I was raised during the years of World War II. During my childhood, although I was raised in New York City, I experienced war-related dreams. One of these dreams I relate directly to Dr. Mengele’s medical experiments on the bodies of children. It was the worse nightmare of my life. Another dream, one that I still experience dates from that time: There is a terrifying buzz coming at me from the sky. My entire body begins to shake. I know that I am the target, because the projectile making that sound has me in its crosshairs. I know I will surely die. I believe this dream is how a child who is about to be killed experiences a drone strike.

The CIA has killed between 475-891 children in Pakistan between the years 2004-2013; US covert action has killed between 72 and 177 children in Yemen, and 11-57 children in Somalia.

I think it's important to know about the larger context that we're now hearing, that's the militarization of law enforcement that is progressing at a breakneck pace," said Susan Harmon of Code Pink, an anti-war group.

The Alameda County Sheriff faced off with the ACLU, other activist groups and local residents before the Alameda County Board of Supervisors' Public Safety Committee in a hearing on the sheriff's plan to purchase and deploy a surveillance drone.

Around February 13, 9 individuals were arrested by DeWitt Police and Onondaga County (NY) Sheriffs for peaceably blocking the main entrance to Hancock Air Base on East Molloy Rd in the town of DeWitt, a Syracuse, NY suburb. Hancock is the regional hub for the hunter/killer Reaper drone deployed over Afghanistan, Pakistan and, increasingly, elsewhere.

It is not news that the US government systematically abuses its secrecy powers to shield its actions from public scrutiny, democratic accountability, and judicial review. But sometimes that abuse is so extreme, so glaring, that it is worth taking note of, as it reveals its purported concern over national security to be a complete sham.

As many people have heard by now, a whistleblower sent to NBC News a couple of days ago a confidential DOJ memo that provides justifications for the government to use drones to assassinate Americans. This is extrajudicial action carried out by the White House alone. If individuals were to do it it would be called vigilantism and/or murder. I want to put this all into a larger context to illuminate what has been afoot. But before doing that, a hypothetical scenario:

In his essay “A Hanging,” George Orwell recounts, in great detail, the events he witnessed leading up to the execution of a man. It is important to note that before becoming an outspoken critic of the hypocrisy of Governments, George Orwell worked for one. He was a member of the Indian Imperial Police, having served in Burma, a British colony at the time.

by Paul Harris

The nomination of President Barack Obama’s top counter-terrorism advisor John Brennan to head the CIA has sparked outrage and concern about America’s growing drones programme and its use for targeted killings of suspected Islamic militants.

The US wants Pakistan to do more in its fight against the Taliban in Waziristan. But the Pakistan soldiers maimed in the war on terror might argue they have already given enough. Chris Woods reports.

Ironies of living in the post-Bush world:

1. The only CIA operative connected to waterboarding and torture during the Bush regime to be jailed, John Kiriakou, will go to prison for giving an agent's name to reporters in connection with an investigation aimed at exposing enhanced interrogation techniques. The agents who did the torture face no sanctions at all, and in fact are glorified in popular culture, like the new film Zero Dark Thirty.

From the Upstate NY Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars

Join us as we walk from Hancock Airfield to the Onondaga County Jail on January 11th beginning at 12 noon at the Main gate on East Malloy Road.