WarCriminalsWatch Events

Deep Into Drone Wars & Secret Ops: What's the "War on Terror" Coming To?

Saturday, May 30, 10:00-11:50, Room 1.85

The invasions and occupations of the Bush regime have given way to the secret operations and drone strikes of the Obama era. Growing U.S. forces are carrying out secret ops in 150 countries; conventional and drone strikes are actively attacking Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and spreading into North Africa. This poses significant challenges to anti-war opposition within the U.S. How do we expose and oppose these new and fundamentally illegitimate and unjust actions?

Moderator

Debra Sweet is Director of World Can’t Wait, initiated in 2005 to drive out the Bush regime & reverse the direction it launched. WCW continues efforts to stop the crimes of our government. Debra worked with abortion providers for 25 years, organizing community support & helping withstand anti-abortion violence. Since the age of 19, when she confronted Nixon in a face-to-face event & told him to stop the war in Vietnam, she has been a leader in the opposition to US wars and invasions.

Panelists

Amanda Bass is a third year student at NYU School of Law focusing on human rights & racial justice. Amanda has interned with the Worker Justice Center of NY assisting workers with wage & hour claims & with the Southern Center for Human Rights where she worked on the post-conviction appeal of an individual sentenced to death-in-prison by Alabama courts. Upon graduation from law school she plans to return to Alabama to work with the Equal Justice Initiative on behalf of prisoners.She is one of the student leaders opposing the NYU Law’s hiring of Harold Koh to teach International Human Rights Law in light of his role as a key legal architect of the Obama Administration’s drone program.

Marjorie Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, former president of the National Lawyers Guild and deputy secretary general of the International Assn. of Democratic Lawyers. She is on the National Advisory Board of Veterans for Peace, and the board of Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign. Her most recent books are The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration, and Abuse and Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral, and Geopolitical Issues.

Ed Kinane has worked to “out" the Reaper drone at Hancock Airbase NY where he’s been convicted/jailed several times for nonviolent civil resistance. Ed's been arrested for protests against Guantanamo & in support of Chelsea Manning & served 2 federal prison terms for direct actions against the School of the Americas. He has traveled in Africa, Palestine, Iran , Latin America, Iraq in 2003 w/Voices in the Wilderness & in 2011 in Afghanistan. His articles have appeared in Truthout, CommonDreams, etc.

Elsa Rassbach is a co-founder of the German Drone Campaign. A US citizen, she worked on GI newspapers in Berlin during the Vietnam War and has since then spent about half her adult life Germany. She is currently active in Berlin Peace Coordination, German sections of WRI and Attac, and in UNAC and Code Pink. In addition, she is a filmmaker and a journalist for German and US publications such as Truthout, Common Dreams, CounterPunch and Mondoweiss.

US Wars of Aggression & Islamic Jihad: What is the Bigger Danger and How Should the Antiwar Movement Respond?

Saturday, May 30, 12:00-1:50, Room 1.89

What is the attraction of ISIS & Islamic fundamentalism in the occupied Middle East? What are the aims of the U.S. in stopping it? What is the biggest danger to the people there? How can people living in the United States stop the aggression?

Moderator

Debra Sweet is Director of World Can’t Wait, initiated in 2005 to drive out the Bush regime & reverse the direction it launched. WCW continues efforts to stop the crimes of our government. Debra worked with abortion providers for 25 years, organizing community support & helping withstand anti-abortion violence. Since the age of 19, when she confronted Nixon in a face-to-face event & told him to stop the war in Vietnam, she has been a leader in the opposition to US wars and invasions.

Panelists

William Blum is author of books on US foreign policy and the CIA, including "Killing Hope." He produces the monthly online "Anti-Empire Report." William Blum resigned from the State Department in 1967 because of Vietnam. His website is williamblum.org.

Alan Goodman is a correspondent for revcom.us/Revolution, newspaper of the Revolutionary Communist Party, exposing the crimes of the U.S. and its enforcer Israel in the Middle East and around the world. He participated in and wrote about the Gaza Freedom March in 2008 that attempted to physically break the Israel-Egyptian blockade of Gaza. One of his recent articles in Revolution is “Missing from the 'Debate' over Iran: the Interests of Humanity!”

David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson's books include War Is A Lie. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio. He is a 2015 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee.