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| 7/9 |
| 2005/3/17-19 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Israel] UID:36736 Activity:moderate |
3/17 http://csua.org/u/bem [seattlepi] So, it turns out idiocy is genetic. Rachel Corrie's parents suing Caterpillar because apparently IDF's use of bulldozers to uncover weapons smuggling tunnels (which is specifically what they were doing when Rachel decided to kill herself with one) is not only a human rights violation, but also somehow Caterpillar's problem. (Whoever is censoring this: what's your problem?) 5A \_ Maybe their problem is that you're a callous asshat? \_ Really now? So I should empathize with someone who in her self-righteousness jumps (literally) in the way of a country's attempt to keep terrorists from murdering its citizens? Interesting. \_ Hi troll. Have you ever lost a family member? \_ Yes. And up until today, I had a lot of sympathy for her parents. Now that they're _clearly_ abusing their own daughter's death to further a political agenda (note that the suit complains about "human rights" specifically), whatever sympathy I had for them is gone. -op \_ They're not suing the Israelis. They're suing the BULLDOZER MANUFACTURER. Think. Think. Think. -John \_ She was stopping a country's attempt to bulldoze houses. Houses in an area occupied by said country's army. \_ ...Which they long since would not have been had the locals not been consistently attacking said country, using weapons smuggled through tunnels with exits inside these very houses. Which part of "necessary defense against guerilla warfare" do you not understand? \_ Except that's BS and Israel stopped doing it because it was BS. \_ Where's your proof that it was BS? I have tons of proof that is NOT BS. If you want proof that it's NOT BS all you have to do is go to the various cemetaries of the victims of suicide bombings. \_ There's actually a big difference between proof and sensationalism. You've shown that you're very good with the latter...now, can you settle down and provide substantive information? \_Uh, that's not proof of what you are claiming. \- I've never been accused of being a Zionist but I also think this is stupid. I assume this is an attempt to keep the story/issue in the next rather than shakedown the Caterpillar Corp, but still ... \_ Pity they didn't repost Corrie's picture. She was pretty cute. \_ http://images.google.com \_ Actually IDF is using those bulldozers for wiping out the houses of the relatives of the suicide bombers. In addition, they were used to destroy any buildings that posed a threat to Israeli settlers or military. Rachel Corrie's blog seemed to suggest that those bulldozers were being used quite indiscriminately. \_ Even if that's true I have a pretty hard time blaming Cat. \_ Isn't suing CAT the equivalent to suing Smith & Wesson for a murder, which as long since proven unsubstantiated? \_ Suing CAT might or might not be stupud. I was just correcting op's sensationalist reporting about the role of CAT bulldozers in IDF. \_ I haven't read the pleadings but I'm guessing that they are suing Cat on a tort theory of strict product liability alleging that Cat breached their duty to provide a non-defective prod in its reasonably foreseeable use and this caused her death. If I were them I would allege a design defect arguing that the placement of the armor, &c. created an excessively dangerous product and that the danger was preventable. Her family could point out that b/c the driver couldn't see people well, he could easily drive over ppl and that the likelihood of that happening was pretty high. You'd have to come up with some feasible alternatives. An alternative would be to argue that the bulldozer is per se unreasonably dangerous. If they are going under this type of tort theory, the problem will really be assumption of the risk and/or comparative fault. Even if the ct finds that she didn't assume the risk of death by running in front of a bulldozer, she was likely negligent in running in front of the bulldozer, thus any recovery will be offset by her level of negligence, which in this case is quite high. NOTE: I would not have brought such a claim. \_ Does cat even put the armor on the bulldozers? I thought the IDF bolted the stuff on after-market. "Caterpillar Inc. does not manufacture a military version of the D9 per se..." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDF_Caterpillar_D9 -John \_ Well, that's about the evilest looking bulldozer I ever saw. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:D9-idf_pic214.jpg \_ I assumed that Cat put the armor on for the IDF. If Cat did not put the armor on for the IDF, it will be harder to bring a strict products liability claim. However it may still be possible if they allege that the modification was foreseeable b/c Cat sold it to the IDF knowing it would be modified. |
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| csua.org/u/bem -> seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&slug=WA%20Protester%20Killed%20Lawsuit&dpfrom=th The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in US District Court here, alleges that Cate rpillar violated international and state law by providing specially desi gned bulldozers to Israeli Defense Forces, knowing the machines would be used to demolish homes and endanger people. Rachel Corrie, a student at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash. "The brutal death of my daughter should never have happened," her mother, Cindy Corrie, said in a statement released by the Center for Constituti onal Rights, one of the law firms handling the case. "We believe Caterpi llar and the (Israeli Defense Forces) must be held accountable for their role in the attack." Cindy and Craig Corrie, who live in Olympia, are pursuing separate claims in Israel against the state of Israel, the Israeli Defense Ministry and the Israeli Defense Forces. A statement issued Wednesday by the Israeli army in Jerusalem said the la wsuit "has not yet been received by the defense establishment and so we cannot take a stand, at the moment, on the content." Caterpillar spokeswoman Linda Fairbanks said the company had no comment o n the lawsuit. However, the company released a general, written statement Tuesday that s aid: "Caterpillar shares the world's concern over unrest in the Middle E ast and we certainly have compassion for all those affected by political strife. "However, more than 2 million Caterpillar machines and engines are at wor k in virtually every region of the world each day. We have neither the l egal right nor the means to police individual use of that equipment." The statement made no mention of the lawsuit or Corrie's death. An Israeli army investigation concluded that Corrie's death was accidenta l Officials have said the driver of the machine could not see the woman - a claim activists have fiercely disputed. In the past four years, Israel has used Caterpillar bulldozers to topple more than 4,000 Palestinian homes, killing and injuring people in the pr ocess, according to the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights. Human rights groups have condemned the demolition of Palestinian homes as a violation of international humanitarian law. Last month Israel abandoned the decades-old policy of destroying the home s of Palestinian suicide bombers and gunmen, saying it was ineffective. Before then, Israeli officials said the military destroyed only homes of those with established links to terrorism. Israel has characterized the International Solidarity Movement, the group Rachel Corrie was working with when she was killed, as meddlers whose activism in some cases has a mounted to abetting terrorism. That demonstration came a week after the Stop CAT Coalition organized a s imilar protest outside Caterpillar's annual meeting in Chicago, where sh areholders rejected a resolution calling for a review of whether providi ng bulldozers to Israel violates the company's code of conduct. Gwynne Skinner, a partner with the Public Interest Law Group and an adjun ct professor in the Ronald J Peterson Law Clinic at Seattle University' s law school, is one of the lawyers on the Corries' legal team. She said they hope Caterpillar will admit it is partially responsible for their daughter's death and stop providing Israel with bulldozers. "Caterpillar knew that its equipment was being used to commit human right s violations, knew that Rachel Corrie and other civilians were foreseeab le victims of these human rights violations, and even with that knowledg e ... In a telephone interview Tuesday night, Cindy Corrie said Caterpillar spe aks "to being a good global citizen on their Web site and that there are things that need to be looked at other than profits, and we'd like to s ee them live up to that." |
| en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDF_Caterpillar_D9 bulldozer, and though it comes i n many configurations, it is mostly common in its basic dozer configurat ion: equipped with a detachable large blade and a rear ripper. The D9 has undergone s everal generations of engineering enhancements. Each new generation is d enoted with an English letter added to "D9". Until the introducing of th e D10 in the 1980's, the D9 was the largest conventional CAT dozer. driving wheel is located above the track wheels, and not in the same row. The current versions are the D9R and the D9T models, but older models such as the D9N and D9L are still common. The L, N, R and T models of the D9 are visually very similar, differing primarily in the design of their internal systems. The rear ripper is intended for use in loosening rocky ground and ripping out larger stones. It can also break frozen ground and excavate small d itches. The size, power and weight of the larger track-type tractors dictate that they are used primarily for major projects. Israel, the D9 has gained highly favorable revi ews both from the public and from the armed forces for keeping IDF c asualties low and for saving the lives of soldiers. counter-terror operations, the D9s has also been used in standoff situations with armed opponents barricaded in buil dings, usually rigged with explosives and booby-traps, when no hostages are present. In order not to risk Israeli soldiers, the D9 shakes the ho use until the barricaded gunmen surrender. After the building is evacuat ed, the D9 razes the structure in order to detonate and bury any explosi ves that remain inside. Operation Defensive Shield after 13 Israeli soldiers were killed in an ambush, res ulting in the surrender of dozens of gunmen without further Israeli casu alties. Rafah, whi ch are used by militants to smuggle weapons, persons and contraband. Arm ored D9 bulldozers have demolished many structures in Rafah during battl es with militants and operations to uncover smuggling tunnels. org/c ampaigns/gaza) criticizing the mass demolition in Rafah, in which it ref utes many of the IDF's justifications for the destructive activities car ried out by D9s. htm#_Toc8467618 3) in Rafah is simply being used as a pretext to demolish homes in order to create a "buffer zone". HRW believes that instead of using available and effective technologies for neutralizing tunnels where they cross th e border, the IDF is instead undertaking unnecessary and highly destruct ive incursions into the camp. Instead, HRW claims that the IDF destruction of roads, utilities and civilian struct ures presents as vindicative, punitive and illegal. to suspend sales of D9s and related parts and services to the IDF so long as illegal demolitions continue. il/mfa/mfaarchive/20 00_2009/2004/5/behind%20the%20headlines%20-%20rafah%20gateway%20to%20ter rorism) described Rafah as the "Gateway to terrorism". the IDF traditionally does its utmost to avoid harming the civ ilian population. It employs infantry forces whenever possible as oppo sed to air or artillery strikes to minimize the possibility of doing u nintentional harm. At times, this humanitarian concern comes at the pric e of risking the lives of soldiers two of whom were killed last week b y Palestinian snipers while helping an elderly woman get food" and claim ed that most demolition are carried out against houses which are used by terrorists to shot at IDF forces, and were approved by the Israeli Supr eme Court of Justice: "Even though these demolitions were the direct res ult of terrorist activity and were thus the responsibility of the terr orists themselves 46 Palestinian families involved exercised their rig ht to appeal the demolitions to Israels High Court of Justice this week . In ruling to allow the demolitions, the court noted that they were per missible due to the overriding need to protect the lives of Israelis." The main D9 contributions to the project are earthmovin g and soil-leveling, clearing a path for the security fence, and digging trenches in front of the security fence. Enlarge An American armored military D9 The United States Army has purchased several D9 armor kits from the IDF a nd used them to produce similarly fortified D9s. These have been used to clear destroyed vehicles from roads, dig moats, erect earthen-barriers, and construct field fortifications. D9s have also been used to raze hou ses which hosted snipers who shot at American forces (similar to the Isr aeli usage). htm) - "The giant Caterpillar bulldozer, used by the Israeli military to destroy Palestinian homes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, now comes with a controversial new feature: remote control." |
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