Humanitarian Intervention´s original sin

We recover a piece from Alex De Wall (Fletcher School, Tufts University) on the legality of bombing medical facilities (protected by Article 19 of the 1949 Geneva Convention) under the light of the precedent set out by US forces in Somalia during the UN-endorsed “Operation Restore Hope” between December 1992 and May 1993.  Recent instances of disregard for medical neutrality in Yemen, Syria and Afghanistan and examples of impunity for misconduct of foreign troops operating under UN banner in Central African Republic, Haiti and Republic Democratic of Congo make this article even more relevant. We have added a few more hyperlinks and provided context information at the end of the post.

A member of US military forces walks through the remains of a church in Mogadishu, Somalia. Made in December 1992 during Operation Restore Hope Rich Mason  Flickr

Is It Ever Legal to Bomb a Hospital? Alex DeWaal On October 6, 2015

Dr. Omar was conducting an exploratory laparotomy on a female patient with a bullet wound in her abdomen when the entire hospital shook with the sound of explosions. Windows were shattering and a light and plaster fell from the ceiling. A nurse ran in to say that a missile had been fired through the wall of another operating theater, that three patients had been killed, and staff and patients were rushing to take shelter in the basement. Dr. Omar stayed with his patient, stitching her up even while the building reverberated with the assault.

Revisiting death from above

On July 2011 we started this blog with a post on the first reported use of drones to carry out a selective killing (an euphemism for a summary execution) by the US navy in Somalia. In Targeted killings and "surgical interventions", the automation of death (which we have updated with new material and info distributed through @OnadaExpansiva) we gathered more than a few stories on how unmanned aerial vehicles were gradually becoming the weapon of choice in the so called war on terror, most specially in those areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan (i.e West Waziristan) where Islamic militant groups seemed to hold territory.

 SourcePakistani family gives Congress an unprecedented account of effect of CIA drone attacks on their community Rupert Cornwell   The Independent October 30th 2013

Four years later, drones have become a regular feature in the different theaters where the US  and other western countries (notably France and the United Kingdom)  have intervened (surgically, yet another euphemism) or are waging wars by proxy as would be the case in Somalia, Mali or more recently swaths of Syria and Iraq.  Even though criticisms regarding eventual collateral damage (there is nothing collateral in the death of civilians) has grown and serious ethical and moral concerns have been raised the military use of drones shows no signs of abating in the foreseeable future. What is more worrisome, stalled discussions regarding the control of  production and use of fully autonomous weapons (known as killer robots) could spell the next step towards indiscriminate carnage in battlefields and beyond

From @OnadaExpansiva

• #Afghanistan A Dubious History of #US "Targeted Killings" http://spon.de/aeo0g @SPIEGELONLINE v @ricardcolorado cc @TBIJ #drones  Dec 29 2014
• #Burkina Why #BurkinaFaso matters to #US #counterterrorism efforts in #Africa http://ow.ly/DL3sl @ryanlenorabrown @CSMWorldDesk #drones Nov 4 2014 
• #summaryexecutions Confessions of a #drone veteran:What govs. r not telling http://bit.ly/XuHdQc @Salon v @vicparsons_ @TBIJ #drones Nov 6 2014

New HRW report on torture under the Bush Administration.

 A good report by Human Rights Watch on toture and ill treatment on detainees under the Bush administration just came out, naming and establishing the responsibility of high-ranked officials in the commission of what ammounts to war crime .

We shall like to highlight the appendix, focusing on legal proceedings in foreign countries regarding US detainees treatment (France, Germany, Spain...) and remind everyone that an Spanish Journalist, Jose Couso, was killed by US troops in Baghdad in April 8th  2003;US authorities  blocked all attempts by Spanish  judicial authorities to investigate his death

Here is the slightly reduced press release and access to the report:

Getting Away with Torture

The Bush Administration and Mistreatment of Detainee

The report,  Getting away with torture, presents substantial information warranting criminal investigations of Bush and senior administration officials, including former Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and CIA Director George Tenet, for ordering practices such as “waterboarding,” the use of secret CIA prisons, and the transfer of detainees to countries where they were tortured.

Res és el que sembla. Realitat, ciutadania i propaganda

Generalment,  la descripció de tota realitat es un exercici subjectiu, una acció  que de manera conscient o inconscient denota  un conjunt d`opinions, prejudicis, idees i percepcions que afecten la manera com veiem les coses.Tot discurs o narrativa es per tant una interpretació, més o menys interessada d´un context.  Text basat (resumit) de Rien c´est-ce qui ressemble. Réalité, citoyenneté et propagande Juliol 2011 

"Tu escriu, el que et diguin! Gracies prensa coprorativa, no podriem pas control.lar el poble sense vosaltres" Extret de http://www.media-studies.ca/index.html

Es tracta d´un procés que es manifesta a diverses escales, des de la conversació entre dues persones fins al titular d´un diari o l´imatge d´un telenotícies (les imatges també ens parlen). Els mitjans de comunicació massius no son serien altra cosa que els enormes altaveus que un i altra vegada ens repeteixen un conjunt d`opinions, prejudicis, idees i percepcions que ens venen com informació. Prenent en consideració que els anomenats “mitjans de masses” formen part de companyies i empreses amb múltiples interessos connexos, sovint de naturalesa transnacional es fa difícil veurel`s com un simple missatger o emissor desinteressat d´una narrativa determinada.