WarCriminalsWatch Events

Accused war criminal David Petraeus has been teaching a course at CUNY's Macaulay Honors College this semester.  Petraeus said in a statement that he would be teaching a seminar that “examines the developments that could position the United States — and our North American partners — to lead the world out of the current global economic slowdown."

After four consecutive weeks of protests against its hiring of Petraeus, the administration of the City University of New York responded by moving his Macaulay seminar to a new location on West 57th Street. According to administration memos published by Gawker, Petraeus’ seminar – “Are We On the Threshold of the North American Decade?” – will be held on the highly securitized 16th floor of the building, which is part of CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice. According to press reports, a key feature of this new location is its secured parking garage, which would allow Petraeus to come and go without having to encounter protesters. As  Gawker  notes: “It’s not clear whether other CUNY classes have ever been placed under such security.”

Demonstrations continued until, on the weekend of Oct. 19-20, CUNY Public Safety officers raided the Morales-Shakur Community Center - the center of student activists - at the City College of New York, removed all of the belongings and shut it down. They closed the entire campus building that houses the Center, as well as the library, barring students from studying during midterm week. See a video of an alumnus being arrested.

Therefore, the students have been concentrating on the City College events and have asked us to mobilize the protesters this Mon., Nov. 4.  We'll be there from 3:00-6:00 pm.  The most important times are from 3:00-3:30 and 5:00-6:00 when Petraeus' students and staff enter and leave.  It's important for them to see us to let Petraeus know we're still out there.  The class is being held in the BMW Building, 555 W. 57 St., between 10th/Amsterdam Ave. & 11th/West End Ave.

Petraeus is also currently a faculty member at University of Southern California - he will teach classes and also mentor ROTC members.  He was also just appointed as a non-resident senior fellow at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

Petraeus served as Commanding General, Multi-National Force- Iraq (MNF-I) from January 26, 2007 to Sept. 16, 2008. He oversaw all coalition forces in Iraq and implemented the “surge” or escalation of the war in Iraq.

Under Obama, Petraeus became Commander of the U.S. Central Command responsible for the U.S war of terror throughout the Middle East and Central Asia. He has been overall in charge of the U.S. military action in over 20 countries including the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.  This position ended in August 2011 when he moved over to the CIA where he was Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Sept. 1, 2011-Nov. 9, 2012.

Earlier on, in 2003 he commanded the 101st Airborne Division in the invasion of Iraq. From the invasion until 2004, his division was in charge of counterinsurgency in the area of Mosul, Iraq. In June 2004 Petraeus became the first commander of the Multi-National Security Command Iraq where he was responsible for training and equipping the various Iraqi puppet forces.

For more information on Petraeus, see his bio here.