Author: Brett Wilkins

Emerging technologies including artificial intelligence, lethal autonomous weapons systems, and hypersonic missiles pose a potentially existential threat that underscores the imperative of arms control measures to slow the pace of weaponization, according to a new report published Tuesday.

The Arms Control Association report – entitled Assessing the Dangers: Emerging Military Technologies and Nuclear (In)Stability – "unpacks the concept of 'emerging technologies' and summarizes the debate over their utilization for military purposes and their impact on strategic stability."

The publication notes that the world's military powers "have sought to exploit advanced technologies – artificial intelligence, autonomy, cyber, and hypersonics, among others – to gain battlefield advantages" but warns too little has been said about the dangers these weapons represent.

Continue reading “New Report Unpacks Dangers of Emerging Military Tech, From AI Nukes to Killer Robots”

A top Human Rights Watch official warned Monday that restrictions recently placed by Israel's apartheid government on "foreigners" – including Palestinians – seeking entry into the West Bank could turn the illegally occupied territory into "another Gaza," which is often described as the "world's largest open-air prison."

Last year, a three-page document used by Israeli authorities to screen foreign nationals wishing to enter the West Bank was replaced by a 61-page guide detailing occupation forces' policies and procedures for foreigners seeking to visit only the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem, or to extend a stay for specific purposes including studying, teaching, volunteering, or working there.

Continue reading “Human Rights Watch Says Israel Designed Entry Rules to Further Cut Off Palestinians From Outside World”

US military officials knew that an August 2021 drone strike in Kabul likely killed Afghan civilians including children but lied about it, a report published Friday revealed.

New York Times investigative reporter Azmat Khan analyzed a 66-page redacted US Central Command report on the August 29, 2021 drone strike that killed 10 members of the Ahmadi family, including seven children, outside their home in the Afghan capital. The strike took place during the chaotic final days of the US ground war in Afghanistan, just three days after a bombing that killed at least 182 people, including 13 American troops, at Kabul's international airport.

Zamarai Ahmadi, a 43-year-old aid worker for California-based nonprofit Nutrition and Education International, was carrying water containers that were mistaken for explosives when his Toyota Corolla was bombed by a Lockheed-Martin Hellfire missile fired from a General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper drone.

Continue reading “Pentagon Doc Reveals US Lied About Afghan Civilians Killed in 2021 Drone Strike”

As Russia's invasion and NATO's support of Ukraine have heightened nuclear tensions in Europe to their highest level since the Cold War, a Wisconsin peace activist is set to become the first American jailed in Germany for an antinuclear protest.

John LaForge, the 66-year-old co-director of Nukewatch, was convicted in December 2021 by the Regional Court in Koblenz, Germany on two charges of trespassing in connection with two 2018 protests against US nuclear weapons at Büchel Air Base near Cochem. LaForge has been ordered to serve 50 days behind bars at JVA Billwerder prison in Hamburg and was also fined €600 ($633).

During one of the demonstrations, LaForge and other activists entered the base, and climbed a bunker likely housing B61 thermonuclear gravity bombs.

Continue reading “John LaForge Set To Be First US Activist Jailed in Germany for Anti-Nuke Protests”

Editor’s Note: Ben-Gvir entered Al-Aqsa Wednesday morning.

Israel's far-right national security minister on Monday postponed a planned visit Islam's third-holiest site amid warnings from the country's opposition leader and Palestinian officials that such a trip would have deadly consequences.

The Times of Israel reports Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir temporarily put off a promised visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem – which sits on what Jews call the Temple Mount, Judaism's most sacred site since biblical times – after speaking with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the right-wing Likud party.

The previous day, Ben-Gvir vowed to visit the contested site – which has been illegally occupied by Israel for over half a century – sometime this week, possibly as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday.

Continue reading “Israel’s Ben-Gvir Postpones Visit to Al-Aqsa Amid Warnings That ‘People Will Die’”

The Pentagon’s stated commitment to transparency on civilian casualties was questioned Tuesday in an Intercept report noting that the Department of Defense has failed to respond to a group of House Democrats who set a three-month deadline to explain the US military’s role in a 2017 Nigerian airstrike that killed more than 160 noncombatants.

On September 8, Reps. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), Jason Crow (D-Colo.), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.), and Andy Kim (D-N.J.) – the Protection of Civilians in Combat Caucus – sent a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin citing reporting that the US military provided Nigerian forces with intelligence support ahead of a January 17, 2017 airstrike on a refugee camp in Rann, Borno state, in the country’s northeastern corner.

Continue reading “Pentagon Blows Deadline To Explain US Role in Nigerian Airstrike That Killed 160 Civilians”