Article 6: Confronting the World's Chief Criminal

So, brother Shahid, at this point in time, is there anything that I that you think that you could add that is important for the people listening right now?

Well, I think that you covered some of just just a handful, just a just a sampling of the violations that America has committed all around the world. But I think we all are aware that this is a it's so common that that I mean, when we talk about America, we talk about it being an imperial power. We talk about American hegemony. We talk about American domination of the globe. This is something that Americans themselves will brag about.

So it's not something that you can deny and brag about it at the same time. We all know that America has committed atrocity after atrocity after atrocity and has committed violence in country after country after country. Just giving a sampling of it here for people to to to let you have a better idea more in detail about one or two particular countries or three particular countries. And that even those countries, when we're talking about, for example, what brother said about Syria or about Puerto Rico or what sister said about The Philippines, even what they were talking about, even what they were referring to was just within the first ten years of the UN's existence. We're not even talking about all of the crimes that have been committed in those countries subsequent to the nineteen fifties, throughout the nineteen sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties, February until now.

Because they're ongoing. And and again, that's just a handful of countries, but you can look throughout the entirety of the Western Hemisphere in Central And South America, and go country by country, and and you could do an in-depth study that would be exhaustive in how many crimes The US has committed in that particular country, say, Nicaragua, or El Salvador, or Honduras, or Panama, or go to down to Argentina, or to Venezuela, or to Brazil, or Bolivia, any country that you want in the Western Hemisphere. Just just in their own hemisphere, you would have sufficient evidence for persistent, consistent, and insistent violations of the UN Charter committed by The United States. Then if you move over to Africa, well, this is a much more exhaustive catalog of atrocities and crimes that America has committed and is committing until today. As I say, I think we're all aware of it.

But I think that what we don't understand, this isn't this is the important sort of point for clarification in most people's minds. Most people think that America has done all of these crimes, has committed all of these crimes, and is able to impose its hegemony and its domination all around the globe. Most people think that what has enabled America to do that is America's power, is their military power, or their economic power, or what have you. And I think this is what has to be clarified. What has actually enabled America to commit all of those crimes all around the world, commit crimes internationally, has been the impunity that they have secured for themselves by their control and domination of the United Nations, which is the only international body charged with the enforcement of international law.

Once you have dominated the, institution for the enforcement of international law, then you are now above the law and you can do as you like. And it's purge day every day for The United States on planet Earth because they have secured their impunity. It's like I've I've talked about before. It's like in those old cowboy movies where you have an outlaw who becomes the sheriff of a town and he has that little tin badge, and that little tin badge enables him to commit any crimes he wants because now he's the sheriff. So all of his crimes are now by definition legal.

That's what America has done. The United Nations, their their seat at the Security Council and their veto power, and their, funding of the UN, which has given them disproportionate control over the UN. They use all of that the same way that an outlaw uses a tin badge as a sheriff to legalize all of his crimes. And what article six does is rip that tin badge off of the outlaw's chest and puts him right before a judge, right before a court where he belongs, where he'll be judged for his crimes and held accountable for his crimes. That's what article six does.

It rips the tin badge sheriff badge off of an outlaw's chest and puts him where he belongs, which is in the docket. That's what that's where America belongs. It needs to be held accountable for its crimes And as long as they continue to dominate the institution for the enforcement of international law, well, they'll never be held accountable for their crimes, and they'll be able to continue committing those crimes. So this is why we are advocating for the invocation of Article six because this is a mechanism that exists in the UN Charter. It's a mechanism that exists in the law.

It doesn't require any new innovation in terms of law. It doesn't require any new amendment to the UN Charter. It doesn't require any particular new sort of social movement or what have you. All it is is calling for the, implementation of what's already there on paper. All it is is calling for the implementation of the actual charter.

What is the contract? The implementation of the contract that America signed. That they never thought they were ever gonna be held accountable to. They never thought that they would have to live up to the charter because they thought that their power would last forever and no one would ever be able to challenge them. But the world has changed significantly since 1947.

And we have reached a time when it is plausible, it is viable, it is feasible for us to invoke article six and have The United States expelled from the United Nations. And once they're expelled from the United Nations, then they can be held accountable according to international law.

Brother Shahid, please can you talk to us about the veto power and what effects it has on the way that The United States Of America uses and abuses the veto power?

Sure. The veto power is obviously one of the major ways that America has secured its impunity. In that, not only its impunity, but its ability to overrule everyone else on the planet. All other 193 countries in the UN, America is able to overrule them, and that's how they use their veto. They always use their veto as a form of internationalizing American policy against the wishes of the rest of the planet.

Now, other members of the Security Council obviously also have the veto power, but they don't use their veto power typically in the same way that America does. And so far as when, for example, formerly the Soviet Union and now Russia or China. I mean, France and The UK, it's not even worth talking about because they haven't even used their veto power in thirty years. They haven't even invoked the veto in like thirty years. And even still, France and The UK only sit on the Security Council basically to be backup for America generally.

That's historically been the case. So as long as America is there, can get out of bed and show up and veto something, then they don't need The UK or France to be there. If they can't make it that day, then France or the UK will veto on their behalf. That's the way it's been generally. But Russia, and China, when they veto something, when they veto a resolution at the UN, it's usually in support of the global majority.

They're usually vetoing a resolution put forward by The United States or Israel or one of their clients, and then China or Russia will veto it in favor of the global majority. In other words, the global consensus takes the same position as the position being taken by Russia or China. This is the opposite of what America does. America exercises its veto power precisely to overrule the global consensus and force upon the planet American policy. So this is an extremely damaging tool that America uses to enforce its hegemony and to keep all of the other nations of the world at bay, and to keep them mute, and to keep them paralyzed.

Why are we not therefore simply asking for a revocation of the veto power for America or for the security council generally? This is an important question. I know you didn't ask it, but it's an important point to address because there are movements, there are petitions, there are NGOs in all different parts of the world who are calling for the revocation of the veto power of all UN security members, Security Council members, or of The United States specifically. Well, why are we not supporting that? Because the veto is so damaging and it's so dangerous.

We should support that. Correct? No. Because that is an empty symbolic gesture that will never get anywhere. This is something, first of all, practically speaking, it will obviously not go anywhere because the moment you suggest or propose that, it has to go for the security council where America will immediately veto it.

And most likely, of the other security members security council members will also veto it because they want the veto power. So that's not a proposal that's going anywhere. It's a dead end from the beginning. And you would only ever advocate that just to make a symbolic point, in your own disapproval and your objection to the existence of the veto power, which is inherently unfair. It is inherently undemocratic, and it is a very valid and legitimate conversation to have, about why, any country should have the power to overrule the rest of the global consensus.

That's a very valid question. But on a very realistic and practical level, that issue is going nowhere, as long as America sits on the UN Security Council. You'll never make any headway whatsoever. You might make your own NGO look good. You might make your own organization look good and look like you're trying to do some sort of reform of the UN.

But let's be honest, there have been proposals for the revocation of the veto power my entire lifetime, by one country or another, by one organization or another, by one civil rights group or another. This is something that has been proposed so many times that it's like Lucy and Charlie Brown in the football. It's never gonna get anywhere. It's never going to happen. It's just a delay tactic to avoid facing what actually has to happen, which is the invocation of article six.

There's not another way to solve this problem, and every other measure is a half measure. Every other effort that you might make of some kind of UN reform to try to make the UN operate properly, everything else and anything else that you might propose and try to do is nothing but a half measure. It's not going to get anywhere. What you have to do is confront the problem directly. You have to confront the problem directly.

Not to mention the fact that just like the the the cases that were talked about earlier in this live in Syria, in The Philippines, in Puerto Rico, and we've talked before about Tunisia, and Algeria, and Morocco, and we can talk about country after country after country. What happens if if you if you just focus on removing the veto power? What about the justice for all of America's victims for the last eight decades? They deserve justice. There has to be accountability.

You're talking about a gunman, for example, The United States, a gunman who has slaughtered dozens and dozens of people in a mass shooting, and you call the police, and the police come to him and disarm him, and then go back to the police station and leave him to be free. Where's the justice? That's the equivalent of if you just remove the veto power. You haven't solved the problem. You haven't brought that criminal to justice for their criminal actions and for their violations.

So we're trying to confront the problem. We're trying to confront the head criminal directly, face to face, eye to eye, and accuse them of what they have done and call for them to be brought to account and brought to justice. And that the only way that that can happen is through the invocation of article six, expelling America from the United Nations, so that then they can be, excuse me, subject to the United Nations and subject to international law.

Brother Shade, why is it why not just get rid of United Nations altogether rather than opting to reform it?

Well, I mean, for everything that we've been talking about, we need we need the the the chief criminal on the planet Earth to be brought to justice. How are you gonna do that if you dismantle the one organization, the one international body charged with implementation and enforcement of international law. Well, that would be a dream come true for The United States. If if there wasn't even if you if if they if the if the outlaw that I was talking about earlier, literally lived in a part of the world or a part of the Old West where they didn't even have sheriffs, where they didn't even have courts, where they didn't even have judges, and where he was never in danger of being, put on the noose. That's a dream come true.

Then he doesn't have to secure his impunity because no one can ever hold him accountable because there's no institution to hold him accountable. No. Dismantling the United Nations is a terrible idea. It's a terrible idea, and no one would ever support that. That this is this is a this is a again, this is one of those just like talking about we need to get rid of the veto instead of going for article six and expelling The US.

This is one of those I'm going to try to think of any way that I possibly can to avoid confronting the bully. I'm gonna try to think of any possible way to avoid confronting the head criminal. I'm gonna avoid, trying to, actually face and hold accountable the one who has been, terrorizing the planet. That's what all of these other suggestions are. The veto power, let's start a new UN, let's dismantle this UN, let's all of the members walk out and so on.

All of this is ways of avoidance. This is all you're doing. You're just trying to avoid the real problem, the real issue that will never be solved until you confront it. It's just like if you have a if there's a wolf in the daycare center, then your suggestion is to close the daycare center, not to deal with the wolf. Meanwhile, you close the daycare center and the wolf is still free to wander around the neighborhood and terrorize everyone.

You haven't solved anything. What kind of a solution is that? That doesn't even make any sense. Like I said, we're talking about justice. We're talking about securing justice for the millions of victims of American brutality over the last eighty years.

There's not a way to do that if you dismantle the United Nations. Don't blame the United Nations, for the way it has been, rendered inoperable, for the way it has been rendered incompetent, for the way it has been rendered impotent because of American domination. Diagnose the problem correctly. The problem is American domination. And once the, domination issue has been resolved, once that has been addressed, once that has been, dealt with, then that organization can function properly.

There's only one thing. There's only one problem that is preventing the United Nations from being an effective organization, and that's America's control and domination of the United Nations. That's the only problem. The problem isn't the organization. The problem isn't the institution.

The problem that all of us have have when I when I see in the comment section, for example, people saying the UN has to go. The UN is futile. The UN is pointless. No. Obviously not.

If if if the UN was pointless, if the UN was powerless, America would have no interest whatsoever in controlling it. They would have no interest whatsoever in dominating it. They would have no interest whatsoever in funding it. They're doing all of that to control it because they know it's powerful, and they know that it gives them power. And in fact, it's the key to their impunity, and their impunity is the key to their hegemony.

This is how it works. So if you remove their ability to dominate the United Nations, then you have solved so many problems. And you and you and you have actually, enabled what should be a beautiful institution, a great institution, a powerful and effective institution for global peace and security, you will have, liberated it from the forces that are preventing it from fulfilling its mandate, which is American control and American domination. So no, dismantling the United Nations is a foolish suggestion. It doesn't make any sense.

I now would go further to say it's foolish and it's cowardly because all it is is trying to avoid the real issue, which takes a little bit of guts, a little bit of bravery, a little bit of backbone, a little bit of self esteem, a little bit of confidence, a little bit of self respect where you say no, this isn't actually acceptable in 2024 that America gets to dominate this organization and overrule a 193 other countries. We'd have to confront it face to face, eye to eye and call them what they are, and call them out for what they've done, and force them to be held accountable. And again, the only way to do that is by expelling them from the institution so that then the institution will not be dominated by them and can have the power and have the authority to hold them accountable.

It's when it is spoken about in the UN, it becomes very real. It will put fear in America. So so it is a win. Just the procedure is a win. And and once again, we can invoke it as many times as we need to until it gets accomplished.

Yeah. Can I just also mention something about that with regards to these types of comments? I would like to ask the commenter. I didn't see that comment, but I would like to ask the commenter, really search inside yourself and try to understand what is, motivating you to ask that question. What is motivating your pessimism?

What's motivating your cynicism about the plausibility and the viability of holding The United States Of America accountable for its eight decades of crimes? Obviously, number of crimes within the history of crimes extends well before 1947. But we're just talking about the crimes that they've committed since they promised that they would not do those crimes when they signed the UN Charter. So we're just talking about the the period of time during which they had vowed not to be global criminals. So we're just talking about all of the crimes that they've committed since 1947.

So I would like to know what is motivating your cynicism and your pessimism and this, I'm sorry, very pathetic attitude that seems to assume that it is impossible to ever hold The United States Of America accountable for its crimes. But every other country can be held held accountable. Every other every other country on earth is subject to international law. Every other country on earth, has to follow the UN Charter and they're held accountable to it. But America somehow, everyone has accepted that they get to do whatever they want, and it's impossible to ever hold them accountable.

This is a mental state. This is a defeatist, defeated mentality. It's a psychological, state of mind that is, keeping you weak, and is keeping you passive, and is keeping you docile, and is making you an enabler of declining American power. You're the only thing. That attitude is the only thing that is preventing America's complete downfall on the global stage.

The fact that there still remains a population of people who believe in the old myth about American power. That there still remains a segment of the global population, who still believe that America is the one only remaining superpower and they have they can do whatever they want. Most people don't believe that anymore because it's not true, and most people are in, in touch with reality. But unfortunately, most Americans are not in touch with reality because that your own government has tried to ensure that you're not in touch with reality and has tried to make you believe that you live in this wonderful utopian, land of freedom, justice, and liberty, and opportunity, and so forth. But, you know, you and I both know that that's not true.

So, no, I don't have a a degree in international law or or diplomacy or what have you, but I have a degree. I have a higher education, the highest PhD that you can get multiple PhDs in America's crimes. I have multiple PhDs in American oppression. I have multiple PhDs in American tyranny, and every single one of you do too. Every single one of you do too.

If you're an American citizen, you do. And if you live in the global South, you do. If you live in Asia, you do. If you live in Africa, you do. If you live in Central America, you do.

If you live inside The United States and even in parts of Europe, you have a a high advanced degree in American tyranny. And it doesn't take much. All you have to do is be able to read. You just have to be bare basically literate, fundamental level reading skills to be able to read the UN Charter to know that article six exists. And that if a country, frequently, persistently, insistently, and consistently violates the terms of that Charter and the principles of that Charter as no one has done more than The United States, well, then you just need the basic logic skills to know that America is eligible for expulsion.

So no, it doesn't take an advanced degree to understand how how how it works when you are bound to a contract and the terms of that contract are supposed to be upheld. You don't need an advanced degree for that. All you have to do is believe that you have the right to have the terms of the contract upheld. And the thing that is motivating your pessimism and your cynicism to believe that, somehow this can't possibly happen is that you have such low self esteem, such a low belief in your own rights as a human being on this earth, that you actually think that it's beyond belief and it's beyond possibility and it's above your pay grade to be able to demand your rights, which includes the right to have the chief criminal of this planet, which is The United States Of America held to account, and expelled from the United Nations. So I would ask you and everyone here, if you feel any sort of pessimism, if you feel any sort of doubt about whether or not article six can work, and about whether or not we can be successful in this campaign.

As brother said, it doesn't matter if it gets adopted, if it gets passed the first time. If it doesn't get passed this year, then we'll do it again next year. And if it doesn't get passed next year, we'll do it again the following year. And we'll keep doing it until America does get expelled and the UN Charter is upheld because this is a matter of upholding what is on paper. This is a this is a basic principle and moral issue that no one is above the law.

No matter how much their funding is of the United Nations, no matter how big their economy is, no matter how big their military is, no matter how much they puff out their chest and talk about how great they are in their freedom and democracy and liberty and so forth, it doesn't matter. All nations, large and small, are subject to international law. It doesn't mean it doesn't say in the charter that all nations are subject to the terms of this charter unless they provide 22% of the funding to the organization. Everyone is accountable. And you have to, believe that that's the truth.

And if you, as I say, if you have any pessimism, if you have any cynicism, if you have any hopelessness about the achievability of this project, of this campaign, then that in and of itself is a reason for you to click on the link, go to the petition, sign it, and share it with your family and friends so that you can begin the process of decolonizing your own mind, decolonizing your own psyche, and healing yourself, from the damage that has been done to you psychologically by America's domination of the planet.

And that international law is for you in America as well. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.

If I can just add to that. I think that, the American people need this to be invoked more than anyone else or at least as much as anyone else in the global South. Because you're basically hostages in The United States and what I mean by that is that when you're a hostage, the hostage taker can determine everything that you know, all information that you receive, all every any concept that you have about the outside world. They can have you, locked up in a hotel room and tell you that you're at the bottom of a well and you won't know any different. They can tell you that, well, if you open that door, it's gonna let a bunch of alligators into the room and they're gonna eat you.

You don't know. This is this is what America has. This is how they have you under control to the extent that you don't even know that you're subject to international law. And by subject to international law, what I mean is that you have recourse to international law. You have the right to appeal to international courts of justice for the wrongs that are done to you, for the violations that are done to you.

And and America commits violations against their own people, violations of the UN Charter, violations of international law. They commit violations against their own people every day, against all their people. But like brother Ali was talking about, if you look at the numbers, I've talked about this many times. If you look at the numbers, of, police shootings, of arrest rates, and of incarcerations, then you can't fail to acknowledge and fail to recognize that what you're looking at in The United States is a form of ethnic cleansing of the domestic population of people who are called, so called minorities. In other words, members of the global majority.

People whose ancestors come from the global South. People whose ancestors come from Africa, and and Central America and, Latin America and so forth, so called Latin America. There's an ethnic cleansing program underway in The United States by means of the police force, by means of the security, forces. And if the exact same thing was happening in any other country, that's what America would say. If it was happening in another country, then, America would be there at the United Nations condemning that country for its ethnic cleansing of ethnic minorities in their in their land.

America does it and it's just a police shooting. Like brother Ali said, they they send the police out to the so called minority communities. They kill or they arrest indiscriminately whether you're guilty or not while completely ignoring the communities of, so called white people, the so called majority, ignoring their crimes, not even investigating crimes that have been committed against so called, minorities, arresting them, putting them in jail, and then forcing them to work, forcing them into labor, free labor for private enterprise. That's slavery. So you have displacement of the so called minority populations, murder and displacement of so called minority populations, and detention of so called minorities in The United States, and then an enslavement of so called minorities in The United States.

You tell me how that's not a violation of international law. Like I said, if it was happening in any other country, America would condemn it. But they're doing it, they and don't want you to know that you have recourse to international law, and you could bring a case to the United Nations. You could bring a case to the ICC. You could bring a case to the ICJ for these types of crimes because they're systematic, and they're systemic.

But like brother Ali said, maximum, if a policeman who will refer to the way that The United States press would refer to it if it was in another country, if a member of the security services, wrongfully murders someone in one of your communities, in a so called minority community, the maximum that will happen is that that individual officer will be will go to trial. That's the maximum. That's not the that's not the normal protocol. But the maximum, he'll, he he himself himself, that individual will go to trial and maybe he'll be convicted and maybe he'll go to jail. Him, that individual.

You haven't solved any problem. He's just following what the protocol is of his, of the security services, of the security forces. The entire establishment should be indicted. Him, his captain, his sergeant, the police commissioner, the chief of police, the mayor, the governor, all the way down all the way down the chain of command, should be brought before The Hague. That's the way it's supposed to work.

And you have recourse to that, but they don't want you to know that. Not to mention the fact that you have that all of these are also violations, not just of the universal declaration of human rights, but it's also a violation of the charter against or the or the covenant against the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination. Did you even know that that exists in The US? Did you even know that there's actually, an international, covenant that America is a signatory to, which requires them, obliges them to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination. Well, have they done that?

Have all forms of racial discrimination been eliminated in The United States? Are you happy with that situation? No. You have recourse to international law, and there's a covenant on civil and political rights, civil and economic rights, which is violated every day in The United States. Like they like like the how they how they, criminalized homelessness, but they didn't criminalize making you so poor that you're homeless.

They didn't criminalize making it impossible to afford, the cost of living. But then when you can't afford the cost of living and you get thrown out onto the street, you are a criminal, and you have to you you have to be, moved to another area by the police or else arrested. This is a crime in international law. They're not allowed to do that. They collect all your data online.

They violate your privacy. They're not allowed to do that. There is an international law that covers that, but you don't know what your rights are. You think that your only rights are whatever laws there are in your, municipality, in your city, in your state, in the federal government, you think that those are your only rights. Just like I said, it's exactly like a hostage, whose hostage taker tells them a whole different version of reality.

It tells them that outside these, outside these walls, it's volcanic lava, and you're gonna die if you walk outside. So they don't even have to hold you at gunpoint. They've terrified you about what's outside, and they think that you don't have any any any recourse, any way to escape. But I'm telling you, you do. And you need to invoke article six and get The US expelled from the United Nations so that they can't prevent you by their veto power and by their domination and control of the UN so that they can't stop any case that you might make against your own government that is oppressing you on a daily basis.

You should support it as much as anyone in the global South because the American people themselves are just as oppressed as anyone else as I've talked about many, many times. So, Excuse me. I'm sorry. I might have a very dry throat. You should support the invocation of article six.

It is in your benefit. It is to your benefit, and it's to your advantage because then you come you you might finally be able to get some kind of justice and improve the living situation in your country. With the military industrial complex, America has been wanting to dominate the United Nations. One of the reasons of that is so that they could continue to foment conflicts all around the world so that they could funnel money into the military industrial complex. Well, whose money is that?

That's your money. That's tax dollars. That's your money. That instead of going to build schools, instead of going to, fix the roads, instead of going to provide, affordable housing, instead of going to provide health care, you know, instead of going, to to fix the bridges, instead of going to fix infrastructure, instead of going to make your cities and towns beautiful, instead of providing free education, instead of forgiving school debt, university debt, student loans and so forth, instead of doing that, they're giving it to Raytheon, they're giving it to Lockheed Martin to make bombs to kill people who are suffering economically the same way that you are in another part of the world. And especially if you're a member of what they call again in America, the so called minority community, which actually means that you're a member of the global majority who happens to live in The United States, where your tax dollars are going to kill people who look like you.

Your tax dollars are going to kill and destroy the communities and the cities and the lands and the lives of people who look like you and the people who are your ancestors who come from where your ancestors came from. That's where your tax dollars are going. Are you fine with that? That makes you mad, doesn't it? You're not pleased with that.

You're not satisfied with that. Are you? Well, there is something you can do about it. Because if you expel America from the United Nations, that is against the interest of the military industrial complex, and they're gonna have to find some other kind of way to run their economy. They're gonna have to find something else to do with those tax dollars and maybe you can have a voice in telling them what to do because by that time, you will have already gotten and recovered some of your rights as an American citizen, which will then be guaranteed to you not by your American government, which never wanted to give you your rights as an American citizen in the first place, but it will be guaranteed to you as a human being under the human rights, that are guaranteed to you by international law, not by American law.

Because as we all know, American law is just a is just a a a an instrument and a tool for oppressing and controlling the domestic population. So you need recourse to international law so that you can recover your rights as a human being.