Over 1,100 Policing Agencies in the US Have Bought Drones Capable of Recording
In early June, Julie Weiner was at a Black Lives Matter rally in downtown Yonkers, New York, when she spotted a small drone in the sky, monitoring the protest. Weiner, a long-time Yonkers resident, immediately asked her city councilperson, Shanae Williams, who had organized the rally, whether the drone was being operated by the Yonkers police. Williams went over to talk to a group of police and returned to report that, yes, the drone belonged to the Yonkers Police Department.
Despite assurances from police that data will not be shared, it’s hard to imagine that if it exists, it won’t be used.
A Most Unusual 2019-20 School Year!
The great uprising against white supremacy of people all over the country and the horrific response of the fascists in the White House, has opened discourse about the domestic role of the military. This gives We Are Not Your Soldiers the opportunity to broaden and deepen that thinking and take it to an understanding of the imperialist role of the U.S. military as the police of the empire. More profound thought is bolstered by young people here seeing the solidarity in protests against racism now taking place around the world.
NO to German military using weaponized drones
The German Bundestag is set to decide soon whether its mlitary will deploy weaponized drones. It's not a minor question, given that the whole world was thrown into war when the Nazis attacked Europe and because fascist and right-wing parties are again seriously contending for power in Germany. Germany, to its credit, signed on to the call by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres for a worldwide ceasefire during the Covid-19 pandemic and could take a further stand against endless war by refusing to take part in the crimes against humanity carried out via drone warfare.
What a Global Pandemic Means on top of the Global "War on Terror" Case in Point: Yemen
U.S. media counts the dead in "America," meaning the United States, leaving deaths uncounted and mostly not noted, in the rest of the globe, save Europe and other "allies."
But when we think of the pandemic, our thoughts go to those globally in most danger: people in prisons and detention, those without homes to shelter in, those who have to work everyday, the refugees and people in war zones who have no protection.
COVID-19 is Deadly, but the Trump/Pence Regime is Making it Deadlier
Curt Wechsler | April 12, 2020
Trump's Response to COVID-19 Is KILLING People, Threatening Millions!
A 'pandemic' contempt for medical advice characterizes the Trump/Pence regime's response to COVID-19. Many White House cheerleaders share in the Christian Right's denial of science; suppressing truth and accountability. When asked about his own culpability for delayed action in addressing the crisis, placing millions at risk of infection, Trump answered, "Yeah, no, I don't take responsibility at all."
12 Ways the US Invasion of Iraq Lives On in Infamy
The most serious consequences of the disastrous invasion and occupation of Iraq confirm what millions of people around the world warned about 17 years ago.
While the world is consumed with the terrifying coronavirus pandemic, on March 19 the Trump administration will be marking the 17th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq by ramping up the conflict there. After an Iran-aligned militia allegedly struck a U.S. base near Baghdad on March 11, the U.S. military carried out retaliatory strikes against five of the militia’s weapons factories and announced it is sending two more aircraft carriers to the region, as well as new Patriot missile systems and hundreds more troops to operate them. This contradicts the January vote of the Iraqi Parliament that called for U.S. troops to leave the country. It also goes against the sentiment of most Americans, who think the Iraq war was not worth fighting, and against the campaign promise of Donald Trump to end the endless wars.
I was abused by the US in Afghanistan and am still detained in Guantanamo Bay - the ICC are right to hold them to account
If the United States will not allow its own people to be subject to the rule of law in such cases, how can others be held to account?
I have become rather used to being kicked in the stomach. Suddenly, the kicking has stopped. Yesterday, I learnt that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has agreed to investigate war crimes committed in Afghanistan, by United States forces. My American tormentors in the “dark prison” in Kabul, believed they had impunity to do whatever they wanted to me. Now there is a possibility that they may be held to account. Indeed, it is an historic moment: US torturers may face international justice for the first time.
I was one of a hundred people who filed the complaint, though the only one from Guantánamo Bay willing to be named in public. I understand why others wish to remain anonymous, but I have no fear of reprisals – what could they do to me, that they have not already done?
Photos and Report: The Launch of “Guantánamo [Un]Censored: Art from Inside the Prison” at CUNY School of Law in New York
Last week was the launch of “Guantánamo [Un]Censored: Art from Inside the Prison,” a powerful new art exhibition featuring work by eleven current and former Guantánamo prisoners at CUNY School of Law’s Sorensen Center for International Peace and Justice, in Long Island City in Queens, New York, which I wrote about in article entitled, Humanizing the Silenced and Maligned: Guantánamo Prisoner Art at CUNY Law School in New York.
Trump Pardons War Criminals
Trump worked to bring down Joe Biden via U.S. foreign policy and obstructed the Congressional investigation, the Democrats say they intend to keep the impeachment inquiry limited to these narrow grounds of "endangering national security" and possibly obstruction as well as bribery.
They are not investigating Trump for his threats to humanity. Concentration camps on the border… acceleration of ecological devastation… the danger of continuing and further wars, even nuclear… white supremacy with increasing rabid mobs and racist mass murderers… truth and science erased… the right to abortion nearly gone… the rule of law and democratic and civil rights stripped away… This is fascism unfolding.
Helping Students Keep Their Humanity by Not Signing Up for War
Stephanie Rugoff | November 11, 2019
We Are Not Your Soldiers brings exposure of imperial wars to a generation of youth largely unaware of the crimes being carried out throughout the world in their names.
On this Veterans Day, 2019, for the United States, making war is less about amassing human air, land and sea forces to attack “the enemy” as it is increasingly about amassing technological superiority in which machines replace humans enabling politicians and corporate bosses to pursue their goals without the pesky problem of waves of homeward-bound body bags and caskets.
Yet, the Pentagon was confronted with the obstacle of conscience being applied to technological research in mid-2018 when Google employees protested working on Project Maven, a program that would use artificial intelligence to assist in drone killing, causing Google to drop Maven. Tech workers at Amazon and Microsoft have also protested working on technology that supports repression and killing.
While work on Maven has been picked up by another firm and Amazon and Microsoft leadership have apparently felt free to ignore the pleas of their workers these protests illustrate the increasing power of individuals to throw monkey wrenches into the gears of the war machine.
Hence, the increasing importance of the task of educating all students on the consequences of war, whether or not they plan to join the military.
This is what We Are Not Your Soldiers has been doing for 13 years by bringing veterans into classrooms. Being knowledgeable of the realities of fighting in or, by inertia, supporting the wrong side of imperialist wars can lead to people speaking and acting in opposition to them.
“It’s better than having everybody blown up”...
That’s what Martha Hennessy said when asked if she is sad about the possibility of going to prison. Martha is one of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 who walked onto the largest U.S. 
Navy Trident Nuclear Submarine base in the world, carrying an indictment charging the U.S. government with crimes against peace. On April 4, 2018, the seven members entered the base in Georgia, cut fencing, hammered a concrete missile monument, poured out their own blood, draped crime scene tape around the area and spray-painted “Love One Another” on the ground. That day was the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s death, who admonished: “The greatest purveyor o violence in the world is my own government."
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World Can't Wait | April 2018
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by the ACLU
Hastily passed 45 days after 9/11 in the name of national security, the Patriot Act was...
Open Letter in Defence of WikiLeaks’ Right to Publish. Click for more info on:
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Curt Wechsler | January 7, 2019
Rule of Law, Not Rule of Trump
January 11, 2019, marks the 17th ...
