I thought we had an international court now..

Spanish judge accuses six top Bush officials of torture

from the article:

If Garzón decided to go further and issued arrest warrants against the six, it would mean they would risk detention and extradition if they travelled outside the US. It would also present President Barack Obama with a serious dilemma. He would have either to open proceedings against the accused or tackle an extradition request from Spain.

This is what we call "sahalarımızda görmek istediğimiz hareketler" in Turkish. But it only makes Spain look good. This investigation could easily fall under ICC's jurisdiction, either via nationalities of the victims, detention centers in Poland and Romania, both of which are parties, or through a security council resolution if the Obama administration had the courage to hold itself up to the same standards they don't miss any opportunity to preach for others. Are the American courts "unable or unwilling" to try their own criminals? Well so are the Sudanese. But we have an international criminal court for those. Inspiring.

Thats the Point of Selling Crack

Mos Def reciting MF Doom. 

find five differences between israel and turkey*

IHD 2008 Turkiye Insan Haklari Raporu/Turkey's 2008 Human Rights Report

I am currently on page 50 of 696. It's a fascinating read, gets better by the page**.

On page 49, I came across the incident I talked about
here. Or rather, I was talking shit about the reporting of the incident and the lack of clarity in terms of what's what and who's who. There are only so many W questions a reporter needs to answer, it shouldn't take a human rights report to do the job.

IHD: 30 Eylül'de Balıkesir'in Ayvalık Ilçesi'nin Altınova Beldesi'nde Murat Aygün, husumetli olduğu Oğuz Dörtkardes'le (23) “yüksek sesle müzik dinlediği” için baslayan tartısmanın kavgaya dönmesinin ardından, Dörtkardes ve yanındakilerin üzerine kamyonetini sürdü. Aracın altında sürüklenen Dörtkardes ile Ezer Kırcalı (31) adlı iki kisi öldü, 6 kisi yaralandı. Olayı duyanlar ise Murat Aksu'nun Kürt olmasını bahane ederek Altınova'da oturan Kürtlerin evlerini ve isyerlerini tahrip etti, bir ev ve minibüs atese verildi. Çıkan olaylarda 36 ev ve isyerinin hasar gördü. Güvenlik güçleri önlem aldığı Altınova'ya gelen Balıkesir Valisi Selahattin Hatipoğlu ise kalabalığı sakinlestirmeye çalısarak Kürtlerin evlerinin ve isyerlerinin tahrip edilmesinin anlayısla karsıladıklarını açıkladı. Saldırılar esnasında gruba herhangi bir müdahalede bulunmayan güvenlik güçleri 37 kisiyi gözaltına aldı ve aralarında Murat Aygün'ün de bulunduğu 10 kisi tutuklandı. Öte yandan Balıkesir Valiliği, bölgeye inceleme yapmak için bir heyet gönderen Demokratik Toplum Partisi'ne, heyetin “halkı kıskırtabilecekleri” gerekçesiyle izin vermedi.


some other things I learned from this report:
-legal institutions think The Republic of Turkey has so much extra time and money that they start a process for investigating Ocalan's 28 lawyers for addressing him "many times" using the word 'Sayin' in their faxes, which for all practical purposes means "Mr."
-following the above, investigation was started for 40 PKK member inmates in Adiyaman's high security prison who filed a petition saying "we call Ocalan 'Sayin' and hereby give ourselves in".
-within that investigation the Kurdish inmates gave their depositions in Kurdish. following this a second investigation was started about them.
-it kinda goes on likes this for 50 pages. I am bored.


*try harder
**no access to those who only speak a little Spanish

Hardliner Avigdor Lieberman set to become Israel's foreign minister

Let me make a prediction: This fascist is going to help Palestinians in the long run, involuntarily of course.

I spoke too soon about Dershowitz. Here's to a day without bullies.

The Brooklyn of the Middle East

Honestly, I'd rather be friends with the mountains.

Christopher Hitchens finds himself in Beirut this week. Yeah, I know, but it gets even better. The first report about what Hitch's Lawrence of Arabia type mission was that he provided decisively less gully* than some SSNP members. From AngryArab:

At the invitation of Hariri-Saudi group, Hitchens is visiting Lebanon. A source sent me this: "I dont know if you find this as news worthy or not, but Christopher Hitchens is currently in Beirut sponsored by the same group that owns that crap NOW Lebanon. He got in a few nights ago and surprisingly went out drinking. On his way out of the bar he saw an SSNP poster and wrote on it "Fuck the SSNP". There just happened to be some SSNP thugs near by--most likely asking people for their ID, and most likely to no avail--and saw him write on the poster and kicked his ass. He is still walking with a limp."

Theres lots of intellectuals who QDN would support the slapping up of**. Hitchens isn't one of them. Still, you think afterbeing waterboarded a few fists wouldn't be a problem for him. Then again, like some of Hitchens' other experiences this slapping may not have even happened. AngryArab again,

After spending two days in Lebanon, Christopher Hitchens now poses as an expert on Lebanese developments. I wonder if he will claim that he interviewed (the dead) Abu Nidal, as he once did in the 1980s.

A report on some of the less emasculating experiences Hitchens had in Beirut can be found here

* I know you don't know what this means.
** They know who they are.

oh Dersh...

I know that the recent accomplishment of our comrades at Hampshire's SJP deserves its own post, but rest assured that I will be congratulating them in person.

This all has been very moving and inspiring to follow. Meanwhile here's something funny from SJP's website:

Alan Dershowitz has just called SJP members and has threatened to start an international campaign to divest from Hampshire College.

Read the comments too.

Happy Valentine's Day Dersh!