It’s important because there is so much misinformation and disinformation in the media that we are careening towards a new cold war with Russia over this. Initial Signatories for petition: (Organizations for Identification Only) Hon. Douglas Roche, OC, Canada David Swanson, co-founder, World Beyond War Bruce Gagnon, Global Network Against Nuclear Power and Weapons in Space Alice Slater, JD, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, NY Professor Francis A. Boyle, University of Illinois College of Law Natasha Mayers, Union of Maine Visual Artists David Hartsough, co-founder, World Beyond War Larry Dansinger, Resources for Organizing and Social Change Ellen Judd, Project Peacemakers Coleen Rowley, Women Against Military Madness Medea Benjamin, Code Pink Brian Noyes Pulling, M. Div. Anni Cooper, Peaceworks Kevin Zeese, Popular Resistance Leah Bolger, CDR, USN (Ret), Veterans for Peace Raymond McGovern, former CIA analyst, VA Margaret Flowers, Popular Resistance Gloria McMillan, Tucson Balkan Peace Support Group Ellen E. Barfield, Veterans for Peace Cecile Pineda, author. Devil's Tango: How I Learned the Fukushima Step by Step Jill McManus Steve Leeper, Visiting professor, Hiroshima Jogakuin University,Nagasaki University Kyoto University of Art and Design William H. Slavick, Pax Christi Maine Helen Caldicott, Helen Caldicott Foundation David Krieger, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Brigadier Vijai K Nair, VSM [Retd] Ph.D. , Magoo Strategic Infotech Pvt Ltd Kevin Martin, Peace Action Carol Reilly Urner, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom Ann E. Ruthsdottir Kay Cumbow Steven Starr, Senior Scientist, Physicians for Social Responsibility Tiffany Tool, Peaceworkers Sukla Sen, Committee for Communal Amnity, Mumbai India Joan Russow, PhD, Coordinator, Global Compliance Research Project Rob Mulford, Veterans for Peace, North Star Chapter, Alaska Jacqueline Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation, United for Peace and Justice Ingeborg Breines, Co-president International Peace Bureau Judith LeBlanc, Peace Action Felicity Ruby Jerry Stein, The Peace Farm, Amarillo , Texas Michael Andregg, professor, St. Paul, Minnesota Elizabeth Murray, Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East, National Intelligence Council, ret.: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, Washington Robert Shetterly, artist, “Americans Who Tell the Truth,” Maine Katharine Gun, United Kingdom Dave Webb, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, UK Amber Garland, St. Paul, Minnesota John Feffer, Foreign Policy in Focus Beverly Bailey, Richfield, Minnesota Joseph Gerson, Convener, Working Group for Peace & Demiitarization in Asia and the Pacific Stephen McKeown, Richfield, Minnesota Dominique Lalanne, France Bill Rood, Rochester, Minnesota Tom Klammer, radio host, Kansas City, Missouri Barbara Vaile, Minneapolis, Minnesota Mali Lightfoot, Helen Caldicott Foundation Tony Henderson, spokesperson for universal humanism, Hong Kong Darlene M. Coffman, Rochester, Minnesota Sister Gladys Schmitz, Mankato, Minnesota Edward Loomis, NSA Cryptologic Computer Scientist (ret.) J. Kirk Wiebe, NSA Senior Analyst (ret.), MD William Binney, former Technical Director, World Geopolitical & Military Analysis, NSA; co-founder, SIGINT Automation Research Center (ret.) Jill Stein, Green Party 2012 Presidential nominee Cheri Honkala, Green Shadow Cabinet Ed Asner Norman Solomon, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting Agneta Norberg, Sweden Rick Rosoff, Stop NATO Kathleen Sullivan, Hibakusha Stories Michael Eisenscher, US Labor Against the War Clare Coss, playwright Jean-Marie Matagne, President, Action des Citoyens pour le Désarmement Nucléaire (France) Carolyn Rusti Eisenberg, United for Peace and Justice Ben Manski, president, Liberty Tree Foundation

The militarized lockdown and attack on Ferguson's Black community is not an anomaly. Police repression is growing across the US and globally through coordinated efforts to militarize policing tactics and weapons. Local police departments are now directly funded by the Departments of Homeland Security and Defense. From September 4th-8th, one such DHS-backed program, Urban Shield, will be hosted by Oakland's Marriott Hotel Convention Center through a contract with the City of Oakland. This event - hosting SWAT training, national and transnational police networking, and weaponry sales - is coordinated by the Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI.) UASI is an initiative in which the St. Louis area police actively participate. The military tanks, tear-gas, rubber bullets and SWAT armor attacking the people of Ferguson are there because of these programs. People across communities are rising up to resist policing. We cannot allow this engine of state repression to continue. Take a stand with War Resisters League and our partners in Oakland to oppose Marriott's profiteering from the militarized repression of our communities. Build pressure against Urban Shield and the Marriott Hotel - sign and share this petition as a nonviolent demonstration of people power!

In 2014, on the one century anniversary of World War I, European nations are again mobilizing for war. The “War to All End Wars” began on July 28, 1914 and ended on November 11, 1918, killing more than 9 million combatants. A 2014 war, involving the major European powers and the U.S., could kill many millions more. The Ukraine has 15 nuclear reactors loaded with a 1000 tons or more of radioactive fuels. The largest nuclear reactor in Europe is on the Dnieper River, a little north of Crimea. Plus, there are the 4 Chernobyl reactors, still leaking radiation, still needing constant attention. The world cannot afford war in a region with nuclear reactors. Veterans For Peace, a U.S.-based organization of ex-military members and associates, has been following the crisis in Ukraine very closely. We who have experienced the horror and futility of war feel compelled to act urgently to head off the very real threat of war between nuclear-armed nations. We are appalled at the misinformation coming from the U.S. government officials and the mass media alike. The American people are not being told the truth: that the U.S. and western European nations bear much responsibility for this crisis by aggressively expanding NATO, even to the borders of Russia; that neo-Nazi militias played key roles in the violent overthrow of the Ukrainian government, that those same right-wing extremists now hold key positions in the interim Ukrainian government, which is being advised by CIA and FBI agents as it attacks Russian-speaking activists in eastern Ukraine, now conveniently labeled “terrorists.” It is critically important that we understand and take into account the legitimate concerns of different national groups and regions within Ukraine, and that we encourage diplomacy and a nonviolent outcome to this dangerous crisis. Washington and its European allies ought to reverse course and turn Ukraine into a field of cooperation rather than confrontation with Russia. Good relations with both Russia and the European Union are in the best interests of all the Ukrainian people. A just and peaceful resolution that averts the threat of war is in the interests of all the world's people. Veterans For Peace wishes to thank Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) for providing us with some of the analysis and wording for this petition.

The Iraqi government is struggling with a devastated nation, in the wake of a war that killed a half a million to a million-and-a-half people, created millions of refugees, destroyed infrastructure, healthcare and education, and left behind environmental contamination that has produced an epidemic of cancer and birth defects. Using U.S. weapons, the Iraqi government is attacking other Iraqis, under the false belief that eventually this endless cycle of sectarian violence will lead to a stable civil society at peace with its neighbors and itself. What it is producing is more sectarian conflict that is degenerating into a civil war. Caught between the government and private militias are Iraqi citizens who simply want to rebuild their country and lead their lives in peace. And now U.S. troops and more arms are being sent back into what is quite clearly a civil war. We've been down that road before. We can't bomb Iraq into becoming a stable democratic country. If Iraqis establish a stable government that fairly represents all Sunnis, Shia, Kurds and Christians, ISIS will become isolated. If they do not, sending fighters, bombers, drones (and eventually troops) will only create another generation of Iraqis who see the U.S. as the enemy. This petition was posted by U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW)

On the occasion of Spring Days of Action against the killer drones the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance issues this call to action: The National Security Agency is not only violating the 4th Amendment to the US Constitution by taking away the privacy rights of Americans and others around the world, but contributing to the deaths and the maiming of innocents, including children, in the NSA's role supporting the US CIA and US Military drone strikes. The Obama Administration has already violated the 5th Amendment rights of Americans killed by the drones including Anwar al-Awlaki and his son in Yemen. International law has been violated, as the US drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan, and Iraq are war crimes. The NSA is culpable, and we must nonviolently express our First Amendment rights and responsibilities under international law to oppose the US Government and the Obama Administration's extrajudicial killings carried out in our name and with our tax money. On Saturday, May 3, 2014 we will gather and peacefully assemble at the National Security Agency to hold a public witness against the its role in violations of international law, war crimes, and crimes against peace. Across the United States, citizen activists have been involved in challenging the killer drone program, and some of them have been arrested and jailed for being voices for the voiceless drone victims. The demonstration at the NSA will be nonviolent, and is open to all peace with justice people. Some participants may be moved to risk arrest, however, the demonstration is open to all. Please let the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance know if you are able to be at the NSA on May 3 by emailing Joy First at [email protected] A final planning meeting will be held on Friday May 2. Contact Malachy Kilbride at [email protected] for information on this important planning session. The NSA, former employer of Edward Snowden, is located at Fort Meade, Maryland where the courageous US war crimes whistle-blower, Chelsea Manning, was tried and convicted. If not you, then who, will join us on May 3, 2014? Come out for peace with justice for all and be a voice FOR the drone victims and AGAINST US militarism and the violence of empire. For more information contact Joy First, convener of the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance at: [email protected]

While military spending produces jobs, it produces fewer of them than civilian spending, or even than tax cuts for working people. It's a drain on the economy, in addition to its other significant drawbacks.

Republican pollster Frank Luntz is advising supporters of Israel that echoing the Times' stories about Oct 7 "Mass Rape" is the most potent way to justify Israel's actions, despite the fact that the rape charges play on racist and colonial tropes and many of the claims, such as "mass rapes" ("dozens") have proven faulty.

Unnecessary wars are killing and displacing millions of people. Lobbying politicians for change is unlikely as long as the arms makers can manufacture public consent through a campaign of misinformation.

I am a senior and too much police brutality and poverty and racism.

We have minimum wage laws that most businesses can't get away with violating. But the government can, and does. They will say "Because benefits aren't wages". But that is dodging the question of WHY we have minimum wage laws: humaneness, simple morality. We have laws protecting animals. Humans need to be protected too! The fact that so many people receive unconscionably low benefits, IF THEY GET THEM AT ALL!- (Another problem!)- - is a significant factor creating poverty, homelessness, illness, and an EPIDEMIC OF SUICIDES. NEITHER PARTY HAS CARED TO ADDRESS THIS FOR DECADES! SHAME ON B O T H PARTIES! They will say "We can't afford it!" But we can always afford bogus wars, and rich people pay ZERO tax for Social Security on income above $128,400, as of 2018! Stop the Wars, and make the rich pay their fair share! It is up to the American people to hold "our representatives" ' feet to the fire, or REPLACE THEM!

We must honor dissenters as we honor in this case vets, and in this case because the dissenters were right, and we leave no one behind. When so many pardons are being given to convicted drug dealers, we should grant pardons to (as many) addiction experts (as possible), too. Doing the right thing is always important.

Those of us who want an end to war are the majority worldwide. If we join together to demand accountability from elected officials by voting those who support war out of office, we will consciously create an end to war by changing the mind-set which views war as socially acceptable.