US CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY & GLOBAL TERRORISM
US Use of Weapons of Mass Destruction
The indiscriminate use of bombs by the US, usually outside a declared war situation, for wanton destruction, for no military objectives, whose targets and victims are civilian populations, or what we now call “collateral damage.”
- Japan (1945)
- China (1945-46)
- Korea & China (1950-53)
- Guatemala (1954, 1960, 1967-69)
- Indonesia (1958)
- Cuba (1959-61)
- Congo (1964)
- Peru (1965)
- Laos (1964-70)
- Vietnam (1961-1973)
- Cambodia (1969-70)
- Grenada (1983)
- Lebanon (1983-84)
- Libya (1986)
- El Salvador (1980s)
- Nicaragua (1980s)
- Iran (1987)
- Panama (1989)
- Iraq (1991-2000)
- Kuwait (1991)
- Somalia (1993)
- Bosnia (1994-95)
- Sudan (1998)
- Afghanistan (1998)
- Pakistan (1998)
- Yugoslavia (1999)
- Bulgaria (1999)
- Macedonia (1999)
US Use of Chemical & Biological Weapons
The US has refused to sign Conventions against the development and use of
chemical and biological weapons, and has either used or tested (without
informing the civilian populations) these weapons in the following
locations abroad:
- Bahamas (late 1940s-mid-1950s)
- Canada (1953)
- China and Korea (1950-53)
- Korea (1967-69)
- Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia (1961-1970)
- Panama (1940s-1990s)
- Cuba (1962, 69, 70, 71, 81, 96)
And the US has tested such weapons on US civilian populations, without
their knowledge, in the following locations:
- Watertown, NY and US Virgin Islands (1950)
- SF Bay Area (1950, 1957-67)
- Minneapolis (1953)
- St. Louis (1953)
- Washington, DC Area (1953, 1967)
- Florida (1955)
- Savannah GA/Avon Park, FL (1956-58)
- New York City (1956, 1966)
- Chicago (1960)
And the US has encouraged the use of such weapons, and provided the
technology to develop such weapons in various nations abroad, including:
US Political and Military Interventions since 1945
The US has launched a series of military and political interventions since
1945, often to install puppet regimes, or alternatively to engage in political actions such as smear campaigns, sponsoring or targeting opposition political groups (depending on how they served US interests), undermining political parties, sabotage and terror campaigns, and so forth. It has done so in nations such as
- China (1945-51)
- South Africa (1960s-1980s)
- France (1947)
- Bolivia (1964-75)
- Marshall Islands (1946-58)
- Australia (1972-75)
- Italy (1947-1975)
- Iraq (1972-75)
- Greece (1947-49)
- Portugal (1974-76)
- Philippines (1945-53)
- East Timor (1975-99)
- Korea (1945-53)
- Ecuador (1975)
- Albania (1949-53)
- Argentina (1976)
- Eastern Europe (1948-56)
- Pakistan (1977)
- Germany (1950s)
- Angola (1975-1980s)
- Iran (1953)
- Jamaica (1976)
- Guatemala (1953-1990s)
- Honduras (1980s)
- Costa Rica (mid-1950s, 1970-71)
- Nicaragua (1980s)
- Middle East (1956-58)
- Philippines (1970s-90s)
- Indonesia (1957-58)
- Seychelles (1979-81)
- Haiti (1959)
- South Yemen (1979-84)
- Western Europe (1950s-1960s)
- South Korea (1980)
- Guyana (1953-64)
- Chad (1981-82)
- Iraq (1958-63)
- Grenada (1979-83)
- Vietnam (1945-53)
- Suriname (1982-84)
- Cambodia (1955-73)
- Libya (1981-89)
- Laos (1957-73)
- Fiji (1987)
- Thailand (1965-73)
- Panama (1989)
- Ecuador (1960-63)
- Afghanistan (1979-92)
- Congo (1960-65, 1977-78)
- El Salvador (1980-92)
- Algeria (1960s)
- Haiti (1987-94)
- Brazil (1961-64)
- Bulgaria (1990-91)
- Peru (1965)
- Albania (1991-92)
- Dominican Republic (1963-65)
- Somalia (1993)
- Cuba (1959-present)
- Iraq (1990s)
- Indonesia (1965)
- Peru (1990-present)
- Ghana (1966)
- Mexico (1990-present)
- Uruguay (1969-72)
- Colombia (1990-present)
- Chile (1964-73)
- Yugoslavia (1995-99)
- Greece (1967-74)
US Perversions of Foreign Elections
The US has specifically intervened to rig or distort the outcome of foreign elections, and sometimes engineered sham “demonstration” elections to ward off accusations of government repression in allied nations in the US sphere of influence. These sham elections have often installed or maintained in power repressive dictators who have victimized their populations. Such practices have occurred in nations such as:
- Philippines (1950s)
- Italy (1948-1970s)
- Lebanon (1950s)
- Indonesia (1955)
- Vietnam (1955)
- Guyana (1953-64)
- Japan (1958-1970s)
- Nepal (1959)
- Laos (1960)
- Brazil (1962)
- Dominican Republic (1962)
- Guatemala (1963)
- Bolivia (1966)
- Chile (1964-70)
- Portugal (1974-75)
- Australia (1974-75)
- Jamaica (1976)
- El Salvador (1984)
- Panama (1984, 89)
- Nicaragua (1984, 90)
- Haiti (1987, 88)
- Bulgaria (1990-91)
- Albania (1991-92)
- Russia (1996)
- Mongolia (1996)
- Bosnia (1998)
US Versus World at the United Nations
The US has repeatedly acted to undermine peace and human rights initiatives at the United Nations, routinely voting against hundreds of UN resolutions and treaties. The US easily has the worst record of any nation on not supporting UN treaties. In almost all of its hundreds of “no” votes, the US was the “sole” nation to vote no (among the 100-130 nations that usually vote), and among only 1 or 2 other nations voting no the rest of the time. Here’s a representative sample of US votes from 1978-1987:
- US Is the Sole “No” Vote on Resolutions or Treaties
- For aid to underdeveloped nations
- For the promotion of developing nation exports
- For UN promotion of human rights
- For protecting developing nations in trade agreements
- For New International Economic Order for underdeveloped nations
- For development as a human right
- Versus multinational corporate operations in South Africa
- For cooperative models in developing nations
- For right of nations to economic system of their choice
- Versus chemical and biological weapons (at least 3 times)
- Versus Namibian apartheid
- For economic/standard of living rights as human rights
- Versus apartheid South African aggression vs. neighboring states (2 times)
- Versus foreign investments in apartheid South Africa
- For world charter to protect ecology
- For anti-apartheid convention
- For anti-apartheid convention in international sports
- For nuclear test ban treaty (at least 2 times)
- For prevention of arms race in outer space
- For UNESCO-sponsored new world information order (at least 2 times)
- For international law to protect economic rights
- For Transport & Communications Decade in Africa
- Versus manufacture of new types of weapons of mass destruction
- Versus naval arms race
- For Independent Commission on Disarmament & Security Issues
- For UN response mechanism for natural disasters
- For the Right to Food
- For Report of Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination
- For UN study on military development
- For Commemoration of 25th anniversary of Independence for Colonial Countries
- For Industrial Development Decade in Africa
- For interdependence of economic and political rights
- For improved UN response to human rights abuses
- For protection of rights of migrant workers
- For protection against products harmful to health and the environment
- For a Convention on the Rights of the Child
- For training journalists in the developing world
- For international cooperation on third world debt
- For a UN Conference on Trade & Development
- US Is 1 of Only 2 “No” Votes on Resolutions or Treaties
- For Palestinian living conditions/rights (at least 8 times)
- Versus foreign intervention into other nations
- For a UN Conference on Women
- Versus nuclear test explosions (at least 2 times)
- For the non-use of nuclear weapons vs. non-nuclear states
- For a Middle East nuclear free zone
- Versus Israeli nuclear weapons (at least 2 times)
- For a new world international economic order
- For a trade union conference on sanctions vs. South Africa
- For the Law of the Sea Treaty
- For economic assistance to Palestinians
- For UN measures against fascist activities and groups
- For international cooperation on money/finance/debt/trade/development
- For a Zone of Peace in the South Atlantic
- For compliance with Intl Court of Justice decision for Nicaragua vs. US.
- **For a conference and measures to prevent international terrorism (including its underlying causes)
- For ending the trade embargo vs. Nicaragua
- US Is 1 of Only 3 “No” Votes on Resolutions and Treaties
- Versus Israeli human rights abuses (at least 6 times)
- Versus South African apartheid (at least 4 times)
- Versus return of refugees to Israel
- For ending nuclear arms race (at least 2 times)
- For an embargo on apartheid South Africa
- For South African liberation from apartheid (at least 3 times)
- For the independence of colonial nations
- For the UN Decade for Women
- Versus harmful foreign economic practices in colonial territories
- For a Middle East Peace Conference
- For ending the embargo of Cuba (at least 10 times)
- Repeatedly withheld its dues from the UN
- Twice left UNESCO because of its human rights initiatives
- Twice left the International Labor Organization for its workers rights initiatives
- Refused to renew the Antiballistic Missile Treaty
- Refused to sign the Kyoto Treaty on global warming
- Refused to back the World Health Organization’s ban on infant formula abuses
- Refused to sign the Anti-Biological Weapons Convention
- Refused to sign the Convention against the use of land mines
- Refused to participate in the UN Conference Against Racism in Durban
- Been one of the last nations in the world to sign the UN Covenant on
- Political & Civil Rights (30 years after its creation)
- Refused to sign the UN Covenant on Economic & Social Rights
- Opposed the emerging new UN Covenant on the Rights to Peace, Development & Environmental Protection
Sampling of Deaths >From US Military Interventions & Propping Up Corrupt
Dictators (using the most conservative estimates)
- Nicaragua – 30,000 dead
- Brazil – 100,000 dead
- Korea – 4 million dead
- Guatemala – 200,000 dead
- Honduras – 20,000 dead
- El Salvador – 63,000 dead
- Argentina – 40,000 dead
- Bolivia – 10,000 dead
- Uruguay – 10,000 dead
- Ecuador – 10,000 dead
- Peru – 10,000 dead
- Iraq – 1.3 million dead
- Iran – 30,000 dead
- Sudan – 8-10,000 dead
- Colombia – 50,000 dead
- Panama – 5,000 dead
- Japan – 140,000 dead
- Afghanistan – 10,000 dead
- Somalia – 5000 dead
- Philippines – 150,000 dead
- Haiti – 100,000 dead
- Dominican Republic – 10,000 dead
- Libya – 500 dead
- Macedonia – 1000 dead
- South Africa – 10,000 dead
- Pakistan – 10,000 dead
- Palestine – 40,000 dead
- Indonesia – 1 million dead
- East Timor – 1/3-½ of total population
- Greece – 10,000 dead
- Laos – 600,000 dead
- Cambodia – 1 million dead
- Angola – 300,000 dead
- Grenada – 500 dead
- Congo – 2 million dead
- Egypt – 10,000 dead
- Vietnam – 1.5 million dead
- Chile – 50,000 dead
Other Lethal US Interventions
CIA Terror Training Manuals
Development and distribution of training manuals for foreign military
personnel or foreign nationals, including instructions on assassination,
subversion, sabotage, population control, torture, repression,
psychological torture, death squads, etc.
Specific Torture Campaigns
Creation and launching of direct US campaigns to support torture as an
instrument of terror and social control for governments in Greece, Iran,
Vietnam, Bolivia, Uruguay, Brazil, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Panama
Supporting and Harboring Terrorists
The promotion, protection, arming or equipping of terrorists such as:
- Klaus Barbie and other German Nazis, and Italian and Japanese fascists, after WW II
- Manual Noriega (Panama), Saddam Hussein (Iraq), Rafael Trujillo (Dominican Republic), Osama bin Laden (Afghanistan), and others whose terrorism has come back to haunt us
- Running the Higher War College (Brazil) and first School of the Americas (Panama), which gave US training to repressors, death squad members, and torturers (the second School of the Americas is still running at Ft. Benning GA)
- Providing asylum for Cuban, Salvadoran, Guatemalan, Haitian, Chilean, Argentinian, Iranian, South Vietnamese and other terrorists, dictators, and torturers
Assassinating World Leaders
Using assassination as a tool of foreign policy, wherein the CIA has
initiated assassination attempts against at least 40 foreign heads of state
(some several times) in the last 50 years, a number of which have been
successful, such as: Patrice Lumumba (Congo), Rafael Trujillo (Dominican
Republic), Ngo Dihn Diem (Vietnam) Salvador Allende (Chile)
Arms Trade & US Military Presence
- The US is the world’s largest seller of weapons abroad, arming dictators, militaries, and terrorists that repress or victimize their populations, and fueling scores of violent conflicts around the globe
- The US is the world’s largest provider of live land mines which, even in peacetime, kill or injure at least several people around the world each day
- The US has military bases in at least 50 nations around the world, which have led to frequent victimization of local populations.
- The US military has been bombing one Middle Eastern or Muslim nation or another almost continuously since 1983, including Lebanon, Libya, Syria, Iran, the Sudan, Afghanistan, and Iraq (almost daily bombings since 1991)
This, then, is a sampling of American foreign policies over the last 50
years. The FBI uses the following definition for Terrorism: “The unlawful
use of force or violence committed by a group or individual, who has some
connection to a foreign power or whose activities transcend national
boundaries, against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a
government, the civilian population or any segment thereof, in furtherance
of political or social objectives.” This sounds like the terrorism we just
experienced. It also sounds a lot like the US policies and actions since
1945 that I’ve just described.
