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Ear to the Ground

The ICC’s First Tooth

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Posted on Mar 4, 2009
Sudan's Al-Bashir
breakfornews.com

A key part of the case against Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir is his alleged participation in the genocide in Darfur.

The International Criminal Court is getting its teeth, as judges have ordered the arrest of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity—including murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture and rape—marking the first time the ICC has issued a warrant for a sitting head of state.

Many in the international community have seen the ICC as a neocolonial forum for justice against those who don’t have global political might—with cases that focus against countries in the global south—rather than a universal arbiter of wrong and right (such as trying the U.S. or China or Russia, etc.).

The New York Times:

Judges at the International Criminal Court ordered the arrest Wednesday of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan, charging him with war crimes and crimes against humanity for a concerted government campaign against civilians. They did not include the charge of genocide requested by the prosecutor.

In issuing the order, the three judges brushed aside diplomatic requests for more time for peace talks and fears that the warrant would incite a violent backlash in the country. They had taken more than seven months to examine the evidence.

It is the first time the court, which opened in 2002, has sought the arrest of a sitting head of state, though other international war crimes courts have issued warrants for Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia and Charles Taylor of Liberia while they were sitting presidents.

The judges charged Mr. Bashir with five counts of crimes against humanity, including murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture and rape. The two counts of war crimes were for attacks against a civilian population and for pillaging.

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By wadosy, March 7, 2009 at 10:35 am Link to this comment

the “genocide” in darfur has been pumped up by the jewish organizations who are so proud of spearheading the drive for “humanitarian intervention”, which is the euphemism for occupation of the chad/darfur oil patch and eviction of the chinese oil company in south sudan.

it’s no mystery why there’s some conflict going on in darfur, since the rebels are being supported by israel, with a view towards raising enough cain that the so-called “humanitarian intervention” can be justified…. and by the same token, it’s no wonder that the jewish agencies leading the drive towards intervention are exaggerating the casualties.

so, according to israel, what’s the problem with darfur?

the problem isnt so much in darfur as it is with sudan… sudan sells lots of oil to china, and china is israeli america’s main rival when is comes to acquiring oil… worst of all, the chinese can buy oil faster than israeli america can steal it.

so the israelis and israeli americans are applying a familiar tactic… they’re stirring up hillbilly malcontents in darfur to destabilize sudan with the aim of expelling the chinese and claiming sudanese oil that’s adjacent to darfur, which may explain why the “darfur rebels” have opened an office in israel.

this tactic has, with wide support from the zionist media, had some success… the president of sudan has been declared a war criminal, but the israeli american armies are spread kinda thin at the moment, so sudan’s been put on the back burner, militarily speaking.

maybe you could use a big map to keep track of the project… sad to say, the darfur operation fits in ever so nicely with the overall PNAC project, and whatever else the truth may be about the operation, one thing is obvious.

it fits.

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By Folktruther, March 6, 2009 at 4:33 pm Link to this comment

Thanks, omop, I’m looking through their stuff.

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By omop, March 6, 2009 at 7:30 am Link to this comment

Folktruther.

This is one of many.http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2006/03/elie_wiesel_on_.html

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By Folktruther, March 5, 2009 at 6:44 pm Link to this comment

You’re right, Omop, Sudan, as Africa’s largest nation territorially has large oil deposits around Dafur, and Sudan oil is being developed by China.

But Elie Wiesal is involved?  And I always thought, possibly wrongly,  that Soros was one Jewish billionaire who was NOT a Zionist.  Are they behind the well financed campaign to SAVE DAFUR (by invading and stealing their oil.)

Is there any short article that lays it out that you know of?

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By omop, March 5, 2009 at 3:25 pm Link to this comment

Contrast the ICC’s actions with those of the “3 Cabballeros” of USA, Canada and Israel in boycotting the UN’s Durban !! conference on Racism.

Darfur is one of Elie Weisel’s prime projects. Its common knowledge in Africa that Weisel personally or in concert fronts for western financial interests ie Soros and others.

  IN THE REAL WORLD OF PETROLEUM DEPOSITS DARFUR WHICH HAS ALWAYS BEEN PART OF THE SUDAN AS WELL AS OTHER AREAS OF THE SUDAN ARE RELATIVELY RICH IN NATURAL RESOURCES.

  AT THE PRESENT CHINESE INTERESTS AND COMMITMEENTS TO THE SUDAN AND OTHER AFRICAN NATIONS ESPECIALLY IN PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENT IS PROVIDING COMPETITION TO US AND BRITISH FIRMS.

As some one has already mentioned Bush and Blair are responsible for killing more Iraqis, Arabs,Afghans, Pakistanis, as well as Africans than the number killed by the President of the Sudan.

FOLLOW THE OIL, AND THE MONEY.

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By cyrena, March 5, 2009 at 1:33 pm Link to this comment

Given that, however, despite Cyrena’s usual bullship and intellectual dishonesty, and attributing comments to truthers which they did not say or imply, she has a point.

~~~~

Folktruther,

This is how you show your own treacherous deceit. Would you like to site some comment that I have erroneously attributed to truthers that you don’t name.

Of course you can’t.

So what else is new?

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By Folktruther, March 5, 2009 at 1:23 pm Link to this comment

It’s encouraging to see that the truthdig commenters are so knowledgable, and understand that the court is under Western influence.  It is crucial that that is said.  Given that, however, despite Cyrena’s usual bullship and intellectual dishonesty, and attributing comments to truthers which they did not say or imply, she has a point.

Even though it is bigoted law, it is law in an area that needs it. It is mostly wrong but has a sliver of rightness.  Unfortunately, this is how history appears to go forward, sideways like a crab.  a little bit of rightness in a bushel of wrong.

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By truedigger3, March 5, 2009 at 11:14 am Link to this comment

The trouble in Darfour started when oil was discovered there.
All what followed was a result of foreign calendestine intervention using their local agents in Darfour to grab that oil away from the Sudanese
people.
Selective justice is not justice but a mockery of justice.
Eventually there will be an armed foreign intervention and the people of Darfour and the rest of sudan will suffer immensely.

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By hannahh kelly, March 5, 2009 at 7:08 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

This the first step taken by ICC to bring people into justice irrespective of their political stature, will the ICC try and bring in this justice irrespective of the power of the nation and its ruler is still remaining to be answered. Take your stance on the issue at [url=“http://www.allvoices.com/journalism”]
http://www.allvoices.com/journalism [/url].

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By cyrena, March 4, 2009 at 9:21 pm Link to this comment

Virginia777,

I’ve just been reading over your posts, and linked to the articles as well. It’s despicable, (though probably not surprising) that Mia Farrow would actually have approached Erik Prince about a blackwater role in Darfur.

I agree that these Hollywood types, and even some of the other many NGO related entities are generally far more trouble than they’re worth, and that a few of them have probably made things worse, and have been unethical in their operations. No specific organizations come to mind, at least not that I have any documented proof of such improprieties might be concerned – and documented proof of such allegations is an absolute requirement before I would sign on to any specifics.
Be that as it may, I was admittedly HORRIFIED at this:

By Virginia777, March 4 at 2:40 pm

•  “This is so bogus (and so scary). So these “Save Darfur” “Dream for Darfur”* “Investor’s Against Genocide” on and on and on… these people have managed to permeate the International Court??”
NO! They have NOT managed to ‘permeate the International Court’ and THAT is what I would call seriously dangerous rhetoric, and more than a little bit scary.

The ICC and the jurists who come up with these decisions are NOT part of any ‘permeation’ by political activists from Hollywood or anywhere else. They are learned jurists who know the law.

So, this conflagration you’ve used to basically undermine the value of the International Court (still a fledging operation I admit) by claiming them to be under the influence of the ‘hollywood types’ is really troubling. Obviously it is more ‘troubling’ to some of us than others, and I happen to fall in the category of those who have spent many hours of many years studying the causes and effects of these conflicts/genocides/ethnic cleansings, and the ways in which the International community might address them. In reality, the Convention for the Elimination and Punishment for the Crime of Genocide has been mostly unsuccessful in its mandate of the past 61+ years, particularly in terms of the elimination of this practice, because we wouldn’t be talking about it right now, if it wasn’t still a common occurrence.

But there has finally been some headway here, and I’m hoping that you’ll actually read the article, to know that there is absolutely no connection between the decision of the Jurists and the Hollywood clique of weirdos.

And NO, this is NOT ‘bogus’. The Bashir regime has been as brutally genocidal as any other head of state in any other genocide. It’s the way genocides unfold. I don’t expect anything to happen to him, at least not any time soon. But the Courts still need to do their jobs, something that was prevented from happening during the Era of Applied Bullshit from the Dick Cheney Regime.

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By Chris Herz, March 4, 2009 at 7:43 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

The International Criminal Court is just like our domestic US courts:  Ok to try black Africans, not so good at trying white Americans or Europeans or Israelis.  Even its former chief prosecutor, Carla da Ponte has said as much in her book, which cannot be published in the USA. 

Al-Bashir creep that he is, has killed nowhere near as many persons as George W. Bush and Tony Blair. Certainly he never committed the supreme international crime of aggressive war against other sovereign nations.

Chris Herz
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

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By cyrena, March 4, 2009 at 7:20 pm Link to this comment

The New York Times:

“Judges at the International Criminal Court ordered the arrest Wednesday of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan, charging him with war crimes and crimes against humanity for a concerted government campaign against civilians. They did not include the charge of genocide requested by the prosecutor.”

So, they did not include the charge of genocide requested by the prosecutor.
WHY is that?

Same old politics that ALWAYS prevent the perpetrators from being charged with this particular crime, because then we’d have to call the Palestinian GENOCIDE and a few others of the same, by their rightful names as well.

What al-Bashir has been perpetrating is GENOCIDE, but nobody ever wants to call it what it is, at least not in the official political posture of the legal system, and specifically here at the ICC (fledgling ) part of the structure.

That said, this is certainly progress in terms of cutting that first tooth. If they couldn’t get him one way, (genocide) then they’ve certainly got plenty of other back up in all of these war crimes.
So this is MAJOR PROGRESS for Humanity and the Universal Rule of Law, and Justice for All, and I celebrate this first tooth with much appreciation.

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Virginia777's avatar

By Virginia777, March 4, 2009 at 6:09 pm Link to this comment

excerpts from the article “Activists turn to Blackwater over Darfur”
from the Financial Times:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4699eda6-3d65-11dd-bbb5-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

Ms Farrow said she had approached Erik Prince, founder and owner of Blackwater, to discuss whether a military role was either feasible or desirable.

She acknowledged that many people might have reservations about Blackwater being involved in Darfur – the company’s men were involved in the fatal shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians last September – but said the threat of violence to refugees meant all options had to be explored.

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Leefeller's avatar

By Leefeller, March 4, 2009 at 5:53 pm Link to this comment

Wheels of justice selecting their cases, according to what guide lines?  Ease, blatancy and numbers of dead?

How easy to prosecute, the blatant disregard of world opinion and the number of people murdered or abused? 

Be interesting how they selected this one over others, I would feel better if they prosecuted someone closer to home.  At least this is still ongoing, compared to Mission Accomplished.

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By Saleema, March 4, 2009 at 12:14 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

When the ICC starts going after western, white men, then I will be impressed. Easy to prosecute and issue arrest warrants on a third-world countyr leader, especially in Africa.

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Virginia777's avatar

By Virginia777, March 4, 2009 at 9:40 am Link to this comment

This is so bogus (and so scary).

So these “Save Darfur” “Dream for Darfur”* “Investor’s Against Genocide” on and on and on…

these people have managed to permeate the International Court??

* lovely Mia Farrow, front-woman for Dream for Darfur had the nerve to approach none other than Blackwater (oh, sorry, make that “Xe”) for military intervention into Darfur.

yes its true - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4699eda6-3d65-11dd-bbb5-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

(talk about Rosemary’s Baby!)

This bogus ruling must be revoked!

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By AWM, March 4, 2009 at 9:26 am Link to this comment

When the ICC starts prosecuting the leaders of the US Canada Britain etc for their war crimes then I would be impressed.

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