Introduction,
Crimes Against Humanity
excerpted from the book
Lying for Empire
How to Commit War Crimes With
A Straight Face
by David Model
Common Courage Press, 2005, paper
Introduction
p6
The International Criminal Court for the Former Yugoslavia describes
crimes against humanity as:
Serious acts of violence that harms human
beings by striking what is most essential to them: their life,
liberty, physical welfare, health, and dignity. There are inhumane
acts that by their very extent and gravity go beyond the L tolerable
limits of the international community.
p6
Michael Parenti in Dirty Truths:
The history of the United States has
been one of territorial and economic expansionism, with the benefits
going mostly to the U.S. business class in the form of growing
investments and markets, access to rich natural resources and
cheap labour, and the accumulation of enormous profits.
p7
Brutal dictators such as the Shah of Iran in 1953, General Suharto
in Indonesia in 1967, and Pinochet in Chile in 1973, were all
installed in power by the CIA, and relied on American support
and weapons to hold on to power. Their dependence on U.S. support
all but guaranteed a friendly regime.
p7
In 1954 in Honduras, American military specialists trained anti-government
invasion forces to overthrow the democratically elected government
of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala. After the Sandinista Government
in Nicaragua overthrew the corrupt and brutal dictator Somoza,
the United States organized, trained, and supplied a guerrilla
force known as the Contras in order to restore a friendly government
in Nicaragua.
p7
The United States has a high degree of control in the World Bank
and International Monetary Fund because of the extent of its financial
contributions and the formula used for weighting votes. The IMF,
in particular, imposes strict conditions on debtor nations that
force them to concentrate on producing cheap exports in order
to increase foreign reserves needed to pay interest on their debt.
These structural adjustment programs include currency devaluation,
reduced wages, cutbacks to social programs, and reliance on the
market system. All of these programs benefit creditor nations
such as the United States at the expense of the debtor nations.
p7
When New Zealand refused American nuclear submarines access to
its ports, the U.S. retaliated by refusing to buy their butter,
one of their major exports.
p9
To overcome these obstacles, a president and his top advisors
are forced to engineer or "manufacture consent" for
policies that might not be acceptable. Edward Bernays, a leading
figure of the public relations industry, explains that:
A leader frequently cannot wait for the people to arrive at even
[a] general understanding... Democratic leaders must play their
part in... engineering... consent to socially constructive goals
and values.
p11
Panamanian leader Manuel Nora had been a CIA operative for many
years despite the fact that he was a notorious drug dealer. Two
factors militated against Noriega remaining a U.S. ally much longer.
First, a treaty had been signed in 1978 transferring control of
the Canal Zone, a ten mile-wide strip encompassing the Panama
Canal, from the United States to Panama. President Reagan wanted
to regain control of the Canal Zone and the only justification
for revoking the treaty was to demonstrate that the Panamanian
Defence Forces (PDF) were incompetent and not capable of defending
it. Second, despite the fact that Noriega was working for the
American Government, he was also a strong nationalist and did
not always take orders from American officials. The American Government
needed a strategy for replacing Noriega and for proving that the
PDF were incompetent. Therefore, the American administration of
George H. W. Bush embarked on a campaign to lure Panama into a
war to destroy Noriega and to weaken the PDF.
First Noriega was accused of being a major
drug dealer (which was well known for many years while he was
an asset for the CIA) who would have to be captured to face drug
charges in the U.S. Then to create an incident that would provide
the United States with an excuse for invading Panama, they hatched
a deceitful scheme to discredit the Panamanian Defence Forces.
The Southern Command (headquarters for U.S. forces in Panama)
encouraged a group of leaders of the PDF to execute a coup against
Noriega with American support. The American forces were to block
all routes to Noriega's headquarters so that the mutinous PDF
forces would meet with very little resistance. The Americans did
not provide the promised support condemning the coup to failure.
The next step in the plot was to send a group of American marines
known as the Hard Chargers into Panamanian territory to provoke
an incident. After extensive harassment, an exchange of shots
took place killing a U.S. marine. The Bush administration could
now claim that American lives were in danger in Panama and the
PDF were incompetent to protect them. Shortly thereafter, the
United States invaded Panama ostensibly to capture the "narco-terrorist"
Noriega. Between 2000 and 4000 innocent Panamanians lost their
lives and entire neighborhoods were leveled to the ground. American
forces eventually captured Noriega and installed American-friendly
leaders as President and Vice President. J
p12
To convince the American public and Congress to approve a foreign
or defence policy, the government frequently invents a crisis
to instill fear in Americans, and generate support for the chosen
policy. First, George W. Bush's administration warned Americans
about the development and accumulation of weapons of mass destruction
(WMD) in Iraq with no evidence to support their allegations. Then
Bush warned about Iraqi ties to Al Qaeda and possible involvement
in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S. without
evidence. Neither of these claims were valid. By calling colour-coded
security alerts and asking the American public to buy duct tape
to protect themselves from chemical attacks, the administration
further exacerbated American's fear of terrorism. The resulting
atmosphere was a pervasive fear that Saddam Hussein was an imminent
threat to American security.
p13
In the 2003 American bombing of Iraq, American propagandists,
to create an inflated sense of the threat to American security,
warned that Saddam was prepared to use his weapons of mass destruction.
There was no evidence that he either possessed WMD or that he
intended to use them. The only evidence was the word of people
such as Bush, Rumsfeld, and other government spokespersons.
p14
To ensure protection from criticism which might undermine their
propaganda efforts, American administrations employ a strategy
referred to as "marginalizing dissent" (Noam Chomsky
and Edward Herman, Manufacturing Consent, 1988). Valid criticism
might begin to resonate with the American people and it is imperative
to avoid any such criticisms.
George W. Bush set the stage for marginalizing
dissent during the 2003 assault on Iraq by uttering, "you
are either for us or against us." In other words, anyone
who dares to criticize the government is unpatriotic. Bill Maher
was fired from the program "Politically Incorrect" for
challenging the administration's refusal to ask what motivated
the terrorists of 9/11. The Dixie Chicks, a country music group
who criticized the Iraq bombing in 2003, were booed at the 2003
ACM awards, had their number one song "Travelin' Soldier"
dropped by radio stations, and had radio stations across the country
ban their music. Robert Fisk is one of the most respected and
experienced journalists on Middle East affairs but is despised
by the administration for his refusal to be embedded and for an
interview he gave on Iraqi television. You rarely see his name
on a column in the United States press any longer because he had
the temerity to seek the truth.
p15
Gaining control over the world's second largest oil reserves in
Iraq ... was not openly discussed by the administration. The United
States did not need to import the oil immediately but control
over oil reserves guaranteed them access in the future when new
sources of oil might be necessary. Also, the establishment of
American military bases in Iraq would help secure control over
the entire region.
p15
Most American military interventions are motivated by the need
to protect American economic and military interests. The objective
of the invasion of Panama was to regain control over the Panama
Canal Zone, a vital American economic and military asset. In Guatemala
the economic motive was to regain the land confiscated from the
United Fruit Company by the government of Guatemala. The economic
motive in the 2003 bombing of Iraq was to gain control over the
world's second largest reserves of oil.
p16
When the Belgian Congo gained its independence on June 20, 1960,
the new Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, was viewed as a threat
by the Eisenhower administration because of his call for political
and economic liberation. The U.S. government's objective was to
maintain access to the Congo's rich resources. Allen Dulles, the
Director of the CIA under President Eisenhower, ordered the assassination
of Lumumba in August 1960. Before the CIA could act, Mobutu Sese
Seko, Lumumba's private secretary, intervened militarily and removed
Lumumba from power. The CIA and Mobutu were implicated in his
assassination in January 1961. President Kennedy supported Mobutu
despite his record of human rights abuses and corruption.
The Kennedy administration supported conspiracies
that overthrew six popularly elected governments in Latin America.
Military dictators took power in Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile,
Guatemala and El Salvador with the support of President Kennedy.
These dictators employed brutal methods to maintain themselves
in power including the destruction of their civil opponents.
President Ford supplied the arms and gave
the green light to General Suharto of Indonesia for the invasion
of East Timor. President Carter rearmed the Indonesian military
when their supply of arms ran low.
***
World War II - Crimes against humanity
p18
During World War II, Allied Forces decided to prosecute the leaders
of the Nazi regime as war criminals. On October 7, 1942, the Allied
Forces announced that a United Nations War Crimes Commission would
be created to investigate Nazi war crimes. The Commission was
established on October 20, 1943. The decision was reached in the
Moscow Declaration on October 30, 1943, signed by the United Kingdom,
United States, and USSR, to prosecute and punish German war criminals
at the end of the war.
The Moscow Declaration states that:
Accordingly, the aforesaid three allied
powers, speaking in the interest of the thirty-two United Nations,
hereby solemnly declare and give full warning of their declaration
as follows: those German officers who have been responsible for
or have taken a consenting part in the above atrocities... may
be judged and punished...
The London Agreement of August 8, 1945,
authorized the establishment of a tribunal for prosecuting and
sentencing war criminals. The Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal
was drawn up at a conference in London and delineated the structure,
jurisdiction, role of the chief prosecutor, and procedures of
the International Military Tribunal.
The International Law Commission of the
United Nations was commissioned to formulate the principles of
international law which were recognized in the Charter of the
Nuremberg Tribunal. All subsequent international laws involving
crimes against humanity are based on these principles. The Principles
of the Nuremberg Tribunal, drafted in 1950, include the following
principles:
Principle I
Any person who commits an act which constitutes
a crime under international law is responsible therefore and liable
to punishment.
Principle III
The fact that a person who committed an
act which constitutes a crime in international law acted as Head
of State or responsible government official does not relieve him
from responsibility under international law. J
Principle IV
The crimes hereinafter set out are punishable
as crimes under international law:
(a) Crimes against peace;
(b) Planning, preparation, initiation
or waging of a war of aggression in violation of international
treaties;
(c) Crimes against humanity: Murder, extermination,
enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against
any civilian population, or persecutions on political, racial,
or religious grounds, when such acts are done or such persecutions
are carried on in execution of or in connection with any crime
against peace or any war crime.
p20
Socrates
"I am not an Athenian, or a Greek, but a citizen of the
world."
p22
The International Committee for the Relief of the Wounded was
established in 1862. In 1863 fourteen countries sent delegates
to a conference in Geneva, and in 1864 representatives of 16 governments
adopted a treaty entitled the "Geneva Convention for the
Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the
Field." This was the first international agreement to define
international humanitarian law. In time, the movement became known
as the Red Cross. The Geneva Convention was subsequently expanded
to four conventions and two protocols signed by 115 nations:
1. The First Convention (1864) dealt with
wounded and sick members of the armed forces in the field.
2. The Second Convention (1899) added
wounded, sick, and shipwrecked members of the armed forces at
sea as well as shipwreck victims.
3. The Third Convention (1907) included
prisoners of war.
4. The Fourth Convention (1949) was about
civilians in time of war.
5. The First Protocol (1977) added protection
of the victims of international military conflicts.
6. The Second Protocol (1977) brought
in protection for victims of local conflicts.
The essential principles of the Geneva
Conventions are
* respect for human beings and respect
for their dignity;
* individuals who do not take direct
part in hostilities and those who can not take part due to illness,
wounds, captivity, or other reasons, are entitled to respect and
protection from the conflicting sides' military operations;
* warring sides and combatants are obliged
not to attack civilians and civilian objects.
The Third Convention, pertaining to the
protection of prisoners of war, includes the following clauses:
Part 1, Article 3 Clause 1
Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members
of the armed forces who have laid down their arms and those who
suffer from sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall
in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse
distinction founded on race, colour, religion, faith, sex, birth,
wealth, or any other similar criteria. To this end the following
acts shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever
with respect to the above-mentioned persons:
(a) violence to life and person, in particular
murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;
(b) taking of hostages;
(c) outrages upon personal dignity, in
particular humiliating and degrading treatment;
(d) passing of sentences and the carrying
out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly
constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees that are
recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.
Part 1 Article 4A
Prisoners of war, in the sense of the present convention, are
persons belonging to one of the following categories who have
fallen into the power of the enemy:
(1) Members of the armed forces of a party
to the conflict, as well as members of militias or volunteer corps
forming part of such armed forces.
Part 1 Article 5
The present convention shall apply to the persons referred to
in Article 4 from the time they fall into the power of the enemy
and until their final release and patriation.
Should any doubt arise as to whether persons,
having committed a belligerent act and having fallen into the
hands of the enemy, belong to any of the categories enumerated
in Article 4, such persons shall enjoy the protection of the present
convention until such time as their status has been determined
by a competent tribunal.
Part 4 Article 118
Prisoners of war shall be released and repatriated without delay
after the cessation of active hostilities
p24
American Presidents have regularly violated the clauses prohibiting
violence against the life and dignity of civilians ...
p24
The third Geneva Convention's protection for prisoners of war
has been completely ignored by the United States ...
p25
Convention IV of the Geneva Conventions pertains to the protection
of civilians and includes the clauses below.
Part 1 Article 3
In the case of armed conflict not of an
international character occurring in the territory in one of the
High Contracting Parties, each Party to the conflict shall be
bound to apply, as a minimum, the following provisions:
(1) All persons including armed forces
who have surrendered must be treated humanely.
To this end, the following acts are and
shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever
with respect to the above-mentioned persons:
(a) Violence to life and person, in particular
murders of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;
(b) Taking of hostages;
(c) Outrages upon personal dignity, in
particular humiliating and degrading treatment.
Protocol 1 of the Geneva Conventions pertains
to the protection of civilians and non-military targets and includes
the following clauses:
Chapter 11, Article 51:
(1) The civilian population and individual
civilians shall enjoy protection against dangers arising from
military operations.
[(4) Indiscriminate attacks are prohibited.
Indiscriminate attacks are:
(a) those which are not directed at specific
military objectives;
(b) those which employ a method or means
of combat the effects of which cannot be directed at a specific
military objective; or
(c) those that employ a method or means
of combat the effects of which cannot be limited as required by
this Protocol; and consequently, in each case, are of a nature
to strike military objectives and civilian or civilian objects
without distinction.
Chapter 111, Article 52:
(1) Civilian objects shall not be the
object of attack or of reprisals. Civilian objects are all objects
that are not military objectives.
(2) Attacks should be limited strictly
to military objectives.
p27
One example of weapons that violate international law are cluster
bombs. Cluster bombs disperse bomblets over a wide area significantly
expanding the radius of the area destroyed. They can be fired
from surface artillery or from rockets or airplanes. Those dropped
from airplanes explode above the ground and break up into hundreds
of little bomblets which saturate the target area. Because it
is impossible to isolate any target with pinpoint accuracy, these
bombs often destroy non-military targets.
When the United States bombed Iraq in
1991 for invading Kuwait, it dropped 62,000 air-delivered cluster
bombs and delivered 110,000 by other means, littering the country
with 24 to 30 million unexploded sub munitions literally a disaster
waiting to happen. (Human Rights Watch)
NATO bombed Serbia into submission under
the pretext of a humanitarian war. During the bombing, the United
States, Britain, and Holland dropped 1,765 cluster bombs containing
more than 295,000 cluster bomblets. Not only did the cluster bombs
result in civilian casualties and destroy non-military targets,
but an estimated 20,000 unexploded bombs remained after the war
waiting for innocent civilians to set them off. (Human Rights
Watch)
After 9/11, the United States launched
its War on Terrorism. The first acts were the bombing of Afghanistan
to eradicate the Taliban accused of harbouring terrorists, the
destruction of terrorist training camps, and the attempted capture
of terrorists, including the head of Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden.
The U.S. dropped 1,228 cluster bombs containing 248,056 bomblets
leaving an estimated 12,400 duds with the potential to kill years
after the conflict. (Human Rights Watch)
The use of cluster bombs violates the
First Protocol, Chapter II, Article 51 of the Geneva Conventions.
This falls under the category of protection of civilians, "indiscriminate
weapons" and weapons which "are of a nature to strike
military objectives and civilian or civilian objects without distinction."
p28
In April 1991, the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority claimed
that U.S. ground forces fired between 5000 and 6000 rounds of
depleted radiation ordnance in Iraq. In addition, U.S. and British
aircraft launched approximately 50,000 DU rockets and missiles.
DU weapons burst into flames creating uranium oxide that spreads
and contaminates bodies, equipment, and the ground. The uranium-238
that is used to make the weapons causes cancer and genetic defects.
According to the report of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, 40
tonnes of radioactive debris could kill 500,000 people.
p30
Nicaragua responded to American attacks on its territorial integrity
and independence by filing charges at the World Court. Nicaragua
claimed that its territorial integrity was threatened by the mining
of its harbours and by an American-sponsored guerrilla force called
the Contras. The Court ruled that "...the US was under duty
to cease and desist immediately from the use of force against
Nicaragua, [and] from all violations of the sovereignty and political
independence of Nicaragua..." In achieving this ruling Nicaragua
accomplished two important victories. First, it proved to the
world that it was under attack. Second, it identified the U. S.
as a rogue state: the U. S., under President Reagan at the time,
ignored the ruling.
p30
When presidents commit war crimes they must be held accountable
by an international tribunal.
p31
Presidents aren't just war criminals; they seek to undermine the
institutions that create and adjudicate international law.
p32
The Charter of the United Nations [June 26, 1945] expanded the
domain of laws r pertaining to crimes against humanity by extending
them to acts of aggression and breaches of the peace. While the
Geneva Conventions provide protection to individuals, specifically
civilians and the wounded, the Charter refers to the actions of
states. These actions could include unilateral acts of aggression,
failure to seek means other than aggression to resolve disputes,
and declaring war without the authorization of the Security Council.
p34
George W. Bush's decision to attack Iraq in 2003 was a clear violation
of both the Geneva Conventions and the UN Charter.
p34
According to Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General, "I've
indicated that it [the War on-Iraq] was not in conformity with
the U.N. Charter from our point view, and from the Charter point
of view it was illegal." (ABC Online, March 2003)
p35
.... Britain and the United States used cluster bombs and depleted
uranium weapons ... Iraq Body Count reports that
Among these incidents [of civilian deaths] are included reliable
reports of at least 200 civilian deaths due to cluster bombs,
with up to a further 172 deaths which were probably caused by
cluster bombs. Of these 372 deaths, 147 have been caused by detonation
of unexploded or "dud" munitions, with about half of
this number being children.
The exact amount of depleted uranium used
in the bombing of Iraq is not known but it has been estimated
to be greater than the 340 tonnes in the 1991 war. The radiation
from these weapons does not discriminate between military personnel
and civilians. Depleted uranium may be a contributing factor to
cases of "Gulf War Syndrome" affecting American veterans
of the 1991 bombing of Iraq.
p38
The North Atlantic Treaty which established NATO, and the Charter
of the Organization of American States (OAS)...
The OAS Charter states that:
Chapter I Article 2
The Organization of American States, in
order to put into practice the principles on which it is founded
and to fulfill its regional obligations under the Charter of the
United Nations, proclaims the following essential purposes:
(a) To strengthen the peace and security
of the continent;
(b) To promote and consolidate representative
democracy, with due respect for the principle of nonintervention;
The United States breached the OAS charter
when it mined the harbours of Nicaragua and when it organized
a guerrilla force to undermine the government of Nicaragua. The
OAS Charter was violated when the U.S. organized the overthrow
of the democratically elected government of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala
in 1954 and also when it sent the marines into the Dominican Republic
in 1963.
Lying
for Empire
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