CLICK IMAGE for slideshow: (Photo combination by Yahoo News, Photos by SANA/AP Photo, Courtesy of The Caesar Team/Coalition for a Democratic Syria.)
The State Department has obtained 27,000 photographs showing
the emaciated, bruised and burned bodies of Syrian torture victims —
gruesome images that a top official told Yahoo News constitute "smoking
gun" evidence that can be used to bring war-crimes charges against the
regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The photos are "horrific — some of them put you in visceral
pain," said Stephen J. Rapp, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for war
crimes, in an interview. "This is some of the strongest evidence we've
seen in the area of proof of the commission of mass atrocities."
The photos — a small number of which will be put on public
display for the first time on Wednesday at the U.S. Holocaust Museum —
were smuggled out of Syria by an official regime photographer who has
since defected and is known only by his code name, Caesar.
They were shown at a closed-door session of the House Foreign
Affairs Committee in July where Caesar, wearing a hood, testified.
They are now being analyzed at Rapp's request by the FBI in part as an
effort to determine whether any U.S. citizens may have been among the
victims — a finding that could be the basis to bring criminal charges in
the U.S. against officials of the Assad regime.
The Syrian government has officially denounced the photos as
fakes and suggested many of the corpses seen are actually of militants
who died in battle.
While FBI agents are still reviewing the photos, Rapp said that
bureau officials have already "informally" told him "they think it is
impossible they could be forgeries. There is no evidence of doctoring."
(A bureau spokesman confirmed only the review of the photos,
adding: "It will take some time to complete the authentication
process.")
.
Syrian Army defector Caesar, (in a blue hooded jacket) who has smuggled out of Syria more than 50,000 photographs …
The
story behind the photos begins in March 2011, when Arab Spring protests
against the Assad government swept through Syria. As the military began
rounding up suspected dissidents, Caesar — a military police officer —
was assigned to lead a team of 11 photographers whose job it was to
document the deaths of detainees brought to a military hospital from
three detention centers around Damascus.
But by the summer of 2013, Caesar has told investigators, he
was so sickened by what he was seeing that he made contact with Syrian
rebels. "I can't do this anymore," he told them, according to David
Crane, a former war-crimes prosecutor for Sierra Leone who spent hours
interviewing Caesar as part of a separate review of the photos
commissioned by the government of Qatar.
Caesar began smuggling his photos to the rebels, providing them
with thumb drives concealed in his shoes, Crane said. To protect his
family, Caesar faked his death, staging an elaborate funeral, before he
escaped from Syria in August 2013. He is now in hiding in Europe.
The photos, according to Crane, document "an industrial killing machine not seen since the Holocaust."
They show corpses, some of them lined up in a warehouse, many appearing
to be victims of starvation, their ribs protruding from emaciated
bodies.
Some show men whose eyes were gouged out; others had bruises
and lacerations consistent with beatings and in some cases
strangulation, according to a report that Crane co-wrote about the
photos released in January.
Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Foreign
Affairs Committee who had called Caesar as a witness at the closed-door
hearing in July, said that when he first saw the photos he thought of
his father. As a member of Gen. George Patton’s Third Army, “my father
had taken photos at Dachau when it was liberated, of the bodies stacked
up at the ovens. This is eerily reminiscent. It's absolutely appalling.”
What's also noteworthy about the photos, according to Crane,
was the methodical nature of the enterprise: Each photo includes tags
with numbers and letters that identify each of the victims as well as
the detention center where they were imprisoned. One purpose: so
military officials who ordered their deaths could have proof "their
orders were carried out," said Crane.
Crane — who, as a war-crimes prosecutor for an international
tribunal, brought the indictment against former Liberian President
Charles Taylor — originally reviewed the photos along with two other
international war-crimes prosecutors on behalf of a London law firm
hired by the Qatari government.
He then presented the photos for two hours at a session of the
U.N. Security Council in support of a French-sponsored resolution
authorizing an international war-crimes tribunal for Syria in April.
.
Syrian Army defector Caesar, (in a blue hooded jacket) who has smuggled out of Syria more than 50,000 photographs …
After
his presentation was complete, Crane said, the Security Council fell
silent. The U.S. ambassador, Samantha Power, "was blinking back tears,"
said Crane. (A spokesman for Power did not respond to a request for
comment. But in a statement at the time, Power said, "Nobody who sees these images will ever be the same.")
But the French resolution was vetoed by the Russian and Chinese
representatives. That has left Rapp with what he acknowledges are
"jurisdictional challenges" in bringing war-crimes charges against the
regime officials responsible for the dead bodies. (A finding that
U.S. nationals are among the victims could help overcome some of those
challenges by allowing a Justice Department prosecution in U.S. courts.)
But
Rapp said he is not deterred. His office is working with an
international team of investigators — under the direction of a private
group called the Syria Justice and Accountability Project — to collect
documents and other witness testimony that can be used to corroborate
the photos. (The U.S. is also supporting a separate team of
investigators developing evidence of war crimes by the Islamic State
militant group.)
The
U.S. government has contributed $1 million to the effort to investigate
the Assad regime's abuses. And already, Rapp said, some documents
showing orders to arrest particular detainees have been uncovered.
Investigators are seeking to determine if those orders can be matched up
with the bodies of detainees seen in the photographs.
But
there is still much more work to be done. Because many of the photos
had to be compressed by Caesar to get them to fit on thumb drives,
crucial metadata — which would yield the precise date and time that each
image was recorded — was lost. Confirming the deaths of detainees shown
in the photos with family members who are still inside Syria is also a
problem.
Still,
Rapp said, "we are laying the foundation for the day when there will be
accountability. This is the kind of evidence that can support
prosecution of people all the way to the top."
The daughter of former military administrator of Kano and Benue States
and former NFA president, Brigadier General Dominic Oneya, Frances Oneya
(pictured left) was shot dead by suspected armed robbers on Friday
October10th after she left a bank in Delta State.
According to friends who shared her sad demise on her Facebook wall, the
mother of four was shot dead while seating in the driver seat of her
car after she went to a bank to cash some money. The incident happened
around 10:40am on Friday along Ovie Palace road, Effurun by KW junction).
According to eyewitness, after shooting
Frances, the robbers took the money she had on her and escaped through
the road that links the Ovie Palace road to the G.R.A. She was rushed to
the hospital where she later died. Too sad.
May her soul rest in peace. Meanwhile, the Delta state police
spokesperson, DSP Celestina Kalu say investigations into the robbery
incident has commenced.
Former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has said he had no grouse
against anybody in his party, the PDP, but that he will not accept a
"wanted drug baron" as leader in the south west, as is currently the
case.
In a statement released on Sunday, Obasanjo said the issue bordered on principle and morality.
Obasanjo said: “There are, for me, issues of principle, morality,
honour, integrity, commitment and character which are paramount. For
instance, as a former president of Nigeria, the chairman of West Africa
Commission on Drug and a member of Global Commission on Drug, I cannot
accept that the zonal leader of my political party and, worse still, in
my zone, will be an indicted drug baron wanted in America.
“How do I explain that to friends outside Nigeria? This is only one of
the many issues that I have pointed and still pointing out.”
Obasanjo added: “I have national and international standard to maintain and reputation to keep and sustain. For these reasons, I opted to remain active only at the ward level of the party till the leadership does the needful.”
President Obasanjo was apparently responding to series of appeals by the
party leaders, including the Senate President David Mark and PDP
chairman Adamu Mua’zu, who had recently paid him a visit at his Ota Farm
home, pleading with him to forgive the party and return to its fold.
They also asked him to lead President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election
campaign.
Obasanjo, however, called on the leadership of the party to do the needful on the issues he had raised.
Prince Buruji Kashamu, "wanted" in the US for drug trafficking, was
appointed chairman, Organisation and Mobilisation Committee of the PDP
in South West by President Goodluck Jonathan.
The folks at Esquire have spoken: 2014's Sexiest Woman Alive is (drumroll, please)... Penélope Cruz.
More beautiful than ever at 40, the Oscar winner — she received the golden statuette for her fiery performance in Vicky Cristina Barcelona
— is now part of an elite club of gorgeous stars who have also been
bestowed with the "sexiest alive" title. Past honorees include Scarlett
Johansson, Mila Kunis, Angelina Jolie, Rihanna, Minka Kelly, Halle
Berry, Kate Beckinsale, Charlize Theron, and Jessica Biel.
Berry was 42 at the time she took the title, making her the oldest
winner to date. Johansson, who happens to have starred alongside Cruz in
Vicky Cristina Barcelona, is the magazine's only two-time selection, having won in 2013 and 2006.
Muy caliente! (Nico/Esquire)
So, why Cruz? Though the Spanish siren has shown off her sultry side in such films as Vanilla Sky, The Counselor, and To Rome With Love,
she and her husband, Javier Bardem, keep a relatively low profile in
Hollywood, which makes her something of a surprising pick for the Esquire title. We haven't really seen much of Penélope
since she and Javier tied the knot in 2010 and became the parents to a
now 3-year-old son and a 1-year-old daughter. And true to form, the
actress — who is among those rumored to be Daniel Craig's next Bond girl — remained tight-lipped on just about everything during her interview withEsquire
as well, only saying that family is everything to her and the reason
she seems to have gone off the radar. But perhaps the mystery
surrounding her personal life is part of her allure.
While few would argue that Cruz is among the sexiest ladies on planet Earth, it can't be easy for Esquire
editors to declare one woman the world's most desirable. Sofia Vergara
would certainly have been a fine choice. Not to mention Kate Upton. And
Beyoncé. And Hollywood "It" girl Emily Ratajkowski. And, well, a lot of
beautiful women. (See, we told you it wasn't an easy decision.)
President Jonathan has ordered members of his cabinet interested
in elective posts to resign from office. Minister of Information, Mr.
Labaran Maku, confirmed this to pressman in Nasarawa over the weekend.
President
Jonathan has ordered members of his cabinet interested in elective
posts to resign from office. Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku,
confirmed this to pressman in Nasarawa over the weekend. He said that
ministers who have political ambitions have been directed to resign
their position by on October 20.
Labaran Maku
At least, about eight of the ministers are joggling to become
governors of their states, even though some of them are afraid of
leaving.
Among those expected to resign their appointments are Senator Bala
Muhammed (Federal Capital Territory), Chief Emeka Wogu (Labour), Mr.
Nyesom Wike (State, Education), Dr. Samuel Ortom (State, Trade, Industry
and Investment) and Senator Musiliu Obanikoro (State, Defence).
Maku spoke at his home state, Nasarawa, on Sunday.
Among the ministers, it was however learnt that Muhammed, the
minister of the FCT is seriously afraid to resign following the
intelligence report the gathered that he was not wanted at home, Bauchi.
Because of this, he had been given money to some unemployed youths, asking them to demonstrate against his leaving Abuja.
According to Aye Dee(Remember him? The man that was behind Linda Ikeji’s
blog ish), D’banj’s musical concert billed to hold in New York on the
11th Oct. did not hold as it was shut down by the police. Earlier today,
Duncan Mighty shared the pics above on instagram after he arrived NYC
with the Koko Master ahead of their afternoon performance. Neither
D’banj nor Duncan Mighty has confirmed or denied the report. Ayo dee is fond of controversial issues.
