In a move with important international ramifications, the Iranian Majlis (Parliament) has formally charged 26 US officials with war crimes and crimes against humanity, and they will face prosecution in Iranian courts in absentia. Following their trial in Iranian courts, the dossier on their crimes will be forwarded to the International Criminal Court in the Hague.
In a move with important international ramifications, the Iranian Majlis (Parliament) has formally charged 26 US officials with war crimes and crimes against humanity, and they will face prosecution in Iranian courts in absentia. Following their trial in Iranian courts, the dossier on their crimes will be forwarded to the International Criminal Court in the Hague.
Progressive and democratic people throughout the world are sickened by the phenomenon of the United States, which has unleashed more terror and torture on people in various countries than any other in modern history, repeatedly labeling other countries and governments as “rogue states” and accusing them of “crimes against humanity”. In the name of upholding human rights, it imposes sanctions on governments around the world, hauls various individuals off to the ICC at Hague, and even organises “regime change” – another word for organising the toppling of governments in other countries.
Experience brings out the hypocrisy of the US imperialists in this regard. They are perfectly willing to see various anti-people regimes commit even the most appalling crimes against their own and other peoples, as long as they obey the US dictate. The list of such regimes is too long to list. But whenever a country or government does not toe the US line or challenges it in some way, the US is the first to denounce and attack it in the name of “human rights”.
In the last ten years alone, in the course of its ongoing “war against terror”, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan, untold crimes have been committed by the US imperialists. Countless civilians, including old people, women and children, have died in bombing and other raids conducted by the US and allied troops. Among the 26 American officials who have been indicted by the Iranian Majlis are:
- Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who has been charged with responsibility for the killing of thousands of civilians in the US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He is specifically charged in connection with human rights violations and torture at two notorious prisons, Abu Ghraib in Iraq and Bagram in Afghanistan.
- Paul Bremer, the US administrator in Iraq from May 2003 to June 2004.
- General Tommy Franks, who led the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
- Commander of US forces in Iraq Raymond Odierno, for his major role in the massive violation of human rights in Iraq.
- Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of the US troops in charge of torturing prisoners in Abu Ghraib, for violation of human rights and his role in US state-sponsored terrorism.
- Former US Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz for his role in the crimes committed against the Afghan and Iraqi people.
The accusations leveled by Iran against these and other Americans have been fully supported by numerous other international and American agencies. A recently released 107 page report of Human Rights Watch entitled “Getting Away with Torture” affirms that Donald Rumsfeld, former CIA director George Tenet and former US President George Bush himself deserve to be put under criminal investigation for authorising torture of prisoners which violates the UN Convention Against Torture. In July, Amnesty International censured the US for its indefinite detentions of suspects in Afghanistan and at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, while in October 2010, the United Nations Human Rights Council issued a report in which it expressed serious concern about human rights violations in the United States.
US imperialist-inspired propaganda has been quick to denounce the action of the Iranian Majlis as a tit-for-tat measure in return for the relentless pressure that the US has imposed on Iran for challenging US hegemony. According to their view, Iranians are “terrorists”, while their own actions against other peoples, however well known and atrocious, are justifiable. This two-facedness of the US imperialists and their collaborators is rapidly getting exposed in the eyes of the world’s peoples, and they will not be able to get away with it for much longer. The Iranian Majlis has made a courageous and principled move in defence of the human rights of the world’s peoples, and against the US’s aggressive activities around the world.
Three cheers to the Iranian
Three cheers to the Iranian parliament. It is high time that the governments and parliamentarians in other countries – at least those of them with any conscience left – speak up and condemn the real war criminals and perpetrators of mass destruction and all-round terror.