Saturday, October 14, 2006

B52 Trial – Hung Jury!

This was the second trial of the B52 people that has failed to reach verdict. It's not a total victory, but it is great news as it's not a guilty verdict. There is a petition online that you can sign asking to end the legal persecution:

http://www.petitiononline.com/FAIRFORD/petition.html

These results show that when this question is put to ordinary people (the Jury) many of them see the actions of the Fairford people as justifiable – to my mind a correct reading of the situation and akin to the principal set out in the Nuremberg trials. I'm no lawyer but here's what part of the Control Council Law No. 10 says is a war crime;

". . . Atrocities and offenses, including but not limited to murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, imprisonment, torture, rape, or other acts committed against any civilian population, or persecutions on political, racial or religious groups whether or not in violation of the domestic laws of the country where perpetrated."


Note that end bit - "...whether or not in violation of the domestic law of the country where perpetrated." This was there to stop the Nazi's wriggling out by saying they were obeying the law of Germany – laws the conveniently wrote. If we take this idea and flip it round it should also mean that those who move to stop ". . . Atrocities and offenses.. against any civilian population..." which the air campaign, cluster bombs, shock-and-awe and depleted uranium must surly be, then it is the right of people to stop this "...whether or not in violation of the domestic law of the country where perpetrated." - in this case Fairford in the West Country, UK.

On the subject of Iraq, I saw Question Time on TV and there were a couple of funny moments. Both involve the neo-labour stooge Vera Baird MP. When answering the question, are the occupation forces part of the problem she said that before the war, "everyone thought that Saddam has WMDs" – to the masses derision of the other panelists and audience. She re-qualified her statement to say that she means that all at the UN thought that Saddam has WMD's, again massed derision. Are these people living in a dream-world? There was loads of voices, such as Scott Ritter, the former Marine intelligence Officer and UNSCOM weapons inspector saying there were no WMD's – the UN's Hans Blix did not deliver a 'yes' verdict with his reports, it was a 'don't think so, but impossible to say for sure'. This seems like a thinly veiled attempt to re-write our collective memories. It will not work. The second funny moment was when she called Tony Bliar a 'democrat' to the massed guffaws of the panel and audience.

Sir Richard Dannatt, Chief of the General Staff; "As a foreigner, you can be welcomed by being invited in a country, but we weren't invited certainly by those in Iraq at the time. The military campaign we fought in 2003 effectively kicked the door in. Whatever consent we may have had in the first place, may have turned to tolerance and has largely turned to intolerance." Even the British army want out. Iraq is a colossal fuck-up and it should be Bliar and his cohorts (including Brown, who, whatever he said in private, supported the war) should be in court for war crimes against the 655,000 dead of Iraq.

A good Iraq quote from Bash.org (it's a snipit of a real chat room conversation);

[Blaxthos] i think we're ultimately responsible for the insurgency
[superdan] I wouldn't rush to cop to that
[Blaxthos] saddam didn't have political instability
[Blaxthos] chop chop a coupla hundred insurgents
[Blaxthos] kinda takes the wind out of sail
[superdan] I'm more likely to put the responsibility on the guy who pulled the trigger or ordered it
[superdan] yup
[Blaxthos] didn't bush command us to attack ?
[superdan] and he can be held responsible by the folks killed by US forces
[Blaxthos] but since we toppled their government (which kept the insurgents in check) aren't we responsible for the insurgency ?
[superdan] no
[turtle_] no way dude we will overpower them with our freedom
[superdan] haha
[Blaxthos] in legalese we call that proximate causation
[superdan] there should've been a better plan in place to prevent it, but that doesn't mean it's his fault
[Blaxthos] so you say it would have spontaneously occured if we hadn't gone to war ?
[superdan] no
[Blaxthos] can't have cake and eat it too
[Blaxthos] see also: scores of retired generals coming forth to say "we told him so"
[turtle_] we had a fantastic plan
[Blaxthos] MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
[turtle_] it went something like "i believe we will be greeted as liberators"
[turtle_] but then they fucked it all up by not doing that

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