Daily Archives: 7. Februar 2024


07.02.2024 - 21:40 [ Craig Murray / Twitter ]

The British Government attempts to hide the Assange extradition appeal – a „public hearing“ – behind a baroque set of Kafkaesque rules. My latest article on the latest government stitch-up.

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2024/02/state-secrecy-and-public-hearings-part-one/

07.02.2024 - 21:20 [ Free Assange - #FreeAssange / Twitter ]

Day X is here: the last chance in the British courts to stop Julian Assange’s extradition Protest to defend a free press. Tuesday 20 February and Wednesday 21 February Time: 8.30am

Place: Royal Courts of Justice, the Strand, London WC2A 2LL (nearest tubes Holborn and Temple)
Click here to register your attendance:
actionnetwork.org/events/day…
Your donations are greatly appreciated as we prepare for Day X. Click here to donate to the cause: freeassange.org/donate/
#FreeAssangeNOW

07.02.2024 - 21:00 [ UN Humanitarian Affairs Coordination Office (OCHA) ]

UN Special Rapporteur on Torture urges UK government to halt imminent extradition of Julian Assange

The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Alice Jill Edwards, today urged the Government of the United Kingdom (UK) to halt the possible extradition of Julian Assange to the United States of America.

She called on British authorities to consider Julian Assange’s appeal based on substantial fears that, if extradited, he would be at risk of treatment amounting to torture or other forms of ill-treatment or punishment.

07.02.2024 - 20:00 [ General Assembly of the United Nations ]

Rules of procedure: XIV. Admission of New Members to the United Nations

Applications

Rule 134

Any State which desires to become a Member of the United Nations shall submit an application to the Secretary-General. Such application shall contain a declaration, made in a formal instrument, that the State in question accepts the obligations contained in the Charter. [See introduction, para. 8]

Notification of applications

Rule 135

The Secretary-General shall, for information, send a copy of the application to the General Assembly, or to the Members of the United Nations if the Assembly is not in session. [See introduction, para. 8]

Consideration of applications and decision thereon

Rule 136

If the Security Council recommends the applicant State for membership, the General Assembly shall consider whether the applicant is a peace-loving State and is able and willing to carry out the obligations contained in the Charter and shall decide, by a two-thirds majority of the members present and voting, upon its application for membership.

Rule 137

If the Security Council does not recommend the applicant State for membership or postpones the consideration of the application, the General Assembly may, after full consideration of the special report of the Security Council, send the application back to the Council, together with a full record of the discussion in the Assembly, for further consideration and recommendation or report. [See introduction, para. 8]

Notification of decision and effective date of membership

Rule 138 PDF

The Secretary-General shall inform the applicant State of the decision of the General Assembly. If the application is approved, membership shall become effective on the date on which the General Assembly takes its decision on the application. [See introduction, para. 8]

07.02.2024 - 19:55 [ General Assembly of the United Nations ]

Rules of procedure: I. Sessions

Rule 8

(a) Special sessions of the General Assembly shall be convened within fifteen days of the receipt by the Secretary-General of a request for such a session from the Security Council or from a majority of the Members of the United Nations or of the concurrence of a majority of Members as provided in rule 9.

(b) Emergency special sessions pursuant to General Assembly resolution 377 A (V) shall be convened within twenty-four hours of the receipt by the Secretary-General of a request for such a session from the Security Council, on the vote of any nine members thereof, or of a request from a majority of the Members of the United Nations expressed by vote in the Interim Committee or otherwise, or of the concurrence of a majority of Members as provided in rule 9.

Request by Members

Rule 9

(a) Any Member of the United Nations may request the Secretary-General to convene a special session of the General Assembly. The Secretary-General shall immediately inform the other Members of the request and inquire whether they concur in it. If within thirty days of the date of the communication of the Secretary-General a majority of the Members concur in the request, a special session of the General Assembly shall be convened in accordance with rule 8.

(b) This rule shall apply also to a request by any Member of the United Nations for an emergency special session pursuant to resolution 377 A (V). In such a case, the Secretary-General shall communicate with the other Members by the most expeditious means of communication available.

07.02.2024 - 19:50 [ New York Times ]

Oct. 25, 1971 | People’s Republic of China In, Taiwan Out, at U.N.

(October 25, 2011)

On Oct. 25, 1971, the United Nations General Assembly voted to admit the People’s Republic of China (mainland China) and to expel the Republic of China (Taiwan). The Communist P.R.C. therefore assumed the R.O.C.’s place in the General Assembly as well as its place as one of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council. (…)

The United States, the most significant opponent of the resolution, then argued for the P.R.C. to be admitted separately from the R.O.C., which would have allowed the R.O.C. to retain its spot. The proposal was defeated.

07.02.2024 - 19:45 [ New York Times ]

South Africa Is Suspended By U.N. Assembly, 91‐22

(Nov. 13, 1974)

The vote of 91 to 22 was taken to uphold a ruling by the Assembly‘s President, Foreign Minister Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, suspending South African participation.

The United States unsuccessfully challenged the ruling, Which was also opposed by Britain, a number of Western Europeans and South Americans, and some others. Nineteen countries abstained.

07.02.2024 - 19:40 [ theConversation.com ]

Israel isn’t complying with the International Court of Justice ruling — what happens next?

The court’s demands were clear: Israel must take immediate steps to prevent genocidal actions in Gaza; prevent and punish incitement to genocide; allow access to humanitarian aid; and prevent the destruction and ensure the preservation of evidence of alleged crimes. It must also report back to the court within a month on the implementation of these measures.

There’s little evidence Israel has changed course, despite these clear orders. In fact, reports from Gaza suggest escalated violence and increased civilian casualties each day.

07.02.2024 - 18:55 [ Noga Tarnopolsky נגה טרנופולסקי نوغا ترنوبولسكي / Twitter ]

Argentina-Israel Milei – Netanyahu

07.02.2024 - 18:35 [ Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia / Twitter ]

A Statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the discussions between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States of America on the Arab-Israeli peace process.

07.02.2024 - 18:30 [ Breaking News / Twitter ]

Saudi Arabia declares diplomatic ties cut with #Israel until Palestine achieves statehood on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

07.02.2024 - 17:27 [ Washington Post ]

How Israel helped create Hamas

(July 30, 2014)

Higgins‘s article is worth reading in full. He goes on to outline the type of assistance the Israelis initially gave Yassin, whom the PLO at one time deemed a „collaborator,“ and Gaza‘s other Islamists:

Israel‘s military-led administration in Gaza looked favorably on the paraplegic cleric, who set up a wide network of schools, clinics, a library and kindergartens. Sheikh Yassin formed the Islamist group Mujama al-Islamiya, which was officially recognized by Israel as a charity and then, in 1979, as an association. Israel also endorsed the establishment of the Islamic University of Gaza, which it now regards as a hotbed of militancy. The university was one of the first targets hit by Israeli warplanes in the [2008-9 Operation Cast Lead].

Yassin‘s Mujama would become Hamas, which, it can be argued, was Israel‘s Taliban: an Islamist group whose antecedents had been laid down by the West in a battle against a leftist enemy. Israel jailed Yassin in 1984 on a 12-year sentence after the discovery of hidden arms caches, but he was released a year later. The Israelis must have been more worried about other enemies.

07.02.2024 - 17:22 [ Tandfonline.com ]

The Pol Pot regime’s simultaneous war against Vietnam and genocide of Cambodia’s ethnic Vietnamese minority

This article examines the international context of and empirical evidence for the genocide of Cambodia’s domestic ethnic Vietnamese minority in the years 1977 and 1978. It sets out the basis for the scholarly consensus that the state of Democratic Kampuchea (DK), ruled by the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK, or “Khmer Rouge”), launched a war against neighboring Vietnam beginning in early 1977 with a series of cross-border attacks. The article then examines the evidence for the simultaneous CPK campaign of near-total mass murder of the approximately 20,000 members of the domestic ethnic Vietnamese community remaining in the country after the killings and forcible expulsions under both the previous regime and the CPK from 1970 to 1976. The article then surveys the CPK’s ethnic policies towards the country’s Vietnamese, Cham, and Chinese minorities, and demonstrates how racist policies often merely masqueraded as class analysis. It concludes with a description of the international legal concepts of both genocide and the crime against humanity of extermination, showing how each applies to crimes the DK regime perpetrated against Cambodia’s ethnic Vietnamese minority.

07.02.2024 - 17:12 [ Yale University ]

Genocide Studies Program: United States Policy on the Khmer Rouge regime, 1975-1979

2. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger discusses the Khmer Rouge regime with Thailand’s Foreign Minister Chatichai, November 26, 1975

Kissinger: “You should also tell the Cambodians that we will be friends with them. They are murderous thugs, but we won’t let that stand in our way. We are prepared to improve relations with them.”

3. Ford and Kissinger discuss Cambodia with Indonesia’s President Suharto, Jakarta, December 5, 1975

4. Former US National Security Adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, on China and the Khmer Rouge, 1979:

“I encouraged the Chinese to support Pol Pot. Pol Pot was an abomination. We could never support him, but China could.” According to Brzezinski, the USA “winked, semi-publicly” at Chinese and Thai aid to the Khmer Rouge.

07.02.2024 - 16:55 [ Daniel Neun / Radio Utopie ]

BBC-Filmreihe “The Trap” (III): Die Freiheit von Berlin oder Der “Kampf der Zivilisationen”

(18. November 2012)

1965 begannen die U.S.A. während des Krieges gegen Nordvietnam ein ebenso mörderisches, wie geheimes Bombardement gegen das neutrale Kambodscha, was bis 1954 Kolonie Frankreichs gewesen war. 2,7 Millionen Tonnen Bomben zwischen 1965 bis 1973 beförderten Kambodscha “zurück in die Steinzeit” und töteten 200.000 Menschen. Den U.S.-Bomberpiloten wurde vom Pentagon sogar verboten, die eigenen Vorgesetzten zu informieren. Die angeblichen Militärstützpunkte Nordvietnams in Kambodscha, wegen denen die Bombardements vermeintlich durchgeführt wurden, existierten nicht.

Was die Tat von Wahnsinnigen war, wurde nachher als “Wahnsinnigen-Theorie” (“Madman-Theory”) verkauft: die U.S.-Regierung unter Präsident Richard Nixon und Außenminister Henry Kissinger (der später den Friedensnobelpreis bekam) behauptete, sie habe sich wahnsinnig benommen, um der Sowjetunion Angst vor einem Atomkrieg zu machen, damit diese Druck auf Nordvietnam ausübe, damit das den Krieg gegen die U.S.A. beende, den die U.S.A. selbst begonnen hatten.

1970 stürzten die U.S.A. die Monarchie unter “Prinz” Sihanouk, installierten ein Proxy-Regime und marschierten in Kambodscha ein. Sihanouk, einst 1941 im Alter von achtzehn Jahren vom französischen Vichy-Regime unter deutscher Besatzung zum neuen König der damaligen französischen Kolonie Kambodscha ernannt, floh ins China Mao Tse Tungs und formierte dort eine kambodschanische “Freiheitsbewegung”. Deren Teil: die Roten Khmer.

1972 besuchte Richard Nixon als erster U.S.-Präsident China und Mao Tse Tung, im Versuch gegen das mit der Sowjetunion verbündete Nordvietnam einen Verbündeten zu finden und die Rivalitäten sowohl zwischen China und Vietnam, als auch zwischen China und der Sowjetunion zu schüren.

Als 1975 in Vietnam die Truppen des Vietkong und Nordvietnams in Saigon einmarschierten und den Krieg gegen die U.S.A. gewannen, marschierten in Kambodscha die Truppen der Roten Khmer – von China unterstützt und traditionell verfeindet mit den vietnamesischen Kommunisten – plötzlich in der Haupstadt Phnom Penh ein. Und setzten Prinz Sihanouk als offizielles Staatsoberhaupt ein.

Von der Schreckensherrschaft Pol Pots, auf dessen Killing Fields Millionen Leichen lagen und dessen Verbündeter Prinz Sihanouk nach wie vor im Land lebte, befreite Kambodscha 1979 nicht etwa die “negative Freiheit” der U.S.A., von Frankreich, oder der U.N.O., sondern die einrückenden Truppen des kommunistischen Vietnams.

Die Mörder der Roten Khmer, die gerade einen Genozid begangen hatten, flohen in Dschungel und begannen dort einen neuen Guerillakrieg – mit Unterstützung der U.S.A. und anderer ehrenwerter westlicher Länder. 1982 formierten die Massenmörder unter Führung Sihanouks eine Exilregierung, die von den U.S.A., der U.N.O und unwichtigen Ländereien Westeuropas anerkannt wurde.

Vizepräsident dieser kambodschanischen Exilregierung: das “Staatsoberhaupt” des Pol Pot Regimes von 1976-1979, Khieu Samphan. Er lebt heute noch. Er sagt, er hätte nichts gewusst.

Pol Pot wurde nie verfolgt. Dafür sorgten die U.S.A..

Neues altes Staatsoberhaupt Kambodschas wurde 1991 Sihanouk, nach dem Abzug der vietnamesischen Truppen. Er starb erst vor wenigen Tagen, am 15. Oktober 2012, in Peking.

07.02.2024 - 16:34 [ Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia - eccc.gov.kh ]

Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia: TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS – “DUCH” TRIAL PUBLIC

(6 April 2009, 0910H)

Q. Still in the political context — of course, we will go back to your detention, speak about your detention a bit later, but you also spoke about the coup d‘etat of 1970, so a coup d‘etat through which Sihanouk was deposed and a republican regime that was set up by Lon Nol was installed.

Can you tell us, you were — can you tell us how this was perceived? In particular, how the declaration of March 1970 was perceived through which Prince Sihanouk asked the Cambodian people to rise up? I‘d like to understand how the CPK, Communist Party of Kampuchea, experienced this period and was there a real union? What happened, in fact?

[10:19:40]

A. Judge Lavergne, I would like to respond to your question based on my political view. Samdech Norodom Sihanouk was the Head of State of Cambodia. His position was the populist to preserve his throne. It was not Norodom Sihanouk. Lon Nol was

Page 28

affiliated with the United States, and when he grasped or controlled the Assembly in 1966, he managed to — he really caused the dispute and the uprising in Samlaut at the Sihanoukist side, and the other side is the Communist side which are affiliated with Marxist and Leninist, and these things were mixed up.

I think through my understanding, if Richard Nixon did not be quick to allow Lon Nol to start the coup d‘etat and allowing Khmer Rouge to cooperate with Sihanouk, I think Khmer Rouge would be demolished or otherwise they would never be able to stand up again. But Mr. Kissinger and Richard Nixon weren‘t quick and the Khmer Rouge noted the golden opportunity and King Sihanouk declare from China that all Cambodian people go through the Marxist jungle and then the Khmer Rouge troop will build up from 1970 to 1975.

I think this is the political context and people tried to gain — to have political gain. Lon Nol tried to benefit from politics and then Sihanouk also tried to gain benefit for his side.

07.02.2024 - 16:15 [ Reuters ]

Khmer Rouge jailer says U.S. contributed to Pol Pot rise

(April 6, 2009)

Duch, the first of five Pol Pot cadres to face trial for the 1975-79 reign of terror in which 1.7 million Cambodians died, said the Khmer Rouge would have faded if the U.S. had not got involved in Cambodia.

„Mr Richard Nixon and Kissinger allowed the Khmer Rouge to grasp golden opportunities,“ the 66-year-old former jailer said at the start of the second week of his trial by the joint U.N.-Cambodian tribunal.

07.02.2024 - 14:20 [ Sophal Ear / theConversation.com ]

Henry Kissinger’s bombing campaign likely killed hundreds of thousands of Cambodians − and set path for the ravages of the Khmer Rouge

(November 30, 2023)

To Kissinger, Cambodia was a “sideshow,” to use the title of William Shawcross’ damning book exposing the story of America’s secret war with Cambodia from 1969 to 1973.

During that period, the U.S. bombing of neutral Cambodia saw an estimated 500,000 tons  of ordnance dropped on 113,716 targets in the country.

Kissinger and others in the White House tried to keep the campaign from the public for as long as they could, for good reason. It came as public opinion in the U.S. was turning against American involvement. The bombing campaign is also considered illegal under international law by many experts.

But to Kissinger, the ends – containing communism – seemingly justified the means, no matter the cost. And the cost to Cambodians was huge.

It resulted in the direct deaths of hundreds of thousands of Cambodians. With the U.S. government keeping the bombings secret at the time, comprehensive data and documentation are limited. But estimates on the number of deaths range from as few as 24,000 to as many as a million.

07.02.2024 - 13:30 [ Middle East Eye ]

War on Gaza: A strategic blunder to hasten US decline

This Palestinian paradox – military defeat and political victory – is not unusual in the history of liberation struggles. The Vietnamese Tet offensive of 1968 was a military failure, but it is widely agreed that it was a political turning point which left the US unable to rally support for the war as it had done before.

In South Africa’s long struggle against apartheid, at least two defeats, the Sharpeville massacre of 1960 and the Soweto uprising of 1976, so exposed the white nationalist regime that it never rebuilt the pre-existing levels of support that it had enjoyed.

None of these cases were final victories. Those took longer to achieve, and much more blood was spilt before liberation.

The Vietnamese lost three million souls compared to 55,000 US casualties before the war ended.

07.02.2024 - 00:05 [ robert wood / Twitter ]

If Sunak was sincere, Palestine would have statehood & Peace Keepers be in the State of Palestine. But no, Sunak just windbags on, supporting Israel cart blanche

(26.10.2023)