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OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 1/10/11

Bradley Manning and the Rule of Law

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Marjorie Cohn , who teaches criminal law and procedure, evidence, and international human rights law at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, describes multiple war crimes from this single video.   First, targeting and killing civilians who do not pose a threat violated the Geneva Conventions. Second, when soldiers attacked the van attempting to rescue the wounded they violate the Geneva Conventions which allows the rescue of wounded.   Third, the tank rolling over the wounded man, splitting him in two, is a war crime and even if he were already dead disrespecting a body violates the Geneva Conventions.  

The Collateral Murder video documents war crimes according to this legal expert on human rights law.   When Manning saw these war crimes, what should he have done?   Should he have covered up the evidence of potential war crimes?   Should he try to go up the chain of command -" a strategy that he had already unsuccessfully tried?   If Manning did what he is accused of, he did the only thing that could stop these crimes from continuing.

Other documents Manning allegedly provided to WikiLeaks showed the 2009 Granai airstrike in Afghanistan, in which as many as 140 civilians, including women and children, were killed in a U.S. attack. The Australian reported that the airstrike resulted in "one of the highest civilian death tolls from Western military action since foreign forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001."   The Afghan government has said that around 140 civilians were killed, of which 93 were children -" the youngest 8 days old -" 25 were women and 22 were adult males.   The U.S. military had said that 20-30 civilians were killed along with 60-65 insurgents.

 

Allegedly, Manning released hundreds of thousands of documents to WikiLeaks who, working with traditional media outlets has released a small percentage of them.   He left it to journalists to decide what was appropriate for release. The small percentage of documents released show widespread and systemic abuses in U.S. foreign policy and in the conduct of wars.   WikiLeaks documents including the Iraq and Afghanistan War Logs and the diplomatic cables show:

 

-         That U.S. troops kill civilians without cause or concern and then cover it up (more examples of hiding civilian killings here, here and here) including killing reporters;

-           The CIA is fighting an undeclared and unauthorized war in Pakistan with Blackwater mercenaries;

-         The President of Afghanistan is not trustworthy, that Afghanistan is rife with corruption and drug dealing;

-         The Pakistan military and intelligence agencies aid Al Qaeda and the Taliban;

-         The U.S. looks the other way when governments it puts in power torture;

-         The diplomatic cables also show that beyond the war fronts that Hillary Clinton has turned State Department Foreign Service officers into a nest of spies who violate laws to spy on diplomats all with marching orders drawn up by the CIA;

-         That Israel, with U.S. knowledge is preparing for a widespread war in the Middle East, keeping the Gaza economy at the brink of collapse and show widespread corruption at border checkpoints.

 

These are a few examples among many. The documents published by WikiLeaks, allegedly provided to them by Manning, are of critical importance to understanding that U.S. foreign and military policy is not what Americans are told.   No doubt historians, human rights lawyers, academics and others will be reviewing these documents and reporting in greater detail the systemic nature of the unethical and often illegal behavior of U.S. foreign policy.   This already has the world looking at the United States with new eyes.

 

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Kevin Zeese is co-chair of Come Home America, www.ComeHomeAmerica.US which seeks to end U.S. militarism and empire. He is also co-director of Its Our Economy, www.ItsOurEconomy.US which seeks to democratize the economy and give people greater (more...)
 
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