There are more stories emerging of atrocities against civilians in Libya, the last apparently involving mass graves of pro-Gaddafi loyalits.

The notion that the attacks on WikiLeaks are war crimes is something the organization has been promoting. On August 23, when it was hit with a DoS attack as it released 130,000 cables, the organization tweeted, “Are state directed Denial of Service attacks, legally, a war crime against civilian infrastructure?” and “Should we, legally, declare war on state agressors that commit infrastructure war crimes against us?”

This KY ad, once we clean up all the Fundie head explosions — this makes us laugh. With joy.

Thank you, ladies.

The apparent summary executions of ten Iraqis, including five children, by Multinational Forces (MNF) that raided a home on March 15, 2006, have been receiving wide media attention as a result of a previously classified US State Embassy communications log from Philip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions.

One year ago, WikiLeaks released the Afghanistan war logs. Around seventy-six thousand previously classified military reports were released in collaboration with the New York Times, The Guardian, and Der Spiegel. The contents of the documents revealed several dark realities of the war. And, the release drew condemnation from the Washington establishment that made certain the war logs had a minor impact.

In a world subject to the rule of law and the principle that government leaders who commit war crimes and crimes against humanity should be held accountable, we would applaud the existence of an international court to prosecute alleged criminals and serve as a warning and deterrent to would be criminals. And if that system applied its rules uniformly and fairly across nations, it would be a hopeful sign civilization can make progress towards a just society.

We are a long way from that ideal, and a primary reason is the fact that the US Government, including its recent Presidents and the most senior officials of the Defense Department and intelligence agencies routinely violated international laws against aggression, kidnapping, rendition, torture, and other prisoner mistreatment.

Murder is a criminal act, possibly a war crime here, and if the reports are true, every one of the commanders and national leaders, including those of the United States, should be forced to resign or impeached, and be prosecuted. Except they won’t be, because America’s leaders are above the rule of law.

Late last month, I jokingly suggested that Barack Obama could emulate his “hero” Ronald Reagan by doing a progressive version of Reagan’s signature move of making appointments that are the exact opposite of the goals of the position by nominating Dennis Kucinich as Secretary of Defense and Daniel Ellsberg to head the CIA. Sadly, Obama seems to have taken a garbled version of this suggestion, as word came Sunday that Obama is creating “a high-profile initiative in support of military families” and has put war criminal and Pat Tillman cover-up leader Stanley McChrystal in charge of this operation. This is a truly Reaganesque appointment, as it is hard to imagine a military figure who has done more to harm families around the world, and now he is leading the charge to put a happy face on the devastation ten years of war has wreaked on the very small number of US families who have borne the brunt of the death and other sacrifices by our all-volunteer force.

As recently as last January, Barack Obama reiterated his love of the Reagan zombie, when Time described a dinner Obama shared with a group of presidential historians: “And yet Obama was clearly impressed by the way Reagan had transformed Americans’ attitude about government.” If Obama really wants to emulate Reagan, I have a suggestion for how he could copy Reagan’s pioneering moves when Reagan appointed individuals with attitudes diametrically opposed to the mission of their agency and in line with Reagan’s radically conservative agenda. With Robert Gates’ impending departure there is soon to be an opening for Secretary of Defense. With some bandying Leon Panetta’s name for SecDef, that leaves a potential opening for DCI. I have Reaganesque suggestions for Obama: appoint Dennis Kucinich,who has been a big advocate for a Department of Peace, as Secretary of Defense and Daniel Ellsberg, who released the Pentagon Papers, as Director of Central Intelligence.

Early Wednesday morning (BH time) “security forces” launched a multi-pronged attack, destroying the encampment at the Pearl Roundabout where about 500 protesters were located — and attacking neighborhoods where protesters live.