Brett Wilkins - Antiwar.com Blog

Abu Ghraib Contractor Torture Case Likely Heading to Trial After US Judge’s Order

Survivors of torture at the hands of U.S. troops and private interrogators cheered a federal judge’s rejection this week of an infamous military contractor’s latest bid to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Iraqis formerly jailed in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison during the early years of the American-led occupation.

On Monday, Judge Leonie Brinkema of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria refused to dismiss the torture suit against CACI Premier Technology, a military-industrial complex linchpin based in nearby Arlington with more than 22,000 employees and billions of dollars in government contracts.

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Secret Doc Exposes Flaws in Pentagon Claim That No Civilians Were Killed in al-Baghdadi Raid

A formerly classified document published Friday by NPR revealed how the Pentagon dismissed highly credible evidence of civilian deaths caused by the October 2019 U.S. assassination of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Syria.

In a raid hailed by then-U.S. President Donald Trump as “impeccable,” U.S. special forces stormed al-Baghdadi’s hideout just outside Barisha in Idlib province on October 26-27, 2019. Realizing he was cornered during the raid, al-Baghdadi detonated an explosive device, killing himself and two children he was carrying with him, according to U.S. officials.

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UN Report Accuses Israel of ‘Silencing of Civil Society’ to Repress Palestinians

Civil society groups in Israel and Palestine face serious human rights violations by Israeli authorities seeking to perpetuate an illegal occupation and apartheid regime, according to a report published Thursday by the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The report—authored by the Independent International Commission Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory—examines “attacks, restrictions, and harassment of civil society actors by all duty bearers,” including the Israeli government and occupation forces, the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and Hamas in Gaza.

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9/11 Families Horrified by PGA-LIV Golf Saudi ‘Sportswashing’ Deal

Relatives of people killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and 9/11 survivors said Tuesday that they are “shocked and deeply offended” by a newly announced merger between the PGA Tour and the Saudi-backed LIV Golf circuit, a deal widely condemned as “sportswashing” one of the world’s worst human rights violators.

In an agreement that will end years of acrimony and litigation, PGA Tour, DP World Tour, and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) – which owns LIV Golf – surprised the world of golf and beyond by announcing Tuesday that they are merging into “a new, collectively owned, for-profit entity.”

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Nobel Peace Prize Winner Denounces G7 Failure to Deliver on Nuclear Disarmament in Hiroshima

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons – which won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its work on a landmark treaty banning nukes – and others including survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings of Japan on Friday criticized a Group of Seven joint statement on disarmament as “missing the moment to make the world safer” from the threat of thermonuclear annihilation.

As the G7 summit got underway in Hiroshima, leaders of Japan, Germany, Italy, Canada, France, the United Kingdom, United States – the latter three of which have nuclear arsenals – reiterated their belief that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.”

While the statement acknowledges “the unprecedented devastation and immense human suffering the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki experienced as a result of the atomic bombings” and reaffirms G7 members’ “commitment to achieving a world without nuclear weapons,” the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) lamented that “it fails to commit to concrete measures towards that goal and even emphasizes the importance of reserving the right to use nuclear weapons.”

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‘Death to Arabs’ Chants as Far-Right Israeli Settlers, Lawmakers March on Flag Day

Israeli government officials including far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir joined tens of thousands of ultra-nationalists participating in Thursday’s inflammatory “Flag March” in occupied East Jerusalem, an event at which police and demonstrators attacked Palestinians and journalists while chanting slogans including “death to Arabs” and “your village will be burned.”

Ben-Gvir, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and Transport Minister Miri Regev were among the Israeli officials who took part in the annual march, which celebrates Israel’s conquest and illegal occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967.

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