National Union MK calls for international arrest warrants for US government leaders

MK Michael Ben Ari on Monday filed an official complaint to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon in which he called to hold US leaders accountable for what he said were war crimes in Iraq following the Wikileaks document exposure on Friday.

In the letter, which bears the Knesset logo, Ben Ari wrote, "Recently, the world has been shocked from the publication of reports which detail torture and war crimes in Iraq. I call on the UN to condemn the behavior of the US and especially its attempts to hide the facts."

Ben Ari continued, "I am convinced that Judge Goldstone can offer his experience and integrity, in favor of the necessary investigation."

"Until the investigation is initiated, I suggest international arrest warrants for US government leaders," proposed the National Union MK.

"We need to expose the hypocrisy of the West," said Ben Ari. "The world must understand who the criminals are."

WikiLeaks published almost 400,000 US military logs, mainly written by soldiers on the ground, detailing daily carnage in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion in Iraq: detainees abused by Iraqi forces, insurgent bombings, sectarian executions and civilians shot at checkpoints by US troops.

Iraq Body Count, a private British-based group that has tracked the number of civilians killed since the war started in March 2003, said it had analyzed the information and found 15,000 previously unreported deaths in the WikiLeaks documents released Friday.

http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=192696