Chris Hedges: Bless the Traitors

Daniel Hale exposed the widespread and indiscriminate murder of noncombatants in the global US drone war. For his heroism, he faces ten years in prison while those who oversee these war crimes continue their killing spree.

Chris Hedges
By Chris Hedges
Daniel Hale Drones Feature photo

PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY (Scheerpost) — Daniel Hale, an active-duty Air Force intelligence analyst, stood in the Occupy encampment in Zuccotti Park in October 2011 in his military uniform. He held up a sign that read “Free Bradley Manning,” who had not yet announced her transition. It was a singular act of conscience few in uniform had the strength to

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Trump’s New Targeting Rules Pave the Way for Escalating the US War in Somalia 

The rate of US drone strikes in Somalia have doubled since Trump enacted new rules reversing targeting procedures introduced by Obama in response to concerns about civilian casualties.

Jack Serle
By Jack Serle
Somalian President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed seen here with commander US Marine Corps Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser earlier this year via Africom

Last week's US air operation in Somalia took the total number of strikes carried out in 2017 to a record 29, raising the possibility of an expansion in military operations outside of conventional battlefields under President Donald Trump. Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama had already escalated strikes in Somalia to 14 a year, reflecting the

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Pakistan: We Won’t Tolerate Drone Strikes On Our Soil

The announcement came after news that the Trump Administration is looking to take a “hard line” toward Pakistan, including launching a new drone campaign.

Jason Ditz
By Jason Ditz
In this Dec. 29, 2010, file photo, Pakistani villagers carry the shrouded casket of a person reportedly killed by a US drone attack in Pakistani tribal area of Mir Ali along the Afghanistan border, during his funeral in Bannu, Pakistan. (AP Photo)

Pakistan’s Foreign Office has issued a statement today warning that they will not tolerate drone strikes inside their territory and that they view such attacks as a violation of their national sovereignty. This is not an unusual statement for Pakistan to make, but the timing is noteworthy. On the one hand, this comes just three days after

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Study: US Only Admits To One In Five Deadly Drone Strikes

That the US has been deliberately evasive about its drone program is hardly news, but this appears to be the first study aimed at specifically figuring exactly how many lethal drone strikes have been officially acknowledged.

Jason Ditz
By Jason Ditz
Yemen US drone war

A new report compiled by the Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic and the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies has found that the United States only admits officially to about one-fifth of their drone strikes which end up killing someone, saying this hurts accountability. That the US has been deliberately evasive about its drone program is

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How America’s ‘Deep State’ Sold Counter-Terrorism To Keep Itself In Business

Since 2001, senior Pentagon and CIA officials have sacrificed American interests in weakening al-Qaeda to pursue their own interests

Gareth Porter
By Gareth Porter
Former CIA director James Woolsey adjusts his glasses during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Tuesday, July 20, 2004 in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

New York Times columnist Tom Friedman outraged many readers when he wrote an opinion piece on 12 April calling on President Trump to "back off fighting territorial ISIS in Syria". The reason he gave for that recommendation was not that US wars in the Middle East are inevitably self-defeating and endless, but that it would reduce the "pressure on

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Despite Campaign Promises, Trump Set To Outdo Obama On Military Adventurism

Since his inauguration, Donald Trump has sent American troops into a number of military adventures and his administration is looking to promote even greater military interventionism around the world.

Roqayah Chamseddine
By Roqayah Chamseddine
Donald Trump tours the nuclear aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford, at Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Va., Thursday, March 2, 2017. (AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

WASHINGTON -- For some, Donald Trump’s campaign trail claim that he had always been against the Iraq war - a claim that he would also use as a jibe aimed at Hillary Clinton - seemed to signal that he would refrain from sending the United States spiraling into another armed conflict. “I’m the only one on this stage that said, ‘Do not go into

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