We have on this blog earlier written about NATO’s criminal past. Now a new book in Swedish by the journalist Gunnar Wall, Konspiration Olof Palme, shows that there is a possible NATO-connection to the murders of two prominent Swedes. UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld was together with the other people onboard killed in connection with a plane crash in 1961, which was most likely an assassination (or an attempt that provoked an accident). Sweden’s Prime Minister Olof Palme was fatally shot in 1986 and one suspicion is that NATO’s Stay Behind was involved. Most remarkable in both cases is probably the cover-up, which appears to have taken place and be powerfully supported – an important indication of who was really behind.

Read the article in the new publication The Indicter

Not even in hospitals, you can be safe when impunity rules.

Recently many were killed in the US attack on the MSF hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, which appears to be deliberate. Afterwards, some are even blaiming MSF (which sort of reminds about blaming rape victims).

Today Abdallah Shalaldeh was shot dead in a hospital in Hebron on the West Bank, by Israeli agents.

In time for the UN review of human rights in China, the use of torture in China is highlighted by many non-governmental organizations. As usual with torture and many other of the most severe human rights abuses, impunity is widespread. When there is impunity, we can expect the abuses to continue. That is why we at Accoun stress that equality before the law is the key issue and cannot accept impunity. Two years ago, we hoped that China would lead the way to stop impunity. However, the new report by Human Rights Watch tells a different story.

Read more on the web site of Amnesty International

Yesterday an opinion piece about violent regieme changes brought up the issue of accountability, also for western military and politicians. Two of the authors, Leif Elinder and Sven Ruin, are members of Accoun’s interim board.

A number of major newspapers had refused to publish the piece, which is now spread on social media. In the information war that is ongoing, Sweden is dominated by western propaganda. As an example, mainstream media fooled Sweden to participate in the attack on Libya, but have no regrets. And it is getting even worse. Recently, we have read that a secret group will face Russian information warfare and Sweden wants to learn about information warfare from NATO. That is part of a series of huge failures of the Swedish defence, which threatens democracy and contributed to the complicity in causing the largest refugee crisis in modern history.

(All links in this post are to articles in Swedish, which can be translated online, but be aware that such translations are usually not perfect.)

See part 1 of the interview with David Talbot, author of the new book The Devil’s Chessboard

Read about the important report on the web page of Human Rights Watch

A recent article by Steven Starr reminds us of the existential threat of nuclear war. The risk of nuclear winter and widespread radioactive contamination makes it clear that we must not underestimate the danger some governments pose to children of the world. A danger much greater than that of any terrorist group.

The horrible consequences of the nuclear bombs dropped on Japan after World War II included abandoned children starving to death and genetic damage that could be transmitted through generations. See, for example, Children of the Atomic Bomb by Dr. James N. Yamazaki. However, those two bombs are not much compared to the many and more powerful nuclear weapons in the hands of a number of countries today, where the governments seem both crazy and criminal.

The poor compliance of some countries regarding the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is very worrying. For example, violations have been pointed out both in the past and in a new petition. Note that also western democracies are responsible for these violations. According to the Acronym Institute, NATO retains policies that promote the role of nuclear weapons and undermine the NPT. It is also reported that a few leading NATO countries contributed to collapse of this year’s NPT Review Conference.

Earlier this month, the Swedish television showed The Man Who Saved the World, which can be viewed online until 2015-11-04. The incident depicted in the film is not the only time a nuclear war could have started by accident. In 1962, the US nuclear missile men in Okinawa received a launch order. Luckily, the order was not carried out.