U.S. Human Rights Record

VI. On U.S. Violations of Human Rights against Other Nations

The United States with its strong military power has pursued hegemony in the world, trampling upon the sovereignty of other countries and trespassing their human rights.

The wars of Iraq and Afghanistan have placed heavy burden on American people and brought tremendous casualties and property losses to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. The war in Iraq has led to the death of more than 1million Iraqi civilians, rendered an equal number of people homeless and incurred huge economic losses. In Afghanistan, incidents of the U.S. army killing innocent people still keep occurring. Five Afghan farmers were killed in a U.S. air strike when they were loading cucumbers into a van on August 5, 2009 (http://www.rawa.org). On June 8, the U.S. Department of Defense admitted that the U.S. raid on Taliban on May 5 caused death of Afghan civilians as the military failed to abide by due procedures. The Afghan authorities have identified 147 civilian victims, including women and children, while a U.S. officer put the death toll under 30 (The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 9, 2009).

Prisoner abuse is one of the biggest human rights scandals of the United States. A report presented to the 10th meeting of Human Rights Council of the United Nations in 2009 by its Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism showed that the United States has pursued a comprehensive set of practices including special deportation, long-term and secret detentions and acts violating the United Nations Convention against Torture. The rapporteur also said, in a report submitted to the 64th General Assembly of the United Nations, that the United States and its private contractors tortured male Muslims detained in Iraq and other places by stacking the naked prisoners in pyramid formation, coercing the homosexual sexual behaviors and stripping them in stark nakedness (The Washington Post, April 7, 2009). The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has begun interrogation by torture since 2002. The U.S. government lawyers disclosed that since 2001, CIA has destroyed 92 videotapes relating to the interrogation to suspected terrorists, 12 of them including the use of torture (The Washington Post, March 3, 2009). The CIA interrogators used a handgun and an electric drill to frighten a captured al-Qaeda commander into giving up information (The Washington Post, August 22, 2009). The U.S. Justice Department memos revealed the CIA kept prisoners shackled in a standing position for as long as 180 hours, more than a dozen of them deprived of sleep for at least 48 hours, three for more than 96 hours, and one for the nearly eight-day maximum. Another seemed to endorse sleep deprivation for 11 days, stated on one memo (http://www.chron.com). The CIA interrogators used waterboarding 183 times against the accused 9/11 major plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and 83 times against suspected Al-Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah (The New York Times, April 20, 2009). A freed Guantanamo prisoner said he experienced the "medieval" torture at Guantanamo Bay and in a secret CIA prison in Kabul (AFP, London, March 7, 2009). In June 2006, three Guantanamo Bay inmates could have been suffocated to death during interrogation on the same evening and their deaths passed off as suicides by hanging, revealed by a six-month joint investigation for Harpers Magazine and NBC News in 2009 (www.guardian.co.uk, January 18, 2010). A Somali named Mohamed Saleban Bare, jailed at Guantanamo Bay for eight years, told AFP the prison was "hell on earth" and some of his colleagues lost sight and limbs and others ended up mentally disturbed (AFP, Hargisa, Somali, December 21, 2009). A 31-year-old Yemeni detainee at Guantanamo Bay who had been on a long hunger strike apparently committed suicide in 2009 after four prior suicide deaths beginning at 2002 (The New York Times, June 3, 2009). The U.S. government held more than 600 prisoners at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan. A United Nations report singled out the Bagram detention facility for criticism, saying some ex-detainees allege being subjected to severe torture, even sexual abuse, and some prisoners put under detention for as long as five years. It also reported that some were held in cages containing 15 to 20 men and that two detainees died in questionable circumstances while in custody (IPS, New York, February 25, 2009). An investigation by U.S. Justice Department showed 2,000 Taliban surrendered combatants were suffocated to death by the U.S. army-controlled Afghan armed forces (http://www.yourpolicicsusa.com, July 16, 2009).

Full Text of Human Rights Record of the United States in 2009

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-03/12/c_13208219_10.htm

Ahmadinejad: 9/11 a big lie, pretext to occupy Afghanistan

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insists the capitalist system, established by Israelis, is on verge of collapse, adding that the 9/11 was a set-up to occupy Afghanistan and wage a so-called 'war on terror.'

The president described the September 11, 2001 destruction of the twin World Trade Center buildings in New York as a preconceived "scenario and a sophisticated intelligence measure" and emphasized that the 9/11 incident was a "big lie intended to serve as a pretext for fighting terrorism and setting the grounds for sending troops to Afghanistan."

"Depredation, bullying and killing the reality of humanity are the outcomes of the capitalist way of thinking," Ahmadinejad said on Saturday.

Read the rest of the article at Presstv:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=120195&sectionid=351020101

My Position

Let us understand where I belong in the question of "Jewishness", before anyone gets the absurd notion that I may be 'on their side'.
You must understand, I come from the notion of choice--FREEDOM. One chooses what they do and say. To construct some excuse for my free choices is absurd. Genealogical reasons of being and doing are left to the world of horoscopes and other predetermination s I find to be comical, and lamentable.
The free, individual being can NOT be categorized. One should dismiss fate, destiny, instinct and any other innate claims which undermine the understanding of conscious, free Being.
I don't support the idea of putting crazy thinking in some special place called 'religion', and making that place respectable. At best, religious thought leads to reflection, but this is rare. The reason is simply that when people gather together under the pretense of blindly following some mystical Being, no good can come of it. People will believe in whatever they wish, but it does not help society, at all, to make these private wishes and hopes a public value.
My point of view is not particularly "secular humanism", for I don't put humans in a privileged place in this world or in my thinking. My view is logical positivist on metaphysical matters, and empathetic concerning free beings, animal-inclusive.
My political persuasion is not anarchism, because if free beings choose government, I see no reason not to have one. But I don't choose autocracies, oligarchies, or fascists. So most present governments I am against.
The sick, twisted way in which science and technology has been misused as predetermination excuses for free being's choices, and for advances in weapons, allows me to support Darwin and Einstein, for example, while separating their theorizing from the misuse that comes from it.
Now. On the question of "Jewishness". This equates with christian-ness, Muslim-ness, and so on.
I don't think much of "race". It's an interpretation of data, based solely on superficial, perceived differences between conscious beings. A 'race' is just some designated grouping of conscious beings, which has acquired the presupposition that these differences are in accordance with what is deemed 'empirical evidence'. This is not so. For instance, color, the skin shades, are as diverse as the individuals in the 'group'. Indeed, the color of one's skin varies through their entire body. The color of one's skin may change with the environment that one exists in. There is no such thing as a black, brown, yellow, or white person. That is puerile. What accounts for the groupings of individuals is merely a statistical game played by academics with an agenda. Sociologists who wish to write a paper within the boundaries of sociology. It is the error of collectivity, where the unique individual is supplanted by the group.
The declarations of a genealogical history dating back to the Israelites of the past stories of their Torah is absurd.
And what of blood? What kind of silliness is this? The percentage of blood one has, making them akin to another is as ridiculous to me as pigmentation.
To be a Jew, one simply has to declare it so. So goes the Muslim, and the christian. It is a chosen group which one wishes to belong to. That is all. No amount of fascist designating, group initiation imposing, or subversive whining can make one choose whether or not to be a Jew, if one does not wish to be. Someone may have a tattoo from Auschwitz, hold a membership card of the ADL, write a book gushing about AIPAC, and their mother died swearing to her grave that she was a jew, it does not matter. If one no longer wants to be a Jew, then they are not a Jew. What makes a person a Jew is clearly the individual's choice to be called one. That is all. That is their choice. Same for the Muslim, the christian, and the Hindu. It is the individual's choice to proceed with belonging to that group or not.
We have a nation in Israel, with their eugenic inclination, fascist leanings, and propaganda program, as well as their intolerance, which finds a definite parallel with the German state in the 1930s. Just as the United State's comparisons with the Roman empire have been made quite often recently, so the Jewish state's comparison with Nazi Germany is easy to see, and quite rightly used as a criticism.
When people scream about Jews being essentially evil, I am against every part of that claim. What we have is individuals supporting the oppression of others. As previously stated, free individual beings make free choices. The application of Occam's razor in not realistic in the matter of disregarding individual responsibility, and replacing it with the simple statement 'They're all responsible'.
I am against all who would support a state that does such horrible things as the Israeli state and the United States are doing. I think disclosing the continuous news items pertaining to the actions, and policies of these two States, as well as others, will be morally worthwhile before I pass away.

The Occupation of Palestine

This is a very good documentary. It shows just how bad the state-media in the U.S. is, when "reporting" the horror of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.



Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land: Media & the Israel-Palestine Conflict

It's "Israeli Apartheid Week". It's time to unite against the continued crimes of Israel and the U.S.

US has vetoed dozens of UN Security Council resolutions to shield Israel from criticism


In addition to a long list of UN General Assembly resolutions that Israel has not complied with, there is also a long list of Security Council resolutions that the United States has vetoed to shield Israel from criticism by the Security Council over the Zionist state’s barbaric actions against the Palestinian people and the Arab states. Here is a partial list of US vetoes, in chronological order.

On September 10, 1972, the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution condemning Israel’s unprovoked attacks against Southern Lebanon and Syria. Thirteen Council members (including four of the five permanent members with veto powers and nine of the ten non-permanent members who are elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms starting on January 1 with five replaced each year) voted for the resolution. One non-permanent member abstained from voting. The United States was the only Council member that voted against the resolution, thereby vetoing it.

On July 26, 1973, the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution affirming the rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination, statehood and equal protections under international law. Thirteen Council members (including three permanent members, with China absent, and all ten elected members) voted for the resolution. The United States was the only member that voted against the resolution, thereby vetoing it.

On December 8, 1975, the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution condemning Israel’s air strikes and attacks in Southern Lebanon and its murder of innocent civilians. Thirteen Council members (including four permanent members and nine elected members) voted for the resolution. One elected member abstained from voting. The United States was the only member that voted against the resolution, thereby vetoing it. By vetoing the resolution, the US was, in effect, condoning Israel’s murder of innocent civilians in Southern Lebanon.

On January 26, 1976, the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution calling for the self-determination of the Palestinian people. Nine Council members (including four permanent members and five elected members) voted for the resolution. Three elected members abstained from voting. Two elected members were absent. The United States was the only member that voted against the resolution, thereby vetoing it.

On March 25, 1976, the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution deploring Israel’s altering of the status of Jerusalem (occupied al-Quds), which is recognised as an international city by most world nations and the United Nations. The United States was the only Council member that voted against the resolution, thereby vetoing it.

On June 29, 1976, the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution affirming the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. Ten Council members (permanent and elected) voted for the resolution, with four abstentions. The United States was the only member that voted against the resolution, thereby vetoing it.

On April 30, 1980, the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution endorsing self-determination for the Palestinian people. Ten Council members (permanent and elected) voted for the resolution, with four abstentions. The United States was the only member that voted against the resolution, thereby vetoing it.

On January 20,1982, the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution demanding Israel’s withdrawal from Syria’s Golan Heights, which has been under illegal Israeli occupation since the Arab-Israeli war of 1967 (a war, it should be remembered, that was started by Israel). Nine council members (permanent and elected) voted for the resolution, with four abstentions. One member was absent. The United States was the only member that voted against the resolution, thereby vetoing it.

In addition to the Golan Heights Israel remained in illegal occupation of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula from 1967 until 1979, when the territory was returned to Egypt under the terms of the Camp David Accords. Israel also remained in illegal occupation of the Palestinian Gaza Strip and the West Bank for many years, and still makes periodic illegal military incursions into both territories. It has cut off the Gaza Strip’s contacts with the outside world, shattered the Strip’s economy by banning the export of its products, cut off electricity supplies and prevented Gaza’s inhabitants from working in Israel.

The Zionist state has also built a massive barrier around the West Bank, turning it into a besieged ghetto, in blatant violation of a July 2004 ruling by the International Court of Justice at The Hague directing Israel to immediately cease construction of the wall and dismantle the sections that had already been built by then. Ignoring the ICJ ruling and widespread international condemnation of the wall, Israel has continued to press ahead with its construction. The wall, which now almost completely encircles the West Bank, has divided the Palestinian territory into a series of ghettoes.

Israel has also built dozens of illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank, ignoring repeated calls by the international community to dismantle the settlements. In violation of the West Bank’s rights as a lower riparian territory, Israel has also illegally diverted water flows from rivers and underground water channels from the West Bank to Israeli territory, causing serious damage to the West Bank’s agriculture and leaving many of its farmers virtually destitute.

All this has been done without a squeak of protest from the United States. Nor has the US ever put any pressure on Israel to mend its ways and stop its barbaric actions against the Palestinian people. On the contrary, the US continues to be Israel’s staunchest ally and gives it over $ 4 billion a year in economic and military aid – most of it in the form of grants that do not have to be re-paid. Since 1980, the US has given Israel a total of more than $ 100 billion in economic and military aid.

On April 2, 1982, the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution condemning Israel’s mistreatment of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and its refusal to abide by Geneva Convention protocols of civilised nations. The United States was the only Council member that voted against the resolution, thereby vetoing it.

On April 20, 1982, the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution condemning an Israeli soldier who shot 11 Muslim worshippers on the Temple Mount of the Harm-al-Sharif near the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem (occupied Al-Quds). The United States was the only Council member that voted against the resolution, thereby vetoing it. In doing so, what the US was, in effect, saying was that it was ‘okay’ for Israeli soldiers to shoot Muslim worshippers.

And, yet, many US commentators continue to ask: “Why do they (the Muslims) hate us?” Such commentators should know that it is not the American people that Muslims hate but the foreign policy of successive US governments.

On June 18, 1982, the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution that urged sanctions against Israel if it did not withdraw from its invasion of Lebanon. The United States was the only Council member that voted against the resolution, thereby vetoing it.

During the course of Israel’s unprovoked invasion of Lebanon, the Zionist state laid siege to Beirut and subjected the city to a massive artillery bombardment for eight long months, reducing much of the city to rubble. Israel eventually withdrew from Northern Lebanon, but continued to illegally occupy Southern Lebanon for nearly twenty long years.

Moreover, the Israeli forces, which were led by then-Israeli Defence Minister General Aerial Sharon (later prime minister of Israel) stood by and did nothing while Israeli-backed Lebanese Christian Falangist militias massacred over 800 Muslim Lebanese civilians in the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps. The massacre earned Sharon the sobriquet of “the Butcher of Sabra and Shatilla.”

In the late-1990s, when Sharon was prime minister, he ordered Israeli army builldozers to demolish the West Bank Palestinian refugee camp of Jenin, leaving scores of Palestinian refugees, including women and children, buried alive under the rubble. That horrific action earned Sharon the additional epithet of “the Butcher of Jenin.”

In the summer of 2006, Israel again invaded Lebanon and subjected it to a massive aerial and artillery bombardment, killing over 1,000 Lebanese civilians in the process, destroying much of the country’s infrastructure, and sending several hundred thousand Lebanese civilians fleeing out of the country to take refuge in neighbouring Syria.

The list of US vetoes of Security Council resolutions critical of Israel goes on and on...

http://www.defence.pk/forums/world-affairs/14631-us-has-vetoed-dozens-un-security-council-resolutions-shield-israel-critici.html


Here is a documentary of the 2006 attack on Lebanon:

Lebanon - Fog of War . Shocking Documentary About Lebanon War & Qana

Bombs all over the place...

Below, is a documentary showing the reporting that took place before, during and after September 11th, 2001. Very interesting how much doubt even the major media reporting instills into that event when assembled together like the film below does. It's well worth your time.

Core Of Corruption: In The Shadows