War Crimes in Bani Walid 10 Oct – Military Explained – a little Graphic [video]
108morris108
October 10, 2012
With the Misrata militia 40 Kilometers away – their firing is pretty inaccurate – and the ability to hit them – when you cannot even see them is difficult – if not impossible.
The last 30 seconds of the video has graphic images.
Bani Walid Council Member Explains – Historical & Foreign Players Make the conflict [video]
108morris108
October 10, 2012
Voice recorded on 10th Oct. Video from the 7th of Oct when Bani Walid was hit by Grad rockets, like most days.
Doctor Reports From Bani Walid Hospital 9 Oct – Libya [video]
108morris108
October 8, 2012
A doctor who is working at the hospital describes injuries and deaths at the hospital, and also that there are people reporting symptoms of gas inhalation.
Bani Walid is on top of a mountain and is the home of the Warfalla tribe. It is currently besieged by other people – no food or medicine is allowed in and no one is allowed to leave.
Libya on the Brink of Tribal Warfare – Green Libyan [video]
108morris108
October 5, 2012
Benghazi is now a hopeless city. Misrata shop owners shot in Sabha. Bani Walid surrounded by Misrata Militias.
Other tribes promise solidarity with Warfalla from Bani Walid.
Much warfare is not reported.
This is a video link of some militia activity around Bani Walid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg_RD02E0II&feature=player_embedded
It has 18,000 views after 2 days …..
[added Oct 6: Libya: Bani Walid siege must be lifted
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/libyan-authorities-must-avoid-unnecessary-and-…]
NATO Terrorists Mass Slaughter Civilians in Aleppo, Syria
Al Qaeda-style terrorist bombings slaughter/maims scores, Western media spins war crime as terrorists “targeting government forces.”
by Tony Cartalucci
October 3, 2012 – NATO-backed terrorism swept the northern Syrian city of Aleppo this week, killing and maiming scores of civilians. Al Qaeda-style car bombings targeted public squares throughout the city in a coordinated attack the Western press has attempted to claim was “targeting government forces.” CNN in their article, “Syria: Dozens killed in blasts at Aleppo public square,” bases this conclusion on the discredited “Syrian Observatory for Human Rights,” a single man, Rami Abdelrahman, who is admittedly a biased member of the so-called “Syrian opposition,” based not in Syria but in Coventry England disingenuously posing as an entire “human rights organization.”
But even Abdelrahman’s baseless claims state that “most of the casualties were government forces” meaning that the remaining victims were indeed civilians. Attacking public squares populated with civilians using indiscriminate explosive devices in such attacks is a brazen war crime, one made possible by Western cash, armaments, and political support supplied to sectarian extremist groups starting as far back as 2007.
The city of Aleppo has suffered heavily at the hands of NATO-backed terrorists, entire battalions of which consist of Libyan terrorists, not Syrian “freedom fighters” as the Western media attempts to repeatedly state. Libyan militants from the listed terror organization, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), are stationed, armed, and funded in NATO-member Turkey by Western and the Persian Gulf states of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, before crossing into northern Syria to carry out atrocities against the Syrian people under the guise of the so-called “Free Syrian Army.”
Image: Libyan Mahdi al-Harati of the US State Department, United Nations, and the UK Home Office (page 5, .pdf)-listed terrorist organization, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), addressing fellow terrorists in Syria. Harati is now commanding a Libyan brigade operating inside of Syria attempting to destroy the Syrian government and subjugate the Syrian population. After ravaging many of Libya’s historical sites out of sectarian spite, these very same terrorists are attacking heritage sites across the ancient northern city of Aleppo, Syria.
As these terrorist battalions continuously fail to achieve any significant military gains against the Syrian Army, they have resorted to brazen terrorist attacks like the recent coordinated car bombings, as well as targeting high profile historical sites across the ancient city. The Western media then attempts to portray the ravaging of Syria’s historical treasures as perpetrated by the Syrian government, when these same Libyan terrorists ravaged their own historical sites in acts of sectarian spite toward the end of last year’s NATO-backed destruction of the Libyan nation-state.
The UN described in detail similar attacks on Libyan historical sites in a report titled, “UN independent experts condemn destruction of Sufi religious sites in Libya,” which stated:
Three United Nations independent experts today strongly condemned the destruction of Sufi religious and historic sites in various parts of Libya, as well as the intimidation and excessive use of force against unarmed protesters opposing the destruction.
According to media reports, ultra-conservative Islamists were responsible for the damage, reportedly with the acquiescence of members of the security forces. The sites are revered by Sufis, a branch of Islam known for its moderation but considered heretical by some branches of the Islamic faith.
These same sectarian extremists are now busy at work in Syria, again, with NATO arms, cash, and both political and covert military support carrying out identical atrocities with the Western press repeating identical lies to obfuscate from the public the true scope of the conflict.
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION – Oct. 6, 2012 — Canadian Peace Congress: End the Aggression Against Syria! Stop the Drive to War Against Iran!
Global Research
October 1, 2012
The Canadian Peace Congress condemns the ongoing foreign intervention in Syria and the escalating drive to war against Iran, and calls for the immediate withdrawal of all Canadian, NATO and foreign mercenary forces from the region. We further call upon the Conservative government of Stephen Harper to restore and normalize its diplomatic relations with Syria and Iran, and to re-orient Canadian foreign policy toward peace, international cooperation and solidarity.
The Harper government’s decision to adopt an international policy of belligerence, and to do so without consulting Parliament, is further evidence of its abandonment of a foreign policy of peace and diplomacy in favour of aggressive and hostile interference in the internal affairs of sovereign countries. Syria and Iran are member states of the United Nations and have expressed no hostile intent towards Canada or its people. Prime Minister Harper is actively contributing to the danger of war, through hostile policies that are out of step with the Canadian peoples’ longstanding support for peace.
The Canadian government has allied itself with a minority of Western governments who, along with pro-war forces within Israel and a few reactionary Arab regimes, are seeking new pretexts for intervention and war. These include the protection of human rights or the prevention of the alleged proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. These objectives cannot be achieved by breaking diplomatic relations, imposing economic sanctions, arming foreign mercenaries, or forging international campaigns for regime change and by installing puppet governments favourable to the strategic goals of the major western power.
Foreign intervention, sanctions and military aggression only weaken the human and democratic rights of the Syrian and Iranian people, and diminish their ability to develop and improve their societies. The aftermath of NATO intervention in Libya last year, in which Canadian armed forces bombed Libyan territory, has been disastrous for the people of Libya who are now plunged into factional warfare. This, plus the catastrophic consequences of the military occupation of Iraq, including the deaths of over one million Iraqis, clearly indicate that the main victim of any war is the civilian population.
As in the case of Libya last year, the drive to interfere in Syria and Iran is driven by the strategic and economic interests of imperialist powers. These countries – including the United States, Britain, the European Union and Canada – choose militarism and war as their preferred option for expanding their spheres of influence and control over resources and markets. The result is destruction, displacement and despair to the peoples of the developing countries who have been targeted. Far from resolving conflicts, these policies of interference only deepen current crises and escalate the danger to world peace.
Pro-war forces have seized upon the many complexities in the situations in Iran and Syria, to promote misinformation and confusion. The threat to peace in the Middle East does not arise from countries who exercise their sovereign right to develop the nuclear energy industries to build their economies. Nor does it originate with countries who oppose Western efforts to re-colonize the Middle East and control its vast energy resources, through the New Middle East Plan. Rather, the concrete threat to peace is the existing conventional and nuclear weapons that the US, its NATO allies and Israel constantly brandish in their effort to destabilize the region, to demonize governments that oppose imperialist plans, and to justify interference and war.
The Canadian Peace Congress asserts that the direction of economic, political and social development in any country is the sole right of the people of that country to determine, without foreign interference. We hold this principle to be true for the people of Canada, as we hold it to be true for the people of Syria and Iran. We are completely opposed to any foreign political or military intervention, under any pretext. This includes efforts to interfere with and divert genuine democratic domestic movements.
The role of the Canadian government in both of these crises has been shameful. Under Stephen Harper’s Conservatives, Canada has abandoned its reputation as a country with an independent stance in international relations, and assumed the posture of a vocal NATO aggressor state. In all dimensions – political-diplomatic, economic and military – Canada’s recent policies toward Syria and Iran have been geared toward three goals:
- Isolate and neutralize sources of information that conflict with imperialist aims, by cutting off communication with the governments and peoples in Syria and Iran;
- Increase the suffering of the people and generate anti-government sentiment, by imposing economic sanctions that particularly target energy industries who produce for local consumption;
- Increase the active military threat in the region, by deploying warships and other military resources to the region.
These goals all directly serve the overall objective of pro-Western regime change in Syria and Iran, and the Harper government has campaigned hard internationally, to convince other countries to assume similar policies against both countries.
In the case of Syria, the Conservatives have also campaigned aggressively to create and promote a political opposition movement to the government. In November 2011, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly received a report that “virtually no one [in Syria] is calling for international military intervention” and that Syria was “without a clearly identifiable opposition with precise political ambitions.” Yet, just prior to that report, Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird had met with the Syrian National Council and proclaimed them to be the legitimate opposition who has “continuously outlined their appetite for change.” It is unclear how Baird identified an organized and “legitimate” opposition when NATO could not, and it suggests that the Syrian National Council is little more than a pro-Western puppet government-in-waiting that has been fashioned by imperialist forces.
Furthermore, Canada has supported the arming of an estimated 40-60,000 foreign mercenaries to fight inside Syria. These mercenaries form the backbone of the Free Syrian Army, and indicate the degree of armed foreign intervention already underway in Syria. The recent elections in Syria had a higher voter turnout than in Canada, and a number of independents and government opponents were elected and have been included in the cabinet. The Syrian people have spoken, yet Canada and other interventionist forces continue to pick sides in an internal matter.
In the case of Iran, the frenzied drive to war has obscured certain significant facts from the public eye:
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Iran is a non-nuclear state and a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and is under the supervision of the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Iran has repeatedly stated that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and not for military ends. The fact of the matter is that neither the IAEA nor the U.S. administration has been able to show any substantiated evidence about the weaponization of Iran’s nuclear energy program. The U.S. Secretary of Defence, Leon Panetta, has publicly conceded, “there is no evidence that Iran has a nuclear weapon.”
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Israel is a nuclear weapons state with an estimated 200-400 nuclear weapons, who has refused to join the NPT. There is no UN supervision over Israel’s nuclear activities. It has pre-emptively attacked other neighbouring states, and has threatened Iran with military attack many times.
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United States is a nuclear weapons state with more than 10,000 nuclear weapons, and it has not allowed any inspection of its nuclear facilities by the IAEA. The U.S. has used nuclear weapons against other countries, when it exploded two nuclear bombs on Japan and when it used uranium-enriched weapons in Iraq. The U.S. also has repeatedly threatened Iran with military attack, and has nuclear-equipped forces currently stationed in the region.
The Canadian Peace Congress supports the October 6 Day of Protest Against War, initiated by the Canadian Peace Alliance. After more than a year of conflict and violent foreign intervention, thousands of Syrian people have died. If governments like Canada are allowed to continue their current policies of aggression, interference and colonization, thousands more will die. All peace-supporting groups in Canada – including trade unions, faith communities and student groups – need to speak out and mobilize against intervention in Syria and Iran and the threat of a far broader war in the region.
The Canadian Peace Congress demands that the Canadian government:
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Immediately withdraw Canadian military forces from the region, and oppose military intervention in Syria and Iran, under any pretext;
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Restore diplomatic relations with Syria and Iran, remove sanctions, and support the peace initiatives of those states and organizations advocating a cease fire and negotiated end to the war;
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Withdraw from NATO, which has a nuclear first-strike policy and complimentary sea- and land-based ballistic missile systems, and all other military alliances;
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Promote full nuclear disarmament, beginning with the nuclear stockpiles of the United States, Israel and NATO;
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Adopt a new independent Canadian foreign policy of peace, non-intervention and diplomacy in international relations.
Canadian Peace Congress Executive Council
30 September, 2012
The Canadian Peace Congress was formed in 1949 as an organization of Canadian people that works for world peace and disarmament. We maintain that peace, not militarism and war, is the guarantor of democracy, human rights, and social and economic justice. The Peace Congress is affiliated to the World Peace Council and is a founding member of the Canadian Peace Alliance.
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Don’t Attack Iran
Join the International day of Action, October 6
Events Listings
Edmonton
A peace rally organized by the Edmonton Coalition Against War & Racism (ECAWAR) urging the Canadian government not to use military intervention in Iran.
The program includes:
Dr. Rose Geransar (Iranian-Canadian activist)
Siavash Saffari (Iranian-Canadian activist)
Peggy Morton (ECAWAR)
Dr. Dougal MacDonald (ECAWAR)
Paula Kirman (political singer/songwriter)
….more details to come!
Hands off Iran!
Hands off Syria!
No Sanctions – No War!
Canada Needs and Anti-War Government!
Facebook event
Halifax
Join us for a rally and march on Saturday, October 6, part of a pan-Canadian day of action to oppose a war against Iran.
1:00 p.m. Rally at Halifax Commons Triangle
1:30 p.m. March to Megan Leslie’s Community Office on Gottingen St.
Hamilton
No Attack on Syria and Iran!
Join thousands of people around North America and England in protesting the run-up to the looming wars in the Mideast! Stop the Harper government’s preparations for military intervention in both Syria and Iran!
Saturday, October 6, 2012, at the Federal Building, 55 Bay Street North, Hamilton, 1 pm.
For further info on the October 6 demonstrations, e-mail hcsw-at-cogeco.ca, phone 905-383-7693, or go to our events page at www.hamiltoncoalitiontostopthewar.ca . Colin Powell says: Don’t Get Fooled Again!
Toronto
Don’t attack Iran – Rally and March
Join the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War for a city-wide rally and march on Saturday, October 6, part of a pan-Canadian day of action to oppose a war against Iran.
2:00 p.m. Rally at Queen’s Park
3:00 p.m. March
3:30 p.m. Public meeting: ‘Why Harper cut ties with Iran’ – featuring special guest speakers (TBA)
Vancouver
Stop Harper’s Warmongering Against Iran
International Day of Action Against War
Saturday October 6
12 Noon
Meet at Peace Flame Park (also known as Seaforth Peace Park) – south end of Burrard Bridge, between Cornwall & 1st Ave Join StopWar.ca and allies in a display of banners and signs for drivers, cyclists and transit riders.
This action is in solidarity with an international day of action. Below, please find the callout for actions across Canada.
More information: stopwar-at-resist.ca
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