Still further evidence of mass kidnappings of peace activists

Publishing this report during the Gaza war rather than many months later might have left Amnesty International with the semblance of impartiality.

image

According to UN data, more than 4,800 rockets and 1,700 mortars were fired from Gaza towards Israel between 8 July and 26 August. Around 224 projectiles are believed to have struck Israeli residential areas.

It does not take months to work out that rockets and mortars fired at civilian areas with the deliberate intention of killing civilians and terrorising the Israeli population are in contravention of the international rules of war. The sound of air raid sirens and civilian casualties in Israel should have been sufficient evidence for an immediate report by Amnesty International last year.

The only explanation as to why peace activists aren’t out in the street today protesting against Hamas for these war crimes and calling for International Criminal Court indictments and citizen’s arrests is mass kidnappings. The only explanation as to why peace activists aren’t out in the street today protesting against Hamas for these war crimes and calling for International Criminal Court indictments and citizen’s arrests is mass kidnappings.

The only explanation as to why peace activists aren’t out in the street today protesting against Hamas for these war crimes and calling for International Criminal Court indictments and citizen’s arrests is mass kidnappings. The only explanation as to why peace activists aren’t out in the street today protesting against Hamas for these war crimes and calling for International Criminal Court indictments and citizen’s arrests is mass kidnappings.

There is no other charitable explanation as to why they are not on the streets today in solidarity, for example, with the above 2009 peace demonstration in London. The 2014 Gaza conflict left a total of at least 2,189 Palestinians dead, including more than 1,486 civilians, according to the UN. On the Israeli side, 67 soldiers were killed along with the six civilians.

via Amnesty International accuses militants in Gaza of war crimes in 2014 conflict | World news | The Guardian.

The war crimes of Hamas

https://twitter.com/YiddishZionist/status/577287759691427840

Image

Cease-fires and peace talks make it worse

HT: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2014/02/cease_fires_and_peace_talks_make_it_worse_international_community_needs.html

Danish fishermen ferry Jews to safety in neutral Sweden during Nazi round-up, 1943

On September 28, 1943, Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz, a German diplomat, secretly informed the Danish resistance that the Nazis were planning to deport the Danish Jews.

The Danes responded quickly, organizing a nationwide effort to smuggle the Jews by sea to neutral Sweden.

With the help of the Danish people, Jews found hiding places in homes, hospitals, and churches.

Within a two-week period fishermen helped ferry 7,220 Danish Jews and 680 non-Jewish family members to safety across the narrow body of water separating Denmark from Sweden.

HT: Jewish Virtual Library

70 Years Later, We’re Still Trying To Learn Who Died In The Holocaust | FiveThirtyEight

bialik-datalab-holocaust

Notice how few were victims of the Holocaust in Denmark. Denmark was the only occupied country that actively resisted the Nazi regime’s attempts to deport its Jewish citizens.

via 70 Years Later, We’re Still Trying To Learn Who Died In The Holocaust | FiveThirtyEight.

Widespread concerns about extremism in Muslim nations, and little support for it | Pew Research Center

Concerns About Extremism in Middle East

After Amman Bombings, Jordanians Rejected bin Laden, Suicide Attacks

HT: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/02/05/extremism-in-muslim-nations/

Image

Foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq

https://twitter.com/123InfoGraphics/status/562535985205231617

Image

The BBC Flew a Drone Over Auschwitz

HT: http://m.mic.com/articles/109222/the-bbc-flew-a-drone-over-auschwitz-and-the-result-is-haunting

Telegraph revealed Nazi gas chambers three years before liberation of Auschwitz

via Holocaust Memorial Day: Telegraph revealed Nazi gas chambers three years before liberation of Auschwitz – Telegraph.

Auschwitz liberated today 70 years ago

Image

Yoo: The Feinstein Report Cannot Deny a Clear Record of Success

The torture report’s one glaring weakness – The Washington Post

A more honest report would have squarely faced the arguments made by former CIA officials that key members of Congress were informed about interrogation practices and, far from objecting, condoned the very CIA activities we now judge to have been wrong.

“There’s great hypocrisy in politicians’ criticism of the CIA’s interrogation program,” wrote Jose Rodriguez, the CIA deputy director who oversaw it, in last weekend’s Washington Post.

That allegation deserves a serious response, rather than the stonewall it got from Feinstein.

“The CIA briefed Congress approximately 30 times” on interrogation,according to six former CIA directors or deputy directors in an article Tuesday in the Wall Street Journal. “The briefings were detailed and graphic and drew reactions that ranged from approval to no objection.”

…History (including the latest dark chapter on interrogation) suggests that members are for questionable activities when they’re politically popular, and against them when public opinion shifts.

The renegade Left and the laws of war

The renegade Left is highly selective in its recall of international humanitarian law. On torture, perfect recall, strict construction and may the heavens fall. William Levi in the Yale Law Journal in 2009 argued that

  • except for water-boarding, every interrogation technique authorized by the Bush Administration had been authorized before 9/11 and considered to fall within the legal constraints of the Geneva Conventions.
  • Techniques such as sleep deprivation, and standing as a stress position that were understood at times before 9/11 to be lawful for use on prisoners of war.

When it comes to the reason for being for international humanitarian law, a stout ignorance infects the renegade Left and may innocent civilians be massacred.

The purpose of international humanitarian law is to ensure strict differentiation between civilians and combatants and to provide for the detention and treatment of those captured.

Humane detention to the end of the armed conflict increases both the incentive to give quarter and to surrender when the position is hopeless.

The requirement to carry weapons openly, dress in some sort of uniform etc. is to ensure that the enemy is easy to distinguish from afar so that troops do not get trigger happy around civilians and refugees. This is the fundamental purpose of international humanitarian law: trying to save civilians from the fighting.

The most severe punishments was allowed for spies, saboteurs, infiltrators, francs-tireurs and guerrillas so that not carrying their weapons openly and not dressing in some sort of recognisable uniform etc., was a self-inflected death sentence upon capture. Combatants who do not wear a uniform that is clearly distinguishable at the distance and do not carry their weapons openly are war criminals.

In the Battle of the Bulge, the Nazi infiltrators in American uniforms lost all interest in their missions once the first few who were captured were court-martialled and shot within 24 hours.

The Hostages Trial at Nuremburg dismissed some murder charges against some German commanders because partisan fighters in Southwest Europe could not be considered lawful belligerents under Article 1 of the 1907 Hague convention. The Tribunal stated:

We are obliged to hold that such guerrillas were francs tireurs who, upon capture, could be subjected to the death penalty.

Consequently, no criminal responsibility attaches to the defendant List because of the execution of captured partisans…

Is Drone commander-in-chief’s solution to waterboarding better

Image

Americans Have Grown More Supportive Of Torture | FiveThirtyEight

lyte-datalab-torture-1

lyte-datalab-torture-2

Americans Have Grown More Supportive Of Torture | FiveThirtyEight.

Previous Older Entries Next Newer Entries

David Andolfatto

Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law

Monetary Non-Neutrality

Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law

Reason Magazine

Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law

Coyote Blog

Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law

Thoughts from the North

Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law

Fardels Bear

A History of the Alt-Right

Vincent Geloso

Econ Prof at George Mason University, Economic Historian, Québécois

Bassett, Brash & Hide

Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law

Truth on the Market

Scholarly commentary on law, economics, and more

The Undercover Historian

Beatrice Cherrier's blog

Matua Kahurangi

Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law

Temple of Sociology

Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law

Velvet Glove, Iron Fist

Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law

Why Evolution Is True

Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.

NoTricksZone

Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law

Homepaddock

A rural perspective with a blue tint by Ele Ludemann

Kiwiblog

DPF's Kiwiblog - Fomenting Happy Mischief since 2003

The Dangerous Economist

Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law

Watts Up With That?

The world's most viewed site on global warming and climate change

The Logical Place

Tim Harding's writings on rationality, informal logic and skepticism

Doc's Books

A window into Doc Freiberger's library

The Risk-Monger

Let's examine hard decisions!

Uneasy Money

Commentary on monetary policy in the spirit of R. G. Hawtrey

Barrie Saunders

Thoughts on public policy and the media

Liberty Scott

Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law

Point of Order

Politics and the economy

James Bowden's Blog

A blog (primarily) on Canadian and Commonwealth political history and institutions

Science Matters

Reading between the lines, and underneath the hype.

Peter Winsley

Economics, and such stuff as dreams are made on

A Venerable Puzzle

"The British constitution has always been puzzling, and always will be." --Queen Elizabeth II

The Antiplanner

Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law

Bet On It

Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law

History of Sorts

WORLD WAR II, MUSIC, HISTORY, HOLOCAUST

Roger Pielke Jr.

Undisciplined scholar, recovering academic

Offsetting Behaviour

Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law

JONATHAN TURLEY

Res ipsa loquitur - The thing itself speaks

Conversable Economist

In Hume’s spirit, I will attempt to serve as an ambassador from my world of economics, and help in “finding topics of conversation fit for the entertainment of rational creatures.”

The Victorian Commons

Researching the House of Commons, 1832-1868

The History of Parliament

Articles and research from the History of Parliament Trust

Books & Boots

Reflections on books and art

Legal History Miscellany

Posts on the History of Law, Crime, and Justice

Sex, Drugs and Economics

Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law

European Royal History

Exploring the Monarchs of Europe

Tallbloke's Talkshop

Cutting edge science you can dice with

Marginal REVOLUTION

Small Steps Toward A Much Better World

NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

“We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert”. - J Robert Oppenheimer.