jimstaro's blog

U.S. Opposition to International Criminal Court in 2004-2005 Held Up Peacekeeping, Slowed Justice for Genocide Perpetrators

New Book Analyzes Disconnects Between Save Darfur Movement, U.S. Policy, the United Nations, and Events on the Ground in Sudan

Rebecca Hamilton's "Fighting For Darfur" draws on 150 Interviews, First-hand reporting, and dozens of Freedom of Information releases

Documents provide blistering assessments of policy failure, humanitarian disaster

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 335

Lisa DeJong, The Plain DealerHeather Morris Bowser: "I know there are other Vietnam War veterans' kids like me in America. We need to find each other. We need to break the silence."

January 31, 2011 - Listen to Plain Dealer columnist Connie Schultz and Heather Morris Bowser discuss the legacy of Agent Orange {I have a player below to listen or visit this link} with WCPN FM/90.3's "Sound of Ideas" host Mike McIntyre.

Tucson shooting: Undercover agents expose loophole in US gun laws

Just two weeks after the tragic shooting in Tucson, Arizona, private investigators went to a gun show in Phoenix, Arizona -- one of thousands of such shows that occur across the country every year -- to test two basic questions:

 

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The Cleveland Plain Dealer staff , has published a six part series of reports in the Cleveland Plain Dealer on the still lasting effects of the defoliants we used in our destruction of Vietnam. Reports from Vietnam as well as about the daughter of a brother Vietnam Veteran.

Archive Analyst Kate Doyle Featured in Granito: How to Nail a Dictator

New Film Showcases Spanish Genocide Case, Documents 20 Years of Struggle Against Impunity

January 28, 2011 - A new documentary film about human rights in Guatemala featuring National Security Archive senior analyst Kate Doyle will have its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. The film, Granito: How to Nail a Dictator, will be screened tonight at the Sundance Resort where Kate Doyle, Almudena Bernabeu of the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA), and film makers Pamela Yates and Paco de Onís, will attend the screening and speak to the audience after the film.

 

Blair sister-in-law urges war crimes trial

January 26, 2011 - TONY Blair's sister-in-law Lauren Booth, a rights campaigner and Muslim convert, said the former British leader should be tried for war crimes over the invasion of Iraq.

Booth, the half-sister of Blair's barrister wife Cherie, is in Malaysia for lectures organised by Viva Palestina, a British-based organisation associated with controversial politician George Galloway.

Asked whether Blair should be arrested and sent to the International Court of Justice in The Hague for war crimes, Booth replied: "Absolutely. He misled the British people and took Britain to war on a lie."

Retired Capt USAF, Myles Spicer, USAF 1954-57 retired from reserves, lays out the long over due 'Support' for those we send into occupations theaters and then forget about. The so called (T)'s {oh the fun with the 'purple heart bandages' as the wars raged}, once long ago (R)'s and even conservative, won't like this, they want but don't want to pay for, and not just war, as most of them were the ones that remained silent for over a decade, still ongoing silence, as to Real Support but very loud as to support of the failed policies and related lies and costs.

The impelling case to impose a "war tax"

As well as those about the necessity of leaving Afghanistan, instead of helping them as once again promised, to smolder into a much more dangerous occupation theater and still no bin Laden!

Chilcots got the only show in town, we here don't do accountability for that done in our names, where we can read between the lines to get some of the answers while some are laid out directly by the testimony and released documents.

So why did we invade Iraq?

23/01/2011 - On Tuesday last week in Saddam ­Hussein’s home town in Iraq, a suicide bomber joined a queue of police volunteers and blew ­himself up. Sixty people were killed.

Day of regret, Day of reckoning

The Chilcot Inquiry will help write history's verdict on Tony Blair - and he may not like it

Return to the fray: Tony Blair giving evidence Photo: REUTERS

23rd January 2011 - His government did not, in Alastair Campbell’s words, “do God”. But on Friday the gods, yet again, seemed to do Tony Blair a favour.

The QE2 Conference Centre, venue of the Chilcot Inquiry, was patrolled on three sides by hungry TV crews. The police presence was high. Under no illusions about his public, Mr Blair arrived at dawn, nearly two hours before he was due to testify.

There's a large element within this Country that seems bound and determined to tear apart what this Country is suppose to stand for on the World stage as well as within. They also seem to want to stoke their fears by creating as much hatred towards us, thus enemies of, for a perpetual state of conflict outside of and within our borders. This is our legacy to the coming generations!

In January 2009, President Obama promised a clean break with Bush era detentions. Two years on, only continuity is visible

January 22, 2011 - A leading QC tells Channel 4 there is enough evidence for the International Criminal Court to mount a case against Tony Blair.

Furious families spurn Tony Blair's apology for Iraq War deaths

22/01/2011 - TONY Blair finally apologised for the Iraq War yesterday – and was jeered by furious relatives of British soldiers who lost their lives.

After facing an official inquiry for the second time, the strained-looking ex-PM offered his “deep regrets” for the 179 troops killed in the conflict.

But his remarks sparked emotional scenes in the witness room.

One woman broke down in tears, then stood up and spent the rest of the session with her back turned to Mr Blair.

January 22, 2011 - Tony Blair called for a "gung-ho" approach toward Saddam Hussein's regime, it was revealed yesterday.

The former British prime minister's approach during the days leading up to the invasion of Iraq was revealed in a previously unseen 2002 memo from him to his chief of staff, published by a war inquiry as he made a second appearance before the panel to clarify evidence he gave to it a year ago.

Critics of the war hope the inquiry will conclude Blair had been determined to back the US invasion, whether or not it was supported by the public, parliament or legal opinion.

As Blair addressed the five-member panel scrutinising Britain's role in the unpopular war, activists staged demonstrations against him - holding up signs saying 'Bliar' and 'Blair lied - thousands died'.

Tony Blair dug his own hole at the Chilcot inquiry

In his final opportunity to present his case against the mounting evidence, Tony Blair put his foot firmly in his mouth

Tony Blair leaves after giving evidence for the second time to the Chilcot inquiry. Photograph: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters

21 January 2011 - Tony Blair came to the Iraq inquiry with last year's game plan. Answer questions on his terms. Talk about the big picture, keep it subjective and off the specifics. He may think he did this well. Until he put his foot in his mouth.

Relatives of Pakistani Drone Victims to Sue CIA

{dpa} A Jan. 5 demonstration in Peshawar against US drone attacks: A group of victims' relatives is suing the US government and the CIA.

01/21/2011 - Almost every day, people in the Pakistani region of Waziristan are killed or seriously injured by drone attacks carried out by the CIA. Now a group of victims' relatives is standing up to Washington -- by suing the US government.

Military Families’ Emotional State Showing Signs of Strain

Research highlights opportunities for improved and targeted support

Tony Blair returns to Chilcot inquiry amid protests

Demonstrators protest against the former prime minster at his second appearance before the Iraq inquiry

21 January 2011 - A month before the Iraq war began a million people marched through London. This morning, almost eight years later, barely 100 activists mustered outside the conference centre opposite Westminster Abbey as Tony Blair returned to the Chilcot inquiry for perhaps his last official involvement in the conflict's aftermath.

Ya Right!!! You buy that maybe you'd be interested in some great farm land smack dab in the heart of the desert miles from water, I got for sale {not}! Or that a certain hockey puck knows whats she's talking about.

Advisers 'regret' not warning Tony Blair enough about dangers of invading Iraq

Evidence to Chilcot inquiry reveals concerns by senior ministerial advisers over weakness of intelligence and case for war

Sir Stephen Wall, the former head of the cabinet’s European secretariat, told the Chilcot inquiry he regretted not advising Tony Blair to consider more seriously the views of the anti-war French president Jacques Chirac. Photograph: Jacques Brinon/AP

From This Week in History: Peace Buttons

In frigid temperatures, 500,000 converged on Washington, D.C.
There were also joined by many more elsewhere around the world to oppose the threatened U.S. war on Iraq.

This was the largest U.S. peace demonstration since the Vietnam era.

<---Anti-war protesters march past the U.S. Capitol during the start of an anti-war protest that will culminate by a march to the Washington Naval Yard.

Egyptian riot police and anti-war demonstrators face off in Cairo, Egypt. Banners at top read, " Iraq . . . Another war for oil and American supremacy."--->

Iraq Inquiry publishes transcripts from private hearings

17 January 2011 - Today, the Iraq Inquiry has published a number of documents. These include Lord Goldsmith’s witness statement, the transcripts of five private hearings, some correspondence and a number of declassified documents to assist public understanding of these transcripts and the witness statement.

Islamic scholar's experience sheds light on counterterrorism efforts in wake of 9/11 attacks

 

18 January 2011 - Saad Iqbal Madni looks decades older than his 33 years when he shuffles into the room, head down and eyes averted.

There won't be even a whimper out of the press here. Just as there hasn't been for these 20yrs., about "Gulf War Syndrome" or much about the Gulf War, oh wait NBC said they were going to have daddy bush and company on their broadcasts, again though silence on the Veterans of, the Country doesn't want to hear!

Two decades on, battle goes on over 'Gulf War Syndrome'

Veteran Kerry Fuller: "It would have been far better to be killed in action"

Since his deployment to the Gulf ahead of the war, Kerry has suffered recurring ill health

16 January 2011 - Every week, Kerry Fuller counts out his medication into a plastic pill box.

The Pentagon sank to a new low this week in their attempt to sell the Afghanistan War to the American people. At their Martin Luther King, Jr., Day observance, a Pentagon official actually claimed that if King were alive today, he might support the war.

This is simply not true. As shown in our new video, Dr. King could not have been more clear in his 1967 speech denouncing the Vietnam War:

 

Chilcot to grill Blair on how he 'misled' Iraq war inquiry

Panel recalls former PM to answer 'grave doubts' about the veracity of his original evidence

AFP/Getty Images: An Iraq inquiry source said of Blair: 'There is a feeling... he wilfully misrepresented the facts'

16 January 2011 - Tony Blair will face allegations that he has "misled" members of the Iraq inquiry when he returns to give evidence to the panel this week.

This report was aired on the PBS News Hour last night.

AIR DATE: Jan. 14, 2011

Giffords' Staff Keeps Office Open While Coping With Shooting's Aftermath

SUMMARY Members of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' staff have kept her office open, even as the Congresswoman fights to recover from a gunman's attack. Tom Bearden reports from Tucson. Transcript

A couple of cuts from the shows transcript:

And who controls the drug trade, not those street corner sellers nor the ones they work for, it's controlled by wealthy suits around this planet and more lucrative then running corporations or playing craps on wall street!

Jan. 14, 2011 - The government of Afghanistan is fighting a losing battle against drugs because of soaring street prices for heroin and opium derivatives , a minister said.

Mohammed Azhar, deputy minister for counter-narcotics, told The Washington Post despite the 10-year occupation by NATO troops fighting the Muslim extremist Taliban and al-Qaida factions, peasant farmers are still growing poppies to feed the drug market.

 

And this says what about this Country and Society,

Security was tight Friday morning as the hearse entered the church
parking lot and U.S. marshals checked the IDs of everyone entering the
lot. Four big coach buses brought dozens of judges who knew Roll over
the years.

One Hell Of Allot!!

Security tight at funeral for slain Arizona judge

Lawyer for Assange’s Sex Accusers Helped In CIA Torture Rendition

Jan 13, 2011 - Best-selling spy thriller author Thomas Bodström ─ an attorney who represents the two Swedish women making the notorious sex charges against WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange ─ knows better than most people that truth is stranger than fiction.