Even those who are no fans of the Bashar al-Assad regime must question why the regime would use chemical weapons as government forces have just won the upper hand in the fight against the opposition, and it is clear such a move would be tantamount to suicide.
After initially insisting that Syria give United Nations investigators unimpeded access to the site of an alleged nerve gas attack, the administration of President Barack Obama reversed its position on Sunday and tried unsuccessfully to get the U.N. to call off its investigation.
The administration’s reversal, which came within hours of the deal reached between Syria and the U.N., was reported by the Wall Street Journal Monday and effectively confirmed by a State Department spokesperson later that day.
The ‘responsibility to protect’ (R2P), formulated at the 2005 UN World Summit, is based on the idea that state sovereignty is not a right but a responsibility. Where offending states fail to live up to this responsibility by inflicting genocide, ethnic cleansing and other crimes against humanity on their own people, the international community has a responsibility to act. Economic sanctions and the use of military force can thus be employed as ‘humanitarian intervention’.
In order to preserve innocent lives, the media must hold belligerent world leaders to account and demand irrefutable evidence while at the same time eliminating all other possible explanations (like false flags). More than a million people have died in Iraq because of the West’s ‘intervention’ and dozens more die in sectarian violence every day. The criminal negligence and even outright cheerleading of major media organs in the run-up to the Iraq War must not be repeated.
Like the corsairs of the middle ages, except these privateers are trained at tax payer expense. Another public subsidy for the private sector.
Former Chairperson of the UN Working Group on the use of mercenaries, José L. Gómez del Prado, explains how private military and security companies have created an association to counter the regulations called for by his working group.
Russia on Tuesday handed over evidence to the United Nations indicating Syrian rebels used sarin gas in an attack in March, its UN envoy said by Agence France-Presse Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Russian experts had been to the scene of the attack at Khan al-Assal near Aleppo and gathered firsthand evidence. The Russian action risks reigniting an international dispute over […]
Based on Prof. Maximilian Forte latest book, “Slouching Towards Sirte: NATO’s War On Libya and Africa” (Baraka Books, Montreal, 2012), and nearly two years of extensive documentary research, this film places the 2011 US/NATO war in Libya in a more meaningful context than that of a war to “protect civilians” driven by the urgent need to “save Benghazi”. Instead it […]
Friday, 15 May 2009, 07:00 C O N F I D E N T I A L LONDON 001156 NOFORN SIPDIS EO 12958 DECL: 05/13/2029 TAGS MARR, MOPS, SENV, UK, IO”>IO”>IO, MP, EFIS, EWWT, PGOV, PREL SUBJECT: HMG FLOATS PROPOSAL FOR MARINE RESERVE COVERING THE CHAGOS ARCHIPELAGO (BRITISH INDIAN OCEAN TERRITORY) REF: 08 LONDON 2667 (NOTAL) Classified By: Political Counselor […]
The Syrian Army has seized two containers with poisonous sarin agent in a rebel hideout, SANA said citing sources. Meanwhile, Russia reportedly blocked the UNSC resolution set to slam Damascus’ offensive on the town of Qusair held by opposition forces by RT Syrian Arab News Agency reports that sarin, together with automatic rifles, pistols and homemade bombs (IEDs) was seized […]
The UN’s torture watchdog has hit out at the British government for human rights abuses. In its harshest criticism yet of the British government, the panel warned that urgent action is needed for the country to meet international standards by RT The UN Committee against Torture focused on human rights abuses during the so-called war on terror and the mistreatment […]
It’s not hard to find critics of the Assad government in the Governorate (Muhafazat) of Homs or for that matter, to varying degrees in Syria’s other thirteen Governorates according to Syrian analysts interviewed by this observer and reports from human rights groups including lawyers representing dissidents in Syria. However, after nearly 27 months of turmoil, the public opinion pendulum is […]
It’s an anthem that is usually sung with chest-thumping pride and misty eyes by British imperialists. “Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves”. This jingoistic celebration of Britain’s former global conquest may yet degenerate into “Rue Britannia, Britannia rues the waves” by Finian Cunningham This is because, as The Guardian newspaper reports this week, the London government has at long last […]
