The secret Iraqi war files - Al Jazeera

A great report by Al Jazeera on the Iraqi War Diaries which were released by Wikileaks. Be warned some of the images are very disturbing. The photographs of children covered in their parent's blood after their car was fired upon by US soldiers manning a check point are not likely to be forgotten any time soon by anyone who sees them.

Even the figure of 15,000 additional Iraqi dead is likely to be an underestimate according to professor Jacob Shapiro to the Guardian.

Wikileaks's Julian Assange - "Iraq was a blood bath on every corner"

Videos from Press TV

I have just finished following the Wikileaks conference live on the internet in which Julian Assange and British lawyers representing Iraqi victims of British military violence presented the latest leaked documents on the occupation of Iraq by US and UK forces. The material makes for painful reading and its a litany of brutality, lies and killings carried out in the name of American and British democracy. Not least of the shocking revelations is the addition of over 15,000 more Iraqi dead to the official death toll. In addition the documents also bring to light the extensive use of torture by UK forces and the legacy of colonial savagery and racism developed in imperial outposts such as Cyprus, Palestine and Northern Ireland that the British brought to Iraq.

As one contributor said it was hard to ignore the savage racism that allowed interrogators  to operate with the the only limitation being that of their own imagination. thousands of people hauled off the streets and traeted in a manner that got Nazi officials long sentences in the Nuremberg war trials

Also what can you say about the murder of a young girl by a British soldier riding a tank as she played in street. What was here crime? What did she do to deserve such a fate? isndie there is a feeling of anger and disgust welling up to think that such crimes against humanity and decency were carried out by in my name. It makes me feel unclean and ashamed.

Links

The Wikileaks Warlogs can be seen here

http://wikileaks.org/iraq/diarydig

The CBS news account of the conference here

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/10/23/world/main6984273.shtml

Twitter feed here

http://twitter.com/#!/search/warlogs

The Guardian's mash up mapping all the deaths mentioned in the Iraqi War Diaries

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/datablog/interactive/2010/oct/23/wikileaks-iraq-deaths-map

Wikileaks video struggles to get airing on US TV

Yesterday Wikileaks released a decoded video showing the killing of a dozen people, including a Reuters news agency photographer, Namir Noor-Eldeen and his driver, Saeed Chmagh in Baghdad in 2007. The footage, which is harrowing not only in what it depicts but also the attitude of the Apache attack helicopter crew to those who were shot to death, spread across the internet, driven by Twitter users who were quick to pick up the story.

On the other hand the mainstream press in the US has been more reticent about the incident and for a period yesterday MSNBC blocked all search attempts using the term "wikileaks". Even as I write this CNN is not showing the whole video but rather a truncated version which has scenes from the start of the video and not footage which shows the helicopter crew a firing upon a civilian van which had drawn up to help the Reuters driver who was injured in the initial attack and resulted in the serious injury to two young children inside.

The video is also at odds with the account by the Washington Post published at the time where those who took part in the operation stated that the chopper, code named Crazy Horse was responding to insurgent fire and that every effort had been made to deal humanely with the dead and wounded. As Capt. James Hall, a chaplain with the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division, who arrived on the scene minutes after the incident said to the Post, July 13, 2007.

"We pulled up and stopped, and I could hear them over the intercom say they couldn't drive the Bradleys in because there were too many bodies and didn't want to drive over them,"

On the other hand the transcript taken from the Apache's radio traffic just after the attack (see here for the transcript on the Wikileaks site) reveals a different story.

"I think they just ran over the body,"

"Ha, ha."

"Yeah"

"Maybe it was just a visual illusion, but it looked like it."

"Well, they're dead, so."

Arrest Tony Blair for Crimes Against Peace

Arrest Tony Blair for Crimes Against Peace, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Performing a Citizen’s Arrest

Your attempts to arrest Mr Blair will, at this stage, be largely symbolic, but they will have great political resonance.

It is essential that they are pursued peacefully and calmly, not least for your own safety: at no point should you create the impression that you mean to harm him, or you could be harmed yourself. The method we recommend is calmly to approach Mr Blair and in a gentle fashion to lay a hand on his shoulder or elbow, in such a way that he cannot have any cause to complain of being hurt or trapped by you, and announce loudly, “Mr Blair, this is a citizens’ arrest for a crime against peace, namely your decision to launch an unprovoked war against Iraq. I am inviting you to accompany me to a police station to answer the charge.”

If any police officers are accompanying Mr Blair, you should explain the charge to them, and encourage them to support you by arresting him.

You are advised not to put yourself at risk of charges of assault or false imprisonment. In other words, do not cling onto Blair or attempt to drag him anywhere.

You are unlikely to get much further than that. But as long as the attempt is picked up by the media, the point will have been made: he is a war criminal who can expect to be pursued for his crime wherever he goes.

You should decide how you want to leave the situation after your attempt. Blair or the people accompanying him might wish to argue with you if the arrest takes place in the media spotlight, so before attempting it you should have a good grasp of the case against him, be aware of the likely counter-arguments, and prepare some responses.

You might also wish to contact the media either before – if you know and trust a journalist – you attempt the arrest or immediately afterwards. It’s a good idea to prepare a press release (and a list of email addresses of relevant news desks) beforehand, for a friend to send out as soon as it’s happened.

The chances of getting Blair officially arrested or prosecuted in most nations are currently slim. But like most non-violent direct action, the main purpose here is to create an event which alerts people to an uncomfortable truth, changes the public mood and puts pressure on governments.

Good luck.

Arrestblair.org

LIFE - Bush On Trial

LIFE - Bush On Trial, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

'In the months following George Bush's dramatic arrest at Amsterdam's Schiphol international airport three months ago the possility that a former US president maybe be tried and sentenced for war crimes has gripped the imagination of people from New York to New Delhi. Media representatives from every corner of the planet have turned the sleepy Dutch city of the Hague into a international news circus dwarfing the coverage given the O.J Simpson trial in the 90's. According to latests foreign ministry accounts 6,560 reporters have descended upon city to cover this week's preliminary hearings which are scheduled to conclude next week.

Bush's detention on route to the UN conference on North Atlantic Security and Safety in Zurich severely strained US – Dutch relations with some Republican members of Congress calling for the air strikes on military targets within the country if the former president was not released. In the days that followed hundreds of businesses and organisations with ties with the Netherlands were attacked throughout America with three Dutch citizens losing their lives in bomb attack on the country's Los Angeles consulate.

Not surprisingly, it has been the question of the sense and the legitimacy of the trials that is the center of attention for many eyewitnesses. Despite the lack of a legal precedent, most of them approve of the proceedings because, as U.S. writer Gore Vidal put it, "warmongers will no longer be able to live quietly in retirement." Some observers, however, have remained skeptical. Iraqi writer Salah Wali considered the indictment "bizarre" and American diplomats based in Europe have privately admitted that the Americans didn't "enter the war with clean hands. No nation could have done so."

The defendant, who await the world's judgment in varying postures of resentment, resignation, and revolt, is another focus for most members of the press. "While the counsel for the prosecution read US documents about the killing of Iraqis and Afghans," railed Polish reporter Pawel Osmanczyk, enraged by the prisoner's deliberate display of boredom, "Bush yawns, or just pretends to be asleep."

Fascination for and disappointment about the banality of the man who helped in the possible murder of thousands of people also appear in the accounts of the reporters witnessing the proceedings. "Involuntarily one desires to see a greater man," wrote Australian journalist John Pliger, "who have to stand trial for all the cruelties which are spread out before the court." Afghan opposition leader, Abdullah Abdullah remarked incredulously: "He is so insignificant that you ask yourself: Was it really this degenerate who laid my country to waste... ?"

Read more:

Tony Blair's mug-shot

Tony Blair's mug-shot, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

"I fought the law and the law won."