Here is my brainchild for setting precedent holding intelligence agencies and their political enablers responsible for war crimes. This is a true copy of my 3 July 2018 filing with the International Criminal Court, updates will be added below.
Dear Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court
Thank you for the invitation to formalize my complaint concerning the crime of sarin gas employed at Ghouta, Syria, in August of 2013.
I
Under customary international law, aiding and abetting war crimes includes three elements:
(1) A Principal person or entity committed a war crime;
(2) Another actor committed an act that had a substantial effect upon the commission of the underlying offence; and
(3) Required mental state: The other actor knew that that such an act would assist, or had the substantial likelihood of assisting, the commission of the underlying offense.
Notice what is missing. There is no requirement that the accomplice had the purpose or desire to facilitate the underlying offence.
II
1) Turkey, a NATO nation, via its’ intelligence agency MIT, conspired with al Qaida (a proposed clandestine NATO affiliate) to commit a war crime, that is the (false flag) gassing and death of more than one thousand civilians at Ghouta, Syria, in August, 2013.
2) Officials of NATO actor Germany, a signatory to The Rome Statute, provided ‘cover’ via propaganda and other, related means (e.g. laundering false information to media via parliamentary oversight) allowing the actual perpetrators to escape scrutiny despite German intelligence knowing:
3) Such act (immediate preceding) substantially would assist the commission of the specified crime or in other words, enable false-flag impunity.
https://ronaldthomaswest.com/2018/04/15/what-can-be-known-vs-what-will-be-known/
III
Arts 49/50/129/146 of the four Geneva Conventions (1949) requiring the Member States to prosecute and punish all ‘persons’ who commit grave breaches (Ambos [2014] 146). Accordingly, the Elements of Crimes of the ICC Statute do not provide an explicit note for the category of perpetrators as there was no dissent during the negotiations at the Rome Conference that war crimes can be committed by both members of armed forces and civilians (Dörmann, Elements of War Crimes [2003] 391).
http://opil.ouplaw.com/view/10.1093/law:epil/9780199231690/law-9780199231690-e431
IV
Going to the immediate preceding (III), this petitioner to the International Criminal Court (Ronald Thomas West) holds persons in any government signatory to the Rome Statute are prohibited from aiding and abetting a war crime or crime against humanity no matter the crime had been outside the courts purview (non-signatory state) when the aiding and abetting is committed within the courts purview (a signatory state.) This would include certain Western democracies intelligence agencies employees and aligned politicians providing cover for perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Named persons of the German federal security service and responsible politicians (Bundesnachrichtendienst) who’ve proactively (provided false information) or passively (allowed false information) to purposely aid and abet the actual perpetrators (Turkey’s MIT in partnership with al-Qaida) of the (false flag) gas attack at Ghouta, Syria in August 2013 include (but is not limited to) past president of BND Gerhard Schindler, present president of BND Bruno Kahl, Helge Braun (oversight minister) and Angela Merkel.
Named persons directing the German office of the Federal Prosecutor (Generalbundesanwalt/Generalbundesanwältin) who’ve failed to investigate and prosecute domestically and internationally (universal jurisdiction for war crimes or Völkerstrafgesetzbuch) are Harald Range and Peter Frank.
Named German parliamentarians (leadership and/or senior members) who’ve been in possession (since at least December 2015) of exculpatory evidence exonerating President Bashar al Assad and his officials and military of the sarin attack at Ghouta, Syria, in August 2013 and have failed to take appropriate action to bring the German intelligence service and/or German political actors into compliance with established facts per international law and consequently protected a NATO actor and their al-Qaida partners from the light as the actual perpetrators include (but are not limited to) Hans-Christian Stroebele, Ulla Jelpke, Irene Mihalic, Michael Hartmann, Armin Schuster, Norbert Lammert, Peter Hintze, Johannes Singhammer, Edelgard Bulmahn, Ursula Schmidt, Petra Pau, Claudia Roth, Marieluise Beck, Omid Nouripour, Stefan Liebich, Niels Annen, Roderich Kiesewetter and Gregor Gysi.
https://ronaldthomaswest.com/2015/12/07/send-a-letter/
V
To contextualize the long habit of Western intelligence agencies sponsoring and/or aiding and abetting false-flag state terror it is recommended the ICC prosecutor review the history of GLADIO:
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Operation_Gladio
and moving into present time with GLADIO B:
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Operation_Gladio/B
For a larger understanding of the underlying or founding criminal nature/background of Germany’s Bundesnachrichtendienst it is recommended the ICC prosecutor review the BND origins and history of the Gehlen Organization:
https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB146/
To understand German officials presently in power continue to play underhanded widely in the present geopolitical era, this information is provided:
https://ronaldthomaswest.com/2014/03/25/germanys-martyrs-of-the-maidan/
Contextualizing the NATO nations (includes Rome Statute signatory Germany) intelligence agencies relationship to the chemical crimes of al-Qaida in Syria, it is recommended the ICC prosecutor examine the journalism of Vanessa Beeley concerning the so-called White Helmets:
Buttressing the Turkish MP Eren Erdem’s statement ‘rebel’ (al-Qaida) chemicals were sourced in Europe, is Russian military intelligence:
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201806221065657552-chemical-weapons-russia-syria-europe/
Conclusion
Western intelligence agencies have a long history of underhanded play (criminal activity.) In the case of Germany’s BND aiding and abetting al-Qaida in Syria, there is strong evidence prima facie of deliberately laundering false information through the Federal German Parliament (Bundestag) intelligence oversight committee to media effecting the coverup (concealing the actual perpetrators) of a war crime involving sarin gas, per the original information provided to the ICC as amended:
What Can Be Known Versus What Will Be Known
Likely, it will only be a matter time before the CIA editors at Wikipedia will change the recently updated information in the above (cropped-enlarged screenshot) Wikipedia article last updated 4 April 2018:
“Erdem also claims that sarin-gas was transported through Turkey to Syria, later used in the Ghouta chemical attack in 2013,[4][5] as well as later ISIL-attacks against civilians.[6] Erdem showed before the parliament a case where investigations leading to the arrest of 13 potential Turkish ISIL-members were made, but later inexplicably dropped.[7][8]
“Erdem faces treason charges in Turkey for his leaks.[5]“
What is Turkish Member of Parliament Eren Erdem on record as having stated? Speaking of a copy in his possession of the Adana Prosecutor’s criminal case 2013/120 that was quashed by Erdogan’s people:
“There is data in this indictment. Chemical weapon materials are being brought to Turkey and being put together in Syria in camps of ISIS which was known as Iraqi Al Qaeda during that time
“These are all detected. There are phone recordings of this shipment like ‘don’t worry about the border, we’ll take care of it’ and we also see the bureaucracy is being used
“About the shipment, Republic prosecutor of Adana, Mehmet Arıkan, made an operation and the related people were detained. But as far as I understand he was not an influential person in bureaucracy. A week after, another public prosecutor was assigned, took over the indictment and all the detainees were released. And they left Turkey crossing the Syrian border
“The phone recordings in the indictment showed all the details from how the shipment was going to be made to how it was prepared, from the content of the labs to the source of the materials. Which trucks were going to be used, all dates etc. From A to Z, everything was discussed and recorded. Despite all of this evidence, the suspects were released
“And the shipment happened, because no one stopped them. That’s why maybe the sarin gas used in Syria is a result of this
“When I read the indictment, I saw clearly that these people have relationships with The Machinery and Chemical Industry Institution of Turkey and they don’t have any worries about crossing the border
“For example in Hayyam Kasap’s phone records, you hear him saying sarin gas many times, saying that the ateliers are ready for production, materials are waiting in trucks which were supposedly carrying club soda
“For example the chemical attack in Ghouta. Remember. It was claimed that the regime forces were behind it. This attack was conducted just days before the sarin operation in Turkey
“It’s a high probability that this attack was carried out with those basic materials shipped through Turkey. It is said the regime forces are responsible but the indictment says it’s ISIS. UN inspectors went to the site but they couldn’t find any evidence. But in this indictment, we’ve found the evidence. We know who used the sarin gas, and our government knows it too
“All basic materials are purchased from Europe. Western institutions should question themselves about these relations. Western sources know very well who carried out the sarin gas attack in Syria. They know these people, they know who these people are working with, they know that these people are working for Al-Qaeda. I think is Westerns are hypocrites about the situation”
What more can be known?
1) The German Parliament’s leadership (all political parties), as well the German Federal Prosecutor, had been apprised of the preceding by yours truly on 2 December 2015:
Dear Members of the German Parliament
I wish to draw attention to recent information regarding your NATO ally Turkey. Last month it had been revealed by two courageous members of Turkey’s parliament that in fact it was Turkey’s federal intelligence services were behind the August 2013 Sarin gas attack, killing more than one thousand ordinary Syrians, an attack NATO nations had blamed on the regime of Basher al-Assad. Your own Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) should have been aware of this fact from very nearly the beginning, as they have been proactively engaged in Syria and the Syrian conflict, as well as spying on Turkey.
What’s more is, state actor Turkey initiating the Sarin attack is not some undocumented allegation. As you can see from the attached reporting, there was a proper investigation by Turkish authorities with developed evidence and indictments. I regret to inform you in this case, President Erdogan personally initiated the prosecution that last week saw the editor of the newspaper reporting put in jail.
This raises strong questions of possible BND criminal complicity considering Germany’s support for certain NATO nations directly in relation to the Syrian conflict. What did the BND know and when? Has the BND, when passing intelligence on Syria to Assad’s opposition through its NATO allies, supported the actors who gassed the Syrians? Is Germany’s supportive relationship to the Erdogan government a lawful one, in light of this evidence? Has the BND contributed to the geopolitical disinformation blaming Assad for the August 2013 Sarin attack? Has your parliament been deceived in this matter, particularly your intelligence oversight committee?
Clearly the Sarin case, considering Germany, as a knowledgeable or complicit actor in Syria, should be pursued against the Turkey via the legal mechanism of Völkerstrafgesetzbuch, as well as domestic prosecutions of those German officials, noting the BND particularly, who’ve failed in their reporting requirements and/or conspired to conceal a war crime or crime against humanity.
These should be questions and demand you will present to the federal prosecutor.
Ron West
2) Germany’s foreign intelligence service (BND) lied to the German parliament’s intelligence oversight committee:
(Translated, highlighted text) “Berlin – The Federal Intelligence Service (BND) supports the assessment of the Americans that the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is behind the poison gas attacks on suburbs of Damascus on 21 August. In secret classified statements for security politicians, BND President Gerhard Schindler said a clear proof is missing. After an in-depth plausibility analysis, however, his ministry assumes that the regime is the culprit”
At Der Spiegel English:
[T]he country’s foreign intelligence agency, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), agrees with the US position which holds Syrian President Bashar Assad responsible for the poison gas attacks near Damascus on Aug. 21. In a secret briefing to select lawmakers on Monday, BND head Gerhard Schindler said that while there is still no incontestable proof, analysis of the evidence at hand has led his intelligence service to believe that Assad’s regime is to blame.
In the briefing, Schindler said that only the Assad regime is in possession of binary chemical weapons such as sarin. The BND believes that regime experts would be the only ones capable of manufacturing such weapons and deploying them with small missiles. The BND believes that such weapons had been used several times prior to the attack on Aug. 21, which is believed to have killed more than 1,400 people
3) We can know BND knew better because of intelligence officers who were too stupid to keep their mouths shut. In fact BND is not only competent in Syria, BND is dedicated to the overthrow of Assad:
The report quotes a US intelligence agent as saying: “No Western intelligence service has as good sources in Syria as the BND does.”
A member of the BND told the newspaper that the intelligence service was “proud of the important contribution [it] is making to the overthrow of the Assad regime.” The official was not named in the report
What will be known is, this is all information had been put before German parliamentarians and has been in their possession for the past two years, even as Angela Merkel parrots the intelligence agencies “Assad did it” no matter Assad didn’t do it, has never done it.
What is ugly is, German politicians accept being lied to by their own intelligence agency while keeping their mouths shut and sitting on their hands when in possession of evidence of the actual perpetrators of a war crime.
And, let’s not forget the sarin gas precursor chemicals were originally sourced or originated IN EUROPE, prior to transiting Turkey via a NATO nation’s intelligence agency (with complicity of intelligence agencies, plural, BND has covered this up), and delivered into the hands of al Qaida & Islamic State.
What should this covering up facts of a crime of poison gas recall? Angela Merkel’s political party’s origins with Adenauer welcoming Nazis into the Christian Democrats’ ranks? The BND founded by the CIA’s rehabilitation of major war criminal Reinhard Gehlen? Is it true Germany has never shed certain Nazi spots?
- “Leaked wiretaps of ISIS agents show Ankara routinely ignores terrorist cross-border activity”
- “Calling (Again) for Proof: 2013 Sarin Attack at Ghouta”
- “Turkish MP faces treason charges after telling RT ISIS used Turkey for transiting sarin”
- “Explosive claims about where ISIS obtained chemical weapons from”
- “Sarin gas materials sent to Isis from Turkey, claims MP Eren Erdem
- “Post Palmyra Liberation: The Islamic State (ISIS) Still a Threat. Washington Seeks the “Partition of Syria””
- “Erdogan’s son-in-law ‘linked to Isis oil trade’ | The Times”
- “IS and Russia Could Exploit Turkey’s Political Divisions”
- “Turkish journalists who reported on alleged arms smuggling to Syria terror groups have trial adjourned
- “Top Turkish ‘traitors’ according to Erdogan and Davutoglu”
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eren_Erdem
- http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/syrien-bnd-faengt-beleg-fuer-giftgaseinsatz-durch-assad-regime-ab-a-919965.html
- http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/german-intelligence-contributes-to-fact-finding-on-syria-gas-attack-a-920123.html
- http://www.dw.com/en/german-spy-ship-aiding-syrian-rebels-report/a-16177482
- https://ronaldthomaswest.com/2014/03/25/germanys-martyrs-of-the-maidan/
- https://ronaldthomaswest.com/2018/04/08/open-letter-to-die-linke/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_Gysi#German_Parliament
- https://ronaldthomaswest.com/2018/04/15/what-can-be-known-vs-what-will-be-known/
online record/reference:
On Jul 3, 2018, at 2:19 PM, OTP InformationDesk <OTP.InformationDesk@icc-cpi.int> wrote:
Dear Sir/Madam,
Thank you for your message. Please note that the International Criminal Court has a very limited jurisdiction. The Court may only address the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes as defined by Articles 6 to 8 of the Rome Statute that have occurred after 2002, and can only exercise jurisdiction in the countries that have ratified it. For more information on the Court’s jurisdiction and the full text of the Rome Statute, please refer to page 2 of the attached document and our website as well as our address, http://www.icc-cpi.int. We encourage you to carefully review this information.
If, after your careful review, you still believe the ICC is the correct place for your case and would like to submit a claim to the Court, then please follow the directions for how to do so on page 1 of the attached document. If you decide to submit information, kindly use only this email address : otp.informationdesk@icc-cpi.int.
Kind regards,
OTP Information Desk
International Criminal Court
5 July 2018 correction, in section IV, the name ‘Gerhard Schroeder, has been corrected to Gerhard Schindler (past president of the BND.) The ICC has been notified of this correction.
9 July 2018 update: The following communication received from the ICC:
The Hague, 9 July 2018
Dear sir/madam
The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court acknowledges receipt of your documents/letter.
This communication has been duly entered in the Communications Register of the Office. We will give consideration to this communication, as appropriate, in accordance with the provisions of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Please note this acknowledgement letter does not mean an investigation has been opened, nor that an investigation will be opened by the Office of the Prosecutor.
As soon as a decision is reached, we will inform you, in writing, and provide you with reasons for this decision.
Yours sincerely,
Mark P. Dillon,
Head of Information & Evidence Unit
Office of The Prosecutor
*
A meta-data (background/history) overview of the ICC complaint HERE
*
22 February 2019 update (new Post) HERE
A former Special Forces Sergeant of Operations and Intelligence, Ronald Thomas West is a retired investigator (living in exile) whose work focus had been anti-corruption. Ronald is published in International Law as a layman (The Mueller-Wilson Report, co-authored with Dr Mark D Cole) and has been adjunct professor of American Constitutional Law at Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany (for English credit, summer semester 2008.) Ronald’s Western educational background (no degree) is social psychology. His therapeutic device is satire.
Ronald Thomas West 