Liberal Anti-Drone-Policy activists ask legal accountability — but Obama and Congress could not care less

Rights Groups, in Letter to Obama, Question Legality and Secrecy of Drone Killings

[Yahya Arhab/European Pressphoto Agency — A drone model burned Friday at a protest in Sana, Yemen. Most American drone attacks have been in Yemen and Pakistan.]

By SCOTT SHANE, New York Times, April 12, 2013

In a letter sent to President Obama this week, the nation’s leading human rights organizations questioned the legal basis for targeted killing and called for an end to the secrecy surrounding the use of drones.

The “statement of shared concern” said the administration should “publicly disclose key targeted killing standards and criteria; ensure that U.S. lethal force operations abroad comply with international law; enable meaningful Congressional oversight and judicial review; and ensure effective investigations, tracking and response to civilian harm.”

The nine-page letter, signed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch, the Open Society Foundations and several other groups, is the most significant critique to date by advocacy groups of what has become the centerpiece of the United States’ counterterrorism efforts.

While not directly calling the strikes illegal under international law, the letter lists what it calls troubling reports of the criteria used by the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations Command to select targets and assess results. The reported policies raise “serious questions about whether the U.S. is operating in accordance with international law,” the letter says. It is also signed by the Center for Civilians in Conflict and units of the New York University and Columbia Law Schools.

The US War on Iraq: a Criminal Enterprise — But Where Will Justice be Found?

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

A decade after the US attempt to “shock and awe” humanity and usher in its new “American century” more than a million Iraqis are dead, and trillions of dollars have been squandered, while the high ranking architects and enablers of these monstrous crimes are still riding high…

War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity: The story of U.S. Exceptionalism in Iraq

by Ajamu Baraka, in Black Agenda Report

This month marks the tenth anniversary of the U.S. attack on Iraq, one of the most egregious expressions of naked power and imperial ambition since the Second World War. The attack defied both an outraged world opinion — expressed by global mass demonstrations — and the United Nations charter. It also marked a change from the previous veiled decorum of supposed adherence to international law that defined post-war international relations. The Bush administration, armed with the ultimate expression of the arrogance of U.S. exceptionalism – legislation passed by the U.S. Congress – unleashed a murderous assault on the people of Iraq dubbed “Operation Shock and Awe.”

Ten years later, the awesome consequences of that criminal assault are clear. More than a trillion dollars spent, almost five thousand American lives lost, more than 32,000 Americans wounded, estimates of a million dead Iraqis and almost five million displaced, an epidemic of Iraqi birth defects from “depleted” uranium, daily bombings, devastated public services and the dismemberment of the country. Yet, ten years later, no one, not one government official, has been held accountable. The obvious question is: how is it that, in light of one of the most heinous crimes ever committed by a State, there have been no investigations, prosecutions or convictions of the officials responsible for this assault?

The lack of accountability is even more incomprehensible in light of the fact that it is now widely acknowledged that the real reason for the Western invasion of Iraq had little to do with its concern about weapons of mass destruction and everything to do with its desire to steal Iraq’s oil.

Annoyed Nepal Maoist Chief Prachanda curses Students

[Telegraph Nepal is a bourgeois newspaper in Nepal which never has supported the revolutionary struggle of the people in its coverage of events.  They have a history of delighting in, and some would say inventing, difficulties in the people’s struggles and especially among the Maoists.  Nevertheless, this article reveals a lot about the brittle relationship that has developed between those revisionist “Maoists” such as Prachanda (who have led the abandonment of the revolutionary people’s war), on the one hand, and the revolutionary masses (including students) on the other. — Frontlines ed.]

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Telegraph Nepal

The so-called peoples’ leader cum Chairman of Unified Maoists’ Party Pushpa Kamal Dahal alias ‘Prachanda’ must have woken up from the deep slumber when the students belonging to various political outfits at a program held in Kirtipur, December 12, 2011, hooted and cried foul at him when he was delivering his speech. There were also some Maoists’ students who hooted at Prachanda. This indicates the rising awareness level among the students too. But, Dahal unfortunately had something else in his mind.

Dahal who turned 58 on the same day became so annoyed that he even cursed the students who were howling at him. Happy birthday Mr. Dahal.

“I wish you too become a leader like Prachanda in the future and feel the pain through which I am undergoing now,” said a pained Dahal and added, “It is up to you to take it as a curse or a blessing.”

Who would have thought such an unfortunate day would eventually come in Dahal’s political career?

“I can see that there is the clear trend to blame the leaders for all the faults,” Dahal lamented.

The students replied, “Yes it is true…ho… ho… ho… (Leaders are to be blamed).”

He continued, “It is not that a leader gives birth to the common men, in fact it is the common men who give birth to a leader. It is time that people as well see their face in the mirror.”

The peoples’ leader took the courage to blame the people instead.

“Blaming the leader will provide no solution. Unless awareness among the people attains a new level we will reach nowhere,” he said and added, “There will be no political stability.”

Perhaps it was for the first time that ferocious of the not so distant past was insulted in such an ignominious manner.