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CNN claims Trump’s threat to attack Iranian cultural sites could be a “war crime”

Jan 8, 2020 9:00 am By Christine Douglass-Williams

Trump is being compared to jihadist barbarians who deliberately destroy ancient, cultural and religious sites as part and parcel of their persecution of religious minorities and attempts to erase pre-Islamic history. CNN was among the chorus of “news” outlets that made the absurd comparison in response to the President’s threat to Iran that America intends to eliminate threats to its citizens and national security by “hitting very fast and very hard” those targets deemed to be a threat.

Trump indicated in a tweet that the targets include cultural site locations.

Jihadists are well known to use human shields (women and children included) and other sensitive location shields to hide their deadly weaponry, including schools, hospitals and mosques. Storing weapons at cultural areas would be perfectly consistent with established jihadist stratagems.

“Trump’s threatened attack on Iranian cultural sites could be a war crime if carried out,” by Eric Levenson, CNN, January 6, 2020:

(CNN)After an al-Qaeda affiliated group destroyed ancient religious monuments in Timbuktu, Mali, in 2012, the International Criminal Court took on a unique criminal case: prosecuting cultural destruction.

Though it generally focuses on human rights violations, the ICC charged the leader of the jihadist group, Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi, with a war crime for destroying cultural artifacts in Timbuktu.

The case was the first criminal charge of its kind. It “breaks new ground for the protection of humanity’s shared cultural heritage and values,” UNESCO Secretary-General Irina Bokova said at the time. Al-Mahdi eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine years in prison.

That case has renewed relevance amid the standoff between the United States and Iran days after the United States killed Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani in a targeted drone strike in Baghdad, Iraq, on Friday.

In a tweet Saturday night, Trump said that if Iran strikes any Americans or American assets, the United States has targeted 52 Iranian sites — a reference to the number of Americans taken hostage in the 1979 revolution — “some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture,” he wrote.

“They attacked us, & we hit back. If they attack again, which I would strongly advise them not to do, we will hit them harder than they have ever been hit before!” Trump wrote.

Sunday, he reiterated that threat in a conversation with reporters aboard Air Force One.

“They’re allowed to kill our people, they’re allowed to torture and maim our people, they’re allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people, and we’re not allowed to touch their cultural sites? It doesn’t work that way,” Trump said, according to a pool report.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, during an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union,” avoided directly answering whether or not the United States was actually targeting cultural sites and defended Trump’s tweeted threat.

“We will be bold in protecting American interests and we’ll do so in a way that is consistent with the rule of law. We’ve always done that, Jake, and President Trump’s tweet doesn’t deviate from that one iota,” he said.

“So cultural centers are theoretically fair targets, in your view?” Tapper asked.

“We’re going to do the things that are right and the things that are consistent with American law,” Pompeo said.

However, an attack on a cultural site would violate several international treaties and would likely be considered a war crime.
In 2017, for example, a United Nations Security Council resolution “condemns the unlawful destruction of cultural heritage, including the destruction of religious sites and artifacts.” That resolution came as a response to the Islamic State’s destruction of a number of major historic and cultural sites in Syria and Iraq in 2014 and 2015…..

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Filed Under: Donald Trump, Featured, Iran, United States Tagged With: Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi, International Criminal Court, Irina Bokova, Qassem Soleimani, unesco


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Comments

  1. mortimer says

    Jan 8, 2020 at 9:05 am

    Some US intelligence officers believe weapons are hidden under a number of cultural sites in Iran to protect them from US or Israeli bombing. This is entirely credible. Weapon caches have often been found in mosques.

    • mortimer says

      Jan 8, 2020 at 9:09 am

      I still agree that the targeted destruction of cultural heritage is correctly classified as a war crime. Islam sees no problem with the destruction of non-Islamic cultural heritage.

      • Naildriver says

        Jan 9, 2020 at 9:57 am

        Islam’s lost the right to have itself deemed culturally significant. It’s an active enemy, Mortimer.
        The utter destruction of Islam and all of its cola cola art would be a just undertaking.

      • toomanyhobbies says

        Jan 9, 2020 at 7:42 pm

        but as the CULT has hacked it’s way though irreplaceable cultural sites they have been silent…

    • Lloyd Miller says

      Jan 8, 2020 at 10:03 am

      Muslim “cultural” sites are the problem. Level them. Ancient Persian sites? Avoid if possible.

      • Ray Jarman says

        Jan 8, 2020 at 1:14 pm

        Mortimer & Lloyd Miller,

        I agree with both of you gentlemen. Places such as Persepolis should be off limits just as the ancient sites in Greece and Italy as they offer a real look into our past but how can anyone call anything Islamic as cultural? If hitting a mosque by missiles storing war material is considered a war crime, why aren’t the sub-human excrement that destroy ancient churches and cathedrals as has been permitted throughout the Middle East as well as government sanctioned destruction of Christian Churches in Indonesia, Egypt and elsewhere. How about the ancient cathedrals and churches in Europe that have been set ablaze and vandalized by scum that receives its motivation from Islamic nations (like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and other governments) that support the mosques and its imams with advice regarding and implementing the destruction of both man and his heritage. Maybe western nations should change the wording for physical crimes committed against cultural sites from hate crimes to crimes against humanity.

    • James Lincoln says

      Jan 8, 2020 at 9:06 pm

      Mortimer,

      That is true.

      Analogous to “human” shields, mosques are often “cultural” shields.

    • J D.S says

      Jan 9, 2020 at 9:04 am

      War crime schmore crime ..When One is fighting Satan …anything goes.
      Iran would not last very long in a war and they don’t really don’t want a war with the U.S.

    • Naildriver says

      Jan 9, 2020 at 9:51 am

      Islam is an active enemy. This is why Islam itself needs to be implicated since this hiding behind protected cultural sites is to be expected. Trump was correct to say’… it doesn’t work that way’.
      In fact Islam as an active enemy, it may be useful to target Mecca itself.
      No mosque or shrine should be above a he’ll fire or thousand pound bunker buster.

    • Daniel Triplett says

      Jan 9, 2020 at 5:29 pm

      When our enemy uses “cultural sites” as garrisons and ammo dumps, they’re no longer cultural sites, they’re military targets.

  2. roberta says

    Jan 8, 2020 at 9:25 am

    I would love to ”push the button” on Iran’s cultural and religious sites, but it is probably not a good first option. Our other enemies are watching, it is best to obscure our technologies and strategy. Only showing what cards we have to in order to get the job done is best.
    But how sweet it would be to dust some mosque. Delicious.

    • mortimer says

      Jan 8, 2020 at 9:46 am

      Civilized people resist the urge to be vindictive. Islam contains a doctrine of compulsory revenge. Do you want Muslims to take retribution and destroy the Vatican filled with art treasures? Did Muslim arsonists destroy Notre Dame cathedral?

      An eye for an eye means we all go blind. – proverb

      • Lloyd Miller says

        Jan 8, 2020 at 10:05 am

        Islam is an ugly blot on our world that must be eliminated. Not the people, but the philosophy of submission and conquest hiding behind religion.

        • Tangata says

          Jan 8, 2020 at 10:25 am

          You can do this by supporting the work of Dan Gibson, Jay Smith of Pfander and Al-Fadi of CIRA International by exposing the lies in the factual history and the foundational sources of Islam.

      • Trick_or_Treat says

        Jan 8, 2020 at 10:25 am

        That great ediface to Satan called the Vatican being torn down so not one pretty stone remains mortared to the other? Oh how would some of us love to see that with our own eyes. Probably about the one and only worthwhile endeavour and improvement to this world I’d ever give the muslims a helping hand with.

        • Trick_or_Treat says

          Jan 8, 2020 at 10:25 am

          …edifice

        • gravenimage says

          Jan 8, 2020 at 12:58 pm

          Wait–you want to help Muslims destroy the Vatican? Don’t you care that little would so embolden Muslims as to take down the largest and most ancient seat of Christendom?

      • gravenimage says

        Jan 8, 2020 at 12:34 pm

        Mortimer, your idea that Muslims will only target Infidel cultural heritage sites if anything in Iran is attacked is quite mistaken.

      • Naildriver says

        Jan 9, 2020 at 10:10 am

        You sound like Hillary in the Trump debate; where she claimed that denying Muslims immigration would anger Muslims and produce terrorists.
        Mortimer, standing up to Muslims always does promote threat — because this is why Islam is the enemy, among other reasons. Islam should be obliterated. Islam is not ok.

  3. Haroldp says

    Jan 8, 2020 at 9:31 am

    I get the feeling that in any conflict between Iran and the US the Democrats and the mainstream US media is rooting for Iran.

    • mortimer says

      Jan 8, 2020 at 9:48 am

      The NYT tried to make Soleimani a hero.

    • gravenimage says

      Jan 8, 2020 at 12:59 pm

      Grimly true, Harold and Mortimer.

  4. Emilie Green says

    Jan 8, 2020 at 9:56 am

    Lets just move one of their “cultural” sites to another place, like this,

    http://tundratabloids.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/kaaba+2.jpg

  5. Trick_or_Treat says

    Jan 8, 2020 at 10:11 am

    They utilize their ‘cultural sites’ (sometimes known as ‘mosques’) as armouries and repositories for weapons and munitions. If /WHEN the “S’ hits the ‘F’ then (as Niké says) JUST F**KING DO IT! Convert every last one of them to fine cracker dust!
    Remember, these cretins from hell have, for years now, been marching the length and breadth of the planet blowing up and burning down Christian churches, and heritage and cultural sites WHOLESALE. Who really gives a rat’s arse about what piss-pot nobodies like Pelosi over in America, ir anyone like her thinks?!. WHEN the ‘S’ hits the ‘F’, ALL is fair, and ‘fair game’ – yes KARMA can be a bitch!

  6. Infidel says

    Jan 8, 2020 at 10:21 am

    I’m w/ the president on this. Like he said, they can freely use IEDs, attack civilians and blow up US soldiers and kill contractors, but their cultural sites are to be off-limits? It doesn’t work that way. I’m disappointed that he walked that back yesterday after the Pentagon said that that’s not the plan.

    Pete Hegseth put it best on The Five on Monday, when he said, “Frankly, I don’t care about Iran’s cultural sites. If they had that power and capability, Iran would not hesitate to destroy every one of our cultural sites and build a mosque over them”. Juan Williams had no response.

    Since the US – even the Trump Administration – doesn’t seem to formally recognize Islam as a hostile force, I don’t expect them to blow up traditional shi’ite sites in Iran, like in Qum or Mashed. But one cultural site that the US could and should take out, if things escalate, would be the Mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomenei in Teheran. The Iranians put a ton of cash into it, and nothing would demoralize them more than seeing that one destroyed

    • Peter35 says

      Jan 8, 2020 at 4:17 pm

      I’m with you Infidel, westerners have been far, far too forgiving, complacent, grovelling, naive and downright stupid when dealing with islam and it’s certifiably mad adherents.
      Another one that should be taken out is that abomination on ‘the rock’ in Jerusalem.
      As moslems say, we are in WW3; the west stupidly refuses to admit it, and now to make matters worse the entire western world has been infiltrated by thee enemy.

    • Trick_or_Treat says

      Jan 9, 2020 at 7:58 pm

      Didn’t the frenzied nutters already tear old Khomenei’s body to confetti? I remember that ‘funeral’ well. As one of Australia’s most well known and loved iconic ‘Shock Jocks’ [John Laws] noted at the time, the way Khomenei’s funeral went, it looked like everybody managed to take home a piece of him!
      [We still love ya John]

      • Infidel says

        Jan 9, 2020 at 9:07 pm

        I faintly remember that funeral, but what I remember is that the procession was so chaotic that at one point, his body fell out of the casket, and had to be put back in. I don’t recall it being lynched and taken as souvenir pieces, but then again, I only faintly remember it

  7. somehistory says

    Jan 8, 2020 at 11:55 am

    Let us compare “crimes” and “laws.”

    If one man strikes another and causes the death of the “victim,” this is usually seen as a “crime.” However, if the one being hit is receiving a “sentence” in Court for crimes committed, or, if the one being struck is attempting to murder another, or rape another, this will be labeled much differently in a Court of Law than it would be if the “victim” is innocent of any wrongdoing.

    So, a moslim goes out to a “cultural site” of another ‘religion’ or community, and sets fire to it, or sets off a demolition to bring destruction and this is seen as a “crime” by the international community, does this fact then mean that at no time can a “cultural site” be destroyed without the act being a crime?

    It does not. If the destruction of the “cultural site” is done to rid the area of a place where weapons are stored, bombs are constructed, terror plans are hatched, hide the enemy from justice, etc., then this is an entirely different thing than just destroying something to hurt the sensibilities of those who constructed the site, or who, in some way, benefit from the site.

    One should look at all of the graves of Jews and Christians…even those from ancient times…destroyed by moslims in this century, so little of which has passed. How many of those were “condemned” by the world community, how many were labeled “crimes” to humanity? There is a saying, “What goes around, comes around.”

    And to the comment above about “an eye for an eye” leading to everyone becoming blind…that person should recall how many times he has brought up what Christians are supposed to do, or what the Bible says. The Law given to Israel said, “An eye for an eye.” This was a warning as much as it was a sentence.

  8. gravenimage says

    Jan 8, 2020 at 12:10 pm

    CNN claims Trump’s threat to attack Iranian cultural sites could be a “war crime”
    …………….

    Funny how CNN never considers murdering Americans to be a war crime…

    • GreekEmpress says

      Jan 8, 2020 at 8:24 pm

      On a positive note, I heard CNN settled the lawsuit filed by Nicolas Sandman for the terrible slander they heaped on him.
      I hope he got MILLIONS!

      • gravenimage says

        Jan 11, 2020 at 1:15 am

        Thanks for that information, GreekEmpress.

  9. Gamzu says

    Jan 8, 2020 at 6:54 pm

    Is a site “important to Iranian culture”(Trump’s words) identical to a “cultural site?” One could argue that the White House, the U.S. Capitol, West Point, the Empire State Building, the Golden Gate Bridge, etc., are all important to U.S. culture, but they’re not cultural sites. They’re governmental, military, commercial or economic infrastructure sites.

  10. Battle says

    Jan 8, 2020 at 7:58 pm

    CNN is a war crime.

  11. Alex Greer says

    Jan 9, 2020 at 5:13 am

    I believe that if a “cultural site” is being used for military purposes it loses its protective status.

  12. David Ashton says

    Jan 9, 2020 at 8:36 am

    You do not have to be an Islamophile to regret a threat to destroy “cultural” sites in other countries. Why not explode a giant nuclear weapon over Mecca at the height of the Hajj? What is it about Trump that makes him look like an uncultured yobbo and his American supporters as brash barbarians? I remember our honeymoon in Paris when we visited the Notre Dame Cathedral and were followed inside by “typical” US tourists, of which one female specimen in a skirt that reached her gym shoes quacked in a multi-decibel voice: “Gee, don’t these people [the French] have any ELECTRIC LGHT in these places [of Christian worship]?”

    • Infidel says

      Jan 9, 2020 at 9:12 pm

      In the weeks following 9/11, something like a nuke on top of Mecca would have been completely justified.

      As it is, most islamic cultural sites were built on the ruins of razed Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian and Hindu temples. In other words, these ‘cultural’ sites were built by destroying other cultural sites. Heck, even the Ka’aba was itself a religious shrine of the pre-Islamic pagans before Mohammed conquered Mecca and leveled all the shrines, except that one, probably b’cos it was too big to destroy.

      At any rate, while the Pentagon has denied that a destruction of cultural sites is in the plans, destroying cultural sites built during this regime is fair game. Such as the mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomenei near Teheran

  13. OLD GUY says

    Jan 9, 2020 at 11:45 am

    Islam will not hesitate to destroy “cultural” sites. Once again they will use civilized rules against the civilized, that is part of their plan to destroy christians around the world. The act of war is the death and destruction of ones enemy. Its hard to defeat an enemy with your hands tied behind your back, or with having to consult your attorney before you can return fire.

    • Trick_or_Treat says

      Jan 9, 2020 at 8:07 pm

      ….or consult constitutional monarch, ‘Queen Nancy’, pleading to be granted permission to do so.

  14. Giacomo Latta says

    Jan 9, 2020 at 1:32 pm

    The capitalist system is part of my culture. Let’s see, I vaguely remember an attack by 20 rat-faced muslims against a couple of towers in NYC. Seems like the gloves are off to me.

  15. toomanyhobbies says

    Jan 9, 2020 at 7:41 pm

    but as the CULT has hacked it’s way though irreplaceable cultural sites they have been silent…

  16. Frank Anderson says

    Jan 11, 2020 at 9:47 am

    Does anybody remember when the “Tah-Lee-Ban” used 2 ancient statues of Buddha that were carved into a mountainside in Afghanistan for tank target practice?

    Where was the “concern” or the war crimes charges then?

    Oh, that was different. Muslims are not bound by human laws; therefore they cannot commit war crimes. Only non-muslims can commit and be charged with war crimes.

    Sounds fair and reasonable to me? When was the last time a muslim was charged and prosecuted for a war crime?

    How many others? How about the 2 divisions that joined the Nazis and slaughtered their way through Yugoslavia? And the US is stupid enough to think peace negotiations will work? They worked well for Hitler and Chamberlain/Daladier!.

  17. TheBuffster says

    Jan 16, 2020 at 9:34 pm

    Maybe the war crime should be hiding weapons and terrorists inside cultural sites, thus making it necessary for the people they’ve been bombing and terrorizing to have to attack those sites in order to defend themselves.

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