Let's get our war criminals straight

Seeing his name in the headlines again makes me cringe. Anecdotes about his childhood, subtly exalted recitations of his 'accomplishments' and forgiving glimpses into his psyche leave me aghast. The only thing i want to hear about this man is that he's finally going to prison for his crimes; the only photo i want to see of him is not a grinning, Armani-clad snapshot taken in some exclusive men's club, but rather, a sullen, orange jumpsuit-clad mugshot taken behind a throw-away-the-keys prison wall. i am not talking about Ratko Mladic, though it's a relief to see him finally on the dock in Den Hague. The man i'm referring to here is the war criminal who never was, the man who turned diplomacy into a killing game, the greatest mocker of international justice in my lifetime: Henry Kissinger.

Shame on The Independent for running this article on how Kissinger "is the perfect person for the job" of cleaning up FIFA's dirty laundry. To suggest that any international body should trust this man, give him even a modicum of decision-making power, is absolutely ludicrous. That the paper does so on the same day it runs a story on Mladic's first ICC appearance and puts his use of 'monstrous' to describe the charges against him in quotes shows a willingness to engage in double standards which is disheartening from this otherwise fairly responsible publication.

i like The Independent and will still continue to read it, but what were the editors thinking when they approved a sympathetic profile of Kissinger? It is insulting to readers and especially victims of known war crimes to present the perpetrators as anything other than exactly that. Just because America's Voldemort was able to slither around that country's potholed legal system does not make him innocent or his crimes forgivable, if not forgettable. The man fled Germany to escape nazism and we all know what the zionist holocaust industry constantly tell us when it comes to that gang of war criminals: 'Never forget!' Right. When dealing with Kissinger, that works for me.

i think we can all agree that if this is what the "only democracy in the Middle East" [sic] considers legitimate self-defense [sic], it's time to re-evaluate the pro-democracy agenda. Excerpted from this story on Al-Jazeera:

The following quote from an interview with Major-General Gadi Eisenkot that appeared in the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth in October, is telling:

"We will wield disproportionate power against every village from which shots are fired on Israel, and cause immense damage and destruction. From our perspective these [the villages] are military bases," he said.

"This isn't a suggestion. This is a plan that has already been authorised."

Causing "immense damage and destruction" and considering entire villages "military bases" is absolutely prohibited under international law.

Eisenkot's description of this planning in light of what is now unfolding in Gaza is a clear admission of conspiracy and intent to commit war crimes, and when taken with the comments above, and numerous others, renders any argument by Israel that it has tried to protect civilians and is not engaging in disproportionate force unbelievable.

Primate Hell

It had been my plan to totally switch gears and report on some newly identified co-inhabitants of our shrinking blue planet, including a legless lizard, a Borneo fox and a new species of mouse lemur, Microcebus macarthurii, named for the foundation which funded the research into these svelte Madagascar petits (photo by Dr. Blanchard Randrianambinina). In eastern Ecuador, 7 new species of Glassfrogs have been found. but like nearly all these new discoveries - mostly occurring in the tropics, i.e. RAINFORESTS - habitat loss is growing by the day and unless humans ship out to colonize Mars sooner rather than later, biologists aren't all that optimistic about how much longer into the future many of these creatures will survive. Every new species comes with increasingly frantic calls for habitat conservation.

Another spectacular novelty is a newly identified species of manta ray, found in Mozambiquan waters. Here's a super cool photo taken by Andrea Mitchell, an aussie doing her PhD research down there. These animals are certainly otherworldly enough to satisfy my sci-fi challenged imagination. The main threats to their survival are reportedly sharks, the asian medicinal industry and getting caught in seine nets, though not necessarily in that order. Elasmobranchii species feeding on each other may represent a sort of fundamentalist inter-special approach to survival of the fittest, but nothing Mother Nature's delivered on her own has come close to the destruction power of Homo sapiens sapiens. i have nothing against natural remedies and i've always loved my acupuncturists, but with so many of us and so very few of them, can't we find some chamomile blend that will offer up the same health benefits?

As i said, i'd planned to do a "New Non-Voter Roster" or something clever like that with these nocto-marino-primatological species types, but after reading about the crisis in Congo, i just couldn't bring myself to being completely light and airheady. According to lastest reports, dozens of park rangers from Virungi are still missing after the lot of them had to flee from the crossfire between Congolese (DRC) troops and (presumably) Nkunde's crazed hooligan soldados. This is the largest silverback gorilla reserve in Africa, in terms of sq kilometers, and they are now are greater risk than before. The rebels have reportedly taken over the park now.

This is from a year before, thought to be the act of Goma charcoal gangs:

If quasi-local poachers were doing this when there were park rangers around working to protect the gorillas, what should we expect to happen now that these protectors have fled? Can someone tell me what this war is the Congo is really about? What the purpose is? Just a bunch of wild men using territorial conquest as a reason to rape and pillage; the Tutsi position of protecting themselves from Hutu extremists doesn't cut water, given the extremism of Nkunde's forces. Yet even if there was a political justification, do they really need to be disturbing a primate reserve??? There doesn't seem much point in trying to take over territory whose value is destroyed in the process. But i'm sure they don't look at it that way. i'm a member of the vanishing eco-anarcho-liberal species, crying over dead gorillas - for god's sake! Primate hell, no matter which lens we apply.

Lame Phuck. Installment #3

Check this out. While the cats are clawing at each other to take control of the henhouse, the foxes who still reign the coop are now trying to pull this stunt: sneaking an article that grants them immunity into a congresionnal bill on detainee treatment. Another coup from the coop! Are they actually going to succeed in getting a democratic congress to agree to this? To agree to let them leave on the 20th January with retroactive immunity from prosecution on war crimes violations? Impeachment was never a plate on Pelosi's table, but this?? Total protection from ever having to be held accountable in a US court for the multitude of egregious, horrific crimes? Lest i seem to be directing all my anger at the democrats, let me add that the audacity of W Dick to even suggest such a piece of legislation (no doubt initiated on the Dick side of the equation) is at once obvious and mind-boggling. Their arrogance knows no bounds.

Also today, Minister of War Gates said he wants to send another 20.000 US soldiers to Afghanistan. Aside from being able to do security at the Afghan Govt-Taliban-Pakistan negotiations, what the hell are these forces going to accomplish in a region which has made it pretty clear that rule by proxy is never going to be acceptable? The Lame Phuck is still pushing his torturous imperial agenda down the throats of the poorest of the poor - one gets the impression that W is happy with Laura, yet he seems intent on fucking over as many people as he can between now and the 20th. (Excuse the strong language here, but in case you couldn't tell, this really really pisses me off!)



In the realm of international law, i'm not sure that a national government's granting of immunity from prosecution of war crimes translates into the International Criminal Court's acceptance of immunity. So if an international body decided to go after Cheney, Wolfie, Rummie and George - and Elliot Abrams - i HATE Elliot Abrams - this US congressional bill wouldn't stop them. Admittedly, i'm not an expert in international law but considering what happened to Pinochet in the UK, it leads me to think these guys would still have to watch their back when travelling outside the US. Pinochet, as i recall, abdicated power as part of a deal in which the Chilean Senate granted him immunity in that country's courts. Doing the quickie wiki check on Pinochet's arrest in London following an order from a Spanish court: it was the first time that several European judges applied the principle of universal jurisdiction, declaring themselves competent to judge crimes committed by former head of states, despite local amnesty laws.

So guys, it's not over till it's over and the law may get you yet.

Lame Phuck #2

Breaking news on the BBC informs us that Pakistani soldiers have taken a stand against US troops attempting to cross the Afghan border into Waziristan. It's about time someone said NO to the Pentagon, but perhaps the bigger issue here is what the Confounder and Thief thinks he's doing by sending US troops into yet another hostile country. As far as i can tell, the objective of the flailing W Dick administration is to destabilize as many countries as possible before they leave office: Iraq, Iran, Georgia, Pakistan, Afghanistan - hard to say who's next on the list but i wouldn't be surprised to read that Cheney's decided to stop over in Baku on his way back from Georgia. (Enticing more Russian troops to set up camp close to the Iranian border may look like a way to put a wedge in Russian-Iranian relations, but Putin is so much cooler and shiftier than W, the chances of seeing the Russians get buried in a meaningless regional conflict that destroys their ties with Tehran seem pretty slim.) The reason for sending more US forces to Afghanistan is now blatantly clear, even while attempts to start fighting inside Pakistan's territory have surely been pulled out of the Bush dynastic ass. One wonders if this will give Sen. Obama pause the next time he waxes urgent about putting his foot down with the Pakistanis. In the long term, Pakistan probably deserves as much of a political overhaul as the US, but in the short term, this isn't gonna happen at gunpoint - one of the many ironies may be that with US forces now grouping along its border and launching attacks inside the country, Pakistan's many internal divisions may actually dissipate under a common banner: US OUT NOW!

Another irony, pointed out in the Times of India, is that if Little Bush opts to go to war in Pakistan, US forces will be facing their own sophisticated weaponry. " In July, the Bush administration sought to shift $226.5 million in US counterterrorism aid for the F-16 upgrades." Pretty groovy, eh? Nothing like having your own misguided missiles come back to kill your troops. Irony No. 3 is that these raids across the border are inciting Pakistani tribes to join forces with the Taliban - or at least that's what they're threatening, according to this report.

That W still has the cajones to say he's made great progress in the so-called "war on terror" goes far beyond being disingenuous. He's either living in a dream world or just rubbing our noses in the fact that we've all be screwed. Impeachment looks increasingly mild, given the havoc this asshole has wreaked around the world.

The Prince of Darkness still shits in his sleep

This blog has mostly steered clear of what's happening in Iraq, not because i don't care, or don't follow the madness that continues to consume Babylon. Au contraire, it is (in fact) the subject of most of the non-fiction tomes i'm able to get my hands on here; i find books are more penetrating and accessible, since they tend to try and offer something analytical about the bigger picture rather than magnify the horrific details of the day to day insanity. Also, to be honest, on some level i'm still in the same fetal weeping position into which i collapsed on the day the invasion began, way back when. (At the time, people said i was over-reacting; 6 years later, i have to admit that what's happened has surpassed even my most morose expectations.) It's hard to know where to start discussing Iraq now, since everything i find myself wanting to say is either riddled with fungal emotion or seems to require a hefty amount of 'background' - folks like Dahr Jamail do that for a living minus the despair, and do a much better job of it than i'll ever be able to.

However, i really can't let the revelation of Richard Perle's dealings in Iraqi oil go unremarked. The Prince of Darkness rises from the cubicle of his office over at American Enterprise Institute or wherever the hell he's been ensconced since the Pentagon revoked his parking space, and aims to make a pretty penny on oil concessions in Kurdistan. That's just so rich, eh? Given Perle's ties to Israel and Israel's ties to the Kurds, on top of US demands that American oil companies get to control the rejuvenation of broken down Iraq's oil industry, i suppose we can hardly be surprised to see him capitalizing on his own debacle. Still, i have to register my utter DISGUST at his totally SHAMELESS PROFITEERING; if there were any justice in this world, he'd be sharing a cell with Mr. Karadzic discussing ways to faith heal his evil little soul (hahaha).

This story was broken yesterday by the Washington Post, but isn't fully accessible there without a subscription. A synopsis here says that Perle is part of a consortium led by Turkish AK Group International, which puts an even more demented spin on the whole situation. Why the Kurds are allowing a Turkish company to come in is beyond my comprehension, but that's the Prince of Darkness for you: no offense exists which cannot be mitigated by fiscal 'diplomacy' or some such Mephistophelan backdrop. Mr. Perle is among that rare breed of en flagrant ideologue who can hypnotize people into believing evil is evolutionary, insurgent wars are missions accomplished and girls blowing themselves up in marketplaces indicates the time is right for foreign investment. Irbil or bust: don't you really really really want to see him go there and dare to walk down the street???

Criminals & Collaborators: Random thoughts on Karadzic’s capture

It was one of those synchronistic mornings: i put on Radiolina, sat down for the morning news scan and, lo and behold, Radovan Karadzic has been arrested. As reactions from various European entities slowly began to accumulate and the details of his arrest and litanies of his crimes started popping up on all international news sites, i’ve got Manu Chao filling the air space with POLITIK KILLS and i’m just thinking how true that is, no matter which angle of time one chooses to consider things from.

Various EU personages – notably all from the West of Europe – were lauding the Serbian government for catching this guy not merely because of his crimes, which are well-known and well-documented, but because of the commitment demonstrated in meeting a condition set by the EU for Serbia to move towards accession into their fracturing ranks. The same countries that basically let Karadzic carry on with his siege of Sarajevo for years and vacated Sebrenica just in time to miss the massacre, are now patting President Tadic on the back, saying ‘job well done’ by which i suppose they mean ‘thanks for catching a man who made our own negligence more blatant than we’re ever going to fully admit.’ Call me cynical, but everything i’ve ever read about what was happening under Karadzic’s vicious watch makes it abundantly clear that these events were happening on the EU/NATO’s watch, as well. If inaction is a form of action, then letting a war criminal execute his plans has got to qualify on some level as also being a criminal act. Need i add that some of these same individuals – Merkel, Sarkozy, Brown – are still digesting the 18 course meals they enjoyed alongside George Bush in Japan? Excuse me while i go ask my friends from Fallujah whether they agree that the worst of the world’s war criminals is finally behind bars.

However, far be it for me to rain on the parties underway in Sarajevo and elsewhere, since there is definitely cause for celebration. Aleksander Hemon wrote an excellent piece for Balkan Insight about the capture and had this to say about Karadzic:

He fully existed only when organising the genocide, he was invisible and irrelevant before it, and has been invisible ever since. Karadzic’s star shone only against the dark skies of a vast crime. This is why Karadzic is still popular among the Serbs in the Republika Srpska and Serbia proper: like a mythological being, he came out of nowhere to do what needed to be done—wipe out the “Turks” and create an eternal, heavenly kingdom, completing the mythological job started hundreds of years ago in the Battle of Kosovo. He did not care what the world might say—for the world is but a minor distraction in the eternal Serbian struggle to survive and live as the celestial people; he was ever willing to sacrifice even his moral well being for the people.

That there are still people who would publicly support Karadzic boggles the mind a bit, but even the most misguided mythological quests take a long time to lose their appeal (again, i’d note here W’s self-perception of being a superhero tasked with catching Islamic ‘evildoers’). According to al-Jazeera, "Heavily armed Serbian security forces were deployed around the war-crimes court in Belgrade where Karadzic was taken and dozens of Karadzic supporters were reportedly seen gathering near the building chanting 'Karadzic Hero!' and 'Tadic Traitor!' Several were arrested after attacking reporters." Really, what is there to say about this except that these folks should hunker down for the long haul, because their hero is most definitely going to spend the rest of his life behind bars. Innocent until proven guilty? Hey, at least he's getting a trial, which is more than one can say for the 10,000 Palestinians being held in Israeli jails.

In the film 9'11"01, a c ollection of 11 meditations on 9/11- all 11 minutes long – the contribution from Danis Tanovic of Bosnia-Herzegovina has always stuck in my mind as a very realistic look at where we are in the history of human affairs… or, perhaps, where we’ve always been? Tanovic’s piece shows the women of Sebrenica holding their daily march asking for justice; at a minimum, asking for answers. There are just a handful of onlookers, it seems little more than an meditative act. After watching them parade in funereal fashion with their signs and despairing lamentations, we see some of them in a little restaurant watching the news reports of the WTC attacks - in the most subdued way, as if they were seeing a car accident. Although the film concludes with these women standing again in the town square to express their sympathy for the newest victims of unbridled violence, the message seems pretty clear: ‘Hello? America? We are all suffering here. This is not a novel situation, it is simply more of the same.’

For these women - like so many others in the world where terrible atrocities continue to unfold, e.g. Burma - whatever happens to Karadzic is only going to put a dent in their grief. This is not to say that he shouldn’t be brought in shackles to The Hague, that the thousands of people who’ve survived his attempted genocide should be deprived of watching his demise in the official historical records. Personally, i would even suggest that before they lock him up for good and throw away the key, he should be made to run a gauntlet in which every survivor, or surviving family member, has the opportunity to spit on him and scream whatever they like in his face. Let’s just remember that war crimes trials are political trials, in which those most victimized are never those who hold the most power. Yes, there are more of these criminals from the Bosnian war still to be tracked down, and i do sincerely hope they are tracked down; it’s never too late to punish an evildoer - that includes Mssrs. Cheney, Bush, Rumsfield and Wolfowitz. i suppose what i’m trying to say here is that as always, we must remain ever vigilant and remember that those who may be the most vocal admirers of the criminal court’s actions now may also be those most fearful of having their own crimes likewise turn up in the dock.