War Criminals Watch's blog

Check out whether U.S. war criminals are speaking and promoting themselves in your area this September.  Let us know how we may help with any demonstrations you might be organizing.Take a look at our website visual materials for your flyers. Send us photos and a story that we may put up on our Facebook page.

We Are Not Your Soldiers is gearing up for the fall semester to visit more high schools and colleges with veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Students will learn about the vets' experiences and why they should not enlist to fight in these ongoing wars. As the occupation of Afghanistan and "sanitized warfare" through kill lists and drone-bombings continues n o matter who will be president, we need to intervene in the lives of young people before they are signed away to the war machine. See wearenotyoursoldiers.org.

Find out more about the We Are Not Your Soldiers tour—watch this overview:

To mark the beginning of the next phase of accused whistle-blower
Bradley Manning's pre-trial hearings and noting that he has spent 825
days in prison, some under torturous conditions, World Can't Wait
organized an activity on August 27, 2012 at Grand Central Station in NYC.                                                           

OAKLAND, Calif. — Six out of seven protesters were arrested Thursday night after they held a peaceful sit-in inside President Obama's campaign headquarters and refused to leave.

The protesters marched to the headquarters after a 5 p.m. rally in Frank Ogawa Plaza in support of Bradley Manning, a former U.S. Army intelligence analyst accused of leaking classified information to WikiLeaks.

On Thursday August 16, as news broke that Ecuador was giving political asylum to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, World Can't Wait in NYC quickly put together a plan to demonstrate support for this brave decision. About 10 people who understand the significance of Wikileaks got together in front of the Ecuadorian Consulate with signs supporting the courageous stand of the Ecuadorian government:  "small country - high ethics - big heart," "hands off Ecuador and Assange," and "thanks for standing up for law and morality."

World Can't Wait will be in Charlotte, NC September 1-6 to protest these crimes.

• Join our contingent of orange jumpsuits and model drones to represent those who have been victims of these crimes for the mass march on Sunday, September 2. Rally 11:00 am, March 1:00 pm from Frazier Park, Charlotte NC
• Join us for street outreach and theater throughout the week. Help bring the message Humanity and the Planet Come First: Stop the Crimes of Your Government before the eyes of the world in Charlotte!
  

Chicago will witness the annual Air & Water Show this weekend. Weapons of mass destruction will screech across the sky and military recruiters will prowl for 'warm bodies' among the hundreds of thousands who come for an afternoon at the beach.

On Saturday, Aug 18, Chicago World Can't Wait, Occupy Chicago, No Drones Illinois, Protest Chaplains, Wellington Avenue United Church of Christ and many friends will challenge this glorification of war for empire and engage thousands who will be there. Dynamic political theater, interactive art, and the counter-recruitment message of We Are Not Your Soldiers will turn the biggest day of the year for military recruiting into a day for mobilizing to stop these wars for empire.

This week Mitt Romney picked a possible Vice President who believes peoples' rights are "derived from God;" abortion doctors should be prosecuted, while zygotes have "personhood;" and the public sector of government should be destroyed. 

All of which is feeding the addiction — including of some people I work shoulder to shoulder with and respect — to the lesser of two evils. What's up with that addiction? Can it be overcome? Stay tuned as we focus on that problem, among others.

Early in September, Obama and the Democrats, who have carried forward some of the very crimes so hated under Bush, will gather at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC to affirm, bless, and continue US aggression around the world and unjust policies at home.

If you believed that wars of aggression, indefinite detention, torture, drone bombings, a presidential “kill list,” the outrageous suspension of core civil liberties, and the wars on immigrants and women were wrong under Bush, then they are just as wrong under Obama.

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 Monday, July 23, 2012, as Obama came to the Bay Area for multiple campaign fundraising appearances, a large protest crowd was in the streets of downtown Oakland for hours.  An anti-war action was called by World Can’t Wait, Afghans for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Code Pink, the Bradley Manning Support Network and Courage to Resist and we were there with banners and signs aloft.  Near the Fox Theater (the Obama rally site) we gathered with more groups: Occupy Oakland and Redwood City, Vets for Peace, students.  There were other clusters of protest scattered around the area at different times: youth protesting for immigrant rights, Occupiers, environmentalists.  Also there were lots of people who had earlier been at a large rally for medical marijuana  (the feds have raided major Oakland dispensaries despite their le

 Protest Obama and On-Going Wars 

 7.23.2012 -  3:00 - 9:00 PM  

Starting at Oscar Grant Park & Going to Fox Theater, Oakland, CA.

Why does World Can't Wait deserve your ongoing financial support? There are a billion needs humanity has, and especially at this time, you're asked to give to charities and candidates' campaigns constantly.  Why put $5 to $200 a month to World Can't Wait as our sustainers do? (And thanks to those of you who are new sustainers, we're off to a good start on our 3 week drive for 40 new sustainers.) 

Check out the July - August appearances and protests of war criminals around the country. See who's coming to your area. On the list, click on a date to find out the details. We're happy to help you plan and publicize your demonstation. Get in touch with us at  www.warcriminalswatch.org.

George Bush

7/24/12 - Boston MA

8/27/12 - Columbus GA

For two weeks now, Julian Assange has been at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, while he awaits the government's decision to offer him political asylum.  Dennis Loo wrote about Assange's role in challenging the US empire, published just before the asylum request.

He ends with a challenge to us all:

 One thing I can state for certain: no matter which party wins in November, or who is president, we will be facing a government intent on spreading empire, detaining indefinitely, surveilling almost everyone.A friend asked me recently if there's any hope for justice and accountability for the Bush era war crimes.  He had campaigned hard for Obama, with the hopes many had, that Guantánamo would close, and that the Bush regime would face charges, or at least investigation for Abu Ghraib, for lying about WMD's, or at least for detaining thousands of people with no charge.

My name is MaryAnn Thomas, and I find myself living in an EXCEPTIONAL time.
A time when the myth of American moral superiority is being used to excuse, even
PROMOTE, cruel and intolerable crimes against humanity.

We need your help to engage a very special intern this summer.  For $1000, we will begin work on an online crowd-funding campaign to produce a two-minute pitch video to highlight the intent and goals of the e-book publishing of Redact This! a fantastic book of images by artists including Fernando Botero, Clinton Fein, Art Hazelwood, Daniel Heyman,  Jenny Holzer, Frances Jetter, Ann Messner, Malaquias Montoya, Richard Serra (creator of the piece above) and David Zung.  It includes text by Peter Selz and Debra Sweet and a timeline by designer and editor David Schwittek.

Please help give a boost to this campaign to raise the funds and get Redact This! published.

Hello to all the new friends we made at the American Humanist Association conference in New Orleans, especially to the Feminist Caucus who named me "humanist heroine."  The AHA came out publicly last week for "restraint" against attacking Iran, and I believe it's one of the few national organizations to do so.

Video from the American Humanist Association Awards Banquet

Thanks for the response to my column last week on giving Obama "more time" for what? As I prepare for the American Humanist Association conference this week in New Orleans, where I'll be speaking on the theme "Humanity and the Planet Come First: Stop the Crimes of Our Government," I'm reading more on Obama's "Kill List" - and I recommend you look further into it as well.

What did thousands of people accomplish by protesting in Chicago this week during the NATO Summit? If you have thoughts on that, please write me.   Mine:   "NATO = Peace & Security," as banners across the Loop said?  No, NATO = Protest, in Chicago, from here on out. The words "NATO Summit" were always accompanied by the word "protest" in Chicago media. This began to get people asking what we were protesting.  When World Can't Wait went out to neighborhoods with our multi-language "Humanity & the Planet Come First," people asked, "are you the protesters? You're here!" Some of the most economically crushed, riding the bus from work, gave us small donations to support the protests. People opened their homes and hearts.    

Yesterday was pretty intense. We arrived at Grant Park to a heavy police presence.  Some of us had not slept well the night before after hearing the news of that the police had raided the homes of NATO protesters and then falsely charged them of “plotting terrorism". The police had also driven a car into a crowd of non-violent NATO protesters that same night.

Yesterday in Chicago we took to the streets for humanity and the planet! Watch video. As Obama met with Afghan president Karzai and told the world that "hard days are ahead in Afghanistan" we gathered with thousands in downtown Chicago in opposition to the war criminals meeting. Watch unedited video from the livestream of Friday's event: International Voices for Humanity and the Planet.

Protesters, Clergy, Community to Remember Victims of U.S. / NATO Wars
Monday, May 21  12:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Trinity Episcopal Church 125 E. 26th St., Chicago

We’re putting the focus on the victims of the US/NATO wars all week!  Let's keep up the momentum: Spread the word and invite your friends to come along, learn about the crimes of NATO and get involved in the movement to put them to a stop.  We are inviting people everywhere to contribute the names of victims of NATO violence, using the hashtag #NATOvictims. We will recite the names as part of a Memorial for the Victims of US/NATO Wars on May 21, the second day of the NATO Summit. Stay tuned for more details of the event -- to be released shortly.

Stop the Drone War Weekend @ Fordham & Radio City