Obama: From Anti-war Law Professor

to Warmonger in 100 Days

By Alexander Cockburn

May 21, 2009 "First Post" --

How long does it take a mild-mannered, anti-war, black professor of constitutional law, trained as a community organiser on the South Side of Chicago, to become an enthusiastic sponsor of targeted assassinations, 'decapitation' strategies and remote-control bombing of mud houses at the far end of the globe?

There's nothing surprising here.

As far back as President Woodrow Wilson, in the early 20th century, American liberalism has been swift to flex its imperial muscle and whistle up the Marines.....

The nearest parallel to Obama in eager deference to the bloodthirsty counsels of his counter-insurgency advisors is John F. Kennedy....

Obama’s course is set and his presidency is already stained the familiar blood-red.

Whether in Vietnam or Afghanistan the counsel of regular Army generals tends to be drear and unappetising: vast, costly deployments of troops by the hundreds of thousands, mounting casualties, uncertain prospects for any long-term success ­ all adding up to dismaying political costs on the home front.....

By the time he himself [JFK] had become the victim of Lee Harvey Oswald's 'decapitation' strategy, brought to successful conclusion in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, on November 22, 1963, Kennedy had set in motion the secret counter-insurgency operations, complete with programs of assassination and torture, that turned South-East Asia and Latin America into charnel houses for the next 20 years.

Another Democrat who strode into the White House with the word 'peace' springing from his lips was Jimmy Carter. It was he who first decreed that 'freedom' and the war on terror required a $3.5bn investment in a secret CIA-led war in Afghanistan, plus the deployment of Argentinian torturers to advise US military teams in counter-insurgency ops in El Salvador and Nicaragua.....

Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal now replaces General David McKiernan as Commander of US Forces in Afghanistan. McChrystal's expertise is precisely in assassination and 'decapitation'.....(McChrystal, not uncoincidentally, was involved in the prisoner abuse scandal at Baghdad's Camp Nama. He also played a sordid role in the cover-up of the friendly-fire death of ex-NFL star and Army Ranger Pat Tillman.)....

Programmes of targeted assassination aren't new in counter-insurgency.

The most infamous and best known was the Phoenix Program in Vietnam, designed to identify and eliminate cadres of Vietnam's National Liberation Front, informally known as the Viet Cong, of whom, on some estimates, at least 40,000 were duly assassinated.

In such enterprises two outcomes are inevitable. Identification of the human targets requires either voluntary informants or captives. In the latter instance torture is certain, whatever rhetorical pledges are proclaimed back home....

Whatever the technique, a second certainty is the killing of large numbers of civilians in the final 'targeted assassination'....

Already in Afghanistan public opinion has been inflamed by the weekly bulletins of deadly bombardments either by drones or manned bombers....

The logic of targeted assassinations was on display in Gaza even as Obama worked on the uplifting phrases of his inaugural address in January. The Israelis claimed they were targeting only Hamas even as the body counts of women and children methodically refuted these claims and finally extorted from Obama a terse phrase of regret.

He may soon weary of uttering them. His course is set and his presidency already permanently stained the ever-familiar blood-red tint....

The mild-mannered professor is bidding to be as sure-footed as Bush and Cheney in trampling on constitutional rights. He's planning to restore Bush's kangaroo courts for prisoners at Guantanamo who've never even been formally charged with a crime! He's threatening to hold some prisoners indefinitely in the US without trial.

He's even been awarded a hearty editorial clap on the back from the Wall Street Journal: "Mr. Obama deserves credit for accepting that civilians courts are largely unsuited for the realities of the war on terror. He has now decided to preserve a tribunal process that will be identical in every material way to the one favoured by Dick Cheney."

It didn't take long.

But it's what we've got ­ for the rest of Obama-time.

Continue

Unexceptional Americans:

Why We Can't See the Trees or the Forest

The Torture Memos and Historical Amnesia

By Noam Chomsky

May 19, 2009 "Tomdispatch" -- The torture memos released by the White House elicited shock, indignation, and surprise. The shock and indignation are understandable. The surprise, less so....

Torture has been routinely practiced from the early days of the conquest of the national territory, and continued to be used as the imperial ventures of the "infant empire" -- as George Washington called the new republic -- extended to the Philippines, Haiti, and elsewhere.

Keep in mind as well that torture was the least of the many crimes of aggression, terror, subversion, and economic strangulation that have darkened U.S. history, much as in the case of other great powers.....

The My Lai massacre was a mere footnote to the vastly greater atrocities of the post-Tet pacification programs, ignored while indignation in this country was largely focused on this single crime.

Watergate was doubtless criminal, but the furor over it displaced incomparably worse crimes at home and abroad, including the FBI-organized assassination of black organizer Fred Hampton as part of the infamous COINTELPRO repression, or the bombing of Cambodia, to mention just two egregious examples.

Torture is hideous enough; the invasion of Iraq was a far worse crime.

Quite commonly, selective atrocities have this function.

Historical amnesia is a dangerous phenomenon, not only because it undermines moral and intellectual integrity, but also because it lays the groundwork for crimes that still lie ahead.

Noam Chomsky
is Institute Professor (retired) at MIT. He is the author of many books and articles on international affairs and social-political issues, and a long-time participant in activist movements.

* * *

Condemning Torture, Condoning Mass Murder

By Charles Davis

May 18, 2009 "STR" -- A peculiar notion has arisen of late, maintaining that things like torture, domestic spying and illegal wars are all attributable to the Right -- namely, the administration of President George W. Bush -- and are in fact historical anomalies, not at all in keeping with the traditions of these great United States.

The idea that war crimes and civil liberties violations are strictly conservative affairs is particularly comforting to wide-eyed Democrats in awe of America’s First Black President ™, and it affords the heirs to the same liberal establishment which brought us Vietnam and Hiroshima another opportunity to grandstand about their commitment to human rights even as the noble humanitarian Barack Obama continues to extra-judicially murder foreigners with unmanned drones.

Unfortunately for partisan Democrats – and even more so the victims of U.S. exceptionalism – American imperialism and its associated evils have long enjoyed bipartisan backing....

That the U.S. government spends the majority of the tax dollars it expropriates from its subjects on empire and incarceration, and trillions more on propping up the financial elite while regular folks face stagnating wages is not an accident - it's by design.

Charles Davis is a journalist based in Washington, DC.
More of his work may be found at his website.

Continue

Agent Orange: US guilty says hearing

The International People's Tribunal of Conscience in Paris made its final judgement yesterday, concluding that the use of dioxin by the US military in Viet Nam from 1961 to 1971 was a war crime against humanity.

[FULL STORY]

President Ho Chi Minh's 119^th birthday
(1890 - 2009)

Click above for more news
on how Viet Nam celebrated Uncle Ho's 119th birthday
(May 19)


Did you know?

In 1990, on the centenary of his birth, Ho Chi Minh
was honoured with two UNESCO titles:

* national liberation hero
* world cultural personality





*

International Association of Democratic Lawyers

IADL, International Association of Democratic Lawyers, is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) with consultative status to ECOSOC and UNESCO.

http://www.iadllaw.org/en

Read more

The International People's Tribunal of Conscience

in Support of the Vietnamese Victims of Agent Orange

THE PEOPLE OF VIETNAM

AND PEOPLE OF CONSCIENCE ALL OVER THE WORLD,

VERSUS

1. DOW CHEMICAL COMPANY,

2. MONSANTO CHEMICAL COMPANY

3. PHARMACIA CORPORATION

4. HERCULES INCORPORATED

5.. OCCIDENTAL CHEMICAL CORPORATION

6. ULTRAMAR DIAMOND SHAMROCK CORPORATION

7. MAXUS ENERGY CORPORATION

8. THOMAS HAYWARD CHEMICAL COMPANY

9. HARCROS CHEMICALS INC.

10. UNIROYAL CHEMICAL INC,

11. UNIROYAL CHEMICAL HOLDING CO.

12. UNIROYAL CHEMICAL ACQUISITION CO,

13. C.D.U. HOLDING INC.

14. DIAMOND SHAMROCK AGRICULTURAL CHEMICALS

15. DIAMOND SHAMROCK CHEMICALS

16. DIAMOND SHAMROCK CORPORATION

17. DIAMOND SHAMROCK REFINING AND MARKETING COMPANY

18. OCCIDENTAL ELECTROCHEMICALS CORPORTATION

19. DIAMOND ALKAI COMPANY

20. ANSUL INCORPORATED

21. HOOKER CHEMICAL CORPORATION

22. HOOKER CHEMICAL FAR-EAST CORPORATION

23. HOOKER CHEMICAL & PLASTICS CORPORATION

24. HOFFMAN CHEMICALS, INC.

25. CHEMICAL LAND HOLDINGS, INC.

26. T-H AGRICULTURE & NUTRITION COMPANY, INC.

27. THOMPSON CHEMICAL CORPORATION

28. RIVERDALE CHEMICAL COMPANY

29. ELEMENTIS CHEMICALS INC.

30. UNITED STATES RUBBER CO., INC.

31. SYNTEX AGRIBUSINESS, INC.

32. SYNTEX LABORATORIES, INC.

SUMMONS AND COMPLAINT

The war waged by the United States against Vietnam has ended more than thirty (30) years ago. The chemical warfare waged from 1961 to 1971, carried out by the United States government using Agent Orange which the above named companies knew contained high levels of dioxin has caused massive and prolonged negative consequences to the health of the Vietnamese people and to the environment and ecology of Vietnam.

The above named companies, however, have continued to evade their responsibility for providing such chemicals to the United States government, and have refused to acknowledge any role in causing these effects, or to indicate a willingness to play a part in remediating the consequences of their actions.

In the name of Public Opinion and International Conscience the International Peoples’ Tribunal of Conscience in support of the Vietnamese Victims of Agent Orange at the initiative of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL), will consider and draw conclusions on the following matters:

1. The facts showing the consequences to the environment and ecology of Vietnam and to the health of the Vietnamese people caused by the use of Agent Orange by the United States Military from 1961 to 1971.

2. The moral and legal responsibilities of the above named companies for their actions under international law and the laws of nations.

3. The role that the above named companies should play in remediating the consequences of the use of their products in Vietnam.

This tribunal will be held on May 15-16 in Paris France at the Salles Pierre Nicole", Maison des Mines et des ¨Ponts et Chaussées, 270 rue Saint Jacques, 75005 in Paris France.

You may submit your Statement in Reply to the above claims along with 10 copies on or before 30th April,2009 with the Secretariat of the Tribunal to Jeanne Moutet, Secretary of the Tribunal at the following address: 120 Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris, France.

Along with the Statement you may also submit the name(s) of the lawyer(s) along with a copy of the authorization who may represent you before the Tribunal.

Please take note that in the event of not filing your Statement and/or non-appearance of your duly authorised representative before the Tribunal, ex-parte proceedings without any further notice may be taken out against you.

FOR AND ON BEHALF OF THE TRIBUNAL

Sr. Advocate, Jitendra Sharma,

President of the Tribunal

http://www.iadllaw.org/fr/node/353

*

The accused chemical companies
failed to file a statement with the Tribunal,
and failed to appear before it!

Despite their absence, they were found GUILTY!

Double standards of chemical companies, US slammed at AO trial

In this second part of a three-part series, Thanh Nien Daily follows the ongoing battle for justice waged by Agent Orange victims undaunted by setbacks.

An international panel of judges listen to testimonies presented at the International Peoples’ Tribunal of Conscience in support of the Vietnamese Victims of Agent Orange which opened in Paris on Friday United by outrage over the US Supreme Court’s ruling as well as the determination to demand justice for Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange, they converged in Paris from all over the world. The trial was international in every aspect: the judges, the witnesses, the experts, and the audience came from several different countries, some travelling long distances. The judges spanned four continents: Jitendra Sharma (India), Adda Bekhouche (Algeria), Juan Guzman (Chile), Shoji Umeida (Japan), Gavril Iosif Chiuzbaian (Romania), and Marjorie Cohn and Claudia Morcom (United States of America). Justice Sharma, president of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, presided over the proceedings. The advocates for the plaintiffs were Roland Weyl (France) and Jeanne Mirer (United States). The defendants were glaringly conspicuous by their absence. In the audience, together with more than 100 people from France, Vietnam and the US, were dignitaries like Madame Nguyen Thi Binh, former Vice-President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; Nguyen Van Rinh, president of Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA); H.E. Trinh Ngoc Thai, former ambassador to France; and honorary Senator Mrs Helene Luc, President of France-Vietnam Friendship Association (AAFV). In his opening address, Judge Sharma underlined that the war waged by the United States against Vietnam was illegal under International Law as defined by the Nuremberg Tribunal; as was its use of forbidden chemical weapons. Mai Giang Vu (R), one of the victims at the hearing in Paris. He had two sons, born 1974 and 1976, whose limbs began to get paralysed and twisted in 1980 till they could no longer stand and had to crawl. They died at 23 and 25. The summons sent to the US administration and the chemical companies which provided Agent Orange and other defoliants have been received but not answered. Speaking for VAVA and three million Vietnamese victims, Rinh said the human disaster and the ecological catastrophe have no equivalent in any part of the world. They affect not only present times but the future too, and deprive the Vietnamese people of their right to life, liberty and happiness, he said. From the Brooklyn verdict to the Supreme Court ruling, the Vietnamese victims have been denied the right to sue the chemical companies and to ask for compensation, while the same companies agreed in 1984 to compensate the American veterans; and the US government is spending billions of dollars on their war veterans, Rinh said. The first witnesses to testify were direct victims of the spraying. Mai Giang Vu fought for the US-backed army of former President of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem. He had two sons, born 1974 and 1976 apparently in good health, but whose limbs began to get paralyzed and twisted in 1980 till they could no longer stand and had to crawl. They died at 23 and 25. Pham The Minh’s parents worked as auxiliaries for the American army during the Vietnam War. He was born handicapped; his back bone is getting worse steadily. He can hardly walk and suffers a great deal, also from stomach pains, headaches and others. He teaches English and informatics privately and gets an allowance from the Vietnamese government. Ho Ngoc Chu and his wife were both in the army of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, or northern Vietnam. Their daughter was born normal but their only son is severely handicapped. Since he was diagnosed as an AO victim, they also receive an allowance from the Vietnamese government. Tran To Nga, a Franco-Vietnamese who was awarded the French Légion d’honneur for helping French prisoners, was a journalist for the FNL, a French channel, and lived in the Cu Chi tunnels. She was hit by the spraying when she peeped outside. Her first daughter could not gain weight and died at the age of 17 months. Her second daughter suffers from a blood disease. All the victims expressed the wish that those who turned their lives into a living hell would acknowledge their responsibility. Then came other witnesses from different countries, who spoke about what they saw in Vietnam, which still gives them nightmares. They and the victims expressed bafflement that the US and the chemical companies refuse to compensate them, while doing so for American victims. Friday’s session ended with general testimonies on the situation of victims in Vietnam and the urgent need for compensation which exceeds local means. Many different languages could be heard while people bid farewell after the trial, but the emotions and the indignation were universal. The ruling is to be disclosed publicly today at 11 a.m. (local French time) at a press conference. By Marie Hélène Lavallard (from Paris) * The writer is a contributing writer for Thanh Nien Daily in Paris. http://www.thanhniennews.com/features/?catid=10&newsid=48950

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Information Clearing House Newsletter News You Won't Find On CNN May 15, 2009 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ = Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered Since The U.S. Invaded Iraq "1,320,110" www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html = Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America'sWar On Iraq 4,295 icasualties.org/oif/ = The War in Iraq Costs $669,189,178,917 See the cost in your community nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182 = New 'Prisoner Abuse' Photographs Emerge Despite US Bid to Block Publication By Alex Spillius in Washington Graphic photographs of alleged prisoner abuse, thought to be among up to 2,000 images Barack Obama is trying to prevent from being released, emerged yesterday. http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22624.htm === In Case You Missed It Abu Ghraib - The Sequel This is a must watch video These are the photos the American Government doesn't want you to see. While researching a story on guards at Abu Ghraib, I obtained a copy of the unreleased photographs and videos. Taken at the same time as the photos released in 2004 and often of the same abuses, this is the first time they have been shown to the public. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11944.htm === Will They Hate Us for the Secret Photographs? By Jacob G. Hornberger What are Obama and the Pentagon using as an excuse to keep these photographs secret? They're saying that foreigners will get angry if they see photographic evidence of bad things that U.S. officials have been doing to foreigners as part of U.S. foreign policy since 9/11. Isn't that an implicit admission that foreigners do get angry over the bad things that the U.S. government does as part of its foreign policy? http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22626.htm === We Tortured To Justify War By Joe Conason Dick Cheney keeps saying "enhanced interrogation" was used to stop imminent attacks, but evidence is mounting that the real reason was to invent evidence linking Saddam Hussein to al-Qaida. http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22619.htm === Rumsfeld Remained You're A War Criminal Video At the entrance to the White House Correspondents Dinner, Donald Rumsfeld remained by Codepink "You're A War Criminal" http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22622.htm === "Get Out of Iraq. Get Out Afghanistan" "Come Home America." By Dennis Kucinich "Don't tell the American people that you are ending the war by continuing to fund the war. Don't tell the American people that the war will end when their plans leave 50, 000 troops in Iraq. Don't tell the American people that the way out of Afghanistan is to escalate our presence." http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22630.htm === === Palestinians Recall 61 Years of Exile Nakba remembered amid Gaza suffering Video Perhaps nowhere are the events of the "Nakba" more pertinent today than in the Gaza Strip, where Palestinians are still feeling the devastating effects of the latest Israeli attacks. http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22628.htm === === Group: U.S. procedures fail Afghan civilians: - Human Rights Watch accused the U.S. military of not doing enough to reduce civilian casualties during battles in Afghanistan and called Friday for "fundamental changes" to prevent civilian deaths like those during an airstrike this month. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30766955/ === US to be buried in 'Graveyard of Empires': "The idea of trying to establish a central government...that is going to be pro-American is foolish," said political analyst and former special assistant to ex-US president Ronald Reagan, Douglas Bandow on Thursday. http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=94858&sectionid=3510203 === === Billions promised, but Gazans still waiting: International diplomats, Israeli officials and leaders of the Palestinian Authority haven't been able to figure out how to rebuild Gaza while keeping the cash out of the hands of Hamas, which runs the narrow strip of land. Food aid can get in, but substantial reconstruction hasn't begun. http://snipurl.com/i3nut === === U.S. Senator Kerry: Chances for two-state solution dwindling: U.S. Senator John Kerry told an economic forum on Friday he believed the window of opportunity for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was closing. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1085836.html === Boycott Israel campaign starts to bite: Motorola, Caterpillar, Veolia, the Tesco supermarket chain, and other companies across the world that do business with Israel are suffering losses due to a global boycott in support of Palestinian rights. http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/794/40892 === House Passes War Funds : The bill passed 368 to 60, with 200 Democrats and all but nine Republicans supporting it. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/14/AR2009051403480_pf.html === Dick Cheney 'suggested waterboarding' Iraqi prisoner: The former US vice-president, suggested waterboarding an Iraqi prisoner whom White House officials suspected might possess knowledge of a potential connection between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, it has emerged. http://snipurl.com/i3o9p === 9/11 Commission Report Based On Torture "Evidence": One of the Main Sources for the 9/11 Commission Report was Tortured Until He Agreed to Sign a Confession that He Was NOT EVEN ALLOWED TO READ http://snipurl.com/i3ocx === Obama mulls 'indefinite detention' of terror suspects: President Barack Obama's "administration is weighing plans to detain some terror suspects on US soil -- indefinitely and without trial -- as part of a plan to retool military commission trials that were conducted for prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay," The Wall Street Journal said. http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22623.htm === Obama to revive terror tribunals: President Barack Obama will restart military tribunals for a small number of Guantanamo detainees, reviving a fiercely disputed trial system he once denounced http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2009/05/14/9462946-ap.html === Obama reverses decision to release prisoner abuse photos: In an about-face, President Barack Obama is seeking to withhold photos of past abuse of prisoners in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan, arguing that their release could endanger soldiers abroad and threaten national security - an assertion that his lawyers failed to make in court only weeks ago. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/68103.html === === Least we forget: Some of the images Bush did not want us to see Photographs have been leaked of Iraqi citizens tortured by US soldiers at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6217.htm === === China's yuan 'set to usurp US dollar' as world's reserve currency: The Chinese yuan is preparing to overtake the US dollar as the world's reserve currency, economist Nouriel Roubini has warned. http://snipurl.com/i3oii === === Let Us Work Towards Peace And Joy Tom Feeley

International People’s Tribunal to hold hearing on Agent Orange The long-drawn out struggle for justice waged by Agent Orange victims continues despite the many setbacks posed by indefensible actions of the courts and successive US administrations. Tuesday, May 12, 2009 Thanh Nien News

E-mail to a friend Print version International People’s Tribunal to hold hearing on Agent Orange Doctor Jean Meynard (2nd, R), vice chairman of the France-based Vietnam les Enfants de la Dioxine (The Children of Dioxin in Vietnam), visits the family of an Agent Orange victim in Hanoi’s Ba Vi District. The architect of Vietnam’s legendary military victories against the far more powerful French and American armies is 98 years old, but the soft-spoken general minces no words as he accuses the government and courts in the US of double standards. In a letter sent to the International People’s Tribunal of Conscience, Vo Nguyen Giap contrasts the courts’ dismissal of the suit filed by Vietnamese victims against US companies that produced the toxic chemical sprayed by American forces during the Vietnam War with the generous compensation given to US soldiers by the companies and the US administration. The wrong and unfair verdict of the US courts is unacceptable legally and morally, Giap says. The international tribunal will hold its hearing on the Agent Orange case in Paris on May 15 and 16. “I strongly believe that the International Peoples’ Tribunal of Conscience will come up with conclusions which will force the US side to be responsible for dealing with heavy and long-lasting consequences of the chemical warfare waged by the US against Vietnam,” Giap says in his letter. A 14-member delegation representing over three million Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange will depose before the tribunal. Late Monday afternoon, five members of the delegation, which includes three experts in the environmental, health and chemical disciplines, left Vietnam for Paris. The others will depart for Paris tomorrow, including three Agent Orange victims: war veterans Ho Ngoc Chu of Quang Ngai Province and Mai Giang Vu of Ho Chi Minh City, and Pham The Minh from Hai Phong City. As witnesses and victims, the delegation will supply the tribunal with specific evidence of the harmful effects of Agent Orange on Vietnam’s natural environment and human health, clarifying legal issues, so that the US side shoulders responsibility for compensation, said Nguyen Van Rinh, chairman of the Vietnam Association for the Victims of Agent Orange (VAVA), at a press briefing in Hanoi Monday. Between 1961 and 1971, the US Army dropped some 80 million liters of the defoliant known as Agent Orange, containing 366 kilograms of the highly toxic dioxin over large areas of southern Vietnam. The tribunal, convened at the initiative of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL), will consider the evidence and draw conclusions about the consequences to the environment and ecology of Vietnam and to the health of the Vietnamese people. It will also consider the responsibility of the US administrations during the period for the conduct of chemical warfare in Vietnam under Customary International Laws; as well as the responsibility of the US in remediation of the consequences suffered by the Vietnamese people. Ho Ngoc Chu, one of three Agent Orange victims attending the tribunal, said: “I propose the US government and US chemical producers accept the obvious fact, not cover it; and shoulder responsibility for dealing with consequences of the toxic chemicals on Vietnam's people and environment, including compensating them. There is no reason for the US government ignoring what they did in the past." The Vietnam Fatherland Front, the umbrella organization of all political and social groups in Vietnam, Monday called for the public to support the International Peoples’ Tribunal. The front’s presidium reaffirmed their support for the VAVA lawsuit and individuals representing victims of Agent Orange, and expressed their belief that the tribunal will fairly consider the evidence and draw conclusions. “We continue to affirm that the struggle for justice of Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange/dioxin is the voice of conscience and human rights, not only for local victims but also for the legitimate interests of other victims, including soldiers from the US and many other countries who participated in the Vietnam War,” it said. The presidium also called for governments, international organizations, scientists, lawyers, social activists and people in the US and other countries to speak up for the truth and take concrete actions to support and help Vietnamese victims in their struggle for justice. The legal case In 2004, Vietnamese Agent Orange victims filed a case against 37 US Agent Orange manufacturing firms in the Brooklyn District Court, New York. In March 2005, Judge Jack Weinstein dismissed the suit, ruling that there was no legal basis for the claim and that the US chemical companies were not liable for how the government used Agent Orange during the war. Three judges from the Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan then heard the Appeals case in June 2007 but upheld Weinstein’s ruling. In August 2008, VAVA petitioned the US Supreme Court to hear the case but it refused to do so in March 2009, without citing reasons. AGENT ORANGE CRUSADER STARTS ANOTHER ONLINE PETITION Secretary of the Britain-Vietnam Friendship Society Len Aldis is once again urging the US to bear responsibility for Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange and is looking to get one million signatures on his latest petition. Aldis created and wrote the “Justice for Victims of Agent Orange Petition” to President Obama and Members of Congress on Thursday. It can be found at http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Monsanto/ Click here to Sign the Petition for Vietnamese AO victims In the petition, Aldis notes that after the case brought to the US Supreme Court by dioxin victims demanding restitution from the companies was rejected in March, “Over three million Vietnamese and thousands of American servicemen and women, and their children, will continue to suffer from the serious illnesses and disabilities caused by Agent Orange.” Aldis also quotes the statement that Nguyen Duc made in November 2006 to an American journalist. Duc and his late brother Viet, both victims of Agent Orange, were born conjoined in 1981. Aldis, who expressed his frustration in a letter to President Obama immediately following the refusal on March 2, on Thursday urged the US president and Congress to heed Duc’s words despite the Supreme Court decision, and accept responsibility for and the moral obligations to the victims of Agent Orange. Reported by Bao Anh http://www.thanhniennews.com/

In case you missed it
Breaking The Silence

Video By Award winning journalist John Pilger

A hard hitting special report into the "war on terror"

Click to view

The Torturer’s Apprentice

Australia’s role in the American Inquisition.

By Richard Neville

May 05, 2009 "Homepage Daily" -- The revelations of a once secret 2006 report by the International Committee of the Red Cross on the use of torture and "cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment" on prisoners at Guantánamo and secret CIA jails came as a shock to many.

This is odd, because anyone with a keyboard, modem and half a brain, quickly discovered that in the panicky aftermath of 9/11, the West had forged a pact with the Devil.

It was not only Dick Cheney who felt the call of the dark side - it was virtually the entire governing class of America, Britain and Australia.

Yes, even Australia, a former penal colony that started life as Britain’s Guantanamo.

You might think this grim past would sharpen the desire of our institutions to root out injustice and comfort the afflicted. Well, we go through the motions.

Australia signed the Convention against Torture (CAT) and, unlike the US, ratified it.
But now we have trashed it.
How come?
Let’s take a swift trip into the heart of darkness.....

What is the Government hiding?
The awful truth, perhaps.
That some authorities have aided and abetted multiple acts of torture and kidnap of an Australian citizen.

In January 2006, the Sydney Morning Herald obtained documents confirming that the Howard government and its intelligence agencies were “deeply implicated in the illegal rendition and imprisonment” of Habib. Following the recent US torture scandals, President Obama wants the investigation to focus on the lawyers, which is also a pretty good place to start in Australia.

Former Prime Minister John Howard is a lawyer, as is the former Attorney General Philip Ruddock. The former head of Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, will need to face scrutiny, as well as legal officers, public servants and others who violated local and international laws.

It has emerged that the US Government told ASIO heads it planned to send Habib to Egypt for “questioning” several weeks before his illegal rendition. Other agencies are tainted. Last December, Natalie O'Brien of The Australian reported that the Defence Department holds over 85,000 pages of documents relating to the rendition of Habib to Egypt, “despite having assured federal parliament it had no involvement in the matter”.

It is Australia’s rock solid obligation under Article 5 of CAT to make torture offences “punishable by appropriate penalties which take into account their grave nature”.


While the official hand of the Australia Government signed and ratified CAT, its covert hand fed human flesh to the torturers.


Prime Minster Rudd has no other choice but to set up a Royal Commission with sweeping powers.

• • • • • • • • •

Post Script: The endemic infliction of torture and abuse on prisoners by coalition forces has long been documented by bloggers and independent journalists. In 2005, this account of the CIA's World Torture Tour was widely circulated on the web. It took another four years for the New York Times to wake up.

Continue

Children as Unlamented Victims of Bush’s War Crimes

By Michael Haas

....The best kept secret of the Bush’s war crimes is that thousands of children have been imprisoned, tortured, and otherwise denied rights under the Geneva Conventions and related international agreements. Yet both Congress and the media have strangely failed to identify the very existence of child prisoners as a war crime....

The mistreatment of children is something not so funny that has been neglected on the road to investigations of and calls for prosecution of those responsible for torture.

George W. Bush has never been asked about the abuse of children in American-run prisons in the “war on terror.”

It is high time for Bush and others to be held accountable for what is arguably the most egregious of all their war crimes—the abuse and death of children, who should never have been arrested in the first place.

Michael Haas's book 'George W. Bush, War Criminal? - The Bush Administration's Liability for 269 War Crimes' is available here

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