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Drones

Take Action For Drone Whistleblowers Under Attack

December 1, 2015 ToBlome, www.popularresistance.org , , ,
From Toby Blome of CODEPINK. Code Pink Women for Peace support the very courageous actions of four former US drone operators, Michael Haas, Brandon Bryant, Cian Westmoreland, and Stephan Lewis, who have come under increasing attack for disclosing information about “widespread corruption and institutionalized indifference to civilian casualties that characterize the drone program.” As truth tellers, they stated in a public letter to President Obama that the killing of innocent civilians has been one of the most “devastating driving forces for terrorism and destabilization around the world.”* These public disclosures come only after repeated attempts to work privately within official channels failed. Despite the fact that none of the four has been charged with criminal activity, all had their bank accounts and credit cards frozen. This retaliatory response by our government is consistent with the extrajudicial nature of US drone strikes.

Project Censored 2015: Top Ten News Stories The Media Ignored

November 29, 2015 Tim Redmond, www.cascadiaweekly.com , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
By Tim Redmond for Cascadia Weekly. As Project Censored staffers Mickey Huff and Andy Lee Roth note, 90 percent of U.S. news media—the traditional outlets that employ full-time reporters—are controlled by six corporations. “The corporate media hardly represent the mainstream,” the staffers wrote in the current edition’s introduction. “By contrast, the independent journalists that Project Censored has celebrated since its inception are now understood as vital components of what experts have identified as the newly developing ‘networked fourth estate.’”

Chicago Bans Drones — Except For Police

November 20, 2015 David Swanson, www.warisacrime.org , ,
By David Swanson for War Is A Crime - Chicago media outlets are reporting that drones have been banned from most of Chicago's skies and cannot fly over you or your property without your permission. The text of the ordinance, however, makes exceptions for police that will require eternal vigilance. Local legislative action around drones began in U.S. cities in early 2013 with the public demand for resolutions opposing foreign drone murders by the military and CIA (and related training in U.S. skies)...

‘Drone Papers’: More Reasons To End Remote-Controlled Wars

October 25, 2015 Sonali Kolhatkar, www.truthdig.com , , ,
By Sonali Kolhatkar in TruthDig. Drone wars are not conventional wars. As “The Drone Papers” and other journalistic investigations reveal, they are part of a program of targeted assassinations of individuals that President Obama personally authorizes for death by drone. The so-called “kill list” is supposed to include known terrorists in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, and some have been American and British citizens. If the drone wars are simply targeted assassinations, and if the U.S. posthumously designates most victims as enemies, then it is irrelevant how many people are intended for killing and how many are accidentally killed. Rather then differentiating between intended targets and unintended casualties, we ought to view every single person killed by drones as innocent, given that none of them has ever been tried in a court of law or been sentenced to death.

In Wake Of Drone Leaks ACLU Seeks Secret Program Documents

October 22, 2015 Jameel Jaffer, www.justsecurity.org ,
By Jameel Jaffer for Just Security - As readers of this blog already know, last week The Intercept published a series of fascinating stories about the US drone campaign. The stories, and the official documents that accompany them, supply new details about the way the government chooses its targets, the way drone strikes are authorized, the way the government assesses civilian casualties, and the way the government judges the success or failure of individual strikes. The Intercept’s stories were based largely on government documents furnished by an unidentified source — someone who was willing to risk career and personal liberty in order to inform the rest of us about legally and morally questionable policies that have been shrouded in unwarranted secrecy.

Newsletter – A People United Will Never Be Defeated

October 18, 2015 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese for Popular Resistance. This week, hundreds of thousands rallied in Washington, DC for the Million Man March, more information became available regarding US war crimes, we celebrated the second annual People's Climate March and World Food Day and we are preparing a mass mobilization to protest the TransPacific Partnership. Popular Resistance is collaborating with a growing number of organizations and people to protest the TransPacific Partnership and other international treaties that will prevent us from achieving success in our struggles for racial, economic and environmental justice. We are planning a mass mobilization in Washington, DC this November to show the large and diverse opposition to agreements that force us to sacrifice the health and safety of our communities for corporate profits. There will be two days of action preparation followed by three full days of creative events. You are invited to participate in any way that you can.

Snowden & Ellsberg Hail New Drone Whistleblower

October 18, 2015 Tom McCarthy , www.theguardian.com , , , ,
By Tom McCarthy for the Guardian - American whistleblowers hailed the release on Thursday of a collection of classified documents about US drone warfare as a blow on behalf of transparency and human rights. “It’s wonderful,” Ellsberg said. “I waited 40 years to see somebody, for Chelsea Manning, to put out a comprehensive, sufficiently voluminous number of long-held secrets, enough to make the case clear. “I waited 40 years for Chelsea. Three more for Snowden. And so it’s wonderful that somebody is telling the truth about this series of crimes. I’m very glad to see it.” Edward Snowden, the former government contractor who in 2013 leaked classified documents about surveillance programs to journalist Glenn Greenwald – then at the Guardian, now at the Intercept – hailed the new leak on Twitter. Ellsberg said of the source: “I hope they stay anonymous. Nothing at all would be gained by their suffering the fate of exile like Snowden [who now lives in Russia], or isolation or imprisonment like Chelsea [who was given a 35-year jail term]. Or the life sentences that I faced, or that others have faced. “It comes down to this. Hundreds could have done what I did, literally. And should have. Hundreds of people could and should have done what Edward Snowden did. And hundreds of people could and should have done what Chelsea Manning did."

US Congress Must Launch Urgent Inquiry Into Obama’s Drone Use

October 16, 2015 Staff, www.amnestyusa.org ,
By Staff of Amnesty Interntional - The U.S. Congress must launch an immediate independent inquiry into the Obama administration’s drone strikes overseas, Amnesty International said following today’s publication of a series of files and documents disclosing long-standing secrets of the global killing program. “The Drone Papers,” leaked by an anonymous whistle-blower to the online media outlet The Intercept, reveal the startling human costs of armed drone use and highlight chronic flaws in the decision-making process behind the strikes carried out in multiple countries.

The Drone Papers

October 16, 2015 Jeremy Scahill, www.theintercept.com
By Jeremy Scahill for Intercept - NEW YORK - The Intercept has obtained a cache of secret slides that provides a window into the inner workings of the U.S. military’s kill/capture operations at a key time in the evolution of the drone wars — between 2011 and 2013. The documents, which also outline the internal views of special operations forces on the shortcomings and flaws of the drone program, were provided by a source within the intelligence community who worked on the types of operations and programs described in the slides. The Intercept granted the source’s request for anonymity because the materials are classified and because the U.S. government has engaged in aggressive prosecution of whistleblowers. The stories in this series will refer to the source as “the source.”

Hancock Five Drone Protesters Arraigned, No Bail Required

October 15, 2015 The Hancock Five, www.upstatedroneaction.org , ,
By the Hancock Five - The “Hancock Five,” arrested mid-morning on September 21 whilst displaying three large banners across the main entrance of the Hancock Reaper Drone Base – home of the 174th ATTACK Wing of the NY National Guard – were arraigned before DeWitt (NY)Town Judge Robert Jokl this evening (Oct. 14). The Five, all Hancock recidivists, are Ed Kinane, Julienne Oldfield and Bonny Mahoney of Syracuse and James Ricks and Dan Burgevin of Trumansburg (near Ithaca). Their three one-word banners said: DRONES KILL CHILDREN. The Hancock Five were charged with the violations of trespass and disturbing the peace for this act of nonviolent civil resistance which sought to expose Hancock war crime in Afghanistan (and likely elsewhere). Judge Jokl declined to levy bail and, despite Hancock’s asking him to do so, refused to impose Orders of Protection on the defendants (a most dubious practice formerly typical of the DeWitt Court).

The Perverse Rise Of Killer Robots

October 15, 2015 Cesar Chelala, www.counterpunch.org
By Cesar Chelala for Counter Punch - The development of “killer robots” is a new and original way of using human intelligence for perverse means. Human directing machines to kill and destroy in a scale not yet imagined is a concept that not even George Orwell could have imagined. In the meantime, the leading world powers continue their un-merry-go-round of destruction and death -mostly of innocent civilians- without stopping to consider the consequences of their actions. Killer robots are fully autonomous weapons that can identify, select and engage targets without meaningful human control.

Drone Flies Over NSA Complex In Germany, Dropping Leaflets

October 7, 2015 Jenna McLaughlin, www.theintercept.com ,
By Jenna McLaughlin for The Intercept, A group of activists flew a drone over a key National Security Agency complex in Germany on Friday, dropping leaflets encouraging the intelligence workers inside to quit in protest over invasive surveillance. The site of the drone fly-by, the Dagger Complex, is a U.S. military installation south of Frankfurt. It houses the European Cryptologic Center — a major source of signals and communications intelligence in Europe for the NSA. According to German media, its 1,100 employees monitor massive amounts of communications with tools such asXKEYSCORE, one of the programs revealed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The group behind the drone mission, Intelexit, made headlines last week when it drove moving billboards past intelligence agencies in the U.S. and abroad.

Obama Seeks Dismissal Of Case Involving Yemeni Drone Victims

October 3, 2015 Staff, www.reprieve.org ,
By Staff of Reprieve - The US government has asked a D.C. court to dismiss the case of a Yemeni man whose family members were killed by a US drone strike, on the basis that he has no legal ‘standing’ to bring a case against them. Earlier this year, Mr bin Ali Jaber filed a lawsuit against President Obama, seeking a declaration from a federal court in Washington, D.C., that the 2012 strike was unlawful and his innocent relatives were wrongfully killed. The Obama administration yesterday filed a motion asking the court to dismiss Mr bin Ali Jaber’s case entirely. They argued that Mr Jaber has no standing – i.e. that he has no legal right to bring his case in the US – and that whether a US drone killed his relatives is a ‘political question’ that no court should review.

Are We Winning The Drone War?

September 28, 2015 Ed Kinane, www.truth-out.org ,
By Ed Kinane in Truthout - "Are We Winning the Drone War?" This headline from a recent syndicated column falsely frames the issue. Let's take it apart. This formulation implicitly restricts its concern for "winners" to the US. But other lives - combatant and non-combatant - also matter. And what sort of war is it talking about, anyway? There was a time when war was declared and mutually visible, sometimes symmetrical, forces clashed. Does robotic "drone war" - with its cowardly cold-bloodedness, with its contempt for sovereignty and law, with its hegemonic aspiration - bear any resemblance? One current model of "winning" is the Israeli mow-the-grass attack on Gaza. Israel has repeatedly used drones to maim, kill and terrorize Gaza's besieged inhabitants, demolish their homes, and disable their infrastructure.

Keeping Hope Alive While Locked Out With No Voice

September 27, 2015 Joy First, www.popularresistance.org , , ,
By Joy First of the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance. Washington, DC - The voices of the people are not being heard as we are increasingly denied access to our government officials. For many, we have wanted to believe that we live in some kind of representative democracy where we can express our views to those we elect and it will make a difference, but that is not the case. A study published in the academic journal Perspectives on Politics found the majority of the American public has a “minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy” compared to the wealthy. Our first-hand experience confirmed the results of this study when we were locked out of Representative Paul Ryan’s office and then the White House in an action organized by the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance (NCNR) as part of the week of actions of Campaign Nonviolence.
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