WORLD CAN'T WAIT

Endless incarceration, extrajudicial killing, pervasive surveillance, drone strikes in defiance of national boundaries, torture on demand, and immunity for all of the above:

Washington, more than any other power, created the modern international community of laws and treaties, yet it now reserves the right to defy those same laws with impunity. A sovereign ruler should, said [Nazi Germany's chief jurist Carl] Schmitt, discard laws in times of national emergency. So the United States, as the planet's last superpower or, in Schmitt's terms, its global sovereign, has in these years repeatedly ignored international law, following instead its own unwritten rules of the road for the exercise of world power.

see From Torture to Drones: How the US Gave Itself a Global Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Card

It works as designed, in the interests of the ruling class.

"The lack of a criminal indictment does not mean a lack of consequences for the officers who killed Alex Nieto. Today begins the public trial and public shaming of his killers and their accomplices."

A response to the non indictment of the officers who killed Alex Nieto

MOMENTUM BUILDING TO SHUT DOWN CREECH AIR FORCE BASE

People from across the country are making plans to be at Creech AFB outside Las Vegas, NV from March 4 - 6 for the "Shut Down Creech!" anti-drone war protests. This is an extremely important place to be if you can possibly make it.

Creech is a key center for the control of drone attacks and the training of drone operators. Creech, along with Beale AFB in California and Cannon AFB in New Mexico, have more drone operators than other drone bases, according to 2014 report from the Government Accountability Office. 

"Shutdown Creech" comes at a very critical time when drone operators are under increasing physical and emotional stress because of new missions being laid on in the growing U.S. war against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, coming on top of sustaining drone attack levels in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. U.S. drones are also believed to be attacking in Libya and possibly other places in Africa.

COME TO WASHINGTON DC FOR "SPRING RISING"

From March 18 through 21 people will be gathering in Washington for "Spring Rising - An anti-war intervention."

The idea for this marshaling of anti-war sentiment comes from Cindy Sheehan and from a call by Malachy Kilbride for a national mobilization that, hopefully, will peg the United States wars and militarism as a national issue that must be addressed.

Over the four-day event there will be:

- Visits to Congressional offices organized by Code Pink.
- A war criminals bus tour organized by Cindy, visiting government and corporate offices in DC.
- A teach-in organized by Debra Sweet, director of World Can't Wait.
- And a rally and march, to include the White House, organized by ANSWER.

Some groups are already organizing buses. If you are not able to attend, please  create events where you are calling for a halt to the U.S. air war, drone attacks, U.S. targeted killing in all forms and U.S. occupation.

DON'T FORGET TO WRITE KATHY KELLY IN PRISON

Internationally recognized peace activist Kathy Kelly is serving a three-month prison term for crossing the line onto Whiteman Air Force Base property. She was attempting to deliver a letter to the base commander, asking him to stop his troops from piloting lethal drone flights over Afghanistan.

Prison Number 04971-045

FMC LEXINGTON
FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTER
SATELLITE CAMP
P.O. BOX 14525
LEXINGTON, KY  40512

FOLLOW ORGANIZER BULLETINS AT KNOWDRONES.COM

Government leaders and corporations fiddle like Nero while the Earth burns, pointing the finger at each other and criminally condemning the planet to sure destruction... 

John Kiriakou is the only CIA employee to go to prison in connection with the agency's torture program. Not because he tortured anyone, but because he revealed information on torture to a reporter.

In a wide-ranging phone interview with The Intercept, Kiriakou, 50, shared his thoughts on the Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA interrogation techniques, on his incarceration, and on his future after prison.

Kiriakou began his final 'Letter from Loretto' by expressing gratitude to all the people who supported him throughout his time in prison. He mentions a few of the friends he made while imprisoned. He then declares, "By the time you read this, I'll be home. Now the real work can begin--the struggle for human rights, civil liberties and prison reform. I can guarantee you that I am unbowed, unbroken, uninstitutionalized and ready to fight."

painting by Robert Shetterley

Observers of Martin Luther King Jr. Day have this year linked the federal holiday to a rallying cry in recent months during demonstrations over police brutality: "Black lives matter." - Reuters 

"The problem of police brutality is real; it's going on in every major city." - Gabriel Baez, nephew of Eric Garner

..organizers said they "demand the leadership of the state take immediate action to institute meaningful, systemic policy solutions to address the worst racial disparities in the country." - AP report from St. Paul, Minnesota

In year that saw renewed calls for racial justice, over 50 nationwide demonstrations held to 'desanitize' the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. - Lauren McCauley, Common Dreams

Obama To Seek Authorization For Ground Forces Against ISIS

The police were not created to protect and serve the population. They were not created to stop crime, at least not as most people understand it. And they were certainly not created to promote justice. They were created to protect the new form of wage-labor capitalism that emerged in the mid to late nineteenth century from the threat posed by that system's offspring, the working class.

-- Sam Mitrani, Class and Conflict

Patrol badge, 1858. The original police in the South hunted down escaped slaves.

More Than 10,000 Troops Continue the Fight

On January 11, the U.S. torture camp at Guantanamo will have been open 13 years. More than 100 men are still held, the majority of whom are cleared for release. They suffer the Obama administration's practice of indefinite detention. An unknown number of hunger strikers are being force-fed in violation of the United Nations Convention Against Torture.

By refusing to prosecute Bush-era officials for their culpability in major human rights abuses such as the CIA program and Abu Ghraib, President Obama is not just failing to enforce justice but is essentially guaranteeing that such abuses will happen again in the future. His administration has demonstrated that even if government officials perpetrate the most heinous crimes imaginable, they will still be able to rely on their peers to conceal their wrongdoing and protect them from prosecution. This not only erodes the rule of law, it also helps create a culture of impunity that will inevitably give rise to such actions once again.  

-- Murtaza Hussain, c/o The Intercept

World Can't Wait joins the Witness Against Torture community to protest an era of ruthless brutality. Demonstrations at the CIA, the White House and the State Department; panels, meetings, and a symbolic fast in solidarity with Guantanamo prisoners will continue over a week, with a mid-day Bay Area action on Tuesday, January 13 at UC Berkeley Law School (Boalt Hall). Watch for details at FireJohnYoo.net .

With 2014 coming to an end, we encourage all of you who value the resources and orientation World Can't Wait provides to match pledged donations of $5,000. This a great opportunity to double your impact.

Whether it's by making a donation yourself, or soliciting your personal social network, we are all needed. To make your year-end donation to support World Can't Wait, go here. 

WHY should you donate now online or by mail -- why should you be part of the movement to stop the crimes of our government in 2015?  

Because you know how much it matters that the work of World Can't Wait persists and grows. You know that from protests and marches, to the 'We Are Not Your Soldiers' work in high schools, top-urgency programs like the Gaza forum in NYC and the annual Close Guantanamo demos and speaking tours, to leading direct actions confronting war criminals, to organizing New York Times message ads -- World Can't Wait undertakes it all with tremendous energy, enormous heart, and with a persistence that has only deepened over the past 10 years. By donating, you take part in continuing work on this mission.

We received the following invitation from the Bay Area chapter of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, for a mobilized protest going out into the famous New Year's Eve celebration crowd on the San Francisco waterfront. Bring your signs, banners, whistles, friends and family, and your determination that police murder must END!  

BLACK LIVES MATTER!

NO NEW YEAR UNDER THIS OLD SYSTEM!

WE CAN'T BREATHE!

Wednesday December 31
Meet up 9 pm at Embarcadero BART exit on Market Street

San Francisco
(If you arrive late, look for the large Stop Mass Incarceration Network signs and mobilization in the gathering crowd heading down onto the Embarcadero)

And on Thursday, New Year's Day 2015:

THE 5th ANNUAL NEW YEAR'S DAY MEMORIAL FOR OSCAR GRANT AND ALL VICTIMS OF POLICE MURDER

12 noon to 4 pm

Fruitvale BART Station, Oakland 

Why should you join these protests on New Year's Eve and Day? Last week at a Stop Mass Incarceration Network press conference in NYC, Richard Marini of World Can't Wait explained why:

Two weeks ago the world was shocked to learn of details of how CIA operatives tortured men in Guantanamo in the salt pits of Afghanistan and in so-called "black sites" around the world.  The truth is: it wasn't done by a few rogue agents.  It was designed and directed by people at the top in the White House, the Pentagon and the CIA.  It was approved by leaders of congress.  And no one so far has been held accountable for these crimes.

In the last few weeks the world has been shocked that the police who are sworn to serve and protect have killed and brutalized so many Black and Brown people in this country.  It seems to be approved by governments and approved by the courts.  No one is being held accountable for these crimes.

Anyone with an ounce of humanity and who is outraged by this arbitrary use of force, whether at Guantanamo, Brooklyn, Afghanistan or Staten Island -- we call on those people to come out on December 31. We call on those people who think that the lives of people living in this country are not more important than the lives of other people and those who think that Black and Brown lives matter, to join protest on December 31 in NYC and across the country.

American lives are not more important than other lives.

..the discussion surrounding Brown's death quickly transcended geography and focused instead on the realities of a broader systemic racism. The vacuum of the unknown was soon filled by a chorus of voices sharing similar stories of heartbreak - and demanding action. Such a process has begun to galvanize a new generation of activists across America, including those that police chief Flynn is so quick to dismiss here in Milwaukee. 

April 2014 shooting death of Dontre Hamilton "may out-Ferguson Ferguson"

The CIA -- having carried out torture; having lied about it at the time; and having lied about it this month in response to the report -- was discussed as if it were "not who we are." But is that true?

Finding #5 in the [Senate Torture] Report blames the CIA for failing to provide accurate information to Bush administration attorneys, including John Yoo at the Office of Legal Counsel. However, John Yoo was not an innocent by-stander being mislead by the CIA. The European Court of Human Rights has analyzed the events around Abu Zubaydah's detention and interrogation, and found a clear link between a memo written by John Yoo and the inception of water boarding...

USA Tortured for No Reason; Places Blame on the CIA, While Providing Protection for Others Who Are Equally Responsible