MESOPOTAMIA NEWS Top of the Agenda : Landmark Trial of Syrian Officers Begins / GERMANY

Two former Syrian army officers go on trial today (NYT) in Germany on charges of crimes against humanity committed in the early days of Syria’s civil war. The trial is the world’s first of a high-ranking official from Bashar al-Assad’s government and sets a precedent for a universal jurisdiction approach to war crimes.

Anwar Raslan and Eyad al-Gharib are accused (New Humanitarian) of helping operate a prison where four thousand people faced “systematic and brutal torture” in 2011 and 2012. The officers entered Germany as asylum seekers. Although China and Russia blocked (Al-Monitor) the International Criminal Court from prosecuting Syrian regime figures, Germany investigated this case using universal jurisdiction, which allows for trial of grave crimes anywhere in the world.

Analysis
“The argument for universal jurisdiction becomes that much stronger with a context like Syria, where there are really no other opportunities for justice,” the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy’s Mai El-Sadany told Al-Monitor.

“Human-rights lawyers hope the trial, which is being held in the German city of Koblenz, could open the way for more prosecutions of Syrian war crimes, whether in German courts, elsewhere in Europe or in a future tribunal,” Raja Abdulrahim and Ruth Bender write for the Wall Street Journal.

www.mesop.de

 

MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : European cases to test the reach of prosecuting Syria war crimes / GERMANY

‘What we are doing is a message to the whole world: the time for impunity is over.’

Charlotte Bailey – Freelance journalist based in Brussels writing on development, humanitarian aid, human rights and conflict.

Blood covers the hands of an injured boy following airstrikes believed to have been carried out by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, February 2015. A key Syria war crimes trial is set to begin this week in Koblenz, Germany.

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MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : WORLD’S MAIN ENEMY = THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF RED CHINA !

Coronavirus: Another 9/11 Moment for the West

by Richard Kemp – a.D. British Army Colonel  – GATESTONE INSTITUTE
April 22, 2020

  • Commentators and politicians today worry that the current situation might trigger a new cold war with China. They fail to understand that, in a similar but much more far-reaching pattern to the jihadist conflict, China has been fighting a cold war against the West for decades, while we have refused to recognise what is going on…. Like 9/11, Covid-19 must now force the West to wake up and fight back.

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MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : DIE TOTALE WELTGEFAHR VON LINKS – COMMUNIST PARTY OF RED CHINA!

Coronavirus: Ein weiterer 9/11-Moment für den Westen

von Richard Kemp Oberst a.D.  – 22. April 2020 – British Army  – GATESTONE INSTITUT

Kommentatoren und Politiker befürchten heute, dass die gegenwärtige Situation einen neuen Kalten Krieg mit China auslösen könnte. Sie verstehen nicht, dass China in einem ähnlichen, aber viel weitreichenderen Muster wie der Dschihad-Konflikt seit Jahrzehnten einen Kalten Krieg gegen den Westen führt, während wir uns geweigert haben, anzuerkennen, was vor sich geht… Wie 9/11 muss Covid-19 nun den Westen zwingen, aufzuwachen und sich zu wehren.

  • Jahrzehntelang hat China an seiner dreigleisigen Strategie gearbeitet: Aufbau seiner Wirtschaft und seiner Kampfkraft, einschließlich Geheimdienst, Technologie, Cyber- und Weltraum sowie rohe militärische Kraft; Entwicklung eines globalen Einflusses zur Ausbeutung von Ressourcen und Sicherung der Kontrolle; Zurückdrängen und Spaltung der USA und ihrer kapitalistischen Verbündeten.

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MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : WANN WIRD BASHAR AL ASSAD ANGEKLAGT ? / DEUTSCHLAND / SYRIEN

Syrische Geheimdienstler stehen wegen Folter und Mord in Koblenz vor Gericht

Vor dem Oberlandesgericht Koblenz müssen sich zwei ehemalige Mitarbeiter des syrischen Geheimdienstes verantworten. Es ist weltweit der erste Prozess.

21.4.2020 – 13:47 , Andreas Förster – BERLINER ZEITUNG

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MESOPOTAMIA NEWS SOUTH KURDISTAN / IRAQBaghdad puts KRG budget transfer in the crosshairs

As Iraq descends further into financial crisis, the federal Cabinet and Parliament signal rising opposition to the KRG’s monthly budget payments.

Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abd al-Mahdi (right) meets with Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Masrour Barzani in Baghdad on July 16, 2019. (Source: KRG media office)

By Staff of Iraq Oil Report – Published Thursday, April 23rd, 2020

BAGHDAD/ERBIL – Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region faces new levels of financial uncertainty, as prominent voices in both the federal Cabinet and Parliament advocate for an end to monthly budget transfers.

In an April 1 letter, the general secretariat of the Council of Ministers called on the Finance Ministry to stop making monthly payments of 453 billion Iraqi dinars (about $384 million) to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) because the KRG has not shared its oil production

with the federal government as outlined in Iraq’s most recent budget law, according to three members of Parliament who saw the letter.

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MESOPOTAMIA NEWS QUESTIONS : HOW WILL COVID-19 IMPACT U.S. MILITARY READINESS? THE SOUFAN CENTER  23 Apr 2020 

Bottom Line Up Front:    – COVID-19 has required the U.S. military to shift personnel and materiel to a domestic mandate to augment civilian state and federal agencies’ capabilities, leaving U.S. entities overseas more vulnerable than ever.

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MESOPOTAMIA NEWS ANALYSIS : China’s Coronavirus Information Offensive

Beijing Is Using New Methods to Spin the Pandemic to Its Advantage

By Laura Rosenberger –  April 22, 2020 by FOREIGN AFFAIRS

From the first days of COVID-19’s appearance in the city of Wuhan, China’s leaders focused on control—not only of the coronavirus itself but also of information about it. They suppressed initial reporting and research about the outbreak, thereby slowing efforts to understand the virus and its pandemic potential. They called for “increased internet control” when the Politburo Standing Committee met in early February. They even sent “Internet police” to threaten people posting criticism of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its handling of the virus.

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Belgian spy agencies say radical groups trying to exploit COVID-19 to sow chaos

MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : IN FOREFRONT GERMAN LEFT WING RADICAL NETWORK INDYMEDIA !

April 23, 2020 by Joseph Fitsanakis intel org

The two main intelligence agencies of Belgium have published a declassified report in which they warn that domestic groups on the far left and far right of the political spectrum are using the COVID-19 pandemic to destabilize society. Among other things, these groups are spreading disinformation in order to incite violence and spread disillusionment with the Belgian authorities’ response to the coronavirus, according to the report.

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MESOPOTAMIA NEWS :  DIE ANTIRASSISTISCHE GESELLSCHAFT DER OBEREN LIBERALEN

Luxuriöses Apartment für Schwerreiche im Untergrundkomplex von Vivos in Deutschland. –  Ab ins Ferienhaus oder gleich in den Luxus-Bunker – wohin Superreiche vor Corona fliehen

Superreiche weltweit nutzen ihre Möglichkeiten, sich und ihre Familien privilegiert in Schutz zu bringen. Für die normale Bevölkerung interessieren sie sich wenig – was oft zu Spannungen führt. In der Schweiz ist jedoch keine Bunkermentalität in Sicht.

Manuela Nyffenegger 22.04.2020, 15.17 Uhr  NEUE ZÜRCHER ZEITUNG

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