U.S. Navy SEAL fires MK11 sniper rifle from an MH-60S Knighthawk helicopter during a training flight in the Arabian Sea. (Photo Credit: U.S. Navy)
The twin U.S. raids in Libya and Somalia occurred almost a month ago but they’re still worth discussing, especially in light of the movie “Captain Phillips”, which stars Tom Hanks and is based on the 2009 hijacking of an American ship by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean. The movie was released October 11. Also, I haven’t been able to lay out my thoughts on the raids until now. Overall, they signify a continuation of rendition and the expansion of U.S. militarism into Africa.
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Tags: al-Libi, al-Shabaab, CIA, civil liberties, Human Rights, Kenya, Libya, rendition, Somalia, terrorism, War on Terror, Westgate Mall, Westgate Mall attack
Antiwar, anti-drone protest on April 3, 2013 in San Francisco, California. (Photo Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
One argument that’s prevalent in certain circles is that mostly white people, particularly males, care about drones. This argument has become pretty prominent in the age of Obama. It’s typically made by Obama supporters to shut down critics of his counterterrorism policies, such as drone strikes. It’s an asinine argument that marginalizes nonwhite antiwar voices and provides a multicultural veneer to empire. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: anti-war, antiracism, black, black politics, civil liberties, drone warfare, empire, Farea al-Muslimi, Guantanamo Bay, Human Rights, International Law, Kill List, liberals, Pakistan, race, racism, Somalia, targeted killing, War, war crimes, War on Terror, white people, Yemen
Guantanamo Camp X-Ray, taken June 15, 2013. Photo Credit: mine
From June 10 to June 22, 2013, I was in Guantanamo Bay Naval Station reporting for Truthout. I covered the military commissions of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged mastermind of the USS Cole bombing, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. To make it easy, I decided to create a blog post with all six of my articles. You can also see them in the “Published Works” section of my site. All of my pieces are below:
- “The Imperialist and Racist Origins of the Guantánamo Penal Colony”, Truthout, June 12, 2013. Read here.
- “US Cold War Ally in the Docks at Guantanamo for USS Cole Bombing”, Truthout, June 17, 2013. Read here.
- “Contention and Confusion in Guantanamo Pre-Trial Hearings for Al-Nashiri Military Commissions”, Truthout, June 18, 2013. Read here.
- “Pretrial Hearings of 5 Suspects in 9/11 Face Challenge of Torture-Obtained Evidence”, Truthout, June 21, 2013. Read here.
- “Military Commission Pre-Trial Hearings for Alleged 9/11 ‘Plotters’ Focus on Gitmo Conditions”, Truthout, June 28, 2013. Read here.
- “Guantanamo and Permanent War: The View From Camp X-Ray”, Truthout, July 3, 2013. Read here.
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Tags: 9/11, civil liberties, empire, Guantanamo, Guantanamo Ba, Guantanamo Bay, Human Rights, indefinite detention, khalid sheikh mohammed, ksm, Pakistan, permanent war, perpetual war, Torture, war crimes, War on Terror, Yemen
MQ-9 Reaper flies above Creech AFB during a local training mission. (Photo by Paul Ridgeway; attained from Wikipedia)
Recently, President Barack Obama gave a speech about his counterterrorism strategy at National Defense University. In it, he justified his targeted killing policy and drone strikes of suspected terrorists around the world. He also announced his plan to finally shut down Guantanamo Bay prison.
The speech is lauded by many as a signal that President Obama wants to end the War on Terror. But the speech was full of clever sophistry and Orwellian doublespeak that made it seem like the perpetual war was ending just as it’s being institutionalized and normalized. In essence, it was a repackaging of America’s targeted killing program and system of permanent war. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Barack Obama, CIA, civil liberties, counterterrorism, drone warfare, drones, empire, Guantanamo Bay, Guantanamo Bay prison, Human Rights, International Law, Kill List, medea benjamin, national defense university, national security, Obama, obama drones speech, obama gitmo speech, obama speech, orwellian doublespeak, Pakistan, permanent war, perpetual war, senator patrick leahy, Somalia, targeted killing, War on Terror, Yemen
Predator drone fires a Hellfire missile (Source: Wikipedia)
On Monday, NBC News reported on a leaked Department of Justice “white paper” summarizing memos that make the Obama administration’s legal case for targeted killing of U.S. citizens suspected of links to al-Qaeda or “associated forces”. In September of 2011, the Obama administration launched a drone strike against alleged al-Qaeda leaders Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan in Yemen, both of whom were U.S. citizens. Neither was charged or convicted of any crime. In fact, Yemen experts raised doubts about how operational al-Awlaki was in al-Qaeda.
Two weeks later, al-Awlaki’s 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, was killed in another drone strike, even though he was not charged or convicted of any crime. It is very likely that he wasn’t the intended target. In fact, one Obama administration official called the strike that killed Abdulrahman “an outrageous mistake…. They were going after the guy sitting next to him.” Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Afghanistan, anti-war, Barack Obama, CIA, civil liberties, drone warfare, drones, Human Rights, International Law, Iraq, John Brennan, JSOC, Kill List, legal memo, Pakistan, permanent war, Somalia, targeted killing, War, War on Terror, white paper, Yemen
Camp X-Ray (Gitmo) detainees, 1/11/2002, Source: Wikipedia
A few days before the new year rang in, I made three predictions for Turnstyle News about what’s in store for the year 2013. The first was a “drawdown but not a complete end to the war in Afghanistan”, the second was “continuation of drone strikes and targeted killing”, and the third was “indefinite detention of U.S. citizens will remain”. It’s a few days into 2013 but a few recent events show that the dismal state of peace and civil liberties will not cease any time soon. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Barack Obama, CIA, civil liberties, drone warfare, drones, extraordinary rendition, Gitmo, Global War on Terror, Guantanamo Bay, Guantanamo Bay prison, Human Rights, indefinite detention, international human rights law, International Law, Kill List, laws of war, NDAA, Obama, Pakistan, Somalia, targeted killing, War, war crimes, War on Terror, Yemen
I wrote a piece in Turnstyle News about the growing domestic use of drones. It’s the second in a series of two articles I wrote about drones.
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Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, MQ-9 Predator B. Drone used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Photo source: Wikimedia Commons
Imagine hearing a buzzing sound over your head in the sky everyday. It’s not a bug. Nor is it an airplane. It’s an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), also known as a drone. There is no pilot inside the vehicle; it’s being controlled by remote control in a secret location a few dozen or hundreds of miles away from you. The drone flies over you, tracking your movements every day. Everywhere you go — to work, to school, to visit friends, or even to a protest or party — the drone buzzes over your head and watches what you do.
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Tags: ACLU, CIA, civil liberties, Department of Homeland, domestic drones, drones, FAA, FBI Security, Fourth Amendment, Human Rights, mass surveillance, police state, privacy, privacy rights, surveillance, U.S. Constitution, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, UAV
Blues African 