Complaint Filed Against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al

(source: Information Clearing House)

Professor Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign, U.S.A. has filed a Complaint with the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (I.C.C.) in The Hague against U.S. citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice, and Alberto Gonzales (the “Accused”) for their criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition” perpetrated upon about 100 human beings. This term is really their euphemism for the enforced disappearance of persons and their consequent torture. This criminal policy and practice by the Accused constitute Crimes against Humanity in violation of the Rome Statute establishing the I.C.C.

The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute. Nevertheless the Accused have ordered and been responsible for the commission of I.C.C. statutory crimes within the respective territories of many I.C.C. member states, including several in Europe. Consequently, the I.C.C. has jurisdiction to prosecute the Accused for their I.C.C. statutory crimes under Rome Statute article 12(2)(a) that affords the I.C.C. jurisdiction to prosecute for I.C.C. statutory crimes committed in I.C.C. member states.

By Firoz Osman

(source: Th Star - January 21, 2010 Edition 1)

The advent of 2010 heralds for South Africa the Soccer World Cup, and the associated anxieties that the world’s greatest sports event must proceed without incident.  The SA Football Association (SAFA) has convincingly dispatched the pessimists and cynics who questioned South Africa’s capabilities of hosting the World Cup, but other detractors have emerged from the woodwork.

Self-proclaimed “terror and security experts”, among them one Hussein Solomon, warned, citing faceless and dubious “intelligence” sources, that Al-Qaeda, harboured by the SA Muslim community, “of a terror plot targeting US interests in South Africa.” (Togo terror: taste of more to come? 14.01.2010).

(source: AntiWar.com)

A report released by the United Nations last year says that Israeli settlers, angered over the destruction of Jewish outposts, could exact revenge on up to a quarter million Palestinians in the West Bank.

It’s not just vague speculation. The report, issued by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Occupied Palestinian Territory, names 22 specific Palestinian communities, with a total population of 75,900, that are “highly vulnerable” to revenge attacks, and another 59, with about 175,000 residents, that are “moderately vulnerable.” It also names numerous road segments and junctions where Palestinians are especially at risk.

The people who wrote this report have obviously been there, observed carefully, and know what they are talking about.

(source: NewYork Times)

Prof. Tariq Ramadaan

LONDON — Six years after using the Patriot Act to revoke the visa of a prominent Muslim academic, the United States State Department reversed itself and said Wednesday that it would no longer bar the scholar from entering the United States.

The decision came in the form of an order signed by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. It paves the way for the scholar, Prof. Tariq Ramadan, to apply for a new visa free of the authorities’ former accusation that he had contributed money to a charity connected to terrorism.

“I am very happy and hopeful that I will be able to visit the United States very soon and to once again engage in an open, critical and constructive dialogue with American scholars and intellectuals,” Professor Ramadan said in a statement.

Arab media experts are meeting in Cairo today to discuss the 8 December US Congress decision to penalize Arab satellites which allow the transmission of channels that Washington considers hostile. The Arab delegates are not expected to oppose the US stance however, because the majority of Arab governments do not disagree with it, and even support it, particularly as the targeted channels like "Al-Manar", "Al-Alam", "Al-Hiwar", "Al-Rafidayn", "Al-Aqsa", and to a lesser degree "Al-Jazeera" are unacceptable to these governments.

The Arab League's experts are the last ones with the right to talk about the freedom of the Arab media or confront such an unfair American decision that muzzles freedoms because the League and its countries' affiliated Arab information ministers council was the one which adopted the "satellite channels document" in February 2008 under the name of the "Arab media honour charter" whose application led to the closure of several channels and prevented others from transmitting on the satellites "NileSat" satellite and "ArabSat".