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Mosul >> VS vermoordde daar met bombardementen meer dan 40.000 burgers, Irak deed het na de ‘bevrijding’ dunnetjes over met 10.000 moorden…….

Posted on by Willem Wachtmeester

Bij de bloedige ‘bevrijding’ van West-Mosul, werden meer dan 40.000 inwoners vermoord, vooral middels bombardementen van de VS (dat was al overigens al het geval voor de uiteindelijke ‘bevrijding’ het geval…)…

Ondanks oproepen aan de VS van onder meer de VN te stoppen met bombardementen op het Iraakse West-Mosul, daar in de oude stad de huizen zo dicht op elkaar staan en waardoor de burgers in levensgevaar werden gebracht, ging de VS ‘gewoon’ door met de bombardementen…….. Vergelijk dat eens met de bevrijding van het Syrische Oost-Aleppo, waar het reguliere Syrische leger en de Russen al 2 maanden voor de uiteindelijke bevrijding besloten te stoppen met bombardementen, dit juist om burgerslachtoffers zoveel mogelijk te voorkomen……..

Gezien dat laatste moeten er dan ook in de paar maanden voor de bevrijding van West-Mosul een enorm aantal burgers zijn vermoord…… Om negatief nieuws met een enorm aantal vermoorde burgers te voorkomen, heeft het Iraakse leger na de ‘bevrijding’ hele huizenblokken gebulldozerd en daarmee de lijken die zich daar nog in bevonden, begraven onder het puin……. Overigens is het bombarderen van huizenblokken al een enorme oorlogsmisdaad, vastgelegd in het Verdrag van Genève……

De westerse massamedia en de meeste westerse politici houden desondanks vol, dat Syrië en Rusland enorme oorlogsmisdaden begingen in Oost-Aleppo, ook al was en is daarvoor geen flinter echt bewijs……. Waar diezelfde media en politici liever niet lullen over de enorme oorlogsmisdaden begaan door de Iraakse coalitie (o.l.v. de VS) in steden als Mosul………

Na de bevrijding van West-Mosul beging de Iraakse-coalitie tegen IS, de ene oorlogsmisdaad na de andere. Mannen en jongens van boven de 14 jaar werden gescheiden van de vrouwen gevangen gezet, waar velen van hen werden gemarteld en/of vermoord, ook al had men geen juridisch bewijs voor deelname aan terreurgroep IS……. Een wond was genoeg om de psychopaten te overtuigen dat men met IS leden te maken had, wat vrijwel altijd een zekere dood betekende voor deze verdachten, een aantal van hen werd zelfs van gebouwen gegooid……. Dit alles onder goedkeuring en toezicht van de VS……

Soldaten kregen van officieren het advies IS-verdachten te vermoorden: als men ‘overtuigd was’ met een IS strijder te maken te hebben……. Na de ‘bevrijding’ van West-Mosul zijn er naar schatting 10.000 mannen en jongens vermoord door het Iraakse leger……..

Lees het ontluisterende artikel van Darius Shahtahmasebi zoals geplaatst op Anti-Media:

‘Orgy
of Killing’: US-Backed ‘Liberation’ of Mosul Left 10,000
Civilians Dead

December
4, 2017 at 3:33 pm

Written
by Darius
Shahtahmasebi

(ANTIMEDIA) — After
the United States and its proxy armies “liberated” the Iraqi city
of Mosul earlier this year, the world’s superpower
unsurprisingly turned a
blind eye to a massacre that took place soon after. As
the Guardian aptly
phrased it, the aftermath was an “orgy” of killing.

The Guardian explains
that it was the brutal conduct of the Iraqi Armed Forces that enabled
Iraq to successfully liberate Mosul from ISIS’ dominance, stating:

“One
of the factors that had aided Isis’s takeover of Mosul was the
conduct of the Iraqi army and security forces stationed in the city,
who behaved like sectarian occupation forces, mistreating and
detaining the population at will. In the early stages of the battle
for Mosul, the Iraqi army and police, keen to change their prevailing
image, had taken care to preserve the lives of civilians. Soldiers
and officers used their vehicles to help people evacuate their homes,
and offered water and medical help. But the Old City was seen as the
last refuge of Isis, and almost every inhabitant was treated as a
suspect. Fighting-age men from other parts of the city, and those
with injuries, were detained on the spot. The rest were sent to
detention centres, where their identity would be checked.”

According to
the non-partisan monitoring group Airwars, the civilian death toll in
Mosul may have exceeded 10,000. Those who were fortunate enough to
survive coalition bombings were apparently treated as suspected ISIS
members, and the result was a host of crimes that should make The
Hague cringe.

The Guardian explains:

“Locals,
keen to exact revenge on those they held responsible for the miseries
and destruction of the last three years, started denouncing not only
members of Isis and their families who had tried to blend in with
fleeing civilians, but also any man of fighting
age who came from a different city, bore the marks of injury, or
simply looked suspicious.” [emphasis
added]

Kate
Allen, the director of Amnesty International, has already called for
an independent
inquiry into
these crimes. Allen stated:

“Deliberately
killing fighters who have surrendered or who have been captured is
absolutely prohibited under international law. Needless to say,
killing civilians in these circumstances is also utterly unlawful –
a war crime.”

The
Iraqi military’s behavior during and after this liberation campaign
is no secret to the U.S. or the mainstream media. Iraqi soldiers were
allegedly throwing
captured ISIS
fighters off buildings as far back as July of this year.
The Guardian also
details one example of a suspected ISIS operative who vehemently
claimed he was a medic, only to be beaten, thrown out of a window,
and gunned down on the street below. As one Iraqi military officer
explained:

“He
is my fifth [killing] since the start of [the battle of] Mosul…
Al-Qaida have one good principle: if they suspect someone, or have
the tiniest evidence against him, they execute him. They say that if
he was guilty, he deserved it, and if he was innocent, his blood will
be purged and later he will go to heaven. I follow the same
principle.”

Never
mind that thousands
of civilians died
in the aerial campaign during the first few months of Trump’s
presidency. Once the city was formally liberated,
the Guardian explains,
the real “orgy” of killing began:

“Night
after night, in ruined houses, makeshift cells and the dark streets
of Mosul, those identified as members of Isis were tortured and
executed. Jubilant Iraqi soldiers filmed themselves beating and
shooting prisoners.”

The
United States has barely given this issue a passing mention, even as
it attempts to denigrate Syria for allegedly doing the same thing.
One thing is certain, however — the United States has brought chaos
to Iraq and the large city of Mosul, and liberation may, in fact, be
the wrong word to describe the results.

From
the Guardian:

“‘Sometimes
we do things and we know we are breaking the law,’ the commander
told me one afternoon as he sat sipping his tea. He lit a cigarette
and continued: ‘My general tells me: ‘Don’t bring me any
prisoners – if you know they are Daesh, then deal with them from
your end.’ My soldiers call me and say: ‘We have found a man’,
and I tell them: ‘Kill him.’”

Creative
Commons / Anti-Media / Report
a typo

========================================

Zie ook:

‘Mosul, 18 maanden na ‘de bevrijding’‘

‘The massacre of Mosul: 40,000 feared dead in battle to take back city from Isis as scale of civilian casualties revealed‘

‘Iraakse strijdmacht gaf grif toe dat tot hun orders voor West-Mosul ook het vermoorden van vrouwen en kinderen behoorde……..‘

‘Mosul: minstens 40.000 gedode burgers in 9 maanden tijd, ofwel VS terreur op grote schaal…..‘

‘Mosul, stad van lijken: vele honderden doden onder het puin‘

‘Mosul verwoest door VS………‘

‘Mosul, het verschil in berichtgeving vergeleken met de bevrijding van Oost-Aleppo………..‘

‘Raqqa, een strijd als om West-Mosul, echter met geheel andere media aandacht……….‘

‘Bombarderen was een probleem in Mosul, maar niet bij het nieuwe Iraakse/VS offensief…….‘

‘Mosul ‘zal met precisie ontdaan worden van de terroristen, inclusief een minimum aan burgerslachtoffers…….’‘ (een ongelofelijk en ongeloofwaardige belofte….)

‘VS vermoordde met bombardementen in augustus 433 burgers in Raqqa………. Westerse media alweer stil…….‘

‘Hennis-Plasschaert hoopte nog zo, dat IS de bevolking van Mosul niet als schild zou gebruiken……..‘

‘Honderden burgerslachtoffers in Mosul door VS bombardementen, ofwel grootschalige terreur……‘

‘Mass Media Siege: Comparing Coverage Of Mosul and Aleppo‘ (met mogelijkheid tot vertaling)

‘After Mosul’s “Liberation,” Horror of US Siege Continues to Unfold‘ (met mogelijkheid tot vertaling)

‘Mosul (bijna) bevrijd: ‘een positief verslag’ van de BBC‘

‘Mosul ‘bevrijd’ en BBC anti-Assad propaganda……….‘

‘Mosul is ‘bevrijd’ zo stelt de VS, daar zijn echter wel wat aanmerkingen op te maken………‘

VS gaat moorden middels drones opvoeren……….

Posted on by Willem Wachtmeester

Twee berichten van Anti-Media, één van ANTIWAR en één  van Common Dreams, de eerste van 16 september jl. en de tweede van 22 september jl., die één gezamenlijk onderwerp hebben: de uitbreiding van het aantal aanvallen middels drones op verdachten. Dat ‘verdachten’ geeft al aan waar het hier om draait: standrechtelijke executies, waar geen rechter aan te pas is gekomen, ofwel terreuraanslagen, waarbij godbetert meer dan 90% van de vermoorde slachtoffers niet eens verdacht was, m.n. vrouwen en kinderen……..

Zoals Jason Ditz bericht: de CIA wil autoriteit van Trump om op eigen houtje drone-aanvallen uit te voeren in Afghanistan en zal die waarschijnlijk krijgen, nog ‘een klein geluk’ dat het Pentagon tegen deze macht voor de CIA is, daar men vreest dat dit het werk van de militairen in Afghanistan nog verder zal bemoeilijken……

Zowel het Pentagon als de CIA hebben een aanzienlijke voorraad drones opgebouwd en willen meer bevoegdheid deze in te zetten, zoals in Afghanistan…… Tja, je hebt ‘wat’ drones en daar wil je ‘uiteraard’ mee kunnen moorden (voorheen moest men eerst toestemming vragen aan de president, zoals eerder bij ‘vredesduif’ Obama, die een groot aantal van deze moorden goedkeurde).

Zoals gezegd, de verwachting is dat de enorme ploert en CIA directeur Pompeo toestemming zal krijgen van Trump…….

Het tweede bericht is van Jake Johnson en hij bericht over het voornemen van Trump om alle beperkingen op het gebruik van drones te schrappen……… Daarmee zal het hek geheel van de dam zijn en zal het aantal dodelijke burgerslachtoffers (moorden) enorm zal toenemen……..

Zeke Johnson, directeur van Amnesty Internationaal in de VS, stelde in de New York Times dat de beperkingen op drone-aanslagen, zoals die tot nu toe gelden, al een aanfluiting waren voor de mensenrechten, maar dat met het nieuwe voornemen van Trump, het aantal moorden enorm zal stijgen……. Tja, het militair-industrieel complex, dat winsten maakt die nooit eerder gezien zijn, heeft belang bij deze moorden, daar die het terrorisme zullen doen toenemen, ook in de EU. Hierbij moet wel worden aangetekend, dat zoals gewoonlijk VS terreur, met hulp van oorlogshond NAVO, de oorzaak is van alle terreur in de EU, VS en NAVO terreur die tevens enorme vluchtelingenstromen op gang brachten………

Tot nu toe werd o.a. door Obama gesteld, dat de te vermoorden personen, een directe ‘bedreiging’ vormden voor de VS (ha! ha! ha! ha! De enige echte bedreiging voor de VS is de VS zelf!!). Met het voornemen van Trump (reken maar dat hij tekent!) zullen ook mensen worden vermoord, die geen bedreiging vormen voor de VS…….. Reken maar dat in het vervolg figuren als Assange en Snowden (vergeet niet: ex-CIA!) in het vervolg hun ‘klokken luiden’ niet zullen overleven…….

Daarover gesproken, wat zullen landen doen, die achter de VS staan, als de VS een dergelijke aanslag in hun land zal plegen…….. Ach, het antwoord is duidelijk: zo’n moord wordt dan afgedaan als een ongeluk en de drone zal op zeker niet uit de lucht worden geschoten, immers als het om de VS gaat, wordt alles toegestaan, ook al weet men, dat de VS in feite de grootste terreurentiteit op aarde is……

Hoe lang laat men de VS nog begaan, voordat deze verenging van terreurstaten voor het Internationaal Strafhof zal worden gedaagd…??!!! En dan durft men de VS nog een democratische rechtsstaat te noemen…… ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!

Overigens heeft het Pentagon al toestemming om op eigen houtje meer militairen in te zetten in landen waar de VS bezig is met illegale acties of illegale oorlogen….. Dit bleek onlangs nog eens, toen niemand wist hoeveel VS militairen er in Afghanistan vechten……. Zogenaamde deskundigen als BNR rollade Hammelburg, durfden te zeggen dat dit normaal is, daar je altijd troepen hebt die moeten worden afgelost, maar niet meteen weg zijn, als ‘de verse troepen’ zijn gearriveerd…… ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!

Trump die intussen schreeuwt als Adolf Hitler en Goebbels, is in feite een marionet geworden voor een militaire junta die in het Witte Huis is getrokken…….

CIA Wants Authority to Conduct Drone Strikes in Afghanistan

September 16, 2017 at 8:33 am

Written by Jason Ditz

The Pentagon fears US troops would face backlash from CIA drone attacks.

(ANTIWAR.COM) — The expansion of US military operations around the drone has coincided with the Pentagon having an increasingly large drone arsenal to carry out unmanned airstrikes around the world. That’s given them an opportunity to massively increase spending on drone warfare.

But the CIA also invested massively in drone warfare, and officials are looking for more opportunities to use those drones from extrajudicial killings. This has led CIA Director Mike Pompeo to press President Trump for authority to conduct drone strikes in Afghanistan.

Military drone strikes are common in Afghanistan, and Pentagon officials aren’t clear what the CIA thinks their drones can do that the existing drones aren’t already doing. On top of that, since the CIA declines comment on their strikes, the Pentagon is worried CIA strikes that kill civilians will lead to blowback against US ground troops.

The CIA doesn’t appear to have good answers for the Pentagon’s concerns, so much as they have a lot of drones they want to get more use out of. Pompeo has bragged that President Trump has been eager to grant him more authority and more resources whenever he’s asked, even though the specifics of what they’re doing and why remains largely secret.

By Jason Ditz / Republished with permission / ANTIWAR.COM / Report a typo

Trump
to Scrap Drone Restrictions

September
22, 2017 at 7:21 am

Written
by Jake
Johnson

Human
rights groups argue the move could led to an upsurge in civilian
casualties, which are already soaring under Trump.

(COMMONDREAMS) — President
Donald Trump is reportedly gearing
up to roll back even the most limited restrictions on U.S. drone
operations overseas, further opening the door for the expansion of
airstrikes and commando raids into nations like the Philippines and
Nigeria and setting the stage for an upsurge in civilian
casualties—already at record
highs in
Afghanistan and soaring in
Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.

Zeke
Johnson, senior director of programs for Amnesty International USA,
told the New
York Times in
an interview that while Obama-era restrictions on drone strikes “fell
far short on human rights protections,” any move to water down
drone warfare rules even further would be a “grave mistake.”

The
White House appears to be committed to the move nonetheless,
the Times reported on
Thursday, noting that the plan “has quietly taken shape over months
of debate among administration officials and awaits Trump’s
expected signature.”

The Times notes
that at least two rules are on the chopping block:

  • “First,
    the targets of kill missions by the military and the CIA, now
    generally limited to high-level militants deemed to pose a
    ‘continuing and imminent threat’ to Americans, would be expanded
    to include foot-soldier jihadists with no special skills or
    leadership roles.”

  • “And
    second, proposed drone attacks and raids would no longer undergo
    high-level vetting.”

The
plan, in effect, would deepen American military involvement in
nations considered to be beyond combat zones and allow the U.S.
military—and the CIA, which has for months lobbied
for more drone authority—to
target individuals that are not even deemed national security threats
by the U.S. government.

“[D]rone
operators and commanders would face fewer internal hurdles to
launching specific strikes or raids,” the Times concluded.

As Common
Dreams reported last
month, Trump has repeatedly shown a willingness to bow to endless war
advocates, as he did in his speech outlining the White House
“strategy” for the 16-year-war in Afghanistan. Central to his
address was the promise
to lift restrictions on military operations and
“expand authority for American forces.”

With
his expected drone rule rollback, Trump appears to be moving closer
to fulfilling this promise.

According
to a recent analysis by
the human rights organization Reprieve, the Trump administration’s
more belligerent and less accountable foreign policy is already
having devastating consequences. Trump, the group notes, “has
overseen a projected fivefold increase in drone strikes” in Yemen,
the site of a U.S. assassination campaign that “eclipses all that
came before it in scale and brutality.”

Johnson
of Amnesty International noted in a statement late
Thursday that Trump’s ability to expand the use of lethal force
abroad is due to the “legally and morally murky” policies that
were put in place and maintained by his predecessors, and sustained
by a Congress that refuses
to debate the
merits of the endless “war on terror.”

Thus,
any proposal that “gut[s] already weak human rights protections”
that restrain American forces abroad “would be
unacceptable,“ Johnson
concluded. “The
Trump administration needs to ensure that its guidance for operations
outside armed conflict comply with human rights law. The
administration cannot write itself a blank check to kill with
impunity.”

By Jake
Johnson / Creative
Commons / Common
Dreams / Report
a typo

Groot-Brittannië stuurt politie naar Israël voor training in contraterrorisme……… ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!

Posted on by Willem Wachtmeester

Te gek voor woorden: GB stuurt politieagenten naar Israël voor een training in contraterrorisme……. Benieuwd of ze die agenten ook leren, dat je eerst zelfs barbaarse terreur moet uitoefenen, een land illegaal moet bezetten en grond en huizen stelen van de oorspronkelijke bewoners, om vervolgens de bewoners die zich verzetten, uit te maken voor ‘terroristen’, waarop de ‘terrorismebestrijding’ middels enorme terreur wordt opgevat……..

Uiteraard gaat de training gepaard met het gebruik van wapens, die de politie van GB niet eens gebruikt. Zie de militarisering van de VS politie: zelfs pantserwagen en ‘halve tanks’ worden daar ingezet tegen de eigen bevolking als die vreedzaam demonstreert…… Het zal u dan ook niet verbazen dat grote delen van de politie in de VS zijn opgeleid in ‘contraterrorisme’ door Israëlische psychopathische terroristen.

Je kan dan ook niet anders concluderen dan dat landen als GB zich omvormen tot een politiestaat en dat tegen terreur die het zelf met terreur elders heeft gekweekt…… Een politiestaat zoals Israël is dan ook continue vergeven van politie en andere veiligheidsdiensten op straat…..

Vergeet daarnaast niet dat steeds meer mensen buiten de maatschappij komen te staan en in diepe armoede leven, de kans dat deze mensen bij een komende crisis de straat op zullen gaan en daarbij geweld zullen gebruiken, is levensgroot, ook die mensen zal men uitmaken voor terroristen…….. Met andere woorden: men wil voor die tijd de vorming van een politiestaat voltooid hebben……….. Niet voor niets zie je steeds vaker dat militaire trainingen plaats vinden in bewoond gebied (ook in Nederland!).

Terug naar de huidige terreur in het westen: de politie en geheime diensten in GB doen niets met informatie van moslims over mensen uit de eigen omgeving, die terreur willen gebruiken…… Sterker nog: zelfs als die geheime diensten en politie weten, dat iemand gevaarlijk is en buitenlandse diensten een waarschuwing geven voor een dergelijke figuur, doet men nog niets, zoals keer op keer blijkt (dat geldt voor veel landen, zoals ook voor Nederland….)…… Je ‘zou soms bijna denken dat dit met opzet is’, zodat men meer budget en nog meer bevoegdheden kan eisen……..

In onderstaand artikel o.a. ook aandacht voor uitspraken van Amnesty International over de situatie in Israël, waar men zelfs kinderen zonder vorm van proces opsluit en naast deze marteling, deze kinderen fysiek onderwerpt aan sadistische martelingen…..

De hoogste tijd dat Israël voor het Internationaal Strafhof wordt gedaagd vanwege de enorme hoeveelheid oorlogsmisdaden, etnische zuiveringen en de andere terreur die het los laat op Palestijnse mensen!!!

Wat betreft terreur: het westen moet stoppen met het illegaal oorlogvoeren (een enorme oorlogsmisdaad, ofwel grootschalige terreur!) tegen landen waar het niets te zoeken heeft, dat is de enige manier om verdere groei van terreur in het westen tegen te gaan…….

Zeg nee tegen de vorming van een politiestaat, waar ook Nederland intensief mee bezig is, het ene na het andere democratische recht sterft een snelle dood i.h.k.v. ‘terrorismebestrijding….’ Nogmaals: je kan terreur niet bestrijden als je zelf als eerste grootschalige terreur uitoefent of steunt, immers je bent dan zelf verantwoordelijk voor de reactie op die terreur in eigen land……….

UK
Is Sending Its Police to Train in Israel: Here’s Why It Should
Bother You

July
25, 2017 at 7:13 am

Written
by Darius
Shahtahmasebi

(ANTIMEDIA Op-ed) — According to
the Independent,
government sources say a British team is set to travel to Israel in
the near future to learn Israeli counterterrorism enforcement
strategies. The proposed move comes amid a spate of terrorist
activity in the United Kingdom, as well as concerns about the British
authorities’ response time and ability to counter terrorist
attacks.


However, as the Independent notes:

“There
are, of course, significant
differences between political violence in the UK and Israel. The
murders and maiming in the streets of Britain are in pursuit of a
murderous Islamist jihad with a variety of justifications offered
including retaliation for the war against Isis in Iraq and Syria. In
Israel and the occupied territories it is justified as part of the
struggle for Palestinian nationhood against Israel.”



The Jerusalem Post cites police involvement as being integral when it comes to “turning the tide” in Jerusalem’s battle against terrorist activity. More than 3,500 police officers are reportedly involved in multiple units, constantly patrolling and on guard with undercover officers on site at all times.

Considering
this, it is curious that the United Kingdom would want to learn
police tactics from an occupying
force that
suppresses its local population. Why would the United Kingdom want to
create a similar environment and heavily arm its police force? And to
what end?

As
Amnesty International reported last
year:

“Amnesty
International,
other human rights organizations and even the U.S.
Department of State have
cited Israeli police for carrying out extrajudicial
executions and
other unlawful
killings,
using ill
treatment and torture (even
against children),
suppression of freedom
of expression/association including
through government surveillance,
and excessive
use of force against
peaceful protesters.”

Why
should anyone take the United Kingdom’s commitment to genuinely
counter extremism seriously considering its current
prime minister gave free
passage to
the Manchester-based Libyan Islamic Fighting Group to Libya in 2011
to battle Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi? The recent Manchester
attacker was affiliated with this group, meaning the U.K. government
actively cultivated the conditions for the Manchester terrorist
attack to take place.

In
2005, the then-chief of police of Washington DC, Terrance W.
Gainer, told the Washington
Post that
“Israel is the Harvard of antiterrorism.” The Post also
reports that Israeli security experts were traveling across the
United States to teach their counterterrorism tactics with not only
“big-city cops” but also county sheriffs and police chiefs from
diverse locations, too.

According
to Amnesty
International,
Israeli police have trained law
enforcement officials from Baltimore, Florida, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, California, Arizona, Connecticut, New York,
Massachusetts, North Carolina, Georgia, and Washington state, to name
but a few.

Israeli
tactics have resulted in the deaths
of hundreds of
Palestinians, including a host
of children.
Even at the time of this article’s publication, Israel’s latest
crackdown has killed at least three Palestinians
and injured
hundreds more.

In
this context, America’s rampantly
violent police culture should
make a lot more sense. One U.S. police officer, notoriously infamous
for violently
taking down a
15-year-old girl in McKinney, was even trained in Israeli martial
arts.

If
you’re an American citizen, your tax
dollars actively pay
for this violent militarism.


People
who refuse to condemn or criticize Israel’s treatment of the
Palestinian people are completely unaware that they, too, will be on
the receiving end of such barbaric treatment in the near future.

Do
a handful of lone terror attacks in the United Kingdom warrant such
militarized tactics? Who will these tactics be directed toward?
Surely, it is not a stretch to assume these initiatives will be
heavily felt by Britain’s
Muslim community,
the same Muslim community that tried to warn authorities
about potential
terrorists multiple times.

The
authorities turn a blind eye to these dangerously violent people and
enlist their help when it is time to overthrow an unfriendly
government in the Middle East. This same government wants to then
restrict citizens’ basic freedoms while
using their tax revenue to train and transform their police forces
into a quasi-occupation military force.

Rather
than studying how to oppress people even further, perhaps the U.K.
could learn the lessons from its heavily misguided interventionist
policies and focus on improving the state of the world, not
deteriorating it.

We
might not care about this issue now when it seems only Palestinian
people are the ones being oppressed by such tactics (not to mention
the innocent civilians of the countless number
of despotic regimes and human rights abusers,
which Israel sells its weaponry to). But it would be wise to wake up
and see the situation for what it is before it manifests itself in
the inevitably ugly way some
people are predicting.

Consider
that Saudi Arabia is about to execute 14 non-violent protesters —
and that British police have been
accused of
directly aiding their capture — and you might be able to picture a
small taste of what’s to come. (One of these prisoners
is disabled and
was arrested at the age of 17).


As forewarned by
Eitay Mack, a Jerusalem-based human rights lawyer and activist:

“In
honor of the Palestinians in the occupied territories, whose land,
property, and persons have been transformed into a giant laboratory
for experimentation in new technologies and types of warfare so that
the Israeli security and arms industries can produce glossy brochures
and stamp their products with the words ‘successfully tested’ and
market them abroad. Men and women in countries
around the world where the technology of occupation has been
purchased from Israel [will] wake up one morning to discover that
their local police forces have turned into an army and their
neighborhoods into a war zone.” [emphasis
added]

Op-ed
/ Creative
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Koenders alweer doodstil, nu na de arrestatie van Idil Eser, de directeur van Amnesty Turkije……..

Posted on by Willem Wachtmeester

Mensen, ik dacht dat m’n oren van m’n hoofd donderden, toen ik afgelopen vrijdag Amnesty Nederland directeur Nazarski (bij het protest van Amnesty tegen het Turkse bewind op het Haagse Malieveld) hoorde vertellen, dat Nederland nog steeds geen actie heeft ondernomen op de arrestatie van de directeur van Amnesty Turkije, Idil Eser……

Blijkbaar had de wanpresterend demissionair PvdA minister Koenders het te druk met de Tweede Kamer bbq en zichzelf veren in de vieze reet steken…… Twee dagen eerder was de directeur van Amnesty Turkije door de bloedhonden van Erdogan gearresteerd en na herhaaldelijke verzoeken van Amnesty Nederland om een reactie van Buitenlandse Zaken, was het tot dat moment stil……

Nog lulliger is eigenlijk het feit, dat dit de zoveelste arrestatie is in een bijzonder lange rij, waarover men zich in Den Haag en Brussel niet druk maakt (behalve wat sleetse opmerkingen*). Een paar dagen eerder waren overigens al andere medewerkers van Amnesty Turkije gearresteerd op beschuldiging van terrorisme……… Uiteraard had het hele westen en masse moeten opstaan en de Turken de deur moeten wijzen (het volledige Turkse ambassades personeel, inclusief de ambassadeurs…..)……..

Trouwens hoe is het mogelijk dat Turkije niet uit de NAVO wordt gedonderd??? Daarmee maakt de NAVO ten overvloede nog eens duidelijk, dat het in feite één grote terreurorganisatie is, met schijt aan mensenrechten en democratische verworvenheden………

Nederland uit de NAVO, liever vandaag dan morgen!!

* Zo berichtte de Telegrof: Europarlementariërs, onder wie Turkije-rapporteur Kati Piri (PvdA), deden dat donderdag ook al. EU-commissaris Johannes Hahn (Uitbreiding) kaartte de kwestie die dag aan in Ankara, maar kreeg naar eigen zeggen geen bevredigende reactie. Nee, vreemd hè, je zegt dat Turkije deze mensen moet vrijlaten (althans dat mag je hopen) en als er vervolgens niets gebeurd, leg je het dossier onder de enorme stapel met slappe eerdere protesten, waar Turkije schijt aan had…………

VS wil weer psychiatrisch patiënt vermoorden……..

Posted on by Willem Wachtmeester

Mensen, er komt geen eind aan de ellende die de VS over de aarde uitstort en ‘je kan bijna niet anders concluderen’, dan dat de leiders van de VS, zowel op politiek, militair, inlichtingen*, politie als op ander justitieel, gebied, louter bestaan uit gewetenloze psychopaten.

Gisteren een dringende oproep van Amnesty International VS, een petitie te tekenen tegen het executeren van William Morva op 6 juli a.s. Morva lijdt aan een ernstige waanstoornis en is daarom volkomen ontoerekeningsvatbaar voor zijn daden…….. Geen reden voor het ‘rechtssysteem’ in de VS deze jonge man niet te executeren.

Laat zien aan de VS dat er nog landen op de wereld zijn, die zich verzetten tegen deze barbaarse straf, die in de middeleeuwen thuishoort……

Lees en teken de petitie ajb en geeft het door! (we hebben nog maar een paar weken tijd…)

Demand
Governor McAuliffe Halt the Execution of William Morva

On
July 6th, Virginia will execute William Morva, even though he has
been diagnosed with delusional disorder, a serious mental
disability.

We
can’t let this happen. Urge Governor McAuliffe to stop this
execution.

We know that the death penalty is cruel and inhumane and executing
people with a serious mental disability is a wrong.

William
Morva has a family history of mental disability and during his high
school years, close friends and family saw his mental health decline.
But during his trial, jurors never heard about the full extent of
William Morva’s mental disability. They never heard that his
delusional disorder may have contributed to his crimes.

Urge
Governor McAuliffe to stop this execution! The death penalty is the
ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and executing people
with serious mental disability is a violation of international
safeguards countries must observe in all capital cases. 

Call
on Governor McAuliffe to stop William Morva’s execution
immediately.

We
know that Governor McAuliffe has stopped executions before and he can
do it again if he hears from enough Amnesty activists like you. Take
action today to help stop William’s execution.


Sincerely,

James
ClarkSenior
Campaigner to Abolish the Death PenaltyAmnesty
International USA

===============================



* Geheime diensten. Er is geen land op de wereld als de VS, dat op zoveel (digitale) manieren en zo vaak, de rest van de wereld afluistert en hackt, plus daarnaast zowel digitaal als fysiek probeert de boel te manipuleren…… Neem de Vault7 documenten en een groot aantal andere Wikileaks documenten. Mocht dat hacken, afluisteren en manipuleren niet het gewenste resultaat hebben, grijpt de VS militair in, zoals het al zo ongelofelijk vaak heeft gedaan. Deze zaken kan je niet anders aanduiden, dan grootschalige terreur en het is dan ook niet voor niets, dat de VS verreweg de grootste terreurentiteit op aarde is……..

Kinderen worden in VS gevangen gehouden daar gevluchte ouders ‘illegaal zijn……….’

Posted on by Willem Wachtmeester

Gisteren ontving ik een dringende oproep van Amnesty in de VS, een petitie te tekenen tegen het opsluiten van kinderen….. Kinderen die samen met hun moeder gevangen zijn gezet daar ze illegaal in de VS zouden zijn.

Deze mensen zijn geen ‘gelukszoekers’ (voor wat die achterlijke term waard is), maar vluchtelingen voor extreem geweld in eigen land……..

Hier de link naar de petitie  Waar u ook de petitiebrief kan lezen (als u uw gegevens invoert moet u bij State: ‘Outside US‘ aanklikken).


Lees hoe ‘het land van vrijheid en onbegrensde mogelijkheden’, politiestaat VS, omgaat met kinderen en hun vervolgde ouders (Ivanka is de dochter van het beest Trump):


Ivanka:
Tell Your Dad to Stop Putting Little Kids In Jail. #ShutDownBerks


Candles,
birthday cake, presents, friends and family. That’s what every
parent hopes for their child’s birthday. Instead of festivities,
Tomás spent his (eighth) birthday behind bars—for the second year in
a row.


The
reason why? Because Tomás and his mom were jailed in the only place
in the country where you can hold a child who has never committed a
violent crime for over 600 days: Berks Country, PA. Tomás and his
mom, Natalia, are amongst at least 60 other moms, dads, and children
who were locked up after seeking safety here, though they fled
from violence in their home countries.

                       


Together
we can shut down Berks. Take action now.

Today,
we’re calling on Ivanka Trump to join us in the fight for kids
like Tomás. Ivanka campaigned for her father on a commitment to
support kids and mothers—shouldn’t that include all kids—even
the ones at Berks?

Tell
Ivanka to help the kids at Berks.

We
all share a responsibility to help people who have lost everything,
and to give them a chance to rebuild their lives safely the same way
all of us would need to if we were in this horrible
situation.That’s
why Amnesty International is fighting to ensure that people who fled
to the US seeking safety have a fair shot at it.

A
fair shot never happened for Tomás, whose real name we’re
withholding for his safety. After hundreds of days behind bars—where
he suffered PTSD (posttraumatische stressstoornis: PTSS, Ap) and his weight shrank to just 40 pounds—he and his
mother were deported without ever having a chance to fully make their
case for asylum. They face extreme danger, perhaps even death. We
can’t let that happen again.

Take
action to help the kids at Berks now.

Thank
you for taking action.

Naureen
ShahSenior
Director of CampaignsAmnesty
International USA

Hier de link naar de petitie  Waar u ook de petitiebrief kan lezen

Ivanka
Trump campaigned for her father on a commitment to helping kids and
their mothers. But what about the ones who are spending months,
sometimes years, behind bars in Berks County, Pennsylvania, in what’s
known as the “baby jail”? They fled violence and persecution in
countries like Honduras, dreaming of safety in the US. Now these
little kids are being detained, some for half their lives, learning
to walk behind bars. We’re asking Ivanka Trump to show compassion,
and tell her father to #ShutDownBerks. 

Hier de link naar de petitie (als u uw gegevens invoert moet u bij State: ‘Outside US‘ aanklikken).

AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL USA LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN TO FREE YOUNG CHILDREN AND
MOTHERS DETAINED BY ICE FOR OVER 500 DAYSAmnesty
International USA (AIUSA) is launching a campaign today urging
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to release several families
with young children being detained at the Berks County Residential
Center in Pennsylvania. Four of the 35 children currently detained at
Berks – aged three, four, seven and 16 – have been at the Center
for over 500 days, despite having pending applications for legal
permanent residency.

AIUSA
sent a letter to ICE on March 9 requesting that these families be
granted parole and is mobilizing its over 1.2 million U.S. members
and supporters to call the agency to demand that the families be
released.

“These
four children have spent a significant amount of their lives
essentially behind bars. The U.S. cannot continue to treat those
fleeing horrific violence like criminals,” said Margaret Huang,
Amnesty International USA executive director. “These families were
detained under the Obama administration’s unlawful policy of using
detention as deterrence against those fleeing violence and
insecurity. Now, in the face of President Trump’s aggressive and
inhumane immigration orders, we are deeply concerned for these
families and others like them in the U.S. We will fight to ensure
that people with asylum claims are given a fair hearing and humane
treatment.We must do everything we can to ensure protection for
people who are fleeing violence.”

Researchers
from Amnesty International have worked closely with attorneys who
represent the families held in Berks County, one of three family
detention centers operated by the U.S. government. Berks is currently
holding 34 families – 15 of them for more than a year – many of
whom come from a region known as the Northern Triangle which includes
El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. The Northern Triangle is an
area widely recognized for its extreme levels of violence and
insecurity, which Amnesty has also documented extensively.

  • Three-year-old Josué*
    has spent over half his life in detention. He learned to walk and
    talk in confinement. He and his 28-year-old mother     Teresa have
    spent 16 months (500 days, and counting) at Berks. Josué and his
    mother fled kidnapping threats, physical and sexual assault in
    Honduras and came to the US seeking asylum. “[My son]…is so
    young, he was only 22 months when we came and now he’s three years
    old,” Teresa said in an interview with her lawyers.

  • Four-year-old Carlos and
    his mother, 34-year-old     Lorena,
    fled threats, intimidation and severe and repeated gender-based
    violence in Honduras. They have spent 16 months in detention.

  • Seven-year-old Antonio and
    his mother     Marlene,
    24,have one of the longest detention periods at Berks – 550 days
    and counting. Currently in their 18th month of detention,
    Marlene recounts how Antonio has already spent two Christmas in
    detention. “It’s not fair for a child to spend a year and a half
    in prison”, she said, adding that the impact of prolonged
    detention is taking a toll on them. “The psychological effect it
    has on a person, and their kids…we can’t bear it anymore.”

  • At
    age 16,     Michael is
    the oldest child at Berks County. He and his 41-year-old
    mother     Maribel,
    have been held in detention for nearly 17 months. Michael was
    targeted for gang recruitment in El Salvador and threatened with
    death. Following constant threats to the family, both mother and son
    escaped to the U.S. to seek asylum. Michael wants to be a police
    officer now.

All
four children were granted a Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS)
in late 2016. With SIJS, a state court has determined that it is not
in a minor’s best interest to return to his or her home country
because of abuse, abandonment, or neglect by one or both parents. In
this instance it was determined that these children “were
abandoned, abused, or neglected by [their] father[s]…as such,
[their] mother[s] are now the custodial parent, and responsible for
all decision regarding their court proceedings, custody and care.” 


Therefore, it is essential that the mothers and children be released
together. Three of the children have already been issued their
Employment Authorization Document in January 2017, and one is
awaiting his. 


This enables them to apply for a social security
number. All have pending applications for legal permanent residency.
Further, their mothers have stays of removal granted by the
3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, while they challenge their removal
orders in federal court.

Each
of the four families has an unchallenged sponsor in the United
States, who is ready and willing to take them in, and ensure their
appearance in court. Despite this, their SIJ status, and pending
applications for legal permanent residency, ICE officials refuse to
release these four children and their mothers from detention.

Hier de link naar de petitie  Waar u ook de petitiebrief kan lezen. (als u uw gegevens invoert moet u bij State: ‘Outside US‘ aanklikken)

================================

Klik voor meer berichten n.a.v. het bovenstaande, op één van de labels, die u hieronder terug kan vinden.

Sara Hernandez, vluchteling uit El Salvador, nu al 475 dagen in detentie

Posted on by Willem Wachtmeester

Kreeg gisteren een oproep van Amnesty International (VS) om mee te werken een een telefoonactie om Sara Beltran Hernandez vrij te krijgen.

Sara ontvluchtte huiselijk geweld en misdaadbendes in El Salvador, maar op haar vlucht voor haar leven, werd Sara door de VS autoriteiten gevangengezet, i.p.v. dat haar asiel werd verleend……. Ze zit nu al 475 dagen in detentie en heeft dringend medische hulp nodig, die haar deels wordt ontzegd………

Let wel: Sara werd opgesloten onder het bewind van Obama, ‘de mensenrechten respecterende vredesduif…’ (voor de niet regelmatige bezoeker: dit is uiterst sarcastisch bedoeld)

Leve de beschaving anno 2017!!

Hier het verhaal van AI en de manier waarop u (eventueel) kan helpen:

Free
Sara, A Young Mother Jailed by Immigration Officials

You’ve
been hearing about President Trump’s new immigration policies in
the U.S. – and today I’m writing to ask for your urgent help on
behalf of Sara Beltran Hernandez, a 26-year-old mother of two from El
Salvador who is fighting for her freedom.

Back in El
Salvador, Sara suffered serious physical and psychological domestic
violence, including sexual abuse. Sara also received death threats
from a gang leader and gang members who are believed to have killed
people in the past.

“I
knew [the gang leader] would not stop until she killed me.” —Sara
Beltran Hernandez

Sara
fled this violence and abuse and sought asylum in the U.S. Instead of
treating her with compassion and considering her claim, U.S.
immigration authorities imprisoned Sara in a detention facility in
Texas, where she’s been held for 15 months.

URGENT:
Call U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement now to demand that Sara
be released.

                  

 Sara has been in a U.S. jail since she arrived 475 days ago. After she collapsed in jail earlier this month, Sara was transferred to a hospital, where she says a doctor told her she had a brain tumor. For several days, Sara’s lawyer and family were denied access to Sara or information about her condition, including medical records. Sara has now been transferred back to a detention center.

As President Trump’s aggressive immigration orders begin to be implemented, we must do everything we can to ensure protection for people fleeing violence, like Sara. We are working to ensure that people with asylum claims are given a fair hearing and are not treated like criminals while their cases are processed.

Help Sara now: she must be released and given the treatment she needs.

Thank you for taking action,

Margaret Huang

Executive Director

Amnesty International USA

=========================


Hier de tekst die bij de telefoonactie vermeld staat. Als u zich geroepen voelt, bel dan met de autoriteiten en vraag om haar onmiddellijke vrijlating. Onderaan vindt u een voorbeeld gesprek en daarboven wordt uitgelegd wat u moet doen:

Sara
Beltran Hernandez is a 26-year-old mother of two from El Salvador who
is fighting for her freedom.

According
to her affidavit in support of her claim for asylum, back in El
Salvador, Sara suffered serious physical and psychological domestic
violence, and was sexually abused. Sara also received death threats
from a gang leader and gang members who are believed to have killed
people in the past.

Fearing
for all their lives and unable to turn to the police, Sara fled to
the U.S. to seek asylum with her family.

Sara
has been detained in U.S. jails since she arrived 15 months ago. Sara
is suffering from a serious medical condition which requires
immediate medical attention.

As
President Trump’s aggressive immigration orders continue, we will
fight to ensure that people with asylum claims are given a fair
hearing, and that they are not treated like criminals while their
cases are processed. We must do everything we can to ensure
protection for people fleeing violence, like Sara.

It
only takes 5 minutes to help — we must call on the authorities to
release Sara to get urgent medical care she needs. Here’s how:

  • Enter
    your number in the box below    ,
    and you will be connected to I.C.E.

  • Urge
    them to release Sara for parole on humanitarian grounds     —
    you can follow our suggested script below.

  • Once
    connected press 2     to
    be connected to the Detention Duty Office

Phone
Number:  

Below
is a suggested script:


Hello, I am calling with Amnesty International USA on behalf of Sara Beltran Hernandez, A#: 208-548-384. I am calling to demand that Sara is immediately released on parole, pending the resolution of her asylum claim. Sara fled El Salvador seeking asylum and protection from life-threatening gang violence and domestic abuse. Now she has been held in detention for over 475 days and needs medical attention. Please immediately release Sara on parole and ensure that she receives urgently needed medical attention. Thank you.


====================== 

Voor meer berichten n.a.v. het bovenstaande, klik op één van de labels, die u onder dit bericht terug kan vinden, dit geldt niet voor het label ‘S.B. Hernadez’.

Amnesty claimt zonder bewijs 13.000 moorden middels massa executies in ‘gevangenis Assad………’ Deel 2

Posted on by Willem Wachtmeester

Op 13 februari jl. publiceerde ik al een bericht, over de claim van Amnesty International, dat 13.000* mensen in grote hoeveelheden tegelijk werden geëxecuteerd in de Syrische Saydhaya gevangenis. Ik nam toen een artikel over gepubliceerd op Information Clearing House (ICH), geschreven door Moon of Alabama, die uitlegde, dat de hele claim van Amnesty op drijfzand was gebaseerd**.

Vandaag nog een artikel van Moon of Alabama op ICH, over diezelfde claim van Amnesty, die dit keer door de Britse ex-ambassadeur voor Irak, Peter Ford (die de bewuste gevangenis kent), totaal in de grond wordt geboord…….

Hier het artikel, dat als interview door Sputnik werd uitgezonden. Onder het artikel vindt u het hele interview met Ford (25 minuten), let wel, het is geen video, maar een geluidsbestand (van een op de radio uitgezonden interview).

Onder het artikel kan u klikken voor een ‘Dutch vertaling’:

Amnesty
Report on Syrian Prison Deaths Questioned by Ex UK Ambassador to
Syria


Amnesty
International’s latest report on mass extrajudicial killings in Syria
would not stand scrutiny, according to former British ambassador to
Syria, Peter Ford.


February
19, 2017 “Information
Clearing House”
– On February 7, the organization issued an explosive report
titled ‘Human Slaughterhouse, Mass Hangings and Extermination
at Saydhaya prison, Syria,’ alleging that the Syrian authorities
were responsible of killing 13,000 opponents of President
Bashar Assad at the Saydnaya prison on the outskirts
of Damascus.

In
an interview with Sputnik, Ford pointed out that it was
interesting how the report was coincidentally released after the
Syrian city of Aleppo was liberated by the government
forces two months ago, after successful negotiations in Astana
and as it appears that Syria is coming closer to a
political solution for the ongoing war.

“It’s
very strange after this report has been over a year
in gestation — you have to ask, why now?” He
said.

According
to the former Ambassador, there is a number of reasons why
the report puts into question the credibility of the human
rights organisation. Apart from the fact that it was based
on interviews with anonymous witnesses and doesn’t provide
a hint of evidence, those nameless sources were wrong on ‘basic
information’, and that naturally puts to doubt the veracity
of other claims.

The
retired British diplomat had visited Saydnaya numerous times as he
served in Damascus from 2003 to 2006. According
to Ford, the prison was too small to contain ten to twenty
thousand prisoners at one time, contrary to what Amnesty
said in the report.

“Ten
to twenty thousand is a fair-sized town.” He said in an
interview. “The building which I saw at Saydnaya could not
possibly accommodate more than ten percent of those
numbers.”

The
human rights group also quoted its sources as saying that
Saydnaya became the main political prison in 2011, which was
just as false.

Click
for Spanish, German, Dutch, Danish, French,
translation- Note- Translation
may take a moment to load.

* Zo gedegen, dat Amnesty sprak over 5.000 tot 13.000 doden, me dunkt nogal een verschil, ‘maar goed….’



** Zie: ‘Amnesty claimt zonder bewijs 13.000 moorden middels massa executies in ‘gevangenis Assad………‘ (In de kop stond een fout: gevangenissen i.p.v. gevangenis)

Voor meer berichten n.a.v. het bovenstaande, klik op één van de labels, die u onder dit bericht terug kan vinden.

Amnesty claimt zonder bewijs 13.000 moorden middels massa executies in ‘gevangenis Assad………’

Posted on by Willem Wachtmeester

Amnesty International maakte vorige week bekend, dat in de gevangenissen ‘van Assad’ mensen zijn vermoord, middels massa executies. Echter het bewijs voor die zaken ontbreekt…..

Amnesty ontpopt zich de laatste jaren meer en meer als een organisatie, die het uiterst agressieve neokolonialisme van de VS (met de NAVO aan de hand), steunt……. AI is een organisatie die ook op subsidie van overheden draait, dan wel bevolkt wordt door aankomende politici of ex-politici, tja, wiens brood men eet of at………

Waar was AI toen de ‘gematigde’, door het westen gesteunde terreurgroepen tekeer gingen op de straten en in de huizen van de bewoners in Oost-Aleppo?? Een terreur waarvan AI allang de getuigenissen had kunnen optekenen in Oost-Aleppo en de vluchtelingenkampen……..

Afgelopen woensdag op Information Clearing House het volgende artikel over de beschuldigingen van Amnesty International, geschreven door Moon of Alabama (onder het artikel kan u klikken voor een ‘Dutch’ vertaling, dit neemt wel wat tijd in beslag):

Amnesty
Claims Mass Executions In Syria, Provides Zero Proof

By
Moon Of Alabama

February
07, 2017 “Information
Clearing House”
– “Moon
Of Alabama” -A new Amnesty International report claims
that the Syrian government hanged between 5,000 and 13,000 prisoners
in a military prison in Syria. The evidence for that claim is flimsy,
based on hearsay of anonymous people outside of Syria. The numbers
themselves are extrapolations that no scientist or court would ever
accept. It is tabloid reporting and fiction style writing from its
title “Human Slaughterhouse” down to the last paragraph.

But
the Amnesty report is still not propagandish enough for the
anti-Syrian media. Inevitably only the highest number in the range
Amnesty claims is quoted. For some even that is not yet enough. The
Associate Press agency, copied by many outlets, headlines: Report:
At least 13,000 hanged in Syrian prison since 2011:

BEIRUT
(AP) — Syrian authorities have killed at least 13,000 people since
the start of the 2011 uprising in mass hangings at a prison north of
Damascus known to detainees as “the slaughterhouse,”
Amnesty International said in a report Tuesday.


How
does “at least 13,000” conforms to an already questionable
report which claims “13,000” as the top number of a very
wide range?

Here
is a link
to the report.

Before
we look into some details this from the “Executive Summary”:

From
December 2015 to December 2016, Amnesty International researched the
patterns, sequence and scale of violations carried out at Saydnaya
Military Prison (Saydnaya). In the course of this investigation, the
organization interviewed 31 men who were detained at Saydnaya, four
prison officials or guards who previously worked at Saydnaya, three
former Syrian judges, three doctors who worked at Tishreen Military
Hospital, four Syrian lawyers, 17 international and national experts
on detention in Syria and 22 family members of people who were or
still are detained at Saydnaya.

On the basis of evidence
from people who worked within the prison authorities at Saydnaya and
witness testimony from detainees, Amnesty International estimates
that between 5,000 and 13,000 people were extrajudicially executed at
Saydnaya between September 2011 and December 2015.


There
are several difficulties with
this report.


1.           Most of the witnesses are identified as opposition figures and “former” officials who do not live in Syria. Some are said to have been remotely interviewed in Syria but it is not clear if those were living in government or insurgent held areas. Page 9:  

The
majority of these interviews took place in person in southern Turkey.
The remaining interviews were conducted by telephone or through other
remote means with interviewees still in Syria, or with individuals
based in Lebanon, Jordan, European countries and the USA.


It
is well known that the Syrian insurgency is financed with several
billion dollars per years from foreign state governments. It runs
sophisticated propaganda operations. These witnesses all seem to have
interests in condemning the Syrian government. Not once is an attempt
made to provide a possibly divergent view. Amnesty found the persons
it questioned by contacting international NGOs like itself and known
foreign financed opposition (propaganda) groups:

These
groups include Urnammu
for Justice and Human Rights, the Syrian Network for Human Rights,
and the Syrian Institute for Justice and Accountability.

2.         The numbers Amnesty provides are in a very wide range. None
are documented in lists or similar exhibits. They are solely based on
hearsay and guesstimates of two witnesses:

People
who worked within the prison authorities at Saydnaya told Amnesty
International that extrajudicial executions related to the crisis in
Syria first began in September 2011. Since that time, the frequency
with which they have been carried out has varied and increased. For
the first four months, it
was usual for between seven and 20 people
to be executed every
10-15 days.
For the following 11 months, between
20 and 50 people were
executed once a week, usually on Monday nights. For the subsequent
six months, groups of between 20 and 50 people were executed once
or twice a week,
usually on Monday and/or Wednesday nights. Witness testimony from
detainees suggests that the executions were conducted at a similar –
or even higher – rate at least until December 2015. Assuming that
the death rate remained the same as the preceding period, Amnesty
International estimates that
between 5,000 and 13,000 people were extrajudicially executed at
Saydnaya between September 2011 and December 2015.

From
“between x and y”, “once or twice a week”,
“suggests” and “assuming” the headline numbers
are simply extrapolated in footnote 40 in a 
back-of-the-envelope calculation; “If A were true then B would
be X”:


These
estimates were based on the following calculations. If between
seven and 20 were killed every 10-15 days from September to December
2011, the total figure would
be between
56 people and 240 people for that period. If between
20 and 50 were killed every week between January and November 2012,
the total figure would
be between
880 and 2,200 for that period. If between
20 and 50 people were killed in 222 execution sessions (assuming the
executions were carried out twice a week twice a month and once a
week once a month) between December 2012 and December 2015, the total
figure would
be between
4,400 and 11,100 for that period. These calculations produce a
minimum figure of 5,336, rounded down to the nearest thousand as
5,000, and 13,540, rounded down to the nearest thousand as 13,000.


3.         I will not go into the details of witness statements on which
the report is build. They seem at least exaggerated and are not
verifiable at all. In the end it is pure hearsay on which Amnesty
sets it conclusions. One example from page 25:

“Hamid”,
a former military officer when he was arrested in 2012, recalled the
sounds he heard at night during an execution:
“There was a
sound of something
being pulled out –
like a piece of wood, I’m
not sure –
and then you would hear the sound of them being strangled… If
you put your ears on the floor, you could hear the sound of a kind of
gurgling. This
would last around 10 minutes… We were sleeping on top of the sound
of people choking to death. This was normal for me then.”

A
court might accept ‘sound of “I’m not sure” “kind of
gurgling” noise through concrete’ as proof that a shower was
running somewhere. But as proof of executions?


Of
all the witnesses Amnesty says it interviewed only two, a former
prison official and a former judge, who describe actual executions
(page 25). From the wording of their statements it is unclear if they
have witnessed any hangings themselves or just describe something
they have been told of.

4.       The
numbers of people Amnesty claims were executed are – at best – a
wild ass guess. How come that Amnesty can name only very few of
those? On page 30 of its report it says:


Former
detainees from the red building at Saydnaya provided Amnesty
International with the names of 59 individuals who they witnessed
being taken from their cells in the afternoon, being told
that they were being transferred to civilian prisons in
Syria. The evidence contained in this report strongly suggests that
in fact, these individuals were extrajudicially executed.


and:

Former
prison guards and a former prison official from Saydnaya also
provided Amnesty International with the names of 36 detainees who had
been extrajudicially executed in Saydnaya since 2011.


Those
95, some of whom may have been “executed” – or not, are the
only ones Amnesty claims to be able to name. That is less than 1-2%
of the reports central claim of 5,000 to 13,000 executed. All those
witnesses could provide no more details of persons allegedly killed?

Amnesty
acknowledges that its numbers are bogus. Under the headline
“Documented Deaths” on page 40 it then adds additional
names and numbers to those above but these are not from executions:

the
exact number of deaths in Saydnaya is impossible to specify.
However, the Syrian Network for Human Rights has verified and shared
with Amnesty International the names of 375 individuals who have died
in Saydnaya as
a result of torture and other ill-treatment between
March 2011 and October 2016. Of these, 317 were civilians at the time
of their arrest, 39 were members of the Syrian military and 19 were
members of non-state armed groups. In the course of the research for
this report, Amnesty International obtained the names of 36
additional individuals who died as a result of torture and other
ill-treatment in Saydnaya. These names were provided to Amnesty
International by former detainees who witnessed the deaths in their
cells


The
“Syrian Network for Human Rights” (SNHR)
is a group in the UK probably connected to British foreign
intelligence and with dubious monetary sources. It only says:

SNHR
funds its work and activities through unconditional grants and
donations from individuals and institutions.


Now
that is true transparency.

SNHR
is known for
rather ridiculous claims about casualties caused by various sides of
the conflict. It is not know what SNHR qualifies as civilians – do
these include armed civil militia? But note that none of the mostly
civilians SNHR claims to have died in the prison are said to have
been executed. How is it possible that a organization
frequently quoted in
the media as detailed source of casualties in Syria has no record of
the 5,000 to 13,000 Amnesty claims were executed?

5.        The
report is padded up with before/after satellite pictures of enlarged
graveyards in Syria. It claims that these expansions are a sign of
mass graves of government opponents.  But there is zero
evidence for that. Many people have died in Syria throughout the war
on all sides of the conflict. The enlargement, for example, of the
Martyrs Cemetery south of Damascus (p.29/30) is hardly a sign of
mass killing of anti-government insurgents. Would those be honored
as martyrs by the government side.


6.       The
report talks of “extrajudicially executed”
prisoners but then describes (military) court procedures and a
necessary higher up approval of the judgement. One may not like the
laws that govern the Syrian state but the courts and the procedures
Amnesty describes seem to follow Syrian laws and legal processes.
They are thereby – by definition – not extrajudicial 

7.        In its Executive Summary the Amnesty report says that “Death
sentences are approved by the Grand Mufti of Syria and …”.
But there is no evidence provided of “approval” by the
Grand Mufti in the details of the report. On page 19 it claims,
based on two former prison and court officials:

“The judgement is sent by military post to the Grand Mufti of
Syria and to either the Minister of Defence or the Chief of Staff of
the Army, who are deputized to sign for Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad and who specify the date of the execution”.

It
is very doubtful that the Syrian government would “deputize”
or even inform the Grand Mufti in cases of military or criminal legal
proceedings. Amnesty International may dislike the fact but Syria is
a secular state. The Grand Mufti in Syria is a civil legal authority
for some followers of the Sunni Muslim religion in Syria but he has
no official judiciary role. From the 2010 Swiss dissertation Models
of Religious Freedom: Switzerland, the United States, and
Syria quoted here:

In
Syria a mufti is a legal and religious expert (faqih and ‘alim)
who has
the power to give legally non-binding recommendations (sing.
fatwa, pl. fatawa) in matters of Islamic law. 

…
Queries
which are either sought by a shari‘a judge or private
individuals regard
the personal status laws of the Muslim community only. In
the Arab Republic fatawa are given neither to public authorities nor
to individual civil servants, ..


Neither
the Syrian
constitution nor any Syrian law I can find refers to a role
of the Grand Mufti in any military or civil criminal court proceding.
The Amnesty claim “approved by the Grand Mufti of Syria”is
not recorded anywhere else. It is very likely false. The Grand Mufti,
Sheikh Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun, is a
moderate, recognized and
accomplished scholar. He should sue Amnesty for this slander.

Syrian
law includes a death penalty for certain severe and violent crimes.
Before 2011 actual executions in Syria were
very rare, most death sentences were commuted. Allegedly the laws
were amended in
late 2011, after the war in Syria had started, to include the death
penalty as possible punishment for directly arming terrorists.

It
is quite likely that the Syrian military and/or civil judiciary hand
out some death penalties against captured foreign and domestic
“rebels” it finds them guilty of very severe crimes. It is
fighting the Islamic State, al Qaeda and other extreme groups well
known for mass murder and other extreme atrocities. It is likely that
some of those sentences are applied. But the Syrian government has
also provided amnesty to ten-thousands of “rebels” who
fought the government but have laid down their arms.

The
claims in the Amnesty report are based on spurious and biased
opposition accounts from outside of the country. The headline numbers
of 5,000 to 13,000 are calculated on the base of unfounded
hypotheticals. The report itself states that only 36 names of
allegedly executed persons are known to Amnesty, less than the number
of “witnesses” Amnesty claims to have interviewed. The high
number of claimed execution together with the very low number of
names is not plausible.

The
report does not even meet the lowest mark of scientific or legal
veracity. It is pure biased propaganda.

Note:
An earlier version of this piece mixed up the Syrian Network for
Human Rights (SNHR) and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
(SOHR). Both are registered in the UK and claim to provide accurate
casualty data from Syria. Only SNHR is referenced in this Amnesty
report.

Syria
carried out mass hangings at military prison: Amnesty International:
The Syrian government has executed up to 13,000 prisoners in mass
hangings and carried out systematic torture at a military jail near
Damascus, rights watchdog Amnesty International said on Tuesday.

Click
for Spanish, German, Dutch, Danish, French,
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===========

Zie ook: ‘Amnesty claimt zonder bewijs 13.000 moorden middels massa executies in ‘gevangenis Assad………’ Deel 2‘


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PS: in de kop stond per abuis ‘gevangenissen’, waar ‘gevangenis’ moet staan, hersteld op 21 februari 2017.

Irak, gekleurde berichtgeving van WDR…….

Posted on by Willem Wachtmeester

WDR 5 meldde gistermiddag rond 13.10 u., dat in Irak het geweld tegen sjiieten is opgelaaid, als reactie op de aanval tegen IS in Mosul……… Als ‘t niet zo triest was, zou je je doodlachen, het laatste jaar is er bij mijn weten, niet een week voorbijgegaan, zonder één of meerdere aanslagen tegen sjiitische doelen in Irak…..

Je kan dus stellen, dat men bij het westers- en regeringsgetrouwe, afhankelijke WDR, is wakker geschrokken uit een comateuze slaap…… Bij de laatste aanslag in Sadr City, een deel van Bagdad, dat voornamelijk wordt bewoond door sjiitische moslims, kwamen 32 mensen om het leven… Dat aantal is blijkbaar genoeg om wel de belangstelling van de westerse afhankelijke media te trekken……. M.a.w.: het geweld tegen de sjiieten in Irak is niet opgelaaid, maar ‘de berichtgeving over dat geweld is opgelaaid’ in het westen…..

Die laatste bomaanslag (als er intussen niet alweer één gepasseerd is) komt overigens slecht uit, daar men net een campagne tegen de sjiieten in Irak was begonnen, een campagne waaraan zelfs Amnesty International meewerkt……..* Na de val van Aleppo, waarbij de door de VS coalitie gesteunde ‘gematigde’ terreurgroepen** werden verslagen, wijst men vanuit de VS en de rest van het westen plotseling met de bloederige vingers naar de sjiieten en Iran als grote agressor……..

Dit terwijl de terreur ten eerste werd veroorzaakt door de illegale oorlog van de VS en gesteund door de rest van het westen, tegen Irak, Libië en Syrië. Ten tweede is deze terreur voornamelijk gericht tegen sjiieten en andere geloven dan de islam, terreur die wordt uitgeoefend door soennitische ‘gematigde’; terroristen (gesteund door de VS, Saoedi-Arabië, Turkije, Egypte en de kleine Arabische golfstaten; allen soennitisch….)…… De op één na grootste fascistische terreurstaat in het Midden-Oosten, Saoedi-Arabië (Israël staat al decennia onbetwist op de eerste plaats) is zelf een in feite illegale oorlog tegen Jemen begonnen***.

Door die oorlog lijden nu 2 miljoen kinderen honger in dat land, komen er maar mondjesmaat hulpgoederen het land in, daar Saoedi-Arabië en de VS de kust van Jemen in de gaten houden en elk schip tegenhoudt dat hen niet aanstaat……. Voorts zijn de wegen over land door de Saoedische terreurcoalitie geblokkeerd…… Het (terecht) opstandige deel van de Jemenieten is sjiitisch, vandaar……

Over Aleppo liep men in het westen, op basis van leugens, te schreeuwen tegen Syrië en Rusland, maar dat Saoedi-Arabië met steun van het westen al meer dan 10.000 Jemenieten**** (waaronder veel vrouwen en kinderen…) heeft vermoord en waar 2 miljoen kinderen de hongerdood sterven (als er niet snel wat gebeurt), schijnt men normaal en niet nieuwswaardig te vinden………

De wraak na Aleppo: Rusland en Iran zo zwart maken in de pers, dat de misleidde westerse bevolking niet eens meer opkijkt als de VS met de NAVO aan de hand de oorlog zal verklaren aan Rusland en/of Iran………….

* Zie: ‘Amnesty beschuldigt sjiitische milities in Irak van oorlogsmisdaden……….‘

** Terreurgroepen die de VS wanhopig, maar tevergeefs probeert te zuiveren, door nieuwe namen aan die groepen van psychopathische moordenaars en verkrachters te geven……

*** Saoedi-Arabië verleende de zelf opgestapte ex-president van Jemen onderdak en men zette hem onder druk, aanspraak te blijven maken op zijn presidentschap, zo kon deze de hulp van Saoedi-Arabië inroepen tegen de opstandige Houthi rebellen. (deze rebellen gooiden pas echt hun kont tegen de krib, toen sjiieten in Jemen werden aangevallen door Al-Qaida en IS, die in Jemen onderdak kregen van deze voormalige president……)

**** Volgens de VN 10.000 Jemenitische slachtoffers. De VN is altijd voorzichtig met dit soort cijfers, te vrezen valt dan ook, dat het werkelijk aantal slachtoffers veel hoger ligt…….

Zie ook: ‘Mosul, een verslag van Hans Jaap Melissen (uiteraard ’embedded’ en in kevlar!) buiten die stad…..‘

        en: ‘Fallujah en Aleppo, twee belegerde steden, een opvallend verschil in berichtgeving door de reguliere media……… ‘

        en: ‘RT, waarom de heersende macht en de massamedia dit media orgaan vrezen en haten……..‘

        en: ‘Russische troepen hebben massagraven in Oost-Aleppo gevonden………‘

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