October, 26 2010, 05:27pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Matt Howard, Communications Director,646.723.0989
Statement on the Iraq War Logs - A Call for Accountability
WASHINGTON
The recent Wikileaks release--The Iraq War Logs--has shed important light on the high rate of civilian death and widespread atrocities, including torture, that are endemic to the war in Iraq. As veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we are outraged that the U.S. government sought to hide this information from the U.S. public, instead presenting a sanitized and deceptive version of war, and we think it is vital for this and further information to get out. Members of IVAW have experienced firsthand the realities of war on the ground, and since our inception we have spoken out about similar atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan. We are asking the U.S. public to join us in calling on our government to end the occupations and bring our brothers and sisters home.
The U.S. government has been claiming for years that they do not keep count of civilian death tolls, yet the recent releases show that they do, in fact, keep count. Between 2004 and 2009, according to these newly disclosed records, at least 109,032 Iraqis died, 66,081 of whom were civilians. The Guardian reports that the Iraq War Logs show that the U.S. military and government gave de facto approval for hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape, and murder by Iraqi soldiers and police officers. These recent revelations, along with the Afghan War Diaries and Collateral Murder footage, weave a picture of wars in which the rules of engagement allow for excessive violence, woven into the fabric of daily life with the U.S. military presence acting as a destabilizing and brutalizing force. The Iraq War Logs, while crucial, are reports produced in real time and themselves may be slanted to minimize the culpability of U.S. forces. Still, they represent an important part of evidence in assessing the reality of the Iraq war, evidence that can only be improved by the further release of documents and information and corroboration by individuals involved. To this end, our members are reviewing both Wikileaks' Afghanistan War Diaries and the Iraq War Logs to identify incidents we were part of and to shed more light on what really happened.
IVAW has been speaking out about these atrocities and abuses since our inception. Our organization is comprised of over 2,000 veterans and active duty troops who have served since September 11, 2001. We demand immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, reparations for the people of those countries, and full benefits for returning veterans, including mental healthcare. At our March 2008 Winter Soldier hearings in Maryland, more than fifty veterans and active-duty service members publicly testified about the orders they were told to carry out in these countries, sharing stories of excessive violence, trauma, and abuse.
Josh Stieber and Ethan McCord, two IVAW members who were in the unit captured in the Wikileaks "Collateral Murder" video, have spoken out about how the incidents caught on film are not isolated cases of 'a few bad soldiers' but rather, part of the nature of these wars. "There has been little accountability in the wars that my friends and I once thought represented everything that was noble about our country," wrote Stieber in anticipation of the Iraq War Logs. In an open letter, Stieber calls for policy makers to "take accountability for these wars and the full truth about them."
As veterans, we know that the violence documented in the Iraq War Logs traumatizes the people living under occupation. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan also have been marked by staggering rates of military trauma and suicide among the troops tasked with carrying out these orders. Last year, 239 soldiers killed themselves and 1,713 soldiers survived suicide attempts; 146 soldiers died from high-risk activities, including 74 drug overdoses. A third of returning troops report mental health problems, and 18.5 percent of all returning service members are battling either Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or depression, according to a study by the Rand Corporation. Our Operation Recovery campaign, launched on October 7, seeks to end the cruel and inhumane practice of redeploying troops suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Military Sexual Trauma, Traumatic Brain Injury, and other mental and physical wounds--a practice that underlies the continued occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Critics attacking Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's character are attempting to use ad hominem arguments to detract from the real issues and divert public attention from the content of the Iraq War Logs. We urge honest and thorough discussion of the content of these documents, and we think this discussion must not be sidelined. Furthermore, with past Wikileaks revelations, U.S. administration and military authorities were quick to vilify Army Specialist Bradley Manning who is being accused of leaking these documents to the public. Yet we insist that it is the right of the U.S. public to have accurate information about wars that are being fought in our name and funded by our tax dollars, and we support the public sharing of this information. Exposing war crimes is not a crime.
Government deception is inexcusable. Authorities have kept this information secret in the name of 'national security,' but what they really are afraid of is public opinion, which they know will turn against them if the truth about these wars gets out in the mainstream. An accurate count of Iraqi dead, acknowledgment of torture, and full disclosure of the role of private contractors are facts that should be made public in a democracy. We believe that real national security is created where government transparency and accountability, free press, and an end to spending on illegal wars and occupations are the norm. Continued silence and secrecy is a grave threat to the security of the Iraqi and Afghan people, and we demand openness, accountability, and real discussion of these revelations.
We grieve for the Iraqi and Afghan lives that were lost and destroyed in these wars. We also grieve for our brothers and sisters in arms, who have been lost to battle or suicide. The Iraq War Logs bring home part of the harsh reality of these wars, a reality that we--as veterans--live with everyday. We demand a real end to both wars, including immediate withdrawal of the 50,000 "non-combat" troops who remain in the Iraq. The Iraq War Logs underscore the urgent need for peace, healing, and reparations for all who have been harmed by these wars. The first step is to bring our brothers and sisters home.
To forward this statement to friends, click here.
In Solidarity,
Iraq Veterans Against the War
Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) was founded by Iraq war veterans in July 2004 at the annual convention of Veterans for Peace (VFP) in Boston to give a voice to the large number of active duty service people and veterans who are against this war, but are under various pressures to remain silent. From its inception, IVAW has called for: Immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces in Iraq; Reparations for the human and structural damages Iraq has suffered, and stopping the corporate pillaging of Iraq so that their people can control their own lives and future; and Full benefits, adequate healthcare (including mental health), and other supports for returning servicemen and women. As of 5/2021, the IVAW website is offline.
LATEST NEWS
'Friday News Dump': Biden State Dept Report Accepts Israeli Assurances
"The report is a slap in the face to the Palestinian and international human rights and humanitarian organizations that provided firsthand accounts and evidence," said the head of Oxfam America.
May 10, 2024
Foreign policy and human rights experts on Friday sharply condemned the Biden administration's delayed report to Congress about Israeli assurances regarding U.S. weapons use in the Gaza Strip and the delivery of humanitarian aid.
The historic assessment stems from National Security Memorandum 20, which President Joe Biden issued in February. NSM-20 requires Secretary of State Antony Blinken "to obtain certain credible and reliable written assurances from foreign governments" that they use U.S. arms in line with international humanitarian law (IHL) and will not "arbitrarily deny, restrict, or otherwise impede, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance."
"With today's report, the U.S. will be complicit in even more death and suffering in Gaza."
The section on Israel—which spans about a third of the 46-page report—says that "given Israel's significant reliance on U.S.-made defense articles, it is reasonable to assess that defense articles covered under NSM-20 have been used by Israeli security forces since October 7 in instances inconsistent with its IHL obligations or with established best practices for mitigating civilian harm."
However, "we are not able to reach definitive conclusions on whether defense articles covered by NSM-20 were used in these or other individual strikes," it continues, listing examples that include the April strike that killed seven World Central Kitchen workers.
While noting that "Israel has not shared complete information" to verify U.S. weapons use, the report concludes that Israeli assurances are "credible and reliable so as to allow the provision of defense articles covered under NSM-20 to continue."
Israel also "did not fully cooperate" with the U.S. and international "efforts to maximize humanitarian assistance flow to and distribution within Gaza," the report states. While expressing "deep concerns" about Israel's action and inaction regarding much-needed relief, the document adds that "we do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance within the meaning of Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act."
The report was initially due to be sent to Congress on Wednesday. Calling its release a "Friday news dump," Palestinian American political analyst Yousef Munayyer said, "This would be comical, if it wasn't aiding genocide."
Democracy for the Arab World Now executive director Sarah Leah Whitson took aim at the State Department, which she said "sinks to uncharted lows in twisting both the facts and the law to absolve Israel of responsibility for its well-documented use of U.S. weapons to commit war crimes and hindrance of U.S. humanitarian aid delivery."
"The State Department's report dutifully regurgitates every hoary defense Israel has long offered the world to justify its indefensible savagery in Gaza using U.S.-taxpayer funded military assistance," she continued. "It wants the world to reject the evidence of our eyes and ears with utterly implausible excuses."
"The State Department is seeking to create new loopholes in the law that don't exist, at once acknowledging that Israel HAS used U.S. weapons in violation of the laws of war and HAS hindered aid delivery, but excusing them from sanctions by claiming they are 'individual' violations and that Israel is remedying them," she added. "The law provides no such carve-outs from enforcement, and by the way, they're also utterly false claims."
Many critics of the war—called plausibly genocidal by the International Court of Justice in January—praised how detailed the document is but blasted its conclusions, which conflict with those of former State Department officials, U.S. lawmakers, and relief groups.
"The administration has once again ignored a mountain of evidence and failed to hold Israel accountable for severe violations of international and U.S. law in its conduct in the Gaza war," said Center for International Policy executive vice president Matt Duss. "This report comes as hundreds of thousands of civilians in Gaza face famine, continued bombardment, and an invasion of Rafah against U.S. warnings."
Israeli officials and forces this week have made clear that they will not cease the operation against Rafah—a southern Gaza city crowded with over 1.4 million Palestinians, most of them displaced from other areas—in response to Biden stalling the delivery of some weapons and threatening to withhold more.
While welcoming Biden's recent moves on Rafah, Duss argued that "today's report treating Israel as largely meeting its obligations under NSM-20 undercuts the administration's own efforts to protect civilian lives and facilitate a cease-fire and the release of hostages still held by Hamas. Instead, it functionally greenlights Israel's continued use of U.S. weapons in ways contrary to our law, interests, and values."
"The Biden administration must end its mixed messages and conflicting actions on Israel's conduct in Gaza, as well as in the occupied West Bank, and bring its policy in line with its rhetoric," he stressed. "It must fully and consistently enforce international and U.S. law by halting the transfer of all offensive weapons and other military assistance that Israel is using in the Rafah invasion or elsewhere to violate Palestinian rights. If this administration is serious about promoting peace and upholding human rights and international law, President Biden must finally and completely end U.S. complicity in the grievous harm being done to civilians with our aid and arms."
Oxfam America president and CEO Abby Maxman declared Friday that "despite what the Biden administration claims in today's report to Congress, it is clear that Israel is violating international law and obstructing aid into Gaza."
"In turning a blind eye, the administration is allowing Israel to continue to do so without consequence," she said. "The Biden administration published NSM-20 to hold itself and the recipients of its military aid accountable to the requirements of U.S. law, but instead it is demonstrating those laws only apply when politically convenient."
According to Maxman:
The report is a slap in the face to the Palestinian and international human rights and humanitarian organizations that provided firsthand accounts and evidence—backed by experts within the administration—on the assumption that their input would be evaluated in good faith. Most of all, it is a devastating blow to Palestinians in Gaza who have been killed, driven from their homes, and pushed into starvation by Israel's systemic abuses. They now suffer the indignity of this confirmation of the U.S. government's policy of willful blindness.
In a joint report with Human Rights Watch, Oxfam documented substantial violations of international humanitarian law and direct impediments to the delivery of humanitarian aid, including the destruction of Oxfam-supported water infrastructure and repeated delays and denials of basic humanitarian supplies. These impediments remain in place today and there is no sign of improvement going forward.
President Biden's suspension of bombs and artillery shells to stop a Rafah invasion is an important step, but not a substitute for following the law and holding Israel accountable to the basic conditions that apply to all U.S. security assistance recipients. With today's report, the U.S. will be complicit in even more death and suffering in Gaza.
Win Without War also welcomed Biden's decision to send Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "a message that Rafah is a red line by holding up weapons shipments—the absolute right call, even if much more needs to be done," the group highlighted on social media Friday. "Yet, we are incredibly alarmed by the findings in the NSM report."
"At this dire moment, we need a U.S. policy towards ending the war and protecting people in Gaza that is consistent and coherent," the organization said. "But this NSM-20 report, by dodging a determination over whether the Israeli government has committed violations, cuts against that clear message and scrambles U.S. policy."
"And it will be yet another missed opportunity to uphold U.S. law and policy governing weapons transfers—right when growing numbers in Congress are calling for exactly that," the group added. "Luckily, Congress can inject some coherence—by continuing to place informal holds on transfers of deadly weapons, and making clear that there won't be new sales until the Israeli [government] shifts course."
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South Africa Urges ICJ Action as Israeli War Cabinet Expands Rafah Assault
"Despite repeated orders by the court, Israel has not changed its conduct," South Africa's urgent request states. "It has doubled down on its genocidal aims and acts, including by invading Rafah."
May 10, 2024
As Israel's War Cabinet voted Friday to expand the invasion of Rafah, South Africa filed an urgent request for the International Court of Justice to order Israel to stop its assault on Gaza's southernmost city, citing violations of the Genocide Convention and "particularly severe" risks to the 1.5 million displaced Palestinians and residents sheltering there.
"The situation brought about by the Israeli assault on Rafah, and the extreme risk it poses to humanitarian supplies and basic services into Gaza, to the survival of the Palestinian medical system, and to the very survival of Palestinians in Gaza as a group, is not only an escalation of the prevailing situation, but gives rise to new facts that are causing irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people in Gaza," South Africa's request states.
"This amounts to a change in the situation in Gaza since the court's order of March 28, 2024," the filing continues, referring to the ICJ's directive for Israel to stop blocking desperately needed humanitarian from entering the embattled enclave.
The March 28 directive also reiterated the court's earlier preliminary ruling that found Israel is "plausibly" committing genocide in Gaza and ordered the Israeli government to "take all measures within its power" to uphold its obligations under Article II of the Genocide Convention.
The treaty—to which Israel is a party—defines the crime of genocide in part as "killing members of a group" and "deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part," which South Africa's request says Israeli forces are doing in Rafah.
The new filing argues three main points:
- Rafah is now effectively the last refuge in Gaza for 1.5 million Palestinians from Rafah and those displaced by Israeli action, and the last viable center in Gaza for habitation, public administration, and the provision of basic public services, including medical care;
- By seizing control of the Rafah and Kerem Shalom (Karem Abu Salem) crossings, Israel is now in direct, total control of all entry and exit to Gaza, has cut it off from all humanitarian and medical supplies, goods, and fuel on which the survival of the population of Gaza depends, and is preventing medical evacuations; and
- The remaining population and medical facilities are at extreme risk, given the recent evidence of evacuation zones being treated as extermination zones, the mass destruction and mass graves at Gaza's other hospitals, and the use by Israel of artificial intelligence (AI) to identify "kill lists."
"The incursion followed a two-week intensification of Israel's military bombardment of Rafah, to which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had previously been ordered by Israel to evacuate for their safety," the South African filing states. "An estimated 100,000 Palestinians in eastern Rafah, many of them already displaced nine times over, were given less than 15 hours to evacuate. Many were simply unable to flee. None have anywhere safe to go."
The document cites media reports of "the extreme brutality and indiscriminate nature of Israel's attack on areas of Rafah both within and outside the evacuation zone."
"Videos posted on social media by Israeli soldiers record them firing directly on areas where tents are pitched by displaced Palestinians," the filing states. "Many, including large numbers of Palestinian children, have been killed or injured already. There is recently published testimony from Israeli soldiers who have served in Gaza that Israeli soldiers treat evacuation zones as 'zones of extermination' in which all remaining Palestinians are considered to be legitimate targets. Israel also relies extensively on AI to select its targets and 'kill lists.'"
"Despite repeated orders by the court, Israel has not changed its conduct," the filing states. "It has doubled down on its genocidal aims and acts, including by invading Rafah. Members of the Israeli Ministerial Committee on National Security Affairs (Security Cabinet) and the War Cabinet have continued their genocidal rhetoric."
South Africa lodged its genocide complaint against Israel in December. Since then, more than 30 nations and regional blocs, and hundreds of advocacy groups have joined. The ICJ last month set October 28 as the deadline for South Africa's comprehensive submission in the case. Israel has until July 28, 2025 to respond.
A final ruling from the tribunal is not expected for years. Israel says the case is "baseless" and has accused South Africa of "functioning as the legal arm of Hamas," which led the attacks in which more than 1,100 Israelis and others were killed—at least some by so-called "friendly fire"—last October 7.
Since then, Israeli forces have killed nearly 35,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, while wounding more than 78,000 others. Over 11,000 Palestinians are also missing and presumed dead and buried beneath the rubble of the hundreds of thousands of bombed-out homes and other buildings. Around 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have also been forcibly displaced, and Israel's "complete siege" of the strip has caused massive starvation and has led to the deaths of dozens of children from malnutrition and dehydration.
Friday's filing came on the same day that a group of United Nations experts demanded that U.S. President Joe Biden—Israel's most important international backer—follow through on his "red line" threat to halt arms shipments to Israel in the event its forces invade Rafah. On Thursday, Biden was accused of retreating from his red line by stating he would only cut Israel off if it launches a "major" assault on the city.
Common Dreamsreported Tuesday that Biden is delaying shipments of two types of bombs to Israel in order to send a message that the president is angry and frustrated over what he called Israel's "indiscriminate bombing" of Gazan civilians. However, the U.S. continues to supply billions of dollars of weaponry to Israel and also provides diplomatic cover in the form of U.N. vetoes and other moves.
On Friday, for example, the U.S. was one of only nine nations to vote against a U.N. General Assembly resolution urging the Security Council to grant Palestine full membership in the world body. The vote was 143-9, with 25 abstentions.
Also on Friday, human rights defenders from around the world gathered in Johannesburg, South Africa for the inaugural Global Anti-Apartheid Conference on Palestine.
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'Children Are Starving': Rafah Suffers as Israel Halts All Aid and Escalates Assault
"People have been fearing this for a long, long time and it is now upon us. There is constant bombardment. There is smoke on the horizon. There are people on the move," said one humanitarian worker.
May 10, 2024
United Nations experts on Friday used U.S. President Joe Biden's own language regarding Israel's offensive in Rafah, Gaza to demand that the president follow through with his statement that an Israeli invasion of the southern city would be a "red line" and would push him to halt military support for Israel.
"States with influence over Israel have described any incursion into Rafah as a 'red line,'" said experts including Francesca Albanese, special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, and Michael Fakhri, special rapporteur on the right to food. "They must immediately put those words into practice and stop this disastrous campaign by ending the flow of arms into Israel and withholding investment and political support."
The latest call for the U.S. to end its support for Israel comes as humanitarian workers in Rafah, where 1.4 million people have been living in improvised tent encampments for weeks following the forced displacement of 90% of Gaza residents, are grappling with rapidly dwindling aid supplies.
Israel seized control of the crucial Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt this week, shutting off all humanitarian aid—which was already a fraction of what's needed—as the enclave's entire population suffers from acute food insecurity.
Along with food, said the U.N. experts, Rafah now has no access to shipments of other survival supplies and fuel, which is needed to run Gaza's remaining hospitals and water desalination plants.
As a full-scale ground assault on Rafah is threatened, Sam Rose, director of planning for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), toldAl Jazeera, people in Rafah "are petrified" of a potential "scorched earth" war on Palestinian civilians.
"People have been fearing this for a long, long time and it is now upon us. There is constant bombardment. There is smoke on the horizon. There are people on the move," Rose said. "No aid has come into Gaza now since Sunday. No aid, no fuel, no supplies, nothing. And we really are now down to our last reserves. We have a few more days of flour that we can provide. But everything else will start to shut down very soon without fuel, without water. So the situation is really desperate."
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who has long demanded that Biden end unconditional military support for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), warned that the U.S. can no longer be "complicit" in Israel's starving of Palestinians, dozens of whom have already died of malnutrition due to Israel's blockade on nearly all aid since October.
Biden stopped a shipment of bombs to Israel last week, but NBC Newsreported Friday that shipments of "both offensive and defensive weaponry" have been sent to the IDF in recent days despite Israel's incursion.
UNRWA said Friday that 110,000 people have fled Rafah this week, with Israel claiming the coastal town of Al-Mawasi, about six miles from the city, is a new "expanded humanitarian area" where Palestinians will be safe. Rafah is one of many places in Gaza that have been previously designated as safe zones but were then bombarded by the IDF.
The U.N. experts said Al-Mawasi, a narrow strip of land, "cannot cope with a population influx."
The town is "already without sufficient food, water, medicine, hygiene products, electricity, shelter, and access to education for children," they said.
"In light of the grievous humanitarian situation on the ground, no evacuation order issued by Israel can be considered compliant with international humanitarian law," said the rapporteurs. "Further displacement of Gaza's population through evacuation orders or military operations contravenes binding provisional measures imposed on Israel by the International Court of Justice."
On Friday, Israeli troops were advancing in eastern Rafah as cease-fire talks brokered by the U.S., Qatar, and Egypt appeared to stall. Hamas said the "ball is now completely" in the hands of Israel, which on Monday rejected a cease-fire deal that Hamas had accepted, just as the IDF launched strikes on Rafah.
Hamas, which has governed Gaza for nearly two decades, said Israel had "raised objections" to Hamas' demands on "several central issues"; the Palestinian group has demanded a withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, the return of displaced Palestinians, and swapping Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called on the international community to "speak with one voice for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza."
"The long-threatened Rafah invasion must not be seen as a foregone conclusion," said the U.S. experts. "Israel must halt this assault."
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