July, 05 2023, 03:48pm EDT

CODEPINK Condemns Biden's Nomination of Elliot Abrams to U.S Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy
President Biden’s nomination of Elliott Abrams to The U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy is appalling and should be condemned by any one who believes in diplomacy and democracy.
Elliott Abrams has made a career of lying and committing criminal acts that have led to the death and suffering of innocent people from Guatemala to Iraq. He embraces militarism, covers up for gross human rights abuses, and has a history of supporting authoritarian regimes.
Abrams’ shameful resume includes:
- In the 1980s, he defended the infamous Guatemalan General Efraín Ríos Montt, whose violent crackdown on the indigenous Ixil Mayan people of Guatemala was so brutal that it was classified as genocide by the United Nations.
- He denied that the Salvadoran military was responsible for the devastating El Mozote massacre where, in 1981, a U.S.-trained battalion murdered more than 500 civilians, slitting the throats of children along the way. Not only did Abrams deny the massacre and push for continued US support for the notoriously brutal Salvadoran government, but he even claimed in a 1994 interview that “the U.S. administration’s record in El Salvador is one of fabulous achievements.”
- He is vehemently anti-Palestinian and shamelessly supports Israel. As George Bush’s aide on the National Security Council, Abrams did everything he could to thwart peace negotiations. He repeatedly undercut any U.S. pressure on Israel to stop the building of settlements and cited the Holocaust as justification for Israel’s killings of Palestinians (Jews are “a people who had learned from history what happens to Jews without security”). In 2015, he applauded then-Speaker John Boehner’s decision to invite Netanyahu to address Congress without the approval of President Obama. He lauds Evangelical descriptions of Israel such as the belief that “Israel is connected to the idea that God favors and protects Americans.”
- In 1991, Abrams pled guilty to withholding information from Congress related to his involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal, the secret and illegal scam in the 1980s to siphon profits from Iranian weapons sales to support the right-wing Contra rebels trying to overthrow the Sandinista government.
- Abrams was a key supporter of the disastrous invasion of Iraq. In 1998, he submitted a letter to President Clinton encouraging him to depose Saddam Hussein. As Deputy National Security Advisor for Global Democracy Strategy during George W. Bush’s second term, Abrams was in charge of promoting Bush's strategy of "advancing democracy abroad.”
- Abrams championed the U.S. overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, echoing the tactics used by the neocons for intervention in Iraq.
- Abrams’ opposition to the Iran Nuclear Deal is epitomized by his attempts to encourage Israel to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites before negotiations became too serious. He expressed concern that Israel’s capacity to impede the deal was “already being narrowed considerably by the diplomatic thaw, because it is one thing to bomb Iran when it appears hopelessly recalcitrant and isolated and quite another to bomb it when much of the world -- especially the United States -- is optimistic about the prospect of talks."
- In January 2019, Abrams was appointed to be the U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela, and used his position to support an attempted coup, quash diplomatic talks, and increase brutal sanctions, even during the pandemic.
According to the State Department website the United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy is charged with “appraising U.S. Government activities intended to understand, inform, and influence foreign publics.”
Rather than receiving this nomination, Elliott Abrams should be barred for life from government positions. Elliot Abrams should be held accountable for war crimes, not serving in a position where he can influence the U.S. to carry out more of them.
CODEPINK is a women-led grassroots organization working to end U.S. wars and militarism, support peace and human rights initiatives, and redirect our tax dollars into healthcare, education, green jobs and other life-affirming programs.
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Trump Order Ramps Up Assault on Union Rights of Federal Workers
One labor leader called it "another clear example of retaliation against federal employee union members who have bravely stood up against his anti-worker, anti-American plan to dismantle the federal government."
Aug 28, 2025
In the lead-up to Labor Day in the United States, President Donald Trump on Thursday escalated his attack on the union rights of federal employees at a list of agencies with an executive order that claims to "enhance" national security.
Trump previously issued an order intended to strip the collective bargaining rights from hundreds of thousands of government employees in March, provoking an ongoing court fight. A federal judge blocked the president's edict—but then earlier this month, a panel from the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit allowed the administration to proceed.
Government agencies were directed not to terminate any collective bargaining agreements while the litigation over Trump's March order continued, but some have begun to do so, according to Government Executive. On Monday, the 9th Circuit said in a filing that it would vote on whether the full court will rehear the case.
Amid that court fight, Trump issued Thursday's order, which calls for an end to collective bargaining for unionized workers at the Bureau of Reclamation's hydropower units; National Aeronautics and Space Administration; National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service; National Weather Service; Patent and Trademark Office; and US Agency for Global Media.
Like the earlier order, this one cites the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. As Government Executive reported Thursday:
Matt Biggs, national president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, whose union represents a portion of NASA's workforce along with the American Federation of Government Employees, suggested that the administration's targeting of NASA—IFPTE's largest union—was in retaliation for its own lawsuit challenging the spring iteration of the executive order, filed last month.
"It's not surprising, sadly," Biggs said. "What is surprising is that on the eve of Labor Day weekend, when workers are to be celebrated, the Trump administration has doubled down on being the most anti-labor, anti-worker administration in US history. We will continue to fight in the courts, on the Hill, and at the grassroots levels against this."
Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which also sued over the March order, said that "President Trump's decision to issue a Labor Day proclamation shortly after stripping union rights from thousands of civil servants, a third of whom are veterans, should show American workers what he really thinks about them."
"This latest executive order is another clear example of retaliation against federal employee union members who have bravely stood up against his anti-worker, anti-American plan to dismantle the federal government," Kelley declared, taking aim at the president's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
"Several agencies including NASA and the National Weather Service have already been hollowed out by reckless DOGE cuts, so for the administration to further disenfranchise the remaining workers in the name of 'efficiency' is immoral and abhorrent," the union leader said. "AFGE is preparing an immediate response and will continue to fight relentlessly to protect the rights of our members, federal employees, and their union."
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Smotrich Proposes Annexing Gaza and Carrying Out Trump Ethnic Cleansing Plan
The far-right Israeli finance minister's remarks follow comments last week in which he said: "Whoever doesn't evacuate, don't let them. No water, no electricity; they can die of hunger or surrender."
Aug 28, 2025
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Thursday proposed the systematic annexation of Gaza over the coming months if Hamas keeps fighting, as well as the implementation of US President Donald Trump's plan to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian enclave.
Smotrich, who leads the far-right Religious Zionism party, announced his plan to "win in Gaza by the end of the year" during a press conference in Jerusalem.
Israel "must completely hold control of the entire strip, forever," he said.
The minister explained that "an ultimatum will be presented to Hamas between two options," surrendering, disarming, and returning all hostages kidnapped during the October 7, 2023 attack, or "gradual annexation of areas of the Gaza Strip and reduction of the enemy's territory, and implementation of the Trump plan for voluntary emigration of the strip's residents."
"Voluntary emigration" is widely viewed as a euphemism for ethnic cleansing, given most Palestinians' unwillingness to voluntarily abandon their homeland. Most Gazans are descendants of survivors of the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of more than 750,000 Palestinians during the creation of Israel in 1948. Some are actual Nakba survivors.
Smotrich also called for a tightening of the siege on Gaza—which has caused the starvation of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians—in order to "starve and dehydrate Hamas fighters to death."
The minister's remarks followed comments last week in which he said that "whoever doesn't evacuate, don't let them. No water, no electricity; they can die of hunger or surrender. This is what we want."
Earlier this year, Smotrich said: "We conquer, cleanse, and stay until Hamas is destroyed. On the way, we annihilate everything that still remains."
Last month, the Israeli Knesset hosted an annexation conference at which Smotrich declared that "we will occupy Gaza and make it an inseparable part of Israel."
Smotrich's annexation plan comes as the Israel Defense Forces carries out Operation Gideon's Chariots 2, a campaign to conquer and occupy Gaza and ethnically cleanse around 1 million Palestinians. Trump said earlier this year that he wants to transform Gaza into the "Riviera of the Middle East."
Some critics, including the Israeli jurist Itay Epshtain, said Smotrich's comments will surely be noticed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ)—which is currently weighing a genocide case against Israel—and International Criminal Court (ICC), which last year issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder and forced starvation.
The ICC has also reportedly prepared arrest warrants for Smotrich and Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir for the crime of apartheid related to their Trump-backed plans to expand illegal settler colonies in the West Bank and annex the occupied territory.
Last year, the ICJ issued an advisory opinion that Israel's occupation of Palestine is an illegal form of apartheid that must end as soon as possible.
Over the past 693 days, Israeli forces have killed at least 63,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. However, experts say the actual death toll is likely much higher. More than 158,600 Palestinians have been wounded, and thousands more are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath rubble. A growing famine engineered by Israel has claimed at least hundreds of lives and is threatening hundreds of thousands more.
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Sanders Demands Congress 'Immediately' Investigate Firing of CDC Director
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "must testify," and the CDC officials who were fired and resigned in protest also should be invited to do so, said the senator.
Aug 28, 2025
In the wake of a "Wednesday night massacre" at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and related resignations, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday called for an immediate congressional probe.
Just weeks after the Senate confirmed President Donald Trump's pick to lead the CDC, Dr. Susan Monarez, the director was forced out on Wednesday after reportedly clashing with Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Her ouster led to calls for firing Kennedy, four other officials resigning in protest, and a related walkout by agency staff.
Sanders (I-Vt.) serves as ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and in a letter, he asked Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), the panel's chair and a physician, to "immediately" call a hearing.
"I am very disturbed that the Trump administration apparently made this reckless decision because Director Monarez refused to act as a rubber stamp to implement Secretary Kennedy's dangerous agenda to substantially limit the use of safe and effective vaccines and undermine the confidence that the American people have in scientific achievements that have saved millions of lives," Sanders wrote to Cassidy.
RFK Jr. is pushing out scientific leaders who refuse to act as a rubber stamp for his dangerous conspiracy theories and manipulate science. Today, I am calling for a bipartisan congressional investigation into the firing of CDC Director Dr. Monarez.
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— Senator Bernie Sanders (@sanders.senate.gov) August 28, 2025 at 1:30 PM
"We need leaders at the CDC and HHS who are committed to improving public health and have the courage to stand up for science," he argued, "not officials who have a history of spreading bogus conspiracy theories and disinformation that will endanger the lives of the American people and people throughout the world."
Sanders—who previously served as the panel's chair—asked Cassidy to launch a "bipartisan probe" and stressed that "as part of that investigation, Secretary Kennedy must testify at a hearing in the HELP Committee as soon as possible. We should also invite Dr. Monarez and the senior CDC officials who resigned to testify as well."
Noting that Cassidy on Wednesday "called for oversight of the firings and resignations at the agency," Sanders made the case that "as a start, the American people should hear directly from Secretary Kennedy and Dr. Monarez and every member of our committee should be able to ask questions and get honest answers from them."
The senator also took aim at the HHS chief, writing that "it is absolutely imperative that trust in vaccine science not be undermined. The well-being of millions of people are at stake. In just six months, Secretary Kennedy has completely upended the process for reviewing and recommending vaccines for the public."
"Enough is enough," he declared. "We have got to make it clear to Secretary Kennedy that his actions to double down on his war on science and disinformation campaign must end. Too many lives are at stake."
In a statement released later Thursday, after the walkout, Sanders applauded CDC workers "for standing up for science and protesting the reckless decision of Secretary Kennedy to push out leading scientists from the agency."
"Speaking up takes real courage," he said. "Now is the time for all of us—whether you are a Democrat, Republican, independent, progressive or conservative—to come together and say enough is enough. Vaccines are one of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th century. We will not stand by silently as Secretary Kennedy takes them away."
"Let us be clear: We are witnessing a full-blown war on science, on public health, and on truth itself," Sanders emphasized. "In just six months, Secretary Kennedy has dismantled the vaccine review process, narrowed access to life-saving Covid vaccines, and filled scientific advisory boards with conspiracy theorists and ideologues. "
Slamming the reported reasons for Monarez's ouster as "outrageous and unacceptable," the senator concluded that "history will not look kindly on those who stayed silent in the face of this assault on science. We have a moral responsibility to act now."
This article has been updated with Sen. Bernie Sanders' statement on the walkout at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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