Human Rights: August 2006 Archives

"It is called the 'dual covenant theory' - the belief that Jews and Christians have separate deals with God. However, Muslims, Hindus, and others have no deal."

Editor's note: From our postings on this website it has become evident that powerful factions within Judeo-Christian circles are behind war in the Middle East in the post-Clinton era. Arabs cannot be held entirely blameless, especially those who want to drive Israel into the sea, nor by any means do all Jews or Christians support war, but the ongoing aggression has taken on the aspect of a repressive campaign that ignores Arab humanity. For reasons of military hegemony or religious dogma incompatible with the nature of the Supreme Being, each faction puts its interests exclusively ahead of others' in a breach of the humanistic code of mutual benefit.

When a large number of people who may or may not be criminals are murdered at the same time, it is called ganahanana. Even if a large number of criminals are murdered at the same time this term is used because it is very difficult to theoretically judge who is a criminal and who is not. Sometimes innocent people may be subjected to severe punishment because wrong information appeared in the documents and records concerned with their trials. At other times judges may deliver incorrect judgements, and in fact there are numerous cases where judges have made mistakes. In such circumstances even innocent people may be given capital punishment. Then again, innocent people or those who have committed minor crimes are sometimes deliberately given capital punishment because of malicious judgments. Such punishments can never be supported. For example, the murder of Socrates can never be supported; neither can the hanging of King Nanda Kumar or the assassination of Siraj-ud-doola. These murders can never be justified by logic or reason.

"If the atomic bomb was dropped to impress the Japanese leaders with the immense destructive power of a new weapon, this could have been accomplished by deploying it on an isolated military base. It was not necessary to destroy a large city."

Brig. General Bonnie Fellers in a memo for General MacArthur: "Neither the atomic bombing nor the entry of the Soviet Union into the war forced Japan's unconditional surrender. She was defeated before either these events took place."

On August 6, 1945, the world dramatically entered the atomic age: without either warning or precedent, an American plane dropped a single nuclear bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion utterly destroyed more than four square miles of the city center. About about 90,000 people were killed immediately; another 40,000 were injured, many of whom died in protracted agony from radiation sickness. Three days later, a second atomic strike on the city of Nagasaki killed some 37,000 people and injured another 43,000. Together the two bombs eventually killed an estimated 200,000 Japanese civilians.

International human rights groups, Iranian political activists, and well-known reformers have condemned the death of Iranian student activist Akbar Mohammadi in Tehran's notorious Evin prison and called for an independent investigation to be made. Mohammadi's death has also drawn criticism from Washington. Mohammadi died in prison on July 30 after going on a hunger strike in a bid to secure his release. Prison authorities say he felt ill after showering and died while being taken to the prison clinic. Mohammadi was one of scores of students who were arrested during the 1999 student protests and imprisoned.