Sanctioned Murder

Muzzammill Hassan of Bridges TV beheads his wife. He claimed that he was being beaten by her and fought back, killing her in self defense. According to reports, the victim Aasiya Zufir, was on the phone with her sister in Cape Town, South Africa. Her sister reported hearing Aasiya struggling. Muzzammill apparently came in while Aasiya was on the phone. Aasiya said they could talk about the divorce later. It would appear that she was strangled, at the very least this was likely just part of what killed her.

It is not exactly easy to saw through a neck. It is not necessarily a quick slash of a knife. Paqrticularly if the two involved are fighting. Is it possible that Muzzammill took a knife and, in one wild swing, sliced Aasiya's throat? Yes, but it is highly unlikely.

Several years ago I found on liveleaks.com a video of a couple being stoned to death. It was clearly a cell phone video. It showed a young man and a girl each being wrapped in white sheets, and, yes, they fought and cried. The two were each buried up to their waists. The members of their society, I am loathe to call them people, threw stones at the two. After the two victims collapsed in the clearly blood soaked sheets, the stones continued. What was the crime? They were alleged to be in love and planned to elope.
I recently posted about a man (only by gender, because no real man would do this) who machine gunned his six daughters in his bedroom. Why? Because one of his two sons claimed that two of the girls had boyfriends.
Why? Why is it that a man can claim he committed these heinous crimes, or worse (gang rape prior to being murdered is one such example happening now), in the thinly veiled excuse of honor?
Honor, to hold in regard or treat with respect is how Webster's Dictionary defines it. These acts are nothing short of crimes against the person and humanity. Crimes against humanity, as defined by the Rome Statute ofthe International Criminal Court Explanatory Memorandum, "are particularly odious offenses in that they constitute a serious attack on human dignity or grave humiliation or a degradation of one or more human beings. They are not isolated or sporadic events, but are part either of a government policy (although the perpetrators need not identify themselves with this policy) or of a wide practice of atrocities tolerated orcondonedbya governmentora de facto authority. Murder; extermination; torture; rape; political, racial, or religious persecution and other inhumane acts reach the threshold of crimes against humanity only if they are part of a widespread or systematic practice. Isolated inhumane acts of this nature may constitute grave infringements of human rights, or depending on the circumstances, war crimes, but may fall short of falling into the category of crimes under discussion.
Whether it be a grown woman who has realized her husband's previous marriages failed due to his behavior, a woman barely 20 trying to establish her life and well being, a woman distraught in a forced marriage, women arrested in groups for wanting freedom and equality, or the possibility that a girl seeks her own happiness murder is still murder. By claIming it was done for honor changes nothing. There is no honor in murdering a child, only selfishness. The self serving, self centered fear of the male (not man) being perceived in a different light.
These crimes are not happening just in Pakistan, Syria, Egypt, Somalia, and Canada but also in the United States. I have several posts on this and will continue to post them. Those victimized need a voice and justice. Freedom of speech and Justice For All is why they tried to escape from or change their home countries.
http://m.examiner.com/exBaltimore/pm_63622/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=iLBg639L

Secret Talks

BLUF

The bottom line up front for holding Secret Talks with any terrorist is to say "Let me save face as I offer you a surrender." Look at Somalia, peace talks are also used as a time to re-arm. In that book they read it talks about the Peace of Salah Din. In this peace agreement, those who quietly offered surrender were slaughtered once they lay down their arms.

How much of our tax dollars went to pay for a failed surrender attempt?

Secret peace talks between US and Taliban collapse over leaks

Secret exploratory peace talks between the United States and the Taliban leadership have broken down after details of the negotiations were leaked, Western diplomats have told The Daily Telegraph. 

By Dean Nelson, Ben Farmer in Kabul

9:00PM BST 10 Aug 2011

The breakdown in the talks at such an early stage has led to recriminations and claims that the details of the meetings and the identity of the Taliban's chief negotiator were deliberately leaked by 'paranoid' Afghan government figures.

Absolute confidentiality had been a key condition for the meetings which were held in Germany and Qatar earlier this year between Tayeb Agha, Taliban leader Mullah Omar's former private secretary, and senior officials from the US State Department and Central Intelligence Agency. The meetings were chaired by Michael Steiner, Germany's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The talks were described as a preliminary exercise aimed at agreeing a series of confidence-building measures to persuade the Taliban that the United States and its allies are serious about a negotiated settlement, sources close to the talks told The Daily Telegraph.

They said Taliban leaders were extremely nervous about entering talks because of widespread scepticism among their own commanders who believed the Americans were only seeking dialogue to divide their movement and fears that any discussions would damage their own credibility.

But after only three sessions details of two meetings in Germany and one in Qatar – held in March and April - were leaked to the Washington Post and Der Spiegel news magazine which named Tayeb Agha as the key Taliban negotiator.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/8693247/Secret-peace-talks-between-US-and-Taliban-collapse-over-leaks.html

UNSC Membership Overview, Brazil

Brazil

It is clear, from the US State Department and a multitude of news reports and human rights agencies, that Brazil can be quite brutal in the arena of human rights and following their own constitutional laws.

Slavery still is practiced in Brazil. Slavery and labor situations like depression era company towns still exist in remote areas in Brazil like the Amazon. Indentured Servitude, abandoned long before the British Colonies became the United States of America, is still practiced here. A recruiter known as a "gato," or cat, plumbs the slums and other poor areas of the vast country and gets people to agree to jobs in distant places. Once separated from home and family, workers are vulnerable to all sorts of abuses, such as being told they owe money for transportation, food, housing and other services. "This is known as debt bondage, which also fits official definitions of slavery,"

Darker-skinned citizens, particularly Afro-Brazilians, frequently encountered discrimination.

Prisons are overcrowded and unhealthy, and prison rape is not uncommon. There are over 400,000 inmates in the system. Beatings, torture and killings by prison guards occur throughout the system. Children are abused in the juvenile justice system.  According to the Ministry of Justice, 13,489 teenagers are in detention.

Prison conditions throughout the country often range from poor to extremely harsh and life threatening. Abuse by prison guards, poor medical care, and severe overcrowding occurred at many facilities. Prison officials often resorted to brutal treatment of prisoners, including torture.

Torture in Brazil is widespread and systematic according to the ex-UN Special Rapporteur. Occurrence of police torture accompanies murder or effecting intimidation and extortion. Torture has also been widely reported in detention centers and mental institutions. Although the constitution prohibits torture and provides severe legal penalties for its use, torture by police and prison guards remained a serious and widespread problem. The government's National Human Rights Secretariat (SEDH) acknowledged that torture existed in the country and related the problem to societal tolerance and the fear of retaliation.

Federal, state, and military police often enjoyed impunity in cases of torture, as in other cases of abuse. During the year an additional state (for a total of 13 of 26) adopted the National Plan for the Prevention and Control of Torture, which includes the installation of cameras in prisons and penitentiaries, taping of interrogations, and reversal of the presumption of innocence for those accused of torture.

State Department -- unlawful killings by state police (military and civil) were widespread, particularly in the populous states of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

In many cases police officers employed indiscriminate lethal force during apprehensions. In some cases civilian deaths followed severe harassment or torture by law enforcement officials.

Credible reports indicated the continuing involvement of state police officials in revenge killings and the intimidation and killing of witnesses involved in testifying against police officials.

UNSC Overview, continues

Yesterday, I posted several items that are of concern in regards to human rights and security enforcement in a few of the UNSC member states. Those states reviewed were China, Frnace, Russia, and Colombia. The only real shock I had in that was the pervasiveness of abuse by police. The fact that China and Russia routinely put citizens through forced disappearance, while disturbing, is not a shock to learn. I believe that these two countries regimes will never change the way they conduct business internally. Colombia is simply one of the most violent places. Should these three countries be in positions that have them writing and voting on security resolutions, I think not. I have some misgivings on them enforcing the resolutions and acts, but that role would seem much more appropriate for the apparatchik of these countries.

Today, let's look at the US and the UK to round out the Permanent Membership of the UNSC. Bosnia, Nigeria, and Portugal will be the temporary members at which to look today.

UNSC OVerview Portugal

A 2011 report from the State Department indicates that there is a strong respect for human life and dignity there. There were no reports that the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings and no reports of politically motivated disappearances.

The worst thing that can be said of this country is that it is a haven for pedophiles. UK Mail Online writes about how children at an unnamed but very famous orphanage cringe at the sound of Ferrari’s arriving. They are sorted by deaf mutes first, screened and checked for STDs, then carted off in vans to the homes of wealthy pedophiles. Once there, the children may be drugged, given alcohol, or other harsh treatments prior to being sexually abused. The young Madeleine McCann disappeared, to never be found, in this country.

In September 2010 the BBC reported seven defendants faced a total of more than 800 charges relating to an alleged sex ring abusing children from the Casa Pia, a state-run network of homes and schools looking after more than 4,000 needy children.

They included Carlos Cruz, a former TV presenter; Jorge Ritto, a retired ambassador; and a former deputy director of the Casa Pia itself.

Carlos Silvino, a 54-year-old former Casa Pia driver, was the hub of the ring, and faced more than 600 charges relating to the abuse of children or procuring them for others.

Five other male defendants each faced between six and 48 abuse charges. One was also accused of pimping.

But a 68-year-old woman, Gertrudes Nunes, was acquitted of charges relating to the use of her house in Elvas, near the Spanish border, by the abusers.

The abuse at Casa Pia is said to have started in the mid-1970s, but was not discovered until 2002. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11171283)

I suppose that, with all that safety and beauty of the country, a few thousand children sexually and systematically abused is alright with the State Department under Hillary Clinton.

UNSC Overview Bosnia & Herzegovina

Srebrenica is the first thing that comes to mind. Due to its internal war, as seen with Colombia, human rights violations abound. It is estimate that there are up to 10,000 cases of human rights violations that are yet untried. There were Serb run prison camps in which Bosniaks, Bosnian citizens who identified as muslims, had been raped, murdered, and mutilated. At the end of the war one could travel around and find muslims who were missing the pinky and ring finger from their right hand. This mutilation left the survivors with a permanent Serb Victory Salute.

While in Bosnia I saw also that the Bosniaks were not innocent of crimes against humanity. In Bugojno all the Croat men and boys were rounded up by the Bosniaks and taken to the soccer stadium. After being held there, these inmates were executed. Old men right down to and including baby boys were murdered.

Bosnian Croats are not innocent, either. The Croatians in Bosnia decimated the town of Duvno and later renamed it as Tomislavgrad. A town in Bosnia named for the first crowned king of Croatia, a neighboring country.

Progress in identifying the whereabouts of victims of enforced disappearance during the 1992-1995 war remained slow and is obstructed by the lack of cooperation between the authorities of FBiH and the RS.

Perhaps, still repairing and healing from the wounds that were sustained during the war and certainly those from the iron fisted reign of Tito, putting Bosnia & Herzegovina on the UNSC was premature. Premature, if not downright misguided, is the kindest way I can put an assessment of this country being on the Council. A single country bearing two names, comprised of two opposing states (The Serb Republic and Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina), comprised of three divided religions is not a solid candidate for sitting on the council to decide security resolutions.

UNSC Overview Nigeria

A country with over 120 languages spoken, three main ethnic groups, and a religious schism between Christians in the south and Muslims in the north has seen thousands of people killed in ethnic clashes over the past few years. Al Jazeera, in 2009, reported on the group Boko Haram (loosely translates to all non-islamic teaching is evil) killing police and hundreds of civilians in the north. In the goal of establishing sharia law throughout the country, Boko Haram is known for widespread killings, rape, burning villages, and more. The government of Nigeria is unable to stop the group or to protect the people who live in areas that are under threat from Boko Haram.

The Nigerian government, where it does operate, is corrupt. 102-page report, "‘Everyone's in on the Game': Corruption and Human Rights Abuses by the Nigeria Police Force," documents the myriad forms of police corruption in Nigeria. It also shows how institutionalized extortion -- a profound lack of political will to reform the force -- and impunity combine to make police corruption a deeply embedded problem.

The US State Department report from 2008 states national police, army, and other security forces committed extrajudicial killings and used lethal and excessive force to apprehend criminals and to disperse demonstrators during the year … On February 25, police killed approximately 50 persons, burned nearly 100 homes, and destroyed more than 150 market stalls in Ogaminana, just outside Okene, Adavi local government area, Kogi State. Credible reports indicate the police attacked the village in reprisal for the reported killing of a colleague by local youths the previous day. There was no formal investigation of the incident … In March 2007 the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture visited the country at the government's invitation to assess reports of official abuse. On the basis of discussions with detainees, visits to prisons and police stations, and forensic medical evidence collected over a one-week period, the rapporteur reported that torture was endemic in law enforcement operations, including police custody, and was often used to extract alleged confessions. According to his report, methods of torture included flogging with whips; beating with batons and machetes; shooting in the foot; threatening a suspect with death and then shooting him with powder cartridges; suspension from the ceiling; and denying food, water, and medical treatment.

Even after the UN had written and published the scathing report of very recent and, to this day, ongoing blatant violations of human rights, absolute and utter disregard for human rights, and a completely corrupt system that is incapable of maintaining its own internal security, Nigeria was voted to sit on the UNSC.

UNSC Overview United Kingdom

This year the European Court has found the UK guilty of violating human rights and due process of law in two cases.

The first involved what was deemed to be the improper investigation into the killing of 6 Iraqi civilians in 2003 and 2004. The Court found the UK had failed to ensure such investigations in five of the six cases, in violation of article 2 (right to life) of the Convention. Significantly, the Court rejected arguments by the UK that the European Convention did not apply to the UK’s operations because they occurred outside the UK’s ordinary territory. The Court held that the fact the UK was an occupying force over the territory in question and therefore exercised public powers there meant the European Convention applied.

The second case the European Court of Human Rights found that the prolonged internment of the applicant, Hilal Abdul-Razzaq Ali Al-Jedda, for more than three years in a detention centre in Basra, Iraq, run by British forces, violated his right to liberty and security under the European Convention.

The UK has also transferred prisoners to countries in which torture is openly permitted and practiced as a matter of course. During the course of the last decade the UK has allowed use of its airspace to transfer prisoners to these countries.

While not clear of blood on their hands, the United Kingdom certainly does not operate at the same levels of impunity or with the same disregard for human rights and security, they are certainly not innocent. That being said, and I may be biased some, it seems that the UK may actually be well suited for writing and suggesting actions and resolutions within the UNSC.

UNSC Overview United States

The protection of fundamental human rights was a foundation stone in the establishment of the United States. In February 2008, US Vice President Dick Cheney said, “[w]e do not torture – it’s against our laws and against our values.” President George W. Bush had used the same words a year and a half earlier when he admitted publicly for the first time that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had been operating a program of secret detention in various places around the world.

The USA has now effectively admitted to being a state that condones torture – one that has used torture and reserves the right to do so again. Its response to revelations of torture and other ill-treatment has been at best inadequate. At worst the government is facilitating impunity for crimes under international law.

A black eye, certainly. Have the letter and the spirit of the laws on due process and human rights been violated? Clearly, these abuses have occurred. However, as Lincoln said, this country is the world’s last best hope.