International War Crimes & Criminals

"The George W. Bush Doctrine on U.S. foreign Policy:

(1) The U.S. claims the right to preemptive use of military power, including nuclear weapons;
(2) The U.S. will not be bound by international treaties or agreements if these are deemed by the government to interfere with our national self-interest;
(3) The U.S. will actively work to prevent the emergence of any strategic rival on the world scene;
(4) The U.S. will use military policy and power to advance the interests of U.S. capitalism around the world."

Bill Keach, Illusion and Reality, International Socialist Review

Websites

Crimes of War Project
KissingerWatch / International Campaign Against Impunity
International Justice website

 

International War Crimes

International Crimes - as defined by ICC

Books

War Crimes - A report on US War Crimes against Iraq - by Ramsey Clarke and others - Report to the Commission of Inquiry for the International War Crimes Tribunal

In the Name of Democracy - American War Crimes in Iraq and Beyond - edited by Jeremy Brecher, Jill Cutler, and Brendan Smith

Lying for Empire - by David Model

 

" Neoconservative Jeane Kirkpatrick argued in 1979 that Third World revolutions are illegitimate, the products of Soviet expansion rather than of local historical forces opposed to repressive dictatorships (Dictatorships and Double Standards). Kirkpatrick had solved the moral problem of the rollbackers: why it is fine to overthrow left-wing governments and make friends with rightist dictators. The Kirkpatrick Doctrine held that right-wing dictatorships can evolve into democratic governments while left-wing nations cannot. Under this Doctrine, Marcos, Pinochet, and P.W. Botha were leading their countries down the path of democracy. "

from the book Rollback by Thomas Bodenheimer and Robert Gould

 

"It is a gross fabrication to claim that the contras are composed of democratic groups".... As I can attest, the 'contra', military force is directed and controlled by officers of Somoza's National Guard.... During my four years as a 'contra director, it was premeditated policy to terrorize civilian noncombatants to prevent them from cooperating with the Government. Hundreds of civilian murders, tortures and rapes were committed in pursuit of this policy, of which the 'contra' leaders and their CIA superiors were well aware."

Edgar Chamorro former member of the directorate of the main contra organization, the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN), in a 1986 interview (from the book Rollback by Thomas Bodenheimer and Robert Gould)

 

" We must recognize that there is no division between domestic and foreign policy, no way to separate ourselves from our nation's actions around he world. We cannot create a decent society at home so long as national priorities are distorted by militarism ..."

from the book Trilateralism, edited Holly Sklar

 

"The great masses of the people at the very bottom of their hearts tend to be corrupted rather than consciously evil ... they more easily fall a victim to a big lie than to a little one, since they themselves lie in little things, but would be ashamed of lies that were too big."

Adolph Hitler

International Law page

" By the later years of the Reagan regime, a preferred nomenclature suited to U.S. interests became standardized for the Third World. In the case of nations to be rolled back (e.g., Nicaragua), governments were called terrorist and the insurgents were labeled democratic. In the case of countries to be supported against "communist" insurgencies (e.g., El Salvador and the Philippines), the governments were called democratic and the insurgents were labeled terrorists. "

from the book Rollback: Right-wing Power in U.S. Foreign Policy

Truth Commissions page

" Because of its power and global interests U.S. leaders have committed crimes as a matter of course and structural necessity. A strict application of international law would ... have given every U.S. president of the past 50 years Nuremberg treatment. "

Edward Herman

Crime and Punishment page

" The propaganda system allows the U.S. Ieadership to commit crimes without limit and with no suggestion of misbehavior or criminality; in fact, major war criminals like Henry Kissinger appear regularly on TV to comment on the crimes of the derivative butchers. "

Edward Herman

Human Rights watch page

" The crimes of the U.S. throughout the world have been systematic, constant, clinical, remorseless, and fully documented but nobody talks about them."

Harold Pinter, English dramatist

Genocide watch

"War is caused by elites acting in what they take to be their own interests, institutional violence promulgated by ruling groups for personal gain."

The Nation magazine

Iraq

" When I visited Auschwitz I was horrified. And when I visited Iraq, I thought to myself, 'What will we tell our children in fifty years when they ask what we did when the people in Iraq were dying.'"

Mairead McGuire, Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Northern Ireland

Yugoslavia

Throughout the world, on any given day, a man, woman or child is likely to be displaced, tortured, killed or "disappeared", at the hands of governments or armed political groups. More often than not, the United States shares the blame."

Amnesty International, in its annual report on U.S. military aid and human rights

Afghanistan

"Americans have been taught that their nation is civilized and humane. But, too often, U.S. actions have been uncivilized and inhumane."

Howard Zinn, historian and author

School of the Americas

" Rollback as a foreign policy ... causes untold devastation and misery for millions overseas, and hinders any potential positive U.S. influence in world affairs... To the extent the U.S. public backs rollback, this support is rooted in a misguided sense of patriotism. Patriotism itself - love of one's country and one's people - is a natural and reasonable human feeling. But patriotism which measures one's country by military superiority over all rivals regardless of consequence is irrational... There is surely a more rational form of patriotism that searches for excellence in social, economic and moral spheres rather than in weapon systems. "

from the book Rollback by Thomas Bodenheimer and Robert Gould

Landmines

" With unfailing consistancy, U.S. intervention has been on the side of the rich and powerful of various nations at the expense of the poor and needy. Rather than strengthening democracies, U.S. leaders have overthrown numerous democratically elected governments or other populist regimes in dozens of countries ... whenever these nations give evidence of putting the interests of their people ahead of the interests of multinational corporate interests. "

Michael Parenti, political scientist and author

Our War Criminals

"Hitherto acceptable norms of human conduct do not apply. If the United States is to survive, long-standing American concepts of 'fair play' must be reconsidered. We must develop effective espionage and counterespionage services and must learn to subvert, sabotage and destroy our enemies by more clever, more sophisticated, and more effective methods than those used against us. It may become necessary that the American people be made acquainted with, understand and support this fundamentally repugnant philosophy."

World War II Gen. James Doolittle explaining in a secret 1954 report to President Eisenhower why CIA covert operations were needed and what they entailed. From Katherine S. Olmstead's book - Challenging the Secret Government, 1996

Henry Kissinger page

The Case Against Henry Kissinger - Hitchins - Part 1
The Case Against Henry Kissinger - Hitchins - Part 2

"It is firm and continuing policy that [the democratically elected government of] Allende be overthrown by a coup.... We are to continue to generate maximum pressure toward this end utilizing every appropriate resource. It is imperative that these actions be implemented clandestinely and securely so that the USG [United States Government] and American hands be well hidden."

October 1970 cable to CIA operatives in Chile from Henry Kissinger's "Track Two" group


The Fugitive - Christopher Hitchins

Ronald Reagan page

Bush Gang page

 

Ariel Sharon page

"His forces executed or "disappeared" 3,197 people. Tens of thousands were tortured, hundreds of thousands were forced into exile. Pinochet destroyed the constitution, the parliament, the political parties, the trade unions, and the free universities. "

Saul Landau, author, about Augusto Pinochet's impact on Chile

The Crimes of Augusto Pinochet - link

"Pinochet is the most despised figure in Chile with polls showing that upwards of 70% want to see him stand trial."

Z magazine

Paul Kagame - Rwanda

Corporate Crime watch

Articles

Jeane Kirkpatrick - Viable Human Rights Policy
Elliot Abrams - Public Serpent
Milosevic, Clinton: both war criminals?
Greek Judges Convict NATO of War Crimes
Where Are the Doves in Congress ?
An Impartial Tribunal? - The Hague War Crimes Tribunal
Clinton Is The WorId's Leading Active War Criminal
End Imperial Impunity
The Pinochet Principle
Chile and the End of Pinochet
Might or Right

" U.S. Ieaders commit war crimes as a matter of institutional necessity, as their imperial role calls for keeping subordinate peoples in their proper place and assuring a "favorable climate of investment" everywhere. They do this by using their economic power, but also (by means of "bombs bursting in the air" and) by supporting Diem, Mobutu, Pinochet, Suharto, Savimbi, Marcos, Fujimori, Salinas, and scores of similar leaders. War crimes also come easily because U.S. Ieaders consider themselves to be the vehicles of a higher morality and truth and can operate in violation of law without cost. It is also immensely helpful that their mainstream media agree that their country is above the law and will support and rationalize each and every venture and the commission of war crimes. "

Edward Herman


A War Crime in Real Time: Obliterating Fallujah (11/04)
New Century, Old Crime
Dirty Deeds - Spain & Argentina's former dictators
Pinochet's Trial and Tribulations
International Crimes (International Criminal Court)
Crimes within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court
The Nuremberg Trials - The Indictments
Hitler's Legacy: Nuremberg Trials
'The Vietnam Syndrome' - Richard Falk
War and Accountability - Jonathan Schell
Bad Neighbors
High Time for Responsibility - Vietnam
Iraqi Sanctions: Myth and Fact
Iran / Contra Rehab
Israel: Time to Divest - Desmond Tutu
The Secret Behind the Sanctions: How the U.S. Intentionally Destroyed Iraq's Water Supply (9/01)

Bhopal's Legacy (5/04)
Setting the Conditions for War Crimes (11/04)
The Crime of War - international law regarding wars of aggression (2/05)
War Crimes, USA - Could administration officials be called to account? (12/05)
The Arrogance of Power - Condollezza Rice and European Renditions(12/05)
Willy Peter (white phosphorus chemical munitions) (1/06)
The US and the Nazis (2/06)
Charges Sought Against Rumsfeld Over Prison Abuse (11/06)
War Criminals, Beware (11/06)
War Crimes Complaint Against Rumsfeld, et al (11/06)
"We're Taking Down Seven Countries in Five Years": A Regime Change Checklist (1/07)
Toxic Injustice: What Was Done [Agent Orange] (1/07)
Monstrous War Crime - more than 650,000 civilians dead in Iraq (3/07)
"Thousands" Illegally Rendered By Bush Administration for Interrogation, Torture (11/07)
Bush Administration Is Ongoing Criminal Conspiracy Under International and U.S. Domestic Law (9/08)
Merchants of Death: Exposing Corporate-financed Holocaust in Africa (12/08)
Israeli Violates International Humanitarian Law [Gaza] (1/09)
Iraq's Shocking Human Toll (2/09)
Fake Faith and Epic Crimes [Tony Blair - War Criminal] (4/09)
US Torture: Voices from the Black Sites - International Committee of the Red Cross report on treatment of detainees in CIA custody - February 2007 (4/09)

America, Torture and Hypocrisy [International Committee of the Red Cross report on U.S. Torture] (4/09)
The Bush Administration's Stunning Geneva Hypocrisy (4/09)
The Presidency Problem: High Crimes (9/09)
The Evil of Sanctions (2/10)

 

" Coming to grips with these U.S./CIA activities in broad numbers and figuring out how many people have been killed in the jungles of Laos or the hills of Nicaragua is very difficult. But, adding them up as best we can, we come up with a figure of six million people killed-and this is a minimum figure. Included are: one million killed in the Korean War, two million killed in the Vietnam War, 800,000 killed in Indonesia, one million in Cambodia, 20,000 killed in Angola ... and 22,000 killed in Nicaragua. These people would not have died if U.S. tax dollars had not been spent by the CIA to inflame tensions, finance covert political and military activities and destabilize societies.

Certainly, there are other local, regional, national and international factors in many of these operations, but if the CIA were tried fairly in a U.S. court, under U.S. law, the principle of complicity, incitement, riot, and mayhem would clearly apply. In the United States, if you hire someone to commit a murder your sentence may be approximately the same as that of the murderer himself.

Who are these six million people we have killed in the interest of American national security? Conservatives tell us, "It's a dangerous world. Our enemies have to die so we can be safe and secure." Some of them say, "I'm sorry, but that's the way the world is. We have to accept this reality and defend ourselves, to make our nation safe and insure our way of life."

Since 1954, however, we have not parachuted teams into the Soviet Union - our number one enemy - to destabilize that country... Neither do we run these violent operations in England, France, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, or Switzerland. Since the mid-1950s they have all been conducted in Third World countries where governments do not have the power to force the United States to stop its brutal and destabilizing campaigns.

One might call this the "Third World War." It is a war that has been fought by the United States against the Third World. Others call it the Cold War and focus on the anti-Communist and anti-Soviet rationales, but the dead are not Soviets; they are people of the Third World. It might also be called the Forty-Year War, like the Thirty-Year and Hundred-Year Wars in Europe, for this one began when the CIA was founded in 1947 and continues today. Altogether, perhaps twenty million people died in the Cold War. As wars go, it has been the second or third most destructive of human life in all of history, after World War I and World War II.

The six million people the CIA has helped to kill are people of the Mitumba Mountains of the Congo, the jungles of Southeast Asia, and the hills of northern Nicaragua. They are people without ICBMs or armies or navies, incapable of doing physical damage to the United States the 22,000 killed in Nicaragua, for example, are not Russians; they are not Cuban soldiers or advisors; they are not even mostly Sandinistas. A majority are rag-poor peasants, including large numbers of women and children.

Communists? Hardly, since the dead Nicaraguans are predominantly Roman Catholics. Enemies of the United States? That description doesn't fit either, because the thousands of witnesses who have lived in Nicaraguan villages with the people since 1979 testify that the Nicaraguans are the warmest people on the face of the earth, that they love people from the United States, and they simply cannot understand why our leaders would want to spend $1 billion on a contra force designed to murder people and wreck the country."

John Stockwell, former CIA official and author


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