Criminal Acts of Presidents and Prime Ministers are
Wiped Clean with Each Election
by Jason Liosatos
Every time a presidency, prime ministership or
government in the West changes hands, it seems as though all of the previous
acts of murder and corruption are wiped clean.
Amnesia prevails, and there is a forgetting of the
previous criminal activities and crimes against humanity. The change in
leadership has the effect of sweeping under the rug the war crimes, lies,
deceptions, and other illegal and immoral acts of the previous regime, whose
members depart in good standing as if they are innocent of any crimes. We even
have the temerity of former UK prime minister Tony Blair, who enabled the
destruction of Iraq, being appointed Middle East Peace Envoy.
Tony Blair, George Bush, Dick Cheney, Bill Clinton,
Nicolas Sarkozy, Colin Powell and Hillary Clinton have walked away, and now
David Cameron, Obama, Merkel and Hollande are walking away from mass murders
and unspeakable damage to people, cultures and the planet without a trial or
any accountability.
In contrast, Saddam Hussein and Gadaffi were murdered
without a trial on the basis of propagandistic assertions. This must change,
and the Western criminals must be held accountable for their outrageous crimes.
Ratklo Mladic the Bosnian Serb army chief was thrown
in prison for defending his country from dissolution and military attack. But
Western politicians, who polluted the Middle East with depleted uranium,
creating birth defects, cancers and infertility there for many years to come,
while murdering one million people and destroying a country, have never had to
answer for a single death.
At each election Western voters seem to undergo
amnesia about the criminal acts carried out by their last government, while
they wave their flags and wave away their rights and the morality of their
countries.
General Wesley Clark warned us about the pre-planned
devastation and take over of The Middle East in a famous video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RC1Mepk_Sw and there are others contributing to our understanding
such as Paul Craig Roberts and Gerald Celente, guests on my show.
Clearly Western leaders are not psychologically
balanced and sane enough to be trusted with decisions that affect all of
humanity. Perhaps there is a growing global awareness and recognition of this
fact. http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/10/19/in-germany-cia-official-charged-with-torture.html It is impossible to see a promising future for
humanity in the unilateral actions of the Washington psychopaths.
The West is finished unless the peoples can fight free
of their Matrix-like existence and hold the criminals who rule them accountable.
Carregado
a 11/09/2011
General
Wesley Clark:
Because I had been through the Pentagon right after 9/11. About ten days after 9/11, I went through the Pentagon and I saw Secretary Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz. I went downstairs just to say hello to some of the people on the Joint Staff who used to work for me, and one of the generals called me in. He said, "Sir, you've got to come in and talk to me a second." I said, "Well, you're too busy." He said, "No, no." He says, "We've made the decision we're going to war with Iraq." This was on or about the 20th of September. I said, "We're going to war with Iraq? Why?" He said, "I don't know." He said, "I guess they don't know what else to do." So I said, "Well, did they find some information connecting Saddam to al-Qaeda?" He said, "No, no." He says, "There's nothing new that way. They just made the decision to go to war with Iraq." He said, "I guess it's like we don't know what to do about terrorists, but we've got a good military and we can take down governments." And he said, "I guess if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem has to look like a nail."
So I came back to see him a few weeks later, and by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan. I said, "Are we still going to war with Iraq?" And he said, "Oh, it's worse than that." He reached over on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper. And he said, "I just got this down from upstairs" -- meaning the Secretary of Defense's office -- "today." And he said, "This is a memo that describes how we're going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran." I said, "Is it classified?" He said, "Yes, sir." I said, "Well, don't show it to me." And I saw him a year or so ago, and I said, "You remember that?" He said, "Sir, I didn't show you that memo! I didn't show it to you!"
Because I had been through the Pentagon right after 9/11. About ten days after 9/11, I went through the Pentagon and I saw Secretary Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz. I went downstairs just to say hello to some of the people on the Joint Staff who used to work for me, and one of the generals called me in. He said, "Sir, you've got to come in and talk to me a second." I said, "Well, you're too busy." He said, "No, no." He says, "We've made the decision we're going to war with Iraq." This was on or about the 20th of September. I said, "We're going to war with Iraq? Why?" He said, "I don't know." He said, "I guess they don't know what else to do." So I said, "Well, did they find some information connecting Saddam to al-Qaeda?" He said, "No, no." He says, "There's nothing new that way. They just made the decision to go to war with Iraq." He said, "I guess it's like we don't know what to do about terrorists, but we've got a good military and we can take down governments." And he said, "I guess if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem has to look like a nail."
So I came back to see him a few weeks later, and by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan. I said, "Are we still going to war with Iraq?" And he said, "Oh, it's worse than that." He reached over on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper. And he said, "I just got this down from upstairs" -- meaning the Secretary of Defense's office -- "today." And he said, "This is a memo that describes how we're going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran." I said, "Is it classified?" He said, "Yes, sir." I said, "Well, don't show it to me." And I saw him a year or so ago, and I said, "You remember that?" He said, "Sir, I didn't show you that memo! I didn't show it to you!"
German human rights group files complaint against CIA
‘Queen of Torture’
The move puts Alfreda Frances Bikowsky in the center
of efforts to hold CIA officials accountable for alleged abuse
October 19, 2015 5:00AM ET
Khaled El Masri, a German citizen, was kidnapped by
the CIA in 2003.Nihad Nino Pusija / Ullstein Bild / Getty Images
BERLIN — A German human rights group has filed a
criminal complaint against Alfreda Frances Bikowsky, a CIA official who
allegedly authorized torture of suspected al Qaeda militants. The complaint,
submitted in federal court on Monday, presents proof of Bikowsky’s involvement
in the torture of German citizen Khaled El Masri and asks that she be
prosecuted in Germany. It also puts Bikowsky, nicknamed the “Queen of Torture,” in the spotlight of
European efforts to hold CIA officials accountable for allegations of abuse.
In 2003, Macedonian agents, mistaking El Masri for a
suspected member of the 9/11 plot, seized the Kuwaiti-born car salesman as he
was on his way to Skopje, the capital, for vacation, holding him for 23 days.
Even after a CIA official warned her that El Masri was a victim of mistaken
identity, Bikowsky, then deputy head of the CIA’s Alec Station — the unit in
charge of tracking Osama bin Laden — insisted on having El Masri flown to
Afghanistan for further questioning. After four months in Afghanistan, where he
was violently interrogated, El Masri was put on a CIA flight to Albania and returned to Germany. “There are
already arrest warrants in Germany for the air crew who flew El Masri to
Afghanistan so we’re simply following the chain of command,” said Andreas
Schüller, head of the International Crimes and Accountability Program at the
European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), the Berlin-based
human rights legal organization that submitted the complaint against Bikowsky.
In the complaint, which was filed in July and has been
seen by Al Jazeera America, the ECCHR asks the prosecutor to launch a criminal
investigation into Bikowsky. The complaint notes that the U.S. Senate’s torture report, released in December last year, contains evidence
linking Bikowsky to El Masri’s rendition and torture. “The CIA director …
decided that no further action was warranted against XXX, then the deputy chief
of ALEC Station, who advocated for al-Masri’s [sic] rendition,” the Senate
report stated in a passage included in the ECCHR’s complaint. The allegations
are consistent with findings by investigative reporters. In December last year,
The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer reported that Bikowsky “gleefully participated in torture
sessions,” and “falsely told congressional overseers that the torture worked.”
Should the German federal prosecutor decide not to
launch a criminal investigation, ECCHR will file a criminal complaint with the
state prosecutor in Munich, whose office eight years ago issued arrest warrants against 13 CIA officials
involved in El Masri’s disappearance and detention.
“If the prosecutors are inclined to take up a case of
human rights abuse by foreign officials, there’s scope in
Germany for broad investigations into human rights
abuses under universal jurisdiction,” explained Benjamin Ward, Human
Rights Watch’s deputy director for Europe and Central Asia. “That could have a
very important effect and make officials implicated in
abuse reluctant to travel to other countries.” Though ordinary citizens
can file criminal complaints, nonprofits staffed by legal experts have better
chances at success.
00
Romanian military at the end of a corridor in the
Mihail Kogalniceanu Airbase, a Soviet-era facility that became the focus of a
European investigation into alleged CIA-operated secret prisons.Vadim Ghirda /
AP
Germany’s Code of Crimes against International Law,
which came into effect in 2002, makes Germany one of few countries that
allow prosecutors to investigate human rights crimes committed abroad; the
accused is not required to be present in Germany. German prosecutors could, in
other words, pursue cases of human rights abuse linked to CIA officials in
Afghanistan and Guantánamo even if the crimes have minimal connection to
Germany. “The critical question is the political will,” said Ward. “Are the
prosecutors willing to go where the evidence takes them? Private investigations
by groups like the ECCHR are unlikely to directly lead to prosecutions, because
state interests are involved. But NGOs’ efforts to bring these abuses to light
have encouraged prosecutors to open investigations.” Frauke Köhler, the
spokeswoman for the German federal prosecutor’s office, said that officials
began reviewing potential cases as soon as the Senate torture report was
released. “The ECCHR’s criminal complaint is part of this investigation,”
Köhler explained.
The ECCHR is, along with the Center for Constitutional
Rights (CCR) in the United States, the Swiss group TRIAL, and Redress in the
UK, one of several organizations most active in pursuing legal investigations
into human rights violations. A decade ago, the group filed largely symbolic
criminal complaints against George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and former CIA
Director George Tenet. But it is now going after mid-level officials, who are
easier to link to the abuse. “Our goal is that by operating on different levels
we’ll be able to pull the net tighter around perpetrators of human rights
abuse,” explained Schüller. (The CIA declined to comment for this story.) The
ECCHR and the CCR have filed an expert opinion in support of France’s decision
to open an investigation into former Guantánamo commander Geoffrey Miller.
Earlier this year, the National Court in Paris summoned Miller to respond to
allegations of torture.
Schüller said the ECCHR plans to file several
additional complaints by the beginning of next year. A criminal complaint alone
does not result in an arrest warrant, but if the ECCHR learns that Bikowsky is
planning to travel internationally it will contact foreign border agencies to
ask for her detention. “The complaint makes it impossible for Bikowsky to serve
overseas,” said Scott Horton, a human rights lawyer and lecturer at Columbia
University. Though no Western official has been arrested on the basis of a
criminal complaint alone, earlier this month former CIA official Sabrina De
Sousa, who had been convicted in absentia by an Italian court, was detained trying to enter Portugal. The court found De
Sousa guilty of involvement in the detention of radical
preacher Abu Omar in Milan in 2003. A total of 26 U.S. officials have been convicted in absentia by Italian courts for human rights
abuse connected to renditions. According to Horton, the CIA has already banned
22 officials involved in torture from traveling abroad.
While the Senate torture report has provided human
rights organizations with new evidence, the European Court of Human Rights has
established a legal precedent that works in favor of victims of human rights
abuses. In a 2012ruling, the ECHR sided with El Masri, who filed a complaint
against Macedonia’s interior ministry. “Historically a cloak of legal immunity
has been cast around intelligence operatives due to the risk of actions being
revealed in court that could harm intelligence operations,” noted Horton.
“What’s happening now is that human rights groups are saying that while the
courts can’t dig into everything there’s an exception for crimes against
humanity.”
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts' latest books areThe Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West
/https://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/content/dam/thestar/news/canada/2021/09/25/huawei-executive-meng-wanzhou-receives-warm-welcome-upon-return-to-china/_1_meng_wanzhou_2.jpg)
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