Democratic Obama Administration's Planned Attack On Syria Would Violate UN Charter and International Law

According to a recent articles in some UK newspapers, UK Prime Minister Cameron and US President and Commander-in-Chief Obama agreed during a recent 40-minute telephone conversation to order their war machines to attack--without any United Nations authorization--people in Syria during the next two weeks. Yet according to Article 2(3) of the United Nations Charter:

"All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered."

And according to Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter:

"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."

Principle VI:(a) of the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunals also states the following:

"Crimes Against peace: (i) Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances; (ii) Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the acts mentioned in (i)."

In addition, Principle VII of the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunals states:

"Complicity in the commission of a crime against peace, a war crime, or a crime against huanity as set forth in Principle VI is a crime under international law."

According to a 2005 article by Roger Normand and the Center for Economic and Social Rights:

"The U.S. and U.K. have also sought to justify war under the legally dubiious doctrine of humanitarian intervention, a new concept that has not gained the support of the international law community. This doctrine--recently advocated by several Western countries and human rights organizations--proposes that the international community has the right and duty to use military force for humanitarian purposes such as stopping egregious violations of human rights. This concept has aroused skepticism from most international lawyers, in part because it circumvents well-established procedures and principles of the U.N. Charter and international law...

"The obvious danger of humanitarian intervention is that it enables individual states to intervene wherever and whenever they perceive a compelling humanitarian necessity, unaccountable to established legal limits on the use of force. There is no safeguard to prevent states from manipulating this concept to serve narrow political interests rather than universal humanitarian concerns...

"By invoking the concept of humanitarian intervention to justify an otherwise unlawful use of force, the U.S. and U.K. would effectively overturn the established hierarchy of international law..."


So a military attack on people in Syria by the U.S. and UK war machines during the next two weeks would violate the UN Charter and international law--since no military attack on people in either the United States nor the United Kingdom by any Syrian government-controlled military unit has occurred.

Ironically, the U.S. president who recently authorized an illegal military attack to be launched on people in Syria apparently graduated from Harvard University Law School during the early 1990s.

Lawrence, Massachusetts `Not Seasonally Adjusted' Jobless Rate In June 2013: 15.7 Percent

Nine major Massachusetts cities had “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rates in June 2013 that exceeded the national “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for that month of 7.8 percent, according to recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data:

1. The official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate in Lawrence, Massachusetts was 15.7 percent in June 2013;

2. The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate in New Bedford, Massachusetts was 13.6 percent in June 2013;

3. The official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate in Fall River, Massachusetts was 12 percent in June 2013;

4. The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate in Springfield, Massachusetts was 11.9 percent in June 2013;

5. The official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate in Brockton, Massachusetts was 9.9 percent in June 2013;

6. The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate in Worcester, Massachusetts was 9.7 percent in June 2013;

7. The official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate in Lowell, Massachusetts was 9.3 percent in June 2013;

8. The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate in Lynn, Massachusetts was 8.6 percent in June 2013; and

9. The official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate in Pittsfield, Massachusetts was 8.3 percent in June 2013; and

The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate in Boston, Massachusetts in June 2013 was 7.8 percent—the same “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate as the U.S. national “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for that month.

According to the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development’s August 15, 2013 press release, “revised BLS estimates show a 2,100 jobs loss in June” 2013 in Massachusetts. And in Massachusetts during July 2013:

“Education and Health Services shed 1,100…jobs over the month…Other Services lost 600… jobs over the month…Manufacturing lost 400 jobs…over the month….Government lost 2,200…jobs over the month….”

In July 2013, according to the “not seasonally adjusted” date, 255,900 workers in Massachusetts were still unemployed.

Australian Anti-War Activist Joan Coxsedge's July 18, 2013 Letter

(The following letter from Australian anti-war and Latin American solidarity activist Joan Coxsedge—who is also a former member of the Victoria state parliament--originally appeared in an Australian-Cuban solidarity group’s newsletter).

“July 18, 2013

"Dear Comrades,

"Hope you’re OK. The world certainly isn’t. Like the bubonic plague, US imperialism has infected every square inch of it through military bases and trade deals, corporate exploitation, debt and a vast communications surveillance network (confirming what many already knew) which has exposed Washington’s reach into every street and hall of power, spying and indiscriminately collecting the emails and telephone records of hundreds of millions of people and largely getting away with it in the name of ‘national security’. More than McDonalds and guns, the empire relies on fear and retaliation, even on its home turf.

"Last week, Obama escalated the war on freedom of the press when a Circuit Court judge ruled that New York Times reporter James Risen must disclose his sources or go to gaol. A blow to US investigative journalism and to whistleblowers, but lord knows how it will affect us here seeing that investigative journalism is almost non-existent. Surveillance on this scale is not a kid’s game of cops and robbers but is a linchpin of a repressive social order with the capacity to strike against anyone who dares to oppose it. Why else have the surveillance? If Washington wasn’t engaged in policies and actions that are illegal, immoral, aggressive, war-provoking and evil, the issue of leaks would never arise. Secrecy is the perfect camouflage to protect the elite’s hidden agenda and its war crimes, with the ballot box a further useful way to shut people up by giving an illusion of democracy.

"In his Brave New World Revisited, writes Pilger, Aldous Huxley describes a new class of people conditioned to accept a normality that is anything but, where the human voice has been silenced so early in their lives they do not fight back. Surveillance is normal in an Age of Regression – as pointed out by Edward Snowden - where ubiquitous cameras are normal, subverted freedoms are normal and public dissent controlled by police is normal. Huxley describes this regression as insane and ‘our adjustment to an abnormal society as a sign of madness. Which just about sums us up, but thankfully, not all of us.

"The more I read about Obama the less I like him. He supports militarisation and a passive constituency that yawns when confronted with climate change, environmental degradation and pollution associated with mining and fracking. Earlier this month, former White House journo Helen Thomas died. She’d been covering the presidential patch since Adam fell in the treacle but lost her job after saying that Israel ‘should get out of Palestine.’ Obama jumped straight in and called her comments ‘offensive’ and sacked her, underpinning his ardent support of Israel’s brutal occupation. No wonder the ‘peace process’ is a sick joke. His Sec of State John Kerry marches around the Middle East brow-beating the Palestinians into signing a dud accord that serves Israeli and US interests and then trumpets a ‘breakthrough’ after twisting the arms of corrupt Netanyahu and corrupt Abbas whose Palestinian Authority was created with Israeli consent and funded by US-led donor countries. When his ‘breakthrough’ comes to an abrupt end you can be sure the Palestinians will cop the blame. Kerry claims to be an anti-war activist, but his brief career in Vietnam and Cambodia was notable for acts of savagery and a lack of contrition for atrocities that in a rational society would be classified as war crimes.

"Polls from all over the world consistently show that Israel and the US are regarded as the two greatest threats to peace and yet these two lawless governments ponce around pretending to be the ‘world’s greatest democracies’. Neither government accepts any accountability to international law, to human rights, to the Geneva Convention or to their own statutory law. They are rogue governments, throwbacks to the Hitler era. For the past 68 years, most military aggression can be sheeted home to these two. It’s Israel that has a nuclear arsenal that is illegal, unacknowledged and unaccountable and it’s Washington morons that have drafted a war plan against China based on a nuclear first strike called ‘AirSea battle. Their supremo electronic spying body, the National Security Agency, is the spearhead for an American version of fascism. We should heed Jimmy Carter’s recent statement – only reported in Germany – that the United States is no longer a functioning democracy. But Israel is in trouble. A binding EU directive due to become effective on January 1, 2014, will pave the way for a complete boycott of Israel’s illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

"Back home, grudging confirmation that Pine Gap is pivotal in US war games. Three of us put out booklets during the 1970s and a book in 1982 (31 years ago) detailing Pine Gap’s role where the US pulls the strings and Australian workers on the base are cooks, guards and bottle-washers and the hush-hush 5-nation UKUSA Treaty signed by Australia, expecting to cause a stir. Silly us! It was attacked by the Right and ignored by the mainstream. Which brings me to censorship and Washington’s unrelenting war on Cuba that it doesn’t want you to know about. In June, a fraternal British group, the Cuba Solidarity Campaign, sent money to the US Monthly Review Press to buy 100 copies of a new book The Economic War Against Cuba, but numbskulls in the US Dept of the Treasury seized the money, symptomatic of the lengths to which the US is prepared to go. A big thank-you to those hardy souls who braved the driving rain to take part in the launch of my book – Old Cuba, World Heritage - by Dr Ralph Newmark. A lovely evening despite the weather. Just a thought. Baby George drew breath on July 14, the same date the tumbrels rattled through the mediaeval streets of Old Paris to ferry the Bourbons to Madame La Guillotine. Viva Cuba!

"Joan Coxsedge "

Latino Worker `Not Seasonally Adjusted’ Unemployment Rate Increases To 9.5 Percent In July 2013

The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all Latino workers (youth, male and female) increased from 9.1 to 9.5 percent between June and July 2013; while the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Latina female workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 8.6 to 9 percent during the same period, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics’ data. In addition, the “not seasonally adjusted” total number of jobless Latino workers increased by 121,000 (from 2,277,000 to 2,398,000) between June and July 2013; while the number of unemployed Latina female workers increased by 32,000 (from 857,000 to 889,000) during the same period, according to the “not seasonally adjusted” data.

The official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Latino male workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 7.5 to 7.7 percent between June and July 2013; while the number of unemployed Latino male workers over 20 years-of-age increased by 27,000 (from 1,036,000 to 1,063,000) during the same period. In addition, the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Latino youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased from 29.6 to 30.9 percent between June and July 2013: while the number of unemployed Latino youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased by 63,000 (from 383,000 to 446,000) during the same period, according to the “not seasonally adjusted” data.

The official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Black youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age was still 42.9 percent in July 2013; while the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all Black workers (youth, female and male) in the United States was still 13.4 in the same month. In addition, the official “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed Black youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age was still 399,000 in July 2013; while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed Black workers (youth, female and male) in the United States was still 2,513,000 in that same month. And the number of Black workers not in the U.S. labor force increased by 63,000 (from 11,502,000 to 11,565,000) between June and July 2013, according to the “not seasonally adjusted” data.
The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Black female workers over 20 years-of-age was still 11.3 percent in July 2013; while the official “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed Black female workers over 20 years-of-age was still 1,063,000 in that same month. In addition, the number of Black female workers over 20 years-of-age still in the U.S. civilian labor force decreased by 102,000 (from 9,551,000 to 9,449,000) between June and July 2013.

The official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Black male workers over 20 years-of-age was still 12.4 percent in July 2013; while the official “seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed Black male workers over 20 years-of-age in the United States was still 1,052,000 in that same month..

The official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for white youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age was still 20.5 percent in July 2013; while the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all white workers (youth, male and female) was still 6.8 percent in that same month. In addition, in July 2013 the “not seasonally adjusted” total number of officially unemployed white workers in the United States was still 8,486,000; while the official “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed white youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age was still 1,165,000 in that same month.

Between June and July 2013, the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for white female workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 6.2 to 6.3 percent; while the official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for white male workers over 20 years-of-age was still 6 percent in July 2013. In addition, the official “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed white female workers over 20 years-of-age increased by 64,000 (from 3,346,000 to 3,410,000) between June and July 2013; while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of white female workers over 20 years-of-age who still had jobs decreased by 99,000 (from 50,893,000 to 50,794,000) during the same period.

According to the “not seasonally adjusted” data, the total number of unemployed Asian-American workers in the United States increased by 53,000 (from 435,000 to 488,000) between June and July 2013; while the unemployment rate for Asian-American workers also increased from 5 to 5.7 percent during the same period.

In July 2013, the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age was still 24.2 percent; while the official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for all female workers over 16 years-of-age in the United States was still 7.8 percent in that same month. In addition, the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all male workers over 16 years-of-age in the United States was still 7.6 percent in July 2013.

The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all male workers over 20 years-of-age in the United States was still 6.8 percent in July 2013; while the “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for all female workers over 20 years-of-age was still 7 percent in that same month. In addition, the total number of female workers over 20 years-of-age not in the U.S. labor force increased by 346,000 (from 48,905,000 to 49,251,000) between June and July 2013, according to the “not seasonally adjusted” data.

The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all U.S. workers was still 7.7 percent in July 2013; while the official “not seasonally adjusted” total number of unemployed workers in the United States was still 12,083,000 in that same month. In addition, the total number of people not in the U.S. labor force increased by 97,000 (from 88,463,000 to 88,560,000) between June and July 2013.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ August 2, 2013 press release:
“…In July, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was little changed at
4.2 million. These individuals accounted for 37.0 percent of the unemployed…The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was essentially unchanged at 8.2 million in July. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.

“In July, 2.4 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, little changed from a year earlier…These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey…Among the marginally attached, there were 988,000 discouraged workers in July, up by 136,000 from a year earlier…Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them…”

“…Employment in temporary help services changed little over the month.

“Manufacturing employment was essentially unchanged in July and has changed little, on net, over the past 12 months…Employment in health care was essentially unchanged over the month….Employment in other major industries, including mining and logging, construction, transportation and warehousing, and government, showed little change in July…In July, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls edged down by 2 cents…Employment gains in May and June combined were 26,000 less than previously reported…”