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Drone Use Soars in Latin America, Remains Widely Unregulated

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“There is very good reason to think that once the current controversies and public spotlight on domestic drones fades away, we will see a push for drones armed with lethal weapons.”

By Diego Cupolo / Upside Down World

Over the last decade, drones have made headlines as tools for covert bombing campaigns in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa. Yet remote-controlled warfare is just one of many functions Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) can provide as non-lethal models become less expensive and more accessible to countries around the world.

From aerial surveillance to three-dimensional geographic modeling of rugged terrains and even speedy pizza delivery service, manufacturers have begun to promote the infinite capabilities of domestic drones. At the same time, they are specifically targeting developing markets in Latin America for the martial use of drones in law enforcement and military operations.

In response, human rights groups have been raising concerns over these fast-evolving technologies, citing the potential for abuse by various state agencies. Recent advancements have allowed governments to adopt and, in some cases, begin building their own UAV fleets, but regulation on domestic drone use remains non-existent throughout the Americas aside from preliminary laws adopted in Brazil, Canada and the United States.

“The biggest concern presented by drones is they will become a tool for routine mass surveillance,” said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst for the American Civil Liberties Union. “Fleets of small, inexpensive self-launching drones could easily spread over a town, network together and provide comprehensive, 24-7 dragnet surveillance or a single high-flying drone could accomplish the same thing. This technology already exists. It’s called Wide Area Surveillance and it’s being used overseas by the US military.”   [Read more…]

How School of the Americas Watch’s perseverance is paying off

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By Ken Butigan / Waging Nonviolence

When the first School of the Americas, or SOA, mass protest was held in 1990, its organizers probably didn’t think they would still be at it 23 years later. But enduring social change typically takes many years or decades, especially if your goal is to shutter a facility that’s a lynchpin of U.S. geopolitics. Just ask groups like Witness Against Torture and the more recent Close Gitmo coalition, which have been conducting a full court press to shut the prison at Guantanamo Bay for over a decade. It remains open in spite of the fact that President Obama’s first official act was to mandate its closure within 12 months. That was five years ago.   [Read more…]

Duncan Hunter, Nuclear War Enthusiast

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By Andy Cohen

Congratulations, San Diego! We now officially have our very own neo-con nuclear warmonger as one of our five representatives to Congress! As if having Darrell Issa entertain us by wasting tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer money on wild conspiracy chases in search of narratives that only exist in the insulated cocoon of right wing Fantasyland wasn’t humiliating enough, now we have our very own member of Congress that wants to start a nuclear war! Well isn’t that special!

That’s right folks! Representative Duncan Hunter (R-50th) has the answer to our country’s Iran problem: Let’s nuke ‘em! Who needs diplomacy when, after all, we’ve got the bombs! (Cue Denis Leary)

Yesterday, in an interview on C-SPAN, speaking on the deal struck recently between the West and Iran. As a part of the pact, Iran agrees to stop building new centrifuges for the refinement of nuclear material, caps the amount and type of nuclear material that Iran is allowed to produce, and it halts Iran’s work on the construction of a heavy-water reactor that would eventually allow the country to produce plutonium, which could lead to high yield nuclear weapons. Iran also agrees to increased oversight of their nuclear related activities.   [Read more…]

Clemency for Imprisoned War Resister Kimberly Rivera Denied!

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Rally Dec. 1 in protest of Rivera’s separation from new born son to serve remaining 4o day sentence.

By Staff

Kimberly Rivera gave birth to her son Matthew Kaden Rivera in the Naval Hospital on November 25th. Her husband Mario was initially denied access to the birthing room but was ultimately granted permission to attend the delivery. Although the delivery itself went smoothly, this was no ordinary birth– Rivera has been serving a ten month sentence for deserting the US army while deployed in Iraq. She deserted in 2007 because she felt morally unable to take part in the conflict. She was arrested after she was denied refugee protection in Canada in September 2012.

Amnesty International has requested urgent action on her case based on humanitarian reasons because of her pregnancy. Rivera is the mother of four other children, ages 11, 9, 4 and 2. She has been separated from her family in Texas since she began serving her sentence here in San Diego.   [Read more…]

50 Years of the Big Lie – the Cover-Up of the JFK Assassination – Part 2

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JFK assass colorcropHere’s Part 1.

By Frank Gormlie

It’s finally here, Friday, November 22nd – exactly 50 years after President Kennedy was assassinated in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas.

Of course you’ve noticed it – you can’t help but … as everywhere you go there are signs that everybody in the media is commemorating the half century mark of the end of the Kennedy Era – an era that was terminated with bullets.

It’s been 50 years since the end of Camelot and we are told it was the end of the “idealism of the Sixties”.

Well, it has been fifty years, and it’s been fifty years of the Big Lie – the Big Lie that Kennedy was killed by a lone gunman, and that Kennedy’s killer was then killed himself – which wraps it all up rather nicely, – case closed. The Big Lie is the Warren Commission Report – and all its apologists and defenders.

The Big Lie includes the failure of government to adequately and fairly investigate the execution of America’s chief executive, it includes the dismissal, omission, suppression and misrepresentation of evidence, it includes the manipulation, dismissal and intimidation of witnesses – and ultimately elimination of witnesses.

The Big Lie represents the plot necessarily carried out by a conspiracy to eliminate JFK and then to cover it up; the Big Lie is the half century of a carefully calculated deception laid on the American people, a deception that allowed governmental policies involving getting the US out of Vietnam, restricting the war industry, ending nuclear brinkmanship with the Soviet Union, and reproachment with Cuba to be reversed. The Big Lie is treason incarnate.

But the Big Lie is also very personal, as many Americans of my generation – the Sixties Generation – were all individually deeply affected by Kennedy’s murder and the subsequent shenanigans involving Jack Ruby killing Oswald on live TV. And we were all affected as a generation, as a class of humans by what happened in Dallas.   [Read more…]

Voices From the Drone Summit

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by Marjorie Cohn /Common Dreams

Last weekend, I participated in a panel on the illegality of drones and targeted killing off the battlefield at the conference, “Drones Around the Globe: Proliferation and Resistance,” in Washington DC. Nearly 400 people from many countries came together to gather information, protest, and develop strategies to end targeted killing by combat drones. I found the most compelling presentations to be first-hand accounts by those victimized by U.S. drone attacks, and a former military intelligence analyst who helped choose targets for drone strikes.

Members of a delegation from Yemen provided examples of the devastation drones have wrought in their communities. Faisal bin Ali Jaber is an engineer. For some time, one of his relatives had been giving public lectures criticizing drone attacks. In August 2012, family and friends were celebrating the marriage of Jaber’s son. After the wedding, a drone struck Jaber’s relative, killing him instantly. Jaber lost a brother-in-law who was a known opponent of Al Qaeda, and a 21-year-old nephew in the attack.   [Read more…]

Crowd Packs Julian Forum on Drone Testing Over East County

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By Miriam Raftery / East County Magazine

Back Country Voices, a citizens group in East County, held a forum on November 11 regarding a proposal to test drones–unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs– over backcountry areas in San Diego and East County.   Concerned citizens packed into Julian’s library to learn more about the implications of drone testing in our region.

The first speaker was John Raifsnider, a local resident.  “San Diego Military Advisory Council, the Economic Development [Council] and then the Chamber…What does that mean? “ he asked. “Money and military. What does that mix create? We want to know.”

Raifsnider voiced concerned that county Supervisors and all five Congressional representatives have sent letters in support of this plan without input from rural residents.  Supervisor Ron Roberts has said he backs the plan to bring more manufacturing jobs to our region. Supervisor Dianne Jacob envisions use of drones to spot brush fires.   [Read more…]

California Sea Otters Targeted in Defense Authorization Bill

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By Michael Jasny/Switchboard

The Senate will shortly be considering a provision that would allow the U.S. Navy to injure and kill California sea otters, without complying with the core wildlife statutes protecting this threatened species.

Recently, the House added language to this year’s defense authorization bill that outright exempts the Navy from two federal laws, the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act, for any harm it causes sea otters off its Southern California bases.  The effect would be to thwart conservation efforts there, relieving the military of its basic legal obligation to minimize impacts on this species to the extent practicable.  Senator Reid says the new authorization bill, which is now before the Senate, will come to a floor vote by Thanksgiving.
  [Read more…]

The Military Enlistment Opportunity Act: a New Kind of Draft?

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 By Rick Jahnkow / Draft Notices

It’s well established that many people who join the U.S. military do so because of their economic status. It could be that they do not see options for a civilian job that pays a livable wage, they cannot afford health insurance, or they believe they’ll never be able to go to college without financial aid from the Post-9/11 GI Bill. Whether this belief is accurate or based on an individual’s limited awareness of alternatives, military recruiters are effective at exploiting economic predicament to meet their monthly quotas. Many of us refer to it as economic conscription or the “poverty draft.” It is the reason why counter-recruitment groups spend much of their time and energy gathering and distributing information on alternative sources for job training and college financial aid.

Recruitment success rates have always been strongly affected by the economy, and the high unemployment rate since the economic crash of 2008 has made it much easier for the military to meet its enlistment quotas. If, on the other hand, the economy continues its gradual improvement, we can expect that recruiting will once again become difficult and the armed forces will be scrambling to find a larger pool of people to tap to fill their ranks. This looming problem has already been projected and mentioned to members of Congress by Pentagon representatives.   [Read more…]

Veteran’s Day Should Mean Something More

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By Jessica Bartholow/Labor’s Edge Blog

Next week, America will take a day to honor the commitment of men and women who have served our country.  In California, this day is significant because it is home to more returning veterans than any other state in the Nation.

But for too many veterans, the November 11th holiday is nothing more than a gateway to a stressful holiday season filled with cold months, high utility bills and empty plates.  I know this because my dad is a disabled Veteran who suffered for years with untreated and debilitating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  We were never invited to a Veteran’s Day parade or a pancake breakfast, just left to find our own way, many times our basic needs going unmet.

While poverty among veterans is half that of the general public, there are 1.5 million young veterans, some with families, who live with incomes below the poverty line. Some of these veterans are disabled and have applied for help through the U.S. Department Veterans Administration (VA), where they will wait an average of 320 days for the VA to process their disability claims.   [Read more…]

The Price of America Having the Greatest Military in the World? It’s Destroying the Country

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A giant military doesn’t make the American people safer.

By Nicolas J.S. Davies / Alternet

The idea of U.S. “national security” seems inextricably entangled with the notion of “military supremacy.” Over the past 15 years, this has served to rationalize the most expensive unilateral military build-up in history. But there is no evidence that having the most expensive and destructive military forces makes Americans safer than people in other countries, nor that restoring a more balanced military posture would leave us vulnerable to dangers we are currently protected from. Many countries with smaller military forces do a better job of protecting their people by avoiding the hostility that is generated by U.S. imperialism, aggression and other war crimes.   [Read more…]

Us He Devours: Government by Crisis, a Shutdown in Wartime

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By Anna Daniels

It is easy to imagine that the Republican hostage taking in Congress is little more than a great deal of sound and too much fury that signifies nothing to ordinary people living ordinary lives outside of the Beltway. The words “shutdown” and “default” don’t enter into conversations very often here, John Boehner is an unknown and that is perfectly fine with the madmen and madwomen who are much more concerned about being disrespected, waiting for the end time and the perfect photo-op.

The people who live here on 45th Street keep talking about the same things they have been talking about for the past five or six years– they are looking for full time work that pays a livable wage, affordable housing, health care and enough money to get the car fixed and buy school clothes for their kids. There is also an urgency for the children who were brought into this country without documents to receive legal status through the Dream Act.

It is easy to imagine that these two worlds don’t intersect, but that is not the case at all.   [Read more…]

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