I was going to say until the U.S., U.K., and Israelis are brought before it I'm not paying attention, but....
"Hague court to study Israeli war actions" New York Times January 17, 2015
NEW YORK — Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court opened a preliminary examination Friday of possible war crimes committed in the Palestinian territories, the first formal step that could lead to charges against Israelis.
Palestinian officials welcomed the announcement of the inquiry by the court’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, who described it as a required procedural step.
Israeli officials reacted furiously, calling it an inflammatory action in the protracted dispute with the Palestinians over Israeli-occupied lands.
Israel’s foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said he would recommend that his government not cooperate with the inquiry. He also said Israel would seek to disband the court, which he described as an anti-Israel institution that “embodies hypocrisy and grants a tailwind to terrorism.”
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: “Palestine considers this as an important positive step toward achieving justice and ensuring respect for international law.”
Accusing Israel of “systematic and blatant” breaches of international law, including attacks during the war in Gaza last summer, the statement added, “Ending this impunity is an important contribution to upholding universal values, ensuring accountability, and achieving peace.”
"Bensouda’s announcement came a few weeks after President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, over the strong objections of Israel and the United States, signed the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the court in The Hague, and formally accepted its jurisdiction."
Well, he gave them a deadline on Israel and the response from US Ambassador Samantha Power was: ‘‘We strongly believe that the only way of a negotiated solution is through negotiations between the two parties.’’
Of course, that was not the way Israel was established back in 1948 and it didn't hold back recognition (related? Same as France?) then. Israel just keeps pushing forward on the fast-track while increasing the funding and they wonder why there are clashes with the military to the point where even tourists, government officials, and even American consular officials are being attacked. Who would want to visit now with all the provocations? Even the UN chief, Amnesty International, and the Israel attorney general are getting sick of the oppression in the occupied territories.
Now what kind of an asshole is saying ‘‘if the Palestinian Authority continues to attack us?’’
Nevertheless, after the Arab League backed and endorsed the Palestinian's move to join the international criminal court "the United States, Israel’s closest ally, had made clear its opposition to the draft resolution and would have used its veto if necessary. But it didn’t have to because the resolution failed to get the minimum nine ‘‘yes’’ votes required for adoption by the 15-member council. The resolution received eight ‘‘yes’’ votes, two ‘‘no’’ votes — one from the United States and the other from Australia — and five abstentions."
And the punishment for such a move is the cessation of aid.
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Related: Israel ready to build West Bank housing
Most of the world considers the settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank to be a violation of international law.
But no one does anything about it.
Joan Peters, 78; book on Mideast drew praise, condemnation
A journalist whose 1984 book, “From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict Over Palestine,” drew accolades and also outrage by arguing that claims of a historical Palestinian homeland in Israel were invented.
The strange thing is it is the Khazarian usurpers from Central Asia that don't have the claim.
They all migrated into Eastern Europe:
Bosnia’s 1992-95 war killed over 100,000 people
"Arrests made in massacre of 19 during Balkans war" Associated Press December 06, 2014
PRIJEPOLJE, Serbia — Police in Serbia and Bosnia arrested 15 people Friday in connection with a two-decade-old wartime massacre that traumatized the Balkans and came to symbolize a culture of impunity that still shields wartime death squads and their masters.
Related: Senate faces new obstacle to its report on detainee torture
Kinda stresses one out.
The question now is whether the suspects will point to the men above them who ordered the killings, investigators say.
If so, they could implicate some of Serbia’s top former and current officials, who were prominent in the war machine of the president at the time, Slobodan Milosevic.
While the Serbian government now acknowledges Strpci as a war crime, the killers are still seen by some in Serbia as war heroes. ‘‘Many war criminals are still influential in business, politics, police, and the army,’’ said Bosnian State Prosecutor Goran Salihovic.
The mirror of my own society is uncanny.
The Associated Press obtained investigative documents in the inquiry, which is backed by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.
The massacre was part of a conflict that left more than 100,000 people dead and millions displaced.
All sides have been accused of war crimes, but historians say Serbs in Bosnia and Croatia carried out the worst atrocities in trying to create an ethnically pure territory....
Related: Cabinet backs bill promoting Israel’s Jewishness
Never mind the hypocrisy; just remember that the Serbs were the ones that stood up to the Jew World Order.
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Related:
Croatia presidency to be decided in runoff
Croatia elects first female president A conservative populist beat the center-left incumbent, could shift Croatia back to right-wing nationalism, jeopardizing relations with its neighbors.
Oh, look, the Nazis are back in charge.
"The case of a Vermont man accused of committing war crimes in his native Bosnia 21 years ago and lying to US immigration authorities about them is headed to a jury. If convicted, 55-year-old Edin Sakoc could be stripped of his US citizenship and deported. In closing arguments Thursday, federal prosecutors alleged Sakoc lied when he denied being involved in war crimes against a Bosnian Serb family in the summer of 1992 during the Bosnian civil war. He is accused of raping a woman, aiding in the killings of two elderly women she had been caring for, and burning down the house where they were staying. Defense attorneys said another person committed the crimes (AP)."
Also see: Vermont man convicted of lying about Bosnian war crimes role
Next on the docket:
Court drops charges on Kenyan president
"More than 30 massacred in Kenya" New York Times Syndicate December 03, 2014
Militants massacred more than 30 people at a remote quarry in northern Kenya on Tuesday, the second such unnerving attack in the past month that Kenyan security services seem unable to stop.
Kenyan newspapers reported that 36 people were marched to a gravel pit, where most were shot in the head, with some beheaded.
The imagery it invokes....
Pictures on social media websites showed dozens of men lying face down on a stony hillside.
I wish I could believe in social media websites cited by the propaganda pre$$.
According to preliminary reports, more than 10 gunmen methodically separated the non-Muslims to be killed, sparing the Muslims.
The massacre was similar to a bus attack in the same area Nov. 22, in which Islamist militants separated Christians from Muslims, killing those who could not recite an Islamic declaration of faith. More than 25 people were killed.
The governor of Mandera County, Ali Roba, said the killings had taken place at a quarry about 10 miles from the town of Mandera.
Al Shabab, the Islamist group based in Somalia, claimed responsibility for the bus attack and is the likely culprit for the quarry massacre.
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Also see:
Kenya president argues for tougher security law
Kenya legislators exchange blows over new security law
Kenyan police tear-gas children in protest over playground
They care more about the rhinoceroses, kids:
"Rhino species to die unless science can help" by Jason Straziuso, Associated Press December 11, 2014
OL PEJETA, Kenya — The staving off extinction experiment has all but failed.
The silver lining, though, is science. Efforts will be made to keep the species alive through in vitro fertilization, and possibly by working with the rhinos’ genetic material in a budding field known as de-extinction.
Some animal specialists at the time said the effort was too little, too late, and that the experiment’s budget could have been better spent on other conservation projects. But the bulk of the more than $100,000 effort came from a donor — Alastair Lucas, then the vice chairman of Goldman Sachs in Australia — who wanted to see the project carried out....
It really is a banker's paper.
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"South African rangers kill 3 poachers" by Christopher Torchia, Associated Press December 14, 2014
JOHANNESBURG — Some South African rangers grimly call it the ‘‘Christmas shopping’’ season for rhino poachers.
They are referring to an annual phenomenon in which poacher incursions into Kruger National Park, South Africa’s flagship wildlife reserve, escalate in the final months of the year before tapering off around the year-end holiday season.
Reflecting that trend, rangers killed three poachers in the past week in a flurry of shootouts in Kruger, the national parks service said. Demand for rhino horn is surging in parts of Asia where it is seen as a status symbol and a cure for illness despite a lack of evidence that it can heal. The horn is made of keratin, a protein also found in human skin and nails.
The surge in poaching and then the drop at year’s end could be linked partly to the holiday period when people spend time with family, conservationists said. Also, poachers prefer to operate in the southern African summer months toward the end of the year, when there is more foliage to hide in and rain showers can cover poachers’ tracks, Daphne said.
Poaching tends to increase sharply after any Christmastime dip, he said, while the rate drops again in the midyear winter when it is dry and there is less bush cover....
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Related: Rhino Syndicates Targeted as South Africa Battles With Poachers
"The UN group said illegal cutting of timber and poaching of elephants and rhinos are part of a ‘‘rapidly escalating environmental crime wave.’’
Flood death toll across Southern Africa reaches 260
Blame the foreigners.
Speaking of crimes:
"S. African death-squad leader earns parole" by Dan Bilefsky, New York Times January 31, 2015
His crimes became emblematic of some of the worst abuses in the apartheid era, including the torture of black activists. One of the trademarks of the Vlakplaas unit was to bind a man with rope, place him over explosives, and blow him up, a technique that killed the victim and destroyed the evidence.
South African news reports quoted Justice Minister Michael Masutha as saying that Eugene de Kock, 66, the death-squad leader known as “Prime Evil” because of his abuses of black activists during the apartheid era, was to be freed “in the interests of nation-building,” and because he had shown remorse. Masutha also said that de Kock had helped authorities recover the remains of some of his victims.
The case laid bare South Africa’s struggle to balance justice and reconciliation, reflected in the hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the 1990s. The commission sought to foster unity after the trauma and divisiveness of the apartheid era by granting amnesty in some cases in which suspects were deemed to have shown remorse for their actions.
While de Kock has expressed contrition, critics say that his ruthless brutality merits no mercy, and that he deserves to spend his life behind bars....
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I'll stop dicking around, readers.
Somali teen’s death leads to murder charge, hate crimes inquiry in Mo.
At least 5 dead after militants attack African Union base in Somalia
Islamic extremist leader surrenders in Somalia
"Long-sought Islamic militant surrenders in Somalia" by Abdi Guled, Associated Press December 28, 2014
NAIROBI — A leader with the Islamic extremist group Al Shabab, who had a $3 million bounty on his head, surrendered in Somalia, an intelligence official said Saturday.
Zakariya Ismail Ahmed Hersi turned himself in to Somali police in the Gedo region, said the official, who insisted on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the news media.
The officer said Hersi may have surrendered after a falling out with those loyal to Hersi was one of seven top Al Shabab figures sought in 2012 by the Obama administration, which offered a total of $33 million in rewards for information leading to their capture.
That's tax money during this time of austerity.
It is not clear whether the reward will be paid out for Hersi’s surrender.
Despite major setbacks this year, Al Shabab remains a threat in Somalia and across East Africa. The group has carried out many terror attacks in Somalia and in neighboring countries including Kenya, part of the African Union forces bolstering Somalia’s weak UN- backed government.
On Christmas Day, Al Shabab launched an attack at the African Union base in Mogadishu. Officials said nine people died, including three African Union soldiers, in the battle at the complex, which also houses UN offices and Western embassies.
Al Shabab said the attack was aimed at a Christmas party and was in retaliation for Godane’s death this fall.
Related: Goddamn Godane is Dead
It also reported 14 soldiers were killed.
The group is waging an insurgency against Somalia’s government, which is attempting to rebuild the country after decades of conflict.
Al Shabab controlled much of Mogadishu from 2007 to 2011 but was pushed out of Somalia’s capital and other major cities by African Union forces.
The United States and the United Nations warn that political infighting is putting at risk the security gains. The federal government wields little power outside the capital Mogadishu.
Once one of Al Qaeda’s most powerful and feared franchises, Al Shabab has been in retreat for months, pushed back by African Union peacekeepers, defections, and an increasingly hostile populace.
The US airstrike in September that killed Ahmed Abdi Godane, Al Shabab’s top leader, left the group in further disarray and apparently created a rift in the leadership ranks.
Still, Al Shabab remains dangerous, unpredictable and bold, known for audacious and chilling attacks in Somalia. It has also sought to terrorize neighboring Kenya, where many Somali refugees have fled over the years.
Al-CIA-Bob.
This month, Al Shabab attackers seized dozens of Kenyan miners, separated the Christians from the Muslims, and executed the Christians, according to Kenyan authorities.
Last month Al Shabab attackers hijacked a Kenya bus, pulled out the Christian passengers and killed them.
Earlier this month, a suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into a UN convoy near Mogadishu’s airport, killing three people, just after Somalia’s president entered the protected airport area.
According to UN officials, no UN staff were killed or injured.
Hmmmm.
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"Suicide car bomber kills 4 in attack on elite US-trained forces in Somalia" Associated Press January 05, 2015
NAIROBI — A suicide car bomber blew himself up near a moving convoy of Somalia’s US-trained elite forces in Mogadishu, killing at least four people, a Somali police officer said Sunday.
The Somali militant group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the group’s Radio Andulus.
The attack on the airport road in the capital killed mostly pedestrians walking along the road, said Captain Mohamed Hussein.
Mohamed Yusuf, the spokesman of Somalia’s National Security Ministry, said the government had information about the attack, and the car bomb was detonated while the attacker was being pursued.
‘‘We shall continue preventing such attacks; however we ask people to work with us,’’ he told reporters in Mogadishu.
Al-Shabab is an ultraconservative Islamic militant group that is linked to the Al Qaeda terrorist network and wants to run Somalia by its strict interpretation of Shariah law.
In Yemen on Sunday, Al Qaeda militants bombed an office of Shi’ite Houthi rebels south of Yemen’s capital Sunday, killing six Houthis and wounding 31, officials said.
Related: Why Yemen?
I'll have more on it above next month.
Police said the bombing in Dhamar province, some 62 miles from Sana, targeted a local headquarters of the Houthi movement, which has seized a string of Yemeni cities, including the capital. One of the dead was a journalist who worked for a Houthi-affiliated television station.
Although Somali militants have suffered huge losses in recent years, including the killing of their leader in a US airstrike last year, al-Shabab remains a threat. Al-Shabab leader Ahmed Godane was killed in a US airstrike in September.
African Union troops supporting Somalia’s weak army have pushed al-Shabab from major strongholds, including Mogadishu in 2011. However, al-Shabab fighters still carry out terror attacks in Somalia’s capital and in neighboring countries that have contributed troops to the African Union Mission to Somalia.
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Also see:
Zimbabwean president dismisses more government officials
Looks like peace is dead in Africa.
Time to get back on the horse.
UPDATE: US set to deport 150 from Bosnia over war crimes
