Author: Brett Wilkins

As the Biden administration on Thursday announced billions of dollars in additional aid for Ukraine’s defense against Russian invaders, peace activists renewed calls for a diplomatic solution to the nearly seven-month war.

“The White House and Congress are fueling this war with a steady stream of weapons instead of pushing for talks to end the conflict,” Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the peace group CodePink, said in a statement. “That’s why we, the people, have to rise up with a demand of negotiations, not escalation.”

CodePink and other antiwar groups including Veterans for Peace, World Beyond War, and Peace Action are set to launch a global week of action for peace in Ukraine next Monday. Demonstrations are scheduled in U.S. cities including Washington, D.C., metropolitan Boston, Milwaukee, Nashville, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Pasadena.

Continue reading “Peace Groups Decry Billions More in US Military Aid as Blinken Visits Ukraine”

Peace activists on Friday challenged what they called Saudi Arabia’s “sportswashing” of war crimes in Yemen and domestic human rights abuses by protesting outside – and over – a Massachusetts golf tournament funded by the repressive kingdom.

Members of Massachusetts Peace Action and supporters rallied at the Bolton Fair Grounds in Lancaster, site of the shuttle bus to the LIV Golf tournament at The International golf club in Bolton. The professional golf tour is financed by the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.

Demonstrators held signs with messages including “Saudi Money is Blood Money” and “Saudi Arabia Kills Journalists and Kids in Yemen” while an airplane circled over the event trailing a banner reading “Bolton Rejects Saudi Blood Money.”

Continue reading “Massachusetts Pacifists Decry ‘Saudi Blood Money’ at Kingdom’s Golf Tournament”

Human rights groups were cautiously optimistic Thursday as the United States military – which has killed more civilians in foreign wars than any other armed force on Earth in the post-World War II era – published a plan meant to reduce non-combatant casualties.

Declaring that “the protection of civilians is a strategic priority as well as a moral imperative,” the Pentagon’s 46-page Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan (CHMR-AP) lays out a series of policy steps aimed at preventing and responding to the death and injury of non-combatants.

Continue reading “Groups Cautiously Welcome Pentagon’s New Civilian Casualty Action Plan”

Congressional progressives this week urged top Biden administration officials to end the transfer of military weapons to local law enforcement agencies under a program that critics say disproportionately harms communities of color.

In a letter led by Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), and Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), the 22 lawmakers called on Cabinet members to implement part of a May executive order signed by President Joe Biden aimed at reforming federal policing standards.

“Police militarization has never made our communities safer,” Pressley tweeted. “It’s time to stop transferring military-grade weapons to local police.”

Continue reading “Progressive Lawmakers Push Biden To Stop Transferring Military Weapons to Cops”

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly told President Joe Biden during their meeting in Jeddah Friday that while the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is “regrettable,” U.S. hands are not clean and other journalists are killed with impunity.

Bin Salman specifically mentioned the torture scandal at the US military prison at Abu Ghraib, Iraq and the killing of Palestinian-American Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh by Israeli forces in May, according to Al Aribiya, which is owned by the Saudi government.

The de facto Saudi ruler also said that the CIA – which along with other American intelligence agencies concluded that Khashoggi’s gruesome 2018 murder was likely ordered by bin Salman – makes mistakes, as it did when it falsely claimed Iraq had an active weapons of mass destruction program prior to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and occupation.

Continue reading “‘Remember Abu Ghraib,’ MbS Tells Biden When Pressed on Khashoggi: Report”

Progressive campaigners rebuked members of Congress who on Wednesday night voted down a pair of amendments to the latest National Defense Authorization Act that would have significantly limited the U.S. military budget.

With the US House of Representatives set to vote this week on the NDAA for fiscal year 2023, progressive Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) sought to include two amendments in $839 billion bill.

One of the measures would have reduced the overall Pentagon budget by $100 billion, while the other would have rescinded the $37 billion in additional Pentagon funding added in committee to President Joe Biden’s topline request. The former measure was defeated by a vote of 78-350, while the latter was voted down 151-277.

“We are racing toward a trillion-dollar military budget that tolerates and encourages mind-blowing waste, rewards military-industrial complex political spending with unfathomably large contracts – and fails to address priority national security needs,” Robert Weissman, president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said in a statement.

Continue reading “House Votes Down Amendments To Cut ‘Outrageous’ Military Budget”