Another Look at 1/6. Last month, prior to interviewing Jeremy R. Hammond for my podcast, I discovered a trove of documents submitted to the UN Human Rights Council by the Planetary Association for Clean Energy.
One of their writers for the 49th session of the Human Rights Council pulled out at the eleventh hour and I was asked whether I would like to take his spot.
PACE's status allows it to submit documents to the Human Rights Council, which may or may not be reported upon by Special Rapporteurs.
On February 7, 2022 PACE submitted this document to the UN Human Rights Council with literally one minute left before the automated system was shut down.
On January 18, 2021, Special Rapporteurs of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights released a statement in which they condemned the "Violent attempt to overturn the results of a free and fair election at the United States Capitol on 6 January", referring to the event as "Shocking and incendiary".
The subsequent crackdown on the Jan. 6 protesters by U.S. security services, the physical abuse of arrested protesters, and the surveillance and intimidation of their political supporters throughout the United States, all constitute a massive violation of UN human rights norms, as set forth in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and others.
Since January 6, more than 700 people have been arrested; 70 men are under pre-trial detention orders, including about 40 who are in a political prison in Washington DC specifically affected for January 6 detainees.
Also being withheld from defendants are the transcripts of the January 6 Committee's interviews with Ray Epps, one of the ringleaders on the ground caught on numerous tapes urging and directing protestors to 'go INTO the Capitol', both on January 5 and January 6.
From a human rights' standpoint, the unjust treatment of these political prisoners is clear to any man or woman of honor claiming to support the three cornerstones of our legal system: the blind application of the law, the presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial.
The denial of their Constitutional rights of free speech, free assembly, and free and fair elections, should also appal anyone who purports to advocate for freedom, individual liberties or 'democracy'.
Several members of Congress, such as Sen. Ron Johnson, have sought answers regarding the treatment of January 6 detainees, prosecutorial overreach, scope of discovery and other abuses of powers from the DOJ, the FBI, and the January 6 Committee whose tactics the New York Times of February 6, 2022 even referred to as prosecutorial, in contrast to more common techniques reserved for congressional inquiries.
House Majority Leader and January 6 Committee initiator, Nancy Pelosi, refused to heighten security on Capitol grounds on six consecutive occasions, despite being forewarned ahead of the march.
Not much clarification can be expected from these essential questions, as Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray, among figureheads from the Department of Defense, all join in the political ruling class' chorus of 'white supremacy' and 'domestic terrorism' constituting the greatest threat to America today, and the justification for their crackdown on citizens' rights.
January 6 is not the first event used as a pretext to inflate the surveillance state machine and weaponize the national security apparatus against US citizens.
In the same manner 9/11 and the 'war on terror' was used to justify the passage of the Patriot Act in 2002, January 6 and this 'new war on terror' are being used to justify this latest expansion of the security state.
January 6 is also not the first FBI-led entrapment operation.
The alleged plot to kidnap Michigan's Governor Whitmer a few months prior, was revealed to have been set up by agents and informants as well, among other similarities with January 6.
Coincidentally, Steven M. D'Antuono, chief of the FBI Detroit field office who oversaw the Whitmer case, was promoted by FBI Director Christopher Wray to head the Washington D.C. field office a mere few weeks before January 6.
Reports of U.S. journalists make it increasingly obvious that the so-called "Insurrection" of January 6 was largely, if not entirely, a government-orchestrated provocation, whereby a peaceful protest was infiltrated by "Pseudo-insurgent forces," exactly as prescribed by well-known US Army counterinsurgency doctrine.
International human rights monitors, including the OHCHR, have shown a puzzling lack of interest in the obvious human rights abuses being reported.
Since the inception of the United Nations, critics in the developing world have accused the UN of being an instrument of neocolonialism, eager to point out human rights violations in developing countries, but treating human rights violations by developed Western powers with proverbial kid gloves.
We respectfully urge the OHCHR to reconsider its January 18, 2021 statement, in light of new evidence, and to take forceful action against the grievious human rights violations now being unleashed against political dissidents by US security services.
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