Author: Brett Wilkins

A group of 15 peace activists on Saturday wrapped up a week-long nonviolent, socially-distanced protest at a Nevada Air Force base housing a command and control center for unmanned aerial drones.

For the 11th straight year, CodePink and Veterans for Peace led their twice-annual Shut Down Creech demonstration against killer drones at Creech Air Force Base to “oppose the remote-control killing” orchestrated from the military facility located 45 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

CodePink organizer Toby Blomé said the activists, who hail from California, Arizona, and Nevada, “were compelled to participate and take a strong and determined stance against the illegal and inhumane remote killing by U.S. drones that occurs daily” at Creech.

Continue reading “Peace Groups Blockade Creech Air Force Base To Protest ‘Illegal and Inhumane Remote Killing’ by US Drones”

"I’ll never apologize for the United States of America, ever; I don’t care what the facts are," said Vice President George H. W. Bush after the US Navy shot down Iran Air Flight 655 in 1988, killing 290 innocent people, including 66 children.

It’s too early to tell whether or not Iran shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 shortly after the Boeing 737-8KV took off in Tehran on Wednesday, killing all 176 people on board. One thing seems almost certain – if Iran did shoot down the plane, it was by accident. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Boris Johnson, his British counterpart, both claim to have intelligence and other evidence that Flight 752 was hit by one or more surface-to-air missiles, while US President Donald Trump opined that “somebody could have made a mistake on the other side." It’s practically impossible to imagine a scenario in which Iran would intentionally target a Ukrainian commercial flight; fortunately, cool heads seem to be prevailing ahead of investigations of the incident.

‘I’ll Never Apologize for the United States of America’

For many Iranians, the Tehran tragedy brought back painful memories of a similar incident from more than 30 years ago during a period of similarly heightened tensions between the United States and Iran. On July 3, 1988 the US guided missile destroyer USS Vincennesshot down Iran Air Flight 655, an Airbus A300 flying in Iranian airspace and carrying 290 civilians from Tehran to Dubai via Bandar Abbas, killing all aboard. The victims included people from six countries, including 66 children. The US maintains this was an accident, while Iran accused the US of an intentional act of state terrorism.

Continue reading “Ukraine Airliner Tragedy Evokes Memories of US Iran Air Shootdown, Cubana Flight 455 Attack”

Students at Duke University in North Carolina repeatedly interrupted a recent speaking event featuring Tzipi Livni, the former Israeli foreign minister who has been the subject of arrest warrants and a lawsuit in three countries for her alleged role in war crimes committed during the 2008-09 Cast Lead invasion of Gaza.

The Duke Chronicle reports around two dozen protesters interrupted Livni at the October 23 event, with one student standing and shouting that Cast Lead “was a massacre” before the ex-minister could answer her first question. As soon as the first protester paused, more students stood and shouted at Livni. Some of them read names and held photos of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces. A few minutes later, the protesters began to leave the auditorium while chanting “shame” and “you don’t belong here” to Livni.

“You know what’s a shame? It’s a shame that we cannot have this discussion,” Livni countered, dismissing the demonstrators as “not willing to listen to the truth.”

Continue reading “Duke Students Protest Speech by Tzipi Livni, Former Israeli Foreign Minister Accused of War Crimes”

The US military announced on Wednesday that it was investigating an air strike on a home near the northern city of Kunduz last week that reportedly killed 14 members of a single family, including eight women and three young children.

Reuters reports Afghan officials confirmed the deaths, which resulted from July 19 combat operations conducted by Afghan forces backed by American air strikes. However, the officials said it was still unclear how the 14 relatives died. US military officials last week confirmed American warplanes bombed the area in support of Afghan forces but, as is usually the case, they said there were no indications of civilian casualties.

There were certainly such indications on the ground. Local residents and officials said there were some 20 people living in the house that was bombed, all of them from one extended family. In addition to the 14 people killed, two other children, ages 5 and 3, were hospitalized with serious injuries, while three other children managed to escape from the home when the bombing began.

"I don’t know why they attack civilians," local resident Rahimullah, who like many Afghans goes by only one name, told the New York Times. Rahimullah, who drove the tractor used to excavate the bombed home and dig up the victims’ bodies, said two of his nephews were killed in the strike.

Continue reading “US Military Investigating Afghanistan Air Strike That Killed Family of 14”

Luis Posada Carriles, the most notorious and wanted terrorist in the Western Hemisphere – but one few Americans have ever heard of – has died a free man in Miami at age 90.

The Miami Herald reports Posada Carriles died peacefully in his sleep in a Hollywood, Florida hospital early on May 23 following a lengthy battle with throat cancer.

At the time of his death, Posada Carriles, a staunchly militant anti-Castro Cuban exile and former longtime CIA agent, was wanted by authorities in Cuba and Venezuela for his leading role in masterminding the 1976 bombing of a Cuban commercial airliner over the Caribbean, an attack that killed 73 innocent people. He is also wanted for orchestrating a string of terror attacks on Cuban hotels and for repeatedly plotting to assassinate the late Cuban president Fidel Castro.

Continue reading “Luis Posada Carriles, Hemisphere’s Most Wanted Terrorist, Dies Free in Miami at Age 90”