{"id":104593,"date":"2020-07-17T16:59:31","date_gmt":"2020-07-17T23:59:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=104593"},"modified":"2020-07-17T16:59:31","modified_gmt":"2020-07-17T23:59:31","slug":"erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-17-e","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/07\/17\/erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-17-e\/","title":{"rendered":"ERASING THE EELAM VICTORY Part 17 E"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The Central\nIntelligence Agency of the USA, CIA was popularly seen  as a bungling agency, responsible for the\nmany failures of US  policy abroad. But  it also has many successes to its credit. CIA  was powerful abroad.  CIA is\nresponsible for planning,\ncarrying out and providing cover-ups for USA assassinations.  CIA  can\nlegally act only overseas.    CIA hacking of Americans in USA can only be\ndone with permission, observed analysts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CIA and Germany\u2019s BND Federal Intelligence Service had for\ndecades used a Swiss encryption company Crypto AG, for spying. Crypto supplied\ndevices for encoded communications to some 120 countries . Unknown to those\ngovernments, Crypto was secretly acquired in 1970 by the CIA and BND. They\nrigged Crypto\u2019s equipment to break the codes \nof other governments and read their messages. The two agencies were thus\nable to gather information during major crises such as the hostage crisis at\nthe US embassy in Tehran in 1979. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google  started its \u2018street view\u2019  in Sri Lanka in 2014, with views from the\nnorth and the east.  It had obtained\ngovernment approval from the Sri Lanka Tourism Authority to image every inch of\nthe North and east. Google is a participant in US military and CIA\nintelligence, said Kamal Wickremasinghe.   \n  Google earth software was\ndeveloped by the Keyhole , a company openly funded and operated on behalf of\nCIA.  The technology behind Google Earth\nis the same as that employed by US Military and intelligence system in their\nquest for full spectrum domination of the planet, Kamal said.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United\nStates accusing Sri Lanka of war crimes is similar to the pot calling the\nkettle black as the US is the number one perpetrator of war crimes in the world,\nsaid critics. There is no other country than the US which is so stained with\nblood. What about their wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan,   they asked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US has\nthe worst history of war crimes such dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and\nNagasaki.  There is a long list of bombing, from\nNagasaki,  china, Guatemala, Korean,\nIndonesia, Cuba, Congo, Peru, Vietnam, Cambodia,  Libya, Nicaragua, Iran, Bosnia, Sudan,  and Afghanistan. US\nhas dropped  over 3000  tons of depleted uranium  through its \nbombs <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were\nmilitary interventions in China, France, Bolivia, Austria, Iraq, Greece,\nPortugal, Philippines, about two dozen names altogether, said analysts. US  also engaged in\nillegal covert operations  in  places like Vietnam, Chile, and Cuba. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the\nVietnam War US forces committed horrifying atrocities. There was the 1968 Mai\nLai massacre of   347 and 504 unarmed\ncitizens, most women and children, in  \ntwo villages. Information on the various Vietnam massacres is found in\nthe Vietnam War crimes working group files, compile by Pentagon and held in the\nUS archives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

US has had\na horrifying record of human rights abuses. \nThere has been torture of inmates in secret US prisons.In 2006, Congress found that CIA had engaged in widespread torture. USA\nadmitted before the UN Committee against Torture that they had \u2018crossed the\nline\u2019 at its CIA site at Guantanamo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main\nagency dealing with war crimes was the International Criminal Court (ICC). US\narmed forces have committed war crimes, as defined in the ICC and Geneva\nconventions, in the various US wars. US\nhad launched an illegal war against Iraq,  on the spurious ground that it had weapons of\nmass destruction.  In 2004, there were\nphotos   of US troops abusing\nIraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But USA\nhas made sure that it cannot be prosecuted. US does not accept the jurisdiction\nof the ICC.   The US is not a signatory\nof the ICC and does not recognize its authority over American citizens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

US went\nout of its way to protect its military personnel accused of committing war\natrocities. USA signed some 100 bilateral immunity agreements with a number of\ncountries, prohibiting the surrender to the ICC of officials, military\npersonnel and US employees. No American has been indicted in ICC. US also\nthreatened to veto  UN peacekeeping\nmission unless its troops were granted immunity from prosecution by the ICC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2002, USA passed the American Service-Members’\nProtection Act which was specifically aimed at the International Criminal\nCourt. It prohibits any U.S. citizen or institution from cooperating with the\nInternational Criminal Court and prohibits the transfer of U.S. classified\nnational security and law enforcement information to that court. It even bans\nthe provision of U.S. military assistance, (with specified exceptions) to the\ngovernment of a country that is a party to the court. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The\nAmerican Service-Members’ Protection Act authorizes the President to bring\nabout the release from captivity of any U.S. military personnel or covered\nallied persons who are being detained or imprisoned by or on behalf of the ICC\nand authorizes the US President to use all means necessary to do so. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The phrase \u2018use all means necessary\u2019 enables\nthe US government to resort to force to obtain the release of a US citizen or\nan ally who happens to be in the custody of the ICC. It\nauthorizes military force to free military personnel held by ICC.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this is about to change. US army has\nbeen fighting in Afghanistan since 2001. For nearly two decades hundreds\nand thousands of American troops  have rotated\nthrough Afghanistan.  Afghanistan is a strategic hub in Central Asia\nbordering    Russia, China and Iran. US\nis building an oil and gas pipeline through Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan\nand India. All the US bases are located along the route of this pipeline.  Also Afghanistan has over 1400 mineral\noutcroppings, of iron coals, copper cobalt, gold, lithium. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were war crimes charges against\nthe USA in Afghanistan. The\nUS armed forces and the CIA are alleged to have committed the war crimes of\ntorture and cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity and rape and other\nforms of sexual violence in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ICC\nProsecutor alleges that members of the US armed forces and the CIA had used the\nfollowing torture techniques against detainees – incommunicado detention and\nprolonged and continuous solitary confinement, sensory deprivation, sensory\noverstimulation,  exposure to extreme heat or cold, exploitation of\nphobias and cultural, religious and sexual taboos, sexual humiliation or\ninsults, offensive use of items of religious significance, imposition of stress\npositions designed to induce muscle fatigue, suspension from the ceiling, food\ndeprivation, slamming against a wall, cramped or close confinement by placing\ndetainees in boxes, sexual violence, including by means of rectal rehydration or\nrectal feeding applied with excessive force; and suffocation by water, or the\npractice of waterboarding, placing of detainees in icy water baths etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attempts to investigate these crimes  were blocked by the US.  US said it was not a signatory to the Rome Statute\nand could not be investigated\nwithout a UN Security Council order or consent of USA. Though USA is not a\nmember of the ICC and therefore does not come under its jurisdiction,\nAfghanistan is a member of ICC and any crime conducted on its territory can be\nbrought to the ICC regardless of the  nationality\nof its perpetrator, said ICC.\nAfghanistan joined the ICC in 2003 and it is on this basis that the ICC has\nclaimed jurisdiction over deeds alleged to have been committed in Afghanistan\nby US armed forces and the CIA, observed Chandraprema. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This ICC war\ncrimes probe against the USA had been in the pipeline for more than two years.\nIn November 2017, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) had\nrequested authorization from the Pre-Trial Chamber of the ICC to initiate an\ninvestigation into allegations of war crimes committed by the USA in\nAfghanistan since 2003. This was initially rejected. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Prosecutor\nfiled an appeal against that decision. <\/em> <\/em>On\n5 March 2020, the Appeals Chamber of the ICC decided unanimously to authorize\nthe investigation against the USA. An investigation of alleged war crimes\nby the US and others in the Afghan conflict can go ahead, ruled the ICC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 ICC chief prosecutor said that\nUS may have committed war crimes in Afghanistan, as a deliberate policy, She spoke\nof war crimes of torture and related ill treatment by US military forces in\nAfghanistan and secret detention facilities operated by the CIA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The US\nestablishment has reacted sharply to the initiative of the ICC Prosecutor. US\nSecretary of State Mike Pompeo said in 2019 that they are determined to protect\nAmerican and allied military and civilian personnel \u2018from living in fear of\nunjust prosecution\u2019 for actions taken to protect America. If the ICC persists\nin this course of action, they will impose travel bans on judges and personnel\nof the ICC and will also take further steps like economic sanctions. President\nTrump said that any attempt to target American, Israeli or allied personnel for\nprosecution by the ICC will be met with \u2018a swift and vigorous response\u2019 (Continued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS The Central Intelligence Agency of the USA, CIA was popularly seen  as a bungling agency, responsible for the many failures of US  policy abroad. But  it also has many successes to its credit. CIA  was powerful abroad.  CIA is responsible for planning, carrying out and providing cover-ups for USA assassinations.  CIA  can legally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104593\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}