Unfortunately, this general problem has been with us since at least the Tonkin Gulf Resolution of 1964. Two US Navy destroyers, USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy, were allegedly attacked off the coast of North Vietnam. We learned later that President Johnson was aware that the destroyers weren’t attacks, but he used the “attack” as a pretext to initiate full-scale ground combat in Vietnam.
Israel used torture to obtain “confessions” that were then used to justify banning six Palestinian human rights organizations. Part of the actual problem that Israel seeks to address is:
Israel acted against the groups because they have been giving information to the International Criminal Court– whose prosecutor began a criminal investigation of Israel this year under a complaint filed by Palestine five years ago.
