Brett Wilkins

U.S. war crimes in the so-called War on Terror were back in the spotlight Tuesday as pretrial hearings for alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-defendants resumed at Guantánamo Bay, with a lawyer for one of the men asserting that a “continuing cover-up” of CIA torture is the reason none of the suspects … Continue reading “CIA Torture Cover-Up Still Looms Over 9/11 Trials at Guantánamo”

Amid the lightning collapse of Afghanistan’s U.S.-backed government and the all-but-certain return of Taliban rule, anti-war activists on Monday stressed that diplomacy, not bombs or the military-industrial complex, is the only path to lasting peace. The stunning but predictable Taliban reconquest of Afghanistan marks the end of the nearly 20-year U.S.-led war that cost the … Continue reading “Diplomacy, Not Bombs: Anti-War Voices Say Afghanistan Shows Need To Stop Any Further March to War”

As Britain’s High Court on Wednesday handed the United States a win in its bid to extradite Julian Assange, press freedom and other human rights defenders renewed calls for the Biden administration to drop all charges against the WikiLeaks founder. Lord Justice Tim Holroyde on Wednesday ruled that the U.S. government may expand its appeal … Continue reading “Further Blow to Press Freedoms as US Wins Appeal in Effort To Extradite Julian Assange”

Palestinian families facing ethnic cleansing from their Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem on Monday rejected a so-called “compromise” offer from Israel’s Supreme Court, which would allow them to remain in their homes if they recognize as rightful owners the Israeli settler group trying to steal the properties. Under the Israeli high court proposal, … Continue reading “‘We Are the Owners’: Palestinians Refuse To Concede Land Rights to Israelis in Sheikh Jarrah”

Over two dozen advocacy groups on Monday sent a letter urging members of Congress to back a measure that, if enacted, would close the so-called “backdoor search” loophole that allows warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens’ data by government agencies including the FBI and CIA. The letter (pdf), led by Demand Progress and signed by 27 … Continue reading “27 Groups Urge Congress To Close FBI ‘Backdoor Search’ Loophole”

As it did while attempting to build a natural gas pipeline through the region in the 1990s and during the early years of the so-called War on Terror, the U.S. government is once again courting Central Asian dictatorships in a bid to secure a military staging area from which it could launch strikes against resurgent … Continue reading “US Courts Central Asian Dictators in Pursuit of Post-Afghan War Objectives”

Donald Rumsfeld, the former U.S. congressman, aide to several Republican presidents, and two-time defense secretary whose torture-laden tenure and ruinous legacy were defined by his lies in service of an unending war that’s killed at least hundreds of thousands of people, died Tuesday at age 88. By the time he was chosen as then-President George … Continue reading “‘Merciless War Criminal’ and Ex-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Dead at 88”

Human rights defenders on Wednesday accused the Biden administration of joining its predecessors in undercounting the number of civilians killed during US wars, as the latest annual Pentagon report on noncombatants killed by American bombs and bullets was blasted as “grossly inadequate” by a leading ACLU official. According to a Department of Defense report (pdf), … Continue reading “Biden Joins Long Line of Presidents to ‘Woefully’ Undercount Civilians Killed in US Wars”

Press freedom, peace, and human rights advocates are rallying behind Daniel Hale, the former intelligence analyst who blew the whistle on the U.S. government’s drone assassination program, and who pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to violating the Espionage Act. The Washington Post reports Hale, who was set to go on trial next week, pleaded … Continue reading “As Drone Whistleblower Daniel Hale Pleads Guilty, Advocates Warn of ‘Profound Threat’ to Free Press”

A report published Tuesday by Yemeni human rights defenders examines dozens of casualties resulting from U.S. drone strikes and other attacks on civilians in the war-torn nation in recent years, incidents the publication says often occur without accountability, investigation, compensation – and sometimes even acknowledgment. The report – entitled Death Falling From the Sky: Civilian … Continue reading “‘Death Falling From the Sky’: Report Spotlights Civilian Harm From US Drone Strikes in Yemen”