Larry Romanoff -- Gaza: Murdering Children for Sport

Gaza: Murdering Children for Sport

By Larry Romanoff

Global Research, March 12, 2020

Region: Middle East & North Africa

Theme: Law and Justice

In-depth Report: PALESTINE

Ayman Mohyeldin was an Egyptian reporter for al-Jazeera English who had covered dozens of major events in the Middle East for many American and other networks. His reputation was enormous, and his reporting on the Israeli assault on Gaza was such a stellar journalistic performance that NBC “aggressively pursued him to leave Al Jazeera, paying him far more than the standard salary . . .” His new assignment for NBC was to cover Israel and Palestine, a task greatly assisted by his ability to speak Arabic and his intimate knowledge of the Middle East and its history.

But in July of 2014 Mohyeldin was abruptly removed from NBC by David Verdi, a top NBC executive, who ordered Mohyeldin to leave Gaza immediately. NBC attributed Mohyeldin’s removal to unspecified “security concerns”, but there was an additional factor at play. (1)

Mohyeldin had been playing soccer on a beach with four small Palestinian boys, and had no sooner backed away from them, and was not so many meters distant from them, than an Israeli gunboat which had been monitoring them from a short distance offshore, fired an artillery shell directly into the group of boys, blowing them all to bits. Mohyeldin had witnessed the deliberate murder of four small Palestinian boys by the Israeli military and submitted a full report to NBC who scuttled his report to replace it with a different version presented by his replacement. (2) (3) (4)

But it was too late. Mohyeldin had already posted on social media photos of the boys, their names, and the game, and was so distraught at what he had seen that he had already posted graphic evidence on the same social media of the event he had just witnessed. If not for his instinctive actions, the event would never have been known. (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)

But this was nothing.

Stephen Lendman -- UN Secretary General Guterres Fails to Condemn US Assassinations in Iraq

UN Secretary General Guterres Fails to Condemn US Assassinations in Iraq

By Stephen Lendman

Global Research, January 05, 2020

Region: Middle East & North Africa

Theme: Law and Justice, United Nations

UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Agnes Callamard slammed the Trump regime’s assassination of Iranian General Soleimani, Iraqi Deputy PMU leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and others with them, tweeting the following:

“The targeted killings of Qasem Soleiman and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis are most likely unlawful and violate international human rights law.”

“Outside the context of active hostilities, the use of drones or other means for targeted killing is almost never likely to be legal.”

“Another major problem with extra territorial targeted killings is the lack of oversight.”

“Executives decide who may be killed outside due process, when it acts in self-defense, against whom and how. Without approval of Parliaments.”

Pompeo commented on Soleimani’s assassination with a litany of Big Lies, saying:

The Trump regime “deci(ded) to eliminate Soleimani in response to imminent threats to American lives (sic).

“(O)ur commitment (is) to deescalation (sic).”

Assassinating Soleimani was a “defensive action (to counter)  aggressive threats posed by the Iranian Quds Force (sic).”

He “was actively plotting in the region to take actions…that would have put dozens if not hundreds of American lives at risk (sic).”

All of the above is pure rubbish, believed by no one understanding how the US operates — by its own rules extrajudicially in pursuit of its imperial aims.

Killing Soleimani, Muhandis, and others with them was US cold-blooded murder, an unjustifiable high crime.

The Pentagon unjustifiably justified its criminal act, saying the following:

Serban V.C. Enache -- Western-lauded Romanian Justice System releases Child Traffickers

Western-lauded Romanian Justice System releases Child Traffickers

by Serban V.C. Enache

December 24, 2019

All the 25 defendants, accused of trafficking almost 200 kids from Tandarei [a small town in Ialomita County, Romania] were acquitted. Yesterday, the Court of Appeal at Targu Mures gave the final, albeit scandalous decision in this sordid case. Not only that, but the now acquitted culprits aim to sue the Romanian state at the European Court for Human Rights. Nine years ago, this case shocked the country as well as the European Union.

The case from Tandarei caught much attention in 2010, after footage and pictures with the trafficked kids were aired on international news channels. The investigation targeted 181 gypsy kids in the United Kingdom, who were used by their handlers to make money for them through stealing and begging. In England, 120 traffickers were caught and arrested. In contrast, back in Romania, a portion of those arrested and prosecuted were released just after a couple of months. Among the crimes involved we count: child trafficking, money laundering, constituting a criminal enterprise, and illegal possession of firearms.

The Tandarei case was delayed over and over again for nine years, six of which by the Harghita Tribunal [where 54 showings took place!], with the clear aim in mind to allow enough time to pass so that the deeds could be prescribed [statute of limitations].

Bernie Gravett, the British policeman who worked alongside the Romanian police on this case, was left perplexed after hearing that Romanian judges acquitted all 25 culprits, with the motivation that “no crime existed.”

Gravett commented the following, “I’m extremely sad for the victims, their families, and for the policemen with whom I worked for five years on this case in Romania. All their efforts were in vain. I can’t tell whether it’s the fault of the system, the court, or the prosecutors. All I can say is that, in my opinion, there was proof. I gave proof to the Romanian prosecutors regarding the exploitation of these 181 children from Tandarei through forced labor here in Great Britain. More so, I gave them evidence on money laundering, because all the revenue made in the UK was sent in Romania. The searches done in Tandarei, in April 2010, found money, gold, stolen goods, expensive cars, an inexplicable wealth, and many firearms. The searches were filmed. How can the court say there was no proof? […] I wonder how it’s possible that the British prosecuted and condemned 120 members of the same gang, while the Romanians condemned nobody. Europol deemed the group from Tandarei as the biggest human trafficking group in Europe. The kids were taken in every EU country and were exploited all the way from the streets of Norway to the Mediterranean coast. The 25 suspects handled the child trafficking in the whole of Europe. In my eyes, they were the network’s spear tip, and there was enough evidence for a sentence. If we had brought and prosecuted them here in Great Britain, they would have been in jail long ago.”

To those NGOs, politicians, and activists in Romania, who have an unhealthy love for Romanian magistrates, seeing them as angels, and who oppose any legislative effort to bring crooked judges to account and answer for their crimes – to them I say… “F… Y..!”