[Peace] No AWARE reading group this week

[C. G. Estabrook]

I regret I’m unable to host the AWARE reading group this week.

I propose a final meeting to discuss THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING and LAUDATO SI' at 5 Litchfield Lane, Champaign, on Wednesday 4 November at 6pm.

In light of the academic boycott of UIUC - owing to its shameful violation of academic freedom, for [political purposes - AWARE should not participate in academic events promoted by the university and so should substitute our own.  I suggest we consider next Andrew Cockburn, “Kill Chain: The Rise of the High-Tech Assassins” (2015) by Andrew Cockburn  (Washington editor of Harper's magazine).

Amazon’s somewhat gee-whiz description (the book is better): "Assassination by drone is a subject of deep and enduring fascination. Yet few understand how and why this has become our principal way of waging war. Kill Chain uncovers the real and extraordinary story; its origins in long-buried secret programs, the breakthroughs that made drone operations possible, the ways in which the technology works and, despite official claims, does not work. Taking the reader inside the well-guarded world of national security, the book reveals the powerful interests - military, CIA and corporate - that have led the drive to kill individuals by remote control. Most importantly of all, the book describes what has really happened when the theories underpinning the strategy -- and the multi-billion dollar contracts they spawn -- have been put to the test. Drawing on sources deep in the military and intelligence establishments, Andrew Cockburn's Kill Chain unveils the true effects, as demonstrated by bloody experience, of assassination warfare, a revelation that readers will find surprising as well as shocking."

See also <http://www.versobooks.com/books/1857-kill-chain>. I’ll be happy to provide an e-book to anyone who wants to participate in the discussion.

It’s an important book about how the Obama administration - and the next - will continue to kill people around the world, if we let them.  

—CGE