While nothing could be done about Bush when America learned he’d lost Florida & his “intelligence failures” came to light, Netanyahu can be replaced whenever the Knesset musters the political will...
In 2000 my mother voted in Martin County, Florida. In her neighborhood, only a few Democrats were registered, and her registration and signature were questioned. At the polls, police cars ringed the entrance, ostensibly to discourage minority voters.
Comments from the US Civil Rights Commission Voting Irregularities in Florida During the 2000 Presidential Election: OVERVIEW
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights conducted an extensive public investigation of allegations of voting irregularities during the 2000 presidential election in Florida. The investigation, utilizing the Commission's subpoena power, included three days of hearings, more than 30 hours of testimony, 100 witnesses, and a systematic review of more than 118,000 pages of pertinent documents.
Perhaps the most dramatic undercount in Florida's election was the uncast ballots of countless eligible voters who were turned away at the polls or wrongfully purged from voter registration rolls.
While statistical data, reinforced by credible anecdotal evidence, point to widespread disenfranchisement and denial of voting rights, it is impossible to determine the extent of the disenfranchisement or to provide an adequate remedy to the persons whose voices were silenced in this historic election by a pattern and practice of injustice, ineptitude, and inefficiency.
Despite the closeness of the election, it was widespread voter disenfranchisement, not the dead-heat contest, that was the extraordinary feature in the Florida election. The disenfranchisement was not isolated or episodic. And state officials failed to fulfill their duties in a manner that would prevent this disenfranchisement.
The Commission does not adjudicate violations of the law, hold trials, or determine civil or criminal liability. Therefore, the recommendations that follow urge the U.S. Department of Justice and Florida officials to institute formal investigations based on the facts in this report to determine liability and to seek appropriate remedies.
Recommendations
1.1 The U.S. Department of Justice should immediately initiate the litigation process against the governor, secretary of state, director of the Division of Elections, specific supervisors of elections, and other state and local officials responsible for the execution of election laws, practices, and procedures, regarding their contributions, if any, to the extraordinary racial disparity in the rate that votes were rejected, through their actions or failure to act before and during the 2000 presidential election, in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended. Appropriate enforcement action should be initiated to ensure full compliance with the election laws.
1.2 The Civil Rights Division in the Office of the Florida Attorney General should initiate the litigation process against state election officials who violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended, and/or Title IX of the Florida statutes through their actions or failure to act before, during, and after the November 2000 election. Based on the results of the investigation, appropriate enforcement action should be initiated to ensure full compliance with the election laws.
1.3 The U.S. Department of Justice and the Civil Rights Division in the Office of the Florida Attorney General should initiate the litigation process against all state election officials who through their actions or failure to act violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended, by not obtaining preclearance either from the federal district court of Washington, D.C., or the U.S. attorney general. Based on the results of the investigation, appropriate enforcement action should be initiated to ensure full compliance with the election laws.
1.4 The state of Florida should institute effective monitoring systems to ensure the uniform implementation of any voting system that allows for a precinct count and an opportunity for the voter to correct his or her ballot; annually analyze the rejection rates of the voting systems used in the previous year; consider, based upon that analysis, decertifying any voting system that minimizes the rejection of spoiled ballots; and ensure that there is a consistent ballot rejection rate throughout the state. The funding authorized by the state legislature, but not yet distributed to the counties, must be sufficient to support this mandate. More specifically, the funding should ensure that all counties can obtain the required technology; and can provide appropriate voter education and effective training for poll workers and other election workers and officials. Appropriate administrative rules should be adopted that provide clear guidance and targeted oversight responsibilities for election officials at every level to ensure proper implementation of these requirements.
1.5 The state of Florida should retain knowledgeable experts to undertake a formal study to ascertain the reasons for the disparity in the vote rejection rates between white voters and persons of color and then adopt and publicize procedures to eliminate this disparity. The study should target best practices that ensure comprehensive poll worker training, enhanced education for first-time voters, and the delivery of adequate resources in all counties to resolve problems as they arise on Election Day.
1.6 The five counties subject to section 5 Collier, Hardee, Hendry, Hillsborough, and Monroe should take immediate steps to determine if certain specifications, particularly the voter responsibilities provisions set forth in the recently enacted Florida election law changes, constitute tests or devices that trigger preclearance action by the U.S. Department of Justice. Moreover, the U.S. Department of Justice should review these concerns.
1.7 Adequate financial resources should be allocated to educate voters, poll workers, and state election officials on all appropriate policies and procedures, including, but not limited to, general voting rights, a voter s rights while at the polling place, how the voter should use the technology to vote for his on her candidate of choice, and the proper procedures to resolve issues that arise at the polling place on Election Day.
Sandra Day O'Connor died. She question whether Bush v. Gore should have gone to the Supreme Court. She was a key vote in the 5-4 decision. So many coincidences but there is no such thing as a conspiracy. Think about if there were no 20 year long war and if we had gotten serious about climate change 25 years ago. It seems the oligarchs always get their way.
Gloria are you serious, that there is no such thing as a conspiracy? Conspiracies are the lifeblood of humanity. They exists everywhere, boardrooms, families.
Frankly, the same happened in Georgia. Briam Kemp was the Secretary of State and he purged voters, I believe all minorities. So, in essence, he was not duly elected, he cheated and repeated the process when Stacy Abrams entered the race once again.
What a tale of multiple levels of corruption and so my former state. I remember it as a tragedy. The democrats have been outplayed time and time again because they never had the backbone to fight back against the dirty tricks of multiple corrupt elected and appointed officials. The GOP is responsible for gaming the election process, our ability to govern as our founders intended, and almost destroying the republic. The only question that remains for 2024 is will this tottering on the brink of a Stalinist dictators remain when the votes are tallied by the corrupted officials in all the states.
I repeat the recommendations from the US Civil Rights Commission:
Recommendations
1.1 The U.S. Department of Justice should immediately initiate the litigation process against the governor, secretary of state, director of the Division of Elections, specific supervisors of elections, and other state and local officials responsible for the execution of election laws, practices, and procedures, regarding their contributions, if any, to the extraordinary racial disparity in the rate that votes were rejected, through their actions or failure to act before and during the 2000 presidential election, in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended. Appropriate enforcement action should be initiated to ensure full compliance with the election laws.
1.2 The Civil Rights Division in the Office of the Florida Attorney General should initiate the litigation process against state election officials who violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended, and/or Title IX of the Florida statutes through their actions or failure to act before, during, and after the November 2000 election. Based on the results of the investigation, appropriate enforcement action should be initiated to ensure full compliance with the election laws.
1.3 The U.S. Department of Justice and the Civil Rights Division in the Office of the Florida Attorney General should initiate the litigation process against all state election officials who through their actions or failure to act violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended, by not obtaining preclearance either from the federal district court of Washington, D.C., or the U.S. attorney general. Based on the results of the investigation, appropriate enforcement action should be initiated to ensure full compliance with the election laws.
The Federalist Society judges Trump helped to point have no respect for law, precedent, or voting rights. They want to destroy the VRA as well as the administrative system that runs the agencies and will put it in a total mess. The judges simply come up with the outcomes they want while ignoring precedent and past practice to reach their desired outcomes.
I think that many people besides us know all what is actually happening now. I ask Justice Robert if he knew what would happen by his gutting section 5 of the VRA. Of course, no response. So, we the AP must ensure enforcement of the VRA in its full original power.
Enter Federalist cabal hero Antonin Scalia, after the infamous decision was handed down he commented, “….Gore did not ask the right question in his brief to the court….’! Indeed! I suppose, only ‘plump’ Tony as a disciple of the faux originalist school knew the ‘right’ question to ask! Another of his ‘gems’ of wisdom was that ‘a delay in certifying little bush the winner would damage his presidency’! How wrong he was, little bush needed little help in damaging his presidency and subsequently destabilizing the world !
If we had a Dem as POTUS when 9/11 happened, they would have immediately attacked the President. Instead, we had a Republican President and "Americans came together"
Dec 1, 2023·edited Dec 1, 2023Liked by Thom Hartmann
"...and African-American groups like the NAACP were protesting that as many as eighty thousand Blacks had been purged from the voter rolls because a Republican-affiliated Texas corporation Harris had hired to “clean” the Florida list found that those Florida residents had names “similar” to the names of Texas felons."
It never ceases to amaze me that it is always this "group" that is electorally targeted. No other so-called "people of color" targeted: no Latino's, no Asians, no Arabs, not even Original Americans; always "just-us" and there is not only no "justice" in that stark fact, it is clear, convincing, irrefutable and prima facie proof of an apartheid system.
As for Nut-And-Yahoo, that is a name that both BeeBee and Bush share.
I totally agree and am alarmed that Merrick Garland has not moved to correct this problem.
However Kris Kolbach when he was Secretary of State for Kansas, compiled a list of names, typical of African Americans, Hispanics and Asians and sent it to Red States, which then used the list to scrub voters, based solely on first and last names. claiming they voted in two states, or with a state voted twice. ,Greg Palast exposed the scheme.
This was Netanyahu's excuse to eradicate the Palestinians in a more rapid and definitive fashion than he has been able to do previously with bipartisan support from the US. And as we see President Biden question the number of Palestinian casualties, hug Netanyahu as he enacts his genocide, and then give him the typical slap on the wrist, the racism of liberal America and the drive to ignore the Trump-like amorality of the Democrats comes clearly into focus. How many times prior to October 7th have you Thom Hartmann discussed Biden's or Obama's support of Netanyahu's apartheid? Have you condemned the party's condemnation of women of color like Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib for telling the truth about AIPAC and the horrors of Israel's theocracy? Israel is a terrorist nation and has been for decades, violating international law on a daily basis while liberals obsess about Putin and Trump. The silence of liberals on this subject enabled it as well, and now Biden and Blinken go on their "you shouldn't but we can't stop you and will send billions more in weapons to help them " tour while you rationalize that Jews are "special" and Muslims aren't quite as "special" in the xenophobia they have experienced.
I don't believe the Jewish people want a genocide, but I do believe Netanyahu and other greedy people have their eyes on that land. I was already thinking that, not just from Barry's comment. We'll see who makes a fortune on rebuilding Gaza and what becomes of the Palestinians who survive.
@ Gloria. Gave up Gaza. It was not Israeli responsibility until 1979. Sadat gave it away. When Sharon offered Gaza the settlements abandoned in 2007, Hamas turned them down, Still available.
In case you don't remember, most of those "Palestinians" over the age of 20 have Egyptian passports. Arab countries, like Saudi Arabia use "guest workers" but won't accept them.
The idea of a genocide of Arabs and Muslims is absolutely ridiculous. And using the word genoicide in that regards is pure propaganda B.S.. They couldn't if they wanted, and there is not a shred of evidence that the Jews want to wipe off the face of the earth, Arabs and Muslims, now the same isn't true for Muslims. genocide of the Jews is sanctioned, nay mandated by their sacred books. I've mentioned and quote it in another post on this page.
"Palestinians" (quotes are purposeful, are authors of their own misery.
It all started with a handful of Jews bought land in the 1920's from the Bedouins who had settled in what was then a Turkish satrapy, that was forfeited to Britain after WWI. The British Mandate it was called.
To be honest, there was a Jewish terrorist group, Irgun of which Menachim Begin was the leader. It broke away from the larger paramilitary Haganah,. and he terrorized the Brits and blew up the King David Hotel, he went on to become PM.
However in1948, the only land that the Jews owned was land bought from the Arabs.
The Arab neighbors looked at what the Jews had done to the once arid desert, the erected Kibbutz and made the desert bloom, the clean up Jerusalem, which Mark Twain had visited and described as a garbage dump.
This shamed the Arabs and they were envious, they wanted to take possession of what was once a miserable, arid piece of land, and so in 1948 after the UN declared Israel a nation, the Arabs invaded.
The British when the left, disabled their planes, tanks, vehicles and took their ammunition with them. The Jews using ingenuity, hard worked, intelligence repaired the planes and equipment, and manufactured their ammunition out of reformed lipstick tubes.
They beat back the Arabs and did what any sensible person or nation would do, ensured their safety by expelling Arabs, which the Arabs call the Nakba (catastrophe)
By the way there never has been a nation called Palestine. It was Turkish territory until after WWI, when it became a British Mandate.
The Arabs not learning a lesson, and having the need to distract their own disgruntled populations, declared a Jihad, and came back again and again, 1956, 1967, 1973 and 2006, and finally Oct 7, 2023, each time they lost, each time Israel expanded it's border. The Golan heights were once Syria's, Now it belongs to Israel, and for good heights, from the Golan heights the Arabs can bombard Israel and invade the country.
Like I said the Arabs have brought this on themselves, Each time they attack Israel, they lose, and in the process lose land. Land which Israel needs to defend itself from more Arab attacks.
And this mess today is because Arabs and their sympathizers in the west don't know or care to know history.
BTW, many including the ADL consider me an antisemite, because I am anti Zionist, and blame the rabid orthodox Jewish settler for this problem. They invade Arab communities in the west bank, kill and evict Arabs from their homes, and often with help of the IDF.
Israel has the same problem as America and Europe, it has a very politically active right wing and fascist party, who is responsible for Netanyahu
And the two stripes on the Israeli flag are aspirational, but no chance of reality. I've seen them described as the Nile and the Euphrates.
In my book a pox on both houses, however at the present the suffering of Gaza is completely the fault of HAMAS, and HAMAS, along with Islamic Jihad, DAESH, ISIS and all such groups are merciless psychopathic creations, but they are salafists in America we call them fundamentalists. you see them in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Afghanistan and in any country that marginalizes women by having them wear a hijab, a chador, an abaya, a niqab a burka.
It is not just Biden that questions the HAMAS narrative. I am not surprised that a HAMAS loving Jew does not.
HAMAS lies, and even Martin Griffiths The Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC) is the most senior UN official dedicated to humanitarian affairs. , accepts them without question.
When asked by the hostess of Deadline: White House, why he accepted HAMAS numbers, his response was that they were "triangulated". Trianulated? With what, HAMAS, Palestinians, and other organizations that accepted HAMAS lies.
HAMAS lies and has every motivation to lie, as it knows the mentality of westerners and that of all things they accept without question any propaganda from those that they perceive are underdogs.
I get it, you hate America, you hate democracy, and are probably an unequited Marxist. If not an outright Putinist troll.
The religious are not capable of loving thy neighbor. The left is non-religious. Many of the religious are not capable of loving anyone else but themselves. We need to protect children from being groomed by the religious to becoming detached from reality and full of hatred of others. There would be very little conflict and human suffering if the world was agnostic and open-minded.
Amazing how all those lives, the history, and the future of a whole country can depend on the lack of integrity of a few, very few people. Also it's remarkable how Bush decided to "fade away". He knew how he got there, what a crap job he had done, and that there were corpses piled-up here and overseas thanks to him. If he is truly a Christian, he knows where he is going when he dies. Have you heard him repent or ask forgiveness? Election theft, arrogance, and incompetence did not work out for him or America.
Systems like the one in Israel that make horrible coalitions do not appeal to me anymore than our rotten electoral college anachronism. PM Netanyahu has zero chance of escape; he too will face the music. A few people of integrity can take care of that---it has begun.
Many Israelis are unhappy with PM Netanyahu and thousands of Israelis have turned out to protest his attempt to get the Knesset to strip the courts of jurisdiction to try him on corruption charges. From what I’ve read, only 25% of Israeli voters support Netanyahu. It does not surprise me that the PM and his government failed to pay attention to Hamas’s plans for an attack and were preoccupied with a power grab. I am certain the survivors of the people Hamas killed at the dance festival and at the kibbutz, and the people who survived the attack on the kibbutz, as well as the hostages and their families will be hopping mad over the government’s failure to act. I think once the war is over, Netanyahu will have to declare an election, and he’ll lose and face criminal charges.
I recommend reading Gershom Gorenberg and his various articles critical of the PM. It seems the PM utterly failed in his duty to look out for the nation’s security. I was concerned that something lie this had happened, and unfortunately I was correct.
Netanyahu is in a shitload of trouble, now that the intelligence report is leaked, that instead of an intelligence failure, it was Bibi who chose to ignore the intelligence, and my opinion is that he knew it was coming, not aware that hostages would be taken, maybe even that, as he doesn't care, He just wanted an excuse to wipe out the two state solution idea, and win public support. He misjudged.
AS I mentioned above, a female member of the IDF, along with other females, relieved men in the Gaza watch towers, but were not issued weapons, and the men they relieved took their weapons with them. Bibi knew what was coming.
I am not surprised. What doesn’t surprise me is that even before this, Netanyahu was going to blame the IDF, Israel’s defense department and everyone else before this because there was no way he would have accepted any blame for ignoring the warnings. Now he has egg all over his face because he can’t do that, and Israeli voters will oust him his as soon as they can.
Absolutely correct, and the Israeli public and even the world has a whiff of Netanyahu now.
The one thing he has on his side are Zionists (not all Jews or Israelis are Zionist, the majority aren't) and the right wing orthodox settlers. They are to Israel as are MAGAts to Trump.
I, have a huge problem with all of these people knowing ahead of time and going oh well. The lives lost because of their failure to act is devastating. When do we learn not to repeat these tragedies over and over again.
This is an observation. The mainstream media is fixated on the israeli-palestinian conflict now and has forgotten the Ukrainian and Putin, war. The press has also conveniently forgot that the GOP is a terrorist organization, not a political party. If Netanyahu can keep this war
going until after our election we could become a dictatorship and Putin will win. I think it is possible that Putin, right wing American traitors and Iran planned this whole thing and Hamas are just pawns in the game of chess. Our CIA and FBI have been compromised since 9/11 of 1972. Probably before that also. Including 9/11/2001.
Read Rachel Maddows new book, Prequel. I didn't need to read it b ecause I already knew it.
In 1940, America was in the same shape (politically) that it is now. Fascists, in the form of the American NAZI party (called themselves Silver Shirts) and American Firsters (led by Charles Lindberg an admirer of Hitler), were opposed to America's entry into the war against fascism. Today 40% of America are corporatist fascists.
Called MAGAts.
From your comments I am left with the impression that if you had your druthers, Europe would be NAZI, and if Japan and Germany won the war, they would have split America between them, until their rivalry led to another war.
Japan had already occupied the Aleutian chain of Islands, and could have marched through the Kenai Peninsula into the west coast. And America demilitarized since WWI, would not have the Armed Forces to stop them, with America being distracted by the Japanese threat, Hitler would have the space and time to build his invasion force and land on Virginia Beach, VA. What puny military force America had would be split between fighting a war on two fronts, simultaneously, before it had the chance to build up and supply an Army big enough, trained enough and equipped enough to take on two enemies, one on the west coast one on the east,and then there is the problem of logistics, which means rail roads and highway, this was before Ike built the Interstate.
And no Israel's situation is different. Don't try to simplify things.The only parallel between Israel and America is that both are democracies (or were, Republicans have effectively killed that idea)
Israel even allows Arab citizens to vote and have seats in the Knessett.
Tell me how a Jew would fare in Gaza, a Palestine, any Muslim country, choose your own. They are even discriminated against and harassed in China.
If you feel I am talking down to you, then search from within Jenny.
Actually I have mentioned ,and been upvoted, that without the French navy at Yorktown, we would not have won the revolution.
But there is no need to mention it, time and again, because it is not relevant to discussion at the time, nor relevant to this one.
There I go again talking down to you. For you bringing in a complete irrelevance to a discussion about Netanyahu, Israel and the US.
Heart has nothing to do with history. History is about facts, heart is about emotions, and that is the "effing problem" with the world, too much emotions. Emotions is what gets people killed
Just a few examples,Road Rage, jealousy, envy, greed, hatred, bigotry.
Empathy, sympathy results in people taking uninformed actions because they rely on propaganda, misinformation and disinformation, and in the end people are the architects of their own misery and demise, when they make emotional decisions.
There is not enough blood in my corpus to bleed for everyone who has been killed, wounded, starved, disenfranchised.
I do certainly care about innocents, but face it the only real innocents are babies, infants, toddlers and the intellectually challenged, I have to back off on the last. there are millions of intellectually challenged adults, who work, have money and a roof over their head. In the US we call them Republicans, Hillary called them deplorables.
Humans even teens and pre teens, make choices, and have to live or die with the choices they make. I certainly did. When I climbed ladders on a smokestack,that was being repointed and fell 50 feet to the ground. broke my fall with left arm, and all I got was a simple fracture. My companions saw me running after them and thought I was a ghost. I was 15 and never thought things through. I was invincible.
During the Vietnam war, thousands of young men made the choice and fled to Canada. Otherwise they would have wound up on The Wall, where the names of 4 of my team mates are inscribed in the area for Sep 1967.
Idid at the time begrudge the draft evaders, but not now. Myself and teammates were volunteers and volunteered years before the Vietnam war,in the interregnum after the Korean War.
Sorry Charlies, only a nitwit reads history with emotion, because history is written by the winner,one has to use critical reasoning skills to sort out facts from propaganda, and all nations, all ideologies,all religions, even family members in a family, have their own version of history.
I have two sisters, one deceased, but all of us grew up in different households, though the address was the same, and the mother was the same, but each of us has (had)a different recollection of our childhood, and you would think that we grew up in different families. And that is why you must use critical reasoning skills and sort the wheat from the chaff.
Ha. I have the same problem with my family with different recollections about childhood and this makes your comment null and void.
However I would like to say Historians (and I do know one very famous one) always said to me "Historians always have a 'slant."
I agree with her.
You can be an Historian and really try to see History as it is BUT if you look up the 'crusades' for instance there are so many differences in the History.
Granted it is a bit difficult now with the advent of the internet.
By the way Jenny. I don't think I suffered. What I do know is that my afflictions were my own fault, except insulin resistance that is genetic, otherwise what ever shape I am in,is my of my own doing. However I survived and learned from my mistakes,and frankly I like where I am at in life, everything that has happened is a stepping stone, remove one of those stones and I wouldn't be where I am. And where I am is the envy of millions of fellow serfs.
Don't try patronizing me, fool. It doesn't work. I can't be shamed, bullied, terrorized.
Both Netanyahu and Bush knew that an attack was planned. Bush even knew the date, but not the extent, that is why he was in Florida reading (or pretending to read) My Pet Goat to Kindergartners.
It is now known that Israeli officials knew HAMAS plans and Netanyahu saw this as an opportunity to solve two problems, one legal and one political. What he did not know is that the plans included hostages, and I will consider the possibility that he did Israeli intelligence did not know the date, but did know about hostage taking and saw this as an opportunity to have the same status as Dubya, who criticized his father for not finishing with Saddam , and said a war president will always be re elected, Netanyahu thinks so too.
Here is one fact that bolsters my argument. Early on they interviewed a female soldier who had escaped being captured in one of the guard towers surrounding Gaza.
She related that she and other females, were sent up to the tower to replace males. The males took their rifles, and the females were not issued rifles.
It helps when watching or reading the news, that one remembers such details,
By Yvonne Ridley | May 12, 2012 | Asia Pacific, News & Analysis, US | 472 |
Bush Convicted of War Crimes in Absentia
The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission found George W. Bush guilty of war crimes in absentia for the illegal invasion of Iraq.
Kuala Lumpur — It’s official; George W Bush is a war criminal.
In what is the first ever conviction of its kind anywhere in the world, the former US President and seven key members of his administration were yesterday (Fri) found guilty of war crimes.
Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and their legal advisers Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, William Haynes, Jay Bybee and John Yoo were tried in absentia in Malaysia.
The trial held in Kuala Lumpur heard harrowing witness accounts from victims of torture who suffered at the hands of US soldiers and contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.
They included testimony from British man Moazzam Begg, an ex-Guantanamo detainee and Iraqi woman Jameelah Abbas Hameedi who was tortured in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison.
At the end of the week-long hearing, the five-panel tribunal unanimously delivered guilty verdicts against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and their key legal advisors who were all convicted as war criminals for torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.
Full transcripts of the charges, witness statements and other relevant material will now be sent to the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, as well as the United Nations and the Security Council.
The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission is also asking that the names of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gonzales, Yoo, Bybee, Addington and Haynes be entered and included in the Commission’s Register of War Criminals for public record.
The tribunal is the initiative of Malaysia’s retired Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who staunchly opposed the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
He sat through the entire hearing as it took personal statements and testimonies of three witnesses namely Abbas Abid, Moazzam Begg and Jameelah Hameedi. The tribunal also heard two other Statutory Declarations of Iraqi citizen Ali Shalal and Rahul Ahmed, another British citizen.
After the guilty verdict reached by five senior judges was delivered, Mahathir Mohamad said: “Powerful countries are getting away with murder.”
War crimes expert and lawyer Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law in America, was part of the prosecution team.
After the case he said: “This is the first conviction of these people anywhere in the world.”
While the hearing is regarded by some as being purely symbolic, human rights activist Boyle said he was hopeful that Bush and Co could soon find themselves facing similar trials elsewhere in the world.
“We tried three times to get Bush in Canada but were thwarted by the Canadian Government, then we scared Bush out of going to Switzerland. The Spanish attempt failed because of the government there and the same happened in Germany.”
Boyle then referenced the Nuremberg Charter which was used as the format for the tribunal when asked about the credibility of the initiative in Malaysia. He quoted: “Leaders, organizers, instigators and accomplices participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit war crimes are responsible for all acts performed by any person in execution of such a plan.”
The US is subject to customary international law and to the Principles of the Nuremberg Charter said Boyle who also believes the week-long trial was “almost certainly” being monitored closely by both Pentagon and White House officials.
Professor Gurdial Singh Nijar, who headed the prosecution said: “The tribunal was very careful to adhere scrupulously to the regulations drawn up by the Nuremberg courts and the International Criminal Courts”.
He added that he was optimistic the tribunal would be followed up elsewhere in the world where “countries have a duty to try war criminals” and he cited the case of the former Chilean dictator Augustine Pinochet who was arrested in Britain to be extradited to Spain on charges of war crimes.
“Pinochet was only eight years out of his presidency when that happened.”
The Pinochet case was the first time that several European judges applied the principle of universal jurisdiction, declaring themselves competent to judge crimes committed by former heads of state, despite local amnesty laws.
Throughout the week the tribunal was packed with legal experts and law students as witnesses gave testimony and then cross examination by the defence led by lawyer Jason Kay Kit Leon.
The court heard how
Abbas Abid, a 48-year-old engineer from Fallujah in Iraq had his fingernails removed by pliers.
Ali Shalal was attached with bare electrical wires and electrocuted and hung from a wall.
Moazzam Begg was beaten, hooded and put in solitary confinement.
Jameelah was stripped and humiliated, and was used as a human shield whilst being transported by helicopter.
The witnesses also detailed how they have residual injuries till today.
Moazzam Begg, now working as a director for the London-based human rights group Cageprisoners said he was delighted with the verdict, but added: “When people talk about Nuremberg you have to remember those tried were all prosecuted after the war.
“Right now Guantanamo is still open, people are still being held there and are still being tortured there.”
In response to questions about the difference between the Bush and Obama Administrations, he added: “If President Bush was the President of extra-judicial torture then US President Barak Obama is the President of extra judicial killing through drone strikes. Our work has only just begun.”
The prosecution case rested on proving how the decision-makers at the highest level President Bush, Vice-President Cheney, Secretary of Defence Rumsfeld, aided and abetted by the lawyers and the other commanders and CIA officials – all acted in concert. Torture was systematically applied and became an accepted norm.
According to the prosecution, the testimony of all the witnesses exposed a sustained perpetration of brutal, barbaric, cruel and dehumanising course of conduct against them.
These acts of crimes were applied cumulatively to inflict the worst possible pain and suffering, said lawyers.
The president of the tribunal Tan Sri Dato Lamin bin Haji Mohd Yunus Lamin, found that the prosecution had established beyond a “reasonable doubt that the accused persons, former President George Bush and his co-conspirators engaged in a web of instructions, memos, directives, legal advice and action that established a common plan and purpose, joint enterprise and/or conspiracy to commit the crimes of Torture and War Crimes, including and not limited to a common plan and purpose to commit the following crimes in relation to the “War on Terror” and the wars launched by the U.S. and others in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
President Lamin told a packed courtroom: “As a tribunal of conscience, the Tribunal is fully aware that its verdict is merely declaratory in nature. The tribunal has no power of enforcement, no power to impose any custodial sentence on any one or more of the 8 convicted persons. What we can do, under Article 31 of Chapter VI of Part 2 of the Charter is to recommend to the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission to submit this finding of conviction by the Tribunal, together with a record of these proceedings, to the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, as well as the United Nations and the Security Council.
“The Tribunal also recommends to the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission that the names of all the 8 convicted persons be entered and included in the Commission’s Register of War Criminals and be publicised accordingly.
“The Tribunal recommends to the War Crimes Commission to give the widest international publicity to this conviction and grant of reparations, as these are universal crimes for which there is a responsibility upon nations to institute prosecutions if any of these Accused persons may enter their jurisdictions”.
In 2000 my mother voted in Martin County, Florida. In her neighborhood, only a few Democrats were registered, and her registration and signature were questioned. At the polls, police cars ringed the entrance, ostensibly to discourage minority voters.
Comments from the US Civil Rights Commission Voting Irregularities in Florida During the 2000 Presidential Election: OVERVIEW
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights conducted an extensive public investigation of allegations of voting irregularities during the 2000 presidential election in Florida. The investigation, utilizing the Commission's subpoena power, included three days of hearings, more than 30 hours of testimony, 100 witnesses, and a systematic review of more than 118,000 pages of pertinent documents.
Perhaps the most dramatic undercount in Florida's election was the uncast ballots of countless eligible voters who were turned away at the polls or wrongfully purged from voter registration rolls.
While statistical data, reinforced by credible anecdotal evidence, point to widespread disenfranchisement and denial of voting rights, it is impossible to determine the extent of the disenfranchisement or to provide an adequate remedy to the persons whose voices were silenced in this historic election by a pattern and practice of injustice, ineptitude, and inefficiency.
Despite the closeness of the election, it was widespread voter disenfranchisement, not the dead-heat contest, that was the extraordinary feature in the Florida election. The disenfranchisement was not isolated or episodic. And state officials failed to fulfill their duties in a manner that would prevent this disenfranchisement.
The Commission does not adjudicate violations of the law, hold trials, or determine civil or criminal liability. Therefore, the recommendations that follow urge the U.S. Department of Justice and Florida officials to institute formal investigations based on the facts in this report to determine liability and to seek appropriate remedies.
Recommendations
1.1 The U.S. Department of Justice should immediately initiate the litigation process against the governor, secretary of state, director of the Division of Elections, specific supervisors of elections, and other state and local officials responsible for the execution of election laws, practices, and procedures, regarding their contributions, if any, to the extraordinary racial disparity in the rate that votes were rejected, through their actions or failure to act before and during the 2000 presidential election, in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended. Appropriate enforcement action should be initiated to ensure full compliance with the election laws.
1.2 The Civil Rights Division in the Office of the Florida Attorney General should initiate the litigation process against state election officials who violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended, and/or Title IX of the Florida statutes through their actions or failure to act before, during, and after the November 2000 election. Based on the results of the investigation, appropriate enforcement action should be initiated to ensure full compliance with the election laws.
1.3 The U.S. Department of Justice and the Civil Rights Division in the Office of the Florida Attorney General should initiate the litigation process against all state election officials who through their actions or failure to act violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended, by not obtaining preclearance either from the federal district court of Washington, D.C., or the U.S. attorney general. Based on the results of the investigation, appropriate enforcement action should be initiated to ensure full compliance with the election laws.
1.4 The state of Florida should institute effective monitoring systems to ensure the uniform implementation of any voting system that allows for a precinct count and an opportunity for the voter to correct his or her ballot; annually analyze the rejection rates of the voting systems used in the previous year; consider, based upon that analysis, decertifying any voting system that minimizes the rejection of spoiled ballots; and ensure that there is a consistent ballot rejection rate throughout the state. The funding authorized by the state legislature, but not yet distributed to the counties, must be sufficient to support this mandate. More specifically, the funding should ensure that all counties can obtain the required technology; and can provide appropriate voter education and effective training for poll workers and other election workers and officials. Appropriate administrative rules should be adopted that provide clear guidance and targeted oversight responsibilities for election officials at every level to ensure proper implementation of these requirements.
1.5 The state of Florida should retain knowledgeable experts to undertake a formal study to ascertain the reasons for the disparity in the vote rejection rates between white voters and persons of color and then adopt and publicize procedures to eliminate this disparity. The study should target best practices that ensure comprehensive poll worker training, enhanced education for first-time voters, and the delivery of adequate resources in all counties to resolve problems as they arise on Election Day.
1.6 The five counties subject to section 5 Collier, Hardee, Hendry, Hillsborough, and Monroe should take immediate steps to determine if certain specifications, particularly the voter responsibilities provisions set forth in the recently enacted Florida election law changes, constitute tests or devices that trigger preclearance action by the U.S. Department of Justice. Moreover, the U.S. Department of Justice should review these concerns.
1.7 Adequate financial resources should be allocated to educate voters, poll workers, and state election officials on all appropriate policies and procedures, including, but not limited to, general voting rights, a voter s rights while at the polling place, how the voter should use the technology to vote for his on her candidate of choice, and the proper procedures to resolve issues that arise at the polling place on Election Day.
https://www.usccr.gov/files/pubs/vote2000/report/ch9.htm
Sandra Day O'Connor died. She question whether Bush v. Gore should have gone to the Supreme Court. She was a key vote in the 5-4 decision. So many coincidences but there is no such thing as a conspiracy. Think about if there were no 20 year long war and if we had gotten serious about climate change 25 years ago. It seems the oligarchs always get their way.
Gloria are you serious, that there is no such thing as a conspiracy? Conspiracies are the lifeblood of humanity. They exists everywhere, boardrooms, families.
John Harrington https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harington_(writer), said
"Why is that treason never prospers? For if it prospers None Dare Call It Treason.
Sarcasm.
Frankly, the same happened in Georgia. Briam Kemp was the Secretary of State and he purged voters, I believe all minorities. So, in essence, he was not duly elected, he cheated and repeated the process when Stacy Abrams entered the race once again.
What a tale of multiple levels of corruption and so my former state. I remember it as a tragedy. The democrats have been outplayed time and time again because they never had the backbone to fight back against the dirty tricks of multiple corrupt elected and appointed officials. The GOP is responsible for gaming the election process, our ability to govern as our founders intended, and almost destroying the republic. The only question that remains for 2024 is will this tottering on the brink of a Stalinist dictators remain when the votes are tallied by the corrupted officials in all the states.
I repeat the recommendations from the US Civil Rights Commission:
Recommendations
1.1 The U.S. Department of Justice should immediately initiate the litigation process against the governor, secretary of state, director of the Division of Elections, specific supervisors of elections, and other state and local officials responsible for the execution of election laws, practices, and procedures, regarding their contributions, if any, to the extraordinary racial disparity in the rate that votes were rejected, through their actions or failure to act before and during the 2000 presidential election, in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended. Appropriate enforcement action should be initiated to ensure full compliance with the election laws.
1.2 The Civil Rights Division in the Office of the Florida Attorney General should initiate the litigation process against state election officials who violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended, and/or Title IX of the Florida statutes through their actions or failure to act before, during, and after the November 2000 election. Based on the results of the investigation, appropriate enforcement action should be initiated to ensure full compliance with the election laws.
1.3 The U.S. Department of Justice and the Civil Rights Division in the Office of the Florida Attorney General should initiate the litigation process against all state election officials who through their actions or failure to act violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended, by not obtaining preclearance either from the federal district court of Washington, D.C., or the U.S. attorney general. Based on the results of the investigation, appropriate enforcement action should be initiated to ensure full compliance with the election laws.
The Federalist Society judges Trump helped to point have no respect for law, precedent, or voting rights. They want to destroy the VRA as well as the administrative system that runs the agencies and will put it in a total mess. The judges simply come up with the outcomes they want while ignoring precedent and past practice to reach their desired outcomes.
I think that many people besides us know all what is actually happening now. I ask Justice Robert if he knew what would happen by his gutting section 5 of the VRA. Of course, no response. So, we the AP must ensure enforcement of the VRA in its full original power.
I read that. But who will enforce the recommendations.
It was 21 years ago and none did.
That and complicity and corruption are bipartison (e.g. Sen Menendez D -NY)
I want Menéndez to resign ASAP. He needs to take Phil Murphy’s advice, resign, and allow another Democratic candidate to serve out his term.
Senator Menendez is from N J.
Yeh I know that. A typo, I guess when I was typing my subconscious thought of NY. Shit like that happens all of the time.
Enter Federalist cabal hero Antonin Scalia, after the infamous decision was handed down he commented, “….Gore did not ask the right question in his brief to the court….’! Indeed! I suppose, only ‘plump’ Tony as a disciple of the faux originalist school knew the ‘right’ question to ask! Another of his ‘gems’ of wisdom was that ‘a delay in certifying little bush the winner would damage his presidency’! How wrong he was, little bush needed little help in damaging his presidency and subsequently destabilizing the world !
Because Democrats aren't like Republicans.
If we had a Dem as POTUS when 9/11 happened, they would have immediately attacked the President. Instead, we had a Republican President and "Americans came together"
We're not crazy 'fake patriots' like THEM.
A Dem president Gore would not have ignored the warnings.
Amen
"...and African-American groups like the NAACP were protesting that as many as eighty thousand Blacks had been purged from the voter rolls because a Republican-affiliated Texas corporation Harris had hired to “clean” the Florida list found that those Florida residents had names “similar” to the names of Texas felons."
It never ceases to amaze me that it is always this "group" that is electorally targeted. No other so-called "people of color" targeted: no Latino's, no Asians, no Arabs, not even Original Americans; always "just-us" and there is not only no "justice" in that stark fact, it is clear, convincing, irrefutable and prima facie proof of an apartheid system.
As for Nut-And-Yahoo, that is a name that both BeeBee and Bush share.
I totally agree and am alarmed that Merrick Garland has not moved to correct this problem.
However Kris Kolbach when he was Secretary of State for Kansas, compiled a list of names, typical of African Americans, Hispanics and Asians and sent it to Red States, which then used the list to scrub voters, based solely on first and last names. claiming they voted in two states, or with a state voted twice. ,Greg Palast exposed the scheme.
"Caging." They did it throughout the country. In Ohio the major culprit, Ken Blackwell, was Black. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ken-blackwell-redefines-r_b_162050
Who are "they" and your point is...what?
Republican party.
...a wrenching s c r e a m
rang across south florida ....
we went to bed late ...
...al gore had !! won !! potus
earth wd be saved ❗️
....we awakened to ...
... the great south florida
....s c r e a m....
I remember it well and could not believe Gore capitulated tokerp the calm. The biggest mistake the democtats could have made
This was Netanyahu's excuse to eradicate the Palestinians in a more rapid and definitive fashion than he has been able to do previously with bipartisan support from the US. And as we see President Biden question the number of Palestinian casualties, hug Netanyahu as he enacts his genocide, and then give him the typical slap on the wrist, the racism of liberal America and the drive to ignore the Trump-like amorality of the Democrats comes clearly into focus. How many times prior to October 7th have you Thom Hartmann discussed Biden's or Obama's support of Netanyahu's apartheid? Have you condemned the party's condemnation of women of color like Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib for telling the truth about AIPAC and the horrors of Israel's theocracy? Israel is a terrorist nation and has been for decades, violating international law on a daily basis while liberals obsess about Putin and Trump. The silence of liberals on this subject enabled it as well, and now Biden and Blinken go on their "you shouldn't but we can't stop you and will send billions more in weapons to help them " tour while you rationalize that Jews are "special" and Muslims aren't quite as "special" in the xenophobia they have experienced.
Well said.
No. That genocide meme is complete bull. Putin speaks.
You disappoint Gloria. You accept without question bullshit from a Putin troll or at best a brainwashed Marxist.
I am a progressive, but not a stupid or brainwashed Marxist or leftist.
I don't believe the Jewish people want a genocide, but I do believe Netanyahu and other greedy people have their eyes on that land. I was already thinking that, not just from Barry's comment. We'll see who makes a fortune on rebuilding Gaza and what becomes of the Palestinians who survive.
@ Gloria. Gave up Gaza. It was not Israeli responsibility until 1979. Sadat gave it away. When Sharon offered Gaza the settlements abandoned in 2007, Hamas turned them down, Still available.
There's no reason that the land can't be redeveloped. Hamas had enough money starting in 2006, to make Gaza City look like Abu Dhabi. https://www.travelpalestine.ps/en/category/32/1/Gaza-City
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g663088-d8307376-Reviews-Blue_Beach_Resort-Gaza_City_Gaza.html
In case you don't remember, most of those "Palestinians" over the age of 20 have Egyptian passports. Arab countries, like Saudi Arabia use "guest workers" but won't accept them.
Saudi Arabia and Jordan, evict "Palestinians", they don't want them on their territory, neither does Egypt
The idea of a genocide of Arabs and Muslims is absolutely ridiculous. And using the word genoicide in that regards is pure propaganda B.S.. They couldn't if they wanted, and there is not a shred of evidence that the Jews want to wipe off the face of the earth, Arabs and Muslims, now the same isn't true for Muslims. genocide of the Jews is sanctioned, nay mandated by their sacred books. I've mentioned and quote it in another post on this page.
"Palestinians" (quotes are purposeful, are authors of their own misery.
It all started with a handful of Jews bought land in the 1920's from the Bedouins who had settled in what was then a Turkish satrapy, that was forfeited to Britain after WWI. The British Mandate it was called.
To be honest, there was a Jewish terrorist group, Irgun of which Menachim Begin was the leader. It broke away from the larger paramilitary Haganah,. and he terrorized the Brits and blew up the King David Hotel, he went on to become PM.
However in1948, the only land that the Jews owned was land bought from the Arabs.
The Arab neighbors looked at what the Jews had done to the once arid desert, the erected Kibbutz and made the desert bloom, the clean up Jerusalem, which Mark Twain had visited and described as a garbage dump.
This shamed the Arabs and they were envious, they wanted to take possession of what was once a miserable, arid piece of land, and so in 1948 after the UN declared Israel a nation, the Arabs invaded.
The British when the left, disabled their planes, tanks, vehicles and took their ammunition with them. The Jews using ingenuity, hard worked, intelligence repaired the planes and equipment, and manufactured their ammunition out of reformed lipstick tubes.
They beat back the Arabs and did what any sensible person or nation would do, ensured their safety by expelling Arabs, which the Arabs call the Nakba (catastrophe)
By the way there never has been a nation called Palestine. It was Turkish territory until after WWI, when it became a British Mandate.
The Arabs not learning a lesson, and having the need to distract their own disgruntled populations, declared a Jihad, and came back again and again, 1956, 1967, 1973 and 2006, and finally Oct 7, 2023, each time they lost, each time Israel expanded it's border. The Golan heights were once Syria's, Now it belongs to Israel, and for good heights, from the Golan heights the Arabs can bombard Israel and invade the country.
Like I said the Arabs have brought this on themselves, Each time they attack Israel, they lose, and in the process lose land. Land which Israel needs to defend itself from more Arab attacks.
And this mess today is because Arabs and their sympathizers in the west don't know or care to know history.
BTW, many including the ADL consider me an antisemite, because I am anti Zionist, and blame the rabid orthodox Jewish settler for this problem. They invade Arab communities in the west bank, kill and evict Arabs from their homes, and often with help of the IDF.
Israel has the same problem as America and Europe, it has a very politically active right wing and fascist party, who is responsible for Netanyahu
And the two stripes on the Israeli flag are aspirational, but no chance of reality. I've seen them described as the Nile and the Euphrates.
In my book a pox on both houses, however at the present the suffering of Gaza is completely the fault of HAMAS, and HAMAS, along with Islamic Jihad, DAESH, ISIS and all such groups are merciless psychopathic creations, but they are salafists in America we call them fundamentalists. you see them in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Afghanistan and in any country that marginalizes women by having them wear a hijab, a chador, an abaya, a niqab a burka.
It is not just Biden that questions the HAMAS narrative. I am not surprised that a HAMAS loving Jew does not.
HAMAS lies, and even Martin Griffiths The Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC) is the most senior UN official dedicated to humanitarian affairs. , accepts them without question.
When asked by the hostess of Deadline: White House, why he accepted HAMAS numbers, his response was that they were "triangulated". Trianulated? With what, HAMAS, Palestinians, and other organizations that accepted HAMAS lies.
HAMAS lies and has every motivation to lie, as it knows the mentality of westerners and that of all things they accept without question any propaganda from those that they perceive are underdogs.
I get it, you hate America, you hate democracy, and are probably an unequited Marxist. If not an outright Putinist troll.
I don’t consider HAMAS a trustworthy source. They have the same delusions of grandeur that ISIS and Al Qaeda did in wanting to rule the Islamic world.
The religious are not capable of loving thy neighbor. The left is non-religious. Many of the religious are not capable of loving anyone else but themselves. We need to protect children from being groomed by the religious to becoming detached from reality and full of hatred of others. There would be very little conflict and human suffering if the world was agnostic and open-minded.
Golly ❗️...❗️ ❓w h e n ❓
exactly...did i stop loving ❓💙 ❓
.... not ... very familiar with scripture
❓are you?
not only do i listen ...i digest
....i have been been chewing
the cud of your unprovable numbers.... unless u choose to document
I said many! Don't you listen? About 75% in my opinion could be as high as 95%.
Amazing how all those lives, the history, and the future of a whole country can depend on the lack of integrity of a few, very few people. Also it's remarkable how Bush decided to "fade away". He knew how he got there, what a crap job he had done, and that there were corpses piled-up here and overseas thanks to him. If he is truly a Christian, he knows where he is going when he dies. Have you heard him repent or ask forgiveness? Election theft, arrogance, and incompetence did not work out for him or America.
Systems like the one in Israel that make horrible coalitions do not appeal to me anymore than our rotten electoral college anachronism. PM Netanyahu has zero chance of escape; he too will face the music. A few people of integrity can take care of that---it has begun.
I don't think Net. will escape. Biden will see to it that he lives happily in the US like Kissinger!
Christians aren't Christians, they are Solipsists.
Many Israelis are unhappy with PM Netanyahu and thousands of Israelis have turned out to protest his attempt to get the Knesset to strip the courts of jurisdiction to try him on corruption charges. From what I’ve read, only 25% of Israeli voters support Netanyahu. It does not surprise me that the PM and his government failed to pay attention to Hamas’s plans for an attack and were preoccupied with a power grab. I am certain the survivors of the people Hamas killed at the dance festival and at the kibbutz, and the people who survived the attack on the kibbutz, as well as the hostages and their families will be hopping mad over the government’s failure to act. I think once the war is over, Netanyahu will have to declare an election, and he’ll lose and face criminal charges.
I recommend reading Gershom Gorenberg and his various articles critical of the PM. It seems the PM utterly failed in his duty to look out for the nation’s security. I was concerned that something lie this had happened, and unfortunately I was correct.
Netanyahu is in a shitload of trouble, now that the intelligence report is leaked, that instead of an intelligence failure, it was Bibi who chose to ignore the intelligence, and my opinion is that he knew it was coming, not aware that hostages would be taken, maybe even that, as he doesn't care, He just wanted an excuse to wipe out the two state solution idea, and win public support. He misjudged.
AS I mentioned above, a female member of the IDF, along with other females, relieved men in the Gaza watch towers, but were not issued weapons, and the men they relieved took their weapons with them. Bibi knew what was coming.
I am not surprised. What doesn’t surprise me is that even before this, Netanyahu was going to blame the IDF, Israel’s defense department and everyone else before this because there was no way he would have accepted any blame for ignoring the warnings. Now he has egg all over his face because he can’t do that, and Israeli voters will oust him his as soon as they can.
Absolutely correct, and the Israeli public and even the world has a whiff of Netanyahu now.
The one thing he has on his side are Zionists (not all Jews or Israelis are Zionist, the majority aren't) and the right wing orthodox settlers. They are to Israel as are MAGAts to Trump.
Europe is plagued by their ilk.
Right Wing Fundamentalists of any Religion cause trouble. Separation of Church and State is the only route to Peace.
I, have a huge problem with all of these people knowing ahead of time and going oh well. The lives lost because of their failure to act is devastating. When do we learn not to repeat these tragedies over and over again.
This is an observation. The mainstream media is fixated on the israeli-palestinian conflict now and has forgotten the Ukrainian and Putin, war. The press has also conveniently forgot that the GOP is a terrorist organization, not a political party. If Netanyahu can keep this war
going until after our election we could become a dictatorship and Putin will win. I think it is possible that Putin, right wing American traitors and Iran planned this whole thing and Hamas are just pawns in the game of chess. Our CIA and FBI have been compromised since 9/11 of 1972. Probably before that also. Including 9/11/2001.
The media is only capable of chasing one shiny thing at a time. Lots have taken the backseat since Israel/HAMAS.
Thanks for this. Netanyahu knew then but chose to allowed the October 7 massacre to happen anyway. Ditto President Bush et al on 9/12.
Infamously the UK government knew about Pearl Harbour but allowed it to happen anyway to force Roosevelt into the war.
Watch who and what has been gained from these preventable heinous murders.
In such political abuses of power: Cui Bono ?
Probably negligence, not intentional.
Arrogant SOB.
Intentional is my bet. When a President in the US is having trouble go to war!
Israel just copied this format.
Putin speaks.
Read Rachel Maddows new book, Prequel. I didn't need to read it b ecause I already knew it.
In 1940, America was in the same shape (politically) that it is now. Fascists, in the form of the American NAZI party (called themselves Silver Shirts) and American Firsters (led by Charles Lindberg an admirer of Hitler), were opposed to America's entry into the war against fascism. Today 40% of America are corporatist fascists.
Called MAGAts.
From your comments I am left with the impression that if you had your druthers, Europe would be NAZI, and if Japan and Germany won the war, they would have split America between them, until their rivalry led to another war.
Japan had already occupied the Aleutian chain of Islands, and could have marched through the Kenai Peninsula into the west coast. And America demilitarized since WWI, would not have the Armed Forces to stop them, with America being distracted by the Japanese threat, Hitler would have the space and time to build his invasion force and land on Virginia Beach, VA. What puny military force America had would be split between fighting a war on two fronts, simultaneously, before it had the chance to build up and supply an Army big enough, trained enough and equipped enough to take on two enemies, one on the west coast one on the east,and then there is the problem of logistics, which means rail roads and highway, this was before Ike built the Interstate.
And no Israel's situation is different. Don't try to simplify things.The only parallel between Israel and America is that both are democracies (or were, Republicans have effectively killed that idea)
Israel even allows Arab citizens to vote and have seats in the Knessett.
Tell me how a Jew would fare in Gaza, a Palestine, any Muslim country, choose your own. They are even discriminated against and harassed in China.
OF course you knew it William. You are one of those people who know everything BUT you talk 'down to people.' This gets you nowhere.
OH yes you are quite right ALL Europe would have been Nazis without the help of the USA.
Well I would like to add that the French fought the English in the US but this never comes up in your comments.
One thing I know about people like you is that you view History 'without a heart.'
Because like 'Ted Cruz' (I know your medical History) you think you have suffered more than anyone else. NO
People suffer and emotions have a BIG play here.
I forgive you because of your incapacity to understand History without empathy.
If you feel I am talking down to you, then search from within Jenny.
Actually I have mentioned ,and been upvoted, that without the French navy at Yorktown, we would not have won the revolution.
But there is no need to mention it, time and again, because it is not relevant to discussion at the time, nor relevant to this one.
There I go again talking down to you. For you bringing in a complete irrelevance to a discussion about Netanyahu, Israel and the US.
Heart has nothing to do with history. History is about facts, heart is about emotions, and that is the "effing problem" with the world, too much emotions. Emotions is what gets people killed
Just a few examples,Road Rage, jealousy, envy, greed, hatred, bigotry.
Empathy, sympathy results in people taking uninformed actions because they rely on propaganda, misinformation and disinformation, and in the end people are the architects of their own misery and demise, when they make emotional decisions.
There is not enough blood in my corpus to bleed for everyone who has been killed, wounded, starved, disenfranchised.
I do certainly care about innocents, but face it the only real innocents are babies, infants, toddlers and the intellectually challenged, I have to back off on the last. there are millions of intellectually challenged adults, who work, have money and a roof over their head. In the US we call them Republicans, Hillary called them deplorables.
Humans even teens and pre teens, make choices, and have to live or die with the choices they make. I certainly did. When I climbed ladders on a smokestack,that was being repointed and fell 50 feet to the ground. broke my fall with left arm, and all I got was a simple fracture. My companions saw me running after them and thought I was a ghost. I was 15 and never thought things through. I was invincible.
During the Vietnam war, thousands of young men made the choice and fled to Canada. Otherwise they would have wound up on The Wall, where the names of 4 of my team mates are inscribed in the area for Sep 1967.
Idid at the time begrudge the draft evaders, but not now. Myself and teammates were volunteers and volunteered years before the Vietnam war,in the interregnum after the Korean War.
Sorry Charlies, only a nitwit reads history with emotion, because history is written by the winner,one has to use critical reasoning skills to sort out facts from propaganda, and all nations, all ideologies,all religions, even family members in a family, have their own version of history.
I have two sisters, one deceased, but all of us grew up in different households, though the address was the same, and the mother was the same, but each of us has (had)a different recollection of our childhood, and you would think that we grew up in different families. And that is why you must use critical reasoning skills and sort the wheat from the chaff.
Ha. I have the same problem with my family with different recollections about childhood and this makes your comment null and void.
However I would like to say Historians (and I do know one very famous one) always said to me "Historians always have a 'slant."
I agree with her.
You can be an Historian and really try to see History as it is BUT if you look up the 'crusades' for instance there are so many differences in the History.
Granted it is a bit difficult now with the advent of the internet.
By the way Jenny. I don't think I suffered. What I do know is that my afflictions were my own fault, except insulin resistance that is genetic, otherwise what ever shape I am in,is my of my own doing. However I survived and learned from my mistakes,and frankly I like where I am at in life, everything that has happened is a stepping stone, remove one of those stones and I wouldn't be where I am. And where I am is the envy of millions of fellow serfs.
Don't try patronizing me, fool. It doesn't work. I can't be shamed, bullied, terrorized.
This is my opinion, based on observations.
Both Netanyahu and Bush knew that an attack was planned. Bush even knew the date, but not the extent, that is why he was in Florida reading (or pretending to read) My Pet Goat to Kindergartners.
It is now known that Israeli officials knew HAMAS plans and Netanyahu saw this as an opportunity to solve two problems, one legal and one political. What he did not know is that the plans included hostages, and I will consider the possibility that he did Israeli intelligence did not know the date, but did know about hostage taking and saw this as an opportunity to have the same status as Dubya, who criticized his father for not finishing with Saddam , and said a war president will always be re elected, Netanyahu thinks so too.
Here is one fact that bolsters my argument. Early on they interviewed a female soldier who had escaped being captured in one of the guard towers surrounding Gaza.
She related that she and other females, were sent up to the tower to replace males. The males took their rifles, and the females were not issued rifles.
It helps when watching or reading the news, that one remembers such details,
We heard only back room rumblings about this, when it should have been front page news. It’s still newsworthy
Thank you Mr. Hartmann for this information. Great job.
Bush Convicted of War Crimes in Absentia
By Yvonne Ridley | May 12, 2012 | Asia Pacific, News & Analysis, US | 472 |
Bush Convicted of War Crimes in Absentia
The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission found George W. Bush guilty of war crimes in absentia for the illegal invasion of Iraq.
Kuala Lumpur — It’s official; George W Bush is a war criminal.
In what is the first ever conviction of its kind anywhere in the world, the former US President and seven key members of his administration were yesterday (Fri) found guilty of war crimes.
Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and their legal advisers Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, William Haynes, Jay Bybee and John Yoo were tried in absentia in Malaysia.
The trial held in Kuala Lumpur heard harrowing witness accounts from victims of torture who suffered at the hands of US soldiers and contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.
They included testimony from British man Moazzam Begg, an ex-Guantanamo detainee and Iraqi woman Jameelah Abbas Hameedi who was tortured in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison.
At the end of the week-long hearing, the five-panel tribunal unanimously delivered guilty verdicts against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and their key legal advisors who were all convicted as war criminals for torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.
Full transcripts of the charges, witness statements and other relevant material will now be sent to the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, as well as the United Nations and the Security Council.
The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission is also asking that the names of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gonzales, Yoo, Bybee, Addington and Haynes be entered and included in the Commission’s Register of War Criminals for public record.
The tribunal is the initiative of Malaysia’s retired Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who staunchly opposed the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
He sat through the entire hearing as it took personal statements and testimonies of three witnesses namely Abbas Abid, Moazzam Begg and Jameelah Hameedi. The tribunal also heard two other Statutory Declarations of Iraqi citizen Ali Shalal and Rahul Ahmed, another British citizen.
After the guilty verdict reached by five senior judges was delivered, Mahathir Mohamad said: “Powerful countries are getting away with murder.”
War crimes expert and lawyer Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law in America, was part of the prosecution team.
After the case he said: “This is the first conviction of these people anywhere in the world.”
While the hearing is regarded by some as being purely symbolic, human rights activist Boyle said he was hopeful that Bush and Co could soon find themselves facing similar trials elsewhere in the world.
“We tried three times to get Bush in Canada but were thwarted by the Canadian Government, then we scared Bush out of going to Switzerland. The Spanish attempt failed because of the government there and the same happened in Germany.”
Boyle then referenced the Nuremberg Charter which was used as the format for the tribunal when asked about the credibility of the initiative in Malaysia. He quoted: “Leaders, organizers, instigators and accomplices participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit war crimes are responsible for all acts performed by any person in execution of such a plan.”
The US is subject to customary international law and to the Principles of the Nuremberg Charter said Boyle who also believes the week-long trial was “almost certainly” being monitored closely by both Pentagon and White House officials.
Professor Gurdial Singh Nijar, who headed the prosecution said: “The tribunal was very careful to adhere scrupulously to the regulations drawn up by the Nuremberg courts and the International Criminal Courts”.
He added that he was optimistic the tribunal would be followed up elsewhere in the world where “countries have a duty to try war criminals” and he cited the case of the former Chilean dictator Augustine Pinochet who was arrested in Britain to be extradited to Spain on charges of war crimes.
“Pinochet was only eight years out of his presidency when that happened.”
The Pinochet case was the first time that several European judges applied the principle of universal jurisdiction, declaring themselves competent to judge crimes committed by former heads of state, despite local amnesty laws.
Throughout the week the tribunal was packed with legal experts and law students as witnesses gave testimony and then cross examination by the defence led by lawyer Jason Kay Kit Leon.
The court heard how
Abbas Abid, a 48-year-old engineer from Fallujah in Iraq had his fingernails removed by pliers.
Ali Shalal was attached with bare electrical wires and electrocuted and hung from a wall.
Moazzam Begg was beaten, hooded and put in solitary confinement.
Jameelah was stripped and humiliated, and was used as a human shield whilst being transported by helicopter.
The witnesses also detailed how they have residual injuries till today.
Moazzam Begg, now working as a director for the London-based human rights group Cageprisoners said he was delighted with the verdict, but added: “When people talk about Nuremberg you have to remember those tried were all prosecuted after the war.
“Right now Guantanamo is still open, people are still being held there and are still being tortured there.”
In response to questions about the difference between the Bush and Obama Administrations, he added: “If President Bush was the President of extra-judicial torture then US President Barak Obama is the President of extra judicial killing through drone strikes. Our work has only just begun.”
The prosecution case rested on proving how the decision-makers at the highest level President Bush, Vice-President Cheney, Secretary of Defence Rumsfeld, aided and abetted by the lawyers and the other commanders and CIA officials – all acted in concert. Torture was systematically applied and became an accepted norm.
According to the prosecution, the testimony of all the witnesses exposed a sustained perpetration of brutal, barbaric, cruel and dehumanising course of conduct against them.
These acts of crimes were applied cumulatively to inflict the worst possible pain and suffering, said lawyers.
The president of the tribunal Tan Sri Dato Lamin bin Haji Mohd Yunus Lamin, found that the prosecution had established beyond a “reasonable doubt that the accused persons, former President George Bush and his co-conspirators engaged in a web of instructions, memos, directives, legal advice and action that established a common plan and purpose, joint enterprise and/or conspiracy to commit the crimes of Torture and War Crimes, including and not limited to a common plan and purpose to commit the following crimes in relation to the “War on Terror” and the wars launched by the U.S. and others in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
President Lamin told a packed courtroom: “As a tribunal of conscience, the Tribunal is fully aware that its verdict is merely declaratory in nature. The tribunal has no power of enforcement, no power to impose any custodial sentence on any one or more of the 8 convicted persons. What we can do, under Article 31 of Chapter VI of Part 2 of the Charter is to recommend to the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission to submit this finding of conviction by the Tribunal, together with a record of these proceedings, to the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, as well as the United Nations and the Security Council.
“The Tribunal also recommends to the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission that the names of all the 8 convicted persons be entered and included in the Commission’s Register of War Criminals and be publicised accordingly.
“The Tribunal recommends to the War Crimes Commission to give the widest international publicity to this conviction and grant of reparations, as these are universal crimes for which there is a responsibility upon nations to institute prosecutions if any of these Accused persons may enter their jurisdictions”.