War Criminals Watch's blog

Remember that one time when Obama closed Gitmo...?Neither do we!

By  Debra Sweet.   Last week 17 people died from a U.S. drone strike in a remote area of Yemen as they drove in a convoy returning from a wedding. People in the area had heard the drone overhead since the day before. As to what really happened, we are fed a lot of speculation by the US news media, because, of course, the U.S. military won't comment... “those killed were linked to al Qaeda, and therefore legitimate targets... the government of Yemen is running the war, and they choose the targets... the drone strike targeted that convoy by ‘mistake.’”

 Thanks to Medea Benjamin, Code Pink, Reprieve, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and the attention and energy of 400 who gathered this past Saturday at Georgetown Law School, we were able to consider Drones Around the Globe: Proliferation & Resistance.  It was a very worthwhile weekend which will impact how people act on and respond to U.S. use of drones.

“Art does not have the power to bring about social or political change. But it does have the power to perpetuate the memory of an episode over time … Art serves as a testimony that endures over time, and in the collective memory.” – Fernando Botero

Monday, December 2 from 5:30 pm at The Pierre Hotel -- 2 E. 61st St. at 5th Ave.                                                               N, Q, R train to 5 Av.; #6 to 59 St.; F to Lexington Av.-63 St.;

The gala will benefit the New-York Historical Society. Petraeus will be given the 2013 History Makers Award. The theme of the evening The theme will be " Strategic Leadership and Vision.

Here are the Nov. 2013 Appearances/ Protest of War Criminals around the United States. Please hook up or organize a protest in your area. We will help you with publicity and more if you get in touch with us. Leaflets and posters are available at our website.

The "us" being watched by the U.S. has become more widely apparent, as the U.S. has tacitly admitted monitoring the communications of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, including personal mobile calls, and the heads of dozens of other countries.  The response of those leaders, who haven't been much outraged about the surveillance of millions of their citizens, has put the Obama administration and the NSA somewhat at odds over who knew what?  Did the NSA keep the White House ignorant of the extent of spying?  The White House seems to say so, but its Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, says they all knew.

Canada's War Crimes Section Reviews Lawyers’ Call to Prosecute Cheney for Torture While Activists Protest When Cheney Speaks @ Toronto Global Forum on Halloween.   (Toronto) Torture and war crimes suspect Dick Cheney is scheduled as a keynote speaker at the October 31st luncheon of the Toronto Global Forum, hosted by the International Forum of the Americas. Civil society groups will protest beginning at 11:00 am on Halloween, Oct. 31 outside the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Activists in San Francisco, New York City and Miami paid visits to the Canadian Consulates to hand-deliver a letter from lawyers requesting Canadian officials to fulfill their legal obligations and either bar former Vice President Dick Cheney from entering their country or arrest and prosecute him for war crimes if he arrives to address the Toronto Global Forum on October 31, 2013.  Other activists hand-delivered the same letter to the Canadian Embassy in Washington DC.

Below is a press release issued by the Florida delegation.

by Debra Sweet     Almost 5 years after the spike in U.S. use of targeted killing of people via drone by the Obama administration (thousands have been killed), the United Nations, or rather its special rapporteur Ben Emmerson, has released a report saying these drone strikes by the United States have killed civilians by the hundreds, or more, and should be carried out in accordance with international law.

Protest When Dick Cheney Speaks to International Economic Forum of the Americas -Oct.31, 2013 Metro Toronto Convention Center - Toronto, Canada

Cheney will keynote at the luncheon of this international organization.

Cheney had been scheduled to speak in the very same locale last April but canceled due to fear of demonstrations.This was subsequent to a strong protest naming him as a war criminal when he was in Vancouver promoting his memoir.

 .  Why we call the Tea Party and their leaders in Congress racist:

a. Destruction of voting rights & open promotion of white supremacy.  See The Tea Party’s Legacy of Racism by Robert Parry

 All those who defend students’ basic right to protest and oppose police brutality are encouraged to attend the public meeting calling to “Defend the CUNY Six – Drop the Charges Now!” Lending vocal support is crucial, as two of the CUNY 6 will have their first court appearance  on October 17th. The public meeting will be held in Room 9.64 (9th floor).

Here's the October 2013 War Criminals Appearances/Protests. Let us know if you are planning something in your area so we might assist you and publicize your event. You may download leaflets and posters at www.warcriminalswatch.com

Dick Cheney  

10/2/13 Colorado Springs CO   

by War Criminals Watch          Torture suspect and former U.S. Vice President Richard (Dick) Cheney is scheduled to speak at the Toronto Global Forum, October 31, 2013, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The event is hosted by the International Economic Forum of the Americas.

Peter Ludlow has an essay over at The New York Times’ series The Stone entitled “The Banality of Systemic Evil.” His title is a takeoff on the phrase “the banality of evil” made famous by Hannah Arendt’s description of Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann in her much cited 1963 article “

by Dennis Loo         “Sovereignty cannot be a shield for tyrants to commit wanton murder, or an excuse for the international community to turn a blind eye to slaughter.”Obama said this in his address before the UN General Assembly on September 24, 2013.  Another, more transparent way of saying what Obama said is this: “The foundational principle of the UN Charter and the Nuremberg Tribunal is wrong: wars launched upon a country that has not attacked you first is not the supreme international crime.”

by Debra Sweet               Wrapped in some benign sounding words about prosperity, peace, and “shifting from a perpetual war footing,” the core of Barack Obama’s message to the United Nations yesterday made clear that if the U.N. doesn’t pass a resolution the U.S. wants against Syria, he still could execute a strike.

Here’s the take-home:

by Debra Sweet          This week World Can't Wait joinskNOwdrones.com and Granny Peace

In 2003 a 25 year old activist Malalai Joy stood up to the domination of warlords in her country Afghanistan. She began to work tirelessly on behalf Afghan women and ending the occupation of her country. In 2005, she became the youngest member of the Afghan parliament. She was suspended from Parliament in 2007 because she spoke out against warlords and war criminals. Meet Malalai  October 4, 2013 @ 6:30pm Community Church of New York. 40 E. 35th St. NYC

by Debra Sweet          The report from the United Nations seems to indicate a large amount of deadly gas was aimed at Syrian civilians on August 21.  The U.S. has already concluded the gas came from the Assad government, and not the rebels.  If that is true, by what authority does the U.S. claim the right to bomb Syrian civilians in the name of stopping chemical weapons? Or keep arming rebels in Syria or the military in Egypt?

Petraeus was the main keynoter at a gala fundraiser at CUNY's Macaulay Honors College on Tuesday evening, September 17th.  The other keynote speaker was Fareed Zakaria, a foreign policy adviser to Obama who previously worked with Paul Wolfowitz to pave the way for war under Bush, demanding 400,000 troops for the invasion of Iraq.

Students, faculty and others protested outside.

See video at:   http://youtu.be/UJcfNII6J5g

by Dennis Loo          On September 7, 2013 the Washington Post reported:  The Obama administration secretly won permission from a surveillance court in 2011 to reverse restrictions on the National Security Agency’s use of intercepted phone calls and e-mails, permitting the agency to search deliberately for Americans’ communications in its massive databases, according to interviews with government officials and 

by Debra Sweet                 When I asked this week “When did it become appropriate to hold a vote about whether or not we should commit the “supreme international crime”?  I received a comment that      "The people who have received your message are probably already convinced of the illegality (or at least immorality) of a US attack on Syria, but efforts to persuade those not yet convinced would be aided by being able to refer to some internationally recognized legal document in which wars of aggression are so characterized and the characterization is explained (because all other war crimes flow from wars of aggression)."

by Dennis Loo          And you think that other unseen forces are making him do all of these terrible things, then take that reasoning process just ONE step further.  What you're saying is that one individual, even the most powerful politician in the world,cannot do the right thing because of the forces that surround him.

You are saying, in effect, that the problem is the system and not who is elected into office.

Here is a quick jolt of must-reads & resources for protesting U.S. plans to Attack Syria including downloadable posters, flyers & press releases.

by Dennis Loo         There are a few aspects to this developing situation that have either not been raised at all or that deserve greater attention.  The first is that when governments such as the U.S. decide to go to war, by the time that they announce publicly that they are seriously considering whether or not to launch the missiles and send the ships, etc., they have already behind closed doors decided to commence hostilities. Modern warfare requires months of painstaking, protracted, and laborious military planning and placing equipment and personnel in place. These logistical matters dictate that no government planning to launch aggressive war as the U.S. is doing is doing so only now because all of a sudden they have “discovered” that chemical weapons have been used.