other were happening every day, while in September 2005 the something or other rose to 64. But whatever it is that's been rising, the weird morality of this war dictates that it is reported as good news. Journalists have been multiplying the daily average of mystery units by the number of days, discovering that the figure is lower than previous estimates of Iraqi deaths, and using it to cast doubts on them. As ever, the study in the line of fire is the report published by the Lancet in October last year.

It was a household survey - of 988 homes in 33 randomly selected districts - and it suggested, on the basis of the mortality those households reported before and after the invasion, that the risk of death in Iraq had risen by a factor of 1.5; somewhere between 8,000 and 194,000 extra people had died, with the most probable figure being 98,000. Around half the deaths, if Falluja was included, or 15% if it was not, were caused by violence, and the majority of those by attacks on the part of US forces.

In the US and the UK, the study was either ignored or torn to bits. The media described it as "inflated", "overstated", "politicised" and "out of proportion". Just about every possible misunderstanding and distortion of its statistics was published, of which the most remarkable was the Observer's claim that: "The report's authors admit it drew heavily on the rebel stronghold of Falluja, which has been plagued by fierce fighting. Strip out Falluja, as the study itself acknowledged, and the mortality rate is reduced dramatically." In fact, as they made clear on page one, the authors had stripped out Falluja; their estimate of 98,000 deaths would otherwise have been much higher.

But the attacks in the press succeeded in sinking the study. Now, whenever a newspaper or broadcaster produces an estimate of civilian deaths, the Lancet report is passed over in favour of lesser figures. For the past three months, the editors and subscribers of the website Medialens have been writing to papers and broadcasters to try to find out why. The standard response, exemplified by a letter from the BBC's online news service last week, is that the study's "technique of sampling and extrapolating from samples has been criticised". That's true, and by the same reasoning we could dismiss the fact that 6 million people were killed in the Holocaust, on the grounds that this figure has also been criticised, albeit by skinheads. The issue is not whether the study has been criticised, but whether the criticism is valid.

As Medialens has pointed out, it was the same lead author, using the same techniques, who reported that 1.7 million people had died as a result of conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). That finding has been cited by Tony Blair, Colin Powell and almost every major newspaper on both sides of the Atlantic, and none has challenged either the method or the result. Using the Congo study as justification, the UN security council called for all foreign armies to leave the DRC and doubled the country's UN aid budget.

The other reason the press gives for burying the Lancet study is that it is out of line with competing estimates. Like Jack Straw, wriggling his way around the figures in a written ministerial statement, they compare it to the statistics compiled by the Iraqi health ministry and the website Iraq Body Count.

In December 2003, Associated Press reported that "Iraq's health ministry has ordered a halt to a count of civilians killed during the war". According to the head of the ministry's statistics department, both the puppet government and the Coalition Provisional Authority demanded that it be stopped. As Naomi Klein has shown on these pages, when US soldiers stormed Falluja (a year ago today), their first action was to seize the general hospital and arrest the doctors. The New York Times reported that "the hospital was selected as an early target because the American military believed that it was the source of rumours about heavy casualties". After the coalition had used these novel statistical methods to improve the results, Blair told parliament that "figures from the Iraqi ministry of health, which are a survey from the hospitals there, are in our view the most accurate survey there is".

Iraq Body Count, whose tally has reached 26,000-30,000, measures only civilian deaths which can be unambiguously attributed to the invasion and which have been reported by two independent news agencies. As the compilers point out, "it is likely that many if not most civilian casualties will go unreported by the media ... our own total is certain to be an underestimate of the true position, because of gaps in reporting or recording". Of the seven mortality reports surveyed by the Overseas Development Institute, the estimate in the Lancet's paper was only the third highest. It remains the most thorough study published so far. Extraordinary as its numbers seem, they are the most likely to be true.

And what of the idea that most of the violent deaths in Iraq are caused by coalition troops? Well according to the Houston Chronicle, even Blair's favourite data source, the Iraqi health ministry, reports that twice as many Iraqis - and most of them civilians - are being killed by US and UK forces as by insurgents. When the Pentagon claims that it has just killed 50 or 70 or 100 rebel fighters, we have no means of knowing who those people really were. Everyone it blows to pieces becomes a terrorist. In July Jack Keane, the former vice chief of staff of the US army, claimed that coalition troops had killed or captured more than 50,000 "insurgents" since the start of the rebellion. Perhaps they were all Zarqawi's closest lieutenants.

We can expect the US and UK governments to seek to minimise the extent of their war crimes. But it's time the media stopped collaborating.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1636606,00.html

[Jooboian]

British court martial bares war crimes against Iraqi civilians
By Mike Ingram
24 January 2005


Three British soldiers went before a court martial in Germany last week on charges of indecency, assault and sexually humiliating Iraqi civilians at a storage depot outside the southern city of Basra in May 2003. The trial has been described as Britain’s Abu Ghraib, with the alleged offences recalling the earlier exposure of abuse at the US prison in Iraq.

The case against the three soldiers—Corporal Daniel Kenyon and Lance Corporals Mark Cooley and Darren Larkin—rests largely upon photographs showing beatings and forced simulation of sex acts between Iraqi civilians held captive for looting. A shop assistant at a photographic store in Staffordshire, England, handed the photos over to police after a fusilier had brought them in to be developed.

Two of the men have pleaded not guilty to all charges, while the third, Lance Corporal Larkin, pleaded guilty to one charge of assaulting an Iraqi civilian, but denied another charge of forcing two Iraqi males to undress in front of others. Larkin was photographed standing on the legs and shoulders of an Iraqi man bound in a cargo net, as if he were riding a surfboard. As in the recent trial of a US soldier in the Abu Ghraib torture case, the not-guilty pleas are based on the claim that the soldiers were carrying out orders.

The trial has so far revealed that the alleged abuses took place in May 2003 at an aid camp known as Camp Bread Basket, under the command of Major Dan Taylor. In a practice that breached the Geneva Convention, Taylor ordered troops to detain looters and “work them hard.” Photographs taken at the camp show Iraqis undertaking forced runs while carrying crates filled with dried milk power above their heads.

Defence lawyers suggest that Taylor created a climate that sanctioned the abuse under an operation code-named “Ali Baba,” which was supposedly designed to deter looting. Taylor told the court martial, “It was a massive storage depot. We had food, clothing, vehicle parts and masses of grain. But we had problems with looters and thieves that began as world food aid started being delivered to the camp in the last weeks of April 2003.”

Predictably, senior military commanders have insisted that the alleged abuses are merely the product of bad individuals and should not reflect upon the British army or its mission in Iraq. This has not prevented demands for commanding officers to be placed on trial, especially given that operation Ali Baba contravened the Geneva Convention.

Claims that this was an isolated incident were undermined by the testimony of Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas Mercer, a legal services expert for the army in Iraq. Mercer told the board of seven officers trying the case that abuse of detained civilians was not confined to Camp Bread Basket. Rather, it was so pervasive that he was compelled to issue an order on May 20, 2003— after the incident under trial—prohibiting soldiers from assaulting civilians and ordering them to treat Iraqis “with humanity and dignity at all times.”

Mercer said, “The army took 3,000 prisoners of war on the battlefield and 1,000 more were civilians. There was no difficulty with them, but, once we moved into an occupation situation, things changed. There were a number of allegations made that these people were not being treated as they should. We heard that there were problems, not just at the Bread Basket camp.”

The officer described in detail the breakdown in law and order that took place following the ousting of the Saddam Hussein regime, with “hundreds of people looting.” But he claimed that soldiers had been given clear guidelines on how to treat prisoners and detained civilians, including being shown a 10-minute training video that was also screened at the hearing.

Joseph Giret, representing Corporal Kenyon, argued that the soldier was the victim of his senior officer who had issued orders for him to detain prisoners and work them hard. In an argument that is expected to form the basis of the defence case, Giret said, “The only reason Cpl. Kenyon is in the dock stems from those who gave the order to implement Operation Ali Baba.”

Prosecution lawyers have admitted that Taylor’s order to “work prisoners hard” was in breach of the Geneva Convention. The court martial heard that Taylor’s superior officers were aware he had issued an order that defied the Convention, but had decided not to take legal action against him. Judge Advocate Michael Hunter insisted that the court martial would not attempt to deal with alleged breaches of the Geneva Convention. “We are not here to decide issues of international law,” he said.

Whatever the outcome of the court martial, it can be safely predicted that the underlying causes of the abuse will not be addressed. It is not only Operation Ali Baba that stands in breach of the Geneva Convention, but the entire war and subsequent occupation of Iraq. The brutal actions depicted in the photographs before the court martial are symptomatic of an illegal war and brutal suppression of the Iraqi people.

British troops in southern Iraq are not confronted with an opposing army, but a population that is deeply hostile to the foreign occupation of their country. Under these conditions, a 10-minute video would do little to counter the months of psychological preparation of the troops for war.

For the US and British governments, the greatest concern is that the publication of the photographs on the eve of the January 30 Iraqi elections will underscore the antidemocratic nature of the foreign occupation and fuel the insurgency. The court martial has already been blamed for an intensification of attacks in southern Iraq, including a recent bombing at a British base that injured five soldiers. The group led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing, declaring it a “response to the harm inflicted by British occupation forces on our brothers in prison.”

The Blair government also fears the trial will increase resistance within Britain itself to demands for the deployment of more troops in Iraq.

On January 19, a soldier publicly announced his resignation from the Territorial Army in order to highlight discontent within the ranks of the TA. Lance Corporal George Solomou said as many as half of TA soldiers are uncomfortable or do not agree with the conflict. Describing the war as “bankrupt, unjust and immoral,” Solomou said he would rather face jail than be forced to serve. Referring to others who felt uneasy about the war, he said, “The majority resign in the traditional way. They go quietly, saying they have got family problems. I want to act as a beacon, a rallying point for other soldiers. We don’t have to go quietly. This war is wrong. I call upon other soldiers to conscientiously object.”

The court martial is expected to last another two to three weeks. The accused soldiers face 10-year jail sentences if convicted.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/jan2005/tria-j24.shtml

[Jooboian]

Fifty more soldiers face trial on Iraq 'war crimes'
By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent
(Filed: 27/02/2005)

Almost 50 British servicemen are facing prosecution for murder, assault and other crimes committed in Iraq, according to secret military documents seen by The Telegraph.

The allegations include two cases in which Iraqi civilians were allegedly deliberately drowned by soldiers and an incident that could lead to the first member of the SAS being charged with murder.

On Friday, Gen Sir Mike Jackson, the Chief of the General Staff, announced that a senior officer would conduct a wide ranging inquiry into the crimes committed by troops in Iraq. This followed the sentencing at a court martial in Germany of three soldiers who abused Iraqi detainees.

The documents, marked "Restricted - Investigations Not For Disclosure. Ministerial Update of Service Police Investigations", show that almost three times as many soldiers face charges than had been admitted by the Ministry of Defence. They disclose that until September 13, 2004, the Royal Military Police had carried out 137 investigations into incidents - including shootings, road accidents, and allegations of corruption, murder and manslaughter - involving troops in Iraq.

Some cases have been investigated and the soldiers cleared, but many investigations continue. The documents indicate that at least 12 soldiers face charges of murder, manslaughter or assault.

It is understood that since the documents were produced the number of investigations into the actions of British service personnel has increased to more than 164.

Iraq factfile

The documents reveal that the SAS, Britain's elite fighting force, faces the damaging prospect of having one of its men charged with murder after he shot dead an Iraqi during a military operation in Basra in January 2004.

It is understood that the SAS's commanding officer and the Director of Special Forces are trying to dissuade military prosecutors from charging the soldier because they believe no crime has been committed and fear that such an action might undermine the operational effectiveness of the unit.

The documents reveal that at least three RAF members face charges for murder, manslaughter, negligence and corruption following the death of an Iraqi prisoner.

Senior officers have told this newspaper that they believe that legal advisers have been "gripped by a distorted sense of political correctness" which has led to an unprecedented number of soldiers facing charges.

The Ministry of Defence had previously admitted that at least 11 more soldiers will soon be tried for crimes including abuse and murder.

When pressed about the document yesterday, officials admitted that nine further cases involving at least 30 soldiers are being examined by Army prosecutors.

The disclosure of the new cases will increase the pressure on the MoD and Gen Jackson to intensify their investigations. The general said at his press conference that he was determined to ensure that the Army's good reputation was maintained.

"I do apologise on behalf of the Army to those Iraqis who were abused and to the people of Iraq as a whole," he said.

"The Army sets high standards. . . those who fail to meet those standards are and will be called to account.''

Nicholas Soames, the Shadow Defence Secretary, said that the soldiers appeared to have had inadequate orders. "Part of the problem stems from the fact that because the Prime Minister didn't want to show that any preparations were being made to go to war, not enough attention was paid to the post-conflict phase."

The documents list 26 incidents in which it was found either that no crime was established or that soldiers acted within the rules of engagement. They include cases in which Iraqis were killed or injured after soldiers returned fire. The fact that such investigations have been carried out lends support to those who insist that alleged misconduct of any kind is already treated with the greatest seriousness.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/02/27/nirq27.xml

[Jooboian]

NATO/US WAR CRIMES IN KOSOVO & U.S./BRITISH WAR CRIMES IN IRAQ

U.S. Destruction of Iraq Sanitation & Irrigation systems & Prevention of Rebuilding by Charley Reece and Sunday Herald

http://www.againstbombing.org/Reeceiraq.htm

NATO War Crimes "Hearings" International hearings hold Clinton, Albright responsible

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=17147

NATO-Washington Lies About Kosovo various links

http://www.iraqwar.org/NATOwashlies.htm

Amnesty International Study of NATO War Crimes --Urges Officers be brought to Justice

http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/intcam/kosovo/index.html

Human Rights Watch Declares NATO Violations of Geneva Convention in 5 areas U.S. stopped using cluster bombs after public outcry, Brits continued

http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=17808

More McCaffrey command war crimes

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/gulfwar000614.html

Iraq, A Massacre, not a War 5/31/00 by Robert Jensen of Los Angeles Times

http://www.commondreams.org/views/052500-104.htm

Human Rights Watch Charges NATO War Crimes--5 Violations of Geneva Convention--US Stopped Using Cluster Bombs after publicity

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Europe/2000-02/natofrt070200.shtml

War Crimes Tribunal Takes Up Charges Against NATO

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2166-2000Jan19.html

Washington Concerned about War Crimes Tribunal

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/world/2000/0106/wor16.htm

Canada's Former Ambassador to Yugoslavia on NATO Lawbreaking Address to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Commons, Ottawa, Feb. 17, 00

http://www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/bisset/bisset.htm

The bloody truth of how Nato changed the rules to win a 'moral war' in Yugoslavia by Robert Fisk

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a389f3ed0373a.htm

Global Tribunal on US/NATO War Crimes

http://www.maxpages.com/natowarcrimes

NATO/Washington Civilian Targets--by Alex. xxxxburn, the entire list

http://www.counterpunch.org/dead.html

Cluster Bombs and Children--Bomb First, Kill Later

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/991025/cluster.htm

[Reincarnated Am]

Iraqi Video Details End of Alleged Attack

Tue Mar 21, 6:23 PM ET


A videotape taken by an Iraqi shows the aftermath of an alleged attack by U.S. troops on civilians in their homes in a western town last November: a blood-smeared bedroom floor and bits of what appear to be human flesh and bullet holes on the walls.

An Iraqi human rights group condemned the bloodshed in the town of Haditha, saying Tuesday that it could be "one of dozens of incidents that were not revealed."

The video, obtained by Time magazine and repeatedly aired by Arab televisions throughout the day, also showed bodies of women and children in plastic bags on the floor of what appeared to be a morgue. Men were seen standing in the middle of bodies, some of which were covered with blankets before being placed in a pickup truck.

The images were broadcast a day after residents of Haditha, 140 miles west of Baghdad, told The Associated Press that American troops entered homes and shot dead 15 members of two families, including a 3-year-old girl, after a roadside bomb killed a U.S. Marine.

Last week, the U.S. military announced that a dozen Marines are under investigation for possible war crimes in the Nov. 19 incident, which left at least 23 Iraqis dead in addition to the Marine.

Talal al-Zuhairi, who heads the Baghdad Center for Human Rights, said his organization feared the troops, if convicted, will not be punished severely enough.

"This incident shows that the forces are committing, every now and then, operations that harm civilians," al-Zuhairi told The Associated Press.

"What we are worried about today ... (is that) a U.S. soldier may be discharged from the military or jailed for two years," said al-Zuhairi. "This would in no way be sufficient punishment for wiping out a whole family or killing of a large number of people through an unjustifiable act."

The allegations against the Marines were first brought forward by Time, though the magazine noted that the available evidence did not prove conclusively that the Marines deliberately killed innocents.

The magazine said it obtained the video, taken by a Haditha journalism student inside the houses and local morgue, two months ago.

A U.S. military statement in November had described the incident as an ambush on a joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol that left 15 civilians, eight insurgents and a U.S. Marine dead in the bombing and a subsequent firefight. That statement said the 15 civilians were killed by the blast, a claim residents denied.

The residents said the only shooting done after the bombing was by U.S. forces.

Al-Zuhairi called on the Iraqi government to investigate.

"We hope that this scandal will produce a reaction among Iraq's politicians. They should review their calculations in dealing with American troops and take into consideration that deadly mistakes are committed against Iraqis," al-Zuhairi said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/iraq_fatal_raid;_ylt=AtDVnQ2g2SXfmmxQbq3xl5Cs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--