(2021-05-05). Australia gives drones to Sri Lankan police. greenleft.org.au The Tamil Refugee Council (TRC) has condemned the Australian government for supplying five drones to the Sri Lankan police, reports Chris Slee.
(2021-05-04). Canadian Foreign Policy Can't Simultaneously Support Territorial Integrity And Separatism — OpEd. eurasiareview.com By Taras Kuzio* | North America ganged up on fellow NATO member Turkey in April. US President Joe Biden's decision to recognize the 1915 massacres of Armenians as a 'genocide' came only two weeks after Canada banned the sale of military technology to Turkey which it had used in drones it sold to Azerbaijan. The US decision was all the more difficult to comprehend because Biden had come to power promising to rebuild Trans-Atlantic relations and re-energize US leadership of NATO. | With US-Turkish relations set to be in the doldrums for the remainder of Biden's four-year presidency, his rush to recognize the gen…
(2021-05-04). The 7 Year Anniversary of Odessa Massacre. sputniknews.com On today's episode of The Backstory, host Lee Stranahan and co-host John Kiriakou discussed current events, including a recruitment ad for the Central Intelligence Agency has been mocked on social media, Australia has imposed a blanket ban on arrivals from India, with those daring to violate it to face jail time and heavy fines.
(2021-05-04). If Biden Wants to Truly End War on Terror, He Must Release Guantánamo Prisoners. truthout.org 
The Guantánamo conundrum never seems to end. | Twelve years ago, I had other expectations. I envisioned a writing project that I had no doubt would be part of my future: an account of Guantánamo's last 100 days. I expected to narrate in reverse, the episodes in a book I had just published,
(2021-05-04). Tomgram: Karen Greenberg, The Guantánamo Conundrum. warisacrime.org This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here. It seemed obvious enough to me in 2006. When you included the CIA's "black sites" around the globe (where prisoners from the war on terror were being kept and regularly tortured), American military prisons like the shocking Abu …
(2021-05-04). Can Guantánamo Ever Be Shut Down? tomdispatch.com The Guantánamo conundrum never seems to end. Twelve years ago, I had other expectations. I envisioned a writing project that I had no doubt would be part of my future: an account of Guantánamo's last 100 days. I expected to narrate in reverse, the episodes in a book I had just published, The Least Worst Place: Guantánamo's First 100 Days, about — well, the title makes it all too obvious — the initial days at that grim offshore prison. They began on January 11, 2002, as the first hooded prisoners of the American war on terror were ushered off a plane at that American military base on the island of Cuba…
(2021-05-03). World Celebrates Press Freedom Day, Julian Assange Remains In Belmarsh Prison. popularresistance.org As people worldwide celebrate the UN's World Press Freedom Day on 3 May, WikiLeaks publisher and journalist Julian Assange remains incarcerated. | The US continues to demand Assange's extradition for his role in obtaining and publishing national defence documents from 2009 to 2011. The leaks, provided by US Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning, are known as the Guantanamo Files, the Iraq War Logs, the Afghan War Diary, and the US diplomatic cables (aka Cablegate). | There are noteworthy parallels which can be drawn between Assange's case and that of famed US Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg. Ellsberg w…
(2021-05-03). Whistleblower Daniel Hale, The Drone Program And The War On Our Right To Know. popularresistance.org The United States' drone assassination program is illegal under international law, but the whistleblower who exposed it, Daniel Hale, is being prosecuted under the Espionage Act. Chip Gibbons of Defending Rights and Dissent describes who Daniel Hale is and why his act of leaking information about the program to a journalist is akin to Daniel Ellsberg leaking the Pentagon Papers. Gibbons also places Hale's action in the broader context of FBI surveillance, the war on whistleblowers and other truthtellers, such as Julian Assange, and the assault on our right to know.
(2021-05-03). Revealed: The UK Government Campaign to Force Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian Embassy. orinocotribune.com 
By Matt Kennard — Apr 28, 2021 | A wide-ranging UK government campaign was brought to bear on Ecuador to press it to hand over WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange, new information reveals. | ‚Ä¢ Prime minister Theresa May was told in March 2018 to 'butter up' Ecuador's president in order to get Assange out of Ecuadorian embassy in London | ‚Ä¢ Later in the year, May's government spent £20,000 to bring Ecuadorian officials and defence minister to UK | ‚Ä¢ British foreign minister arranged Daily Mail hit piece on WikiLeaks publisher days after his eviction f…
(2021-05-03). Allies of Julian Assange Demand His Liberty on Press Freedom Day. sputniknews.com Supporters of the whistle-blowing website's founder highlighted the hypocrisy of US, British and European Union leaders' pious words on World Press Freedom Day, when they have contributed to Julian Assange's ongoing imprisonment.
(2021-05-03). Free Julian Assange protesters urge on World Press Day. greenleft.org.au World Press Freedom Day on May 3 was marked in many places, including outside the ABC Centre and Channel 7 studios where campaigners for Julian Assange's release gathered. Stephen Langford reports.
(2021-05-03). May Day 1971: Daniel Ellsberg on Joining Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn at Historic Antiwar Direct Action. democracynow.org 
This week marks the 50th anniversary of the 1971 May Day protests, when tens of thousands of protesters demonstrated against the Vietnam War in Washington, D.C., and brought much of the capital to a standstill through acts of civil disobedience. The mass demonstrations terrified the Nixon administration, and police would arrest over 12,000 people — the largest mass arrest in U.S. history. Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who attended the May Day protests, says it was part of a wave of popular discontent about the war that mobilized millions. "There was a movement of young people who felt that…
(2021-05-03). This week in history: May 3-9. wsws.org 25 years ago: Bosnian war crimes trials open in The Hague On May 7, 1996, the first in a series of war crimes trials stemming from the war in Bosnia opened in the international court at The Hague, Netherlands. Dusan Tadic, a Bosnian Serb, stood accused of carrying out atrocities against Bosnian civilians, including murder, rape and torture.
(2021-05-03). Yemeni missiles, drones target depth of Saudi Arabia. en.mehrnews.com TEHRAN, May 03 (MNA) — According to the spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces, military positions of the Saudi-led coalition at Najran Airport and the King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait were targeted by Yemeni forces.
(2021-05-03). Blinken Says Biden Administration to Focus on Guantanamo in 'Months Ahead'. sputniknews.com Earlier, the Biden administration announced its plans to review the policy on the future of the notorious prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and said that it plans to shutter the detention center by the end of its tenure.
(2021-05-03). Ron Paul: Will Special Interests Allow America's 'Longest War' To Finally End? — OpEd. eurasiareview.com Even if "won," endless wars like our 20 year assault on Afghanistan would not benefit our actual national interest in the slightest. So why do these wars continue endlessly? Because they are so profitable to powerful and well-connected special interests. In fact, the worst news possible for the Beltway military contractor/think tank complex would be that the United States actually won a war. That would signal the end of the welfare-for-the-rich gravy train. | In contrast to the end of declared wars, like World War II when the entire country rejoiced at the return home of soldiers where they belonged, an end to…
(2021-05-03). Uganda: President's Son Led Elite Force Linked To Rights Abuses. eurasiareview.com By Lisa Vives | Senior military commanders, including the son of President Yoweri Museveni, have been named in a case before the International Criminal Court for a wave of abductions and torture—adding new charges to claims levelled by opposition politician Robert Kyagulanyi, the former reggae singer known as Bobi Wine. | Prosecutors at the ICC are already reviewing an early submission from Wine that described widespread human rights abuses before presidential polls held in January. | Wine's National Unity Platform party has said that more than 600 members and activists were detained by masked men in veh…