Free Republic

NGOs: Europe once urged Colombia to pay any price to free hostages. Now it pitches a fit when its own bill comes due. The International Red Cross' fury at Colombia for improper use of its emblem to save 15 lives is out of line.The argument goes that Colombia shouldn't have let an undercover soldier use a Red Cross bib over his Palestinian keffiyeh (a get-up that FARC found perfectly credible) to rescue 15 hostages on July 2, because it might make the FARC and groups like it distrustful of future Red Cross efforts. "If authenticated, these images could clearly establish...

Bogotá (ICRC) – Yesterday, 23 July, in a rural area of Vigía del Fuerte, Antioquia department, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) received eight civilians who had been held by the FARC-EP since 17 July 2008. The operation was the outcome of a strictly confidential dialogue between the parties concerned and the ICRC’s neutral and independent humanitarian action. The civilians were released following a request made by the FARC to the ICRC. The ICRC will continue to support efforts to find means of obtaining the release of other hostages and detainees in the hands of armed groups....

The Salvadoran Cuscatlán Battalion delivered $4 million in medical supplies to the al Kut Director General of Health Warehouse April 1. The supplies, donated by the International Red Cross, are for Iraqis affected by the recent upsurge in violence by criminals. The donated supplies will replenish what was used during the civil unrest in the city and will increase supplies on hand. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Stacy Niles. FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELTA — The Salvadoran Cuscatlán Battalion delivered $4 million in medical supplies to the al Kut Director General of Health Warehouse April 1.“It is very important...

BAGHDAD: Shi'ite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr called yesterday for one million Iraqis to march against US "occupation" next week after his Mehdi Army militia battled US and government troops.Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki yesterday said he planned to launch more crackdowns on militiamen as radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr called for a massive anti-US protest next week.Maliki said future assaults by government forces could not be ruled out after last week's crackdown in Baghdad and the southern city of Basra, which mostly targeted fighters of Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.The United Nations yesterday urged more efforts to clear Iraq of...

GHAZNI, Afghanistan - Two South Korean women kidnapped by the Taliban burst into tears Monday after being turned over to the Red Cross on a desert road where the body of one of the original 23 hostages was dumped. The women's release was the first breakthrough in a drama that began more than three weeks ago when a busload of Korean church volunteers was seized. A second male captive also was shot to death in late July, meaning 14 women and five men are still being held. The handover came after two days of face-to-face talks between the Taliban and...

Nazi Eichmann's passport found in ArgentinaThe passport used by notorious Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann to enter Argentina in 1950 has been found by accident in an archive in Buenos Aires. The passport, still in good condition, was issued by the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva. Eichmann was one of the main executors of Adolf Hitler's 'final solution', the Nazi genocide of Jews during World War II. A judge, Maria Servini de Cubria, stumbled upon the document in court archives. The passport has been handed over to the Holocaust Museum in Buenos Aires, which confirmed the discovery....

AHMED FAWAZ sits in a wheelchair in a sweat-stained hospital gown, smoking a cigarette in the sweltering heat. He was discharged from a Beirut hospital this week, after losing his leg when a Lebanese Red Cross ambulance he was in with his family came under an Israeli air attack in south Lebanon on July 23. The incident near the village of Qana left his son Mohammed, 12, scarred by shrapnel. The attack on two ambulances ferrying the injured between Tibnin and Tyre was widely reported by the international media. Yet the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, has condemned press coverage of...

THE International Committee of the Red Cross has rebuked Foreign Minister Alexander Downer for relying on an unverified internet blog to claim an Israeli missile strike on one of its ambulances in southern Lebanon was a hoax. A spokeswoman for the ICRC in Geneva said yesterday there was no evidence to support Mr Downer's assertion that the international media had been duped in reporting that Israel had deliberately targeted the ambulance. An image of the roof of the ambulance showed what was purportedly an entry hole allegedly made by an Israeli rocket which had pierced the centre of the red...

Muslim countries use procedural moves to block progress at conference. An attempt to end Israel's long isolation from the Red Cross humanitarian movement hit a snag Tuesday as Muslim opponents used procedural moves to block progress at a decisive international conference, delegates said. The International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, which opened Tuesday and is expected to conclude Wednesday, is being asked to approve changes to meet Israeli demands of almost six decades that it be granted full membership without using the cross or crescent to identify itself. But Red Cross officials hosting the conference confirmed that...

Ha'aretz Israel is set to join the Red Cross after nearly six decadesHa'aretz, Israel - 2 hours agoIsrael is set to join the Red Cross movement after nearly six decades of exclusion, despite attempts by Muslim countries to derail a complex diplomatic ... Cross and crescent gone, 'red crystal' in OhmyNews InternationalAntigua represented at International Red Cross meeting AntiguaSun'Historic' Red Cross vote on MDA to be held Thursday Jerusalem Post Has there been one other nation on earth that was excluded in such a blatant hateful racist manner, under prresure by global Arab Muslim 'lobby' (there are hundrteds of different...

U.S. holding hundreds in prison in Afghanistan Detainees aren't charged, are kept in awful conditions While an international debate rages over the future of the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the military has quietly expanded another, less-visible prison in Afghanistan, where it now holds some 500 terror suspects in more primitive conditions, indefinitely and without charges. Pentagon officials have often described the detention site at Bagram, a cavernous former machine shop on an American air base 40 miles north of Kabul, as a screening center. They said most of the detainees were Afghans who might eventually be released...

In the continuing saga of the "Politically Correct" madness engulfing the "civilized" and "enlightened" West, we issue the absolute top place for 2005 to the Red Cross organization, the Geneva-based humanitarian association, which, in a frenzy of unmitigated self-righteousness and hypocritically ridiculous distancing has seen fit to change their beloved and world-wide known symbol, a red cross, as their name implies, with a nondescript red something (a square, a rhombus, a dart target, a thing). Gorgeous isn't it? Surely the good folks in Geneva don't want to offend anybody, mind you but I think that in order to please a...

On Thursday, the 192 signatories of the Geneva Conventions decided to adopt a new international symbol - the Red Crystal - alongside the Red Cross and the Red Crescent. Now it seems, for the first time, Israel's Magen David Adom (MDA) can join the 182 members of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The vote "reflects Israel's improved international standing … This is yet another achievement for Israel's diplomacy," gushed Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom. MDA itself worked hard to achieve this result, which paves the way for Israel to join international rescue missions. The new Red...

GENEVA (Reuters) - The Red Cross said on Friday it was pressing the United States to give it access to prisoners held in secret jails as part of the U.S. war on terror. "We have said that undisclosed detention is a major concern for us," Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told a news conference."We are already visiting very many detainees under U.S. authorities in Guantanamo, Iraq and Afghanistan ... We continue to be in an intense dialogue with them with the aim of getting access to all people detained in the framework of...

After almost six decades of rejection, Israel saw the road cleared yesterday for its emergency and disaster relief organization to join the International Red Cross. The price of admission was relinquishing its symbol, the Red Star of David. Instead, the Red Cross approved a new "neutral" symbol -- a Red Crystal, which Israel must adopt to become a member, possibly next spring. The Star of David may still be used at home, and on foreign missions it can be put inside the Crystal, provided the host country agrees. Israeli diplomats are celebrating the Crystal as a great victory. If that's...

I have been following the recent saga in the Red Cross with growing disgust. For those of you who are not familiar with the issues at hand, Israel's official relief agency, Magen David Adom (MDA; Red Star of David), has traditionally been rejected membership as an official member of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Society because of its refusal to adopt either a cross or a crescent as its official symbol. When Israel suggested allowing the additional symbol of the Red Magen David in 1949, the organization rejected the request for the reason that they "don't want to...

192 Geneva representatives voted to approve Israel’s new “Red Crystal” symbol which will now officially join the Red Crescent and Red Cross as authorized International Red Cross symbols. After close to 60 years of refusal, the international body has voted to include Israel, despite last-minute efforts to thwart the move by Syria.

In Geneva diplomats from the 192 countries which have signed the Geneva conventions are meeting to discuss a third emblem for the international Red Cross. Red Cross officials hope approval of a third emblem will finally put an end to decades of controversy over the issue. At the moment, the only two emblems recognised under the Geneva conventions are the red cross and the red crescent; relief workers and ambulances bearing these symbols are protected under international law. In war zones or disaster regions, they must be granted free access to people in need of help. We're actually trying to...

Representatives from 192 countries are due in Geneva on Monday for a conference to decide whether to adopt a new emblem for the Red Cross movement. The two-day meeting is the result of tightrope diplomacy by Switzerland to resolve the long-standing issue of a third humanitarian symbol. The Red Cross, the Red Crescent and the new Red Crystal (Keystone)Approval of the so-called "red crystal" by the signatory states moved a step closer last week when the Israeli and Palestinian emergency services signed a groundbreaking cooperation agreement. The accord, brokered by the Swiss foreign ministry, cleared the way for a deal...

So, Jews, the goyim will win after all? By Stan Goodenough November 28th, 2005 According to the newspapers here in Israel, Jews are rejoicing because the International Federation of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent Societies (IFRCRC) has finally agreed to open its doors to the Red Shield (or Star) of David, the Israeli organization that offers equivalent services to the Red Cross and Red Crescent. Ok, so there’s a small catch: The Israelis cannot actually use their Red Star of David in this new arrangement, but must agree to a new symbol, a Red Crystal, inside which, for...

GENEVA (Reuters) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called on Thursday for access to all foreign terrorism suspects held by the United States after a report of a covert CIA prison system for al Qaeda captives. The Washington Post said on Wednesday that the CIA was hiding and interrogating inmates at a secret facility in Eastern Europe, among so-called "black sites" in eight countries under a global network set up after the September 11, 2001 attacks. "We are concerned at the fate of an unknown number of people captured as part of the so-called global war on...

Three Jewish Democrats in Congress asked colleagues to sign a letter thanking Condoleezza Rice for helping advance Magen David Adom’s cause at the International Red Cross. The U.S. secretary of state has been instrumental in opening discussions to create the red diamond, a third, neutral symbol that non-Christian and non-Muslim nations can use in addition to the Red Cross and Red Crescent. “Your personal engagement on this issue has been extremely important and is most appreciated,” says the letter circulated by Reps. Eliot Engel and Gary Ackerman of New York and Henry Waxman of California. “We are well aware that...

Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey is holding talks in the Middle East on a new emblem for the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. On Saturday she met her Egyptian counterpart and the president of the country's first aid service, before travelling to Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Lebanon. The three-day whirlwind tour of Calmy-Rey is part of efforts by Switzerland - the depositary state of the Geneva Conventions - to find a new humanitarian emblem. Switzerland aims to host a diplomatic conference before the end of the year, which would allow Israel's first aid service, Magen David Adom, to...

The Washington Timeswww.washingtontimes.com Iraqis seek aid without crossesBy Paul MartinTHE WASHINGTON TIMESPublished October 19, 2005 BAGHDAD -- The president of the Iraqi Red Crescent has urged the International Committee of the Red Cross to stop sending aid marked with red crosses after the internationally protected symbol almost cost four staffers their lives.   Two truck drivers and two volunteers were delivering water and medicine to the city of Haditha four weeks ago when they were captured by insurgents, said Said Hakki, a neurology professor who returned from Florida last year to take charge of Iraqi relief operations.   "They were seized...

Neutral crystal symbol may join traditional Red Cross emblems By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor (Filed: 20/09/2005) The Red Cross and its Islamic cousin, the Red Crescent, could soon be joined by a Red Crystal. The move is an attempt to create a neutral emblem in an age of growing religious strife, in which aid workers have been attacked and the Red Cross headquarters in Baghdad bombed. The symbol also seeks to resolve disputes that have kept some humanitarian organisations, mainly Israel's Magen David Adom, which uses the red Shield of David, outside the International Red Cross and Red Crescent...

The Swiss government is hosting two days of talks in Geneva in an effort to agree on a new emblem for the International red Cross.At the moment, the only two emblems recognised under the Geneva Conventions are the red cross and the red crescent.Some countries are reluctant to use either symbol and want a new emblem which has no religious connotations.

The Red Cross has set up a Family Links Registry here, or Call 1-877 LOVED-1S (1-877-568-3317) As a result of Hurricane Katrina's passage through the Southern coast of the United States, thousands of persons within the United States and abroad have lost contact with their loved ones. In an effort to help restoring family links, the ICRC in close cooperation with the American Red Cross offers the following services to all those seeking information about their relatives possibly affected by the hurricane. Locate your relatives This website is managed by the ICRC in close cooperation with the American Red Cross...

Red Cross Aids Terrorists in Iraq Stay Angry 10 suspected militants killed in Afghan fightingKABUL, Afghanistan U.S.-led coalition aircraft and ground troops as well as Afghan forces battled suspected Taliban rebels in three separate firefights in southern Afghanistan, killing at least 10 militants, the U.S. military said today. The most recent fighting occurred today in Kandahar province after a joint U.S.-Afghan patrol spotted a rebel observation post, a military statement said. A-10 warplanes and attack helicopters were called in, killing five suspected militants, it said. On Wednesday in neighboring Uruzgan province, coalition aircraft killed five alleged insurgents after a firefight...

ROME - Italy's Red Cross treated four Iraqi insurgents with the knowledge of the Italian government last year and hid them from U.S. forces in exchange for the freedom of two kidnapped aid workers, a top Italian Red Cross official said in an interview published Thursday. Maurizio Scelli, the outgoing chief of the Italian Red Cross, told the Turin newspaper La Stampa that he kept the deal secret from U.S. officials, complying with "a nonnegotiable condition" imposed by Iraqi mediators who helped him secure the release of Italians Simona Pari and Simona Torretta. They were abducted in Baghdad Sept. 7...

Italy rocked by Iraq aid-for-hostages claim By Simon Freeman, Times Online The Italian Government was today embroiled in a row over claims that the Italian Red Cross secretly treated suspected terrorists in exchange for the release of two kidnapped aid workers in Iraq. Maurizio Scelli, the outgoing commissioner of the Croce Rossa, told a newspaper that the scheme to free Simona Pari and Simona Torretta had been agreed without informing US officials. Such a pact has been the subject of speculation since the two women returned to Italy last September amid rumours - strenuously denied - that a ransom was...

I think we need to let this "impartial" groups know how we feel about them directly supporting terrorism. General inquiries to the ICRC gva@icrc.org Press and media (we are media!) press.gva@icrc.org Postal address International Committee of the Red Cross 19 avenue de la Paix CH 1202 Geneva Fax ICRC general: ++ 41 (22) 733 20 57 Production, Marketing, Distribution Division: ++ 41 (22) 730 27 68 Phone ++ 41 (22) 734 60 01

Following growing unrest in the Gaza Strip among rival Palestinian factions, the International Red Cross suspends all field work in the Gaza Strip; decision comes after kidnapping of three U.N. workers, including two foreigners and a Palestinian, by terrorists from Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah group GAZA - The International Red Cross has suspended field work in the Gaza Strip in light of the precarious security situation there, a spokesman told the Associated Press on Tuesday. The decision came after two foreigners and their Palestinian driver were kidnapped by gunmen in the town of Khan Younis and released only after...

CHARITABLE donations to help people affected by the Asian tsunami disaster are falling into the hands of radical Islamic groups linked to terrorists in Indonesia, a leading expert on the global al-Qaeda network warned yesterday. Relief money had become the "primary source" of income for two militant groups, including one founded by a Muslim cleric serving a prison sentence in connection with the Bali bombing in 2002 in which more than 200 people were killed. Dr Rohan Gunaratna, head of the international centre for political violence and terrorism research at Singapore's Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, told the Asia-Pacific...

Assessing progress: Global efforts to prevent small arms proliferation Switzerland - July 8 2005 Press Release - International Committee of the Red Cross ICRC (Geneva) – Governments, international organizations and NGOs will meet in New York from 11-15 July to assess progress made in four years of implementing the UN Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects. Participants are also expected to begin identifying ways of strengthening the Programme of Action when it is formally reviewed in 2006. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)...

GENEVA (AP) - U.N. human rights investigators said Thursday they had reliable accounts of detainees being tortured at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but the United States had not responded to repeated requests to check conditions there. "The time is up," one investigator said. The four independent specialists told reporters that U.N. experts had made numerous requests since early 2002 to check on the conditions of terror suspects at the U.S. Naval base in Cuba, as well as at U.S. facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. They cited "information, from reliable sources, of serious allegations of torture, cruel,...

A new study conducted for Republican senators alleges that the International Committee for the Red Cross has "lost its way" by abandoning its guiding principle of impartiality and is now working in "direct opposition to the advancement of U.S. interests." The stinging report, issued yesterday by the Republican Policy Committee, also urges Congress to launch an investigation into the finances of the international humanitarian organization, which has been sharply critical of the treatment of prisoners at American-run detention centers in Guantanamo Bay and in Iraq. The American government is the largest donor to the International Red Cross, contributing $1.5 billion...

The International Committee of the Red Cross gets special access to prisons around the world as the neutral observer body designated by the Geneva Conventions. But for more than three years now the ICRC has abused that position of trust to wage an unprecedented propaganda war against the United States. Leaked ICRC reports have described conditions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as "tantamount to torture" because indefinite detention is stressful. And just last month the ICRC's Washington office broke its confidentiality agreement with the U.S. government to fan the flames created by Newsweek's false Quran-abuse story. Fortunately, Capitol Hill is starting...

A new study conducted for Republican senators alleges that the International Committee for the Red Cross has "lost its way" by abandoning its guiding principle of impartiality and is now working in "direct opposition to the advancement of U.S. interests." The stinging report, issued yesterday by the Republican Policy Committee, also urges Congress to launch an investigation into the finances of the international humanitarian organization, which has been sharply critical of the treatment of prisoners at American-run detention centers in Guantanamo Bay and in Iraq. The American government is the largest donor to the International Red Cross, contributing $1.5 billion...

An influential Senate Republican body is drafting a White Paper calling into question the impartiality of the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to a senior Senate aide. Asking that the Republican body not be named before the paper was released, the aide said it would raise concerns about "recent ICRC actions and statements that call in to question the organisation's long-standing impartiality and neutrality principles when applied to the US government". The paper will call for changes at the ICRC, including allowing non-Swiss nationals to become board members. It will also question whether the organisation is straying from...

The International Committee of the Red Cross is granted a privileged status to inspect the conditions of prisoners of war and other detainees in return for confidentiality. But in recent years it has demonstrated a habit of selective media leaks damaging to American purposes. This is the backdrop for two recent incidents that make us think the U.S. should reconsider the ICRC's role. The first concerns a story we heard first from a U.S. source that an ICRC representative visiting America's largest detention facility in Iraq last month had compared the U.S. to Nazi Germany. According to a Defense Department...

The International Committee of the Red Cross announced that it had provided the Pentagon with confidential reports about U.S. personnel disrespecting or mishandling Qur'ans at Gitmo in 2002 and 2003. VanNatta recounted that in 2002, the inmates suddenly started yelling that the guards had thrown a Qur'an on or near an Asian-style squat toilet. The guards found an inmate who admitted that he had dropped his Qur'an near his toilet. According to VanNatta, the inmate then was taken cell to cell to explain this to other detainees to quell the unrest. But the incident could partly account for the multiple...

WASHINGTON, May 20: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said that it had received ‘credible’ reports about US personnel at Guantanamo Bay disrespecting the Holy Quran, but the Pentagon moved quickly to correct the situation. Breaking their customary silence, ICRC officials in Washington said they had not only received ‘credible’ reports about the alleged desecration of the Holy Quran, but also had raised the issue “several times” with the Pentagon. Spokesman Simon Schorno said the allegations were made by detainees to ICRC representatives who visited the detention facility throughout 2002 and 2003. But he also said the...

… or lose U.S. funding. For more than three years now, the International Committee of the Red Cross has clashed with the United States over the detention of captured al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, and over their classification as unlawful enemy combatants. Its most recent salvo takes the form of a massive "Study on Customary International Humanitarian Law." Although this document — formally released on March 15 — purports to present a neutral assessment of currently binding international law norms, it is actually an exercise in the very type of political advocacy that characterizes the work of...

Source: Yahoo News Photos A young member of the Maoist 'People's Army' studies a book on army tactics at Nuwagaon village in central Nepal March 20, 2005. This is the Maoist heartland of the desperately poor Himalayan kingdom of Nepal, the foothills where the rebels draw their recruits to fight a nine-year insurgency that has cost 11,000 lives and brought the country to the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe. Picture taken March 20, 2005. REUTERS/Gopal Chitrakar

Red Cross Head Discusses Guantanamo Inmates with Bush Tue Feb 15, 2005 10:06 AM ETGENEVA (Reuters) - Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, has raised concerns with President Bush about detainees at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere, an ICRC spokesman said on Tuesday. Kellenberger, who held talks with Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington on Monday, was due to meet Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Tuesday, he added. Asked whether Kellenberger had discussed prisoners held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with Bush, ICRC spokesman Florian Westphal in Geneva told...

My spouse's company is giving to the International Red Cross / Red Crescent. Since the Red Crescent has been connected to Moslem countries, I wanted to find out why the Red Crescent was involved. I went to their web site: http://www.ifrc.org/ and found out that a country can have either the Red Cross or the Red Crescent, but not both. "There can be only one Red Cross or one Red Crescent Society in any one country. It must be open to all. It must carry on its humanitarian work throughout its territory." So it sounds like the money given to...

The global Red Cross issued an emergency appeal for immediate aid to hundreds of thousands of people stricken by tsunamis that pummelled coastal communities in southern Asia on Sunday. The Geneva-based International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand were among the countries for which aid was earmarked. It said it was seeking an initial and immediate 7.5 million Swiss francs ($6.5 million) and said about half a million people were affected in Sri Lanka alone, but that reliable information was still very hard to come by across the region.

If you believe the editors of The New Republic (TNR), the “vast right-wing conspiracy” has found another victim — this time in the form of the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). In its December 20, 2004, issue, TNR castigates the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, and the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page for daring to contest and criticize the ICRC’s own repeated attacks on the Bush administration’s classification and detention of enemy combatants captured in the war on terror. The ICRC has been the subject of all this right-wing “vitriol,” note TNR’s editors, for “having the...

The head of the British Red Cross has warned that the neutrality of the international humanitarian aid organization is fast becoming a casualty of the global war on terror. Sir Nicholas Young said that the US-led coalition's defiance of international law in Iraq threatens to obliterate the capacity of the Red Cross-Red Crescent movement to operate in areas of conflict. In an interview in yesterday's Guardian newspaper, the chief executive of its UK arm says: "The respect the Red Cross relied on, the sense that when we're wearing our emblem and doing our work we are protected, we are sacrosanct,...

The ICRC report is just the latest use of a wolf in sheep's clothing. It is high time for the American people to ask: Just what is international law? Is it a body of obligations, rooted in the principles of consent and comity, that provides sovereign nations with a path toward avoiding provocation and bloodshed? Or is it a subversion by which foreign entities and their activist nongovernmental organizations trump democratic choices and sovereign self-determination? The latest, but by no means the only, occasion for posing these questions is the leak to the New York Times last week of...