NEW― Sources familiar with US policies on civilian casualties are deeply worried about the possible toll of Trump's war on Iran
-Key Pentagon teams focused on civilians have been slashed+reassigned (even at CENTCOM)
-Israel role raising fears of Gaza-style impunity
www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-...
One of the great panels at this year's annual conference bringing together the responsible arms trade, human rights and anti-corruption communities. 12/10 in Washington DC. Sign up now www.forumarmstrade.org/annual2025.h...
@jwrchappell.bsky.social @seharrison7.bsky.social @jeffabramson.bsky.social
Glad to speak with @yvonnemurray.bsky.social of @news.rte.ie about the lethal US maritime strikes and be quoted along with @jwrchappell.bsky.social and my @crisisgroup.org colleague @renatasegura.bsky.social.
www.rte.ie/news/analysi...
Despite the narrow failure of a Senate War Powers Resolution last night, “There will be more opportunities for Congress to rally against the president’s killings of civilians without due process," @jwrchappell.bsky.social told Responsible Statecraft.
More: responsiblestatecraft.org/senate-war-p...
Congress should reintroduce the National Security Powers Act and National Security Reforms and Accountability Act, or other legislation to reassert congressional authority over arms sales, and work toward a mark-up. Advocates and researchers should connect crises to the structures that made them possible. Presidential aspirants should commit to working with Congress to overhaul the arms sales framework. Ultimately, arms sales should be guided by a “first, do no harm” ethos.
Senators, representatives, and Presidential aspirants can all work to change this back to a first principle of restraint, and they should do so, argues John Ramming Chappell for @cipolicy.bsky.social. internationalpolicy.org/publications...
Analyzing the legal and moral stakes of the Caribbean strikes – and how Congress could respond.
From Annie Shiel, @jwrchappell.bsky.social, Priyanka Motaparthy, Wells Dixon and Daphne Eviatar:
www.justsecurity.org/120794/legal...
@jwrchappell.bsky.social via @cipolicy.bsky.social concludes "Congress should be working towards a reclamation of their constitutional authority and an end to the system that allows the president to sell weapons to war criminals and human rights abusers..." internationalpolicy.org/publications...
Israel bombed multiple countries across the Middle East in recent days. US military aid makes this possible. In our new factsheet we breakdown the $21.7B provided to Israel since Oct 7 & privileges it receives that allows it to carry on its war machine. mideastdc.org/publication/...
Spoke with @politico.com about the lethal U.S. strike in the Caribbean.
“This is not about counterterrorism, war on terror, counter-narcotics. The really key issue here is the scope of the power being claimed by the president.”
The power to kill outside the law.
www.politico.com/news/2025/09...
In a new piece by me and @stimsoncenter.bsky.social's Elias Yousif, we discuss the risks of the admin's legally dubious decision not to release detailed accounting for how the government intends to spend future foreign assistance. A 🧵 mideastdc.org/publication/...
NEW: CIVIC is alarmed by the US strike on a vessel in the Caribbean that killed 11 people. An attack like this, outside of armed conflict, is an extrajudicial execution, not an act of war.
Congress must demand transparency & accountability: civiliansinconflict.org/press-releas...
No pretense that US is somehow engaged in an armed conflict that might justify lethal targeting in this manner.
As I told @npr.org this morning, we have a word for premeditated killing outside of armed conflict: murder.
(Also the administration has not substantiated any of its factual claims.)
The former official also said it was unusual to have 11 people manning a vessel that could easily be crewed by two or three, especially since traffickers are always trying to maximize the amount of cargo space devoted to carrying drugs, not human beings. In the former official’s opinion, it was more likely that the vessel was carrying migrants on a human smuggling run. It would be impossible to know for sure, however, given that any evidence of drug smuggling was destroyed in the attack.
1/3 Just so we are all clear on this.
Based on what this former official "who has years of direct experience in fighting drug cartels" told the Times.
The order to blow up the Venezuelan boat may have instead killed migrants who were being smuggled.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/u...
I've read and coded every War Powers Report ever sent to Congress (check them all out, with interactive graphics and a searchable database 👇), and this one on #Trump's attack on an alleged drug smuggling vessel in the Caribbean stands out. I'll explain below:
warpowers.lawandsecurity.org
Congress is back from recess soon. What are your representatives doing to end US support for carnage and starvation in Gaza?
From @jwrchappell.bsky.social & me on why cosponsoring the Block the Bombs Act should be a benchmark in the House: responsiblestatecraft.org/house-vote-i...
In our latest article for Responsible Statecraft (above), @annieshiel.bsky.social and I make the case for the Block the Bombs Bill, and you can also find out more about it here. 3/ www.blockthebombs.org
The bill would ban sales to Israel of the weapons most implicated in atrocities in Gaza -- bombs and explosive shells. It has 33 cosponsors from across the Democratic Party. But if public polling and a Senate vote are any indication, it has lots of room to grow. 2/ www.congress.gov/bill/119th-c...
Congress finishes August recess soon, and for weeks they've been facing constituents in their home districts asking: what are you doing to stop atrocities in Gaza?
The benchmark for House members is cosponsoring the Block the Bombs bill. 1/
responsiblestatecraft.org/house-vote-i...
But Nigeria needs a unified policy approach to civilian protection across its security forces, or else current patterns seems likely to continue. 7/
Nigerians face harrowing security challenges, and the government has made efforts to improve civilian protection practices. CIVIC welcomed the announcement of an air force action plan to improve civilian harm mitigation efforts, for example. 6/ civiliansinconflict.org/press-releas...
Congress has historically played an important role in integrating protection measures into major Nigeria arms sales, but the Trump administration has recently undercut some of their key leverage to influence and improve upon sales with protection measures. 5/ www.stimson.org/2025/eroding...
Another area of concern is that the last two major arms sales to Nigeria included measures to improve human rights practices and air to ground integration. I don't see anything similar in this latest sale, but these weapons are munitions of the types we'd expect to be used in airstrikes. 4/
These airstrikes go back many years. Here's a recent example of a misidentification that resulted in the deaths of 16 civilians in Zamfara. 3/ www.bbc.com/news/article...
Last year, we wrote a report on key challenges in the relationship. Among the biggest is that the two last major sales from the US to Nigeria have comprised of military aircraft of the type used in a concerning pattern of mass civilian casualty airstrikes. 2/ civiliansinconflict.org/publications...
We at Center for Civilians in Conflict have been closely tracking civilian protection in the US-Nigeria security relationship, and I recently visited our teams in Abuja and Maiduguri digging into civilian protection issues. 1/
The time is long overdue for Congress to stop funding Israel’s illegal and horrific war against the Palestinian people.
The U.S. must not support a government which is starving children.
Tomorrow, I will force votes in the Senate to block the sale of weapons to Netanyahu.
These votes present Senators with a choice between backing up their condemnations of starvation and killing in Gaza with concrete action, or continuing to unconditionally send Israel the arms it is using to enforce its siege, fire on Palestinian civilians, and forcibly displace them from their land.
Votes are expected Wednesday on US arms to #Israel, namely SJ Res 34 & 41. See more details here on US law and these proposed sales and concerns armssalesaccountabilityproject.com/wp-content/u...
and for a timeline of this administration's arms to Israel, see www.forumarmstrade.org/us-israel-tr...
In this article, I dig into @sarajacobs.house.gov's crucial new bill to require tracking of US weapons used in civilian harm, and to cut off arms sales to countries that use American weapons to carry out atrocity crimes.