At Brandeis, Goldstone defends UN war crimes report
By Amy Bracken | 11.06.09
WALTHAM, MASS. – Justice Richard Goldstone, in his first public discussion with a high-level Israeli official regarding his controversial UN report on war crimes during Israel’s invasion of Gaza last year, hardly came out reeling.
He began the forum at Brandeis University by confessing a concern about anti-Israel bias in the UN Human Rights Council, and even said the original mandate of his fact-finding mission was unbalanced (until he refocused it to include a look at Hamas attacks), and he repeatedly asserted his belief that Israel should be able to defend itself.
“I’ve publicly stated on many occasions,” he said, “that Israel has the right under international law not only to protect its citizens from rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza, but it has a clear duty to do so.”
Since a UN fact-finding mission issued the report more than a month ago accusing both Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes in the Gaza invasion last winter – in which some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed – the media have been abuzz with both vitriol and praise for the document.
Israeli officials have called the report biased, insulting, and even an legitimization of terrorism. On Tuesday, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution calling on President Barack Obama to “oppose unequivocally any endorsement or further consideration” of the document.
But two days later, the UN General Assembly voted to endorse it.
The Brandeis forum, in which Dore Gold, former Israeli ambassador to the UN, presented Israel’s opposition to the report and Goldstone defended it, drew a crowd of several hundred. With police scattered throughout the premises, a moderator called for calm and civility in the audience, and the crowd complied. There were only some silent demonstrators.
The question for the UN fact-finding mission, Goldstone said, was whether the manner in which Israel defended itself was in accord with humanitarian law. “Let me turn now to the substance,” he said in a soft voice, and described the “Dahiya doctrine.” That principle was established after Israeli forces destroyed a Beirut neighborhood in 2006; a military chief suggested the same be done with every village that fires upon Israel – that is, that Israel respond to attacks with “disproportionate force.”
“Our investigation, in fact, shows that that doctrine was applied in Operation Cast Lead,” Goldstone said, using the code name for last winter’s attack on Gaza. (According to international law, he said, disproportionate force constitutes a war crime.) Goldstone quoted the Israeli deputy prime minister’s proposal to “destroy Gaza,” and he listed some instances where attacks on civilians and infrastructure seemed to go beyond attempts to target Hamas. Among them was an attack on a mosque during prayer, one on a UN compound, another on the American International School – a bastion of anti-Hamas sentiment – using white phosphorus shells, and others on sources of food and industry. “If that isn’t collective punishment, what is?” he asked.
Mr. Gold asserted that the attack on the mosque was not carried out by Israelis, and that Hamas is to blame for the high civilian toll, because they provoked Israel with rocket attacks and then established themselves in civilian areas. “I think one of the central elements of our disagreement is how to treat the Hamas regime,” he said. “Do you relate and recognize it as the legitimate authority in the Gaza Strip, or do you say, ‘Wait a minute, this organization is an international terrorist organization?’ ”
Though Gold said much of the world also recognizes Hamas as terrorists, he concluded his remarks by describing Israel as a persecuted minority in the UN. “It’s no secret that that UN Human Rights Council and that other bodies of the United Nations mistreat the nation of Israel systematically,” he said. Adding that the UN does not defend Israel, he concluded, to applause, “That is good enough reason for Israel to not cooperate with an investigation of this sort.”
During Goldstone’s fact-finding mission, Israel refused to comply. It declined interview requests and denied access to Israel and the West Bank. Gold insisted that Israel’s own military and civilian justice systems are adequate to investigate any reported wrong-doing, but Goldstone said that option lacks transparency.
Goldstone concluded his comments Thursday night by saying, “I still hope, against all the odds, and against the strong objections … that there will be an open investigation, and not, in darkness, the military investigating itself.”
Closing out the event after more than two hours, moderator and Jewish studies professor Ilan Troen told the student audience: “The event is not over; we hope that this event has not resolved everything for you.”
As audience members filed out of the building, many professed strengthened love or hate for the Goldstone report, but also a desire to continue the conversation.
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Israel says weapons shipment a war crime, Iran and Syria cry foul
By Dan Murphy | 11.05.09
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that a large Iranian weapons shipment that Israel seized on Wednesday – and alleges was destined for Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon – constituted a “war crime.” He said the United Nations Security Council should convene a special session to discuss the issue.
“The bulk of the shipment included rockets whose aim is to hurt our citizens and kill as many civilians as possible,” Prime Minister Netanyahu charged in a press conference. Iran and Syria said there was no weapons shipment, and Hezbollah said whatever the cargo, it was not intended for them.
Israel seized the German-owned freighter Francorp in international waters near Cyprus after it had departed Iran, transited the Suez Canal, and made a brief stop in Egypt. The Israeli navy said it found 500 tons of Katyusha rockets, mortars, bullets, and grenades in containers belonging to an Iranian shipping line, and said the ship’s manifest indicated the cargo was destined for Syria. Both Iran and Syria have supplied arms to Hezbollah in the past.
UN Security Council Resolution 1747 does forbid Iran from selling arms: “Iran shall not supply, sell, or transfer directly or indirectly
from its territory or by its nationals or using its flag vessels or aircraft any arms or related materiel, and that all States shall prohibit the procurement of such items from Iran by their nationals.”
But Israel offered no proof for its contention that their ultimate destination was the hands of Hezbollah, which fought a brief war against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon in 2006. That war ended with a cease-fire monitored by the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which is charged with interdicting arms shipments in Lebanese territorial waters and inside the country. A UNIFIL spokesman said the group considered the charge the weapons were destined for Hezbollah as yet “unproven.”
Israel has, on a number of occasions in the past few years, hinted that it would be willing to unilaterally attack Iran’s nuclear sites if it grows convinced that Tehran’s nuclear program cannot be curtailed by other means. Iran, which has only a small number of missiles with sufficient range to strike out at Israel, has cultivated ties with Hezbollah – fellow Shiites – in the past decade, and security analysts say it sees the threat the militant group poses to northern Israel as part of its deterrent against an Israeli attack.
Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported that the “Foreign Ministry issued a document to Israeli embassies and consulates around the world on Wednesday, instructing diplomats to utilize Israel’s seizure of the ship to direct international pressure toward Iran.”
Netanyahu made clear in his comments on Thursday that Israel wants the focus to be on Iran, which has been threatened with new sanctions by President Barack Obama if progress isn’t made in curtailing the growth of its nuclear program by the end of the year. Israel alleges Iran is seeking to build a nuclear bomb, something which it argues would pose an existential threat.
“This is a war crime which Iran intends to commit again in the future,” Netanyahu told reporters at army headquarters. “The international community should be focusing on this, but instead, the world condemns Israel and the Israel Defense Forces and undermines our right to self defense.”
Netanyahu was referring to the Goldstone report, which was debated at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday. That investigation of Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza strip last year found that both Israel and Hamas were probably guilty of war crimes in the conflict, which claimed the lives of 13 Israelis and more than 1,400 Palestinians. Israel has angrily rejected charges of war crimes and refused to participate in the investigation, preventing the Jewish South African jurist Goldstone and his team from conducting work in Israel or the occupied West Bank.
The largest rockets reported seized from the Francorp shipment were 122-millimeter Katyushas, which have a range of about 20 miles. What impact the shipment, even if intended for Hezbollah, would have on the security situation is unclear, since Israeli President Shimon Peres alleged in August that Hezbollah had rebuilt its stockpile, following its 2006 war with Israel, to include 80,000 rockets – more than it had at the time of the conflict. During that conflict, 44 Israeli civilians were killed by Hezbollah rocket fire in northern Israel. Lebanon said that about 1,100 of its civilians died in the conflict.
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Britain: No more American gray squirrels – we want our reds back
By Ben Quinn | 11.05.09
• A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.
LONDON – They’re small, furry, and undeniably cute – and yet the explosion of Britain’s nonnative gray squirrel population has long been regarded as a conservation crisis.
But now nature lovers are looking with hope toward the Isle of Anglesey, an island off the northwest coast of Wales, which is the setting for a successful local reintroduction of Britain’s native red squirrel.
An endangered species, their numbers nationwide have been ravaged by a pox carried by the larger, more aggressive grays, which were introduced as living garden ornaments from North America in 1876 by upper-class families.
A project on the island has seen thousands of grays, which are highly destructive of hardwood trees, trapped and removed. Reds (which also have their detractors) have been simultaneously brought back, and conservation groups are hoping to do the same in other peninsulas and islands.
Dr. Craig Shuttleworth of the Anglesey red squirrel conservation project said: “There has been pessimism about how the red squirrel can be brought back, but we are close to succeeding here. It’s true that we have been helped by geography – the fact that we are on an island – but there are lessons that can be applied elsewhere.”
Such projects have not been without controversy, however. Some animal rights supporters opposed the mass killing of grays. Nevertheless, public support has been forthcoming for projects such the Anglesey one.
Dr. Shuttleworth, whose work is supported by the Prince of Wales, added: “People sometimes ask, ‘What is the point?’ and say that reds are common on the European continent.
“But we can’t lose sight of the fact that reds are a very popular part of our natural fauna here in Britain. If we can’t safeguard them, then what hope do we have in protecting other species which are less popular with the public?”
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UN Afghanistan drawdown, fraud charges leave tough task for Karzai
By Ben Arnoldy and Dan Murphy | 11.05.09
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – With more than $379 million spent, scores killed, and months of nation-building lost, the Afghan elections have proved a debacle in the eyes of seemingly everyone from fruit vendors in Kabul to world leaders.
An exercise that was intended to build popular legitimacy for the central government in Kabul instead ended with an election marred by fraud that has returned President Hamid Karzai to power, but undermined both his domestic and international standing. His main presidential challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, described the outcome as “illegal” on Wednesday, and said he would no longer contest the result. “I leave it to the people of Afghanistan to judge,” he told reporters.
It’s hard to argue that Afghanistan is better off thanks to the recent electoral process– or that the election will help President Karzai’s government, hamstrung by internal corruption and a raging Taliban insurgency, extend its influence across the country and improve the lives of the Afghan people writ large. President Barack Obama is currently considering a “surge” of 40,000 additional troops to Afghanistan as part of an overall strategy that rests on the ability of Karzai and his foreign allies to improve the economy and security.
That task has been complicated by the UN’s announcement Thursday that it is pulling 600 of its 1,100 international staff out of Afghanistan in the wake of an attack that killed five UN employees in Kabul last week. Aid groups have found it increasingly difficult and unsafe to operate and have been reducing staff and pulling back those that remain to major population centers like the capital.
But even if elections have left a sour taste, and Karzai has taken political hits from the election, a recent survey found that Afghans don’t disdain the government in general as much as is often portrayed.
The percentage of Afghans giving the government a positive assessment rose to 71 percent, against 67 percent in 2008 and 80 percent in 2007, according to a new Asia Foundation survey of 6,406 Afghans across all 34 provinces conducted in June and July. Confidence in government ministers stood at 53 percent, whereas those expressing some sympathy for insurgents reached 56 percent.
Corruption came in at No. 2, just behind security, as the biggest failing of the government. But when Afghans ranked their country’s problems, corruption came in fourth – well below insecurity, unemployment, and the poor economy.
Given the primacy of more basic concerns, the new government’s legitimacy will come more from its ability to improve conditions than from the voting process, argues John Dempsey, a legal expert in Kabul with the United States Institute of Peace.
Karzai vowed to prioritize fighting corruption and building stability, peace, and national unity in a postelection speech on Monday.
But his rival Abdullah Abdullah pooh-poohed Karzai’s prospects in his own press conference Wednesday. “A government, which in its formation is based on an illegal decision by a body, to hope that the second government would deliver in dealing with the corruption, issues of governance, [improving] security in this country, it sounds like an exaggeration,” he said.
And the recent withdrawal of UN workers underscores the tough task ahead for Karzai. On Monday, the UN said it was suspending all development work along the Afghan-Pakistan border because of the deteriorating security situation there. Kai Eide, the head of the UN mission in Afghanistan, described the drawdown as temporary in a press conference on Thursday: “We are not talking about pulling out, and we are not talking about evacuation. We are simply doing what we have to do, following the tragic event of last week, to look after our workers in a difficult moment while ensuring that our operations in Afghanistan can continue.”
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Read more about the challenges Karzai faces here.
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Italian court sentences 23 CIA agents in attack on rendition
By Dan Murphy | 11.04.09
After two years of wrangling to head off a case that centered around the Bush administration’s practice of abducting alleged terrorists abroad and sending them to friendly third states for interrogation, Italian prosecutors won a stunning victory on Wednesday, when 23 US intelligence agents were convicted in absentia by a Milan court for kidnapping.
The practice of “extraordinary rendition” became common for the CIA after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the US, with hundreds of alleged militants abducted in Europe and Central Asia and elsewhere, and delivered to states like Algeria, Egypt, and Syria, where torture is often used against presumed enemies of the state. The US says it received assurances that torture would not be used. But the practice has been especially controversial in Europe, where roughly 100 Muslim men have been abducted.
In a ruling that could damage US-Italian relations, Robert Seldon Lady, the former CIA station chief in Milan, was handed an eight-year sentence, and the 22 others — all believed to have been CIA employees or contractors — were given five-year sentences for the 2003 abduction from a Milan street of Muslim cleric Hassan Moustafa Osama Nasr. The convicted Americans were also ordered to pay Mr. Nasr and his wife $2 million. It was the first conviction for a rendition case. None of the men are in Italy, and their whereabouts have not been disclosed.
A spokeswoman for the State Department said the US was “disappointed” by the verdict, adding that the US was waiting for a written opinion from the judge before addressing the matter further. As to a possible extradiction request from Italy, she said: “It is a longstanding tradition of the United States not to comment on extradition matters … but we would note that because of anticipated appeals this matter is likely to continue in litigation in Italy and that final decisions with respect to the accused are unlikely for some time.”
In what the Italian press dubbed the “kidnapped Imam affair,” Nasr, often referred to by his nickname Abu Omar, was bundled into a minivan as he walked to noon prayers on Feb. 17, 2003, and driven to America’s Aviano airbase in Italy. From there, he was flown to Rammstein airbase in Germany and eventually on to Egypt, his native country, on a Learjet. Nasr was put under house arrest in Egypt in 2004 and said he had been tortured while in detention.
While Italian prosecutors argued they struck a blow for the rule of law, and sent a message that not even close friends like the US can expect freedom of action in Italy, their investigation also found that the abduction took place with the knowledge of the Italian intelligence services. Three Italian intelligence officers who were charged in the abduction were acquitted on Wednesday, with sentencing Judge Oscar Magi saying their acquittals were necessary to protect Italian state secrets.
Nasr, whom Egypt had granted asylum in 2001, was under surveillance by Italian intelligence at the time of his arrest on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activities. Italian law-enforcement agents said the US abduction disrupted their case. US official privately alleged, when his abduction became public, that Nasr was recruiting operatives to travel to Iraq to oppose the looming US invasion.
The CIA declined to comment.
Nasr’s allegations of torture are unproven, but torture is common in Egyptian prisons — as it is in a number of other countries that have been used in the US rendition program. The US State Department in its annual report on Egypt’s human rights practices said in 2004 that Egyptian “security forces continued to mistreat and torture prisoners, arbitrarily arrest and detain persons, hold detainees in prolonged pretrial detention, and occasionally engaged in mass arrests.”
