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The trial of four men accused of murdering former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri has begun at an unprecedented tribunal at The Hague. The four - alleged associates of the Syria-backed militant Shia movement Hezbollah - have not been arrested and are being tried in absentia. Hariri and 21 others were killed by a massive car bomb in Beirut in 2005. The killings polarised Lebanon and led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops. Hezbollah denies any involvement. It instead says the assassination was part of an Israeli and US conspiracy. Shortly before the trial was to start, a suicide bomb blast...

Area two kilometres from city centre has become ‘orthodox Muslim territory’ largely ignored by authorities There have been calls for an urgent debate in the Dutch parliament about the integration of Muslim immigrants amid claims that one area of The Hague, known locally as “the Sharia triangle”, is being run by a form of unofficial Sharia police. The claims relate to the district of Schilderswijk, about two kilometres from the city centre, where an almost entirely Muslim population of some 5,000 people surrounds the El Islam mosque, fuelling criticism that the government has failed to ensure a proper ethnic mix...

The most striking proof that the Arab anti-Israel cause is a common meeting ground for both Nazis and Communists --and that the Arabs welcomed supporters of both ilks-- lies in the friendship of Carlos, the notorious master terrorist who served the PLO, with Fran*ois Genoud, an old Nazi, one of the leading Nazis in pre-War Switzerland, later a financier who provided funds for Habash's faction of the PLO. "Carlos" (his nom de guerre) was what is called a "red diaper baby." His fabulously rich father, a Venezuelan lawyer and owner of estates, gave "Carlos" the name Ilich, Lenin's patronymic, as...

What To Do Against Belgium MK Tzvi Hendel (National Union) recommends that Israel try Belgian leaders for their participation in war crimes committed by Belgium during its conquest of the Congo up til 1960. "This will enable the world to see the Belgians' chutzpah and hypocrisy," Hendel said. It is estimated that between 1880 and 1920, ten million Africans in the Belgian Congo were the victims of murder, starvation, exhaustion induced by over-work, and disease. Well-documented claims allege that women were systematically raped and that the local populace endured kidnapping, looting and village burnings. An article in the London-based Guardian...

Groan.Via BBC: Tony Blair and George W Bush should be taken to the International Criminal Court in The Hague over the Iraq war, Archbishop Desmond Tutu has said.Writing in the UK’s Observer newspaper, he accused the former leaders of lying about weapons of mass destruction.The Iraq military campaign had made the world more unstable “than any other conflict in history”, he said.Mr Blair responded by saying “this is the same argument we have had many times with nothing new to say”.Earlier this week, Archbishop Tutu, a veteran peace campaigner who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 in recognition of...

Wilders’ impact felt as Dutch coalition sworn in By Stanley Pignal in Brussels Published: October 13 2010 17:48 | Last updated: October 13 2010 17:48 A government supported by the anti-Islamic politician Geert Wilders is to take office in the Netherlands on Thursday, with plans to harden immigration rules and cut public spending. In a nod to tradition, Mark Rutte, the incoming prime minister, and members of his government will stand on the balcony of the royal palace in The Hague to accept a mandate from Queen Beatrix to form the country’s first minority administration since the second world war.

Unreal. Team Obama may allow US soldiers to be tried in the Hague for war crimes. The Wall Street Journal reported, via Jihad Watch: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed “great regret” in August that the U.S. is not a signatory to the International Criminal Court (ICC). This has fueled speculation that the Obama administration may reverse another Bush policy and sign up for what could lead to the trial of Americans for war crimes in The Hague. The ICC’s chief prosecutor, though, has no intention of waiting for Washington to submit to the court’s authority. Luis Moreno Ocampo says...

The American war crimes ambassador said Thursday in the Hague that the U.S. is committed to ending impunity for crimes against humanity, in a speech signaling a softening of hostility toward the International Criminal Court. Stephen Rapp's brief remarks marked the first time a U.S. diplomat has addressed the 110-nation Assembly of State Parties, which oversees the court's work and budget.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says it is a "great regret" that the United States is not a member of the International Criminal Court. Clinton spoke Thursday in Kenya during a seven-nation tour of Africa. The court is the first permanent institution authorized to try individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes when national courts are unable or unwilling to do so. The U.S. formally rejected U.S. participation in May 2002. A main concern was that American servicemen hunting down terrorists abroad might not be safe from politically motivated prosecutions. Clinton said it is "a great...

Hope springs eternal for the DUmmies. And in this case they continue to hope that George W. Bush is sent to The Hague as you can see in this THREAD, "EX-UN PROSECUTOR: BUSH MAY BE NEXT UP AT THE HAGUE." DUmmies have been praying for this ever since Bush was first elected and they just can't let go. So let us now travel down fantasy lane and watch the DUmmies pray for Bush to be sent to The Hague in Bolshevik Red while the commentary of your humble correspondent, wondering when international law took precedence over U.S. law, is...

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.

Radovan Karadzic was arrested after information provided to investigators by the Hague's other most wanted man, Ratko Mladic, German intelligence sources have revealed. General Mladic, who was Karadzic's military commander and led Bosnian Serb troops during the massacre at Srebrenica, is one of two Balkans war crimes suspects still on the run. His capture is expected within weeks as his political support network crumbles and the European Union continues to pressure Serbia to hand him over. But according to German intelligence sources, Mladic has been negotiating with those hunting him over the terms of his capture, and "gave information on...

NYALA, Sudan (AFP) - Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir danced before thousands of supporters in Darfur on Wednesday, defying a possible arrest warrant for genocide on a heavily-protected visit to the war-torn area. Travelling by plane and in a convoy of army, police and national security vehicles mounted with guns and backed by air support, Beshir was greeted by thousands of supporters in state capitals El Fasher and Nyala. --snip-- School pupils were recruited for the rally and one government employee told AFP in El Fasher that staff were ordered to a disused land under the sun, where a grinning Beshir...

George Jonas: Beware of political activists in robes Published: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 If we take Radovan Karadzic at his own evaluation as a Serbian patriot, by being available to be captured and handed over to the international tribunals of the new world order, he's rendering his country the only service left for him to render. Had he not gone into hiding in 1995 after being indicted for his role in the infamous Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys, the one-timepresident of Serbian Bosnia couldn't be utilized as a chip in the Faustian bargain with theWest today. But...

A lawyer acting for the former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has said he will fight moves to extradite him to the UN war crimes court at The Hague. Mr Karadzic is wanted on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. He was arrested in Serbia on Monday, and has three days in which to appeal against his transfer to The Hague. The Serbian Foreign Minister, Vuk Jeremic, said the arrest of Mr Karadzic showed his country was firmly committed to European Union membership. The arrest of Mr Karadzic and other indicted war criminals is one of the main conditions...

.....Radovan Karadzic will be duly convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity, and he will not come out of jail alive. The verdict is already written, but it reflects a fundamental imbalance. It ignores the essence of the Bosnian war—the Serbs’ striving not to be forced into secession—while remaining mute about the culpability of the other two sides for a series of unconstitutional, illegitimate and illegal political decisions that caused the war. The judgment against Karadzic at the U.S.-sponsored and largely U.S.-funded tribunal at The Hague will be built on this flawed foundation. It will be neither fair or just,...

ZOETERMEER, 03/05/08 - The controversial imam Fawaz Jneid is to focus on the Islamisation of young children. A new institution working together with his radical As-Soennah mosque in The Hague is organising strict religious classes for children aged 5 to 14 years in the suburb of Zoetermeer, as De Telegraaf reports. According to the newspaper, the classes are taking place in a sports hall which is rented from the municipality. The classes are given by 'brethren' of the foundation Al-Ichlaas (purity of faith). Up to the present, several dozen pupils have registered. The children are expected to appear in class...

A senior Bush administration official said Friday that the U.S. now accepts the "reality" of the International Criminal Court, and that Washington would consider aiding the Hague tribunal in its investigation of atrocities in Sudan's Darfur region. "The U.S. must acknowledge that the ICC enjoys a large body of international support, and that many countries will look to the ICC as the preferred mechanism" for punishing war crimes that individual countries can't or won't address, John Bellinger, the State Department's chief lawyer, told a conference in Chicago marking t he 10th anniversary of the tribunal's founding treaty, the Rome Statute....

North American Union to Get Firmed Up in Secrecy at Meeting in Canada "Information is the currency of democracy." Thomas Jefferson American citizens have learned of some secretive groups in the country which are given great autonomy. Some are authorized by our government, but have little oversight, and some have not been authorized by our government, but seize authority just because they can. One example of this is the secretive CFIUS, Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States. When the plans to turn over operation of six ports to Dubai Ports World became public, (with no thanks to the...

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Dutch police station trying to help Muslim detainees face Mecca for their prayers painted arrows in cells pointing in the wrong direction...