War Criminals Watch's blog

Following is a list of Appearance & Protests against US War Criminals in May 2014. We encourage you to participate in any protests or plan a demonstration in your area.  Please let us know and we will help you publicize your event. Check out our websites (www.warcriminalswathch.org) to download ready-made leaflets and posters.

George W. Bush plans to come to Toronto May 12th, 2014 in defiance of the United Nations Committee against Torture report that Canada's duty to prosecute foreign nationals suspected of torture applies to everyone entering Canada however temporarily. He is being invited by the 2014 Spirit of Hope Benefit for the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies for "A Conversation with President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush at at the Metro Toronto-Cnvention Center.  Lawyers Against the War is calling for a stop to this illegality. CANADA HAS THE DUTY UNDER THE CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE TO EITHER BAR BUSH FROM CANADA OR ARREST AND PROSECUTE HIM ON ARRIVAL.

GREAT NEWS! CONDOLEEZEE RICE WITHDREW FROM MAKING THE RUTGERS COMMENCEMENT SPEECH. A VICTORY FOR THE STUDENTS & TEACHERS OF RUTGERS. We assume the Teach-In will still occur, now as a victory celebration.

World Can't Wait presents four great panels at the Left Forum.  Each panel will be moderated by World Can't Wait director Debra Sweet. 

From World Can't Wait Honolulu      A small crew got out more than 1300 anti-drone brochures and leaflets at two recent events.  On Tuesday we went to the talk by Al Gore; on Friday to the Bruno Mars Concert.   While we got rained on during leafleting at both events, we felt each was a big success.  

 David Schwittek posted an announcement 6 days ago "I believe that Redact This! is important in documenting and protesting our country's inhumane, unjust, and ineffective  treatment of prisoners..."That's what artist and&n

Check out this video with Noam Chomsky and others.

By  Deb Vanpoolen 

The Essential Facts:

As I sat in that room, I decided my action would be designed to send a fissure through David Petraeus’ edifice of lies with the intent to reach someone with the truth who desperately needed to hear it like I once did.

Check out the February and March 2014 War Criminals appearances/protests to see if any of them will be in your area. Join a protest or start one.  On our website you will find posters and leaflets for your event. If you like, we will assist you in organizing and getting the word out for your event.

by Debra Sweet          President Obama recently announced that the vast NSA spying will continue, with a few restrictions. Edward Snowden and the journalists who are still releasing stories from the files he made available are being called spies and being threatened with assasination by members of the US Congress. Once again, the role of those commiting crimes, and the victims, are reversed. 

by Debra Sweet          Observing tonight's messages from the President and several Republicans providing what we are told is the "other" side, we ought to step back, look at this as the outsiders we are, and ask questions:

by Debra Sweet         5 years ago yesterday Obama signed an executive order to close Guantanamo. But the Obama administration is still making arguments in US federal court, and to the public that indefinite detention is necessary in Bagram, Afghanistan, as well as other places. From Guantanamo and beyond: indefinite detention and other forms of torture are wrong and must be stopped!

 Over 200 people gathered in pouring rain at the White House on the beginning of the 13th year of operation of the Guantanamo prison to demand Close Guantanamo Now. A contingent of people in orange jumpsuits and black hoods lined up in front of the White House with placards that read “Close Guantanamo.” Speakers from many groups briefly spoke of the horrors of the prison, stories of the prisoners and their families.

by Dennis Loo       Obama promised during his 2008 campaign for the presidency that if elected:    “We will lead in the observance of human rights, and the rule of law, and civil rights and due process, which is why I will close Guantanamo and I will restore habeas corpus and say no to torture. Because if you elect me, you will have elected a president who has taught the Constitution, who believes in the Constitution, and who will restore and obey the Constitution of the United States."

On the morning of Mon., January 13th, about 25 people gathered outside NYC’s Javits Center to protest the presence inside of former George Bush who was giving the breakfast keynote (closed to the press) at the National Retail Federation's Annual Convention. War Criminals Watch/World Can’t Wait activists, who had put the original call out for the demonstration, were there with a large banner and posters. We Will Not Be Silent had their striking black and white posters.

by Debra Sweet       There are two pertinent questions which demand answers if we are to force the U.S. to close the illegal torture camp at Guantánamo, and go on to end indefinite detention by the United States.  Why did the Bush regime open it in 2002 in a U.S. military base set in Guantánamo Bay on a colonized piece of Cuban land seized from Cuba at the culmination of its war of independence from Spain, known here as the Spanish-American War, in 1898?And why are sections of the U.S. ruling class holding onto this prison so tightly, even expanding its infrastructure, that Obama's six year old promise to close it has become a cruel joke to most of the men who were there when he campaigned in 2008?

The Bush regime filled the off-shore prison at Guantanamo Bay by rendering men seized from around the globe into indefinite captivity, employing and legally justifying a program of torture they called "enhanced interrogation." Even Bush's team slowly began to release hundreds of prisoners for whom no case could be fabricated to justify prison. When Barack Obama was elected, he quickly promised to close it within a year... five years ago. It's still open, with new infrastructure added, and more personnel than ever. Most people in the U.S. have no idea there are still 82 prisoners there who were cleared for release years ago; 45 who the President says will never be charged or released; and "military commissions" trials are designed to cover the torture inflicted on the prisoners, depriving of them rights the U.S. has claimed to cherish.