So Bush is now THE voice or reason? We’re all screwed.

Read the scary news from The Guardian here.

Lets start from the beginning:
If you look at the UN Charter, chapter 1, article 2:
2. All Members, in order to ensure to all of them the rights and benefits resulting from membership, shall fulfill in good faith the obligations assumed by them in accordance with the present Charter.

4. All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.

Then, if you take a look at the Charter of the Nurnberg Tribunal you’ll notice two things:

Principle III
The fact that a person who committed an act which constitutes a crime under international law acted as Head of State or responsible Government official does not relieve him from responsibility under international law.

Principle Vl
The crimes hereinafter set out are punishable as crimes under; international law:

1. Crimes against peace:
1. Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances;
2. Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the acts mentioned under (i).
2. War crimes:
Violations of the laws or customs of war which include, but are not limited to, murder, ill-treatment or deportation to slave-labor or for any other purpose of civilian population of or in occupied territory, murder or ill treatment of prisoners of war, of persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity.

And then there is of course Chapter VII.

A unilateral, unauthorized military incursion into another territory constitutes an act of war (remember Colombia’s raid into Ecuador not long ago? Or Israel’s armed forces kidnapping of two Palestinian brothers, which in its turn prompted Lebanon to kidnap Israeli soldiers, which actually prompted a war?) and this goes of course against the U.N. Charter, which the U.S. is a signer of. So pretty much the first articles of the Charter, which lay the foundation upon what the U.N. is based on and everything that it stands for, plus the Nurnberg Charter, plus the treaties that a large portion of the planet have agreed upon are completely ignored. And of course it’s not really a big deal.

Ok, so let’s pretend then that the U.N Charter isn’t important at all. Let’s pretend instead that it is another country attacking another country, let’s imagine it is Chinese forces that are sneaking into Pakistan, instead of U.S. forces. Any explanation would probably not get too far, and the uproar on the savage and illegal actions of a communist regime upon a sovereign nation would have to be punished right? Imagine now if it were Iran… (read some of Seymour Hersh’s New Yorker articles for even scarier facts, the first three in the list are pretty informative).

Another way to think about it would be to simply switch the names of the actors around. Lets pretend that Pakistan has authorized an attack to the city of D.C. for suspicions of, let’s say, involvement in illegal activities inside other nations -yes, there are quite a few examples: Nicaragua, Granada, Panama, are but a few- but let’s not get specific. You can imagine that this will not sound as normal and matter of fact as the hawks and doves have made it sound. It would be a casus belli without a shadow of a doubt, and military action would probably be taken in response.

Does anyone care anymore? Will this continue to be the case after power has shifted East? Will it matter then?

The U.N Charter is a pretty nifty document for those that haven’t read it. You can always find it here in the UN’s website.

Read the news from the NYT here and BBC here.

Looking through my pictures of the past visit to P.S.1, I found this picture of one of the greatest pieces currently on display. I can’t really remember the artist’s name (nor the piece’s name for that matter) but its simplicity, its economy of means and its in-your-face-ness are what make it completely astounding to walk through. It’s in the second floor, so if you have a chance to visit the museum, don’t miss it.

Gabe pointed me to these incredible videos by Teargas and Plateglass. The songs are even more beautiful than the visuals. Heavy stuff, yet beautiful.

Visit their site here.

View the other vids after the jump.

Almost without exception, secret service organizations have thrived in times of turbulence and, conversely, have seen their power vanish as turmoil slows. For this reason, they survive by inciting social turbulence, spreading rumors and inventing imaginary enemies, fifth columns, and bomber and missile gaps. They need to keep society in constant alert, in a generalized state of fear and paranoia, in order to sustain themselves. This has led to the development of a gigantic “espionage industry, ” whose entire existence is based on a bluff few governments dare to call:

The agencies justify their peacetime existence by promising to provide timely warning of a threat to national security… Over the years intelligence agencies have brainwashed successive governments into accepting three propositions that ensure their survival and expansion. The first is that in the secret world it may be impossible to distinguish success from failure. A timely warning of attack allows the intended victim to prepare. This causes the aggressor to change its mind; the warning then appears to have been wrong. The second proposition is that failure can be due to incorrect analysis of the agency’s accurate information… The third proposition is that the agency could have offered timely warning had it not been starved of funds. In combination, these three propositions can be used to thwart any rational analysis of an intelligence agency’s performance, and allow any failure to be turned into a justification for further funding and expansion*.

Shouldn’t this be mandatory reading in every country at a very early age?
This is an incredible book. Go buy it.

*Knightley, Second Oldest Profession., pp. 6 and 389.

This is what the main Colombian newspaper looked liked today at 4:00pm after the rescuing by the army of some high profile hostages held by the FARC.

Nevermind the other 700+ non high profile still held captive.

Read it in his website here.

“It’s been a difficult few weeks, rockets are bouncing off your buildings, and maintaining focus can be an occasional challenge,” (ambassador) Crocker said…

Read the CNN article here.

Read my previous entry here.

via [archinect]

At one point Mr. Bush stopped before aerial photos of the Auschwitz death camp taken by American planes during World War II, and asked Ms. Rice why the American military did not bomb the camp. “We should have bombed it,” he told her, Mr. Shalev told reporters later.” the NYT article reads (my emphasis).

Never mind the thousands of prisoners…

Read the NYT article here.

This is not quite news anymore, but some plans and lousy renderings of the U.S. embassy in Iraq were placed online by the architecture firm in charge of the design, Berger Devine Yaeger. Needless to say, the Department of Justice wasn’t too thrilled about having them on the public domain so they pulled the images down, the website was shutdown, etc. The thing is, you can still find them all over the web.

The design, I’m not even going to comment on. Nor on what this 104-acre monster implies in terms of the ‘temporary’ occupation, but I have to say though, that the renderings just suck. No global illumination, no raytracing, not even shadows, nothing. It all just looks like it was rendered in software rendering or something like that. The entourage is also terrible, just 1 dude guarding the whole complex, no snipers on rooftops, no tanks, nothing, very unrealistic. If they really wanted to sell this thing to people, and be able to proudly show this project, they should have just gone all out for ultra-real rendering.

The original news was brought up to light by Tom Engelhardt, read yahoo news here. A Washington Post article here, the BBC here.

So among the horrors of war, an American tech company has somehow managed to add a nightmare right out of Akira. Cute helper BEAR-bots, there to assist you when the place you’re in is SO insanely dangerous, your higher-ups decide to send a droid. I’d rather have Cheerbear pick me up and take me over the rainbow.

Below are the references to the image above.

Read item #1. If this is for real, I don’t know what can be scarier, realizing you’ve been cut in half by a IED or finding yourself picked up by a giant-metallic carebear, after being cut in half by an IED.

1. Teddy bear face designed to be reassuring
2. Hydraulic upper body carries up to 227kgs (500lbs)
3. When kneeling tracked “legs” travel over rubble. Switches to wheels on smooth surfaces
4. Dynamic Balance Behaviour (DBB) technology allows the robot to stand and carry loads upright on its ankles, knees or hips for nearly an hour

Because: “A really important thing when you’re dealing with casualties is trying to maintain that human touch”, nothing better than sending a robot to make sure you keep that human touch.

Read the news here

I just came across this BBC interactive map of the violence in Baghdad.
It is both disturbing and fascinating to see the progression of violence linked to specific locations in the city. The statistics are from Iraqi Body Count and you can read more about their methodology in their website.

View the interactive map here.