Tag: war crimes

I can’t believe that the Nobel Peace Committee could possibly, with a straight face, give out this award to the man who has been escalating Warfare, ever since he took office, and escalating human slaughter (including civilian bombings from unmaned, computerized War drones) throughout Afghanistan and Pakistan, and who has been actually increasing the presence of private Contractors (e.g., Blackwater, at the expense of poor American middle class taxpayers) in War torn Iraq, and who refuses to close the foreign Military Bases there, or bring about any end to that shameful tyrannical War.

In addition, Obama has been using (abusing) the high office of the Presidency to protect and defend Bush administration officials against any judicial action or accountability (even fighting against the ACLU, and mandated Court orders in the process). He has continued the shameful practise of “secret renditions” to black site prisons (where the human torture continues), and has been transfering prisoners to Bagram — the new “Abu Grahib”, while failing on his so-called promise by choice to “end Guantanimo”.  Obama has not only perpetuated the many War Crimes of the Bush administration, in all their various forms, he has blocked any effort to allow any cleansing or healing to take place, for this Country or for the World, that would be realized by a public government rebuke and prosecution of these War Crimes.  Conversely, he has portrayed them as legitimate public policy, and maintained legal defense on behalf of them.

Jeremy Scahill is, to my mind, the finest journalist working today.   There are very few real journalists left, I could probably count them on one hand, and Scahill is simply on fire.  

I wanted to share his latest, from his website where he simply destroys the whole notion of ACORN being any kind of a real scandal.

Here is the jist of his article:

How could any sane person put even the wildest allegations against ACORN up against the systematic misconduct and criminality of war corporations and gigantic multi-nationals?

This, considering the way the media has covered this, the way our politicians have such a terrible, palpable fear of any real Democracy that they all, including our complicit Democrats, have decided that Acorn is the real enemy and worthy of being punished, to the point where they are trying to pass legislation called “The Defund Acorn Act”.

If you just put ACORN up against Blackwater, the charges are absolutely ludicrous.   Acorn received $53 million over 15 years, most of which went to support housing for low-income people.   Blackwater has received over a BILLION in government contracts in the last few.  

And check this out:

The GOP smear machine tries to link ACORN to prostitution. Beyond the hypocrisy of Republicans denouncing prostitutes (long history of using them), do they really want talk of prostitution? One former Blackwater employee recently stated in a sworn declaration that Blackwater owner Erik Prince “failed to stop the ongoing use of prostitutes, including child prostitutes, by his men.” Another former employee described “having young girls provide oral sex to Enterprise members in the ‘Blackwater Man Camp’ (in Iraq) in exchange for one American dollar.” (PDF links to these affidavits are here) Even if ACORN did provide inappropriate tax advice to a prostitute, is that really on the same level as this conduct being conducted on a huge US government contract? If you think these are just the allegations of disgruntled employees, read the Justice Department’s perspective on Blackwater’s crimes and how its men “specifically intended to kill” Iraqi civilians as “payback for 9/11.”

As Scahill notes in his previous work on the website, Where is the “Defund Blackwater Act”?     Where, indeed?    Supposedly Democratic and supposedly liberal and supposedly “for the people” Barack Hussein Obama has decided to keep using Blackwater until, well, god only knows how long.   Yet what do we hear about in the press?   How bad and terrible and corrupt Acorn is.  

Nobody talks about defunding the real criminals, others of which are mentioned here:

Beyond the question of innocent until proven guilty, these questions must be asked of Democratic lawmakers who support this punitive legislation against ACORN: Where is your legislation to defund the companies whose men are indicted by actual, real life prosecutors for manslaughter; who are accused by the IRS of tax fraud and whose North Carolina compound has been raided by the ATF for possessing unauthorized, automatic weapons? What about the move to defund KBR, which has provided polluted drinking water to US troops and installed faulty electrical wiring that has resulted in the electrocution deaths of US soldiers? What about the move to defund the massive US-funded mercenary force DynCorp in Iraq, Colombia and Afghanistan? A company whistleblower alleged that in Bosnia he “witnessed coworkers and supervisors literally buying and selling women for their own personal enjoyment, and employees would brag about the various ages and talents of the individual slaves they had purchased.” What about defunding Armor Group, which employed security guards at the US embassy in Kabul who were throwing fraternity-style parties, complete with disgusting hazing of new recruits in the form of alcohol shots off of butt cracks and the fondling of genitals?

You really just need to read the whole thing.   I can’t possibly do it justice in lame attempts to paraphrase.    And read the rest of his stuff, too, give his site a visit.   He’s amazing.   We need hundreds of Jeremy Scahills in the world, sadly there is just one.

Nobody in this country is going to care, and I’m sure this will never see the light of day here, either, but I just have to applaud this:

British trade unions to boycott Israeli goods

Britain’s Trades Union Congress has approved a call for a targeted, consumer-led boycott and sanctions campaign against Israel and to work closely with a radical anti-Israel group.

The decision was announced on Thursday at the 6.5-million member labor federation’s annual conference in Liverpool.

The new policy calls on the British government to condemn the “Israeli military aggression and the continuing blockade of Gaza,” and to end arms sales to Israel, which it said totaled £18.8 million in 2008.

It also advocates a ban on import of goods originating in settlements and an end to the European Union’s preferential trading terms for Israel.

Yeah, right, a “radical anti-Israel group”.  If you’re most of the people in Israel, especially the ruling politicians and the media, anyone who objects to anything Israel does, no matter how heinous, is a “radical anti-Israeli”.  

I wish this boycott would spread.   It already seems to be right down the old Memory Hole, the way the IDF committed atrocity after atrocity in Gaza, and continues to threaten World War Three with its belligerence against Iran.  

Israel is probably the greatest threat to world peace, and it’s all because it has blind, unequivocal support from the United States.  

And sphincter says what?

   

Inhofe said: “There has never been a case of torture there. The people there are treated better than in the federal prisons.”

    He continued, “I don’t know why President Obama is obsessed with turning terrorists loose in America.”

    As the Center for Constitutional Rights has documented, there have been countless cases of detainees being abused and tortured at the prison camp. Detainees have been beaten, deprived of sleep for weeks, sexually harrassed, and shackled to the floor for days at a time. Inhofe’s statement at the town hall is only the latest in his political broadsides. He has in the past suggested that Obama is “un-American,” that the mentality of Middle Easterners is “worse than Nazism,” and that the conditions at Guantanamo Bay are humane.

thinkprogress.org

     You might remember Senator James Inhofe (Coal Industry-OK) for such classic hits as “Global Warming is a Hoax” and his visits to foreign tyrants on behalf of the C – Street Family, but this whopper takes the cake.

    Despite massive evidence and facts that say “Yes, James Inhofe, there was torture at Gitmo”, the ceaseless attempts to re-write histroy to make it look GOP/Bush-Cheney friendly are not working, and since 9 GOP Senators have tried to persuade AG Eric Holder to play nice with the Bushies the simple fact is that the Bush/Cheney Administration DID torture and DID commit war crimes and crimes against US law, otherwise they would have nothing to fear.

    I guess we can just file this one away as another moment in a long line of moments where Republican politicians try to rewrite history while the rest of the world just shrugs it’s shoulders and says, “Yeah, right, and monkey’s might fly out of our butts!”

    If FDR was a Republican he undoubtably would have said “We have nothing to fear but OMG WTF IS THAT RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!!”

    Of course, anything a Senate Republican says should be taken with a brick of salt. The stimulus is having no effect, Health Care reform will kill your grandma, Obama is pro terrorist, etc, etc . . .

    So, it should be no surprise when America demands accountability for war crimes and the GOP gives us a gun rack instead.

Yes, they are mental.

Crossposted at Antemedius.com and The Progressive Electorate.com