Thursday, August 10, 2006
U.S. to Make it Legal for U.S. to Commit War Crimes
I have read much of "The Torture Papers," the documents that paved the way for the U.S. government to make it legal for themselves to commit torture, a war crime. Alberto Gonzales was mentioned in it quite a bit, as he seems to be one of the masterminds, and is now hard at work doing what he does best, making international crimes legal for the Bush administration and the U.S. to commit, not that they obeyed the laws to beging with, it just makes it more blatant. This is not an unusual act.
Before reading the article that I found on Common Dreams and is reprinted in many other sources, I have also posted article two of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which defines the crime. Note: the US and others had Cultural and Economic Genocide stricken from the document because it is a tool they use commonly. After the definition I printed the "reservations" of the U.S Government that they put in place prior to signing the agreement. These reservations basically make it legal for the U.S. to commit the crime of genocide, not like they have even attempted to obey the genocide laws. But it looks good on paper, just don't pay attention to the footnotes. As the Nazi's said at their Nuremburg trials, and I paraphrase: We didn't break any German laws in the extermination of the Jews, Sinti, Roma, insane, Jehovah's Witnesses, physically disabled, etc.
more later, REVOLUTION NOW!
Eugene Johnson
Article II, UN Convention on...Genocide.
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;Before reading the article that I found on Common Dreams and is reprinted in many other sources, I have also posted article two of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which defines the crime. Note: the US and others had Cultural and Economic Genocide stricken from the document because it is a tool they use commonly. After the definition I printed the "reservations" of the U.S Government that they put in place prior to signing the agreement. These reservations basically make it legal for the U.S. to commit the crime of genocide, not like they have even attempted to obey the genocide laws. But it looks good on paper, just don't pay attention to the footnotes. As the Nazi's said at their Nuremburg trials, and I paraphrase: We didn't break any German laws in the extermination of the Jews, Sinti, Roma, insane, Jehovah's Witnesses, physically disabled, etc.
more later, REVOLUTION NOW!
Eugene Johnson
Article II, UN Convention on...Genocide.
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
U.S "reservations" attached to the Genocide Convention before they'd sign it, basically making it legal for the U.S. government to commit the crime of Genocide.
"(1) That with reference to article IX of the Convention, be fore any dispute to which the United States is a party may be submitted to the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice under this article, the specific consent of the United States is required in each case.
(2) That nothing in the Convention requires or authorizes legislation or other action by the United States of America prohibited by the Constitution of the United States as interpreted by the United States."
The article I first read on Common Dreams about the attempt for the U.S. government to make themselves exempt from war crimes laws.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0810-04.htm
Associated Press
Retroactive War Crime Protection Proposed
08.09.2006, 07:26 PM
The Bush administration drafted amendments to the War Crimes Act that would retroactively protect policymakers from possible criminal charges for authorizing any humiliating and degrading treatment of detainees, according to lawyers who have seen the proposal.
The move by the administration is the latest effort to deal with treatment of those taken into custody in the war on terror.
At issue are interrogations carried out by the CIA, and the degree to which harsh tactics such as water-boarding were authorized by administration officials. A separate law, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, applies to the military.
The Washington Post first reported on the War Crimes Act amendments Wednesday.
One section of the draft would outlaw torture and inhuman or cruel treatment, but it does not contain prohibitions from Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions against "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment." A copy of the section of the draft was obtained by The Associated Press.
Another section would apply the legislation retroactively, according to two lawyers who have seen the contents of the section and who spoke on condition of anonymity because their sources did not authorize them to release the information.
One of the two attorneys said the draft is in the revision stage, but that the administration seems intent on pushing forward the draft's major points in Congress after Labor Day.
"I think what this bill can do is in effect immunize past crimes. That's why it's so dangerous," said a third attorney, Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice.
Fidell said the initiative is "not just protection of political appointees, but also CIA personnel who led interrogations."
Interrogation practices "follow from policies that were formed at the highest levels of the administration," said a fourth attorney, Scott Horton, who has followed detainee issues closely. "The administration is trying to insulate policymakers under the War Crimes Act."
A White House spokesman said Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions includes a number of vague terms that are susceptible to different interpretations.
The administration believes it is very important to bring clarity to the War Crimes Act so that those on the front lines in the war on terror "have clear rules that are defined in law," said the White House spokesman.
Extreme interrogation practices have been a flash-point for criticism of the administration.
When interrogators engage in waterboarding, prisoners are strapped to a plank and dunked in water until nearly drowning.
If the U.S. can commit war crimes, why can't the rest of the world? E.J.
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