Clipmarks | War crimes Clips

800,000 Americans Busted Annually for Pot

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:30:09 GMT

clipped by: foxyarse
clipper's remarks: They argue the drug war “is doing far more harm than marijuana itself ever will,” because

* it diverts hundreds of thousands of police agents from serious crimes “to the pursuit of harmless tokers”;
* it costs taxpayers at minimum $10 billion a year to catch, prosecute, and incarcerate marijuana users and sellers;
* it enables government to snatch the cars, money, computers and other properties of people caught up in drug raids even if they have had no charges filed against them; and
* it allows “police agents at all levels to trample our Bill of Rights in their eagerness to nab pot consumers.”

The drug war has also unleashed a torrent of racism in the form of unjust sentencing, which confines crack-cocaine users who are mostly black to prison for longer terms than powder snorters, who are mostly white.

Hightower and Frazer say authorities have perverted the infamous “Patriot Act” of 2001 for use in non-terrorism cases, allowing “sneak-and-peak” search warra

Clip Source: www.laprogressive.com

800,000 Americans Busted Annually for Pot

Seven million Americans have been arrested since 1995 on marijuana charges and 41,000 of them are rotting in federal and State prisons — but the public is starting to rebel against “the preposterous war on pot,” two political scientists say. Thousands of other pot users and sellers are confined in local jails as well.

“People convicted of possessing even one ounce of marijuana can face a mandatory minimum sentence of a year in jail, and having even one plant in your yard is a federal felony,” progressive organizer Jim Hightower and co-author Phillip Frazer point out in the November issue of “The Hightower Lowdown.”

Police arrest someone in America every 36 seconds on marijuana charges, with a record 872,000 arrests made in 2007, “more than for all violent crimes combined,” Hightower and Frazer point out. They note that 89 per cent of all marijuana arrests “are for simple possession of the weed, not for producing or selling it.”

Tags: drug addiction, 800, 000 americans busted annually for pot

Nidal Hasan Terrorist Threat 'Not That Big a Deal'....Matthew Yglesias

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:58:26 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: I think a pretty good case can be made that this kind of situation actually is the main face of the terrorist threat. Not a big well-thought-out plot centrally directed from a “safe haven” in South Asia and undertaken by brilliant covert operatives, but the desperate violent act of a clearly disturbed individual. It’s going to be very hard to prevent this sort of thing. As long as the United States remains a country in which firearms are widely available"for the foreseeable future, in other words"we’re going to be unusually vulnerable to mentally ill spree killers of various kinds, including spree killers who nod in the direction of Islamist thinking.

But the larger point is that while these incidents are serious crimes and major tragedies for the victims, they hardly rise to the level of a major macro-level social crisis. They’re certainly not a first-order national security threat. And even put in the lower-stakes context of violent crime in America

Clip Source: americanpowerblog.blogspot.com

Thirteen people were killed and 29 wounded during Nidal Malik Hasan's jihadi rampage at Fort Hood. President Obama spoke today, and the PowerPoint transcripts of Hasan's Army doctors' lecture have been made available. Of course, I've been covering the story extensively. I've noted the remarks of a number of extremely pernicious leftist commentators, but Matthew Yglesias' post

today - coming at the same time as this new information paints a damning indictment of Hasan's propensity to fanatical violence - really takes the cake for willing blindness, even complicity, on the radical leftist:

Of course, it's not like Yglesias is sympathetic to Islam:

Tags: democratic party, islam, radical left, terrorism, war on terror

Israeli Activists Criticize US House

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:28:52 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Transcript at the source, has more detail.

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

Israeli Activists Criticize US House for Considering Resolution Condemning Goldstone Report on Israeli War Crimes in Gaza

The House is expected to overwhelmingly vote today to condemn a UN inquiry that found Israel committed scores of war crimes in its three-week assault on the Gaza Strip. Headed by the South African jurist Richard Goldstone, the inquiry also accused Hamas of war crimes and said both sides should investigate the allegations or face international prosecution. Over 1,300 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli attack, a majority of them civilians. Nine Israelis were killed by Palestinians and another four by so-called friendly fire. The bipartisan, non-binding House measure calls the Goldstone inquiry “irredeemably biased and unworthy of further consideration or legitimacy.” The vote comes one day before the United Nations General Assembly is expected to take up the inquiry’s findings. [includes rush transcript]

Tags: politics

Tamil refugees flee `genocide` in Sri Lanka

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:04:30 GMT

clipped by: beanz
clipper's remarks: Humanitarian reports are being suppressed - concentration camps, killings, disappearances.

Clip Source: www.greenleft.org.au

Tamil refugees — escaping from hell

While two boat loads of Tamil refugees fleeing Sri Lanka push their case to be admitted into Australia, two reports on Sri Lankan atrocities against Tamils have been released without a word from the Australian media or government.

Reports from the United States state department and the European Commission (EC) revealed the extent of the brutal crimes of the Sri Lankan state.

Tamil civilians bore the brunt of the Sri Lankan Army’s campaign — including one night in May when Tamil sources estimated 20,000 civilians were butchered in SLA bombings.

Since the formal end of the war in May, hundreds of thousands of Tamil people have been imprisoned in internment camps, in which torture, rape and disappearances are widely reported.

Sri Lanka’s military campaign against the LTTE was supported by Western powers such as the US and Britain.

Australia also supports the Sri Lankan state. Australia donates $30 million a year to Sri Lanka in aid

Tags: tamils

Italian Court Delivers Damning Verdict on CIA Renditions

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:42:17 GMT

clipped by: gppixelworks

Clip Source: www.spiegel.de

Italian Court Delivers Damning Verdict on CIA Renditions

A court in Milan has delivered its verdict in the spectacular trial of several CIA agents involved in the 2003 kidnapping of the Islamist Abu Omar. Some 23 American agents received prison terms after being found guilty in absentia. The court's decision is a condemnation of the anti-terror policies of George W. Bush.

In the world's first trial involving the CIA's "extraordinary renditions" program since the Sept. 11 terror attacks, a court in the Italian city of Milan delivered a clear verdict. A total of 23 US agents were convicted in abstentia and sentenced to prison terms over their role in the 2003 kidnapping of the Islamist Abu Omar.

Twenty-two of the Americans were given five year terms while the former Milan CIA station chief Robert Lady was sentenced to eight years in prison. Three US citizens were acquitted, with reference to their diplomatic immunity.

Tags: italian court, cia, renditions, guilty, george bush, extraordinary, war on terror, crimes

U.N. on Israeli War Crimes

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:35:19 GMT

clipped by: citizenbfk
clipper's remarks: The Goldstone Report now has been approved overwhelmingly by the UN General Assembly.

The report calls for Israel to investigate it's war crime accusations...and for the Palestinians to investiage theirs -- and says the slow starvation of over a million and half people in the Gaza Strip should stop.

Now, it seems it goes to the Security Council.

Which means, if things go as usual, the USA will veto it and it will end there.

The USA has does similar actions at the UN for decades, protecting Israel, no matter what.

The USA House of Congress has even gone on record, this week, opposing this war crimes report.

Israel yesterday seized a ship with weapons and said they come from Iran and this was a war crime...also pointing out that Russia, the USA, China, etc. are all guility of war crimes.

The conclusion appears to be that war is a war crime. Everybody's guilty. And let's just forget it.

...um, except when talking about the Nazi's of WWII or the Bosnian Serbs curre

Clip Source: www.jpost.com

UN General Assembly endorses Goldstone Report

The UN General Assembly approved on Thursday an Arab-backed resolution endorsing the Goldstone Report, paving the way for the matter to be sent to the Security Council.

A total of 114 nations voted in favor of the resolution and 18 voted against it, with 44 members abstaining.

Tags: israel, usa, un, war, crimes

The Tortured Logic Continues

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:43:24 GMT

clipped by: katsteevns

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

The Tortured Logic Continues

by Amy Goodman

"Extraordinary rendition" is White House-speak for kidnapping. Just ask Maher Arar. He's a Canadian citizen who was "rendered" by the U.S. to Syria, where he was tortured for almost a year.

Just this week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York City, dismissed Arar's case against the government officials (including FBI Director Robert Mueller, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and former Attorney General John Ashcroft) who allegedly conspired to have him kidnapped and tortured. Arar is safe now, recovering in Canada with his family. But the decision sends a signal to the Obama administration that there will be no judicial intervention to halt the cruel excesses of the Bush-era "Global War on Terror," including extraordinary rendition, torture and the use of the "state secrets privilege" to hide these crimes.

Kucinich Addresses UN Goldstone Gaza Resolution

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:33:59 GMT

clipped by: katsteevns

Clip Source: kucinich.us

Kucinich Addresses UN Goldstone Gaza Resolution

Wednesday, 04 November 2009

November 3, 2009, Congressman Dennis Kucinich addresses H.RES. 867 on the House Floor. H.RES. 867 condemns the UN Goldstone Gaza Fact Finding Mission Report.

"Today we journey from Operation Cast Lead to Operation Cast Doubt. Almost as serious as committing war crimes is covering up war crimes, pretending that war crimes were never committed and did not exist."

"Because behind every such deception is the nullification of humanity, the destruction of human dignity, the annihilation of the human spirit, the triumph of Orwellian thinking, the eternal prison of the dark heart of the totalitarian."

Clip Source: kucinich.us

"The resolution before us today, which would reject all attempts of the Goldstone Report to fix responsibility of all parties to war crimes, including both Hamas and Israel, may as well be called the "Down is Up, Night is Day, Wrong is Right: resolution."

US House: UN report on Gaza 'war crimes' is biased

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:44:48 GMT

clipped by: infidel70
clipper's remarks: The Goldstone report lambasted both sides in the war, which killed up to 1,387 Palestinians and 13 Israelis, but was harsher toward Israel. It gave Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants six months to mount credible investigations or face possible prosecution in the Hague.

Both Israel and Hamas have denied committing any war crimes. Israel has criticized the report as unbalanced and says the 47-nation Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council, which commissioned the report, is biased against the Jewish state. (Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau in New York; editing by Todd Eastham)

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

WASHINGTON, Nov 3 (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday condemned as biased a U.N. report accusing Israel and Hamas of war crimes in Gaza, and urged President Obama to oppose U.N. endorsement of its findings.

The House acted despite a written protest to lawmakers by South African jurist Richard Goldstone, who said his report on the December-January war in the Gaza Strip was misrepresented.

Opponents of the House move warned that although it was non-binding, it would hurt U.S. credibility as a broker of Middle East peace.

But sponsors of the House resolution, approved 344-36, said it was necessary to formally denounce the document because it displayed a bias against close U.S. ally Israel.

The report "paints a distorted picture," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. It "epitomizes the practice of singling Israel out from all other nations for condemnation."

South Africa's legal war over Gaza

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:35:32 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Clipped for the most stupid statement I have read in a long time - the last sentence absolutely kills any chance of interest.

Clip Source: english.aljazeera.net

The Goldstone report on last winter's Gaza war has become something of a fixture in the media since its publication in September.

But for South Africans, it is another investigation carried out by the distinguished judge Richard Goldstone - a commission that exposed the brutality of Apartheid security forces in the early 1990s - that looms large in their minds.

Now a group of South African lawyers are confident that his recent Gaza report has paved the way for a legal case that could see uncomfortable questions about the conflict asked much closer to home.

They want to investigate South African citizens who may have fought for the Israeli army during the war on Gaza in December and January, with a view to prosecuting them on South African soil for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The lawyers are all Muslims, but deny they are only taking on the case to defend their co-religionists.

"This is not a Muslim-Jew thing. No religion condones the killing of innocents.

Tags: idiots

Opium, Rape and the American Way

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:46:51 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Truth from the women in Afghanistan:
(read the whole article for the real story)
"In eight years less than 2,000 Talib have been killed and more than 8,000 innocent civilians has been killed," she went on. "We believe that this is not war on terror. This is war on innocent civilians. Look at the massacres carried out by NATO forces in Afghanistan. Look what they did in May in the Farah province, where more than 150 civilians were killed, most of them women and children. They used white phosphorus and cluster bombs. There were 200 civilians on 9th of September killed in the Kunduz province, again most of them women and children. You can see the Web site of professor Marc Herold, this democratic man, to know better the war crimes in Afghanistan imposed on our people. The United States and NATO eight years ago occupied my country under the banner of woman's rights and democracy. But they have only pushed us from the frying pan into the fire. They put into power men who are photocopies o

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

warlords we champion in Afghanistan are as venal, as opposed to the rights of women and basic democratic freedoms, and as heavily involved in opium trafficking as the Taliban. The moral lines we draw between us and our adversaries are fictional. The uplifting narratives used to justify the war in Afghanistan are pathetic attempts to redeem acts of senseless brutality. War cannot be waged to instill any virtue, including democracy or the liberation of women. War always empowers those who have a penchant for violence and access to weapons. War turns the moral order upside down and abolishes all discussions of human rights. War banishes the just and the decent to the margins of society.

weapons of war do not separate the innocent and the damned. An aerial drone is our version of an improvised explosive device. An iron fragmentation bomb is our answer to a suicide bomb. A burst from a belt-fed machine gun causes the same terror and bloodshed among civilians no matter who pulls the trigger.

NUKE GAZA: A WORLD GONE MAD

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:38:13 GMT

clipped by: The Infowarrior
clipper's remarks:

"Not since 1948 has this enclave of extremists mounted such a public relations offensive. Christian Zionist President Harry Truman trusted Jewish Zionist lobbyists when he solicited assurances that they would not become what they immediately became: a racist theocratic state with an expansionist agenda destined to create serial crises in the region.

The merciless global agenda pursued by Colonial Zionists is the single greatest threat to world peace, as confirmed yet again by Lieberman’s warning. As the primary remaining ally of these Jewish nationalists, the risks to the U.S. increase with each passing day as Tel Aviv works behind the scenes to catalyze yet another conflict. This entangled alliance was destined to provoke resentments that would eventually endanger their super power ally and foremost arms provider. "

Clip Source: www.davidicke.com

Clip Source: www.veteranstoday.com

GAZA ISN'T ABOUT ISRAELI SECURITY

GAZA IS ABOUT A WORLD GONE MAD

VeteransToday.com - Israeli officials are right to worry. Gazans too. Yet Americans should worry even more.Israel’s “legitimacy” will not last.

Of course, that assumes its legitimacy was deserved. That issue also is now called into question in light of the consistency of Israeli behavior over the past six decades. The emerging issues are these: When and how will the recognition of Israel’s nation-state status be withdrawn? How will Tel Aviv behave in the interim?

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman may have tipped his Masada hand when he reportedly told Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan that Israel may use nuclear weapons against Gaza. The threat to Israel is not the 1.5 million Gazans who reside in the world’s largest open-air prison. The threat is the fast-growing global outrage at the abuse inflicted on Palestinians, commencing with the ethnic cleansing of 400-plus villages six decades ago.

Nuclear-Armed Fanatics

Tags: palestine, israeli occupation, palestinians, genocide, apartheid, zionism, war crimes, nuclear, avigdor lieberman, gaza

Emergency! Congress Debates Burying the Goldstone Report!

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:59:51 GMT

clipped by: The Infowarrior
clipper's remarks: "TELL CONGRESS TO RESPECT US AND INTERNATIONAL LAW!"

"What message are we sending to the rest of the world when we grant Israel complete impunity?

This legislation has very important implications beyond the war crimes committed in Gaza. Israel has responded to the report by demanding the Western powers rewrite international and US law, warning that acceptance of the Goldstone report will mean that the US’ military campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan will be subject to similar scrutiny. (Judge Goldstone has drawn a distinction – stating that his report finds that Israel deliberately targeted civilians). This legislation also ignores serious allegations that Israel has violated the US Arms Export Control Act."

Clip Source: politicaltheatrics.org

SUBJECT: TELL CONGRESS TO RESPECT US AND INTERNATIONAL LAW!

Emergency – Call Congress Now

The US Congress is a considering a bipartisan resolution which would officially reject the findings of Judge Goldstone’s report on the Gaza war and call on President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton to use the US veto to prevent a vote on the report in the United Nations Security Council. A vote on the bill, House Resolution 867, is expected by this coming weekend.

It is urgent that you call both your Senators and your Congressperson today and tell them to vote against this outrageous bill. You can read the bill here. It ignores the conclusions of the Goldstone Report and simply parrots Israeli government denial.

Judge Goldstone has challenged the US to substantiate its claim that his report is “flawed.” President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton have made no response.

Tags: israel, gaza, zionism, congress, war criminals, hr 867, human rights, judge goldstone

Congress to Weigh in on UN's Gaza Report

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:21:46 GMT

clipped by: brightlight4

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

Congress to Weigh in on UN's Gaza Report

House resolution calls the findings 'irredeemably biased'

The House of Representatives on Tuesday is poised to pass a nonbinding resolution condemning a controversial U.N. report on alleged Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip that has become a major complication in Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's diplomacy in the Middle East this weekend.

Clinton will meet in Abu Dhabi on Saturday with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who has seen his popularity plummet since he initially agreed under pressure from the Obama administration to defer U.N. consideration of the report. He later shifted course, and now the U.N. General Assembly will consider it on Wednesday. But Israeli officials have warned that any effort by the United Nations to add further legitimacy to the report will undermine the administration's efforts to relaunch peace talks with the Palestinians.

Sorry Ass News For A Sunday Morning

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:32:48 GMT

clipped by: thinkingblue
clipper's remarks: Did you ever pick up a newspaper and wished you hadn't? Well that's what happened to me this morning. It wasn't an actual real time Newspaper but in today's world it was a Newsdig but I still wished that I hadn't clicked!

First it was a, Health Care {NO} Reform won by the Health Care and insurance Industry.

Then the gloom and doom news from Afghanistan. It's enough to make you put on a pair of rose colored glasses or stick your head in the sand. But alas, I can't do that, because then I would become part of the (Sarah Palin - Michele Bachmann et al ) crazy lunatic fringe mob on the right!

Clip Source: www.thethinkingblue.com

The Sorriest Ass News For Sunday 11/01/09

After all the fuss, public health plan covers few

This is beyond disgusting. Why anyone is not outraged over this (except for the insurance companies) is also beyond repulse. Good Luck America, our leaders have handed our fate over to the health insurance lobby, and Corporate Interests, once again. The next question is HOW MANY MORE WILL DIE BECAUSE OF THIS DECISION? Thinkingblue

. MORE

Afghan challenger drops out of runoff election While President Obama has to make one of the hardest decisions of anyone's lifetime, determining, whether or not to continue a deplorable war by sending in more fodder or withdrawing and allowing a sovereign state to solve its own problems. Afghanistan leaders continue to play games and commit high crimes and misdemeanors.

Did we really believe that when George W. Bush and his sidekick Dick (the dick) Cheney left office we would not have to stomach them any longer?

MORE

Tags: politics, health, healthcare, reform, afghanistan, war