Headline News 20/11/2019

 Headlines:

UK Government and Military Accused of War Crimes Cover-Up

‘Show No Mercy’: Leaked Documents Reveal Details of China's Xinjiang Detention

US says Zionist Settlements are No Longer Illegal

Details:

• UK Government and Military Accused of War Crimes Cover-Up

• An investigation by the UK’s BBC Panorama and the Sunday Times has spoken to 11 British detectives who said they found credible evidence of war crimes. The UK government and armed forces have been accused of covering up the killing of civilians by British troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. The new evidence has come from inside the Iraq Historic Allegations Team (IHAT), which investigated alleged war crimes committed by British troops during the occupation of Iraq, and Operation Northmoor, which investigated alleged war crimes in Afghanistan. The government decided to close IHAT and Operation Northmoor, after Phil Shiner, a lawyer who had taken more than 1,000 cases to IHAT, was struck off as a solicitor following allegations he had paid fixers in Iraq to find clients. But former detectives from IHAT and Operation Northmoor said Phil Shiner's actions were used as an excuse to close down criminal investigations. None of the cases investigated by IHAT or Operation Northmoor resulted in a prosecution.

• The Iraqi invaison was built on lies and this new reality merely confirms that has been known for long that Britain much like its allies cares little for human life and its national interests trumps all. Even the lives of the people they were apparently trying to liberate.

• ‘Show No Mercy’: Leaked Documents Reveal Details of China's Xinjiang Detentions

• More than 400 pages leaked to New York Times by Chinese political insider document brutal crackdown on Muslim minority. Hundreds of pages of leaked internal government documents reveal how China’s mass detention of Uighurs and other minorities in Xinjiang came from directives by Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, to “show absolutely no mercy” in the “struggle against terrorism, infiltration and separatism”. More than 400 pages of documents obtained by the New York Times show the government was aware its campaign of mass internment would tear families apart and could provoke backlash if it became widely known. According to the report, Xi first called for the crackdown in a series of private speeches given to officials during and after a visit to Xinjiang in 2014, weeks after Uighur militants had attacked a train station, stabbing and killing 31 people. “We must be as harsh as them,” Xi said, adding, “and show absolutely no mercy.” In the speeches, Xi did not explicitly order the creation of a large network of camps, but called for the party to use the “organs of dictatorship” to deal with extremism.

• China may have one of the world’s largest economies but Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjing show it has no values to win people, it only has the brutal iron grip, which is destined to fail.

• US says Zionist Settlements are No Longer Illegal

• The US has shifted its position on Zionist Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, no longer viewing them as inconsistent with international law. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the status of the West Bank was for the Jewish entity and Palestinians to negotiate. "After carefully studying all sides of the legal debate," Mr Pompeo told reporters, "the United States has concluded that "the establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not, per se, inconsistent with international law." Calling the establishment of civilian settlements inconsistent with international law hasn't worked. It hasn't advanced the cause of peace," he added. The Jewish entity welcomed the move - a reversal of the US stance under President Donald Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama. Settlements are communities established by the Jewish entity on land annexed and occupied in the 1967 War.