A developing story …
You “progressives” on this blog, US citizens and its western allies have been LIED to and clouded by military propaganda from their governments. How many deaths did these criminal acts cause in Syria by extending the civil unrest. How many civilians have fled their homes and millions crossed into Europe causing an “immigration” issue which led directly to a conservative movement of white supremacy and a strong shift to right-wing politics across Europe.
It’s all there for you to read in the archives of European Tribune and @BooMan. I have not been fooled.
[Update-1]
○ Netherlands supported Syrian jihadist group: report | Dutch News – NL Times |
Dutch gave support to terrorist groups in Syria | Nieuwsuur Investigative Report |
Pick-up trucks and uniforms
The investigation also shows that the Netherlands supplied Toyota Hilux and Isuzu D-max pick-up trucks to Syrian rebels, among other things. The Netherlands also sent uniforms, satellite telephones, laptops, mattresses, backpacks and cameras. The rebels tell Nieuwsuur and Trouw that they are very satisfied with the Dutch help and that they are already using the goods received by the Netherlands in the armed struggle.
More below the fold …
On video images that the rebel groups supported by the Netherlands put on their YouTube channels, you can see how they use the type of pick-up truck that the Netherlands supplied by fixing machine guns and shooting their targets from the truck. It is not possible to check whether the trucks controlled by the Netherlands have actually been used for this lethal purpose because the pick-ups are not provided with a distinguishing mark.
The Public Prosecutor confirms that she is currently prosecuting a Dutch man for participation in Jabhat al-Shamiya in 2015. The OM also confirms that she has labeled Jabhat al-Shamiya as terrorist in this case. The Public Prosecution Service maintains its position and continues the prosecution. She does not want to discuss the policy of Foreign Affairs. The OM also states that it assesses groups of warriors per criminal case and does not make statements about periods that fall outside a case.
○ Al-Qaida Plays a Long Game in Syria | West Point Research – Sept. 2015 |
Dutch gov't provided aid to hardline Syrian rebels for several years: report https://t.co/q0wmqNcMqH #Syria
— Al-Masdar News (@TheArabSource) September 10, 2018
[Update-1]
Dutch taxpayers’ money to jihadists killing Syrian Kurdish children
… from 2016 to the beginning of 2018 the Netherlands supported the Sultan Murad Brigade with pick-up trucks and uniforms, while this brigade was guilty of war crimes in the same period, according to human rights organizations.
The brigade deployed child soldiers in the battle and was actively involved in attacks on the Sheikh Maqsoud Kurdish district, killing 83 civilians, including 30 children. The Dutch Division of Defense Division 13 also participated in these attacks on Kurdish civilians.
The Netherlands promised to carefully select the groups and stop the support if there were signs of human rights violations or other ‘undesirable behavior’. But support to groups such as the Sultan Murad Brigade continued – despite public warnings from, among others, the UN Human Rights Council – until the beginning of 2018.
Dutch propaganda … now admittedly this was false news, not telling Dutch parliament as the facts were on the ground in Syria.
○ Netherlands to intensify action against ISIS in Syria and Iraq | Dutch Gov’t – Jan. 29, 2016 |
○ Summary of report ‘Transformation of jihadism in the Netherlands’ | AIVD – June 2014 |
The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs temporarily halted the Netherlands’ support for an aid project in Syria due to concerns that some of the money ended up with extremist groups. Since 2014 the Netherlands contributed 12.6 million euros to the Access to Justice and Community Security Project, which includes the Free Syrian Police, AD reports.
The Free Syrian Police is an unarmed police service set up after the start of the civil war in the country. The aim is to provide ‘peace and justice’ in areas controlled by the Syrian opposition. The Free Syrian Police is supported by the Access to Justice and Community Security Project. The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, and Great Britain are among the six Western countries that contributed millions to the project over the past years, according to the newspaper.
The project came under fire this week after British television program BBC Panorama reported that extremist group Nour al-Din al-Zinki forced the Free Syrian Police in the Aleppo region to transfer 20 percent of its salaries to the group, because they protected the five police stations in the region. According to the BBC, this happened until 2016.
The program also reported that in another region the Al Nusra front, which is linked to al-Qaeda, chose officers for the Free Police. According to the BBC, these officers also cooperated with courts that imposed executions and stoning as punishment. A man told the BBC that members of the Free Syrian Police were aware of torture happening in the prison where he was detained.
The Dawn of Mass Jihad: Success in Syria Fuels al-Qa’ida’s Evolution – Sept. 2016
Jabhat al-Nusra’s decision to decouple itself from its external affiliations and to rebrand itself as Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (JFS) is merely the latest move in the organization’s ‘long game’ in Syria. Though its Syrian audience has praised the move thus far, the group has also lost several senior leaders who were unhappy at the disengagement from al-Qa’ida. Al-Qa’ida is itself increasingly evolving into an idea adopted and empowered by largely autonomous affiliates whose individual strategies have become explicitly local. Consequently, JFS represents a formidable movement in Syria, whose localist focus should be seen as a harbinger of a new era of more broadly supported, more sustainable and, thus, more dangerous jihadist militancy.
After a series of coordinated leaks and media releases, Jabhat al-Nusra announced on July 28, 2016, that it had dissolved all “external” ties and “in serving the people of al-Sham” had renamed itself Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, or the Front for the Conquest of the Levant. The group’s leader, Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa (Abu Mohammed al-Julani), revealed his face for the first time as part of this consequential rebranding exercise that was aimed at distinguishing his movement’s activities in Syria from those of the transnational al-Qa’ida organization. Situated at either side of al-Julani during his video statement, however, were his chief aide and sharia official Abdulrahim Attoun (Abu Abdulrahman al-Shami) and jihadist veteran figure and former confidante of al-Qa’ida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, Ahmed Salameh Mabrouk (Abu Faraj al-Masri).
By extension, the Americans will see to it no one will see prison time for war crimes and crimes against humanity. What a bunch of losers.
John Bolton threatens International war crimes court (ICC) with sanctions in virulent attack
Bolton vowed that the United States would retaliate by banning ICC judges and prosecutors from entering the US, imposing sanctions on any funds they had in the States and prosecuting them in the American court system.
Advertisement“If the court comes after us, Israel, or other US allies we will not sit quietly,” he said, also threatening to impose the same sanctions on any country that aided the investigation.
He condemned the inquiry into war crimes in Afghanistan as an “utterly unfounded, unjustifiable investigation” and the court as illegitimate.
“We will let the ICC die on its own. After all, for all intents and purposes, the ICC is already dead,” Bolton said.
He said the US would negotiate more binding, bilateral agreements to prohibit countries from surrendering Americans to the court in The Hague.
David Scheffer, who established the ICC on behalf of the US and served as the country’s ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, said: “The Bolton speech today isolates the United States from international criminal justice and severely undermines our leadership in bringing perpetrators of atrocity crimes to justice elsewhere in the world.
“The double standard set forth in his speech will likely play well with authoritarian regimes, which will resist accountability for atrocity crimes and ignore international efforts to advance the rule of law. This was a speech soaked in fear and Bolton sounded the message, once again, that the United States is intimidated by international law and multilateral organizations. I saw not strength but weakness conveyed today by the Trump Administration.”
The senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat confirmed that a US official had notified the Palestinian leadership that its diplomatic mission in Washington DC would be closed.
John Bolton: "I don't think we're a threat to anyone else's sovereignty." Says the guy who has facilitated or backed every US invasion or bombing for decades. Bolton shouldn't be talking about the International Criminal Court, he should be a target of it.
— Sam Husseini (@samhusseini) September 10, 2018
The End of Exceptionalism in War Crimes by David Scheffer - Harvard Issue Nov. 2007
Exceptionalism may have a place in international politics, but this concept has run its course in the sphere of international criminal justice. No nation should ignore its duty to bring war criminals to justice or otherwise shield its own leaders or soldiers from charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, or war crimes. The rule of law debacles in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo have been the death-knell of exceptionalism in the war crimes business.
Reality is knocking and its name is the permanent International Criminal Court (ICC). Any claim that the US may have to moral high ground in foreign policy necessarily requires that the United States join the ICC and do so relatively soon. The United States needs the ICC to help restore its global credibility, discipline its own decision-making, and strengthen judicial intervention against atrocity crimes.
Reject and Punish
In recent years, the United States has lost not only its leadership in the field of international law but has also crippled its own national interests and foreign policy objectives. The descent into a yawning credibility gap can be traced back to 2001, even before 9/11, and the Bush administration’s rejection of the ICC, the Kyoto Protocol, and multilateralism writ large. These decisions were based on a mindset deeply skeptical and dismissive of international law.
I reside in The Hague, a stone’s throw away from the International Criminal Court. Should I be afraid of the U.S Congress legislation called the “The Hague Invasion Act?” I fear not!
○ Bush Sends Taylor to ICC in The Hague – You Believe It?! by Oui @BooMan on March 31, 2006
