Showing posts with label courts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label courts. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 29, 2022

Sitting In The Dock At The Hague...

 

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and others like him never need worry about going to prison for committing war crimes. Must be nice.

The Hague Invasion Act and the Hypocrisy of Joe Biden

by Coast Watcher

Last week, President Joe Biden described Russian President Vladimir Putin as “a war criminal” for ordering attacks on innocent civilians in Ukraine. A few days ago, Biden announced at the end of his remarks:

“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Biden said on Saturday at the Royal Castle in Warsaw. The White House and the State Dept. have been scrambling to explain away Biden’s remark. (...)
It was the second time that Biden confirmed that the purpose of the draconian US sanctions on Russia was never to prevent the invasion of Ukraine, which the US desperately needed to activate its plans, but to punish Russia and get its people to rise up against Putin and ultimately restore a Yeltsin-like puppet to Moscow. Without a cause those sanctions could never have been imposed. The cause was Russia’s invasion.
--Joe Lauria, Biden Confirms Why the US Needed This War

Whatever the justification for accusing Putin of such crimes, Biden’s hypocrisy is breathtaking. Threatening to take out another leader is an act of war. The CIA has assisted many such coups d'etat--such as the 2014 overturn of the Ukrainian election. This is a war crime. And not many Americans are aware that the United States has created a legal fig-leaf for invading an allied country should it dare put an American on trial for the same kind of crimes Biden accuses Putin and his military of doing.

Titled "The American Service-Members Protection Act"  (or "The Hague Invasion Act"), President George W. Bush signed it into law in 2002. That was the same year the International Criminal Court (ICC) began operations at The Hague, Netherlands. The International Criminal Court was founded by the 1998 Statute of Rome as the first permanent judicial body to try persons accused of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity. The United Nations Security Council can also entrust the ICC to conduct trials in certain cases.

The American Service-Members Protection Act allows the United States to help bring those accused of war crimes to justice—should such a measure be assessed as being in America’s best interests. What really should set alarm bells ringing is the tiny fact that the law also allows the US military to invade the Netherlands, specifically The Hague, should the ICC ever dare to put an American on trial. 

Consider that for a moment. The Netherlands is a founding member of NATO since it was established in 1949 at the start of the original Cold War. The United States, its ally, has made it legal to invade and attack the Netherlands should the ICC even attempt to allow justice to prevail against US service personnel or citizens.

The Hague Invasion Act also allows the US to withdraw military assistance for any of the 138 ICC signatory countries unless they agree not to extradite Americans to stand trial at The Hague. It also prohibits ICC officials from conducting investigations in US territories. The American government has explicitly stated that it will arrest any such official that sets foot on US soil and has promised sanctions against any official who attempts to investigate American war crimes elsewhere.

So what exactly constitutes a "war crime"? According to the Geneva Conventions:

War crimes include the following serious violations of international humanitarian law:
(i) Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions:
In the case of an international armed conflict, any of the following acts committed against persons or property protected under the provisions of the relevant Geneva Convention:
• wilful killing;
• torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments;
• wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health;
• extensive destruction or appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly;
• compelling a prisoner of war or other protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile Power;
• wilfully depriving a prisoner of war or other protected person of the rights of a fair and regular trial;
• unlawful deportation or transfer;
• unlawful confinement;
• taking of hostages.
Basis for the war crimes listed above
This list of grave breaches was included in the Geneva Conventions largely on the basis of crimes pursued after the Second World War by the International Military Tribunals at Nuremberg and at Tokyo and by national courts.

https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docindex/v1_rul_rule156

The American government has killed, tortured, and imprisoned millions of people across the globe in various wars, military interventions, and regime changes, yet its so-called leaders can stand up in front of us with straight faces and have the nerve to call Putin a war criminal. It takes one to know one! In their hubris they know they can do exactly the same or worse things and that there's little to no chance of any country ever daring to put an American on trial for his/her war crimes. 

What’s even sadder is that NATO and most other countries go right along with it as if it's no big deal. War crimes are atrocities only committed by non-Americans apparently. Any American who commits a war crime will never be punished by the ICC. They'll walk free.

https://popularresistance.org/america-plea-bargains-for-its-crimes-of-torture/  
What's the use of an international war crimes court that has no ability to punish those who commit war crimes? What's the use of not punishing war criminals who commit such acts as waterboarding, of holding and torturing their prisoners without charges for decades? You do remember the American government owns and operates Guantánamo Bay, don't you? 

Remember the prisoners being tortured and humiliated by US service personnel at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq? Remember the shocking photo of that poor guy being held naked on a dog leash while a female soldier used electric shocks and taunted him with sexual abuses? Those are war crimes by any name.

The US building biolabs in the Ukraine and working on deadly pathogens there over the past eight years? Nah, that's just a walk in the park. Nothing to see here, folks--move along now before we decide to disappear you to Gitmo, too.


BIO: Coast Watcher sometimes can't believe the audacity and evil intent of world leaders. Perhaps it's good they're starting to let their facades slip. We know more about the inner workings of these murderous cabals than ever before. What's keeping us from building guillotines to rid us of these tyrannical psychopaths?

What we do know about the US biological weapons involvement in Ukraine. And this is just a thumbnail sketch…

1991 – the US launches the Nunn-Lugar program for the former Soviet countries to control/eliminate Soviet weapons of mass destruction including bioweapons. The Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) was named as the program’s main executor.

1993 – the Ukraine-US Agreement on the Prevention of Proliferation of WMD is signed.

2005 – an additional protocol is signed to the agreement between the Ukrainian Health Ministry and the DTRA on the prevention of the proliferation of technologies, pathogens and know-how that can be used to develop bioweapons. This is the start of the transfer of the Ukrainian military biological potential into US specialists' hands.

2000s – large US military-industrial companies are engaged in military biological activity in Ukraine.

2005-2014 – Black & Veatch Special Projects, a DTRA contractor, builds and upgrades 8 biolabs in Ukraine instead of eliminating military biological infrastructure, as was originally claimed. One of the facilities, a biolab in Odessa, has been financed since 2011 for the study of “pathogens that can be used in bioterrorism attacks.”

2007 – US DoD employee Nathan Wolfe founded Global Viral Forecasting Institute (subsequently - Global Viral), a biomedical company. The mission stated in the charter is non-commercial study of transborder infections, including in China.

2009 – Rosemont Seneca Partners is established by former US Secretary of State John Kerry’s stepson Christopher Heinz and US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden.

2014 – Anti-constitutional coup d’etat in Ukraine.

2014 – Hunter Biden joins the Board of Directors of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company.

2014 – Metabiota, a private commercial organization specializing in the study of pandemic risks is detached from Global Viral. Neil Callahan and John DeLoche, employees of Hunter Biden’s company Rosemont Seneca Partners are appointed to the board of Metabiota. Global Viral and Metabiota begin to get funding from the US Department of Defense.

2014 - Metabiota shows interest in Ukraine and invites Hunter Biden to "assert Ukraine's cultural & economic independence from Russia".

2014 - Metabiota and Burisma Holdings begin cooperation on an unnamed "science project in Ukraine".

2014 - Metabiota, Global Viral and Black & Veatch Special Projects begin full-fledged cooperation within the US DoD programs.

2014-2016 - Implementation of Metabiota and US DoD contracts, including a $300,000 project in Ukraine.

2016 – US citizen Ulana Nadia Suprun, a descendant of Ukrainian Nazis, is appointed Acting Health Minister of Ukraine. The US DoD and Ukraine’s Health Ministry cooperation program is greatly expanded.

2016 – an outbreak of swine flu among Ukrainian Defense Ministry personnel guarding a biolab in Kharkov, Ukraine; 20 dead. The incident is hushed up.

2016 – former US Assistant Secretary for Defense Andrew Weber is appointed head of Metabiota’s global partnerships department.

2016 – EcoHealth Alliance, a Global Viral founder Nathan Wolfe’s structure, is engaged in the study of bat-transmitted coronaviruses at the research center in a Wuhan laboratory, China.

2016 – the DTRA and Ukraine’s Health Ministry extend the contract after getting approval from the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.

2019 – the COVID-19 mutated bat coronavirus pandemic begins with an outbreak in Wuhan.

February 24, 2022 – launch of the Russian Army’s special operation in Ukraine.

February 24-25, 2022 – rapid elimination of strains in biolabs in Ukraine.

March 8, 2022 – US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland openly acknowledges the existence of cooperation between the US and Ukraine in pathogens.

(Original source:  https://t.me/MariaVladimirovnaZakharova/2246 and more at https://canadianpatriot.org/2020/04/11/the-project-for-a-new-american-century-and-the-age-of-bioweapons-20-years-of-psychological-terror/)

Other related articles:

Hague Invasion Act Becomes Law https://www.hrw.org/news/2002/08/03/us-hague-invasion-act-becomes-law#

Legally, the US Military Can Break People Out of The Hague https://www.wearethemighty.com/popular/us-can-invade-the-hague/

Biden Confirms Why the US Needed This War  https://consortiumnews.com/2022/03/27/can-russia-escape-the-us-trap/ 

Urging Regime Change in Russia, Biden Exposes US Aims in Ukraine https://mate.substack.com/p/urging-regime-change-in-russia-biden

International Law is a Meaningless Concept When It Only Applies to US Enemies https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/03/17/international-law-is-a-meaningless-concept-when-it-only-applies-to-us-enemies/#comments

The Lie of American Innocence  https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-lie-of-american-innocence-686

More Evidence that the US Is Trying to Prolong this War https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/more-evidence-that-the-us-is-trying?s=r 

The Impact of Ukraine on Yemen  https://scheerpost.com/2022/03/23/the-impact-of-ukraine-on-yemen/

Washington Should Think Twice Before Launching a New Cold War https://scheerpost.com/2022/03/22/washington-should-think-twice-before-launching-a-new-cold-war/ 

From Moscow to Washington, the Barbarism and Hypocrisy Don't Justify Each Other https://scheerpost.com/2022/03/23/from-moscow-to-washington-the-barbarism-and-hypocrisy-dont-justify-each-other/ 

Yes It's a Proxy War  https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/03/26/yes-its-a-proxy-war-notes-from-the-edge-of-the-narrative-matrix/

America Plea Bargains for its Crimes of Torture https://scheerpost.com/2022/03/24/john-kiriakou-the-us-plea-bargains-for-its-crimes-of-torture/ 

Bush War Crimes, Guantanamo In Spotlight at Ketanji Brown Jackson Hearings https://therealnews.com/bush-war-crimes-guantanamo-in-spotlight-at-ketanji-brown-jackson-hearings

US Lied About "Dangerous Pathogen" Research in Secret Ukrainian Biolabs https://popularresistance.org/u-s-lied-about-funding-dangerous-pathogen-research-in-secret-ukrainian-biolabs-newly-leaked-documents-reveal/

US Funds Nazis and Brings Back Firing Squads. Literally (video) https://www.rokfin.com/post/79671

 Seen on Twitter:

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Tuesday, November 2, 2021

You're Not Paranoid (They Are Out To Get You)


You're Not Paranoid 
(They Are Out To Get You)
by C.A. Matthews

 

Some days you think you're going crazy. Then you read your Twitter feed and realize it's not you that's crazy--it's the whole freakin' system that controls our every move that's crazy.

A human rights lawyer, Steven Donziger, represents an indigenous tribe in Ecuador that was poisoned by massive dumping of wastes on their otherwise pristine land by an international oil corporation. This person should be labeled a hero, decorated with ribbons and medals, and should be called a saint on every news show and in every print publication. But no… Donziger's story has been mostly ignored and his reputation smeared in the mainstream media. When he wouldn't give up his computer full of confidential information between his law team and his clients, he was held in criminal contempt of court. But no legitimate court wanted to convict him or try him, so the oil company "bought" itself a judge and hopped up charges in their own kangaroo court just to punish him for being a good guy. And get this--the US  government is perfectly okay with an oil company calling the shots!

If that ain't crazy! The hero in his own words:

 “Chevron caused a mass industrial poisoning in the Amazon that crushed the lives of Indigenous peoples. Six courts and 28 appellate judges found the company guilty. Fight on.” —Steven Donziger

Conviction of Steven Donziger, said one critic, “perfectly encapsulates how corporate power has twisted the U.S. justice system to protect corporate interests and punish their enemies.” Julia Conley, Six Month Sentence for Lawyer Who Took on Chevron 

This past week, another court in the UK held a hearing to expedite a journalist to the US for simply reporting the truth to the world.

Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges says of Julian Assange:

Assange’s “crime” is that he exposed the more than 15,000 unreported deaths of Iraqi civilians. He exposed the torture and abuse of some 800 men and boys, aged between 14 and 89, at Guantánamo. He exposed that Hillary Clinton in 2009 ordered US diplomats to spy on U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and other U.N. representatives from China, France, Russia, and the UK, spying that included obtaining DNA, iris scans, fingerprints, and personal passwords, part of the long pattern of illegal surveillance that included the eavesdropping on UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in the weeks before the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. He exposed that Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and the CIA orchestrated the June 2009 military coup in Honduras that overthrew the democratically-elected president Manuel Zelaya, replacing it with a murderous and corrupt military regime. He exposed that George W. Bush, Barack Obama and General David Petraeus prosecuted a war in Iraq that under post-Nuremberg laws is defined as a criminal war of aggression, a war crime, which authorized hundreds of targeted assassinations, including those of US citizens in Yemen. He exposed that the United States secretly launched missile, bomb, and drone attacks on Yemen, killing scores of civilians. He exposed that Goldman Sachs paid Hillary Clinton $657,000 to give talks, a sum so large it can only be considered a bribe, and that she privately assured corporate leaders she would do their bidding while promising the public financial regulation and reform. He exposed the internal campaign to discredit and destroy British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn by members of his own party. He exposed how the hacking tools used by the CIA and the National Security Agency permits the wholesale government surveillance of our televisions, computers, smartphones and anti-virus software, allowing the government to record and store our conversations, images and private text messages, even from encrypted apps.

He exposed the truth. He exposed it over and over and over until there was no question of the endemic illegality, corruption and mendacity that defines the global ruling elite. And for these truths alone he is guilty.

Chris Hedges, The Most Important Battle For Press Freedom In Our Time 

So, Julian Assange, an Australian publisher who exposes corruption and murder millions of times over will be extradited from the UK to the US so the US can lock him in solitary confinement and push him even further over the edge mentally and emotionally just because he embarrassed the sadistic military-industrial complex and corrupt politicians by showing the world what's really happening.

And that's not crazy?

I'll tell you what it is--it's downright immoral, is what it is. The Assanges and Donzigers of the world are a rare breed of human being brave enough to take on the sick and twisted system, knowing they could be severely penalized for simply doing their jobs. They face their tormentors and suffer unjust punishments for the good of humanity. They are rewarded by silence or outright lies streaming from the lips of mass media "darlings" willing to do the dirty work of covering for the depravity of those in power.

We're not crazy--we're not paranoid. The system is out to get us, subdue us, and bend our will to theirs. We can't let them do this. We need to act like Julian Assange and publish the truth come what may anyway. We need to act like Steven Donziger and stand up for the marginalized and defenseless peoples of the Earth.

If we don't… We will become the very sickness they lost their freedom to fight. We will become truly crazy. And the evil status quo wins.

Related Articles:

From Press Freedom to Prison Systems, Everything Assange Touches Gets Illuminated  https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/from-press-freedom-to-prison-systems

America's Unending Persecution of Whistleblowers https://scheerpost.com/2021/10/29/john-kiriakou-on-daniel-hale-and-americas-unending-persecution-of-whistleblowers/ 

The Most Important Battle For Press Freedom In Our Time https://scheerpost.com/2021/10/28/hedges-the-most-important-battle-for-press-freedom-in-our-time/ 

Julian Assange Extradition Hearing https://popularresistance.org/on-contact-julian-assange-extradition-case/

Billionaire Reveals Virtual Reality Experience Called "Mainstream Media" https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/billionaire-reveals-virtual-reality

Prisoner Gives a Guantanamo Court The First Account of CIA Abuse  https://www.rsn.org/001/prisoner-gives-a-guantanamo-court-the-first-account-of-cia-abuse.html 

 Six Month Sentence for Lawyer Who Took on Chevron https://consortiumnews.com/2021/10/01/six-month-sentence-for-lawyer-who-took-on-chevron-provokes-anger/

Exxon CEO Accused of Lying About Climate Science to Congressional Panel https://www.rsn.org/001/exxon-ceo-accused-of-lying-about-climate-science-to-congressional-panel.html

Assange and Donziger Attacked (video) https://www.portable.tv/series/redactedtonight?v=86fddabd-b3a0-440c-8970-e9f45f48c2c8

Our Courts Also Have a Big Corruption Problem https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/05/our-courts-also-have-big-corruption-problem/ 

Documents Show How US Government Used Social Media To Interfere in Venezuela  https://jacobinmag.com/2021/10/us-venezuela-election-campaign-intervention-influence-maduro-mud-social-media-facebook

 As seen on Twitter:

 


 

***

From Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund:

The age of trickle-down tax-cut economics is coming to an end!

President Biden and Congressional leaders have just released the Build Back Better legislation that we have been working on for months. It’s historic legislation that will recover the revenue lost in the tax handouts given to the rich and corporations by the Trump-GOP tax scam in 2017―and make bold investments in working families and the environment.

Right now, members of the House are under pressure to vote for the bipartisan infrastructure bill (it’s already passed the Senate) before all 50 Democratic votes in the Senate are even secured for the Build Back Better legislation. In order to guarantee passage of this historic agenda, we’re demanding the House hold the line: No vote on infrastructure without assurance that Build Back Better will pass the Senate!

Click here to write a letter to your members of Congress urging them to hold strong on Build Back Better. The bills must be passed together to ensure the bill remains as robust as possible.

Here’s what the Build Back Better bill will do:

It will invest in universal preschool for all 3- and 4-year olds, make high quality childcare more affordable, expand Medicaid home care to keep older Americans and people with disabilities in their homes while paying care workers a fair wage, expand Medicare to cover hearing, extend the Child Tax Credit that is providing monthly cash payments to 35 million families, invest in clean energy and combat the climate crisis.

This bill is 100% paid for by closing tax loopholes used by the rich and corporations, requiring a 15% minimum tax to stop wealthy corporations from dodging their fair share of taxes, taxing firms that enrich shareholders rather than invest in workers, catching rich tax cheats that are evading $160 billion in taxes every year, creating a special higher tax rate for the ultra-wealthy, and more.

Small businesses and people making under $400,000 a year won’t pay any more in taxes.

Click here to write to your U.S. representative and senators and urge them to hold the line: No vote on infrastructure without Build Back Better. Tell them it’s time to invest in working families―completely paid for by making the rich and corporations pay their fair share.

This is the most important shift in our country’s priorities in a generation―ending trickle-down tax-cut economics for the rich and finally investing in our families and communities. Let’s get this across the finish line!

Frank Clemente
Executive Director
Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund

 ***

Families Belong Together (Logo)

In less than a week, the Biden administration plans to restart the horrible, Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy in border cities that the Biden administration advises all U.S. citizens to avoid going there because they are so potentially dangerous. 

This policy illegally denies safety to families in the U.S. and sends them back to danger -- where the State Department recommends U.S. citizens avoid due to crime and kidnapping. Families are then forced to wait for months on end, with little to no resources, in makeshift tent homes, sometimes with children with disabilities like cerebral palsy or epilepsy. 

The consequences have been devastating: over 7,000 people have been kidnapped or victims of violent attacks after being turned back from seeking safety in the U.S. 

Restarting this racist policy is immoral and inhumane. President Biden promised to restore an immigration system that welcomes people with dignity, but he is doing the opposite: 
Demand that the Biden administration stop forcing families back into danger.

 Tell biden: stop Remain In Mexico

If Remain in Mexico restarts in November, families who have trekked to our front door seeking safety may be forced to make an impossible decision: separate from your children for the chance they will be free from danger, or await your asylum trial together in a city where migrants are highly susceptible to being kidnapped, extorted, or killed. 

So far, over 70,000 migrants seeking safety have been sent back to these border cities, including at least 16,000 babies, children, and teenagers. 

People deserve access to basic human needs and to claim asylum in the U.S. We need to do everything possible to stop Remain in Mexico from returning. Join me today and take action for babies, children, pregnant people, and families who want a future free from violence and tragedy in the U.S.

Tell biden: stop Remain in Mexico

We can’t let Remain in Mexico jeopardize the lives of children and families looking for a safer tomorrow. President Biden must live up to his promise to restore asylum.

Thanks for all you do,
Erin Mazursky, Organizing Director
Families Belong Together

 

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