UN Experts Say Those Ordering and Carrying Out US Boat Strikes Should Be ‘Prosecuted for Homicide’

from Common Dreams

Two United Nations rights experts warned that in numerous ways in recent weeks, the Trump administration’s escalation toward Venezuela has violated international law—most recently when President Donald Trump said he had ordered the South American country’s airspace closed following a military buildup in the Caribbean Sea.

But the two officials, independent expert on democratic and international order George Katrougalos and Ben Saul, the UN special rapporteur on protecting human rights while countering terrorism, reserved their strongest condemnation and warning to the US for the administration’s repeated bombings of boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific, which have targeted at least 22 boats and killed 83 people since September as the White House has claimed without evidence it is combating drug traffickers. 

The strikes, said Katrougalos and Saul, “are grave violations of the right to life and the international law of the sea. Those involved in ordering and carrying out these extrajudicial killings must be investigated and prosecuted for homicide.”

Human rights advocates have warned for months that the strikes are extrajudicial killings. Trump has claimed the US is in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels in Venezuela—even though the country is not significantly involved in drug trafficking—but Congress has not authorized any military action in the Caribbean...

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Trump Commands Venezuela’s Heavens Closed

from Venezuelan Analysis

US President Trump ordered the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela “closed in its entirety” on November 29.

Yet the US has as much legal and moral authority to shutter the skies over Venezuela as the Venezuelans have to close the putting greens at Mar-a-Lago. Yes, that’s ridiculous – but not any more so than Washington’s phony pretext of drug interdiction for their deadly regime-change offensive against Venezuela.

To date, the Yankee military has murdered over 80 people in alleged “drug boats” in the southern Caribbean and eastern Pacific but has yet to confiscate a single milligram of narcotics from Venezuela. The Venezuelan authorities, in contrast, have seized 64 tons of cocaine this year that were being transited through their country and have done so without killing a single person.

However, Venezuela’s interdiction pales in comparison to the 400 tons of cocaine smuggled into the US enabled by one Juan Orlando Hernández, according to the US Department of Justice. Hernández is a former Honduran president and rightwing Washington ally. He was convicted in a US jury trial for running his country like a narco state, taking bribes from Sinaloa Cartel kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

The day before Trump “closed” Venezuela’s airspace as part of his so-called “crackdown on drug cartels,” he announced his intention to pardon convicted cartel-enabler Hernández, who is serving a 45-year sentence at a penitentiary in West Virginia...

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Israeli collaborator Yasser Abu Shabab reportedly killed in Gaza

(Glorious Israel is mourning the loss of an ISIS terrorist who killed women and children with impunity. Let's see the apologist spin this one.) 

from PressTV

Israeli collaborator and Daesh-linked leader Yasser Abu Shabab, participating in looting aid and targeting Palestinian civilians, has been reportedly killed in Gaza, according to local media.

Several Israeli outlets reported that he was killed on Thursday, though details regarding who was responsible for his killing or the circumstances surrounding it have not been confirmed.

The incident was said to have taken place in Rafah, in southern Gaza—an area currently under full Israeli control.

Israeli Channel 12 initially reported that Abu Shabab had been taken to Soroka Hospital after being struck, where he was later pronounced dead. The hospital, however, denied receiving him.

Channel 12 journalist Amit Segal described Abu Shabab’s reported killing as a “bad development for Israel,” highlighting his role as a local collaborator.

Abu Shabab emerged during the two-year genocidal war as the head of the Popular Forces, looting aid and killing or kidnapping Palestinian civilians and Hamas fighters as well as collaborating with Israeli forces.

He was reportedly armed and provided with operational freedom under Israeli military protection...

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Erdoğan emphasizes support, inclusion for disabled citizens

from Daily Sabah

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan participated in the Disability-Inclusive Century of Türkiye International Day of Persons with Disabilities Gathering held on Thursday at the AK Party Congress Center in Ankara.

The event brought together government representatives, civil society leaders, academics, private sector stakeholders and persons with disabilities to commemorate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities and evaluate Türkiye’s ongoing strategies to empower disabled citizens.

During his address, Erdoğan extended his heartfelt congratulations to disabled citizens, their families and supporters worldwide, emphasizing the importance of solidarity on this significant day.

"I sincerely congratulate all our disabled brothers and sisters, our friends and elders around the world on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. I hope this important day brings goodness for our disabled citizens, their valuable families and our entire nation," he said.

Highlighting the resilience of disabled individuals, Erdoğan stated, "Their determination and perseverance open no space for despair; they always look to the future with confidence and serve as examples for all of us."...

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Sometimes You Just Gotta be a Chicken and other news

Sometimes you just gotta be a chicken. It's the only way to stay sane.

Direct Support 

Hegseth Says He Did Not See Survivors of Boat Attack Clinging to Wreckage

(What gets me is the fact that all of a sudden its the double tap that folks are upset about, not the fact that it's murder in the first place. Even IF they were hauling fentanyl into the U.S., which they weren't, you can't just murder them with drones or airstrikes or cruise missile attacks. That's murder pure and simple. We are a lawless state and the propagandists are conditioning us to ignore it with tactics like this one. Double tap bad but straight up murder is OKAY? Bullshit.) 

from the NYT

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday that he had not noticed survivors in the water during U.S. military strikes that killed 11 people in the Caribbean in September.

His remarks, at a cabinet meeting at the White House in which he cited the “fog of war,” were the latest from Trump administration officials meant to address questions about whether the U.S. military committed a war crime when it launched a second strike on a boat on Sept. 2, killing two survivors of the initial attack who were clinging to the burning wreckage.

Mr. Hegseth had said that he watched the operation live on video before he “moved on” to his next meeting. But following news reports about the second U.S. strike, Mr. Hegseth said he “didn’t stick around” to see it.

The defense secretary said Adm. Frank M. Bradley, the commander of the operation, “made the right call,” in ordering the second strike...

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The Israel lobby is melting down before our eyes

from Mondoweiss

Last month, a top staffer at the Jewish organization J Street who had worked for Obama and Harris explained that Congress’s tradition of backing Israel “no matter what” was imposed by a “well-funded group of… Jews.” 

“A small, organized and well-funded group of American Jews treated the issue as a threshold question in elections, and most candidates decided it wasn’t worth antagonizing them,” Ilan Goldenberg wrote.  

Not long ago, such attacks on the Israel lobby (including my own) were dismissed as antisemitic conspiracy theories. Now, a leading Jewish organization publishes them.  

That’s because the American Jewish community is today in open crisis over its historic support for Israel. Prominent Jews are finally attacking the lobby, a political structure created 60 years ago by leading Jewish groups to make sure there was no daylight between the Israeli and U.S. governments... 

...

Rahm Emanuel brought the sad news to the largest Jewish organization, the Jewish Federations, last month. Noting that Obama toured Israel before he announced his presidential campaign in 2007, Emanuel, who is running for president, said that in 2028, no Democratic candidate will dare follow the traditional playbook.  

“Nobody is leaving America to travel to Jerusalem. That’s the politics.”

And not only Democrats. Emanuel said that all young people, left and right, are turning on Israel. 

“Look where Israel stands in America with people under 30,” he said. “Forget party. It is a political risk today to take a [pro-Israel] position. Israel is extremely unpopular—I want to drive this point home for all of us who support a Jewish state– today, Israel for a generation under 30, the last two years will be as seminal a definition as what the Six Day War was for [an earlier] generation. But we have to be honest about the task we have here.”...

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Damascus rejects legitimacy of Israeli presence in Golan

from al Mayadeen English

The Syrian Foreign Ministry has affirmed that Damascus’ engagement in any "talks related to technical matters that may affect the security of Syria and the region" does not signify "the abandonment of Syria’s firm right to the occupied Golan."

In an official statement, the ministry reiterated that "the Golan will remain Syrian land, and there is no legitimacy for the Israeli occupation there."

The Foreign Ministry expressed its deep gratitude to the countries that voted in the United Nations General Assembly in favor of "ending the Israeli occupation of the occupied Syrian Golan." It described the international support as a reflection of global commitment to "international legitimacy and its resolutions, which affirm the Syrian people’s right to their occupied land."

In a related development, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated on Tuesday that any potential negotiations with Syria would depend on Damascus agreeing to create what he described as a demilitarized zone extending from the Syrian capital to the southern slopes of Jabal al-Sheikh [Mount Hermon] in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights...

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Mass wedding of Palestinian couples defies despair in Gaza

'Life will find a way' 

from Daily Sabah

Dozens of Palestinian couples walked hand-in-hand through the shattered streets of southern Gaza on Tuesday for a mass wedding ceremony that offered a rare moment of joy after two years of Israel's genocidal war and devastation.

Eman Hassan Lawwa was dressed in traditional Palestinian prints and Hikmat Lawwa wore a suit as they walked hand-in-hand past the crumbled buildings of southern Gaza in a line of other couples dressed in exactly the same way.

The 27-year-old Palestinians were among 54 couples to get married Tuesday in a mass wedding in war-ravaged Gaza that represented a rare moment of hope after two years of devastation, death and conflict.

"Despite everything that has happened, we will begin a new life," Hikmat Lawwa said. "God willing, this will be the end of the war," he said...

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Netanyahu pushes for Israel-controlled ‘buffer zone’ in Syria between Golan Heights, Damascus

from PressTV

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has escalated territorial demands in Syria, calling for a mandatory demilitarized “buffer zone” stretching from the fringe of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to the outskirts of the capital Damascus.

Netanyahu issued the demand in a statement released by his office on Tuesday, delivered after visiting Israeli forces wounded during a recent incursion into Syrian territory.

The raid targeted the town of Beit Jinn, where Syrian media say at least 13 civilians, including women and children, were killed. The Israeli regime claimed the operation was directed at “militants,” but offered no verified evidence for the identities of those killed.

In his address, Netanyahu insisted the zone had to include approaches to Mount Hermon, including its summit, framing the expansion of Israeli military control as a non-negotiable “security principle.”...

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