Russell Tribunal on Palestine
The Russell Tribunal on Palestine (RToP) will be holding its fourth international session in New York City on Saturday, October 6 and Sunday, October 7. It will take place in the Great Hall at Cooper Union located at 7 East 7th Street, New York, NY 10003.
“The West fuels the conflicts in Africa” says McKinney in Court testimony on the deaths in Rwanda and Congo
They aren’t just a profitable venture in their own right – arms exports sometimes constitute a strategy to attain more profitable aims. Cynthia McKinney, former US congresswoman sent to Africa in 1996 to carry out Clinton’s policy in the Great Lakes region, testified on Tuesday at the Audiencia Nacional [National Court of Spain] in the lawsuit initiated by the International Forum for Truth and Justice in Africa of the Great Lakes Region. “I accused his Administration of having acted as accomplices in the war crimes in Congo and instigating a genocide.”
“What my government wanted,” McKinney explained to La Vanguardia “wasn’t in the best interest of the Congolese people: Clinton kept me there because he wanted an African-American whom Kabila trusted. Even though Mobutu was, technically, the President of Congo, it was Kabila who was in charge of granting the mining concessions.”
The ploy, which was denounced by McKinney and the Forum for Truth and Justice, and which . . .
Cynthia Testifies before Judge Baltasar Garzon, Madrid Spain
Congresswoman McKinney is answering a summons to testify before Judge Baltasar Garzon, judge of the Spanish National Court, in his inquiry supporting the prosecution of the 'architects of the Iraq invasion'. Judge Garzon is calling for President Bush and his allies, including former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, to be tried for war crimes over their invasion of Iraq. Baltasar Garzon made the accusation on the anniversary of the beginning of the war saying that "Breaking every international law, and under the pretext of the war against terror, there has taken place since 2003 a devastating attack on the rule of law and against the very essence of the international community."
NYT: U.S. Releases Cuban Bombing Suspect
A 79-year-old anti-Castro Cuban exile and former C.I.A. operative linked to the bombing of a Cuban airliner was released on bail yesterday and immediately returned to Miami to await trial on immigration fraud charges.
The man, Luis Posada Carriles, was released from the Otero County Prison in Chaparral, N.M., after posting a $350,000 bond on the immigration charges.
His release infuriated the authorities in Cuba and Venezuela, who have been trying to extradite him to stand trial over the 1976 airliner bombing, which killed 73 people, including several teenage members of Cuba’s national fencing team.
Cuba and Venezuela denounce Posada Carriles' release at the UN
Voices mounting against his impunity. Two more Nobel Prize winners, plus U.S. former Attorney General and Congress member add their signatures*
CUBA and Venezuela have formally denounced before the UN Security Council's Counter-Terrorism Committee the release on bail of terrorist Luis Posada Carriles granted by the U.S. government, EFE reports.
In a letter sent to Committee President Ricardo Alberto Arias, ambassador of Panama, the two countries condemned the "complicity" of the U.S. government in Posada's release and called on the international agency to act on the case in "the shortest time possible."
At the same time, *African-American Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney* and former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark have spoken out against Posada's release and are backing the terrorist's extradition to Venezuela to be tried for his crimes, according to a PL cable.
Spanish Judge calls for architects of Iraq invasion to be tried for war crimes
Baltasar Garzón, the Spanish judge who sought to prosecute Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet, has called for US President George W. Bush and his allies to be tried for war crimes over Iraq.
Writing in El Pais on the fourth anniversary of the invasion, Garzón stated, “Today, March 20, marks four years since the formal start of the war on Iraq. Instigated by the United States and Great Britain, and supported by Spain among other countries, one of the most sordid and unjustifiable episodes in recent human history began.
. . .
He then writes that George W. Bush and his allies should eventually face war crimes charges for their actions in Iraq: “We should look more deeply into the possible criminal responsibility of the people who are, or were, responsible for this war and see whether there is sufficient evidence to make them answer for it.”
“For many it would be merely a question of political responsibility, but judicial actions in the US are beginning to emerge, as is the case of the verdict passed on one of vice-president Cheney’s collaborators, [I. Lewis Libby] which point in a different direction.”
“There is enough of an argument in 650,000 deaths for this investigation and inquiry to start without more delay,” he added.
Time to try Iraq war leaders-Spanish judge Garzon
MADRID, March 20 (Reuters) - The judge who tried to jail Chile's former dictator Augusto Pinochet said on Tuesday it was time to hold U.S. President George W. Bush and his allies to account for waging war in Iraq.
In an opinion piece in the newspaper El Pais, published on the fourth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion, Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon said the war was "one of the most sordid and unjustifiable episodes in recent human history".
"We should look more deeply into the possible criminal responsibility of the people who are, or were, responsible for this war and see whether there is sufficient evidence to make them answer for it," Garzon wrote.
"There is enough of an argument in 650,000 deaths for this investigation and inquiry to start without more delay," he said.
Spain judge says Bush and Iraq war allies should face war crimes charges
On Sunday, ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo [official profile; BBC profile] said President Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair may one day face war crimes charges [JURIST report] before the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website; JURIST news archive] at The Hague. Moreno-Ocampo said that the ICC could investigate allegations of war crimes stemming from the conduct of coalition forces in Iraq [JURIST news archive], so long as Iraq agrees to ratify the Rome Statute [text, PDF] and accede to ICC jurisdiction.
Cynthia McKinney Speaks at Malaysia Peace Conference
On February 5th, 2007, Cynthia McKinney spoke to the Kuala Lumpur Peace Conference in Malaysia. Follow this link to read the complete text of her prepared remarks.
Spanish judge tells U.S. Guantánamo is an insult
FLORENCE Invoking Spain's history of dictatorship and terror, Baltasar Garzón, the country's most prominent investigative magistrate, has called on the United States to immediately close the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
"A model like Guantánamo is an insult to countries that respect laws," Garzón said in an interview during a counterterrorism conference in Florence in late May. "It delegitimizes us. It is a place that needs to disappear immediately."
As the war in Iraq drags on, criticism in Europe of the Bush administration's prison for terrorist suspects, and for its secret transportation of terrorist suspects to third countries, has steadily mounted. The criticism reflects both concern among Europeans that the United States has abandoned its core values and a widespread anti-Americanism among Europe's Muslim population.
Last month, Britain's attorney general, Peter Goldsmith, called on the United States to close Guantánamo, saying, "The historic tradition of the U.S. as a beacon of freedom, liberty and justice deserves the removal of this symbol."
