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(IsraelNN.com) Hamas - and not Israel - was the reason ambulances could not reach victims, a Gaza ambulance driver told the Sydney Morning Herald. He said that Hamas terrorists tried to hijack an entire fleet of Al-Quds ambulances during Operation Cast Lead. Foreign media quoted Hamas officials and Gaza Arabs several times during the war that Israel blocked ambulances from reaching dying victims, but Mohammed Shriteh, a 30-year-old driver for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, told the Australian newspaper Monday that the Israel Defense Forces actually worked with the Red Crescent. "We would co-ordinate with the Israelis before we pick...

WASHINGTON – Vice President Joe Biden says the nation should expect more U.S. military casualties as the Obama administration plans to send additional troops to Afghanistan. Pentagon officials say they plan to send up to 30,000 additional troops to the Afghan war, where the Taliban is resurgent and violence has been on the rise. The request for more troops from military commanders was endorsed by the Bush administration and has been favored by the Obama government, too.

President Obama will face many hard boards that would be very difficult for him to bore very far into, even if he were so inclined, which to all appearances he mostly isn't. Consider just one crucial issue among the many now facing the nation, which would require great courage and moral leadership from our new president, if anything like meaningful "change" were to take place at all. This is the matter of prosecuting members of the Bush administration who committed very serious crimes, in particular those who authorized Americans to torture prisoners in blatant violation of both American and international...

Guests Lose Their Tempers During Al-Jazeera TV Discussion on Whether Bush Is a War Criminal Following are excerpts from a TV debate about whether President Bush is a war criminal, with Dr. Abd Al-Hadi Shalouf, expatriate Libyan lawyer and ICC member and Arab Lawyers Association Deputy Secretary-General Abd Al-'Azim Al-Mughrabi. The debate aired on Al-Jazeera TV on December 24, 2008. TO VIEW THIS CLIP AND OTHERS YOU MUST LOG IN/REGISTER FOR MEMRI TV, AT http://memri.netstrategies.com/content/en/member_registr_tv.htm. REGISTRATION IS FREE OF CHARGE. To view this clip, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1978.htm. Shalouf: "We Must Draw a Distinction Between Bush and the Arab Rulers... The...

The Dallas Peace Center is having a rally entitled "No War Criminals in our Neighborhood" on Mockingbird Bridge over Central Expressway at 4pm on Tuesday. We need to get some people out there to counter demonstrate.

Arab Palestinian War crimes, on their own people and on Israelis Hamas' war crimes - Los Angeles Times - 10 Jan 2009 ... Hamas' war crimes. In Gaza, it targets Israeli citizens with rockets, then shields its fighters behind Palestinian civilians. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-dershowitz10-2009jan10,0,2587090.story Hamas exploits U.S. media to cover war crimes against Israeli ... - While Hamas exploits its own civilians as human shields as it ... Hamas exploits U.S. media to cover war crimes against Israeli & Palestinian civilians ...http://iperceive.net/hamas-exploits-us-media-to-cover-war-crimes-against-israeli-palestinian-civilians/ Hamas to blame for Palestinian civilian casualties | Midwest Voices - 30 Dec 2008 ... Human Rights Watch says people...

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – War crimes prosecutors accused former Congolese vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba on Monday of using systematic rape to terrorize civilians suspected of supporting rebels during a bloody power struggle in neighboring Central African Republic.

Hamas' use of the children and other innocents as human shields at the UN school got it desired effect yesterday. They they fired mortars on Israeli troops, the troops returned the fire, and dozens of civilians died or were injured, along with the terrorists. There is a library full of evidence proving it isn't the first time Hamas has used innocents as human shields. Hamas built armories in the basements of Mosques and schools, private homes and hospitals. They create their bunkers and weapons factories in crowded neighborhoods. All of this "construction" was done out in the public. Under the...

Listening to BBC news today, they were interviewing a spokesman from the UN regarding the Gaza conflict. The reporter was constantly pushing the spokesman for his opinion on whether the action by Israel falls within the boundaries of a 'War Crime'. The spokesman obviously dodged the issue, and was talking about hunanitarian aid, BUT, after watching these people over so long, through the conflict in Yugoslavia, ongoing conflicts in Africa, issues in China etc, without openly saying it, they are classifying Isarel in the same mould. I've scrutinised these communists for so long, I just KNOW it. It's coming. Last...

Today Israel fired a on a UN School in Gaza killing 40, including some children. According to the IDF early reports suggest that there were mortars fired upon them from the school. Hamas has a history of using this school as a launching point for mortars, and the students as human shields. The video below shows Hamas using the school to fire mortars in October 2007:

The leadership of Hamas is showing their true colors as many of them are hiding withing mosques and hospitals, some of them even dressing up like nurses to avoid getting caught. It is easy for these cowards to fan the flames of hate, and kill Jewish and Palestinian children, while they hide out:

While much of the world engages in hand-wringing, placard-waving, teeth-gnashing, and rocket-launching over Israel’s “disproportionate” response to Hamas attacks from Gaza, it’s worth looking at what the doctrines of “proportionality” actually say. Making the rounds is a two-year old quote from Lionel Beehner’s paper for the Council on Foreign Relations in which he summarizes the principle of proportionality as laid out by the 1907 Hague Conventions. “According to the doctrine, a state is legally allowed to unilaterally defend itself and right a wrong provided the response is proportional to the injury suffered. The response must also be immediate and necessary,...

The speaker of Kosovo's parliament is demanding Serbia release 10 men accused of war crimes carried out by ethnic Albanian guerrillas. Jakup Krasniqi condemned the arrests Saturday and said the Serbian action was meant to provoke the not yet year-old country. Serbian police arrested the men Friday after searching the southern town of Presevo, a predominantly ethnic Albanian area. Serbian officials say the 10 had been members of the Kosovo Liberation Army and committed war crimes during the Kosovo conflict. Serbia's Interior Minister Ivica Dacic says Saturday the arrests do present a security risk and acknowledged the possibility of some...

For the sake of national security and national unity, President-elect Barack Obama should put a stop to efforts to investigate or prosecute Bush administration officials for anti-terror "war crimes." The motive behind such efforts is not - as claimed - "truth" or "justice," but political vengeance. Republicans hated President Clinton and a GOP-dominated House impeached him. Many Democrats hate George W. Bush with equal or even greater passion, but they demurred on the idea of impeachment - mainly because the action against Mr. Clinton hurt the GOP more than it hurt Mr. Clinton. But now Bush-haters are calling for the...

There is torture and there is Torture. THIS IS WORSE THAN WATER BOARDING ! (NOT) Horrible Horrible Crimes ! United States forces have been torturing terrorists by making them listen to things like, OMG its hard to say, THE BARNEY THEME SONG !! You know, "I love you, you love me..." They have also been forcing to them to listen to the Sesame Street theme song. OH MY HOW HORRIBLE. I can tell you from experience that those songs have been torturing American Parents for YEARS ! OH COME ON ! This is liberalism at it worst. Let's see, the...

One British man was murdered after his chat with the BBC. Andreas Liveras died from multiple gunshot wounds after he talked with the BBC from the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai. British tycoon Andreas Liveras was shot to death in the Taj Mahal Hotel shortly after he talked with the BBC and revealed his location. The Telegraph reported: Andreas Liveras, 73, was gunned down moments after he phoned the BBC from inside the Taj Mahal hotel to give an eyewitness account of the terrorist attacks. He was one of dozens of Britons either injured or taken hostage by Islamic extremists...

The leader of Germany's Jewish community says the race to catch surviving Nazi war criminals before they die has been "lost".   Last Updated: 1:12PM GMT 02 Dec 2008 Charlotte Knobloch, president of the German Central Council of Jews, was speaking at a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the central office for investigating Nazi war crimes. She said the agency's greatest achievements included compiling evidence between 1963 and 1965 to prosecute the key surviving commanders and guards from the Auschwitz death camp where 1.1 million people were killed. Frau Knobloch praised the agency but said the German justice system...

The other doctor, who had also conducted the post-mortem of the victims, said: "Of all the bodies, the Israeli victims bore the maximum torture marks. It was clear that they were killed on the 26th itself. It was obvious that they were tied up and tortured before they were killed. It was so bad that I do not want to go over the details even in my head again," he said. Corroborating the doctors' claims about torture was the information that the Intelligence Bureau had about the terror plan. "During his interrogation, Ajmal Kamal said they were specifically asked to...

Thousands of Iraqis detained by US forces are at risk of torture or even execution, following the ratification of a security agreement between the US and Iraqi governments. Under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which will take effect on 31 December, around 16,000 prisoners held by the US will be transferred to Iraqi custody. Those at particular risk include former Ba’ath party officials or those who held posts under Saddam Hussain's government. Ali Hassan al-Majid and two others sentenced to death for crimes committed under Saddam Hussain’s rule are likely to be executed if handed over to the Iraqi...

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A 23-year-old teacher burned in an acid attack on 15 schoolgirls and instructors wants the Afghan government to throw acid on her attackers and then hang them. Kandahar's governor said Tuesday that authorities had arrested 10 alleged Taliban militants for the Nov. 12 attack in this southern city and that several confessed to taking part. Gov. Rahmatullah Raufi said the men would be tried in open court, a pledge that pleased Nuskaal, a first-year math teacher who suffered acid burns on her shoulders.

Prosecuting High-level Americans for War CrimesOn September 13-14, 2008, over two hundred people from the United States and abroad gathered in Andover. Massachusetts for ... Conference on the Planning for Prosecution of High Level American War Criminals... Impeachment of Bush-Cheney... the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney was very much on the table ... Local, state and federal criminal prosecution ...the Brattleboro, Vermont, ordinance that calls for the arrest on sight of Bush and/or Cheney... One particular scenario ... was to charge Bush and Cheney with murder of U.S. soldiers who have died in the Iraq...

LOMA LINDA, California (CNN) -- Anthony Acevedo thumbs through the worn, yellowed pages of his diary emblazoned with the words "A Wartime Log" on its cover. It's a catalog of deaths and atrocities he says were carried out on U.S. soldiers held by Nazis at a slave labor camp during World War II -- a largely forgotten legacy of the war. Anthony Acevedo served as a medic during World War II. He was captured and sent into a Nazi forced labor camp. 1 of 3 more photos » Acevedo pauses when he comes across a soldier with the last name...

DEVELOPING: A military jury has convicted a man who was accused of being an aide of Usama bin Laden and making propaganda videos for Al Qaeda in the second Guantanamo war crimes trial. A jury of officers announced the verdict Monday at the U.S. base in Cuba.

Erica Jong: “Yesterday, Jane Fonda sent me an email to tell me that she cried all night and can’t cure her ailing back for all the stress that has reduces her to a bundle of nerves.” Ah, the most entertaining presidential race in my adult life just became more amusing as our “Fear of Flying” feminist gives an expatriate interview to Corriere della Sera, an Italian newspaper. Jong is worried that Republican John McCain will win. So are all her friends. Hanoi Jane is waking in the middle of the night to cold sweats? Well, she is well past menopause...

Iraq has denounced a raid into Syria at the weekend, saying it does not want its territory to be used as a launch-pad for US attacks on its neighbours. Syria urged the UN Security Council to hold the US responsible for the attack, which it says killed eight civilians. And Syria's cabinet called the attack "barbaric", ordering a US school and cultural centre in Damascus to be shut. Unnamed US officials have said the operation killed a key figure involved in the smuggling of fighters into Iraq. But Syrian foreign minister Walid Muallem denied the US claims calling them "totally...

I'm imagining an Obama victory. I'm imagining how the McCain campaign will blame the loss solely on the economy. I'm imagining a Government controlled by Senator Obama, Speaker Pelosi and Senate Leader Reid. I'm imagining we could still surrender in Iraq. I'm imagining how quickly troops could be pulled from the Middle East. I'm imagining how quickly Al Queda could regain control. I'm imagining our Government apoligizing to the Taliban, the Government of Iran and other Radical groups. I'm imagining the War Crimes Trials which would be held, accusing the Bush administration and it's supporters, including Senator John McCain, of...

THE HAGUE- The former leader of Bosnia's Muslim army, Rasim Delic, was jailed for three years yesterday by the Hague Tribunal for allowing the torture of Bosnian Serb soldiers by a Mujahideen unit in 1995. By majority decision, Delic, who was the chief of staff of the Bosnian Army in 1995, was found guilty of violating customs and laws of war, when he did nothing to prevent cruel treatment of Serb prisoners by a Mujahideen unit under his command. Judge Bakone Justice Moloto, citing the "appalling brutal" mistreatment meted out by Islamic foreign fighters, said that tribunal judges had decided...

Election '08: Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden says that, if elected, an Obama administration might pursue criminal charges against the Bush White House. This is how he plans to unite the country?Barack Obama insists he's the one we've been waiting for to bring the country together. Yet, he and Biden are signaling their willingness — or is it their eagerness? — to criminalize political opposition. "We will not be stopped from pursuing any criminal offense that's occurred," Biden said Monday at a Florida campaign stop. "If there has been a basis upon which you can pursue someone for a...

Russian-backed paramilitaries are ethnically cleansing villages inside a buffer zone within Georgia, refugees from the area and officials in the nearby town of Gori told The Times today. The South Ossetian militiamen have torched houses, beaten elderly people and even murdered civilians in the lawless zone just north of Gori, set up by the Russian army, close to the border with the breakaway republic whose independence Russia recognised this week, locals said. The violence has triggered a new wave of refugees into Gori, 40 miles north of Tblisi. People who had started to return to their villages in the area...

Long after the guns fall silent in the Georgia-Russia conflict, the two countries' legal artillery is still likely still be firing away in an attempt to have the each other publicly judged guilty of war crimes, even genocide. On September 8th, the International Court of Justice begins hearings in a case filed by Georgia.The case seeks to halt Russian military action in Georgia, and accuses the Kremlin of conducting a campaign of ethnic cleansing there.Mikheil Saakashvili, the Georgian president, has called the Russian forces in his country "21st century barbarians."Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, has had even harsher words...

(CBS/AP) Russia took the first steps toward a troop pullback from Georgia on Tuesday but at the same time paraded blindfolded and bound Georgian prisoners on armored vehicles and seized four U.S. Humvees. The mixed signals came as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her 25 NATO counterparts met in emergency session in Belgium and demanded Russia fulfill its promise to withdraw its forces from the small former Soviet republic. "The Russian president hasn’t kept his promise to abide by the terms of the ceasefire," Rice told CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan in an exclusive interview...

Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia On August 19, 2008, Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Colonel-General A. Nogovitsyn stated that the Russian peacekeepers had apprehended and disarmed twenty heavily armed Georgian paramilitaries, who were driving Hummer type five military vehicles (HAMVEE). The above statement is slanderous and does not adequately reflect the real state of affairs. After Russian military forces have left the territory of the Poti civilian seaport, on August 19, at 01:00 am, twenty Georgian military servicemen, armed with light weapons, were introduced there in order to...

OVER the weekend, photographic proof emerged that the Russians used mur derous Chechen mercenaries to do their dirtiest dirty work in Georgia: The ragtag unit in question is so vicious that, last April, Chechnya's Russian-installed "president" demanded it be disbanded. War snaps taken by Russian photojournalist Arkady Babchenko have been circulating among intelligence personnel. The shots reveal far more to the West than Babchenko realized. Amid photos of the horrors of war, grateful South Ossetians and triumphant Russian troops, one series leapt out at me as a former intel officer: Bearded irregulars riding atop Russian-built armored vehicles (old BMPs, for...

Riding to war in Georgia alongside a bloodthirsty and vengeful gunman, Mark Franchetti saw at first hand how one small conflict in a faraway country led to a superpower confrontation Vadim, a South Ossetian militiaman, raced through the deserted Georgian streets, a Soviet Makarov pistol in one hand and a Kalashnikov in the other. Dishevelled, unshaven and wild-eyed, he was searching for someone to kill. For the first time in 10 years he had crossed the border from his secessionist province and reached Gori, a town well inside Georgian territory, hours after it had been taken by Russian soldiers. Wounded...

The secrets of the crushing of Yugoslavia are emerging, telling us more about how the modern world is policed. The former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia in The Hague, Carla Del Ponte, this year published her memoir, The Hunt: Me and War Criminals. Largely ignored in Britain, the book reveals unpalatable truths about the West's intervention in Kosovo, which has echoes in the Caucasus. The tribunal was set up and bankrolled principally by the United States. Del Ponte's role was to investigate the crimes committed as Yugoslavia was dismembered in the 1990s. She insisted that this...

More than 130 Georgian civilians are being held captive by South Ossetian authorities in the regional capital, Tskhinvali, after being rounded up and herded into a single room in the interior ministry headquarters here, the Guardian has learned. The prisoners, who were plucked off the streets according to their nationality soon after hostilities broke out 10 days ago, are being kept indefinitely in the hope of exchanging them for Ossetian civilians allegedly abducted by Georgian soldiers during the conflict. One interior ministry official confirmed the plan, saying: "We hope there will be an exchange soon." The 131 "hostages" are being...

“The soldiers told us they had an order from Putin - leave or be killed.” Manana Dioshvili showed no emotion as she described how Russian troops forced her to flee her home. Her former neighbours nodded in agreement, huddled together in a kindergarten whose windows had been blown out by a Russian bomb. “That's how they explained themselves to us,” she recalled of the moment they fled the ethnic Georgian village of Kurta, near the capital of South Ossetia, Tskhinvali. “They said, ‘Putin has given us an order that everyone must be either shot or forced to leave'. They told...

South Ossetian city Tskhinvali slowly emerges from shellshock, but the damage doesn't appear to be on the scale Russia claimed. Residents blame the bloodshed on Georgia and regard Russia as saviour. TSKHINVALI, GEORGIA -- A visit to this war-strafed city Sunday turned up no proof of Russian claims that more than 2,000 people died here. Nor were there any ready sign of what Prime Minister Vladimir Putin referred to as "genocide." Tskhinvali Regional Hospital had confirmed the deaths of 40 people as of Sunday, though the number was expected to grow, said Tina Zakharova, an Ossetian doctor who showed The...

AS the Russian Dark Lord's shadow falls across the shires of freedom once again, the response from the West has been confused, belated and inadequate: fear eclipsed courage; ignorance masqueraded as wisdom; and, in "Old Europe," greed vanquished justice. Russia won. Diplomacy failed. No state or alliance will reverse the decision. When President Bush spoke out strongly on Friday, Moscow ignored him: Words mean nothing to Prime Minister Putin, a man who regards all compromise as weakness. Instead of backing down, Russia suggested that Poland might become a nuclear target for agreeing to host our defensive missile system. Georgia will...

What began as a skirmish has become a tragedy of global importance. As Russian soldiers brought a campaign of vicious reprisals to civilians, Georgia endured a nightmare. But those ten days also shook the world: Vladimir Putin has revealed his ambition to extend Moscow's power and challenge the military dominance of Europe and the US It began when five men stole into the rustic village of Tkviavi. With its plum trees, walnut groves and vines, Tkviavi was one of a jigsaw of picturesque villages beneath the hulking mountains of central Georgia. Up the road was Tskhinvali - the grim Soviet-style...

GEORGIAN health minister Alexander Kvitashvili said 182 people, including 67 civilians, had been confirmed dead in the conflict with Russia. Mr Kvitashvili said at a press briefing the conflict had also left 479 wounded so far, 157 of them civilians. He said his number of dead and wounded included people only in areas controlled by Georgia, and there was evidence of mutilation of bodies. "We're getting bodies mutilated, eyes gouged, arms severed," he said.

DOZENS of haggard Georgian captives were marched through the rebel city of South Ossetia today as separatists called on Tbilisi to recover the rotting corpses of its soldiers. The mostly elderly men - apparently all civilians - walked with their heads bowed and their hands behind their backs, escorted by armed guards. Locals stopped to take pictures on their mobile phones. Some pointed and laughed as the detainees marched through Tskhinvali. One woman said: "Those are the prisoners? But they're just old men!" Seventeen of the men were brought to the courtyard of the separatist territory's defence ministry to sweep...

(Tbilisi, August 15, 2008) ? Human Rights Watch researchers have uncovered evidence that Russian aircraft dropped cluster bombs in populated areas in Georgia, killing at least 11 civilians and injuring dozens, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch called upon Russia to immediately stop using cluster bombs, weapons so dangerous to civilians that more than 100 nations have agreed to ban their use. "Cluster bombs are indiscriminate killers that most nations have agreed to outlaw," said Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch. "Russia's use of this weapon is not only deadly to civilians, but also an...

Russian military aircraft have deployed controversial and indiscriminately deadly cluster bombs on civilian areas of Georgia according to an international rights group. Human Rights Watch, which is based in New York, said today that it has obtained evidence proving that the weapons, which were banned by more than 100 countries in May, have killed at least 11 people so far during the conflict in the Caucasus. Human Rights Watch said Russian aircraft dropped RBK-250 cluster bombs, each containing 30 PTAB 2.5M submunitions or bomblets, on the town of Ruisi in the Kareli district of Georgia on August 12, 2008 killing...

An international rights group said Friday it has evidence that Russian aircraft dropped cluster bombs in populated areas of Georgia, killing and injuring dozens of civilians during the territorial conflict that has gripped the region. Human Rights Watch said the bombs -- banned by 100 nations because of their record of maiming civilians, even after conflict has long finished -- were dropped over areas of Georgia, including the strategic town of Gori, killing 11. "Cluster bombs are indiscriminate killers that most nations have agreed to outlaw," HRW senior military analyst Marc Garlasco said in a statement. Dropped from the air...

Russian investigators have launched a criminal case on charges of genocide in connection with the events in South Ossetia. Russia’s Interfax news agency reports that the Russian General Prosecutor's Office has said Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili may also be put on trial. Igor Komissarov, deputy chairman of the Prosecutor’s Investigation Committee, said it had "initiated a genocide probe based on reports of actions committed by Georgian troops aimed at murdering Russian citizens, ethnic Ossetians, living in South Ossetia." According to the latest figures, about 1,600 residents and 74 Russian peacekeepers have been killed as a result of Georgia’s attack on...

The use of units comprised of ethnic Chechens to do much of the very dirty work in Georgia. The nickname [‘Shrek’] given by his comrades to the bald, pug-eared soldier was the only moment of light relief during a day of tense drama in which The Times witnessed Russia breaching the ceasefire agreement over South Ossetia at will. At a checkpoint set up by the Russian Army on the approach to the city of Gori from the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, an armoured personnel carrier blocked the road and riflemen had fanned out in the surrounding bushes, their weapons trained on...

PARIS — Georgia has filed a lawsuit against Russia at the International Court of Justice in The Hague for its actions in and around the territory of Georgia from 1991 to 2008, the court said in a statement.

The Democrats have begun beating the drums for Nuremberg style trials for members of the Bush administration. Accusing them of war crimes, the Left is anxious to see Bush, Cheney, Yoo, Rove and other members of the administration in the dock. We don’t know if execution is their objective, but you can be sure that it isn’t exoneration. A poster MarkField at the Volokh Conspiracy has suggested a way of pulling this off: As one who strongly favors prosecution, I think your sense of the public reaction is very likely correct. For that reason, I think it's important to begin...

GORI, Georgia — On the day that Russia declared an end to its war in Georgia, Jumberi, a taxi driver who gave only his first name, took a long drag on a Marlboro Red cigarette and said that after the first bomb hit, all he saw was body parts. He motioned to the shattered windshield of his Toyota Corolla and the bloody handprints on the side of the car — left there when the wounded and dying collapsed as they begged him to take them to the hospital. "I heard the sound of the jets, but I did not see...