Are we executing Iraqis? (Link to UN Observer report)

Mods, this is a dupe of my LBN post. It's so astounding though I wanted as many people to see it as possible because of the potential importance of the story. If my posting it here is in error or against DU policy, accept my apologies.

http://www.unobserver.com/layout5.php?id=1240&blz=1

December 3rd
Killings in Ramadi

Two days before the end of Ramadan, just as they were about to break their fast, the family was interrupted by two groups of US troops from the 82nd Airborne Division bursting into the house, from opposite sides. The family dived for cover and the troops fired on each other, killing three of their own. They then separated the women and girls, putting them in an outside kitchen building of the home near Ramadi.

Three men, brothers Ibrahim and Sabah Odai and their cousin, were taken outside the house, forced face down in the mud and shot dead.

The next day the military returned to the village bringing papers with them. They were sorry but they had raided the wrong house, acting on false information. Claims for compensation for any damage suffered could be submitted, along with proof of fault, photographs of damage, medical reports, death certificates, details of the amount of money claimed, and so on, to the nearest office. The women of the village were in mourning, in black, indoors, the widow and children of one man, the mother of the two brothers, a little girl with a dressing covering a shrapnel wound on her face, a young woman with her arm heavily bandaged. The house was more or less destroyed. A white car was a strainer of bullet holes. There were bloodstains on the ground where the men were executed.

I'm passing on information from an independent journalist friend. I've seen the photos but I haven't yet been able to go and take statements from the people. Ibrahim was a human rights lawyer and today there was due to be a demonstration by other lawyers in Ramadi. It hasn't been much in the news though and I thought it was too important to wait till I get to see them. I'll give you more details when I do.
<snip>
Bold and italics by me.


On edit: This is from The UN Observer at this link: http://www.unobserver.com/

:kick: And apologies for kicking my own thread. I'll only do it once.

I object to the use of the term "we." I am not killing Iraqis; the soldiers are.

Yesterday Keith Olbermann (I usually don't watch him because he has too much tabloid-ish stuff) exposed how most of the people killed in that firefight with "them terrist A-rabs" were civilians. I personally know someone whose cousin is in the US Marine Corps and hopes to get sent to Iraq to "pump some Arabs full of bullets." I am not kidding. These soldiers don't deserve our respect; they're a bunch of inhumane brutes. Even the Wehrmacht was more valiant.

:toast:

and now we're going to help form Para-military just for that purpose. :(

but US troops are capable of atrocities. and just because it hasn't reached the mainstream press doesn't mean US troops haven't already performed act of brutality against iraqi and afghani civilians.

I saw a photo of one petting a kitten!

"anti Calley Rally" after Mai Lai came to light.

and it's not getting any better.

They are glorious avatars of goodness and light, and could do nothing but bring joy and whimsy to the world... shame on those spitting DUers that like nothing better than to holler "baby killer" at our wonderful troops... they ALWAYS have perfect judgment and perfect posture.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2908991.stm



Jo Wilding, from Norton in Worcestershire, and a friend were told to leave Iraq on Monday so they fled to the relative safety of Jordan.

The part-time student, who is studying at the University of the West of England in Bristol, managed to get the last flight of the day from Jordan, which is currently served by only one airline.

Miss Wilding arrived in Baghdad in February as part of a human rights campaign to record civilian deaths and injuries during the military bombing campaign.

Her mother, Anne, who lives in Norton, has had little contact with her since then, except by sporadic email.
<snip>

Sanctions on Iraq

http://www.eclipsereview.org/issue13/lawstudent.htm

by Eric Herring
University of Bristol


In October 2001, Jo Wilding, now a part-time law student at the University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol, took pencils, medical supplies and textbooks to Iraq and returned from Iraq with dates, fig jam, date syrup, musical instruments and a few Iraqi dinars in order to raise funds for further humanitarian supplies. The export of such supplies to Iraq is not banned, as humanitarian goods are formally exempt from the sanctions. Importation from Iraq (other than of oil sold via the UN Oil For Food programme in which the UN controls any financial proceeds) of any goods is banned under the sanctions. Wilding did not apply for an export licence to Iraq and she did not declare the Iraqi goods to Customs and Excise until after she had sold many of them. She invited Customs and Exercise to prosecute her in a civil action, which it did, demanding that the courts permit them to dispose of the goods they had seized. The case came to court in Bristol on 2 December 2002 and I, along with more than fifty supporters of Wilding, attended. Wilding chose to defend herself. The Crown solicitor, Sutherland-Williams, was accompanied by a Customs and Excise officer and the Customs and Excise press officer.

The essence of the Crown’s legal case was that she admitted that she had acted contrary to the Statutory Instruments requiring her to have a licence and to not import the goods; that the issue of human rights was not relevant; and that the magistrate was therefore required to grant the request of Customs and Excise. Sutherland-Williams pointed out that if she had applied to the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) for a licence, it may have been granted, but she did not try to obtain one. The essence of Wilding’s legal case was that the relevant Statutory Instruments are secondary legislation which contravened two pieces of primary UK legislation, namely, the Genocide Act and the Geneva Conventions Act. This meant that the Statutory Instruments were ultra vires and had no legal effect. She therefore demanded the return of her goods. She did not apply for a licence because the issue at stake was not whether she could take those particular items to Iraq. Her argument was that the licensing system within the sanctions as a whole had operated in a way that failed to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Iraq and therefore it was in contravention of the Genocide Act and Geneva Conventions Act. In support of her position, she provided a document which she had written which quoted extensively from a variety of sources, including UN documents.

Of course, the law is political, and the politics surfaced quickly. Sutherland-Williams took the position that this was a straightforward case in which the only matter before the court was whether or not Wilding had breached the Statutory Instruments, she admitted she had, and so the court was bound to find in favour of the Crown. However, he spent a great deal of time sneering at Wilding (‘she should summarise her main points if she has any’, ‘any law student could come up with a similar argument by copying it from a textbook’, her submission is ‘riddled with quotes some of which may be taken completely out of context’). He said that ‘We are not here to address political issues’ then immediately added ‘maybe what is happening in Iraq is the responsibility of the regime’. He also managed to find four opportunities to refer to the fact that she was of no fixed abode and living in a variety of squats. The relevance of this to the Statutory Instruments is not obvious: its relevance to the notion that she was not a fit person is. When Wilding began her rebuttal on the basis of her supporting document, he interrupted ‘We’ve read it – do you have anything new to add?’. He initially suggested that Wilding should be restricted to saying things which were not in her documents and then proposed to the magistrate that Wilding should be restricted to offering a summary. This despite the fact that in presenting his case he provided nothing new in addition to his documentation: he read out detail at great length, including information about who she travelled to Iraq with, what route she took, how much her ticket cost, and who drove her from Amman to Baghdad.
<snip>

You aren't kidding. The more I find out about her, the more impressed I am. She's a dynamo for the priciples so many of us share here at DU.

O'Hanlon BI senior fellow was on WJ this morning and stated that "1,000 Sadam loyalists have been killed a month" and is happening daily raids on iraqis homes rooting out saddam loyalists"

executed

claim that many enemy kills. What a shame. What a sham.

from the Dec 1 entry called Faroukh
http://www.wildfirejo.org.uk/

Thabat checked down a list: "This is cluster bombs, this is cluster bombs, this is cluster bombs, but you know, there are no cluster bombs. They will not come and clean them up."

A doctor was standing outside his home waiting for a taxi when he was shot dead by American troops. "There were thieves nearby and they ran away. The soldiers chased them in the vehicle and they were firing, firing, everywhere, and they killed him. And they pay nothing. They say he was in the wrong place. If they shot him in his house they would say he was in the wrong place."

On November 8th a man was waiting in the bus station when soldiers came and began searching people. He reported to the group that they stole 160,000 Iraqi Dinar from him - about $80. He didn't see the face or rank of the soldiers responsible because they'd covered his head with a bag. They didn't give him any paper stating that the confiscation had been made, nor the value, nor the reason. This happens a lot, according to Thabat's list of cases, in people's homes as well as on the street.

Thabat said that in only one of all the cases reported to the group had the victim been given a paper stating what had happened but, he said, the paper was worthless. It didn't bring anything from the CPA or CMOC (Civilian Military Operations Centre). In not a single case that has been reported to him has any compensation been paid or any action been taken against the perpetrators.
http://www.wildfirejo.org.uk/feature/display/43/index.php

Frightening scenes that probably won't be picked up by American media until after Bush is out of office.

*sigh*