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Top UN court tells Moscow to halt Ukraine invasion

France24 – AFP, 16 March 2022 

Kyiv dragged Moscow to the UN's top court days after Russia's attack
on February 24 Phil nijhuis ANP/AFP

The Hague (AFP) – The UN's top court on Wednesday ordered Russia to suspend its invasion of Ukraine, saying it was "profoundly concerned" by Moscow's use of force. 

"The Russian Federation shall immediately suspend military operations that it commenced on 24 February on the territory of Ukraine," pending the final decision in the case, presiding judge Joan Donoghue told the International Court of Justice. 

"The court is profoundly concerned about the use of force by the Russian Federation which raises very serious issues in international law," Donoghue told a hearing in The Hague. 

Kyiv dragged Moscow to the UN's top court days after Russia's attack on February 24. 

Ukraine accuses Russia of illegally trying to justify its war by falsely alleging genocide in Ukraine's Donetsk and Lugansk regions. 

Kyiv then asked the court to take provisional measures ordering Russia to "immediately suspend the military operations." 

"Russia must be stopped, and the court has a role to play in stopping that," Ukraine's representative Anton Korynevych told the ICJ last week. 

The hearing on Wednesday comes as the number of refugees fleeing Ukraine topped three million and Russian forces step up strikes on residential buildings in Kyiv.

 At the same time, Kyiv said it wanted its security to be guaranteed by international forces, as it rejected proposals pushed by Russia for it to adopt a neutral status comparable to Austria or Sweden. 

'No genocide evidence'

Russia snubbed hearings on March 7 and 8, arguing in a written filing that the ICJ "did not have jurisdiction" because Kyiv's request fell outside of the scope of the 1948 Genocide Convention on which it based its case. 

Moscow also justified its use of force in Ukraine, saying "it was acting in self-defence." 

The ICJ was set up after World War II to rule on disputes between UN member states, based mainly on treaties and conventions. 

Although its rulings are binding, it has no real means to enforce them. 

A full hearing into the content of the case could still take years, they added. 

Judges on Wednesday also ordered Moscow to ensure that military or irregular armed units "take no further steps" in furthering its offensive. 

But "whether Russia will oblige is an entirely different question", said Marieke De Hoon, assistant international criminal and public law professor at the University of Amsterdam. 

The case is also separate from a Ukraine war crimes investigation launched by the International Criminal Court (ICC), a separate tribunal also based in The Hague.

'Butcher of Bosnia' found guilty of genocide, jailed for life

Yahoo – AFP, Jan Hennop and Jo Biddle, 22 November 2017

The trial for Ratko Mladic, dubbed the "Butcher of Bosnia," was the last
before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

UN judges on Wednesday sentenced former Bosnian Serbian commander Ratko Mladic to life in prison after finding him guilty of genocide and war crimes in the brutal Balkans conflicts over two decades ago.

But the man dubbed the "Butcher of Bosnia" was not present in court to hear the verdict, having been dragged out of the courtroom after loudly accusing the judges of "lying". And his son and lawyers told reporters he planned to appeal.

Judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) found Mladic guilty on 10 counts including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity such as murder and deportation. But he was acquitted of one charge of genocide in certain municipalities.

About 100,000 people were killed and 2.2 million displaced in the 1992-1995 war when ethnic rivalries tore Yugoslavia apart.

Judges said "ruthless" Bosnian Serb forces under Mladic's command carried out "mass executions" and showed "little or no respect for human life or dignity."

"For having committed these crimes, the chamber sentences Mr Ratko Mladic to life imprisonment," presiding judge Alphons Orie said as applause broke out in the public gallery.

He added that the crimes were "amongst the most heinous known to humankind".

A smiling Mladic, 74, who once left a trail of fear across Bosnia, gave a thumbs-up as he entered the courtroom in The Hague dressed in a grey suit and red tie.

But in dramatic scenes he was later ordered to be removed, after accusing the judges of lying, when they refused to adjourn the hearing because of his high blood pressure.

"They are lying, you are lying. I don't feel good," he shouted, as two UN security guards hustled him into a nearby room to watch the rest of the verdict.

Relatives of people killed in the Bosnian war celebrated Ratko Mladic's 

conviction for genocide at a memorial cemetery near near Srebrenica

Tears in court

Wednesday's verdict was long awaited by tens of thousands of victims across the bitterly divided region.

Dozens gathered early outside the courtroom, many clutching photos of loved ones who died or are among the 7,000 still missing.

It was an emotional day for victims, some of whom sobbed in the gallery as the judges recalled brutal scenes of rape and murder. In Srebrenica there were tears of joy.

"Mladic will die in The Hague! I'm so happy that justice has been done!" said Nedziba Salihovic, who lost her husband, father and son in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

The court found Mladic guilty of genocide in that northeastern town, where troops under his command slaughtered almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys.

The killings, in which the victims were marched away, shot in the back and dumped in mass graves, was one of the darkest episodes in the conflict, and has been called the worst atrocity on European soil since World War II.

Mladic "intended to eliminate the Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica by killing men and boys and forcibly removing the women, young children and some elderly men," Orie said.

Munira Subasic, president of the Mothers of Srebrenica association, said she was "partially satisfied" with the verdict.

"It's more than for (Radovan) Karadzic. But they didn't find him guilty for the accusation of genocide in some villages," she said.

Karadzic was sentenced to 40 years in March 2016 for similar charges, including the Srebrenica genocide. He is appealing the sentence.

Edin Halilovic, 18, whose grandfather died in Srebrenica, said it had been important to attend the hearing. "My generation, and future generations, must never forget what happened to our families."

Profile of Ratko Mladic

Milestone for justice

Chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz said the verdict was a "milestone" for the court and for international justice.

Mladic's was the last genocide trial before the tribunal before it closes its doors on December 31, having indicted 161 people since it was set up in 1993.

Praising the victims as the only "true heroes," Brammertz insisted it was not a verdict against the Serbian people.

"Mladic's guilt is his and is alone," he said.

Mladic was also found guilty of having "personally directed" a 44-month campaign of sniping and shelling in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, in which 10,000 people died.

And he was convicted for taking more than 200 NATO military personnel hostage.

But defence lawyers have denounced the trial as "political".

"This sentence is unjust and contrary to the facts and we will fight it on appeal to prove that this judgement is wrong," his son Darko Mladic told reporters.

"Mladic will die in The Hague! I'm so happy that justice has been done!" Srebrenica survivors hail life sentence handed to the "Butcher of Bosnia" https://t.co/lVxRESh4iA pic.twitter.com/Hsjbkmdo0W

— AFP news agency (@AFP) November 22, 2017

Could the US be tried for war crimes in Afghanistan?

The ICC is looking into possible war crimes committed by the US in Afghanistan. There are doubts about whether any CIA agents will ever be prosecuted for torture - but there are other options.

Deutsche Welle, 15 November 2016

 The alleged kidnapping, torture and rape of detainees in Afghanistan by US armed forces are coming under more scrutiny at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

Chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda's annual Preliminary Examination Activities report for 2015 found that "members of the US armed forces and the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) resorted to techniques amounting to the commission of the war crimes of torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity, and rape."

The prosecutors have found evidence that 61 detainees were subjected to "torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity" in Afghanistan between May 2003 and December 2014 (mostly at the outset of the war in 2003 and 2004). Meanwhile, the CIA is being investigated for the same crimes - as well as rape - against 27 detainees in Afghanistan and secret prisons in Poland, Romania and Lithuania.

Fatou Bensouda presented the report 

this week

Systematic cruelty

The ICC also underlined that the alleged crimes seemed to have been part of an officially sanctioned system "approved at senior levels of the US government." "The alleged crimes were not the abuses of a few isolated individuals," it read. "Rather, they appear to have been committed as part of approved interrogation techniques in an attempt to extract 'actionable intelligence' from detainees."

This systematic nature of the crimes increased their "gravity," the report added, and caused considerable suffering: "Some victims reportedly exhibited psychological and behavioral issues, including hallucinations, paranoia, insomnia, and attempts at self-harm and self-mutilation."

Andreas Schüller, program director for international crimes at the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), welcomed the report, but emphasized that this was just part of a wider examination, and that the ICC itself was part of an international judicial process that also involves military and civilian courts in the US and elsewhere: there are criminal investigations and pending court cases ongoing in Spain, Germany, Poland, Romania and Lithuania into alleged crimes committed by the CIA - either because they were perpetrated on their territories or with the collusion of their security forces.

The ECCHR itself filed a lawsuit on behalf of the German-Lebanese man Khalid el Masri, who was a victim of the CIA's extraordinary rendition program and says he spent several months being tortured in Afghanistan.

"You also have cases currently open on Guantanamo against US officials by the French judiciary, where former Guantanamo commander Geoffrey Miller has been summoned earlier this year to appear as an accused witness," said Schüller. (Miller, a retired US army general, ignored the summons.)

Overcoming the obstacles

The fact that the US, like many African countries, is not a party to the ICC is not an obstacle to the investigation. For one thing, Afghanistan ratified the Rome Statute that underpins the court in 2003, and therefore any crimes carried out on its territory (whether by military personnel or not) are within ICC jurisdiction.

German citizen Khalid el Masri was
abused in Afghanistan by CIA agents

Moreover, as the ICC itself pointed out in a statement on Tuesday, its prosecutor's office is obliged to investigate all alleged crimes brought to its attention, regardless of potential legal problems. In the case of Afghanistan, prosecutors said on Tuesday that they will decide "imminently" whether to seek authorization to open a full-scale investigation.

But whether that will ever lead to any prosecutions of CIA agents is very doubtful. "It's not realistic, because the US has not signed the statute, and even if it had, the US government has said repeatedly that it will not extradite any of its citizens to the ICC," said Wolfgang Heinz, senior policy adviser at the German Institute for Human Rights.

Nevertheless, should the ICC decide to pursue its investigations and if it identifies US suspects living in other countries, it could seek their extradition. "That's been done before - the US embassy will apply pressure of course, but then you're not absolutely safe," Heinz said.

Not only that, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) can also file charges against European governments suspected of colluding in the CIA's human rights abuses. This has happened before: in 2014, the Polish government was convicted of collusion in the CIA's extraordinary rendition program and ordered to pay compensation to two men.

The US' alleged crimes are not the only ones being examined in Afghanistan - those perpetrated by the Taliban, other anti-government groups, and Afghan government forces are also mentioned in the report, as are war crimes by various parties in eight other conflict zones around the world - in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and South America.

Blair defends Iraq war after damning inquiry report

Yahoo – AFP, Alice Ritchie, July 6, 2016

Iraq Inquiry chairman John Chilcot presents the findings of his report at the QEII
Centre in London, on July 6, 2016 (AFP Photo/Dan Kitwood)

London (AFP) - Former British prime minister Tony Blair on Wednesday made a passionate defence of the 2003 war in Iraq, after a long-awaited official inquiry condemned it as woefully executed and based on flawed evidence.

His voice cracking with emotion, Blair said he had "more sorrow, regret and apology than you may ever know or can believe" for some mistakes in the planning of a war that deeply divided Britain.

But, in a two-hour press conference, he stuck resolutely to his defence, as more than 100 anti-war protesters rallied in London, shouting: "Blair lied, thousands died" and "war criminal Tony Blair."

Former prime minister Tony Blair said 

he acted "in good faith and in what I

 believed to be the best interests of the

country" (AFP Photo/Stefan Rousseau)

"I believe we made the right decision and the world is better and safer" without Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, Blair told reporters.

The long-awaited Chilcot report offered a damning verdict on Britain's role in the US-led war, detailing the flawed intelligence, questionable legal basis and "woefully inadequate" preparation for the occupation.

Iraq's descent into violence and loss of life following the invasion saw 150,000 Iraqis killed by the time most British troops left in 2009.

The report said Britain deployed troops before diplomatic options had been exhausted.

It also highlighted how Blair wrote to president George W. Bush in July 2002, the year before the war saying: "I will be with you, whatever."

The inquiry found that "military action in Iraq might have been necessary at some point. But in March 2003 there was no imminent threat from Saddam Hussein".

Shortly after Blair had responded to the report, current Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn -- a top figure in the anti-war campaign -- directly contradicted the former Labour premier.

"The invasion and occupation of Iraq was a catastrophe," Corbyn, who formed the Stop the War coalition, said in a speech to the families of British soldiers who died.

"I now apologise sincerely on behalf of my party for the disastrous decision to go to war in Iraq," he said.

'No lies, parliament not misled'

The war was justified at the time by claims that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, but they were never found and the intelligence was later withdrawn.

Inquiry chairman John Chilcot laid the blame for this firmly on spy chiefs, clearing Blair's officials of "improperly" influencing a key intelligence paper published in September 2002.

The report also criticised Blair for failing to challenge Bush on the lack of planning for the post-invasion phase -- and dismissed his assertion that the impact of local militia and Iran could not have been predicted.

Britain's Iraq War Inquiry said Tony Blair (left) promised George W. Bush in 2002 that

 he would be with him on Iraq "whatever" happened, nearly a year before the US-led

invasion (AFP Photo/Paul J. Richards)

"I accept that especially in hindsight we should have approached the situation differently," said Blair, who was prime minister from 1997 to 2007.

But he added: "There were no lies, parliament and cabinet were not misled, there was no secret commitment to war. The intelligence was not falsified and the decision was made in good faith."

Iraq remains plagued by sectarian violence -- on Sunday at least 250 people were killed by a Baghdad suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State group.

Blair rejected claims the war led to the rise of Islamist groups in the region, saying Saddam was "himself a wellspring of terror" -- but admitted many disagreed.

'I hold him responsible'

Relatives of some of the 179 British soldiers who died in Iraq said they would scrutinise the findings for possible grounds for legal action against Blair and other officials.

"The inquiry has confirmed all our fears that these young men and women were deployed on the back of a falsehood," said Roger Bacon, whose son Matthew, 34, died in 2005.

The legality of the invasion was not in his remit, but Chilcot said the process of deciding the legal basis for war was "far from satisfactory".

"We have concluded that the UK chose to join the invasion of Iraq before the peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted. Military action at that time was not a last resort," he said.

A detail of a declassified handwritten letter sent by the then British Prime Minister

 Tony Blair, to former U.S President George W. Bush, is seen as part of the Iraq Inquiry

 Report presented by Sir John Chilcot at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London, 

Wednesday, July 6, 2016. The head of Britain's Iraq War inquiry has released a 

damning verdict on a conflict he says was mounted on flawed intelligence, executed

 with "wholly inadequate" planning. (Jeff J Mitchell/Pool via AP)

The families are not the only ones considering legal action against Blair -- a cross-party group of MPs is also looking into the possibility, including of taking a case to the International Criminal Court.

The war, which at one point saw 46,000 British troops deployed, mostly in southern Iraq around the strategic oil hub of Basra, still looms large over British politics.

Britain's scarring experience in Iraq has made it deeply wary of committing ground troops to international military interventions in countries like Syria and Libya.

Retired civil servant Chilcot said his report was "an account of an intervention which went badly wrong, with consequences to this day".

In a statement to the House of Commons, Prime Minister David Cameron said: "We cannot turn the clock back but can ensure that lessons are learned and acted on".

Rage against Blair as families mourn Iraq war dead https://t.co/q06JFb9D7l pic.twitter.com/4ZpUxakiFg

— AFP news agency (@AFP) July 6, 2016

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Sweden to recognise Palestinian state

BBC News, 3 October 2014

Sweden has just elected a new centre-left government led by Prime Minister
Stefan Lofven (second left)

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Sweden is to "recognise the state of Palestine", Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has said, the first long-term EU member country to do so.

"The conflict between Israel and Palestine can only be solved with a two-state solution," he said during his inaugural address in parliament.

It should be "negotiated in accordance with international law", he said.

Sweden last month voted out the centre-right Alliance coalition of Fredrik Reinfeldt after eight years.

That allowed the Social Democrats led by Mr Lofven to form a government with other parties on the left including the Greens.

"A two-state solution requires mutual recognition and a will to peaceful co-existence. Sweden will therefore recognise the state of Palestine," Mr Lofven said on Friday, without giving a timeline for the recognition.

Sweden will join more than 130 other countries that recognise a Palestinian state.

Most of the EU's 28 member states have refrained from recognising Palestinian statehood and those that do - such as Hungary, Poland and Slovakia - did so before joining the bloc.

Long campaign

The Palestinians have long sought to establish an independent, sovereign state in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem as its capital, and the Gaza Strip - occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six Day War.

Correspondents say Sweden's move is likely to be strongly criticised by Israel and the US, who argue that an independent Palestinian state should only emerge through negotiations.

Palestinians say the peace process is hampered by Israeli settlements like
this one in the West Bank

In 1988, the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat unilaterally declared a Palestinian state within the pre-June 1967 lines.

This won recognition from about 100 countries, mainly Arab, Communist and non-aligned states - several of them in Latin America.

The 1993 Oslo Accord between the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Israel led to mutual recognition. However, two decades of on-off peace talks have since failed to produce a permanent settlement.

In 2012, the UN General Assembly voted to upgrade the status of the Palestinians to that of a "non-member observer state".

It followed a failed bid to join the international body as a full member state in 2011 because of a lack of support in the UN Security Council.

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ICC reopens probe into alleged British war crimes in Iraq

Deutsche Welle, 14 May 2014

The ICC has said it will reopen an initial investigation into alleged war crimes carried out by British forces during the Iraq War. Burning, sexual assault and electrocution of detainees are among the alleged abuses.

The Hague-based International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor said on Tuesday she would reopen a "preliminary examination" into alleged war crimes by British soldiers.

Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said in a statement from the ICC that the decision followed new submissions alleging abuse by UK troops after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

"The new information... alleges the responsibility of officials of the United Kingdom for war crimes involving systematic detainee abuse in Iraq from 2003 to 2008," Bensouda said.

Bensouda's office said it had received documents from the Berlin-based European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) in January. The information, jointly submitted by the Birmingham-based group Public Interest Lawyers (PIL), was based on interviews with more than 400 Iraqi detainees.

'Sensory deprivation and stress'

Both the ECCHR and PIL alleged that British troops subjected detainees to severe physical and psychological abuse at "military detention facilities and other locations." Soldiers were alleged to have used sensory deprivation, prolonged stress positions, burning and electrocution during the 2003-2008 occupation.

Detainees were beaten and sexually assaulted as well as being threatened with rape and death, the ECCHR said.

Britain's Attorney General Dominic Grieve rejected the allegation of systematic abuse. "Where allegations have been made that individuals may have broken those laws, they are being comprehensively investigated," Grieve said in a statement.

Bensouda is now to deliberate on whether to ask ICC judges for permission to launch a full-scale investigation.

rc/jm (AFP, AP, dpa)

Nobel peace laureates call for Israel military boycott over Gaza assault

Letter with 52 signatories including artists and activists also denounces US and EU 'complicity' through weapons sales

guardian.co.uk, Chris McGreal in Jerusalem, Wednesday 28 November 2012

A man looks at the ruins of a Hamas police station destroyed by an Israeli
air strike in Gaza City. Photograph: Oliver Weiken/EPA

A group of Nobel peace prize-winners, prominent artists and activists have issued a call for an international military boycott of Israel following its assault on the Gaza Strip this month.

The letter also denounces the US, EU and several developing countries for what it describes as their "complicity" through weapons sales and other military support in the attack that killed 160 Palestinians, many of them civilians, including about 35 children.

The 52 signatories include the Nobel peace laureates Mairead Maguire and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel; the film directors Mike Leigh and Ken Loach; the author Alice Walker; the US academic Noam Chomsky; Roger Waters of Pink Floyd; and Stéphane Hessel, a former French diplomat and Holocaust survivor who was co-author of the universal declaration of human rights.

"Horrified at the latest round of Israeli aggression against the 1.5 million Palestinians in the besieged and occupied Gaza Strip and conscious of the impunity that has enabled this new chapter in Israel's decades-old violations of international law and Palestinian rights, we believe there is an urgent need for international action towards a mandatory, comprehensive military embargo against Israel," the letter says.

"Such a measure has been subject to several UN resolutions and is similar to the arms embargo imposed against apartheid South Africa in the past."

The letter accuses several countries of providing important military support that facilitated the assault on Gaza. "While the United States has been the largest sponsor of Israel, supplying billions of dollars of advanced military hardware every year, the role of the European Union must not go unnoticed, in particular its hefty subsidies to Israel's military complex through its research programmes.

"Similarly, the growing military ties between Israel and the emerging economies of Brazil, India and South Korea are unconscionable given their nominal support for Palestinian freedom," it says.

The letter opens with a quote from Nelson Mandela: "For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."

The other signatories include John Dugard, a South African jurist and former UN special rapporteur in the occupied territories; Luisa Morgantini, former president of the European parliament; Cynthia McKinney, a former member of the US Congress; Ronnie Kasrils, a South African former cabinet minister; and the dramatist Caryl Churchill.

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"THE BRIDGE OF SWORDS"– Sep  29, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Text version)

“… Let us talk about the swords: When you hear the word sword, the first thing that occurs to you is battle. The Bridge of Swords is a battle and we told you that as well. Swords are metaphoric and they mean many things, so let us describe the things we mean them to say to you.

Number one: They are indeed a weapon in a battle. There is a battle coming. "Kryon, does that mean there's going to be a war?" Potentially, yes. Right now we will tell you that the Middle East cooks itself. You've noticed, haven't you? What do you know about the Middle East, dear one? Let's start examining things for a moment. What energy did you grow up in? What was the energy of the Middle East? In the '40s, what was the energy? With the establishment of the state of Israel, you built a wall of hate, both sides. The wall was so thick that the children of both sides were taught to hate one another as soon as they were able to understand the language. They were told who their enemies were. Now, where were you then?

Some of you weren't here yet. By the time you arrived, in your youth, were you aware of the Middle East? Not particularly. "What's the hatred about?" you might ask. What if I told you it's about a family feud? Two sons of a Jewish master are involved. One founded the Arabs and one remained a Jew. They don't want to hear this, but they are all Jews. (Don't tell them this.)

If you look at the lineage, it's pretty obvious and yet it's a complete and total set-up for either solution or war. The set-up would have this world ending in a conflagration that would have been brought about by this hatred. That's in the prophecy of Nostradamus and your scripture, but it is no longer the prophecy of the planet. Yet the hatred still exists. The hatred is as great today as it was then, but where was all the terrorism 40 years ago? It was isolated.

Those in Israel and Palestine and surrounding areas took the brunt of it, but now it's seemingly everywhere - and you're worried. Why would this be? The answer is that the old energy was happy to have this hatred contained, for it would keep it going and never involve outsiders. Outsiders tend to bring unwanted light to the party. Suddenly, the whole earth is involved and can see the entire scenario before them. The old guard wants war, just like all the eons before them. The ones on the bridge are holding the light and showing the earth how to cross. Even many younger ones in Israel and Palestine and Iran are holding light! It's all around the old guard and they are furious, for they are losing the "battle of hatred." …”

(Religions – Zionism - March 1, 2012 - Matthew Channelled by Suzanne Ward)

9. It can be no other way—simply, this is the physics that governs life in this universe. As Earth continues apace into successively higher planes, nothing with low vibrations in any form—physical bodies, subversive plans, theft, dishonesty, unjust laws and imprisonment, bigotry, cruel customs and deeds—can survive.

10. Moving on, no, it will not be quite like religions being “totally discarded and replaced by universal laws in the Golden Age.” When the truths come forth that science and spirit are one and the same and that religious dogmas were originated by early leaders of church and state to control the masses, people whose consciousness has risen beyond the constraints of third density will adhere to the spiritual aspects of their respective religions and the devised, controlling aspects will fall by the wayside.

11. One of the truths to come forth is that Zionism, which by dark intent has been made synonymous with Judaism, actually is a bellicose political movement within the Illuminati, and its aim for more than six decades has been to create conflict and instability in the entire Middle East. Zionists, who have wielded powerful influence within and behind major governments and their military forces, do NOT represent the Jewish peoples in Israel or anywhere else. And, like all other Illuminati factions, they have been committed to that cabal’s goal of global domination.

12. Although Semites are of diverse national origins and religions, the Zionists have been successful in convincing many that “anti-Semitic” is exclusively prejudice against the Jewish peoples and opposition to Israel’s right to defend itself from its “enemies.” By means of that blatant distortion, they obtained not only world sympathy, but also massive defense funding from Israel’s allies, most especially the United States, all of which served to increase the Illuminati’s vast profits from their industrial-military machine.

13. In addition to controlling the masses through dogmatic teachings, religions have served the dark purpose of divisiveness to such an extent that it resulted in centuries of trauma and bloodshed. Witness the Crusades, wars between Catholics and Protestants, pogroms against Jews, executions of “blasphemous” individuals who refused to “recant.”  (Read More …)

Hague war court acquits Croat Generals Gotovina and Markac

BBC News, 16 November 2012

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Croatian war veterans have been holding
vigils for Gotovina (left) and Markac

A war crimes court in The Hague has overturned the convictions of two Croatian generals charged with atrocities against Serbs in the 1990s.

Appeals judges at tribunal for the former Yugoslavia ordered the release of Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac.

In 2011 they were sentenced to 24 years and 18 years respectively over the killing of ethnic Serbs in an offensive to retake Croatia's Krajina region.

Thousands of people in Croatia's capital Zagreb cheered Friday's ruling.

'Final judgement'

On Friday, presiding Judge Theodor Meron said that court entered "a verdict of acquittal" for Gen Gotovina and Gen Markac, both aged 57.

The two men were last year convicted of of murder, persecution and plunder. Judges then ruled that they were part of a criminal conspiracy led by late Croatian President Franjo Tudjman to expel ethnic Serbs.

They referred to the shelling of Knin and three other towns.

But on Friday, Judge Meron said there had been no such conspiracy.

Court officials also said prosecutors would not appeal against the ruling, describing it as "the final judgement".

Neither defendant showed emotion in court, but their supporters in the gallery hugged each other and clapped after the verdict.

In Zagreb's main square, thousands of people - who watched the proceedings live on giant TV - burst into applause.

"Our general are heroes because they risked their lives to save our country and liberate the people," student Andjela Anic, 26, was quoted as saying by the AFP.

On Thursday, candle-lit vigils were held in Zagreb and Catholic churches around the country as war veterans and bishops asked supporters to "raise their voices against injustice".

Gotovina and Markac, both 57, were convicted of murder and a range of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed as their forces retook the Krajina region, which had been under Serbian control since the start of the war in 1991.

About 200,000 ethnic Serbs were driven from Croatia in 1995 and at least 150 were killed in a military offensive in Krajina known as Operation Storm.

The operation to retake the region which had been under Serbian control since the start of the war in 1991 was ordered by Mr Tudjman. The Croatian leader died in 1999 while being under investigation by The Hague tribunal.

The aftermath of the war is a key issue both in Croatia's domestic politics and its external relations.

The European Union has made it clear to former Yugoslav republics that they will not be considered for membership until war criminals are brought to justice.