Do you know the art of Guantanamo?
Do you know the art of Guantanamo?
Kind of a ridiculous question because your government has made sure you don't. The artists of Guantanamo are locked up and no longer allowed to send out their art. The latest few who have been actually released (as opposed to the 21 men "approved for release" who are still locked up) can't bring their art out with them.
Some of the prisoners' art is beautifully decorative, some evocative, some showing great skill. But it all conveys the humanity, emotion and spirit of the men in that torture camp, which is likely why, under Trump, they were no longer allowed to have their attorneys share it with the world. Outrageously, 21 months after Biden took office, that policy stands.
U.S. military discovers morality?
From the U.S. Secretary of "Defense" Lloyd Austin:
"Protecting civilians from harm in connection with military operations is not only a moral imperative, it is also critical to achieving long-term success on the battlefield."
This, on Friday, as Austin announced the new DoD plan to "mitigate civilian harm and achieve strategic success across the full spectrum of conflict."
Was this from a sudden recognition that European colonizers began systematically slaughtering native inhabitants across the "new world" about 400 years ago? Or that the hundreds of military interventions by the U.S. resulted in uncounted millions of deaths? Or an acknowledgement of specific global atrocities such as the carpet bombing of Dresden? The nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, Nagasaki? Napalm and Agent Orange on the people of southeast Asia? The massacre at Nisour Square in Baghdad or the carnage of the battle of Fallujah?
Activists Go to Court after No Nukes Non-Violent Direct Action at U.S. Mission to the UN
Debra Sweet | August 29, 2022
Eleven activists representing various organizations appeared in NYC Municipal Court on Monday, August 22, 2022. They had been arrested on August 2nd while non-violently blocking the doors of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, while diplomats from around the world gathered at the UN for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference.
At the press conference outside the courthouse after their court appearance, the activists explained their reasons for drawing attention to the continuing and, indeed, heightened threat of nuclear weapons with an act of civil disobedience. Watch Richie Marini of World Can't Wait deliver his statement starting at 8:37 on this video.
Is President Biden a War Criminal?
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What do you think? Read the charges here from the new posting on our War Criminals Watch website. |
Name: Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr.
Born: November 20, 1942 in Scranton, Pennsylvania
Profession: Attorney, U.S. Senator
Biden Administration Position: 46th President of the United States
War Crime Charges:
• The Biden administration hasn’t pressed for prosecution of war criminals, including those
pardoned by his predecessor, preferring to "look forward" rather than backward.
• Senator Biden supported the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, without approval of the
UN Security Council, causing at least 488 civilian deaths.
• Biden was a strong supporter of the War in Afghanistan under what he called a
counterterrorism mission, saying “Whatever it takes, we should do it.”
Arrests at No Nukes protest at U.S. Mission to the UN
40 years ago in 1982, one million people marched and rallied in NYC demanding an end to nuclear weapons and nuclear war and 1700 people were arrested during acts of non-violent civil disobedience outside the UN missions of the 7 nuclear states. You can watch the one-hour webinar discussing that historic time here.
What Mid-East Presidential Visit Shows
I read a lot of commentary and condemnation in the liberal press of Biden's fist bump with MBS, who runs the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Most of the criticism, which is justified, centered on the hypocrisy of Biden saying he would make Saudi Arabia a pariah for the brutal killing of Jamal Khashoggi and then looking jovial while meeting with MBS to get on with business.
No nuclear weapons, no nuclear war
With heightened moves towards nuclear war and the ever-increasing climate and ecological crises, we demand: No nuclear war! No nuclear weapons! These are totally incompatible and intolerable for the existence of humanity and our planet.
Join us on Tuesday August 2, gathering at noon at the Isaiah Wall on First Avenue and 43rd Street in Manhattan and then marching to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations at 45th Street where there will be a non-violent sit-in accompanied by vigiling, picketing and leafleting by those unable to risk arrest. Please register here. And, do visit the Facebook Event Page and help spread the word.
We Are Not Your Soldiers in the Schools 2021/2022
Debra Sweet | July 14, 2022
It seems the U.S. military is having a recruitment crisis. Good.They're offering up to $50K recruitment signing "bonuses" and still their numbers are lower than they want. The military's explanation is that there's something wrong with the culture that people aren't into "serving" now; they don't have an immediate family history of people in the military, and there's no immediate crisis drawing enlistment.
Twelfth anniversary of the publication by Wikileaks of "Collateral Murder"
Today, July 12, is the twelfth anniversary of the publication by Wikileaks of "Collateral Murder." Since then, we have shown it frequently during many of the We Are Not Your Soldiers classroom visits. As one college student wrote in an essay, "I was surprised to know that the U.S. is not part of the International Criminal Court and wouldn’t even allow investigators in the country to conduct an investigation. The video that we watched was leaked, and that is how we got to know about the atrocities and the war crimes committed by the U.S. military. Had it not been for the leak, we would have never known. Chelsea Manning, who leaked the video, was sent to prison for her deed. Even after the leak went public, nothing was done to reprimand the war crimes committed by the U.S. military… " And, Julian Assange remains in deplorable conditions in prison in London under imminent threat of extradition to the U.S. for the "crime" of releasing this kind of information to the U.S. and world public.
A way to help Guantanamo survivors
It's an outrage that men who were held completely illegitimately in the U.S. torture camp in Guantanamo were sent upon release to countries they did not know, isolated from their families and often left without basic needs or medical care. They should be paid reparations by the criminal government that held them. Nevertheless, good people will step up to support them, as we always do.
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Revealing the Warmakers at Schools and on the Air
Debra Sweet | June 22, 2022
In May and June, the school year winds down in high schools and colleges and We Are Not Your Solidiers made our final visits for the spring semester. Lyle Rubin addressed a NYC college ethics class. Rosa del Duca spent a full day with classes at a large NYC high school, our third visit and third speaker to present to those classes this semester. Rosa had been in the National Guard and told of her struggle to get out as a conscientious objector. One student sent her a note later saying, “I read your book and found it fascinating. Everything you said was very informative, especially for someone looking to join the National Guard.” We finished with John Burns speaking to a class of recent immigrants in a Washington state high school.
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