Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Burials and lawsuits

US soldiers Gebrah Noonan and John Carrillo Jr. were killed last month while serving in Iraq, US soldier Netfaly Platero is accused of killing them and wounding a third soldier. Yesterday was the memorial for Gebrah Noonan in Watertown, Conn. Ray Villeda (WFSB -- link has video and text) reports on the funeral. Chris Velardi (WTNH -- link is video) reports that, in keeping with Gebrah Noona's outlook, the memorial service concluded with the playing of Donna Summer's "Last Dance." NBC Connecticut reports that Monday's visitation was attended by many "including Sen. Joe Lieberman and Gov. M. Jodi Rell." Jamie Muro (WTNH) has a video report of the Monday visitation here. In California, a funeral service was held yesterday for John Carrillo Jr. Joe Goldeen (Stockton Record) reports:

Carrillo, known familiarly as Junior or JJ, was laid to rest Tuesday morning with full military honors during a private ceremony at Park View Cemetery in Manteca. Born in 1989, Carrillo died Sept. 24 just a month shy of his 21st birthday.
The Army posthumously awarded Carrillo the Bronze Star for distinguishing himself by heroic or meritorious achievement or service and the Army Good Conduct Medal, as well as promoting him to specialist.

Meanwhile James Pinkerton (Houston Chronicle) reports KBR has another sexual assault case on its hand with a woman filing charges against over her 2008 assault by KBR's David C. Breda Jr. at Camp Al Asad. Jamie Leigh Jones was the first woman to take on KBR publicly over sexual assault and her attorney, Todd Kelly, is also representing the woman in the latest case. He tells Pinkerton, "If you're raising jackals and put a rabbit in the jackal cage, you can't turn your back and say it's the rabbit's fault the jackals attacked. That's what they're doing. They put young women right in front of these men who have gotten away with this for so long and they turn their back. They do nothing to protect these women." Faced with these charges, KBR did issued their usual denial of responsibility.

Monday another journalist died in Iraq. Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reported, "A magnetic bomb that was stuck to the private car of Tahrir Kathim, a media assistant who works for U.S. backed al Hurra satellite channel, detonated Monday morning killing him straight away." Reporters without Borders issued a statement as did the Committee to Protect Journalists. Louise Hallman (International Press Institute) notes the death and the continued pattern of targeting journalists in Iraq:


According to the "IPI World Press Freedom Review 2009: Focus on the Middle East and North Africa", in 2009 Iraq was the eighth most deadly country for journalists, down from ‘most deadly’ in 2008 -- a title it had held since 2003. So far in 2010, Iraq lies fourth behind Mexico, Honduras and Pakistan, all of which have seen significant conflict and lawlessness in 2010.
During the height of the Iraq War between 2003 and 2008, 167 journalists were killed in Iraq, according to IPI's Death Watch, with Iraq consistently topping the list as the world’s deadliest country. Last year, however, saw a significant drop in journalist casualties in Iraq, with four journalists killed compared to 14 in 2008 and 42 in 2007.
"The recent increase again in violence against journalists in Iraq is a growing concern," said IPI Press Freedom Manager Anthony Mills. "So far this year we have seen more journalists killed in Iraq than in the whole of last year. Whilst, thankfully, this toll is nowhere near the heights seen during the war, Iraq cannot be allowed to slide backwards. On the contrary, the authorities must ensure that the killers of journalists are brought to justice. If a culture of impunity is allowed to continue to thrive, it may fuel further journalist killings."

The following community sites --plus OnTheWilderSide -- updated last night:

Ann's Mega Dub
Place your bets
7 hours ago


We'll close with this from Professor Francis A. Boyle's "The Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence Today: International Law as Anchoring Ground" (War Is A Crime):

The use of nuclear weapons in combat is contemplated now by the United States and Israel against Iran. How many times have we heard U.S. government officials involved in the Bush Junior administration and now the Obama administration say: “All options are on the table.” They mean it: not just the use the force but the use of nuclear weapons as well. These are prohibited by conventional and customary international law, including the Genocide Convention of 1948, designed to prevent a repetition of the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews, the Poles, the Russians, the Ukrainians. The use of nuclear weapons would also violate Resolutions of the U.N. General Assembly that repeatedly condemned their use as an international crime. We must understand that when dealing with nuclear weapons and nuclear deterrence: They are not simply immoral, they are not simply illegal, but they are criminal across the board!
The Swiss Foreign Ministry a commissioned a study of nuclear deterrence by three American authors, I read it, and I agree with what they said. They pointed out that the critical factor is the delegitimisation of nuclear weapons in the minds of the people. Having litigated nuclear weapons protest cases in the United States, Canada, Britain, and elsewhere since 1982, for me the critical factor in winning these cases is to explain to the common, ordinary people on juries that nuclear weapons and nuclear deterrence are criminal. Not simply illegal, not simply immoral, but criminal!
Yet the government officials in all the nuclear weapon states, not just the United States -- they are the worst of them -- but also Russia, France, Britain, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, North Korea: They are the criminals! For threatening to exterminate all humanity! For threatening Nuremberg crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. That’s what nuclear deterrence really is: threatening mass extermination. And in the Advisory Opinion by the International Court of Justice on nuclear weapons, the World Court ruled that the threat stands or falls on the same legal grounds as the actual use. If mass extermination of human beings is a crime, the threat to commit mass extermination is also a crime.
It is as if the leaders of the nuclear weapon states have all taken out a gun, cocked the trigger, and held it at the heads of all humanity! In any system of criminal justice today that activity is criminal! In the United States it would be attempted murder, and you would be prosecuted for it. Yet today U.S. government officials threaten murder to millions of people around the world. And now especially in Iran.


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thomas friedman is a great man






oh boy it never ends






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