War Criminal

Is George W. Bush a war criminal for deliberately violating the Geneva Conventions? Can he be prosecuted when he leaves office on January 20, 2009? The answers are found in Michael Haas’s George W. Bush, War Criminal? The Bush Administration’s Liability for 269 War Crimes, which documents 269 war crimes and assesses the culpability of Bush and his administration.

The author, Michael Haas, has written more than thirty books, most recently International Human Rights: A Comprehensive Introduction (2008). A well-known political scientist, he played a key role in stopping American funding of the Khmer Rouge. His book exposing Singapore’s many human rights violations is banned in that authoritarian country.

The Foreword to the book is written by former Nuremberg prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz.

The following chapters delineate 269 war crimes:

1) A President Without a Good Lawyer
President George W. Bush is ambitious but not a lawyer, so he relies on legal advice. The attorneys on which he has relied have been widely criticized as lacking the competence and wisdom to provide sound advice. Bush has preferred to “kick ass” (in his words) rather than listen to the legal fine points.

2) Crimes of Aggression
The concept of “just war” developed from the writings of Saint Augustine and others into international agreements prohibiting aggressive war. The primary war crime is to wage war without UN approval. There are five other crimes against peace, including propaganda for war, all violated by Bush.

3) Crimes Committed in the Conduct of War
Abraham Lincoln promulgated a code of warfare that served as a basis for the Red Cross Convention, the Hague Conventions, and the Geneva Conventions. Nevertheless, Bush and his commanding generals have allowed 36 violations of these and other international agreements.

4) Crimes Committed in the Treatment of Prisoners
Although General Tommy Franks ordered troops in Afghanistan and Iraq to follow the Geneva Conventions whenever they encountered enemy personnel, he was quickly countermanded by Bush. The “gloves came off,” and thousands were improperly treated. Some 175 war crimes have been committed, many captured on film, within American-run prisons in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantánamo—and in secret prisons.

5) Crimes Committed in the Postwar Occupations
Whereas the postwar military occupation of Afghanistan was brief, the expected scenario for postwar Iraq did not materialize. Iraq was governed by L. Paul Bremer, who claimed direct authority from President Bush in proclaiming “I am the law,” and another 52 war crimes have been committed.

6) Tribunals for War Crimes Prosecution
American and international law provides the basis for lawsuits, but sitting presidents cannot be brought to court on criminal offenses. Some cases have already been filed in Europe. This chapter will indicate which tribunals have been and could be used for trials as well as the statutory and treaty basis. Penalties under the law are identified.

7) The Bush Administrations’ War Crimes Liability
President Bush is directly responsible for some but not every war crime identified in the analysis, so an assessment is made of his culpability for each specific violation as well as members of his Cabinet, top military brass, field commanders, and field personnel. The ramifications of both suing and not suing Bush are complex. Arguments pro and con are reviewed. A truth commission is proposed.

Obama has also reportedly chosen Admiral Dennis Blair for the nation’s top intelligence job. As Director of National Intelligence, Blair would oversee the U.S. government’s sixteen intelligence agencies. Blair’s selection has come under controversy mainly over his role in backing the Indonesian occupation of East Timor during the 1990s. Blair provided key support to the Indonesian military while commanding U.S. military forces in the Pacific. In a letter, the East Timor and Indonesian Action Network said: “Blair sought the quickest possible restoration of military assistance, despite Indonesia’s highly destructive exit and the failure, which continues to this day, to prosecute the senior officials who oversaw the violence. This lack of concern for human rights shows that he is unlikely to be a champion of reform.”

Couldn’t he have found someone else…???

A major study prepared for the Pentagon has criticized how the Bush administration has focused on using military might to defeat al-Qaeda in the so-called war on terror. The RAND Corporation study concludes that the current strategy for defeating al-Qaeda has failed in diminishing the group’s capabilities. The study recommends a “fundamental rethinking of US strategy” to focus on minimizing overt military action while increasing intelligence collection and partnerships with law enforcement agencies around the world. The co-author of the study, Seth Jones, said, “Terrorists should be perceived and described as criminals, not holy warriors, and our analysis suggests there is no battlefield solution to terrorism.”

How Terrorist Groups End

The official death toll for Burma’s cyclone disaster has jumped to almost 78,000 people, with nearly 56,000 missing, according to state TV.

Previously, Burma was giving a toll of 43,000 dead and 28,000 missing while the Red Cross and United Nations had estimated a death toll above 100,000.

Aid agencies are frustrated at the slow progress of aid to areas worst hit.

Cyclone Nargis battered southern regions of Burma, including the Irrawaddy Delta, on 2-3 May.

A BBC reporter in the delta this week saw little sign of official help and foreign aid workers have been barred from the area.

Heavy rain has been lashing the region, compounding the misery of survivors.

The UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator, John Holmes, is due to visit Rangoon, Burma’s main city, on Sunday in a bid to persuade the military government to grant more access to UN relief workers and expand its aid effort.

Earlier, the EU’s top aid official, Louis Michel, was denied permission to visit the delta region. He said he was given no explanation why disaster emergency experts were being refused visas.

However, Burma – also known as Myanmar – has promised to take foreign diplomats on a tour of the region this weekend.

Buddhist monasteries are among the few institutions in China which have the potential to organise resistance and opposition to the government – so the Chinese Communist Party constantly worries about them.

Are some monks secret supporters of the Dalai Lama? Could they be working towards Tibetan independence? Beijing’s fear is so great that being found with just a photograph of the Dalai Lama in your possession could land you in jail.

Government regulation of the monasteries started almost as soon as the People’s Liberation Army marched into Tibet in 1950.

The recent protests mark the 49th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising of 1959 when anti-Chinese and anti-communist demonstrations erupted on the streets of Lhasa, and were put down by force.

Lhasa’s three major monasteries – the Sera, Drepung and Ganden, were seriously damaged by shelling. The Dalai Lama was forced to flee into exile and the Tibetan government-in-exile estimates that 86,000 Tibetans died.

Source: BBC 

Yi San, one of the top rating dramas in Korea right now. This drama is simply amazing and reflects some of the best and worst times in Korean history.

Synopsis
This drama is about the life of King Jeongjo, Joseon Dynasty’s 22nd Monarch, who is remembered in Korean history as one of Korea’s greatest Kings who loved the people and reigned for the commoner, not the high-class people.

The drama starts with the King’s early years in which he befriends two children working in the Palace who are later expelled. The king of Joseon, Jeongjo’s grandfather at the time puts Jeongjo’s father, the next crown prince, in a box with no food or water because he fears that the crown prince will rise up against him. Jeongjo wants to save his father and begs his grandfather to save him with the help of his two friends. The drama then skips forward to Jeongjo’s adult years when he and his friends re-establish contact with each other. Throughout, the Jeongjo’s position as then Crown Prince is threatened by palace intrigues.

While still the Crown Prince, Jeongjo begins to fall in love with one of his childhood friends, Seong Song Yeon, the daughter of a palace artist who died when she was very young.

War Made Easy exposes a 50-year pattern of government deception and media spin that has dragged the United States into one war after another from Vietnam to Iraq. Narrated by actor and activist Sean Penn, the film exhumes remarkable archival footage of official distortion and exaggeration from LBJ to George W. Bush, revealing in stunning detail how the American news media have uncritically disseminated the pro-war messages of successive presidential administrations.

[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8383084962209910782&hl=en[/googlevideo]

(Media Education Foundation)

Every country has their own problems.  For the Chinese, one of their problems is the lack of control they have on the chengguan.

From BBC: 

The dispute was began when local people attempted to stop a rubbish truck from dumping refuse at a site that they argued was too close to their village, China state media reported.

Members of the Chinese municipal inspectors, known as the Chengguan, intervened.

The victim, Wei Wenhua, the manager of a construction company in Tianmen City, was driving by and stopped to film the confrontation on his mobile phone.

When Mr Wei refused the Chengguan’s demands that he delete the footage, he was beaten to death on the spot, according to witnesses cited by the Xinhua news agency.

Communist Party chief of Tianmen City, Bie Bixiong, told Xinhua that those responsible would be punished according to the law.

The death has triggered not only protests in his home town but sparked a nationwide call for a rethink of the very establishment of the Chengguan.

Chinese internet users are posting comments with titles such as “Municipal enforcers eliminating witness” and “How could they violate the law like this?”

Excessive force

The BBC’s China editor Shirong Chen says that this is not the first time that the Chengguan have beaten someone to death.

Ever since the agency came into existence 10 years ago, there have been repeated criticism of them using excessive force.

This para-police force, equipped with steel helmets and stab-proof vests, is often used by local officials as trouble-shooters, he adds.

In 2003, the death in custody of a young man in south China resulted in the abolition of the notorious migrant detention system.

Now many Chinese hope the death of Mr Wei will bring down the municipal inspection apparatus itself, our correspondent says.