Modern Day Nuremberg Required for Russian War Crimes

Posted on June 15, 2022June 15, 2022 by Denise Simon

Russia war crimes did not begin with the invasion of Ukraine, those with short memories should be reminded that all the same tactics were used in Syria and went unpunished. Shameful, but read on.

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As Russia continues its assault on Ukraine, top Biden administration officials are working behind the scenes with the Ukrainian government and European allies to document a tsunami of war crimes allegedly committed by Russian forces. But the sheer volume of the documented war crime cases could be too overwhelming for Ukraine’s justice system as well as for the International Criminal Court (ICC), raising questions of how many cases will be brought to trial and how many accused Russian war criminals could ultimately face justice.

An aerial view of crosses, floral tributes, and photographs of the victims of the battles for Irpin and Bucha that mark the graves in a cemetery in Irpin, Ukraine, on May 16.

An aerial view of crosses, floral tributes, and photographs of the victims of the battles for Irpin and Bucha that mark the graves in a cemetery in Irpin, Ukraine, on May 16. Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

“This is a Nuremberg moment in terms of just the sheer scale of the breach of the rules-based international order that has been perpetrated by Russia in this invasion,” said Beth Van Schaack, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice. “Even the most well-resourced prosecutorial office would have a hard time grappling with the sheer scale of the criminality that’s been on display.”

The United States joined a slew of other Western countries and international institutions in devoting resources to help Ukraine document and collect evidence on as many alleged war crimes as possible, from Russian soldiers torturing, raping, and executing Ukrainian civilians to Russian armored units and air forces indiscriminately shelling civilian targets. Keep reading here.

Weapons experts from France are helping their Ukrainian counterparts collect evidence of possible Russian war crimes in the northern region of Chernihiv, Ukraine’s prosecutor general said on Friday.

The French Gendarmerie’s experts, including specialists in drone modelling, ballistics and weapons of mass destruction, have been collecting evidence at sites of destruction from Russian shelling.

They replaced group of gendarmerie forensic experts who arrived in mid-April to help establish what happened in Bucha, near Kyiv, where the killing of many civilians provoked a global outcry.

“It will soon be two months since (French experts) have been with us ‘on the ground’,” Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova wrote on her Facebook account.

“They work in the Chernihiv region and conduct research at sites destroyed by shelling,” she wrote. “These war crimes must be punished, and we are ready to do together everything to do
so.”

The Chernihiv region has been shelled frequently since Russia invaded on Feb. 24. Ukraine is also investigating potential war crimes by Russian soldiers in Chernihiv during their occupation in March.

Russia denies targeting civilians and has rejected allegations of war crimes in what it calls a “special military operation” to demilitarize and “denazify” Ukraine.

Kyiv and its allies say Russia invaded its neighbor without provocation. source

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Ukraine has identified several thousand suspected war crimes in the eastern Donbas region where Russian forces are pressing their offensive, Kyiv’s chief prosecutor said Tuesday.

“Of course we started a few thousand cases about what we see in Donbas,” prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova told a news conference in The Hague as she met international counterparts.

“If we speak about war crimes, it’s about possible transfer of people, we started several cases about possible transfer of children, adult people to different parts of the Russian Federation,” she said.

“Then, of course, we can speak about torturing people, killing civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure.”

Ukrainian authorities did not have access to Russian-held areas of Donbas, but they were interviewing evacuees and prisoners of war, Venediktova told the press conference at the headquarters of EU judicial agency Eurojust.

In total, Ukraine had identified 15,000 war crimes cases across the country since Russia’s invasion on February 24, she added.

Ukraine had identified 600 suspects for the “anchor” crime of aggression, including “high level of top military, politicians and propaganda agents of Russian Federation,” the prosecutor general said.

Nearly 80 suspects had been identified for alleged war crimes that had actually taken place on Ukrainian soil, she added. source

Does the FBI List Perkins Coie as an Official Office Location?

Posted on June 2, 2022June 2, 2022 by Denise Simon

Republican Reps. Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz have sent a letter demanding answers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) regarding a “Secure Work Environment” the bureau has apparently been operating for years in the Washington, D.C., office of the Democratic law firm Perkins Coie.

Gaetz told Tucker Carlson on Fox News Tuesday night that he received a letter from Perkins Coie lawyers confirming that the FBI has been maintaining a “Secure Work Environment” within Perkins Coie office for more than a decade, dating back to 2012, and that it is still in operation today.

“Perkins Coie is responsible to the FBI for maintaining the Secure Work Environment,” the letter reportedly said.

Gaetz said he’s spoken with multiple former federal prosecutors who have described the arrangement as unusual. He and Jordan, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter Wednesday to FBI Director Christopher Wray demanding an explanation.

“We have learned that since March 2012, the FBI approved and facilitated a Secure Work Environment at Perkins Coie’s Washington, D.C. office, which continues to be operational,” the letter states. “In a letter dated May 25, 2022, the law firm confirmed and acknowledged the arrangement.” source

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Who worked in that ‘secure workspace’ exactly…well the now acquitted Michael Sussman. To read the full background and details on the charges against Sussman, go here.

The Florida congressman explained that he had learned from a whistleblower that Perkins Coie, “the law firm that received 42 million dollars from the Democrat party,” had been sharing a workspace with the FBI.

“Why in the world would that be the case?” Gaetz asked. “Why would [FBI Director] Christopher Wray allow it to continue?”

Gaetz told Carlson incredulously that a person operating out of that work space for the past 12 months was none other than Michael Sussmann himself.

Gaetz said that it was his hope that the facility will be shut down.

“The Democrat party shouldn’t have this special access, this special portal to the FBI, especially knowing what we do now—that they were often trying to take this opposition research, and use that for law enforcement counterintelligence purposes,” he said.

Carlson agreed, saying, “you can’t politicize the country’s biggest law enforcement agency. That’s completely third world.”

What is not being mentioned is the extent of the computer portal the law firm has into the FBI databases. That means that the DNC and the whole Hillary Clinton operation, including her legal team HAS FBI database access. That could and likely means that Perkins Coie, the DNC and the entire Clinton operation has access to query any American citizen, putting a new definition into opposition research. Anyone remember 702 abuses going back to perhaps 2012?

Non-compliant queries since 2012.

85% of the FBI and contractor searches are unlawful.

Many of those searches involved the use of the “same identifiers over different data ranges.” Put in plain terms, the same people were continually being tracked, searched and surveilled by querying the FBI database over time.

The non-compliant searches go back to 2012. The same date mentioned for the FBI portal to begin operating inside the Perkins Coie office.

This specific footnote is a key. Note the phrase: “([redacted] access to FBI systems was the subject of an interagency memorandum of understanding entered into [redacted])”, this sentence has the potential to expose an internal decision; withheld from congress and the FISA court by the Obama administration; that outlines a process for access and distribution of surveillance data.

Note: “no notice of this practice was given to the FISC until 2016“, that is important.

♦Summary: The FISA court identified and quantified tens-of-thousands of search queries of the NSA/FBI database using the FISA-702(16)(17) system. The database was repeatedly used by persons with contractor access who unlawfully searched and extracted the raw results without redacting the information and shared it with an unknown number of entities.

The outlined process certainly points toward a political spying and surveillance operation. When the DOJ use of the IRS for political information on their opposition became problematic, the Obama administration needed another tool. It was in 2012 when they switched to using the FBI databases for targeted search queries. hat tip to CTH

The Butcher(s) of Bucha, Ukraine and the War Crimes Evidence Details

Posted on April 5, 2022April 5, 2022 by Denise Simon

InformNapalm volunteers named Omurbekov as unit 51460 of the 64th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade amid suspicions of grotesque war crimes in Bucha.

Lieutenant Colonel Azatbek Omurbekov is suspected to be the commander of Russian operations in Bucha source

Coal

Click the ‘coal’ link above but fair warning of graphic video of Bucha.

The Russian commander behind the atrocities in Bucha has been named and pictured.

It comes as “mounting evidence” of war crimes committed by Russian forces in the city near capital Kyiv will be discussed by a United Nations Security Council today.

The Ukrainian President – who was seen holding back tears as he visited the aftermath on Monday – will address the council, which is pushing to ensure “justice is done”.

Volodymyr Zelensky surveyed the alleged atrocities near capital Kyiv, describing the discovery of raped women and murdered children among the dead.

He was accompanied by defending servicemen after invading troops had retreated from the area.

US President Joe Biden called for Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin to face a war crimes trial, adding he is now seeking further sanctions against Russia.

“This guy is brutal and what’s happening in Bucha is outrageous and everyone’s seen it,” he said in an impassioned speech last night.

A satellite image shows Yablonska Street in the aftermath of the massacre

A satellite image shows Yablonska Street in the aftermath of the massacre (Image: via REUTERS)

Ukrainian officials have vowed to hunt down the “butchers of Bucha” after hundreds of dead civilians were discovered.

Furthermore, there are several Associated Press reports by journalists on the ground.

(AP) — Six charred bodies piled together were being investigated on Tuesday in Bucha, the town outside of Kyiv where graphic evidence of killings and torture has emerged following the withdrawal of Russian forces.

It was not clear who the people were or under what circumstances they were killed. One of the bodies was smaller than the others, likely a child, said Andrii Nebytov, head of police in the Kyiv region. One of the bodies had a gunshot wound to the head.

The pile of bodies seen by Associated Press journalists was just off a residential street, near a colorful and empty playground, and was visible to passersby as they warily went outdoors to collect aid.

“It’s horrible,” said Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky at the scene, which included other journalists. The minister said Russian President Vladimir Putin should “go to hell.”

Ukrainian officials have said the bodies of at least 410 civilians have been found in towns around Kyiv that were recaptured from Russian forces in recent days. The Ukrainian prosecutor-general’s office has described one room discovered in Bucha as a “torture chamber.”

Police carry a dead body of one of six civilians – three women, one teenager girl and two men who were found in Bucha, close to Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Apr. 5, 2022. Ukraine’s president plans to address the U.N.’s most powerful body after even more grisly evidence emerged of civilian massacres in areas that Russian forces recently left. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT – A police officer stands next to six unidentified charred bodies lying on the ground at a residential area in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, April 5, 2022. Ukraine’s president plans to address the U.N.’s most powerful body after even more grisly evidence emerged of civilian massacres in areas that Russian forces recently left. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Workers carry the body of people found dead to a cemetery in Bucha, outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, April 5, 2022. Ukraine’s president told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that the Russian military must be brought to justice immediately for war crimes, accusing invading troops of the worst atrocities since World War II. He stressed that Bucha was only one place and there are more with similar horrors. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

New additional detail:

Bucha’s butcher has a name and a face. Omurbekov Azatbek Asanbekovich is the name of the commander of the Russian troops who on March 31 demobilized from the town north of Kiev, leaving behind civilians corpses on the street, in mass graves, Ukrainians executed with a blow to the back of the head and their hands tied.

The activists of InformNapalm, who also published the email and the phone, perhaps turned off after the spread of news of the massacre, as no one answers, revealed his identity on Telegram.

The photo of Asanbekovich, commander of military unit 51460, 64th brigade of motorized riflemen, was also published: young man, in camouflage, a tank behind, full lips, elongated eyes of the Buryats, the largest ethnic minority of Mongolian origin from Siberia. And precisely from Siberia, to be precise from Knyaze-Volkonskoye, unit 51460 left.

“We were also able to find the home address of the Russian executioner,” wrote InformNapalm volunteers, announcing the publication of data, archives and explanations on how to find the Russian commander.

“Every Ukrainian should know their names. Remember. All war criminals will be tried and brought to justice for crimes committed against Ukrainian civilians, ”reads the statement of the Chief Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, published on its website. Below is a detailed list of 87 pages with the names of the more than 1,600 Russian soldiers believed to be involved in the massacre. In the list, the soldiers are identified with military rank, name and surname, date of birth and passport details.

Among the surnames there are also some of the most common in Chechnya. Some of their faces can be seen in the photos posted on the net: boys, almond-shaped eyes, smiling in front of the lens.

Bucha residents, for their part, told the news site Obozrevatel that the Russian soldiers “simply went from yard to yard shooting all the men and boys. Among them we recognized Buryats with narrow and long eyes ”.

For Moscow, on the other hand, those corpses, those photos that shocked the whole world, are propaganda, a “staging of the West and Ukraine”.

Ukrainian Hackers Take Aim at Russian Artillery, Navigation

Posted on April 5, 2022April 5, 2022 by Denise Simon

Primer: There are several global hacking groups taking on all things Russia and some have moved their targets to Belarus, now a nation state of Russia. The BBC reported recently the following in part:

The Anonymous hacktivist collective has been bombarding Russia with cyber-attacks since declaring “cyber war” on President Vladimir Putin in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine. Several people operating under its banner spoke to the BBC about their motives, tactics and plans.

Of all the cyber-attacks carried out since the Ukraine conflict started, an Anonymous hack on Russian TV networks stands out.

The hack was captured in a short video clip which shows normal programming interrupted with images of bombs exploding in Ukraine and soldiers talking about the horrors of the conflict.

The video began circulating on the 26 February and was shared by Anonymous social media accounts with millions of followers. “JUST IN: #Russian state TV channels have been hacked by #Anonymous to broadcast the truth about what happens in #Ukraine,” one post read.

It quickly racked up millions of views.

source

Additionally, the WSJ reports in part:

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian technology workers have taken part in cyberattacks against Russia’s government, media and financial institutions in recent days, a top Ukrainian cybersecurity official said Friday.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine just over a week ago, Ukraine’s sprawling and fast-growing technology industry says it has sprung to action not only to keep working but also to support the country’s resistance by helping with cyberattacks against Russia.

The IT Army could number more than 400,000 people inside and outside the country, and it has done more than deface or take down Russian websites, said Viktor Zhora, deputy chief of Ukraine’s State Service of Special Communication and Information Protection, which is responsible for cybersecurity in the country.

Mr. Zhora said the IT Army, members of which have taken credit for temporarily knocking an array of Russian government and bank websites offline, has also helped their country by providing intelligence and attacking military systems. He also said the movement has attempted to circumvent Russian domestic censorship of news about the war by sending Russian individuals information and pictures about the war by phone, text and messaging app.

A group of Ukrainian hackers says it has found ways to disrupt Russian military units’ navigation and is working on ways to disrupt artillery fire as well.

The nearly two dozen volunteers of the CyberPan Ukraine group work with the Ukrainian military and get funds from sources in Israel and the United States, group members told Defense One.

In the weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine, one member said, the group has found ways to keep some field units from receiving signals from the GLONASS system, Russia’s version of the U.S. GPS satellite navigation constellation. Lost Russian forces are easier to find and target than ones that know where they are going.

Currently, the group is looking for ways to disrupt artillery fire, at least from systems that employ precision guidance systems. The member said the group has identified several computer servers linked to Russian rockets.

“We found many mistakes inside the system,” he said.

Poor communications tech has hobbled the Russian war effort. Its Era secure cellphones aren’t working, in part because the invading forces destroyed many of the system’s cell towers, Bellingcat investigator Cristo Grovez said on March 7. This has forced many Russian units to use unencrypted phones, whose calls have been picked up by Ukrainian forces, foreign journalists, and others.

Russia does have better communication equipment, like software-defined radios such as the R-187P1 Azart and R-168-5UN-2.

“The impression provided by the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) over the years has been that this equipment was widespread and that the majority of the Russian Armed Forces (RuAF) were operating digital radios and systems designed to facilitate planning and decision-making,” Sam Cranny-Evans and Thomas Withington wrote in a March 9 article for the Royal United Services Institute.” But that clearly isn’t the case, the authors note.

Meanwhile, Russian state media have reported that the government is investigating corruption allegations against some Russian makers of communications equipment.

Some of the communications problems are likely due to poor preparation of the invasion force, said Samuel Bendett, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and an adviser at the CNA Corporation.

“Some were not fully aware they were going into an actual war [but] thinking they were part of a military drill,” Bendett said. “Perhaps they did not fully combat-proof their comms equipment as a result, and that is how Ukrainians are able to intercept.”

Bendett also pointed out that the United States and other allies were training and equipping Ukraine, which has had years to prepare for this invasion.

“The Ukrainian military knows what technology the Russian military uses and this preparation gave them the opportunity to learn how to disrupt Russian comms,” he said.

Russia a No-Show at the International Court of Justice

Posted on March 7, 2022March 7, 2022 by Denise Simon

We have heard that the International Criminal Court has opened an investigation into Putin and being a war criminal. Not only is it on full display for more than a week, but his war crimes go back to the conflict in Syria. At least 39 countries have sent referrals to the ICJ regarding Putin’s full scale invasion of Ukraine. The ICJ is expected to fast track the investigation. This could get messy as Russia is not a member of the International Criminal Court and for that matter neither is the United States.

Putin has justified his invasion of Ukraine claiming genocide of Russian citizens as well as ongoing military hostilities. Yeesh.

Many don’t realize that many within Putin’s inner circle have not only turned on him, and have provided intelligence to the West including Ukraine to be able to take offensive measures especially in the matters of the assassination squads sent to kill the members of the Ukraine government including President Zelensky. Additionally, there are others within Putin’s orbit that have resigned and fled Russia for fear of prosecution which really means execution.

One of Putin’s lawyers, Alain Pellet resigned last week and described the reason to be the widely known fact that the Kremlin despises law…including international law. You can read his letter here.

The truth is, the ICJ should not begin or end with Putin as a war criminal, it should included the oligarchs and other Duma operatives that have enabled this war and the illegal activities associated with it including Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin.

Prigozhin is on the FBI’s most wanted list.

He has a long list of criminal charges against him including that troll factory that was located in St. Petersburg that interfered with the 2014 U.S. election process. He has ties to Indonesia and Qatar as well.

The UK is the first country to not only step up in cooperation with the ICJ but has a team that is working the critical task to preserve all evidence of war crimes including shelling location, types of missiles including cluster-bombs and the fact that Russia violated at least 2 cease fires after agreeing to humanitarian escape corridors in Ukraine.

(rather like a feeble Nuremberg trial)

So, what is the process of the International Criminal Court you ask? In part:

The court has 123 member states, but neither Russia nor Ukraine is a party. However, back in 2015 when Russia invaded and annexed Crimea, Ukraine referred the conflict to the court for investigation. And there’s a provision in the Rome Statute — article 12.3 — which allows states that are not members of the court to refer a conflict and allegations of crimes to the court. But an investigation has to be triggered, and one way for that to happen is if one of the 123 member states asks the court to investigate. And it was just announced Thursday night that 39 states referred the Ukraine situation to the International Criminal Court for investigation. So, the prosecutor of that court announced that he is immediately opening up an investigation and will start collecting evidence. That investigation is also open into past crimes that could have occurred in the Crimea and eastern Ukraine.

Why is it important for the court to begin investigating now, rather than waiting for the conflict to end?

Investigations and prosecutions are important even before cases are brought before the court because they bring attention to the crimes that are being committed, and to the victims of these of these crimes. So, even aside from what happens in court down the road, the act of investigating and framing what is happening and naming it is extremely important.

What types of crimes can the International Criminal Court investigate?

The International Criminal Court has jurisdiction over four types of crime: war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and the crime of aggression. And there is no doubt that this is an act of aggression by Russia against Ukraine. However, the crime of aggression has a particular requirement, which is different from all the other crimes. It can only be prosecuted by the court if one member state commits an act of aggression against another. Since neither Russia nor Ukraine is a member, the crime of aggression here does not apply. So, the International Criminal Court is focusing on war crimes, and it will also consider crimes against humanity if they arise.

There is also an International Court of Justice. What role does it play?

The International Criminal Court investigates and prosecutes international crimes committed by individuals. The International Court of Justice resolves disputes between states. Ukraine has brought an emergency case before that court, which will be heard next week. The focus of Ukraine’s complaint is that Russia has used as one of its justifications — I’ll say, phony justification — for invading Ukraine the allegation that there is a threat of genocide against Russian nationals living in Ukraine. Ukraine says this is nonsense. The ICJ should rule that there is no such threat and that assertion cannot be used as a justification for the invasion.

Any real hope for justice on this? Not really.