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The Hague Awaits - From 'The Alchemist'

Yesterday, Australian Environment Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, warned that local councils could face huge liability costs if they did not identify threats to their communities of climate change. Such risks included negligence claims for breaching their duty of care. All well and good, but local councils are minor players in this catastrophe. It is Turnbull's boss, Prime Minister John Howard, who brushed aside the evidence of climate change for over a decade and so breached his duty of care for the nation. Reason enough to bring an action against Howard for negligence.

In the years to come, the PM's legal advisors will be working round the clock. It is now widely accepted that the invasion of Iraq was illegal and that over a million civilians have died. Even Foreign Minister Downer has admitted the country is a bloodbath (he helped turn on the tap). According to Oxfam, almost half of Iraq's population suffer from "absolute poverty". Four million citizens have been displaced. Child malnutrition rates have soared. As occupiers of Iraq, both Howard and Bush have breached their duty of care for its citizens. Could future prosecutions be on the cards? Both for environmental neglect and crimes against humanity.

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Iraqi Genocide - From Paul Craig Roberts
24 oct  |  American troops in Iraq have killed more civilians than insurgents. The U.S. has fallen for every bit of disinformation fed to it by al Qaeda personnel posing as "informants" and by Sunnis setting up Shi'ites and Shi'ites setting up Sunnis. As a result, American bombs and missiles have blown up weddings, funerals, kids playing soccer, and people shopping in bazaars and sleeping in their homes.

Not to be outdone, Bush's private Waffen SS known as Blackwater Security has taken to gunning Iraqi civilians down in the streets. How do Blackwater killers escape the "unlawful combatant" designation? One can only marvel at the insouciance of the U.S. Congress to the current Iraqi Genocide while condemning Turkey for one that happened 90 years ago. Every member of the Bush Regime is busily at work denouncing Iran for causing instability in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has invaded two countries, throwing them into total chaos, while beating the drums for war with Iran and conspiring with Israel to invade Lebanon and to attack Syria.  . . read more

John Howard and War Crimes - From Binoy Kampark
27 jun  |  The International Criminal Court, active since 2002, is getting busier, though much of its activity still remains buried in preparatory paperwork. It has begun fielding petitions on a growing list of war criminal suspects with some regularity. The first sign that more work would be coming its way came in March 2003 when the invasion of Iraq took place. The war crimes dossiers in the hands of activists and non-government groups began thickening...

The candidates as potential bench warmers for the Hague dock are of course, President George W. Bush, and ex-Prime Ministers Tony Blair (Britain) and John Howard (Australia), an Anglo-centric, some might even say Anglospheric cabal that is now receiving the attention of innovative jurists and enterprising activists.

The latest update in the prosecution machine lies in a brief compiled by activists based in Australia on the subject of charging John Howard with an assortment of crimes within the jurisdiction of the ICC. This should not come as a surprise to Howard. As early as March 20, 2003, he was put on notice by 41 affiliates of the Victorian Peace Network, acting through the Australian firm Slater and Gordon, that government ministers would, in the event of an invasion of Iraq, be ‘investigated and, if appropriate, prosecuted for being complicit in excessive and unjustifiable loss of civilian lives and devastation of non-military infrastructure'. [More] . . read more

Is John Howard Next? - From Guy Aitchison
6 feb  |  Chances are you won't have heard anything about this in the mainstream media but Scotland Yard have apparently launched an investigation into allegations that Tony Blair, Lord Goldsmith and others committed war crimes in their role in the occupation and invasion of Iraq. On January 15, John McDonnell MP, along with Chris Coverdale, the International War Law Expert,and Annie Machon, of the Campaign to Make War History, briefed MPs and the media on the investigation and the crimes Blair and others are alleged to have committed. Apparently they tried over 150 times since February 2003 to get the police to take up the investigation until, eventually, the War Crimes division of the Counter Terrorism branch at Scotland Yard called them to give evidence.

Whether or not this leads to a full blown investigation, the video of the press conference certainly makes for dramatic viewing. Coverdale delivers the list of allegations in sombre lawyerly tones and certainly doesn't sound like your average leftie activist. At one point he warns that "Every adult in Britain who has paid tax since the war started, committed the crime of 'conduct ancillary to genocide, conduct ancillary to crimes against humanity, and conduct ancillary to war crimes' as well as crimes against peace."

Although Coverdale says they have a "great chance" of success and the legal case (to my untrained eyes) seems strong, the best that can probably be hoped for from the point of view of anti-war campaigners, in the face of "senior opposition", is that this re-ignites the debate over the legality ofthe war and the need for proper accountability. [More] . . read more

Why the Snake is Scared - From 'The Alchemist'
13 oct  |  An entrenched PM who believes he has shaped the nation to reflect his own values will cling to power at any cost. He will lie and cheat and strike like a funnel web to keep contenders at bay. That’s normal in an authoritarian democracy. But something beyond power-lust is panicking Howard. Could it be the fear of being found out? Many a skeleton lies dangling in his closet, many a public servant has been bullied into silence, the blood of Afghanis spreads thick on the mountains, the blood of Iraqis soaks thick on sand.

Many a crime he’s turned a blind eye to, many a treaty he’s blatantly thwarted. He spurned the UN to appease a mad President, our military tried to keep Abu Ghraib secret. Neither torture, rendition or the slayings of civilians has copped a rebuke from the saviour of Oz. Check the reports of Oxfam and Amnesty – descriptions of hell. Dirty water spreads cholera. Black Water spreads death. Bush spreads propaganda. Soldiers admit “the entire war is an atrocity”. Howard says it is “just”, but history will not absolve him, and he knows it. What becomes apparent in Iraq – once you peer beyond the confines of Australian media – is a slow motion genocide. This is a war crime. Key perpetrators will be brought to account.

Out of office, Howard becomes vulnerable. Major figures are positioning themselves to be witnesses for the prosecution. Today, the former top U.S. commander in Iraq called the handling of the war “incompetent” and said those responsible for its “catastrophic failure”, must be held to account. Ominously, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez described the occupation as a “nightmare with no end in sight.” One day, John Howard’s nightmare will begin.

More on Iraq's humanitarian challenge . . read more

The pointless battle against binge drinking
5 may  |  By Stephen Myles

Since the days of Alexander the Great, binge drinking has been a very popular past time - leading to him apparently killing a friend and burning down Persepolis while drunk.

Those are some Great shoes to fill.

Yet, governments, schools and the media have repeatedly tried to teach us of binge drinking's dangers. 

Dartmouth University has taken the lead, instigating a new nationwide policy to curb heavy drinking by their students.

Pour me another glass.

Binge drinking is defined as "the consumption of five or more drinks in a row by men — or four or more drinks in a row by women — at least once in the previous 2 weeks. Heavy binge drinking includes three or more such episodes in 2 weeks."

Seems I don't know anyone who isn't a heavy binge drinker.

Do you think this definition should be changed or should we change people's attitudes? Or should you follow HPD's no fools guide to drinking a lot but not dying?  . . read more

Clueless Americans - From Juan Cole
12 jan  |  I am often struck by how clueless the American public is to the vast destruction we have wrought on Iraq and its people, directly or indirectly. It strikes me as a bitter joke that 4 million are displaced, often facing hunger and disease, and the right-wing periodicals and presidential candidates are talking about how the "surge" has "turned things around."

For whom? How many orphans have we created? How many widows? How many people who weep and cry every night while trying to fall asleep on straw mats? I estimate on the basis of a UN study of refugees in Syria that as many as 600,000 or 700,000 Baghdadis were ethnically cleansed from the capital under the nose of the American troops implementing the surge. There is an old Chinese proverb, "Children throw stones at frogs in jest, but the frogs die in earnest."

Bush has gutted American civil liberties, and turned us into a hateful nation of spies, torturers, bigots, and colonialists occupying someone else's country... Surveying civilian deaths in Iraq is like walking through Lincoln, Nebraska, after it was hit by a neutron bomb, with everyone dead. Everyone. [More] . . read more

Papal Benedictions - From Andrew Wimmer
22 apr  |  Act One: In January 2004 Dick Cheney concluded his tour of Europe with a visit to the Vatican where he was received by John Paul II. Ten months earlier the United States had invaded Iraq in a display of “shock and awe” and was now settling into its occupation. The U.S. was still waging war in Afghanistan, and it had been two years since the first detainees had arrived at Guantánamo. The New York Times wrote, “the pope did not mention Iraq... but about the importance of peace and respect for human life.” Dick Cheney presented the pope a crystal dove. The pope accepted it.

Act Two: Josef Ratzinger, now Benedict XVI, traveled to Washington where he was received by George Bush at the White House. Three more years have passed, and the country of Iraq is in chaos, its civilization shattered. More than a million Iraqis are dead while 4,500,000 have been forced to flee their homes, most saying they will never be able to return... George Bush and the pope met privately before issuing a joint statement in which they “reaffirmed their total rejection of terrorism as well as the manipulation of religion to justify immoral and violent acts against innocents.” During their personal meeting George Bush presented the pope a crystal cross. The pope accepted it.

Act Three: [Last Wednesday] Barack Obama assured Americans that when it comes to Iran he “will take no options off the table,” a position he shares with the Bush administration and the other presidential candidates. [More] . . read more

Europe's Hypocrisy - From Brendan Cooney
30 jul  |  It seems strange for European leaders to be celebrating the capture of a war criminal, Radovan Karadzic, so soon after they were shaking hands with another, who so far has not had to go through the trouble of growing out his hair and selling new-age medicine. "This is a historic moment," German Chancellor Andrea Merkel said of the arrest of the Serbian, whose body count is thought to be upwards of 10,000. "The victims must know: massive human rights violations will not go unpunished."

Two weeks earlier she had "a very interesting exchange of view" with George Bush, whose body count is thought to be upwards of half a million and counting. There was no mention of reassurances for his victims. The Karadzic seizure "underscored Serbia's European calling," Merkel said, just a fortnight after she had a greater criminal by the right hand and let him get away.

But wait a minute, you say. Karadzic killed systematically. He targeted innocent people. He killed people because of their ethnicity. Shouldn't this be factored into our judgment of him? Maybe. Or maybe killing civilians is killing civilians. Maybe the fact that you don't do body counts, that you slaughtered so many people so indiscriminately that there is no way to precisely tabulate the number, should be weighed as well. Whether having people lined up before shooting them should carry a different moral valence from dropping bombs on them is a consideration that might be brought up at the International Criminal Court of the United Nations. [More] . . read more

Could Bush Face Death Row? - From John F. Miglio
3 jun  |  Vincent Bugliosi, the L.A. district attorney who became famous for successfully trying Charles Manson for murder and subsequently writing the best-seller, Helter Skelter, has written an explosive new book that not only lights a fuse under our criminal justice system but challenges the next attorney general of the U.S. to blow the Bush administration to smithereens... Bugliosi - who has never been accused of mincing his words (or being an advocate for liberal causes) - makes a thorough and compelling case against Bush and his inner circle of advisors, who helped him sell the war in Iraq to the American public.

The major premise of Bugliosi's case against Bush is that the former Texas governor, who unapologetically executed more death row inmates than any other governor in the country (and joked about killing one of them), intentionally lied and deceived the American public while he was president about the reasons for going to war in Iraq, which has caused the deaths of over 4,000 U.S. service men and women and over a 100,000 Iraqis.

But how can Bush be prosecuted and convicted of murder if he personally did not kill anyone? Bugliosi asks, and then answers his own question: "...it is not necessary for a criminal defendant to have physically committed a murder to be guilty of it. For example, I convicted Charles Manson of the seven Tate-La Bianca murders even though he himself did not participate in any of the killings, nor was he present at the time."

Interesting comparison. Bush and Manson - two twisted sociopaths who revel in death and destruction. But Bugliosi goes further: "I was able to obtain this conviction because of the vicarious liability rule of conspiracy, which provides that each member of a conspiracy is criminally responsible for all crimes committed by his coconspirators... Necessarily, (Bush) conspired with certain members of his inner circle, co-conspirators like Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice." [More]

Related: Will John Howard be tried for war crimes? . . read more

Resisting the Drums of War
8 sep  |  Examining how the Bush administration promoted the misguided war in Iraq by targeting five core concerns - vulnerability, injustice, distrust, superiority, and helplessness. The continuing occupation of Iraq - and an attack on Iran - will be sold in much the same way. . . read more
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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY!
"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." -- Ronald Reagan (1986)