The World Court finds the United States Guilty of International Terrorism against Nicaraguahttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOsDwFo2EhM#http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2O0qAtKrYk#Nicaragua did not respond to the terrorist attacks with bombings in the US. Rather, it went to the World Court for relief.
In 1986,
the court ruled in Nicaragua's favor, dismissing US claims and condemning Washington for "unlawful use of force" - international terrorism, in lay terms. The ICJ also held that the U.S. had violated international law by mining Nicaragua's harbors. The decision had little effect. The World Court was condemned as a "hostile forum" by
the editors of the New York Times, and therefore, irrelevant, like the U.N. US aid to the contras was described as "humanitarian" in violation of the court ruling.
As expected, despite the careful and authoritative reasoning by whitch the Court reached it's decision,
the New York Times Editorial page denounced the ruling and even accused many of the judges of being Communists. It wrote:
QuotePredictably, the World Court has found the United States guilty of violating international law by supporting the ''contra'' war against Nicaragua. Just as predictably, the Reagan Administration feels vindicated for not bothering to defend itself; it scorns this frail institution as irredeemably hostile.
The Court's judgement was deplorably broad, but America's response was damagingly petulant. The "laws" the Court seeks to articulate are more accurately values, rooted in traditions that America should honor even in a hostile forum. As the Nicaragua case shows, the absence of effective rebuttal only aggravates the Court's tendentiousness. Worse, for America not to defend its policy leaves the impression the policy is indefensible.
Despite the presence of Communist judges, and those of other incompatible ideologies, the Court is the only body that even pretends to search for rational guidelines of international conduct. In such a forum, and doubly so when it feels wronged, Americans should never be silent.
The following is the evidence the World Court based it's decision on..
Case concerning military and paramilitary activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. United States of America) by The International Court of Justice On December 29, 1984, the Council on Hemispheric Affairs issued a report condemning the CIA-Contras:
Quotethe CIA directed forces are among the worst human rights violators in Latin America, responsible for systematic brutality against civillian population. The Contras have killed, tortured, raped, mutilated and abducted hundreds of civillians they suspect of sympathizing with the Sandinistas. Victims have included peasants, teachers, doctors and agricultural workers.
The United States administration, for it's critical role in facilitating the Contra violence must share responsibility as a hemispheric violator of human rights.
Human Rights Watch concurs:Quotethe Contras were major and systematic violators of the most basic standards of the laws of armed conflict, including by launching indiscriminate attacks on civilians, selectively murdering non-combatants, and mistreating prisoners. The Bush administration is responsible for these abuses because the contras are, for all practical purposes, a U.S. force.
Another report, prepared by Reed Brody, a United States lawyer who spent four months in Nicaragua collecting over 40 sworn affidavits from victims and eyewitnesses, dsiclosed a "distinct pattern" of abuses by the Death Squads, including:
Quoteattacks on purely civilian targets resulting in the killing of unarmed men, woman, children and the elderly; - premeditated acts of brutality including rapes, beatings, mutilations and torture ; - and individual and mass kidnappings of civilians for the purpose of forced recruitment into the Contra forces and the creation of a hostage refugee population in Honduras; -assaults on economic and social targets such as farms, cooperatives and on vehicles carrying volunteer coffee harvesters ; - intimidation of civilians who participate or cooperate in government or community programs such as distribution of subsidized food products, education and local self-defense militias ; - and kidnapping, intimidation, and even murder of religious leaders who support the government, including priests and clergy- trained lay pastors.
A report published jointly by the International Human Rights Law Group and Washington Office in Latin America, two private United States organizations that monitor human rights compliance, made the following statement based on an investigative mission they sent to Nicaragua in February 1985:
QuoteThe Contras do attack economic targets such as lumber yards, coffee processing plants, electrical generating stations and the like.... [They] also attack individuals deemed to be contributors to the country's economy pr its defense, such as telephone workers, coffee pickers, teachers, technicians, and members of the civilian-based militia...
Substantial credible evidence exists that Contra violence is also directed with some frequency at individuals who have no apparent economic, military, or political significance and against persons who are hors de combat.
It is important to emphasize that these are not persons caught in crossfire between Contra and Sandinista military units. These are unarmed civilians who have no connection with hostilities and who have been the targets of deliberate attack by Contra units.
Any provision of aid to the Contras, directly or indirectly, by the government of the United States would render our government indirectly responsible for their acts.
The following is part of former CIA analyst, David MacMichael's testimony at the World Court hearing:
QuoteThe principal actions to be undertaken were paramilitary which hopefully would provoke cross-border attacks by Nicaraguan forces and thus serve to demonstrate Nicaragua's aggressive nature and possibly call into play the Organization of American States' provisions (regarding collective self-defense).
It was hoped that the Nicaraguan Government would clamp down on civil liberties within Nicaragua itself, arresting its opposition, so demonstrating its allegedly inherent totalitarian nature and thus increase domestic dissent within the country, and further that there would be reaction against United States citizens, particularly against United States diplomatic personnel within Nicaragua and thus to demonstrate the hostility of Nicaragua towards the United States.
A Training Manual designed for the CIA-Contra forces (the Guerillas) attacking Nicaragua. The manual advised:
QuoteCIA PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS IN GUERRILLA WARFARE
Tactical Manual for the Revolutionary
ARMED PROPAGANDA
If a guerrilla fires at an individual, make the town see that he was an enemy of the people and that the weapon fired was one recovered in combat against the Sandinista regime. Make the population see that if the Sandinista regime had ended the repression, the freedom commandos would not have had to brandish arms against brother Nicaraguans.
Implicit and Explicit Terror
If the government police cannot put an end to the guerrilla activities, the population will lose confidence in the government, which has the inherent mission of guaranteeing the safety of citizens.
Selective Use of Violence for Propagandists Effects
It is possible to neutralize carefully selected and planned targets, such as court judges, mesta judges, police and State Security officials, CDS chiefs, etc. [As writer Holly Sklar noted, "a hit list that starts with court judges and ends with etcetra is a mighty broad license for murder."]
Creation of Nuclei
If possible, professional criminals will be hired to carry out specific selected "jobs."
The notification of the police, denouncing a target who does not want to join the guerrillas, can be carried out easily, when it becomes necessary, through a letter with false statements of citizens who are not implicated in the movement.
Ways to Lead an Uprising at Mass Meetings
Specific tasks will be assigned to others, in order to create a "martyr" for the cause, taking the demonstrators to a confrontation with the authorities, in order to bring about uprisings or shootings, which will cause the death of one or more persons, who would become the martyrs, a situation that should be made use of immediately against the regime, in order to create greater conflicts.
Shock Troops. These men should be equipped with weapons (Knives, razors, chains, clubs, bludgeons) and should march slightly behind the innocent and gullible participants. They should carry their weapons hidden. They will enter into action only as "reinforcements" if the guerrilla agitators are attacked by the police. They will enter the scene quickly, violently and by surprise, in order to distract the authorities, in this way making possible the withdrawal or rapid escape of the inside commando.
The International Court of Justice found that:
Quotethe United States of America, by producing in 1983 a manual entitled 'Operaciones sicológicas en guerra de guerrillas', and disseminating it to contra forces, has encouraged the commission by them of acts contrary to general principles of humanitarian law.
The Court, which is the highest judicial body of the United Nations, ruled that by arming and financing the Contra death squads, attacking Nicaragua, and laying explosive mines in the territorial waters of Nicaragua, in addition to other offenses, the United States had volated international law. The Court also ordered the United States to cease and refrain from such actions and to pay reparations to Nicaragua.
The calls were dismissed as ridiculous by the Reagan administration and their allies in the agenda setting "liberal media". Congress immediatly approved an additional 100 million to escalate what the court had condemned as the "unlawful use of force." The US continued to undermine "utopian, legalistic means" untill it acheived it's goal by terror.
Following the US rejection of World Court orders Nicaragua took its case to the Securirty Council, which endorsed the court's judgement and called on all states to observe international law.
The US vetoed the resolution. Then Nicaragua took it to
the general assembly, which passed a similar resolution with only the US, Israel and El Salvador opposed. None of this was ever reported so it has disapeared from history.
TO BE CONTINUED