Just Foreign Policy News, April 24, 2013
Yemeni activist slams drone strikes at Senate hearing; Senators demand info

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I) Actions and Featured Articles

Video: Senate hearing on drone strikes
The video of Yemeni youth activist Farea al-Muslimi's testimony is on our home page.
http://justforeignpolicy.org/
The entire hearing can be watched here:
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/312317-1
al-Muslimi's prepared testimony is here:
http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/pdf/04-23-13Al-MuslimiTestimony.pdf
other testimony is linked off the committee website:
http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/hearing.cfm?id=b01a319ecae60e7cbb832de271030205
Conor Friedersdorf: This Yemeni Man Loves America, Hates al-Qaeda, and Says Drone Strikes Make Them Stronger

On April 23, the Constitution subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the ethics, legality, constitutionality, and political costs of the drone strike policy. This will be the first time in the history of the drone strike policy that there has been a public Congressional hearing like this focused on the policy.

If you live in Illinois, Minnesota, Delaware, Connecticut, Hawaii, Texas, South Carolina, or Utah, you have a Senator who serves on the subcommittee. [1] That means you're in a position to influence what takes place during next week's hearing.

Urge your Senator to publicly call for a Congressional subpoena of the Office of Legal Counsel memos during the hearing and ask pointed questions about key issues that the Administration has tried to obscure.

http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/a16-drone-hearing

Senate committees are supposed to oversee Administration agencies, including the CIA and the Justice Department. But they can't do effective oversight if the Administration won't disclose key documents such as the Office of Legal Council memos that detail elements of the drone strike policy that the Administration has refused to share with Congress. Senator Leahy, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has threatened that his committee will issue a subpoena of the drone strike memos if the Administration doesn't hand them over. But the Administration hasn't complied.

In addition, key questions about the drone strike policy have been obscured by the Administration's secrecy, including:

1. How many civilians have been killed, and why is government information about this classified?
2. Is the CIA low-balling civilian deaths by automatically classifying "military age males" as "militants" when they are killed by US drone strikes, as the New York Times reported in May?

UPDATE: MoveOn has moved the day of action to Thursday, April 25. All dates in this alert have been changed to reflect this development.

On April 25, MoveOn is calling for actions at Congressional offices across the country in opposition to President Obama's proposal to cut Social Security and veterans' benefits by lowering the cost-of-living adjustment with the "chained CPI."

This is a historic opportunity for the broad public to force a positive change in federal budget priorities. What President Obama, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, and the Washington Post editorial board agree on is that they prefer to cut Social Security and veterans' benefits and raise taxes rather than cut the bloated Pentagon budget. That's what the "grand bargain" is all about.

But the broad, bipartisan public holds the opposite view. Most Americans would rather cut the bloated Pentagon budget, and leave Social Security and veterans' benefits and taxes alone. [1]

Can you help us help MoveOn make history on April 25? We're asking you to do three things:

1. Sign our petition at SignOn:

Cut Social Security & Veterans' Benefits? Cut the Pentagon Instead!
http://signon.org/sign/cut-social-security-veterans?source=c.url&r_by=11...

2. Share our blog post:

On Friday, Kill the #ChainedCPI Cut to Social Security & Veterans' Benefits
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/on-friday-kill-the-chaine_b_...

3. Help organize an action at a local Congressional office on April 25 to deliver our petition:

Host an Emergency mobilization to protect Social Security
http://civic.moveon.org/event/events/create.html?id=&action_id=317

Thank you for all you do to help bring about a more just foreign policy,

Robert Naiman, Chelsea Mozen, Sarah Burns and Megan Iorio
Just Foreign Policy

Just Foreign Policy News, April 1, 2013
Will Congress stop funding death squads in Honduras?

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Help your friends sign up to receive the Just Foreign Policy News
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Support the Work of Just Foreign Policy
Your support helps us to educate Americans about U.S. foreign policy and create opportunities for Americans to advocate for a foreign policy that is more just.
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/donate

I) Actions and Featured Articles

**Action: Tell Kerry: No Aid to Honduran Death Squads
Tell Secretary of State John Kerry to end all U.S. aid to all units of the Honduran National Police, whose leader has been linked to death squads, as required by U.S. law.
http://signon.org/sign/kerry-no-aid-to-honduran?source=c.url&r_by=1135580

Video: Sheikh Jarrah, My Neighbourhood
Just Vision's story of a Palestinian boy growing up inside the struggle of Palestinians to save their homes in East Jerusalem just won a Peabody Award. You can watch it for free online.
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/witness/2012/04/201243114530739738.html

Yemen Policy Initiative: increased reliance on drones undermines US interests
This letter is signed by the former US Ambassador to Yemen, among others.