Tag: War Crimes

What Is A War Crime?

Since Russia invaded Ukraine there has been lots of talk about holding Putin responsible for the crimes being committed against the Ukrainian people…..and likewise there is more talk about holding HAMAS responsible for the ‘crimes’ they have been accused of committing.

All this is an excellent idea….but all parties committing these crimes should be held accountable….ALL parties……

Before we go any further what is a war crime…..

The ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas has led to accusations of war crimes on both sides, after Israeli civilians were targeted in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and Israel responded with airstrikes on the densely populated Gaza Strip.

Under these conditions, protecting civilians can prove difficult or impossible. But combatants are bound by international humanitarian law to minimize the impact on populations.

Here’s what to know.

Although the history of international law regulating warfare goes back to the first Geneva Convention of 1864, World War II — in which twice as many civilians as fighters were among the tens of millions killed and the Nuremberg Trials that held Nazi leaders to account for atrocities — spawned interest in expanding the scope of the agreement.

The 1949 Geneva Convention established Article 3, delineated combatants from noncombatants and set down the obligations of governments and militaries on how to minimize casualties and the suffering of civilians in wartime.

International humanitarian law “basically grounds the parties to a conflict,” says Fernando Travesí, executive director of the New York-based International Center for Transitional Justice, which works with victims of massive human rights violations. Armies, he says, have the right to go to war, “but that exercise of violence has limits.”

The Geneva Convention has been agreed to by 196 states and serves as the international standard on the treatment of civilians, as well as prisoners of war and sick and wounded soldiers.

In a practical sense, every government in the world subscribes to these rules, says Kenneth Roth, a visiting professor at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs and former executive director of Human Rights Watch. “I think it’s important to stress that these [rules] are not the concoctions of human rights groups. These are not idealistic, pacifist rules. These are the rules that the militaries themselves adopted for themselves,” he says.

https://www.npr.org/2023/10/20/1206157206/israel-hamas-war-crimes-international-law-geneva-convention

There are some countries that do not want to held accountable and those countries are the ones that yell the loudest about war crimes.

The law holds no credibility if all nations do not subscribe….just a bunch of loud-mouths and hypocrites.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

12 September–Sabra And Shatila

Forty years ago today a massacre of women and children was committed by the Israeli army and the world just shrugged…..

I have written about this massacre several times….but for those too damn lazy to use the ‘search’….let me remind everyone…..

Forty years ago, during the week of September 12, we were working in a Palestine Red Crescent Society facility, Gaza Hospital, in Sabra Shatila camp in West Beirut. As health care workers, we were trying to heal the wounds and repair the mutilated and destroyed bodies of those injured by Israel’s Invasion of Lebanon in June 1982. We had been working there following the evacuation of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), mediated by US Middle East envoy Philip Habib. Crucial to the evacuation agreement was the protection of the civilians left behind after the evacuation of the PLO, and Israel’s undertaking not to invade and occupy Beirut. With the guarantee of protection by the multinational peace keeping force, thousands of displaced civilian war victims returned to Sabra Shatila to rebuild their homes and lives.

Unknown to these people who returned hoping to pick up and mend their shattered lives, the multinational peace keeping force left West Beirut on 11 September 1982. On the evening of September 14, 1982, we became aware that the President-elect of Lebanon had been assassinated. Around the break of dawn on the following day, we heard planes flying low into Beirut. Within hours, sounds of heavy artillery and machine guns could be heard close by. It continued all day and soon the periphery of the camp was hit relentlessly. We went to an upper floor of the hospital where we watched as flares went off, lighting areas of the camps, followed by gunfire. As hours passed, we hectically received and tended to the thousands of camp residents who fled to us or were brought into the hospital seeking emergency medical care, safety, and security. The hospital ran out of food, water, medication – and blood for the wounded.

Remembering the Sabra Shatila Massacre, Forty Years Later

The world should never forget this atrocity….or the unprovoked attack on the USS Liberty in 1967…..

My one question is….why is Israel allowed to act as they do with disregard for human life?  Why?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

War Crimes

A popular term these days….daily accusations just keep rolling out.

There has been lots of yelling and accusations about the crimes committed by Russian against the Ukrainian people….even the president of the US has gone to that length…..news outlets are said to be gathering evidence to present to the ICC against Russia.

This piece was written by Lark Escobar, a graduate student at Tufts University……

Not all acts are permissible in war, and the horrors of the Russian invasion of Ukraine are more than just the normal or lawful incidents and targets (objectives) of violence in war.  War crimes are grave, criminal violations of international humanitarian law, which can be grouped into three categories: crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.  Russia appears to be committing crimes in all three categories in Ukraine.

Crimes Against Peace

Russia invaded Ukraine on Thursday, February 24th, 2022, thus committing a crime against peace by waging a war of aggression.  Although Russia is promulgating a narrative that it “had no other choice” and was forced to invade to “de-Nazi-fy” Ukraine and liberate it from “neo-Nazis” committing alleged human rights violations, there is no evidence to support these assertions.  There are no media reports, NGO reports (like Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch), or United Nation reports to indicate that there was any such crisis in Ukraine or any legitimate basis for the Russian invasion. 

War Crimes

The Russian forces appear to be committing further violations by their method of targeting.  It is unlawful in war to target civilians, civilian infrastructure such as schools and hospitals, forcibly transfer or deport civilians, plunder public and private property, or engage in unnecessary destruction of cities, towns, or villages.  There are a number of provisions that protect civilians including the principles of proportionality, necessity, and warning – in other words a military cannot target civilian infrastructure unless there’s a clear military necessity and when they do they should warn civilians so the area is cleared and loss of civilian life is mitigated.  

Another war crime is that of perfidy, or pretending to be someone with protected status (chaplains, medics) in order to stage a surprise attack.  It is possible that Russian forces, specifically the Chechnyan fighters, have committed this crime in Kyiv on February 27th, 2022. It is also a war crime to torture civilians, treat them poorly, or enslave them. 

Crimes Against Humanity

Some of the most widely reported allegations of Russian crimes against humanity in Ukraine is those of rape and murder. Reports of gender-based violence including molestation and rape of victims including women and girls.  Another suspected crime against humanity violation is that of forced deportation of Ukrainian civilians. Summary execution without due process and trials for civilians (essentially murder) is also a crime against humanity and has been alleged to have occurred in the town of Bucha  just outside of the capital and also in Chernihiv and Kharkiv. 

An Uncooperative Russia

These allegations are not exhaustive of all the reports of Russian atrocities, and other inhumane acts may be considered crimes against humanity, as well. In all cases, these crimes are challenging to prosecute – even when the individuals carrying out these crimes are being ordered to do so by their superiors.  The International Criminal Court, or ICC, announced it began an investigation into these potential war crimes on March 2, 2022, but thus far Russia remains uncooperative and has not made clear efforts to mitigate these violations.  

Media outlets claim that they are compiling evidence to present to the court….yet their reports carry the caveat that “this report has yet been verified”…..that makes it ‘hearsay’ and no court I know will go to trial on hearsay only.

If these outlets have real evidence then I say why is it not reported….after all that is their job supposedly.

If the accusations are true then I say prosecute to the full extent of the law.

War is an obscenity to begin with and the committing of crimes against innocents is unacceptable….period!

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Will You Pardon Me?

Trump is doing what he can to give him a pro-military lean for the 2020 election……even to the point of pardoning war criminals…..

Even with all the wars the US is presently involved in and all the shady activity that goes with that, it’s fairly unusual for the military to get around to charging personnel with war crimes. When they do, however, military commanders try to emphasize the importance, both to show the military doesn’t let everyone get away with everything, and to deter personnel from ignoring the chain of command.

On Friday, however, President Trump knocked out three of those war crimes cases with full pardons. The White House statement said they wanted to give US soldiers the “confidence to fight.”

Maj. Matthew Golsteyn was being held on charges of murdering an Afghan detainee. He repeatedly admitted to doing so. Trump had repeatedly expressed support for Golsteyn and for the killing.

Golsteyn was told by an Afghan tribal elder that the murder victim, Rasoul, was Taliban, and detained him on that basis. The military required Rasoul’s release after the maximum time of detention without charges, so Golsteyn let him go, and ambushed and murdered him outside the base. Golsteyn has recently tried to rebrand this as a legal ambushing, arguing that he suspected Rasoul was “trying to rejoin the Taliban” since he was released.

Lt. Clint Lorance was convicted of two murder charges for ordering troops to murder Afghans on motorcycles. He had been serving 19 years in prison. The killing was detailed in the Starz documentary “Leavenworth,” where platoon members discussed the killings.

SEAL Edward Gallagher was facing a murder charge for posing for a photo with a corpse, in addition to already being found guilty of posing for the photo in general. Trump not only pardoned Gallagher, but restored his rank to Chief Petty Officer.

The Pentagon’s commanders are deeply concerned about these moves, and had been trying to talk Trump out of them. They argue that military discipline will suffer if soldiers believe they can ignore military rules on the assumption of a pardon.

Trump’s position is built around showing that he is so pro-military that he can excuse war crimes, including murder, on the basis that the soldiers are supposed to be killing the enemy anyhow, and it’s unfair to judge just how they kill.

(antiwar.com)

Pentagon commanders worried moves will undermine military justice….just few a few votes.

As I understand it….if one accepts a pardon then one admits to the crimes….ergo they are guilty.

We have the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and the president should keep his grubby little hands out of the military…..

So for all time they will be known as pardoned war criminals.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

He Was Taken Aback

Closing Thought–10Jun19

Recently the president had batted around the idea of using his pardon power to do so for a SEAL accused of war crimes…..the news made veterans groups and vets themselves come unglued…..a Trump got his feelings hurt…..

President Donald Trump thought that pardoning multiple accused or convicted war criminals would be a big political winner — but he was reportedly surprised when multiple military veterans groups came out against the proposal.

The Daily Beast reports that Trump has put his war criminal mass pardon scheme on ice after he “was personally taken aback by the across-the-board pushback” against it.

In particular, the president had “not expected the blowback to be as fierce and widespread among veterans as it was” when he watched cable TV and newspaper coverage of the plan, which would have included a pardon for a Navy SEAL who has been accused by his own fellow service members of deliberately murdering civilians in Iraq.

Veterans groups such as the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and the progressive Vote Vets both signaled opposition to Trump’s plan, and multiple retired generals went on cable news to explain why these pardons would be horrible for maintaining order within the military.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/06/trump-was-personally-taken-aback-when-military-vets-denounced-his-plan-to-pardon-war-criminals-report/

Seriously?

He was taken aback?

I thought he attended military academy….maybe they do not teach military stuff at a rich guys playground for their offspring.

Maybe he would understand a little better if he had manned up and went into the draft and served his country…he might then understand the UCMJ…..the “Code” by which the military functions.

But since he chose bone spurs over enlistment then his reaction is understandable…..cowards get their feelings hurt easily.

No Way To Honor Memorial Day

Today is the day set aside to honor those that gave all for their country……and to remember those who did not return from war…..

Not a day for controversy……Our president is talking about using his pardon power yet again…..this time will be a mistake……

How are you spending Memorial Day?  Ordinary people may attend parades, host cookouts, or take the long weekend to visit loved ones……but not our beloved supreme leader……

Donald Trump, on the other hand, may pardon a few war criminals.

The president recently requested the files of several accused and convicted U.S. war criminals, a possible step toward expedited pardons for individuals who’ve done unspeakable things.

There’s SEAL chief Edward Gallagher, who senselessly shot to death a teenage girl and an elderly man in Iraq. Gallagher also brutally stabbed a wounded 15-year-old to death – and then posed for photos with the body, which he texted to friends.

https://original.antiwar.com/Peter-Certo/2019/05/26/pardoning-war-criminals-is-a-monstrous-way-to-honor-memorial-day/
 
Even members of Congress do not want the president to step into the middle of military justice…..

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) on Sunday urged President Trump to be “careful” in his reported plans to pardon a number of military servicemen who were accused of war crimes.

Ernst told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” that she doesn’t “know the details” of the prosecution for Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher or others but urged the president to “be very careful” in making a determination on pardons.

The president should not interfere with military justice……there is a code of conduct for service people…that code should not be questioned or overturned.
 
The president will do little to remember our fallen heroes if he goes through with this idea.
 
Today we observe and honor our war dead….it should be about NOTHING but that.
 
 
A Closing Thought…..I do not think this would be a story if the president had done his duty and served in the military (that is an idea for another post)……

Make Those Villains Pay

The US and its allies have made the villains of our wars pay for their treachery.  First it was the Nazis at Nuremberg and later it was Saddam  of Iraq.  The Allies thought that someone would have to pay for the atrocities that was committed by the Nazis and since Hitler had avoided trial by eating a bullet….someone had to be the example.

After the Allies got the Nazis to surrender they set about rounding up and arresting Nazis so they could be put on trial (except for the Nazis that got a free rode with Operation Paper Clip).

For the Germans it was the Nuremberg trials (1945-1949)…….

No trial provides a better basis for understanding the nature and causes of evil than do the Nuremberg trials from 1945 to 1949.  Those who come to the trials expecting to find sadistic monsters are generally disappointed.  What is shocking about Nuremberg is  the ordinariness of the defendants: men who may be good fathers, kind to animals, even unassuming–yet who committed unspeakable crimes.  Years later, reporting on the trial of Adolf Eichmann, Hannah Arendt wrote of “the banality of evil.”  Like Eichmann, most Nuremberg defendants never aspired to be villains.  Rather, they over-identified with an ideological cause and suffered from a lack of imagination or empathy: they couldn’t fully appreciate the human consequences of their career-motivated decisions.

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/nuremberg/nurembergACCOUNT.html

If that is too much to read…then watch this……

These were show trials and to  pretend they were anything other than that is disingenuous….why do I say such a thing?

Easy the judges were from the Allied countries so to say that it was a “fair” trial is laughable.  (do not get me wrong….these d/bags deserve to be punished for their crimes against humanity)

All I am saying is if the Allies truly wanted this to have an air of legitimacy then the judges should have come from the neutral countries during WW2…Switzerland, Sweden, Ireland.

Closing Thought–17May18

I have never been a fan of the antics of so-called “Security Firms” or as they should called by their real name….mercenaries…..that aside …..during the Iraq debacle some employees of Blackwater were convicted of killing Iraqi civilians…..then they had the Supreme Court rule on their appeal……

The supreme court has refused to consider appeals by the former Blackwater security contractors convicted in the 2007 slaying of 14 Iraqi civilians at a crowded traffic junction in Baghdad that marked one of the lowest points in the bloody conflict.

The court announced on Monday that it will not hear an appeal brought by the four men convicted in 2014 trial. They worked for the North Carolina-based private security firm then called Blackwater Worldwide that was contracted by the US government to provide security to US officials working in Iraq.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/may/14/blackwater-supreme-court-appeals-rejected-iraq

I am pleased to see that these paid killers, mercenaries, are not above the law……we probably have not heard the last of this situation.  Stay tuned.

So goes another day……I shall retire and be back in the morrow with more stuff.  chuq

The Tale Of Unit 731

A Wednesday and another of the professor’s history classes….(save the groans and moans for after the class)……

Does anyone remember your history?  Like Operation “Paper Clip” when at the end of the war in Europe teams of Americans rush to scoop up German scientists before the Soviets could do so.  Many of these “scientist” committed war crimes or at least looked the other way while they were being committed…all in the name of science.

These people got a free ride and avoided prosecution because of their “skills”.

Well Japan was not left out either……they had an infamous research unit called Unit 731 that carried out horrendous experiments on humans all in the name of science……and the US did the same as they had in Germany……they searched the countryside for these criminals so their “expertise” could be used by the US……

Upon my request, both the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Simon Wiesenthal Center have released copies of a December 1998 letter from DOJ official Eli Rosenbaum to Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. In the letter, Rosenbaum admitted to Cooper that after World War II the United States government had classified records pertaining to a Japanese military unit that engaged in biological warfare experimentation and field trials on humans.

The letter, one of two released to this author, confirmed the U.S. “essentially assisted Japan in covering up the atrocities perpetrated by the unit.”

Source: Department of Justice Official Releases Letter Admitting U.S. Amnesty of Unit 731 War Criminals

Just as with the scientists in Germany….the US profited off the suffering of others by giving the Japanese war criminals a “get out of jail free” card.

That makes us as much a war criminal as those that committed the horrendous experiments.

Where should the line be drawn?

The Ghosts of Direct Action

Always in war we hear about some atrocity committed by this side or that…..so when I read this story I thought that I would post it….I do not know whether this is some sort of propaganda tool or not…..if it is not then it is disturbing….

At first I thought it was a piece about some sort of protests where the participants are directly involved in the shaping of the protest……I was mistaken.

This is a report by a Ranger about some of the things he did in Afghanistan….like I said originally…if true then it is too disturbing for words…..

In early 2009 I was walking away from a compound a platoon from the Second Ranger Battalion had just assaulted when a staff sergeant I knew held up something in the dark.  I couldn’t tell exactly what it was.  It was small and he was bragging about it.  I tried to make it out but was soon distracted.  It wasn’t until I got back to Forward Operating Base Salerno and saw his pictures that I realized that he had been showing me a square piece of flesh that he had cut out of a dead woman’s neck.

Mutilating the corpse of a female noncombatant was just the final act in a horror show that night put on by this young Ranger.  He had killed several people.  One was a military-aged male, the rest were women; one looked to be about thirteen.

Source: The Ghosts of Direct Action – Antiwar.com Original by — Antiwar.com

I know for a fact that shit happens during war….however there needs to be a point where things are not tolerated…..I realize that this may not be an accurate depiction of the situation….but it is one person’s first hand account of what happened…like it or not…

I cannot wait to see how the mentally challenged will try and spin this into something positive….that is what knuckle draggers do.