Monthly Archives: June 2019

Investigate European leaders for crimes against humanity

A group of lawyers are asking the International Criminal Court to investigate the European Union for crimes against humanity, arguing that their policies are responsible for thousands of migrant deaths and widespread rape and torture. The lawyer Juan Branco,  who is a co-author of the refugee report, is also an adviser to WikiLeaks.

Juan Branco. Photo: Yale University [public domain] / Wikimedia Commons.

There are actually even more related issues to investigate European leaders for, not least their role behind the NATO-led attack on Libya in 2011, which included catching Muammar Gaddafi, who was then murdered. This is a root cause of many of the later problems. Gaddafi actually predicted the flow of migrants from Africa that would follow the bombing of Libya and tried to warn for it.

Only a few years before that, European and other leaders had been friendly with Gaddafi. Tony Blair eved agreed to train Gaddafi’s special forces.

A “family” photo at the G-8 summit in L’Aquila, Italy, 2009. First rank: Silvio Berlusconi, Giorgio Napolitano (president of Italy), Nicolas Sarkozy, Barack Obama, Meles Zenawi (second row), Lula, Hosni Mubarak (back) and Muammar Gaddafi. Photo: Pete Souza [public domain] / Wikimedia Commons.

Circle of the Golden Lion

One week ago, it was revealed in Swedish media that a group of Swedish reserve officers are part of a hidden organization together with foreign military personnel, with the purpose to  influence policies and decisions behind the scenes in the NATO area. The organization is called Circle of the Golden Lion (COGL). Watch the documentary on TV4 Play (in Swedish, only available in Sweden for a limited time). Otherwise, there is little reporting about other organizations working to influence policies and decisions behind the scenes. Why the focus on COGL but not on other organizations that may have larger influence?

Police raids against journalists in Australia

In Sydney and Canberra, police has raided journalists who have revealed allegations of unlawful killings and misconduct by Australian special forces in Afghanistan and that the government was considering giving spy agencies greater domestic surveillance powers. Alan Jones says many Australians would agree that the Australian Federal Police (AFP) mishandled these cases. The incident has also reminded him of other controversial decisions made by the AFP and brought back memories of whistleblower Richard Boyle, who is facing a maximum 161-year jail sentence after exposing abuses of power.