Author: Brett Wilkins

Peace advocates on Tuesday derided a New York City public service announcement meant to prepare residents for a nuclear attack as a 21st-century version of the absurd Duck and Cover civil defense film of the early Cold War era.

“So, there’s been a nuclear attack,” the narrator of the NYC Emergency Management video begins. “Don’t ask me how or why, just know the big one has hit.”

“So what do we do?” she continues before instructing viewers to “get inside, fast,” “stay inside… and get clean immediately,” and “stay tuned; follow media for more information.”

Continue reading “‘You Don’t Got This’: Peace Group Blasts NYC’s New Nuclear Survival PSA”

As supporters of Julian Assange held a news conference Friday at the United Kingdom’s consulate in New York to demand freedom for the jailed WikiLeaks founder, a trio of leading leftist figures decried the British government’s approval of the ailing Australian’s extradition to the United States.

In a statement published ahead of Friday’s press conference, the three chairs of the Assange Defense Committee – linguist and political dissident Noam Chomsky, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker – blasted U.K. Home Secretary Priti Patel’s greenlighting of Assange’s transfer to the U.S. earlier in the day. Assange plans to appeal the decision.

“It’s a sad day for Western democracy. The UK’s decision to extradite Julian Assange to the nation that plotted to assassinate him – the nation that wants to imprison him for 175 years for publishing truthful information in the public interest – is an abomination,” the trio said, referring to an alleged 2017 CIA scheme to kidnap or kill the WikiLeaks founder.

Continue reading “‘Sad Day for Western Democracy’: Chomsky, Ellsberg, Others Denounce Assange Extradition”

No Israeli police officers will be punished, despite brutally assaulting mourners at last month’s funeral procession for slain Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, a leading newspaper in Israel reported Thursday.

According toHaaretz, the decision to not hold any police commanders or officers accountable for their misconduct during Abu Akleh’s May 13 funeral was made in advance of the official investigation.

As thousands of mourners made their way through occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli police attacked the cortege with batons, stun grenades, and tear gas, while stealing Palestinian flags from mourners and smashing the window of the hearse carrying Abu Akleh’s coffin. At one point, officers assaulted pallbearers carrying the casket, nearly causing them to drop it to the ground.

Continue reading “Israeli Cops Won’t Be Punished for Attack on Shireen Abu Akleh’s Funeral”

The United States is asking Israel to refrain from certain violations of international law in Palestine during President Joe Biden’s visit to the apartheid state next month, according to a report published Wednesday.

Axios reports U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Barbara Leaf has asked the Israeli government to stop evicting Palestinians and demolishing their homes in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem – actions condemned as ethnic cleansing by human rights advocates.

Leaf also asked Israel to not make any decisions on building or expanding its exclusively Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, and to reduce military operations in the West Bank, until after Biden’s visit. Like the occupation, settlements are illegal under international law and constitute a form of apartheid, according to United Nations officials and human rights groups.

Continue reading “US Asks Israel to Dial Back Oppression of Palestinians – But Just During Biden’s Visit”

A leading peace group on Monday said a new report detailing the depth of US support for Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen – hundreds of which have been called war crimes by international legal experts – shows the need for Congress to pass a recently introduced measure to end American complicity in the one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

According to The Washington Post – which along with the Security Force Monitor (SFM) at Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute analyzed thousands of news reports and images to identify warplanes from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that have attacked Yemen – “a substantial portion of the air raids were carried out by jets developed, maintained, and sold by US companies, and by pilots who were trained by the US military.”

This, despite a February 2021 pledge by President Joe Biden to end US support for “offensive operations” in the Saudi-led war – a promise that has been repeatedly sidestepped via arms sales and a $500 million maintenance contract.

Continue reading “New Demands for Yemen War Powers Resolution as Report Reveals Depth of US Complicity in Airstrike”

Human rights advocates on Wednesday called for a thorough and transparent investigation after Al Jazeera and witnesses said Israeli forces shot and killed one of the network’s reporters while she was at work.

Shireen Abu Akleh, a well-known 51-year-old Palestinian-American correspondent, was wearing a helmet and press jacket that clearly identified her as a journalist when Israeli forces shot her in the face as she covered an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the illegally occupied West Bank of Palestine. Another Palestinian journalist, Ali al-Samoudi, was shot in the back but is reportedly in stable condition.

While Israeli officials falsely claimed Palestinian militants shot Abu Akleh, Al Jazeera condemned her killing as “blatant murder.”

Continue reading “US Groups Demand Full Probe After Israeli Forces Kill Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh”