Bush claims victory, he gets shoes

Bush claims victory, he gets shoes

http://brusselstribunal.org/

Demand for the immediate release of Muntather Al-Zaidi

Statement by The BRussells Tribunal Committee (15 December 2008)

In one magnificent act, Muntather Al-Zaidi, an Iraqi journalist with Al-Baghdadiya television, epitomized the truth of the defeat of the United States in Iraq and lifted the spirit of resistance within the hearts of all Arabs, matching that of the Iraqi people who continue to resist imperialism and colonialism and who refuse humiliation.

It is Bush who is humiliated, and from it he cannot recover. He had snuck into Iraq, unannounced, to sign an illegal treaty with his puppet stooge aimed at institutionalizing the US occupation. Two flying shoes destroyed the façade upon which he and his cronies claim victory in Iraq.

For the orphans and widows

The greatest expression of contempt in Arab culture is wielding a shoe to an adversary. Bush and his criminal cronies deserve contempt. Bush claims not to know what Al-Zaidi’s “cause” is. Al-Zaidi made it clear: the shoes he threw at Bush were for the orphans and widows of Bush’s imperial war that to date has killed more than 1.2 million Iraqis and displaced six million more.

The shoes were thrown equally in the direction of Bush’s local puppets — proof that no government under occupation can be legitimate or gain legitimacy, that resistance expresses the sovereignty of the Iraqi people, exposing the Bush-Maliki agreement as worthless and devoid of legality. Two flying shoes expressed the paradise that is resistance in comparison to the ignominy of submission. Iraq is unbreakable, its people proven proud and invincible.

Al-Zaidi needs protection

Following five and a half years of relentless destruction and killing, it is clear that Muntather Al-Zaidi, in daring to challenge the imperial United States, took a step into that grey zone between the human right to life and the permanent threat of death wielded by imperialism. Given the Maliki government’s eagerness in summarily executing its political opponents — including their lawyers — and as he is reportedly in the direct custody of Maliki’s own security guards, we have firm reason to believe that Al-Zaidi is in immediate danger of being tortured and/or assassinated.

We remind all that Muntather Al-Zaidi is a protected person under international humanitarian law, which governs the US occupation, and has guaranteed rights under international human rights law.[1] International humanitarian and human rights law outlaws torture and summary execution, incommunicado detention, the ill treatment of detainees, or denial of access to legal counsel. The US occupation is directly responsible for Al-Zaidi’s welfare and must guarantee his security. As a journalist, he must be afforded extra protection.

Appeal for action

Following Al-Zaidi’s action, thousands have taken to the street in his support and countless statements are being written in his defence. We salute his courage, demand to know his exact location, and join millions in demanding his immediate release.

We join all patriotic Arabs and the Iraqi people who today celebrate their dignity, visually announced and reaffirmed in the public humiliation of a disgraced American president.

We call upon all human rights organizations and bodies, including responsible organs of the United Nations, along with journalists’ syndicates and associations, to defend the right to security and life of Muntather Al-Zaidi and work to ensure his immediate release.


The BRussells Tribunal Committee
15 December 2008

Please circulate this appeal widely.


* Bush gets shoes: http://www.youtube.com/v/OM3Z_Kskl_U

* Hel Laila Hilwa — Hussein Al-A’dhami: http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHasAMLQByk

[1] See Articles 6-7 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Articles 113 and 116 of the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.

Appeal to the Journalist Organisations

http://brusselstribunal.org/

Appeal to the Journalist Organisations:
Please fulfil your duties towards your Iraqi colleagues.

Dirk Adriaensens, member BRussells Tribunal executive committee, 07 November 2008.

The president of the Iraqi Syndicate of Journalists said on Thursday 6 November 2008, that the number of Iraqi journalists who have been killed in Iraq since March 2003 reached 292, including cameramen and technicians (see the article underneath).

This is more or less in accordance with the tallies the BRussells Tribunal keeps: 298 Iraqi media professionals died in Iraq (see underneath).

If you add to these figures the non-Iraqi media professionals who died in Iraq while fulfilling their duties, the death toll reaches 328 (including 6 journalists who died of non-violent causes).

Now let’s see how the respected “specialised journalist organisations” honour their colleagues in Iraq.

* The Freedom Forum – Journalist Memorial lists 153 casualties. These include both Iraqi and non Iraqi media professionals, an under-estimation of 115%. http://www.newseum.org/scripts/Journalist/peril.asp

* The Committee For The Protection of Journalists (CPJ): Journalists Killed on Duty: 135 - media support workers who have been killed: 51. These include both Iraqi and non Iraqi media professionals, an under-estimation of 76%. http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/Iraq/Iraq_danger.html

* Reporters without borders (RSF): 222 journalists and media assistants killed since the start of fighting in Iraq in March 2003. These include both Iraqi and non Iraqi media professionals, an under-estimation of 48%. http://www.rsf.org/special_iraq_en.php3

* International News Safety Institute (INSI): Iraq War Casualties - From March 2003 to the present day: 252. These include both Iraqi and non Iraqi media professionals, an under-estimation of 30%. http://www.newssafety.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=109&Itemid=100190

We have written to all these Western organisations, had mail exchanges with most of them. We asked them to adjust their figures or show us where we made mistakes. Yet, they didn’t adjust their figures or eventually point out “mistakes”. We find this morally wrong.

Yet again we ask these organisations: “fulfil your duties. May no media professional be forgotten while reporting the nightmare of Iraq”.

Please, contact the Iraqi Syndicate of Journalists and ask them to have a look into their lists in order to complete your database.

Further reading:

* At least 78 media professionals killed in Iraq in 2006 - Dirk Adriaensens, BRussells Tribunal, 21 Feb 2007
* Another U.S. Military Assault on Media - Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily, 23 Feb 2007
* Disparate Tallies: Journalist Deaths in Iraq - Eason Jordan, 01 June 2007
* The betrayal of Iraq’s media professionals - Dirk Adriaensens, BRussells Tribunal, 29 Sep 200

292 Iraqi journalists killed in Iraq since 2003 – syndicate

Baghdad, 06 November 2008 ( Voices of Iraq )
The number of Iraqi journalists who have been killed in Iraq since March 2003 reached 292, including cameramen and technicians, the president of the Syndicate of Journalists said on Thursday.
“The statistics made by the syndicate pointed out that 18 journalists have been kidnapped and their fate still unknown,” Mu’ayad al-Lami told Aswat al-Iraq.
“There are no journalists detained by the government’s forces, while there are three held by U.S. army for unknown reasons,” he explained.
He called to speed up the approval of the protecting journalists’ law.
http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php?refid=DH-S-07-11-2008&article=39484

Death toll of Media professionals in Iraq, as listed by the BRussells Tribunal
Full list at http://www.brusselstribunal.org/JournalistKilled.htm

Crimes of the Century: Occupation & Contaminating Iraq with Depleted Uranium

Dr. Souad N. Al-Azzawi - Associate Professor in Environmental Engineering, Iraq - Brussels Tribunal

Iraq, 15 June 2008.

REPORT

1.0 Introduction


After thirteen years of the devastation of an entire country through the implementation of the criminal economic sanctions that were imposed by the United States of America and the United Nations on Iraq, the US administration decided to invade Iraq.

Gulf War I and the destruction of Iraq’s economy, education, health care system,and society through the continuous bombing and attacks of the illegal No Fly Zones, were all part of the plan to invade Iraq and take over one of the richest oil reserve countries in the Middle East region. Pirating Iraq’s wealth is an advanced step to control and manipulate global economy.

New generations of conventional and banned weapons were used in the invasion of Iraq military operations from March 19th – April 9th of 2003...

Please click on the link below to read the report:

http://www.brusselstribunal.org/pdf/DU-Azzawi2.pdf

URGENT APPEAL - ACTION FOR MOSUL

BRussells Tribunal

No attack on Mosul!


Bush’s failure in Iraq requires a new “success”. While the blood-soaked US occupation in Iraq declares one victory after another since nearly five years, it stages massacre after massacre of the people of Iraq.

Now the occupation declares a new “decisive” success is imminent, this time against the population of Mosul, the third largest city in Iraq. Its pretext is always the same: to eradicate “Al-Qaeda”, while from its mouth “Al-Qaeda” means Sunnis, Baathists and Arabs.

Although the occupation has on many occasions declared its victory, the fact that it needs to attack yet again an entire city and its population proves that it couldn’t and cannot eradicate the legal resistance of the Iraqi people. The only thing decisive is that the occupation by its tactics announces its defeat.

The imminent attack on Mosul — another urbicide following the ones of holy Najaf, martyred Fallujah, Al-Qaim, Tel Afar, Haditha, and whole neighbourhoods of Baghdad, among others — will only result, as with its precedents, in horrific killings, destruction and mass population displacement, thereby changing the historical, sociological and demographic makeup of the city.

This imminent attack on Mosul is a pre-announced genocide. It is blood, death and destruction for oil. As the spreading of the resistance to Southern and Northern provinces proves, this new attack is in vain. The Iraqi people rejects — and will always reject — the criminal US occupation.

The occupation has escalated its air bombing campaigns by 200 per cent in the past year and openly promises more indiscriminate attacks on populated urban areas. It uses disproportionate force indiscriminately against civilian populations in a pattern of actions that constitutes genocide under international law.

This should raise condemnation, disgust and protest from peace loving people and human rights defenders worldwide. Five years of destruction and death should have taught the Bush administration that its litany of killing serves no purpose and leads only to moral suicide for the United States.

Humanity is in distress in Iraq. Our role and duty is to save it.

Act to stop the massacre in Mosul!


4 February 2008

BRussells Tribunal
http://www.brusselstribunal.org/