Lebanon government joins forces with bid to have Blair tried in Scotland f

[mom cat]

Lebanon government joins forces with bid to have Blair tried in Scotland for war crimes

By Neil Mackay

08/06/06 "Sunday Herald" -- -- THE Lebanese government is working behind the scenes to bring Tony Blair before the Scottish courts, charged with war crimes for aiding and abetting the Israeli onslaught against Lebanon.

Ali Berro, the Lebanese government’s special adviser on legal affairs, is assisting Lebanese nationals living in Scotland, and their legal team, in their attempt to take the Scottish Executive and the UK government to court for allowing US aircraft to fly “bunker-buster bombs” from America to Israel via Scottish airports.

Berro is providing the legal team, led by the Glasgow-based human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar, with detailed information about alleged Israel war crimes, and also forwarding information on the casualty rates of Lebanese civilians and the type of weapons being deployed by the Israeli army. In total, some 30 lawyers, including QCs, in Scotland and England are helping prepare the case against the government.

Along with his briefing, Berro sent Anwar and his clients this message: “We are laying before you all these facts and we count on you to use all possible means of pressure to put an end to the destruction targeting civilians. We are counting on you and thank you.”

The team is accusing Blair of assisting Israel in carrying out war crimes against civilians, citing various pieces of international legislation, including the Geneva Conventions, which say that it is a war crime to aid and abet a nation carrying out attacks targetted against civilians.

more at:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14393.htm

[Drum]

1. wow!

shouldn't this be Latest Breaking News?

:kick:

[mom cat]

4. Probably, but I was in such a hurry to post it that I just put it here.

Right now this is still in the planning stage, but I suspect that it will run up dry cleaning bills in London and DC. :toast:

[malaise]

2. Brilliant tactics

Lock up this war criminal.

[mom cat]

5. I can think of a few more that we can donate to the cause!

[Joanne98]

3. Why won't the Labor Party just get rid of him. I don't get it.

They lost seats in the last election but they STILL allow him to take the whole party down. It's sickening.

[mom cat]

6. This might just be his undoing. The British press has been far more vocal

on this than the US pampered scribes. We shall see.

[cali]

7. It'll never happen.

It probably shouldn't happen, and the vast majority of the British public will certainly not endorse it.

[mom cat]

10. I wonder? Time will tell.

[emcguffie]

8. I wonder if elections haven't been fiddled with all over the place.

Such as Canada, Australia, UK.... I don't know what's going on in New Zealand, but if they have a new conservative government, there too. Not Italy. Although, of course, that's possible too, because Berlusconi had become so obvious, maybe they just wanted to replace him with an apparently liberal neocon, like Blair.

Oh, mustn't forget Mexico.

[mom cat]

9. Or tomorrow in CT and of course, November here.

[chill_wind]

11. Sick recent quote

At a Downing Street reception not long ago, a guest had the temerity to ask Tony Blair: "How do you sleep at night, knowing that you've been responsible for the deaths of 100,000 Iraqis?" The Prime Minister is said to have retorted: "I think you'll find it's closer to 50,000."

From: Newstatesman
Blood on his hands
Cover story
John Kampfner
Monday 7th August 2006

Blair knew the attack on Lebanon was coming but he didn't try to stop it, because he didn't want to. He has made this country an accomplice, destroying what remained of our influence abroad while putting us all at greater risk of attack. By John Kampfner


No British leader since Winston Churchill has dealt in war with such alacrity as the present one. Back then, it was in the cause of saving the nation from Nazism. Now, it is in the cause of putting into practice the foreign policy of the simpleton. During his nine years in power, Blair - and in this government it is he, and he alone - has managed to ensure that the UK has become both reviled and stripped of influence across vast stretches of the world. In so doing, he has increased the danger of terrorism to Britain itself.

(...)

I am told that the Israelis informed George W Bush in advance of their plans to "destroy" Hezbollah by bombing villages in southern Lebanon. The Americans duly informed the British. So Blair knew. This exposes as a fraud the debate of the past week about calling for a ceasefire. Indeed, one of the reasons why negotiations failed in Rome was British obduracy. This has been a case not of turning a blind eye and failing to halt the onslaught, but of providing active support.

Blair, like Bush, had no intention of urging the Israelis to slow down their bombardment, believing somehow that this struggle was winnable. Israel has a right to self-defence, but it could have responded to the seizure of its soldiers, and to the rocket attacks, by the diplomatic route. That would have ensured greater sympathy. Now, growing numbers in Israel itself realise that military action will bring no long-term solution.


more: http://www.newstatesman.com/200608070017

[Solo_in_MD]

12. Headline grabbing grandstanding and little else

soveriegn immunity, lack of jurisdiction, assumes facts not established or in evidence for starters...