"...a terrible crime has been committed." Bush/bLiar prosecuting! Robert Parry

[autorank]

The assisanation of the Lebanese Prime Minisster was a tragedy and truly a crime of the first order. How ironic it is that the two leaders who got the UN to form an international tribunal are invaders under whose leadership more than 3500 Americans have died as have 600 thousand Iraq CIVILIANS. This was a war of couice, hence the leaders are responsible for deaths that happened only because Bush/bLiar insisted.

The Hariri Case & Double Standards

By Robert Parry LINK
May 31, 2007

A terrible crime has been committed in the Middle East. Many innocent people have died. International law may have been violated. The United Nations is determined to bring the perpetrators to justice. An extraordinary international tribunal will be organized with the authority to assess guilt and recommend punishments.

As this crime drama unfolds, the two great defenders of international law and world peace are George W. Bush and Tony Blair. Their determination secured U.N. approval for a special tribunal to identify and punish the conspirators behind the Feb. 14, 2005, bombing that killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 22 others.

Yet, as worthy as it would be to find and punish Hariri’s assassins, the larger message from the U.N.’s tribunal is that the one truly enduring and overriding precept of international relations is that might makes right.

Though the U.S. President and the British Prime Minister have the blood of possibly a half million Iraqis on their hands – deaths attributable to an illegal invasion in defiance of the U.N. Charter – no one in a position of authority would be foolhardy enough to suggest that Bush and Blair be hauled before a tribunal for their crimes.

[leftchick]

1. "64,000 dead Iraqis"

That is the number quoted on CNN International the other day. It pisses me off that they rely on the number from Iraq Body Count (who runs that anyway?) and completely ignore the Lancet study.

:mad:

[maddezmom]

2. from the website

The IRAQ BODY COUNT Project Team are:

HAMIT DARDAGAN (Co-founder, principal researcher and site manager) is a freelance researcher currently working in London. He has made an in-depth study of the research methods of Professor Marc Herold, who pioneered a media-based methodology for estimating civilian deaths in the Afghan war of 2001-2. He has written for Counterpunch, and has undertaken research for a number of organisations, including Greenpeace. He has been chair of "Kalayaan" a human rights campaign for overseas domestic workers in the UK, which led to significant enhancement in their legal rights.

JOHN SLOBODA (Co-founder and press spokesperson) trained as a research psychologist and is Professor of Psychology at the University of Keele, UK, and an honorary research fellow in its School of Politics, International Relations and the Environment (SPIRE). In 1999-2000 he worked with the Committee for Peace in the Balkans, and researched effects on the civilian population of the NATO bombing campaign. He is a founder member of the Network of Activist Scholars of Politics and International Relations (Naspir). He is currently Executive Director of Oxford Research Group, a long-established peace and security NGO, promoting non-military approaches to conflict resolution..

KAY WILLIAMS (Senior researcher and archivist) is a recently retired librarian, who worked most recently as Head of Acquisitions in Keele University Library.

SCOTT LIPSCOMB (Assistant researcher) is a co-founder of Musicians Opposing War, a collective of Northwestern University faculty, staff, & students in the United States who came together for the purpose of expressing opposition to the War on Iraq, who believe that U.S. military aggression is likely to increase - not deter - terrorism on American shores, and who advocate seeking non-violent solutions to the world's problems through a consensus of peace-minded nations. Scott is an Associate Professor in the School of Music at Northwestern, where he teaches in the Music Education and Music Cognition programs and carries out research related to the processes involved in music listening and their affect upon the listener. He is also co-author of "Rock and Roll: Its History and Stylistic Development" (2003, 4th edition, Prentice-Hall) and has been extremely concerned about the lack of response to this issue from the musical community. The recent appearance of organizations like Musicians United to Win Without War (Russell Simmons, Rosanne Cash, Michael Stipe, Dave Matthews, Peter Gabriel, Suzanne Vega, and others) is a welcome occurrence and hopefully only the first of many more that will follow.

PETER BAGNALL (Technical consultant) is currently a doctoral student at Lancaster University studying computer science. He spent two years working as a software design consultant in Silicon Valley, and before that four years as a network research engineer for British Telecom. His professional interest is using technology to provide real benefit to society, rather than just to develop flashy gadgets. His thoughts on ethics, politics and technology can be found on his website.

JOSHUA DOUGHERTY (Associate researcher) is a guitarist and private instructor. He received his Masters Degree in Jazz Studies from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA, USA in 2004. His website can be found here.

CHARLIE FORD (Associate researcher) was awarded a doctorate for his holistic critique of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte in 1989 and has since published on popular music. He is an active member of Amnesty International and an occasional contributor to peaceuk mailings.

BÜLENT GÖKAY (Project consultant) is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Keele University. He is co-founder and core researcher of the Keele Southeast Europe Unit. He has authored many books and articles on global politics, the Middle East, Balkans and Central Asia, including A Clash of Empires: Turkey between Russian Bolshevism and British Imperialism (1997), The Politics of Caspian Oil (2001), Eastern Europe Since 1970 (2002), and The Most Dangerous Game in the World: Oil, War, and US Global Hegemony (2002), and is co-editor of the book, War, Terror and Judgement: 11 September 2001 (Feb 2003).

more:http://www.iraqbodycount.org/contacts.php

[leftchick]

3. the difference between IBC and the Lancet study

IBC relies on media reports of deaths vs the Lancet's survey of sample households from across Iraq. Considering the media is not getting anywhere near the access in Iraq it needs to report, I believe the Lancet numbers are much more realistic.

from the IBC link...

THE IRAQ BODY COUNT PROJECT

This is an ongoing human security project which maintains and updates the world’s only independent and comprehensive public database of media-reported civilian deaths in Iraq that have resulted from the 2003 military intervention by the USA and its allies. The count includes civilian deaths caused by coalition military action and by military or paramilitary responses to the coalition presence (e.g. insurgent and terrorist attacks).

It also includes excess civilian deaths caused by criminal action resulting from the breakdown in law and order which followed the coalition invasion. Results and totals are continually updated and made immediately available here and on various IBC web counters which may be freely displayed on any website or homepage, where they are automatically updated without further intervention.

Casualty figures are derived from a comprehensive survey of online media reports from recognized sources. Where these sources report differing figures, the range (a minimum and a maximum) are given. This method is also used to deal with any residual uncertainty about the civilian or non-combatant status of the dead. All results are independently reviewed and error-checked by at least three members of the Iraq Body Count project team before publication.


.... The Lancet Study:

More than 650,000 people have died in Iraq since the U.S. led invasion of the country began in March of 2003. This is according to a new study published in the scientific journal, The Lancet. The study was conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad. Researchers based their findings on interviews with a random sampling of households taken in clusters across Iraq. The study is an update to a prior one compiled by many of the same researchers. That study estimated that around 100,000 Iraqis died in the first 18 months after the invasion.
Les Roberts joins us now from Syracuse, New York -- He is one of the main researchers of the study. He was with Johns Hopkins when he co-authored the study but has just taken a post at Columbia University.



http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/12/145222

[autorank]

4. They're just dreadful. They probably have Glen Beck doing research.

The 600 figure was accepted by the British govt. although they had no intention of letting that out (it did anyway).

I saw some people I recognized using 1.0 million Iraqi's. I didn't bookmark it but it got me thinking...my God, if this is happening this way, we are in such trouble, really with ourselves becasue nobody, not one citizen, signed on to do that.

[leftchick]

8. think about this...

that 655,000 number was from last fall. AND it was a "conservative" estimate according to the Lancet! How many have died since then? Well the "Iraqi government" has quit keeping track but it seems to me easily 100 a day die in Iraq at least. I am sure the dead count is over a MILLION by now. Liberated souls. :cry:

[burythehatchet]

9. Sean Hannity , FCAS, MAAA - Chief Statistician.

[flyarm]

5. us government stopped allowing the dead to be counted by Iraqi's DEC10,2003

from dec 10 2003 * had the iraqi's stop counting dead!
Posted by flyarm in Latest Breaking News
Fri Oct 20th 2006, 02:00 AM
from my files and journal..fly


from my files..article no longer available..but i had this in my files...


http://www.veteransforpeace.org/AP_Iraq_to...

AP: Iraq to Stop Counting Civilian Dead

Wed Dec 10,2003 2:17 PM ET

By NIKO PRICE, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq



The U.S. military doesn't count civilian casualties from its wars, saying only that it tries to minimize civilian deaths.



Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, called that policy irresponsible.



"That deliberate ignorance of the past risks condemning the U.S. military to repeating its mistakes into the future and needlessly risking further civilian deaths," he said by telephone from New York.



Roth said the government doesn't count because "politically, it's embarrassing to talk about civilian casualties in one's war effort."



The Associated Press conducted a major investigation of Iraq (news - web sites)'s wartime civilian casualties, documenting the deaths of 3,240 civilians between March 20 and April 20. That investigation, conducted in May and June, surveyed about half of Iraq's hospitals, and reported that the real number of civilian deaths was sure to be much higher.

[autorank]

6. They have no shame n/t

[flyarm]

7. 'I saw the heads of my two little girls come off'

this is what we have done..and it seems so long ago..April 2003..but that mother will never forget...and as a mother i would never forget..and i would want every kind of revenge i could get..maybe that's just me..but i would want those responsible dead..and i would want to do it with my bare hands..

how does this woman live with this??..i would have to be in a straight jacket..and yet day by day this woman and other like her have to go on living with the horrible mess we have made of their country..and their lives!!
and we don't even let the Iraqi's count their dead..we treat them like less than human beings..

and what are any of us really doing to stop this?? where is our outrage??yes even us who type on this any other web sites..what are we really doing??
fly


http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/02/1048962796085.html

'I saw the heads of my two little girls come off'

April 2 2003, 11:38 AM




An Iraqi mother in a van fired on by US soldiers says she saw her two young daughters decapitated in the incident that also killed her son and eight other members of her family.

The children's father, who was also in the van, said US soldiers fired on them as they fled towards a checkpoint because they thought a leaflet dropped by US helicopters told them to "be safe", and they believed that meant getting out of their village to Karbala.

Bakhat Hassan - who lost his daughters, aged two and five, his three-year-old son, his parents, two older brothers, their wives and two nieces aged 12 and 15, in the incident - said US soldiers at an earlier checkpoint had waved them through.

As they approached another checkpoint 40km south of Karbala, they waved again at the American soldiers.

"We were thinking these Americans want us to be safe," Hassan said through an Army translator at a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital set up at a vast Army support camp near Najaf.

The soldiers didn't wave back. They fired.

"I saw the heads of my two little girls come off," Hassan's heavily pregnant wife, Lamea, 36, said numbly.

She repeated herself in a flat, even voice: "My girls - I watched their heads come off their bodies. My son is dead."