• L’Affaire Khaled #El-Masri

    Détenu illégalement par la CIA, l’Allemand Khaled El-Masri a dû mener un long combat pour faire reconnaître la violation des droits dont il a été victime. Retour sur une tragique affaire mardi 31 août à 22:55 sur ARTE.

    En 2003, Khaled El-Masri, un citoyen allemand d’origine libanaise, père de cinq enfants, franchit la frontière macédonienne. Immédiatement arrêté, il est remis aux services de renseignements américains car il porte le même nom que celui d’un proche d’Al-Qaida, recherché par les États-Unis.

    Détenu illégalement pendant cinq mois par la CIA, il est interrogé et régulièrement torturé. La méprise découverte, Khaled El-Masri est relâché, mais un long combat commence alors pour lui afin de rétablir sa dignité et de faire reconnaître la violation des droits dont il a été victime.

    Malgré ses efforts pour rendre son histoire publique, traumatisé par ce qui lui est arrivé, El-Masri enchaîne les actes violents et, après avoir frappé le maire de Neu-Ulm, est condamné à deux ans de prison. Jusqu’à ce que des avocats spécialisés dans les droits de l’homme parviennent à contraindre la CIA à divulguer des documents secrets prouvant son innocence...

    Revenant sur les rouages de cette dramatique affaire, ce documentaire montre comment Berlin, en se soumettant aux intérêts géopolitiques de son allié américain, a brisé la vie de Khaled El-Masri et celle de sa famille, qui ont décidé de quitter l’Allemagne en 2014.

    https://www.coulisses-tv.fr/index.php/documentaires/item/18958-%C2%AB-l%E2%80%99affaire-khaled-el-masri-%C2%BB,-mercredi-1er-sep
    #film #film_documentaire #documentaire
    #kidnapping #Allemagne #CIA #enlèvement #Macédoine #anti-terrorisme #war_on_terror #Afghanistan #Mallorca #11_septembre_2001 #rendition_flights #Salt_Pit #Dick_Marty #Otto_Schily #Franz-Walter_Steinmeier #Joshka_Fischer #BKA #Albanie #extraordinary_renditions #Khaled_El-Masri

  • #Dick_Marty - Un grido per la giustizia

    Dopo gli attentati dell’11 settembre 2001, il governo americano stipula degli accordi segreti con i governi europei per combattere il terrorismo. Sono accordi che prevedono che la #Cia abbia pieni poteri per rapire e torturare delle persone sospette. Una violazione flagrante dei trattati internazionali, dello stato di diritto e delle leggi dei paesi europei, e uno schiaffo ai diritti dell’uomo. Quando il Washington Post nel 2005 rivela questo patto segreto, il Consiglio d’Europa incarica il parlamentare svizzero Dick Marty di indagare. Questo documentario è la storia di questa indagine e il ritratto di una persona fuori dal comune.

    Un racconto dettagliato e ricco di testimonianze che ci porta dentro ad una spy story degna delle più fantasiose sceneggiature: per Dick Marty la sete di verità è stata il motore di una ricerca minuziosa, condotta con pochi mezzi e con la pazienza di unire un tassello all’altro, sbrogliando una matassa più che ingarbugliata. Si sente davvero di poter contare qualcosa, quando ci si trova davanti a un gigante come i servizi segreti americani? Sarà proprio lui - l’ex procuratore pubblico con “Una certa idea di giustizia”, come recita il titolo del suo libro appena pubblicato per Favre - a portare la propria testimonianza anche nella parte in studio di questa puntata, unendo così il racconto più umano alla ricostruzione dei fatti.

    Nel documentario :

    «Io se dovessi sapere e tacere mi sentirei complice. Allora preferisco dire, denunciare, gridare, e non essere complice pur sapendo che il mio grido magari serve a poco»

    «Siamo sulla Terra per compiere qualcosa, non semplicemente per far passare il tempo. Ho l’impressione che finché uno ha la capacità di indignarsi di fronte all’ingiustizia, ci si sente vivi e si ha ancora il coraggio di guardarsi nello specchio»

    «Denunciare. E’ il compito di ogni testimone di un’ingiustizia. E ritengo complici tutti coloro che di fronte a un’ingiustizia stanno zitti. Ritengo che la rivolta di chi assiste all’ingiustizia permette di far progredire la nostra civiltà»

    https://www.rsi.ch/la1/programmi/cultura/storie/Dick-Marty-Un-grido-per-la-giustizia-10853348.html
    #justice #terrorisme #film #documentaire #CIA #torture #prisons_secrètes #anti-terrorisme #war_on_terror #USA #Etats-Unis #ennemi_combattant #Convention_de_Genève #extraordinary_renditions #transferts_aériens #Black_sites #Pologne #Roumanie #Abu_Omar (imam disparu à Milan) #Aviano #Italie #Guantanamo #zero_zone #extra-territorialité #torture_codifiée

    –-----------------

    #Dick_Marty, une très rares personnes pour laquelle j’ai vraiment un profond respect...

    Dans l’interview de présentation du film sur Dick Marty...

    Giornalista: «Tra giustizia e legalità, Lei dove si mette?»
    Dick Marty: «Io sarei dalla parte di Antigone e non di Creonte.»
    Giornalista: «Antigone che vuole dare sepoltura a suo fratello...»
    Dick Marty: «... violando la legge. La legge del potente. Sono chiaramente dalla parte di Antigone. E’ vero che nella maggior parte delle cose si è necessariamente dalla parte della giustizia. Però ci sono dei momenti cruciali in cui devi ribellarti. E questi atti di ribellione hanno fatto progredire l’umanità. E se ci fossero state più ribellioni... penso al tempo del Terzo Reich... forse avremmo evitato delle catastrofi umanitarie terribili.»
    Giornalista: «Ribellarsi non è facile però...»
    DM: «Certo, bisogna saper staccarsi dal gruppo. Bisogna saper gridare la propria rivolta, la propria verità. E questo chiede un certo impegno»

    • Une certaine idée de la justice

      Ses enquêtes, dignes des meilleurs romans d’espionnage ont fait la une de la presse mondiale. De la plus grande saisie d’héroïne jamais réalisée en Suisse aux prisons secrètes de la CIA, du trafic d’organes au Kosovo à la situation des droits de l’homme en Tchétchénie, Dick Marty s’est engagé successivement dans les trois pouvoirs de l’État. Ce livre n’est pas seulement le récit inédit de ces investigations souvent périlleuses, mais aussi une réflexion critique sur des sujets politiques controversés.


      http://www.editionsfavre.com/info.php?isbn=978-2-8289-1736-4

      #livre #Tchétchénie #drogue #Kosovo

    • Dick Marty, un cri pour la justice

      Procureur, politicien, enquêteur spécial, le Tessinois Dick Marty est une figure internationale connue pour sa droiture et perspicacité. Infatigable, il a mené l’enquête sur les #prisons_secrètes que la #CIA avait créées en Europe après le 11 septembre pour les terroristes présumés. La torture y était largement pratiquée avec la bénédiction de Washington. Portrait d’un homme à qui rien ne fait peur.

      https://www.rts.ch/play/tv/doc-a-la-une/video/dick-marty-un-cri-pour-la-justice?urn=urn:rts:video:10725798&id=10725798

      #rendition_flights

    • Selected CIA Aircraft Routes and Rendition Flights 2001-2006

      The image is a map of selected CIA aircraft routes between 2001 and 2006, some of which transported prisoners to foreign countries to be interrogated and tortured.

      I worked with artist and geographer #Trevor_Paglen who provided the data. Trevor spent several years tracking down the flight information, and has a book out on his investigations, Torture Taxi: On the Trail of the CIA’s Rendition Flights (https://www.mhpbooks.com/books/torture-taxi). See this interview with him (https://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/15/1342250) on Democracy Now! with co-author, journalist A.C. Thompson.

      The map was also published in An Atlas of Radical Cartography (http://www.an-atlas.com), Domus magazine as was displayed at MoMA PS1 and as a public billboard in Los Angeles in September 2006 as part of a series of public art installations about the war. Clockshop, a public arts organization in Los Angeles, funded the display.

      https://backspace.com/is/in/the/house/work/pg/cia_flights.html

    • Torture Taxi. On the Trail of the CIA’s Rendition Flights

      It’s no longer a secret: Since 9/11, the CIA has quietly kidnapped more than a hundred people and detained them at prisons throughout the world. It is called “extraordinary rendition,” and it is part of the largest U.S. clandestine operation since the end of the Cold War.

      Some detainees have been taken to Egypt and Morocco to be tortured and interrogated. Others have been transported to secret CIA-run facilities in Eastern Europe and Afghanistan, where they, too, have been tortured. Many of the kidnapped detainees have ended up at the U.S. detention camp at Guantánamo, but others have been disappeared entirely.

      In this first book to systematically investigate extraordinary rendition, an award-winning investigative journalist and a “military geographer” explore the CIA program in a series of journeys that takes them around the world. They travel to suburban Massachusetts to profile a CIA front company that supplies the agency with airplanes; to Smithfield, North Carolina, to meet pilots who fly CIA aircraft; to the San Francisco suburbs to study with a “planespotter” who tracks the CIA’s movements; and to Afghanistan, where the authors visit the notorious “Salt Pit” prison and meet released Afghan detainees.

      They find that nearly five years after 9/11, the kidnappings have not stopped. On the contrary, the rendition program has been formalized, colluding with the military when necessary, and constantly changing its cover to remain hidden from sight.


      https://www.mhpbooks.com/books/torture-taxi

    • The Council of Europe’s investigation into illegal transfers and secret detentions in Europe: a chronology

      The European Court of Human Rights has so far delivered three judgments concerning CIA rendition and secret detention operations in Council of Europe member states (one against “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” and two against Poland), and individual applications are currently pending against other states (Italy, Lithuania and Romania), many drawing on Senator Dick Marty’s investigations. The Court has published a thematic fact-sheet on cases involving secret detentions.

      22 April 2015: In remarks to German news magazine Der Spiegel, former Romanian President Ion Iliascu admits to the existence of a secret CIA “site” in Romania. PACE President Anne Brasseur responds: “it is now up to the Romanian prosecutorial authorities to conduct a serious investigation into the facts, and to hold to account the perpetrators of any crimes committed in this context.”

      11-12 March 2015: The deputies of the Council of Europe’s ministerial body - which oversees the execution of Court judgments - say they are concerned Mr Al Nashiri and Mr Abu Zubaydah, now interned at Guantanamo Bay, could face “flagrant denials of justice” if tried by Military Commission and ask the Polish authorities to urgently seek assurances from the US that they will not be tried using torture evidence or subjected to the death penalty. Poland swiftly does so.

      24 July 2014: The European Court of Human Rights delivers landmark judgments in the Abu Zubaydah and Al Nashiri cases, finding that Poland was complicit in “CIA rendition, secret detention and interrogation operations on its territory” and that, by enabling the CIA to detain the applicants, it was exposing them to a serious risk of torture. After an appeal by the government is turned down on 16 February 2015, the rulings became final.

      3 December 2013: The European Court of Human Rights holds a joint Chamber hearing in the Abu Zubaydah and Al Nashiri cases against Poland, listening to submissions from all parties, and posts the video online. It also holds a confidential hearing with the parties the day before the public hearing.
      10 October 2013: The European Parliament, in a fresh resolution, deeply deplores the failures to respond to its earlier demands, and renews the call for proper investigations in Lithuania, Romania and Poland. It suggests the “climate of impunity” surrounding the CIA’s rendition programme may have enabled the mass surveillance by the NSA, recently revealed.

      9 July 2013: In addition to his case against Lithuania, Mr Zubaydah also brings a case before the Strasbourg Court against Poland, similar to the case already brought by Mr Al Nashiri.

      14 December 2012: The Court communicates to the Lithuanian Government the case of Abu Zubaydah v. Lithuania. Mr Zubaydah says he was illegally held and ill-treated in a secret prison in Lithuania run by the CIA.

      13 December 2012: The European Court of Human Rights issues its first judgment in a case involving secret prisons on European soil when its Grand Chamber finds “The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” in violation of the Convention for its part in the torture and rendition of German car-salesman Khaled El-Masri. It is greeted as a landmark judgment.

      18 September 2012: The Strasbourg Court communicates to the Romanian Government the case of Al Nashiri v. Romania. Mr Al Nashiri – who also brought the earlier case against Poland – alleges Romania knowingly and intentionally enabled the CIA to detain him and has refused to date to properly acknowledge or investigate any wrongdoing.

      11 September 2012: PACE President Jean-Claude Mignon welcomes the latest resolution of the European Parliament, adopted on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, which calls on Lithuania, Poland and Romania to open or resume independent investigations into allegations that they colluded with the CIA to hold and interrogate terrorism suspects in secret prisons. National investigations so far have been “painfully inadequate”, he points out, but the process of accountability continues.

      10 July 2012: The European Court of Human Rights communicates to the Polish Government the case of Al Nashiri v. Poland. Mr Al Nashiri, suspected of terrorist acts and now in Guantanamo, says he was tortured in Poland while in US custody following rendition, and that Poland “knowingly and intentionally” enabled his secret detention.

      16 May 2012: The European Court of Human Rights holds its first hearing on a rendition-related case, in the El-Masri case, and posts the video online. This case is heard before the Grand Chamber, an indication of its significance.

      8 December 2011: Reacting to reported confirmation of a secret CIA prison in Romania, Dick Marty says: “Five years ago we put forward substantial elements of proof of a secret CIA prison in Romania. There have been years of official denials since then. But the ‘dynamic of truth’ has run its course [...]. Those responsible for the crimes committed – and their cover-up – should now be held to account in a court of law.”

      24 November 2011: Reporting on a September 2010 visit to Romania, the Council of Europe’s Anti-Torture Committee (CPT) questions the absence of a judicial inquiry into the allegations of a secret CIA prison in the country. In their response, the Romanian authorities repeat that there is no evidence of this, and that – in the absence of proof – for them the subject is closed.

      22 November 2011: The European Court of Human Rights communicates to the Italian Government the case of Nasr and Ghali v. Italy, and asks the parties to answer a number of questions. Egyptian imam Abu Omar alleges he was kidnapped in Rome and transferred to Egypt with Italian involvement, and then detained in secret for several months in inhuman conditions.

      6 October 2011: In his last report for PACE, Dick Marty evaluates the various judicial or parliamentary inquiries launched after his reports five years ago named European governments which had hosted CIA secret prisons or colluded in rendition and torture. Overall, he concludes that unjustified resort to the doctrine of “state secrets” is still too often shielding secret services from scrutiny of involvement in human rights violations.

      5 September 2011: In two comments marking the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks – addressing, in turn, renditions and secret detentions – Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg echoes Dick Marty’s repeated calls for accountability on the part of European governments.

      19 May 2011: Reporting on a June 2010 visit to Lithuania, the Council of Europe’s Anti-Torture Committee (CPT) questions both the promptness and thoroughness of the Lithuanian Prosecutor General’s pre-trial investigation into abuse of office, then under way. In their response, the Lithuanian authorities report that “no objective data concerning the fact of abuse (or another criminal act) were collected during the pre-trial investigation” and therefore no charges will be brought.

      28 September 2010: The European Court of Human Rights becomes involved in the first specific case involving rendition and secret prisons when it communicates the case of El-Masri v. “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” to the authorities, and asks the parties to answer a number of questions. Mr El-Masri, apparently mistaken by the CIA for another man of the same name, was kidnapped and interrogated in a Skopje hotel for 23 days before being transferred to US agents.

      21 August 2009: Reacting to a news report that Lithuania was the site of a third secret CIA prison in Europe, Dick Marty says his own sources seem to confirm this information, and calls for “a full, independent and credible investigation” into what occurred on the outskirts of Vilnius: “Denial and evasion are no longer credible,” he says.

      6 November 2008: Testifying at the Milan trial of CIA and Italian secret service agents accused of kidnapping Abu Omar, Dick Marty says this is one of the few cases involving the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program to come to court. The invocation of ’state secrets’ by the Italian government must not - as in other judicial or parliamentary procedures in the US and Germany - be allowed to block the trial: “Let justice take its course!” he declares.

      4 April 2008: In a statement, Dick Marty criticises the Committee of Ministers for its response and accuses European governments of “hypocrisy” for continuing to deny their involvement in secret detentions and illegal renditions, unless forced to do so. “The United States made a choice - which I think was a wrong choice - to fight the war on terror using illegal means, but they at least made it openly and defend it,” he points out.

      16 January 2008: In a reply, the Committee of Ministers – representing the 47 Council of Europe governments – says only that it will “carefully consider” the Secretary General’s proposals to control the activities of foreign intelligence services in Europe, noting that they “reached deeply into sensitive areas of national security, law and practice”. To date, it has not yet implemented any of these proposals.

      27 June 2007: The plenary Assembly – bringing together over 300 legislators from 47 European countries – backs Mr Marty’s report and urges better oversight of foreign intelligence services operating in Europe. The use of “state secrecy” laws to protect wrongful acts by secret services should be limited, the parliamentarians say.

      8 June 2007: Presenting a second report following several months of additional inquiry, Swiss Senator Dick Marty reveals evidence that US “high-value detainees”, including alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, were held in secret CIA prisons in Poland and Romania. Based on extensive, cross-referenced testimony from serving and former intelligence agents, he also alleges a series of partly secret decisions among NATO allies in 2001 which enabled the CIA to carry out illegal activities in Europe.

      14 February 2007: In a report, the European Parliament comes to similar conclusions to Mr Marty, saying EU countries “turned a blind eye” to extraordinary renditions across their territory and airspace.

      6 September 2006: The Committee of Ministers – representing the 47 governments of the Council of Europe – decides only to “take note” of the Secretary General’s proposals for greater control over the activities of security services operating in Europe, declining any immediate follow-up. The decision comes on the very same day that US President George Bush admits the existence of secret CIA prisons. On the other hand, PACE President René van der Linden reacts by declaring that kidnapping people and torturing them in secret “is what criminals do, not democratic governments”. Such activities will not make citizens safer in the long run, he says. The admission is a vindication of Senator Marty’s work, he adds.

      30 June 2006: Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis makes concrete proposals to European governments for laws to control the activities of foreign intelligence services in Europe, reviewing state immunity, and making better use of existing controls on over-flights, including requiring landing and search of civil flights engaged in state functions.

      27 June 2006: The plenary Assembly debates Mr Marty’s first report and calls for the dismantling of the system of secret prisons, oversight of foreign intelligence services operating in Europe and a common strategy for fighting terrorism which does not undermine human rights.

      14 June 2006: Analysing a second round of replies from governments to his inquiry, Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis concludes in a supplementary report that laws to protect Europeans against human rights violations by foreign intelligence agents are “the exception rather than the rule”. Confirming his earlier conclusions, he says current controls on civil air traffic are inadequate, while State aircraft in transit are rarely checked.

      7 June 2006: Presenting his first report, Dick Marty says he has exposed a global “spider’s web” of illegal US detentions and transfers, and alleges collusion in this system by 14 Council of Europe member states, 7 of whom may have violated the rights of named individuals.

      17 March 2006: In an opinion, legal experts from the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission say that, under the European Convention on Human Rights and other international laws, member states should refuse to allow transit of prisoners where there is a risk of torture. If this is suspected, they should search civil planes or refuse overflight to state planes.

      1 March 2006: Analysing governments’ replies to a separate inquiry using powers under the European Convention on Human Rights, Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis says Europe appears to be “a happy hunting-ground for foreign security services”. Presenting a first report, he says that the rules governing activities of secret services – especially foreign ones – appear inadequate in many member states, and that current air traffic regulations do not safeguard against abuse. Immunity for foreign agents who commit crimes in Europe should not extend to serious human rights violations.

      7 November 2005: Following media reports, the Parliamentary Assembly appoints Senator Dick Marty, a Swiss former prosecutor, to conduct a parliamentary inquiry into “alleged secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers of detainees involving Council of Europe member states”. PACE President René van der Linden declares: “This issue goes to the very heart of the Council of Europe’s human rights mandate.”

      https://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/News/FeaturesManager-View-EN.asp?ID=362

      #chronologie

    • Deuxième rapport de Dick Marty, 08.06.2007

      Dick Marty: ‘high-value detainees’ were held at secret CIA prisons in Poland and Romania

      PACE rapporteur Dick Marty (Switzerland, ALDE) today revealed new evidence that US “high-value detainees” were held in secret CIA prisons in Poland and Romania during the period 2002-5 and alleges a series of partly secret decisions among NATO allies in October 2001 which provided the basic framework for illegal CIA activities in Europe.

      In an explanatory memorandum made public today, Mr Marty says he has cross-referenced the credible testimonies of over 30 members of intelligence services in the US and Europe with analysis of “data strings” from the international flight planning system.

      https://pace.coe.int/en/news/1487

  • Tomgram: Engelhardt, Seeing Our Wars for the First Time | TomDispatch
    http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176369/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_seeing_our_wars_for_the_first_time/#more

    Mapping a World From Hell
    76 Countries Are Now Involved in Washington’s War on Terror
    By Tom Engelhardt

    He left Air Force Two behind and, unannounced, “shrouded in secrecy,” flew on an unmarked C-17 transport plane into Bagram Air Base, the largest American garrison in Afghanistan. All news of his visit was embargoed until an hour before he was to depart the country.

    More than 16 years after an American invasion “liberated” Afghanistan, he was there to offer some good news to a U.S. troop contingent once again on the rise. Before a 40-foot American flag, addressing 500 American troops, Vice President Mike Pence praised them as “the world’s greatest force for good,” boasted that American air strikes had recently been “dramatically increased,” swore that their country was “here to stay,” and insisted that “victory is closer than ever before.” As an observer noted, however, the response of his audience was “subdued.” (“Several troops stood with their arms crossed or their hands folded behind their backs and listened, but did not applaud.”)

    Think of this as but the latest episode in an upside down geopolitical fairy tale, a grim, rather than Grimm, story for our age that might begin: Once upon a time — in October 2001, to be exact — Washington launched its war on terror. There was then just one country targeted, the very one where, a little more than a decade earlier, the U.S. had ended a long proxy war against the Soviet Union during which it had financed, armed, or backed an extreme set of Islamic fundamentalist groups, including a rich young Saudi by the name of Osama bin Laden.

    By 2001, in the wake of that war, which helped send the Soviet Union down the path to implosion, Afghanistan was largely (but not completely) ruled by the Taliban. Osama bin Laden was there, too, with a relatively modest crew of cohorts. By early 2002, he had fled to Pakistan, leaving many of his companions dead and his organization, al-Qaeda, in a state of disarray. The Taliban, defeated, were pleading to be allowed to put down their arms and go back to their villages, an abortive process that Anand Gopal vividly described in his book, No Good Men Among the Living.

  • Cette guerre que les Américains ne sauraient voir
    http://www.laviedesidees.fr/Cette-guerre-que-les-Americains-ne-sauraient-voir.html

    En 2001, les États-Unis se sont lancés dans une guerre contre la terreur dont les échecs n’étaient pas totalement imprévisibles. Mais le plus surprenant est que cette guerre soit restée pratiquement invisible du public américain, malgré quelques scandales. Loin d’être imposée par les nécessités de la guerre, cette invisibilité résulte de phénomènes dont les racines plongent au cœur de l’histoire du pays.

    Essais & débats

    / #war_on_terror, #armée

    #Essais_&_débats

  • La Sûreté de l’État a désormais accès à nos comptes bancaires
    http://www.lecho.be/economie_politique/belgique_general/La_Surete_de_l_Etat_a_desormais_acces_a_nos_comptes_bancaires.9710963-4003.art

    La Sûreté de l’État a conclu un protocole d’accord confidentiel avec la Banque Nationale de Belgique, qui lui donne accès à la liste de tous les comptes bancaires de Belges. Il y a un mois, la Sûreté de l’État a conclu un protocole d’accord confidentiel avec la Banque Nationale de Belgique, qui lui donne accès à la liste de tous les comptes bancaires de Belges, étrangers, entreprises et autres personnes morales, ouverts dans toutes les banques et tous les organismes financiers de notre pays. Les comptes (...) #banques #surveillance #anti-terrorisme #Belgique

  • Geneva Conventions laws of war ’need fixing’ - BBC News
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35023029?ocid=socialflow_twitter

    David Rodin, a moral philosopher and co-director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, points out that “if you look historically at where the law of armed conflict came from, it’s about mutually advantageous reciprocity, it’s in the interests of both to have some restraint”.

    He adds: “So what do you do when you have a foe who is not interested in that reciprocity? There’s no benefit to us in behaving well if the enemy doesn’t.”

    This might be a seductive line of argument for countries engaged in the so-called “war on terror”.

    #conventions_de_Genève

    Il est quand même extraordinairement fabuleux de prendre comme prémisse le fait que les armées dites régulières, notamment occidentales, sont respectueuses des conventions de Genève, notamment vis-a-vis des combattants et des civils non occidentaux.

    #sidérant

  • Security Killings: American #police Violence, from Ferguson to Nairobi
    http://africasacountry.com/security-killings-american-police-violence-from-ferguson-to-nairobi

    The world watched U.S. tanks roll into Ferguson, Missouri in August 2014, in a misguided attempt to control protests over the police killing of Michael Brown. In the aftermath, the.....

    #AFRICA_IS_A_COUNTRY #history #POLITICS #State_Violence #War_on_Drugs #War_on_Terror

  • #Tony_Blair Saves The Children of Africa
    http://africasacountry.com/tony-blair-saves-the-children-of-africa

    Interventionists across the political class in Europe and North America have comprehensively militarized the humanitarian enterprise in recent years. So there was much more dismay than surprise when Save the.....

    #AFRICA_IS_A_COUNTRY #Africa_Governance_Initiative #Desmond_Tutu #Hosni_Mubarak #John_McTernan #Jonathan_Powell #Joseph_Stiglitz #JOURNALISM #Justin_Forsyth #Paul_Kagame #POLITICS #Save_the_Children #War_on_Terror

  • #livre #parution The ‘Guantánamisation’ of Belgium

    A new book on Belgium, Guantanamo chez nous?, is an important contribution to the analysis of racism and the war on terror in Europe.


    http://www.irr.org.uk/news/the-guantanamisation-of-belgium

    #Belgique #racisme #war_on_terror

    #Guantanamo chez nous ?

    Pour avoir planifié un attentat contre la base militaire de Kleine Brogel en 2001, #Nizar_Trabelsi a été condamné à des peines draconiennes : dix ans de prison ferme en Belgique et vingt-cinq ans de prison par un tribunal militaire dans la Tunisie de Ben Ali. Le régime carcéral auquel Nizar Trabelsi a été soumis n’a pas d’égal dans l’histoire carcérale belge. Sa peine pour un attentat qui n’a jamais eu lieu, a pris fin douze ans plus tard du fait de son extradition illégale aux #Etats-Unis. Comme l’épingle Maître Marc Nève, avocat de Trabelsi de 2005 à 2013, dans la préface de cet essai : « En dépit de l’injonction faite par la Cour européenne de ne pas extrader dans l’attente de sa décision sur le bien-fondé de la requête introduite au nom de Nizar Trabelsi, et en dépit de l’accord formel de l’Agent du Gouvernement intervenant devant la Cour, de respecter cet engagement, Nizar Trabelsi fut embarqué à bord d’un vol de la CIA le 3 octobre 2013 ».
    Comment la Belgique, pays fondateur de la vieille Europe et qui s’opposait à la guerre américaine contre le terrorisme en 2003, s’est-elle transformée en un des alliés américains les plus fidèles et un des meilleurs élèves dans la classe antiterroriste ?
    Dans cet essai, #Luk_Vervaet, qui suit les #procès_antiterroristes en Belgique depuis une décennie, témoigne de la #guantanamisation en cours de notre société aussi bien au niveau politique et carcéral qu’au niveau de l’opinion publique. L’auteur démontre que le #camp_hors-la-loi de Guantanamo est bien plus qu’un rassemblement de cages, mais qu’il est devenu un modèle qui fait tache, en Belgique comme ailleurs.

    http://www.antidote.be

  • What’s it like to be Somali in #Kenya
    http://africasacountry.com/whats-it-like-to-be-somali-in-kenya

    Twitter is abuzz and #Somalis are trending in Kenya, not for reasons of their own, but rather impositions beyond their capacity. There is quite a lot of outrage from all corners that Kenyans venture, from the passionately human to the average reactionary comments in “ full support” (“remove them”) of the state. The police chief has dubbed this “operation sanitize” and the #MEDIA as usual in Kenya has a penchant for rather crude and unconscionable fascist statements towards Somali, Somalia and everything Somali, Kenyan ethnicity notwithstanding. Chime in the police who have dubbed Somalis ATM machines.

    #HISTORY #POLITICS #Eastleigh #Jomo_Kenyatta #Kipande #Nairobi #Uhuru_Kenyatta #Wagala_massacre #War_on_Terror #Westgate