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e2d4922
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"1. Bangladesh.... In 1971 ... Kissinger overrode all advice in order to support the Pakistani generals in both their civilian massacre policy in East Bengal and their armed attack on India from West Pakistan.... This led to a moral and political catastrophe the effects of which are still sorely felt. Kissinger's undisclosed reason for the 'tilt' was the supposed but never materialised 'brokerage' offered by the dictator Yahya Khan in the course of secret diplomacy between Nixon and China.... Of the new state of Bangladesh, Kissinger remarked coldly that it was 'a basket case' before turning his unsolicited expertise elsewhere. 2. Chile.... Kissinger had direct personal knowledge of the CIA's plan to kidnap and murder General Rene Schneider, the head of the Chilean Armed Forces ... who refused to countenance military intervention in politics. In his hatred for the Allende Government, Kissinger even outdid Richard Helms ... who warned him that a coup in such a stable democracy would be hard to procure. The murder of Schneider nonetheless went ahead, at Kissinger's urging and with American financing, just between Allende's election and his confirmation.... This was one of the relatively few times that Mr Kissinger (his success in getting people to call him 'Doctor' is greater than that of most PhDs) involved himself in the assassination of a single named individual rather than the slaughter of anonymous thousands. His jocular remark on this occasion--'I don't see why we have to let a country go Marxist just because its people are irresponsible'--suggests he may have been having the best of times.... 3. Cyprus.... Kissinger approved of the preparations by Greek Cypriot fascists for the murder of President Makarios, and sanctioned the coup which tried to extend the rule of the Athens junta (a favoured client of his) to the island. When despite great waste of life this coup failed in its objective, which was also Kissinger's, of enforced partition, Kissinger promiscuously switched sides to support an even bloodier intervention by Turkey. Thomas Boyatt ... went to Kissinger in advance of the anti-Makarios putsch and warned him that it could lead to a civil war. 'Spare me the civics lecture,' replied Kissinger, who as you can readily see had an aphorism for all occasions. 4. Kurdistan. Having endorsed the covert policy of supporting a Kurdish revolt in northern Iraq between 1974 and 1975, with 'deniable' assistance also provided by Israel and the Shah of Iran, Kissinger made it plain to his subordinates that the Kurds were not to be allowed to win, but were to be employed for their nuisance value alone. They were not to be told that this was the case, but soon found out when the Shah and Saddam Hussein composed their differences, and American aid to Kurdistan was cut off. Hardened CIA hands went to Kissinger ... for an aid programme for the many thousands of Kurdish refugees who were thus abruptly created.... The of the day was: 'foreign policy should not he confused with missionary work.' Saddam Hussein heartily concurred.
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war
india
murder
morality
politics
1971-bangladesh-atrocities
1972-nixon-visit-to-china
1973-chilean-coup-d-etat
1974
1975
bangladesh
bangladesh-liberation-war
chile
china-pakistan-relations
doctors-of-philosophy
east-timor
ecclesiastical-coup
foreign-policy-of-the-us
greek-cypriots
indo-pakistani-war-of-1971
indonesia
indonesian-national-armed-forces
israeli-lebanese-conflict
jakarta
junta
kurdish-iraqi-conflict
lebanon
military-of-chile
mohammad-reza-pahlavi
monroe-leigh
news-leaks
pakistan-united-states-relations
portugual
portuguese-empire
rene-schneider
richard-nixon
salvador-allende
schneider-doctrine
second-kurdish-iraqi-war
shah
sino-american-relations
slaughter
thomas-d-boyatt
yahya-khan
central-intelligence-agency
iran
makarios-iii
international-law
athens
henry-kissinger
turkish-invasion-of-cyprus
turkey
partition
foreign-policy
missionaries
war-crimes
coup-d-état
walter-isaacson
kurdistan
marxism
iran-iraq-war
iraqi-kurdistan
kurdish-people
iraq
pakistan
saddam-hussein
cyprus
united-states
doctors
civil-war
fascism
assassination
democracy
diplomacy
israel
china
greece
refugees
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Christopher Hitchens |
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bc0802b
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The burden therefore rests with the American legal community and with the American human-rights lobbies and non-governmental organizations. They can either persist in averting their gaze from the egregious impunity enjoyed by a notorious war criminal and lawbreaker, or they can become seized by the exalted standards to which they continually hold everyone else. The current state of suspended animation, however, cannot last. If the courts and lawyers of this country will not do their duty, we shall watch as the victims and survivors of this man pursue justice and vindication in their own dignified and painstaking way, and at their own expense, and we shall be put to shame.
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human-rights
international-human-rights-law
international-law
henry-kissinger
war-crimes
united-states
law
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Christopher Hitchens |
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b0248aa
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Remaining for a moment with the question of legality and illegality: United Nations Security Council Resolution 1368, unanimously passed, explicitly recognized the right of the United States to self-defense and further called upon all member states 'to bring to justice the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of the terrorist attacks. It added that 'those responsible for aiding, supporting or harboring the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of those acts will be held accountable.' In a speech the following month, the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan publicly acknowledged the right of self-defense as a legitimate basis for military action. The SEAL unit dispatched by President Obama to Abbottabad was large enough to allow for the contingency of bin-Laden's capture and detention. The naive statement that he was 'unarmed' when shot is only loosely compatible with the fact that he was housed in a military garrison town, had a loaded automatic weapon in the room with him, could well have been wearing a suicide vest, had stated repeatedly that he would never be taken alive, was the commander of one of the most violent organizations in history, and had declared himself at war with the United States. It perhaps says something that not even the most casuistic apologist for al-Qaeda has ever even attempted to justify any of its 'operations' in terms that could be covered by any known law, with the possible exception of some sanguinary verses of the Koran.
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war
international-law
kofi-annan
right-to-self-defense
united-nations-security-council
united-states-navy-seals
al-qaeda
death-of-osama-bin-laden
quran
barack-obama
osama-bin-laden
september-11-attacks
pakistan
united-nations
united-states
law
justice
islamism
assassination
self-defense
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Christopher Hitchens |