WarCriminalsWatch Events

Targeted Killing, Drone Warfare, Surveillance & Grassroots Resistance: the Obama Doctrine

Saturday, 8th of June  03:40 pm-05:20 pm, Room W622

This year the Obama administration acknowledged hundreds of drone strikes as part of keeping military dominance over the regions of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Libya and Somalia.  While not providing information on its secret CIA drone program, it pushed through the nomination of former “terror-czar” John Brennan as CIA Director and publicly embraces and justifies, in a White Paper, targeted killing arguing that the Bush regime's Authorization of Military Force provides for war without borders.  The US military is now training more pilots of unmanned vehicles than of fighter/bombers.  Federal regulations will soon allow drones in domestic airspace.  Activists opposing drones for warfare and surveillance are challenging the use of drones on moral and political basis through non-violent direction action and mass education campaigns.

Debra Sweet - World Can't Wait, Ed Kinane - Upstate Coalition to Stop the Wars & Ground the Drones, Nick Mottern - KnowDrones.com, Zohra Ahmed - Pakistan Solidarity Network

Stopping Indefinite Detention by the US:  Guantánamo, Bagram and the NDAA

Saturday, 8th of June  05:30 pm-07:10 pm, Room E305

Eleven years since the building of the US prison at Guantánamo, and nine years after disclosures of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, US policy has settled into de facto indefinite detention of thousands.  Thousands are held without the right to habeas corpus in the former US prison at Bagram, Afghanistan and rendition to countries that torture has not ended.  Prisoners in Guantánamo began a hunger strike 123 days ago in desperation as no one has left since 2010 except in a coffin, forcing Obama to claim, again, that he “wants” to close the prison, but with no timetable. 

The provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 are still in force, despite court challenges, allowing the president to order US citizens and others who are "part of or substantially supported al Queda, the Taliban or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners" and anyone who commits a "belligerent act" against the US to be held indefinitely without charge.

Features a multi-media presentation with slide show of art against torture.

Debra Sweet - World Can't Wait, Jeremy Varon - Witness Against Torture, Golnaz Fakhimi - International Justice Network

A National Security State In and Out: History Will Not Be Kind

Sunday, 9th of June  10:00 am-11 :50 am, Room W510

The US government seized on 9/11 to use its power in ways that obliterate constitutional protections in the name of security and protecting US lives.  Whistle-blowers Bradley Manning, Thomas Drake and Jesselyn Radack are prosecuted and persecuted as part of a record six prosecutions by Obama. Drake and Radack, former insiders within the US government, will speak on the perversions of power, where the public has no more expectation of privacy and the government has secrecy. The panel features a special report on the court martial of Bradley Manning by Kevin Gosztola.

Thomas Drake - NSA whistle blower, Kevin Gosztola - The Dissenter at firedoglake.com, Jesselyn Radack - Government Accountability Project, Debra Sweet - World Can't Wait