Crimes against sanity

Imagine a country under an embargo that causes great hardship to the population: it is the perfect environment for black market of course. Now imagine that 42 black marketeers are caught profiteering by raising the prices of staple goods in breach of state rules during the economic suffering that came with the embargo. Instead of a mild sentence, the 42 are summarily executed. A deplorable response to a deplorable act.
However cruel, would you call such punishment of 42 unlucky rascals “a crime against humanity”? I guess most sane people wouldn’t go that far. Yet, things are different if you are a US-supervised Iraqi court that must somehow punish a Saddam-era celebrity.
This is the case of Tariq Aziz, a well known figure in Saddam’s regime, who was surrendered to the US ‘coalition forces’ in 2003, shortly after Baghdad’s fall (the US military reciprocated by flying his family to the safety of Jordan -Timesonline). Aziz has been in detention without any conviction for almost 6 years. A few days ago, he was once again brought to court with some other Saddam’s aids and relatives; this time, the mouse was cought!
Let the mainstream news outlets tell you the story as they see fit:
Deutche Welle: “Two relatives of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein have been sentenced to death for their roles in the killings of 42 merchants in 1992. The traders were executed after being accused of raising the prices of goods in breach of state price controls at a time when Iraq was under United Nations economic sanctions over its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The judge at a Baghdad court said the two were guilty of crimes against humanity. Former deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz was also sentenced in connection with the event, but received a jail term.”
Deutsch Welle does not specify the length of Aziz’s jail term. CNN News is more illuminating in that ‘little’ detail, but quite vague about the basis of the sentence: “The men were sentenced for their roles in the 1992 execution of 42 merchants.” –not a single word about why those merchants were executed.
BBC News does cite the 15-year sentence and a few details about the summary trials of the 42 black marketeers. However, the term “crimes against humanity” is omitted, perhaps realizing the absurdity of such allegation.
It is interesting to note that all the news reports use the term ‘merchants’ to describe the 42, not ‘black marketeers’. But the issue here is not how the big media present the news. It is the fact that victor’s justice labels minor incidents like the swift trial of 42 crooks as “crimes against humanity”. It is distressing to see this over-used term becoming cheaper and weaker, drawing attention from other -more sinister and real- global crimes…

BTW, in case you are suspicious about the way Saddam’s Iraq has been portrayed by the brain-washers, you might like to check this
-it's a long page, so use Find: Iraq to jump to relevant parts.

Is there life after Bush?

It is impressive to have this kind of speech just a few weeks after the Bushit era!
So, there might be hope in America after all...

That's the spirit!

The ultimate symbol of consumerist non-sense:

Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn't Fucking Work

Laughing vampires

Robert Fisk in The Independent, 20.01.09:

"The front page of the Beirut daily As-Safir said it all yesterday. Across the top was a terrible photograph of the bloated body of a Palestinian man newly discovered in the ruins of his home while two male members of his family shrieked and roared their grief. Below, at half the size, was a photograph from Israel of Western leaders joking with Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister. Olmert was roaring with laughter. Silvio Berlusconi, arms on the back of Olmert's shoulders, was also joshing and roaring – with laughter, not grief – and on Olmert's right was Nicolas Sarkozy of France wearing his stupidest of smiles. Only Chancellor Merkel appeared to understand the moral collapse. No smiles from Germany."
[full article]

Numbers vs. bullshit

Next time you hear the repetitive argument about "the innocent Israelis that have been slaughtered by Palestinian terrorists" as a justification of any atrocity, just remember this simple graph [click on it for large size]:

European crocodiles

The mild display of ‘humanitarian sensitivity’ by the EU bosses on the Gaza slaughter reminds me of crocodile tears.
Just remember what happened in 2006, when the Palestinians dared to elect Hamas as their major political group in admittedly fair elections: In one more shameless illustration of Western hypocrisy, the ‘humanitarians’ of today suspended economic aid to the Palestinian Authority because Palestinians cast the ‘wrong’ vote!
The Guardian wrote on 11.4.06: "The EU yesterday increased the pressure on the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority to recognise Israel and renounce terrorist violence by suspending all direct aid to the new government. ... Aid organisations warned that the decision to cut off assistance would simply damage people living on about £1 a day and drive them further into the arms of extremists. Aid accounts for 25% of Palestinians' incomes."
You probably remember that, after a while, clashes started between Hamas and Fatah, in a classic example of Divide & Rule.
You see, the foreign ‘democrats’ wanted Fatah to win regardless of Palestinian voters will. The match finally ended in a draw, with Fatah dominating in West Bank and Hamas in Gaza.
The same hideous 'scribes and Pharisees' that 3 years ago used misery to blackmail refugees, come now and beg Israel politely to show self-restrain in dealing with the same disobedient ‘desperados’.
Some years ago, during the Albanian ‘genocide’ in Kosovo by the ‘blood-thirsty’ Serbs, they had demonstrated their humanitarian sensitivity much more vigorously, bombing for 78 days the ‘bad’ civilians of Belgrade and Novi Sad.
Now their concern can only reach up to theatrical appeals, equalizing Hamas home-made rockets with Israeli ‘smart’ bombs and 400 dead Palestinians with 4 dead Israelis…
Seriously, who has elected such ludicrous hypocrites that are supposed to represent us?
Or they just snatched the wheel without us knowing (like many others have done)?
.