War Criminals Watch's blog

by Debra Sweet               The timing could not be better for our message to appear in The New York Times.  We are making a major push today for $9,703 to place the ad immediately for publication on stand-by this week. President Obama will give a major speech Thursday at the National Defense University in Washington, reportedly about drones and Guantanamo. 

by Debra Sweet         While promoting the message to Close Guantanamo that we are raising funds to publish in The New York Times, we  have been hearing, especially in the Twitterverse, that people think, because Obama promised to close Guantanamo, and says that Congress is not allowing him to do that, the main problem is with Congress.

by Debra Sweet  Yesterday, Pentagon officials claimed the president has authorization to pursue war without limits of time or space, saying the Authorization of Use of Military Force passed in 2001 means war could go on, as Dick Cheney said, "for generations."

by Debra Sweet          If you haven't signed and donated to publish the Close Guantanamo ad in The New York Times, please do so now & make it count DOUBLE: we get matching funds from a generous donor up to $5,000 by noon Friday, May 17.

by Debra Sweet                     My friend Stephen Phelps, Senior Minister at The Riverside Church, signed The New York Times ad on closing Guantanamowe plan to publish next week, and sent a note saying he would “begin to send the hope around to some others.”  This hit me strongly.  For the last four+ years, since Obama promised to close it, nothing hopeful has come out of Guantanamo.

by Debra Sweet          We’ve been pondering hard on what more we can do to create a political situation where Obama has to back down, release at least a few of the men at Guantanamo, and be forced into closing the prison. All of our frequent protests, petitions, call-ins, editorials and op-eds are part of what's needed.

Here is the list of appearances/Protests of War Criminals for May, 2013. If any of these war criminals are in your area, please plan something around their appearance. We will be happy to help you get things started.  You may access posters and leaflets on our website - http://warcriminalswatch.org/index.php/downloadable-materials/173-posters-a-leaflets

by Debra Sweet               The April month of protest against US drone warfare and surveillance ended very strongly in Syracuse Sunday with a protest of hundreds of us at Hancock Air Force Base, where drones — unmanned aerial vehicles — are piloted over Pakistan, Afghanistan, and perhaps Yemen, Somalia and other countries.  Picture the starkness of the political clash.

by Debra Sweet            President Obama seems to fear that the hunger strike of the Guantanamo prisoners endangers the United States' reputation. He doesn't want them to die. So we learned today when he was questioned by a reporter. See Obama's remarks, and pertinent commentary from Kevin Gosztola: Obama’s Deluded Remarks Ignore His Role in Keeping Prisoners at Guantanamo.

by Debra Sweet.      From Reprieve, UK:     Tear gas and shotguns – Guantanamo detainee gives first inside account of raid. Younous Chekkouri, a detainee who has been cleared for release but remains held in Guantanamo, has given the first inside account of the raid carried out by prison authorities on Saturday 13 April.

by Debra Sweet  On April 18, 2013, Rochester Indymedia interviewed Debra Sweet, an anti-war organizer and director of The World Can't Wait. She will be going to Syracuse, NY on April 26-28th for the “Resisting Drones, Global War and Empire" convergence (see the Facebook event).

by Debra Sweet          Protests planned for Bush “Lie-bury” dedication this week at SMU in Dallas:

by Debra Sweet   Does visible resistance against Guantánamo still matter? Jill McLaughlin, member of the World Can't Wait Steering Committee says yes emphically.

by Fred Branfman        Henry Kissinger is to receive “The Intrepid Freedom” award on May 23, 2013, for “defending freedom and democracy”,at New York City's Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.

“A life whose only value was death. I saw this in the village of my birth, as every day and every night the planes came to drop bombs on us. We lived in holes to protect our lives. I saw my cousin die in the field of death. My heart was most disturbed and my voice called out loudly as I ran to the houses. Thus, I saw life and death for the people on account of the war of many airplanes in the region of Xieng Khouang. Until there were no houses at all. And the cows and buffalo were dead. Until everything was leveled and you could see only the red, red ground. I think of this time and still I am afraid.”

by Debra Sweet, Director, World Can't Wait         Protests organized for April 11 to close the prison at Guantanamo and support the hunger strikers there are spreading. See the list below. Let us know if you will be protesting that day. Scroll down for more resources.

3 years after the release of the video Collateral Murder by Wikileaks, which did do much to focus attention on U.S. war crimes in Iraq, Bradley Manning faces life in prison for sharing it.

We will be on the phone with Kevin Gostzola, author of The Dissenter who covers Bradley Manning's case.
10pm EDT/ 7pm PDT.

Email debrasweet@worldcantwait.net if you want to register for the call.

by Debra Sweet, Director, World Can't Wait                            Saturday was the first time it felt like spring in NYC, and crowds of people filled Union Square Park watching jugglers and musicians, and just hanging out.  It was so heartbreakingly pleasant, one felt bad bearing the news to tourists that out of many things wrong in this class-divided world, we were about to challenge them to take notice of one very important thing. Ten of us put on orange jumpsuits to mark the 51st day of the potentially deadly hunger strike by men imprisoned by the U.S.

by Debra Sweet, World Can't Wait Director         Starting this week, World Can't Wait and many other groups begin a month of impressively diverse actions aimed at stopping U.S. drone war and surveillance. We hope all supporters will find a way during this month to join in with planned actions. Set up your own, or find one of the many ways of making visible your opposition to:

This is an exciting month with several protests already planned, including a major series of events in Dallas around the Bush Library and an Obama demo in San Francisco. Check out what's happening in your area of the country or plan something yourselves.  We'll be happy to help publicize your event. Posters and leaflets are available on our website.

“I scare myself when I look in the mirror. Let them kill us as we have nothing to lose. We died when Obama indefinitely detained us. Respect us or kill us. It is your choice. The US must take off its mask and kill us.”
~ Faiz al-Kandari

by World Can't Wait Director Debra Sweet
On the phone THURSDAY March 20
10pm Eastern / 7pm Pacific

by World Can't Wait Director Debra Sweet                      Yes, I know it wasn’t all of the  countries of the Americas which made war on Iraq.  It was the United States of America, as Barack Obama is so fond of saying, dragging along with it the coalition of the bribed and coerced.  Just as it was for the Vietnamese people an American war, while we called it the Vietnam War, this one is known in Iraq as the American War.  We have to accept that.

by World Can't Wait Director Debra Sweet              Early today, I'll be driving to Highland Falls, NY, near the US Military Academy at West Point, the site of many protests over George Bush's Global War on Terror.  Six friends will be sentenced tomorrow in local court there for protesting Obama's expansion of the war on Afghanistan in 2009, and because it's the tenth anniversary of "shock and awe" we feel compelled to throw up a protest.

Lynne Stewart has devoted her life to the oppressed – a constant advocate for the countless many deprived in the United States of their freedom and their rights.

by  the Steering Committee of World Can't Wait            Samatha Goldman:Ten years ago, I was a student in high school when the war in Iraq began. At 15, I threw myself wholeheartedly into resisting the war. I remember the agony and outrage I felt when despite mass protest, a war based on lies was waged in our names...