Comments on: Jordanian Government Lies, AGAIN

By: bambam

bambam — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 10:58:20 +0000

so let me get this straight craig, you deny that the US ever used extraordinary rendition and that people who are not charged with any crime are criminals, and they are not protected by the geneva convention ? no point in arguing with that ! or is it ? **editor didn't translate HTML, sorry

By: bambam

bambam — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 10:55:35 +0000

By: Craig

Craig — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 20:07:03 +0000

The ICRC DOES do humanitarian work. They put up campsites in Jordan during the first Gulf War. They trace missing persons and do a lot of other humanitarian work in Palestine and round the world.

Yes, they do. But they do that work as a private humanitarian organization. It isn’t part of the role that is defined for them in the Geneva Conventions. And it is the Geneva Conventions that we are talking about, here.

The red cross symbol was taken from the Swiss flag and the colours turned round and the crescent symbol is from the Turkish flags. I do agree that people take these symbols as religious ones but they were not intended as such.

And how did a cross come to be on the swiss flag!? Or a Crescent on the Turkish flag? People see these as religious symbols because they ARE religious symbols. And, they were intended to be religious symbols, all along. And most humanitarian agencies have their roots in religious charitable associations. International humanitarian agencies are prohibited by law from incorporating any religious beliefs into their missions, but those roots remain nontheless. OK, for real this time, I’d like to get back on topic if possible :)

By: Craig

Craig — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 19:11:23 +0000

T, you are simply wrong. You’ve over-analyzed, and ghotten yourself confused. Reading this link may help you:

http://www.redcrosswesterncolorado.org/internationalredcross.html

However, I’ not going to argue this issue with you any further. It is off topic by two levels of abstraction. This man doesn’t have Geneva Convention protections, which was my first point. And my second was that Jordan doesn’t ahve a Red Cross society, but a Red Crescent society.

By: T

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:29:26 +0000

Craig - First of all the National Societies come under the IFRC NOT the ICRC. The IFRC is the International Federation of the Red Cross/Red Crescent Societies. As for the Indonesian Red Cross please look at their web site and you will see the Red Cross symbol in the corner. The ICRC DOES do humanitarian work. They put up campsites in Jordan during the first Gulf War. They trace missing persons and do a lot of other humanitarian work in Palestine and round the world. The red cross symbol was taken from the Swiss flag and the colours turned round and the crescent symbol is from the Turkish flags. I do agree that people take these symbols as religious ones but they were not intended as such. As for MDA in Israel, when they are overseas they now use the third symbol which is the Red Crystal.
The Jordan Red Crescent has no authority to go into prisons and inspect them it is given by governments to the ICRC. T

By: dreamessence

dreamessence — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:16:53 +0000

Unfortunately, this blatant denial of facts has become a widespread practice of many governments of the world. It is a sad world that we live in.

By: Onzlo

Onzlo — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 10:00:54 +0000

Actually Israel uses the star of David for its national society instead of the red cross (Magen adom)

By: Craig

Craig — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 09:13:55 +0000

Sorry, Tololy! I knew that! Just a typo :)

PPPPPPPPS to T:

The only nations who don’t use the symbol of the Red Cross for their national societies are Muslim nations, and that’s because they objected to the Christian symbolism. So, I think it’s a bit disingenuous to claim the Red Cross is not seen as “Christian”, in a Muslim country like Jordan. This journalist should have been aware of that. But wasn’t.

By: Tololy

Tololy — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 09:08:48 +0000

I am not “T.”

By: Craig

Craig — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 09:01:47 +0000

Amd yet another thing! (sorry)

What is this about the “Indonesian Red Cross”? The national society in Indonesia is called ”Palang Merah Indonesia” (PMI).