Targeting War Criminals

Not Bush, not Cheney, but war criminals nonetheless

When someone's small grandchildren are killed in a war it always seems especially tragic. And it happens every single day in every single war. It's horrifying and it's part of what drives me crazy about national leaders almost never facing war crimes tribunals. I was mortified that Qaddafi's 29-year old son Saif al-Arab, a non-combatant, and 3 pre-teen grandsons of Qaddafi's were killed in a NATO air strike aimed at taking out Qaddafi last week. But... better his family than anyone else's in Libya. All my life I've been a tremendous fan of regicide and like an anonymous editorialist in the Guardian this week, if for different reasons, I feel that Qaddafi is indeed a legitimate target. The author, "Alaa al-Ameri" (supposedly "a British-Libyan economist and writer") has a more twisted theory of why than I do.

Gaddafi is not a head of state. He is a warlord in control of a personal army that he has tasked with the mass killing and terrorising of Libyans for the crime of wishing to live as free human beings. There is no meaningful Libyan government structure or decision-making body besides Gaddafi himself and his sons.

Which logic or legal principle underlies the notion that while militia in the act of aggression against a civilian population may be attacked, the leader of that militia-- actively engaged in directing the violence-- is off limits? What claim to special rights and privileges can be made by a man who uses rape as a weapon of war? Which principle of international law would be eroded by his death?

...If Gaddafi has lost family members due to Nato bombing, there is only one man to blame – Gaddafi. He funds, arms and directs the horrific violence that his forces have inflicted on the Libyan people simply for desiring to be free. He could stop the violence today but chooses not to. Instead he uses even the death of his son as a tool to serve his own political interests.

Sounds like the "British-Libyan economist and writer" is penning some propaganda for David Cameron's government. I doubt Cameron would approve of my rationale for why Qaddafi is a legitimate target. All aggressive war makers should be, especially heads of countries. Let's try it out for 5 or 6 decades and see if it tamps down violence. Really... what do we have to lose?

Last week we took a look at Lu Chuan's soon-to-be-released (in the U.S.) film City Of Life And Death, about the massacre in/of Nanking by Japanese invaders in 1937. Bad enough that something like 50,000 women were systematically raped by Japanese soldiers-- some estimates say it was closer to 100,000-- but as many as 300,000 men, women and children were butchered, some for sport. Much like George W. Bush did at the onset of the unprovoked aggression against Iraq, "Emperor" Hirohito announced that the Imperial Army was not subject to war crimes laws. Although that didn't stand up after Japan was defeated, Hirohito was never brought to justice. And neither was the mastermind of one of the greatest war crimes in history, Prince Asaka Yasuhiko, who issued the order to kill all captives. In fact, Asaka was granted immunity by the victorious Americans because of his status as a member of the royal family (who the Americans hoped to use as conservative bulwarks against godless Communism).

This week, no one-- at least no one in the West-- is claiming Osama bin-Laden was due any kind of immunity from cold-blooded execution. He was not firing at the soldiers who entered his home on a kill mission" and he was killed, quite deliberately, while unarmed. I would have preferred a trial but I'm a huge advocate of the death penalty-- especially for war criminals.

Meanwhile, bin-Laden's senior commanders are said to be on the run in Pakistan. Is the ISI trying to shield them or some of them? Or will some be sacrificed to save the Pakistanis further embarrassment? There are at least a dozen senior al-Qaeda leaders the U.S. would like to dump into the sea next to bin-Laden.

1. Ayman al-Zawahri. Egyptian. Age 59-- Osama bin Laden's deputy and current operational commander of al-Qaeda, according to the United States State department. Went into hiding with Bin Laden during the US invasion of Afghanistan and managed to survive a US air strike that targeted him in a Pakistani tribal region in January 2006. There is a $25 million reward on his head.

2. Saif al-Adel. Egyptian. Age around 50-- Thought to be a high-ranking member of al-Qaeda, even perhaps the organisation's military chief. He was thought to be in prison in Iran, but has now almost certainly been released and has returned to North Waziristan in Pakistan. There is a $5 million reward on his head.

3. Sulaiman Abu Ghaith. Kuwaiti. Age 45-- Al-Qaida spokesman and radical preacher. Detained in Iran in 2003 but released and allowed to leave the country in 2010, according to Kuwait media. Suspected of having rejoined Bin Laden in Pakistan and is still at large.

4. Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah. Egyptian. Age late 40s--- Wanted for the 1998 series of bombings on US embassies in East Africa. Member of al-Qaeda's top council. According to US intelligence he fled Nairobi in 1998 and went to Pakistan, where he may remain at large. He may also be in Iran.

5. Adnan al-Shukri Juma. Saudi. 35-- A younger member of al-Qaeda, Shukri Juma may have risen up the ranks because of the loss of more senior members. He spent time living in the US and may have been behind a failed attempt on the New York subway system. He may be in charge of operations for North America and is thought to be in Waziristan.

6. Rashid Rauf. Dual British Pakistani citizenship. Age around 34-- Rauf is suspected of involvement in the failed attempt in 2006 to blow up aircraft leaving from London Heathrow with liquid explosives. He escaped from Pakistani custody in December 2007 and was reportedly killed by a US drone attack in Pakistan in November 2008. But his family have denied his death and some sources believe he remains at large.

7. Ilyas Kashmiri. Pakistani. Age 47-- Kashmiri is one of the most important figures rising up al-Qaeda's ranks. A one-eyed, red-bearded guerrilla warfare expert, he is thought to have masterminded some of the deadliest attacks in India and Pakistan. He is also the commander of Brigade 313, a unit that is sometimes described as al-Qaeda's Pakistani arm, sometimes as a special combat task force, and sometimes as an independent jihadi unit.

8. Hakimullah Mehsud. Pakistani. Age 32-- Hakimullah Mehsud is the leader of the Tehrik-I-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) movement, which has been described as having a symbiotic relationship with al-Qaeda by the US.

"TTP draws ideological guidance from al-Qaeda while al-Qaeda relies on the TTP for safe haven in the Pashtun areas along the Afghan-Pakistani border," said Daniel Benjamin, a US counterterrorism chief. An aggressive field commander, Mehsud was thought to be killed by a drone attack in January 2010, but subsequent videos proved he survived the attack.

9. Ghulam Mustafa. Pakistani. 40-- Very little has been reported of Mustafa since he was released by Pakistan in 2006. Before then he was thought to be al-Qaeda's chief in Pakistan. However, he was never formally charged or handed over to the US and has quietly disappeared from view. He may have left al-Qaeda, tainted by suspicion of co-operation with Pakistani intelligence.

10. Abu Yahya al-Libi. Libyan. Age 47-- A high-ranking member of al-Qaeda, Libi escaped from an American prison in Afghanistan and is thought to have subsequently survived a US drone strike in Pakistan in 2009. He is considered to be "the scholar" of al-Qaeda and often takes on the role of a preacher. He has released a number of videotaped sermons.

11. Anas al-Liby (also known as Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Raghie), Libyan. Age late 40s-- Charged by the US with involvement in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Has a $5 million reward on his head. Has worked as a computer specialist for al-Qaeda.

12. Qari Saifullah Akhtar. Nationality and age unknown--- the leader of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI, or the Movement of Islamic Holy War), is an alleged member of al-Qaeda who was released by Pakistan from custody last December. He was reported to have trained 3,500 operatives in Afghanistan shortly before the US invasion.