Antiwar.com Blog

A proposal to automatically register applicants for California driver’s licenses with the Selective Service System for a possible military draft was pulled by its author, Sen. Bob Archuleta (D-Pico Rivera), just before a scheduled hearing today in the state Assembly Transportation Committee. This was the last scheduled meeting of that committee before the deadline for consideration of bills in this year’s legislative session, so the bill is effectively dead for the year.

Like similar laws in other states, California SB-1081 faced opposition from a coalition of peace, civil liberties, and immigrant rights organizations, on both policy and fiscal grounds. Pulling the bill before the hearing today was a face-saving way for Sen. Archuleta to avoid a vote by the committee not to advance his bill to the Assembly floor.

Continue reading “Draft Bills Dead in California But Still Alive in Congress”

On COI #626, Kyle Anzalone discusses the wars in Gaza, Lebanon, and Ukraine.

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“I have an amendment at the desk.” Rep. Chrissy Houlahan introduces a proposal from the Selective Service System to automate draft registration in the House Armed Services Commiteee, May 22, 2024.

Under fire for proposing an ill-considered amendment to this year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to “automatically” register all young men in the U.S. for a possible military draft, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) has issued a statement that casts more doubt on her understanding of the current draft law and on the wisdom of her proposed changes to Selective Service registration.

Continue reading “Rep. Houlahan Fails To Justify Move Toward a Draft”

Israeli prison officials are concealing information about reductions in food rations for Palestinians held in the Gaza Strip, where detainees – who have also reported horrific abuse including alleged rape and deadly torture – have been deliberately driven “to the point of starvation,” according to a report published Thursday.

Security sources told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that the Israel Prison Service (IPS) is intentionally cutting Palestinian prisoners’ caloric intake, a move confirmed by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who called the policy a “deterrent.”

Continue reading “Israeli Officials Hiding Data About Forced Starvation of Gaza Prisoners: Report”

On COI #625, Kyle Anzalone discusses the Biden-Trump debate and other news.

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With more than 100 media professionals – nearly all of them Palestinian – killed in Gaza since October, a group of 50 reporters from 13 international organizations this week shared the results of a new investigative journalism initiative aimed at exposing the deadly toll Israel’s onslaught has taken on those reporting it to the world.

The Gaza Project – led by the Paris-based nonprofit Forbidden Stories – “analyzed nearly 100 cases of journalists and media workers killed in Gaza, as well as other cases in which members of the press have been allegedly targeted, threatened, or injured since October 7,” when Hamas-led attacks on Israel left more than 1,100 people dead and over 240 others kidnapped.

Continue reading “The Gaza Project Exposes Israel’s ‘Chilling Pattern’ of Killing Journalists”