DRC War Crimes Trial Begins at ICC in Hague

Tuesday, November 24, 2009
18:09 Mecca time, 15:09 GMT

DR Congo war crimes trial begins

Two Congolese men accused of directing an attack on a village, during which at least 200 people were killed, women raped and child soldiers allegedly recruited, have gone on trial in The Hague.

Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui appeared at the
International Criminal Court on Tuesday, facing charges of seven
counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The men, who pleaded not guilty, stand accused over an attack by their forces on the village of Bogoro in Democratic Republic of Congo’s northeastern Ituri region in February 2003.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the court’s chief prosecutor, said the pair were
“responsible for some of the most serious crimes of concern to the
international community”.

“They used children as soldiers, they killed more than 200 civilians
in a few hours, they raped women; girls and the elderly, they looted
the entire village and they transformed women into sex slaves,” he
said.

“Some were shot dead in their sleep, some cut up by machetes to save bullets. Others were burned alive after their houses were set on fire by the attackers.”

‘Killing without distinction’

Katanga, 31, an ethnic Ngiti, is said to have commanded the Patriotic
Resistance Force (FRPI), while Ngudjolo, 39, a Lendu, is accused of
being the former leader of the National Integrationist Front (FNI).

The prosecution say more than 1,000 fighters from both groups,
including child soldiers, entered Bogoro in the early hours of
February 24, six years ago.

“The plan was to wipe out Bogoro. They killed without distinction,”
Moreno-Ocampo said.

Until the attack, Bogoro had been controlled by rival Thomas Lubanga’s Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), blocking FRPI and FNI fighters and camps from the road to the key city of Bunia.

Lubanga’s own war crimes trial, the ICC’s first, started in January.

Non-governmental bodies say that inter-ethnic and militia violence in
Ituri, largely over control of the area’s gold mines, has claimed
60,000 lives since 1999.

Katanga was handed over to the ICC by the Democratic Republic of Congo government in October 2007, while Ngudjolo was arrested and transferred to The Hague in February 2008.

The two defence teams will give their opening statements later on Tuesday.

Source: Agencies

Côte d’Ivoire: Ban calls for speedy new date for yet-again-delayed elections

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called on all parties in Côte d’Ivoire to fix a new date as soon as possible for their much-delayed elections, now postponed yet again from their latest deadline of this month.

Indoctrination Through Celebration–An Essay by Solomon Comissiong

Indoctrination Through Celebration

by Solomon Comissiong

US society is immersed in contradictions. However, subliminal indoctrination tends to mask even the most glaring of these contradictions, especially those involving race. Americans seem trained not to see that which is right in front of their eyes, or to distinguish truth from the most base propaganda.

Contradiction-laden holidays figure heavily in the national propaganda. Columbus Day, for example, is drenched in white supremacist ideals. Columbus continues to be virtually canonized in some U.S. circles, despite the ample historical record of the “Discoverer’s” crimes of mass murder, rape, kidnapping, mutilation, torture and general depravity. Clearly, Columbus Day would not exist in a moral society, yet many Americans think of themselves as situated at or near the moral center of the planet.

As an antidote to and replacement for Columbus, I submit Chief Sitting Bull. The great Lakota leader led thousands of warriors to defeat U.S. General George Custer, another bloodthirsty character that should be banished from the pantheon of American heroes. Sitting Bull Day would celebrate the glorious, albeit temporary, victory of Native Americans over the encroachments of white thuggery.

Racism has enshrined white supremacists as national role models. At a nearly subconscious level, the masses are indoctrinated to look with awe on some of the foulest examples of humanity ever assembled: slaveholders, Indian-killers, Confederates, segregators, land pirates, war criminals and exploiters of all pathologies imaginable.

The indoctrination is reinforced through naming rituals. The names of villains are splattered everywhere, physically and symbolically. Government buildings, schools, towns, streets and, yes, even holidays are transformed into billboards – even shrines – for what moral societies would recognize as unspeakable evil.

Money may or may not be the root of all evil, but U.S. currency is decorated with the faces of irredeemably evil men, guilty of enslaving other men. George Washington, of $1 fame, owned over 300 African slaves, and the proudly racist Andrew Jackson initiated brutal wars against Seminoles, helped pass the Indian Removal Act of 1830, and appointed Roger Taney to the U.S. Supreme Court, who ruled against Dred Scott and believed Blacks had no rights that a white man was bound to respect. Jackson’s record of evil is longer and arguably more damnable than Washington’s, which may account in some perverse American way for Jackson’s bill being worth twenty times as much as Washington’s.

Even the so-called “Great Emancipator,” Abraham Lincoln, had an incredibly low opinion of blacks. Lincoln once said:

“He (Fredrick Douglas) shall have no occasion to ever ask it again, for I tell him very frankly that I am not in favor of Negro citizenship…. I will say then, that I am not nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way, the social and political equality of the white and black races — that I am not, nor have ever been in favor of making voters of the Negroes, or jurors, or qualifying them to hold office, or having them marry with white people. I will say in addition that there is a physical difference between the white and black races, which I suppose will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality and inasmuch as they cannot so live, that while they do remain together, there must be the position of superior and inferior that I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white man…”

As an Emancipator, Lincoln is clearly overrated, and should be relegated to something more obscure than the popular $5 bill. Had it not been for the “Great Agitator” Frederick Douglass and his fellow abolitionists, Lincoln would not have freed anyone at all. A just and egalitarian society would surely place Frederick Douglass’ noble visage on the $5 bill, in celebration of his militancy for freedom.

The ultimate heroes are those that gave their lives for the freedom of others.

Historical giants like Nat Turner, Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vesey, and the Africans that participated in the Stono Rebellion should be honored with national holidays.

The conversion of holidays could go far in ushering militarism and imperialism into the dustbin of American history and culture. Veterans Day, as currently celebrated, would be among the first to go. All too often Veteran’s Day is used as a tool to indoctrinate the masses with war mongering values such as those that led to wars like Vietnam. It should be replaced by Peace Day, when society would honor those who became political dissenters against unjust wars of aggression and imperialism.

As we said at the outset, America is a fundamentally flawed and contradicted country, where the populace is force-fed a diet of symbolic and iconic evil. It may take generations to cleanse such a society of the grime and gore of centuries. Aluta Continua…

Solomon Comissiong is an educator, community activist, author, public speaker and the host of the Your World News radio program (www.blogtalkradio.com/Your-World-News). He may be reached at: sunderland77@hotmail.com.

Pirates Reportedly Killed Seaman Off the Coast of Benin

Pirates kill seaman in tanker attack

From correspondents in Cotonou
AFP November 25, 2009 4:38AM

PIRATES attacked an oil tanker off the coast of west Africa, killing a Ukrainian officer before escaping with the contents of the ship’s safe, the ship’s owners and Benin’s navy commander said today.

Commander Maxime Ahoyo said the officer on the Monrovia-flagged Cancale Star was shot dead when he confronted the pirates after they boarded the vessel in darkness 33km off the coast of Benin.

The tanker’s captain, Jaroslavs Semenovics, said around six or seven pirates had approached the tanker in a speedboat.

“They came on deck, pointed a pistol to the head of one of the sailors, marched him to the cabin,” Captian Semenovics said. “They asked me to open the safe and they collected all the cash,” he added. He did not say how much was stolen.

The 230-metre Cancale Star was carrying 89,000 cubic metres of crude from Nigeria’s Niger Delta, the captain said.

The tanker’s owners Chemikalien Seetransport said from Germany that the vessel’s chief officer, or second in command, “has tragically lost his life in a piracy attack off the coast of Benin in the early hours of November 24″.

“It is not the chief engineer but the chief officer of the vessel,” said Chemikalien’s spokesman Cor Radings, contradicting Commander Ahoyo who had earlier identified the Ukrainian officer as the chief engineer.

Medics aboard the vessel said four other crew members were wounded in the attack, one seriously.

Some of the crew managed to overpower one of the pirates and handed him over to police for questioning. The captured pirate said he was from a Nigerian border town.

The multinational crew of 24 includes Russians, Filipinos, Lithuanians and Ukranians, Ahoyo said, speaking on board the Cauris, a Beninese navy boat which went to the assistance of the tanker and managed to dock alongside it.

Piracy in oil-rich west African waters is on the rise, according to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), with more than 100 cases last year.

Most attacks occur while ships are at anchor or close to the shore, unlike in east Africa, where Somali pirates have netted millions of dollars in ransoms in exchange for the release of ships captured hundreds of miles from the coast.

The IMB’s Live Piracy Report has highlighted the risk to shipping in Tema, Ghana, and in the Lagos and Bonny River areas of Nigeria, immediately east of Benin.

It said that pirates have attacked and robbed vessels and kidnapped crews along the coast and rivers, anchorages, ports and surrounding waters.

Officials voiced fears earlier this year that west African pirates would copy the tactics of Somali gangs.

From January to September of this year, the International Maritime Organisation reported 160 acts of piracy off the coast of Somalia, including 34 hijacked vessels and more than 450 people made hostage.

The world’s naval powers last year started deploying warships in the Gulf of Aden in an attempt to curb attacks by ransom-hunting pirates that were seen as a threat to one of the globe’s most important maritime trade routes.

Pirate groups have since shifted their focus to the wider Indian Ocean, a huge area much more difficult to patrol, and started venturing as far as the Seychelles and beyond.

US Firm Accused of Conducting Covert Pakistan Operations AgainstTaliban Leaders

Tuesday, November 24, 2009
23:02 Mecca time, 20:02 GMT

US firm ‘runs covert Pakistan ops’

Peshawar has borne the brunt of recent Taliban attacks in retaliation for a military offensive

A new report has accused the US private security firm formerly known as Blackwater of operating a covert assassination and kidnapping programme against suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda members in northwest Pakistan.

In an article published on Monday, The Nation magazine alleged that the firm, now known as Xe, is also involved in running a US military drone bombing campaign out of Pakistan.

Jeremy Scahill, the investigative journalist who broke the story, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that the programme was so secretive that senior officials in the administration of Barack Obama, the US president, were likely unaware of it.

“What I learned is that for years there has been a covert operation of the US military inside Pakistan’s borders … and that Blackwater operatives are at the centre of not only the drone bombing campaign but also planning snatch-and-grab operations of high value targets.”

Hunting bin Laden

Scahill, citing military intelligence sources and a former Blackwater official, said the programme began with an agreement between the US and Pakistani governments.

“In 2006, the Bush administration struck a deal with the government in Islamabad that would allow US special forces to actually enter Pakistani territory if what they were doing was hunting Osama bin Laden or his top deputies.

“The agreement was such that the Pakistanis said that they would have the right to deny that they had given permission.”

There was no immediate comment from Islamabad on the story, and Scahill said that the White House also failed to respond to his request for comment.

But he said the office of Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, had contacted him to reject the allegations.

“I did not call them, they called me and told me that the [allegations] did not stand up to reality,” Scahill said.

“I’ve talked to my sources though, and they say that its possible that officials within the military chain of command are simply not in what [they] called ‘the circle of love’ on this programme.”

US officials have said that they believe northwest Pakistan is a hiding place for al-Qaeda fighters, including Osama Bin Laden.

Blackwater blamed

The northwest tribal region, and in particular Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), have borne the brunt of attacks perpetrated by the Taliban in recent weeks.

The attacks are in apparent retaliation for a military offensive launched in the country’s semi-autonomous tribal region of South Waziristan against members of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, one of the main anti-government groups.

But a spokesman for the Taliban last week blamed Blackwater for at least two of the recent bombings.

Azam Tariq posted a video statement on the internet, saying the Taliban attacks never aimed to target civilians and that the explosions were linked to Blackwater activities in the country.

Xe has denied having any contracts in Pakistan.

The North Carolina-based firm provides security for diplomats around the world, but it is facing charges of human rights violations stemming its part from a 2007 shooting in Iraq that left 17 civilians dead.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Letter to the President From Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney

Letter to the President From Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney

This morning, I sent this letter to President Obama:

“Mr. President:

I are writing to urge you to announce an immediate cease-fire followed by a withdrawal of all US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan in the fastest way consistent with the safety of our forces.

I urge you to end the use of Predator drones that kill civilians.

I call upon you to cease all covert operations in Africa, Asia, and
North and South America.

Too many of your military advisors are implicated in torture, war
crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes against the peace. Your Justice Department operates at the zenith of injustice, defending Bush Administration criminality in U.S. Courtrooms.

I wrote to you earlier suggesting that if you did not investigate the
crimes of the Bush Administration, you would be viewed as their
accessory. Sadly, war crimes and torture are now committed with your name on them.

Please bring our troops home now.”

A peace demonstration is being organized for December 12, 2009 in
Washington, D.C. The Emergency Anti-Escalation Rally, also known as the End US Wars Rally, is scheduled for 11am at Lafayette Park at the White House. I wholly endorse this rally and encourage all who can to participate in Washington, DC or to help a local peace organization committed to ending U.S. wars on that date.

For more information about the Washington, D.C. December 12, 2009 demonstration, please visit http://www.endUSwars.org , currently under construction.

P.S. President Obama’s Department of Justice, unlike President
Clinton’s that refused to even prosecute, just took Lynne Stewart to
prison and is trying to extend her sentence from 28 months to 3O
years. Please take a moment and write a letter of encouragement to
Lynne Stewart, the people’s attorney, who is now Prisoner #53504-054 at MCC-NY. Her address is:

Lynne Stewart
53504-054
MCC-NY
150 Park Row
New York, NY 10007
–
http://www.livestream.com/dignity
http://dignity.ning.com/
http://www.twitter.com/dignityaction
http://www.myspace.com/dignityaction
http://www.myspace.com/runcynthiarun
http://www.twitter.com/cynthiamckinney
http://www.facebook.com/CynthiaMcKinney

African Union Chairman Gaddafi To Mediate Football Row Between Egyptand Algeria

Gaddafi ‘to mediate’ football row

Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi has agreed to mediate between Algeria and Egypt in an increasingly heated row over football, state media says.

Libyan news agency Jana reported that the Arab League had asked Col Gaddafi to intercede between the two nations.

Each side accused the other’s fans of violent attacks after last
week’s vital World Cup play-off, which Algeria won.

Diplomatic spats have followed and Algerian tour operators have now suspended all trips to Egypt.

Algeria’s Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni has accused the Egyptian
authorities of failing to provide the players with adequate
protection.

Meanwhile, Egypt has accused the Algerian authorities of orchestrating a campaign of violence against its football fans.

The BBC Arab affairs analyst Magdi Abdelhadi says repeated appeals for calm and rational thinking have been ignored.

He says politicians on both sides appear to believe they can boost
their popularity by playing the nationalist card.

Embassy protests

Jana news agency reported that Arab League chief Amr Musa had asked Col Gaddafi to play the role of mediator.

“As chairman of the African Union, the Guide of the Revolution [Col
Gaddafi] is going to work to bridge the gulf that has opened up
between Egypt and Algeria,” Jana reported.

Algeria qualified for the World Cup by beating Egypt 1-0 in a play-off
match held in Sudan on 18 November.

But Egyptians were incensed by reports that Egyptian fans had been
attacked as they left the stadium in Khartoum.

Hundreds of Egyptians protested near the Algerian embassy on Thursday and Friday.

Fifa inquiry

And Egypt threatened to quit international football for two years
after complaining to football’s governing body, Fifa, about the
behaviour of Algerian fans in Khartoum.

But Algeria and Sudan have accused Egypt of exaggerating the
post-match violence.

Fifa has opened an inquiry into the Khartoum incidents.

It has already begun disciplinary proceedings against Egypt after an
earlier match between the two nations on 14 November in Cairo.

The Algerian team bus was pelted with stones before the game and three of the team’s players were injured.

The teams needed the play-off after they finished tied at the top of
their qualification group with equal points and an identical goal
difference.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/8377211.stm
Published: 2009/11/24 17:51:50 GMT

Two in Chicago Accused in Danish Newspaper Plot and Mumbai Attacks

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-terrorist-suspects-mumbainov24,0,3491129.story

Two accused of Danish newspaper plot investigated for ties to Mumbai attacks

Indian officials cite possible connection to last year’s deadly assaults

By Jeff Coen and Hal Dardick
Tribune reporters
November 24, 2009

Authorities in Chicago are looking into allegations that two local men
accused of plotting an assault on a Danish newspaper that published controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad may be linked to other plots, including a terrorist assault in Mumbai last year that left more than 170 dead, sources said.

David Coleman Headley, who has cooperated with authorities, is being investigated as a scout for the Mumbai attack, which targeted multiple sites, including two hotels, a train station, a cafe and a Jewish community center.

A source familiar with the probe said Headley’s co-defendant in the
newspaper case, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, is suspected to have paid for Headley’s India missions.

Neither man has been charged in connection with the Mumbai planning, though officials in India were outspoken last week about their possible connection to the attacks. The militant Pakistani group
Lashkar-e-Taiba, linked to Rana and Headley in court documents here, has been blamed for the Mumbai attacks.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago has declined to say whether
charges against the men here could be upgraded to account for their
suspected roles in the Mumbai operation. U.S. citizens lost their
lives in the coordinated attacks.

So far, Headley, a Pakistani American, is charged with conspiring to
commit a terror act outside the U.S., and Rana, a Pakistani native
with Canadian citizenship, has been charged with providing material
support to terrorism. Those charges relate only to the plan in
Denmark, where Headley is alleged to have staked out the Copenhagen offices of the newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

Prosecutors here also have said Rana discussed other targets with Headley.

Both men are to appear in court in Chicago next week, Rana on Dec. 2 and Headley on Dec. 4. Both remain in custody. Rana’s lawyer, Patrick Blegen, has denied the allegations. Headley’s attorney, John Theis, declined to comment Monday.

jcoen@tribune.com

hdardick@tribune.com

Ban voices concern as tensions grow between Western Sahara parties

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is concerned by the growing tension between the parties to the Western Sahara negotiations, which have increased following the recent detention of several groups of Saharawi activists.

Obama Holds Afghanistan War Meeting

Tuesday, November 24, 2009
12:56 Mecca time, 09:56 GMT

Obama holds Afghan war meeting

Obama’s decision is expected before Nato meets on sending more trainers next month

The US president has met his national security team for what looks like the final time before he decides on whether to send more troops to bolster the fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The White House had indicated that Monday’s meeting - Barack Obama’s ninth with his senior advisers on the war - will be the last before he announces his decision.

Obama met Joe Biden, the vice-president, Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, Robert Gates, the defence secretary, and other senior officials at the White House.

No decision is expected to be announced until next Monday at the earliest, with Washington all but closing down for the Thanksgiving holiday later this week.

“It’s not going to happen this week,” Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, said. “Obviously the first possible time would be some time next week.”

US officials and Western diplomats say they expect his announcement before a Nato meeting on December 7 in Europe in which alliance members could agree to send thousands of additional trainers to Afghanistan.

The US currently has nearly 68,000 troops deployed to fight a resurgent Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

As Obama debates a revised strategy in the eight-year war, officials say he is considering four options.

Afghanistan options

The US currently has nearly 68,000 troops deployed to fight a resurgent Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. As Obama debates a revised strategy in the eight-year war, officials say he is considering four options.

One option is the request put forward by the top US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, for 40,000 more troops to secure the towns and cities.

Another option, said to be carrying the most favour among officials, is an increase of 30,000. Washington could then try to convince Nato allies to contribute, bringing the number of troops to the 40,000 McChrystal recommended.

Options three and four include significantly lower troop deployments, from 20,000 to 15,000, most of who would serve as trainers for the Afghan security forces.

One option is the request put forward by the top US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, for 40,000 more troops to secure the towns and cities.

Another option, said to be carrying the most favour among officials, is an increase of 30,000. Washington could then try to convince Nato allies to make up the shortfall of 10,000.

Options three and four include significantly lower troop deployments, from 15,000 to 20,000, most of whom would serve as trainers for the Afghan security forces.

Obama and his advisers have debated options ranging from sending the tens of thousands more troops requested by McChrystal to limiting troop increases and concentrating on attacking al-Qaeda targets.

But reports have suggested that the advisers are rallying around options that would see a deployment of between 30,000 and 40,000 troops and trainers sent to Afghanistan.

Moves to send more troops face opposition from a public disillusioned with the long-running conflict and politicians from Obama’s own Democratic party, who say the US must start looking for a way out of Afghanistan.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll found last week that 46 per cent of Americans support a large influx of troops to battle Taliban fighters and train the Afghan military, while 45 per cent favour a smaller number to focus on training Afghan security forces.

Obama’s decision has also been complicated by concerns about corruption and governance in the administration of Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president.

Karzai was sworn in for a second term last week after an election marred by widespread fraud and farce as his main challenger refused to take part in a second round run-off.

Delays and doubts

Opposition Republicans, who tend to favour sending a large number of troops, have criticised Obama for taking as long as he has to decide.

Dick Cheney, the former vice-president, told a radio show on Monday that “the delay is not cost-free”.

“Every day that goes by raises doubts in the minds of our friends in the region about what you’re going to do, raises doubts in the minds of the troops.”

Richard Holbrooke, Obama’s special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, hit back at critics who say Obama is dithering.

“I’ve seen a lot of these things. This is the most thorough, the most sustained, the most thoughtful process I have ever seen,” he said , on Monday before the White House meeting.

“Over the long course of it, we have all learnt a great deal from each other in a way which I think is exactly the way a decision should be made.”

Gibbs pointed out that the president was making “a complicated decision” and said: “I think the American people want the president to take the time to get this decision right, rather than to make a hasty decision,” he said.

Meanwhile, the violence continues unabated, with seven soldiers, - four Americans and three Afghans - as well as five Afghan civilians killed in a series of attacks across the country in the past two days.

Source: Agencies