A daily history of the American empire. Backup account: @USWarWatch. Signup for our Substack: https://t.co/mLGjqojVFG
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Jan 29, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
On this day in 1863, US Federal troops committed one of the deadliest massacres of Native Americans in US history when they shot, beat, ran down and stabbed, at least 250 starving Shoshone people in what is now Idaho. #BearRiverMassacre
The Bear River Massacre was a surprise attack. The leaders of the Shoshone had failed to properly prepare for the attack because they believed they could negotiate a truce with the troops led Col. Patrick Edward Connor.
Jan 29, 2023 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
On this day in 2017, US SEALs killed 8-year-old American citizen “Nora” Nawar Al-Awlaki along with 24 other civilians, (incl. 9 young children) in a raid on a village in Yemen village. US Apache gunships destroyed entire homes & fired on villagers as they fled.
"Nawar was shot several times, with one bullet piercing her neck. She was bleeding for two hours because it was not possible to get her medical attention,“ Nawar's uncle Ammar Al-Aulaqi said.
Oct 29, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
This Week in 2001: US Military Bombed an Afghan Village, Killing 23 Civilians (Mostly Young Children) open.substack.com/pub/americanva…
Villagers who rushed to assist those injured by the bombing were injured when the US resumed bombing the village once again. Survivors say the US bombed the village a total of three separate times.
Jul 4, 2022 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
On this day in 1988, the US Navy shot down an Iranian civilian airliner, killing all 290 people on board (including 66 children). The US attempted to cover-up its responsibility for the atrocity & has never apologized or admitted wrongdoing. Many of the bodies were never found.
Capt. Will Rogers III, who commanded the USS Vincenees, which attacked the airliner was described by others Navy officers as “aggressive”, “trigger happy”, and looking to gain combat experience, even if it meant committing war crimes.
Feb 13, 2021 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
On this day in 1991, the U.S. bombed the Amiriya civilian air raid shelter in Iraq, which was sheltering a thousand sleeping civilians, massacring 408 Iraqi civilians (261 women and 52 children).
At 4am on Feb. 13, two US F-117s dropped 2 laser-guided “smart bombs” on the shelter. The 1st, pierced the fortified concrete wall of the shelter, jamming its thick steel doors & trapping everyone inside. The 2nd bomb followed through first hole & exploded deep inside the shelter
Jan 29, 2021 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
On this day in 2017, US SEALs killed 8-year-old American citizen “Nora” Nawar Al-Awlaki along with 24 other civilians, (incl. 9 young children) in a raid on a village in Yemen. U.S. Apache gunships destroyed entire homes and fired on villagers as they fled.
"Nawar was shot several times, with one bullet piercing her neck. She was bleeding for two hours because it was not possible to get her medical attention,“ Nawar's uncle, Ammar Al-Aulaqi said.
Jan 16, 2021 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
On this day in 1991, the US launched war against Iraq. The war began with a devastating air campaign, which directly targeted civilian infrastructure. The war killed over 100,000 people & included the use of napalm, cluster bombs, depleted uranium.
George H. W. Bush began the war by ordering 42 days of consecutive bombing of Iraq. US and coalition aircraft flew over 100,000 missions, dropping 85,000 lbs of bombs on Iraq, making it one of the most intensive aerial bombardments in military history.
Jan 16, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
This week in 1968, the US launched Operation Niagara in Vietnam, 66 straight days of carpet bombing, unleashing "the most concentrated application of aerial firepower in the history of warfare”, killing 15,000 Vietnamese.
The operation was designed to prevent a US base at Khe Sanh, falling to the communist Vietnamese forces. President Lyndon Johnson ordered that the base must be held at all cost.
Jan 13, 2021 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
On this day in 1962, the US military began its 11-year chemical warfare campaign against the people of Vietnam and Laos, dropping 19 million gallons of Agent Orange over 20% of both countries, poisoning at least 3 million people and causing over a million birth defects.
US President John F. Kennedy personally approved “Operation Ranch Hand” in 1962, beginning the spraying of Agent Orange (and other chemicals) over 5 million acres of jungle and 500,000 acres of crops, including over 20,000 spray flights.
Dec 27, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
On this day in 1862, Abraham Lincoln ordered the largest ever mass execution in American history, hanging 38 innocent Dakota men after sham military trials. The ‘crime’ they were convicted of was resisting their own ethnic cleansing.
After a series of treaties forced the Dakota onto tiny pieces of land and promised US compensation never arrived, Dakota were facing starvation in Minnesota’s long, freezing winter. As a result, some of the Dakota attempted to fight back to save their people and their way of life
Dec 20, 2020 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
On this day in 1989, George H.W. Bush ordered 27,000 troops to invade Panama to overthrow former CIA asset Manuel Noriega, killing 5,000 people, dumping bodies in mass graves and destroying thousands of homes.
During the invasion, US troops systematically torched homes, ran over civilians, conducted systematic executions of both civilians and soldiers in the street and paid people to dump the bodies in mass graves. Other unidentified bodies were piled up in the streets and burned.
Dec 4, 2020 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
Early in the morning on this day in 1969, the Chicago Police department executed the Black Panther leader Fred Hampton. The operation was a cold-blooded political assassination carried out with assistance from the F.B.I.
Fred Hampton had been drugged by an F.B.I. informant and was unconscious next to his 8-month pregnant partner when police raided Hampton’s apartment, firing a hail of bullets in the apartment.
Nov 19, 2020 • 16 tweets • 3 min read
On this day in 2005, US Marines massacred 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Haditha. Marines went house to house executing men, women, children as young as 1 yr-old & a 76 yr-old man in a wheelchair. The marines then urinated on the dead bodies. None of the Marines served jail time.
The massacre—which lasted 5 hours and involved two squads of Marines—was immediately followed by a cover-up. The Marines dropped the dead bodies off at a hospital, claiming they’d been killed in the roadside bombing.
Oct 14, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
On this day in 2011, an Obama-ordered drone strike killed 16 year-old American citizen Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, his teenage cousin, and 5 other civilians as they were eating at an outdoor cafe in Southern Yemen.
Abdulrahman’s grandfather, described him as “a typical teenager — he watched “The Simpsons,” listened to Snoop Dogg, read “Harry Potter” and had a Facebook page with many friends. He had a mop of curly hair, glasses like me and a wide, goofy smile.”
Oct 8, 2020 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
On this day in 1967, the socialist revolutionary Ché Guevara was captured by U.S.-trained Bolivian soldiers in a C.I.A. operation. The following day the soldiers executed him, cut his hands off, looted his personal items as trophies and dumped his body in an unmarked grave.
The US government maintained for decades that the order to kill Che came from Bolivian leadership, but US gov documents released through FOIA show that the order for the kill operation came directly from the White House.
Oct 6, 2020 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
This week in 1976, CIA-funded, anti-Castro terrorists, bombed the civilian airliner Cubana de Aviación Flight 455, killing all 73 people aboard, including all 24 members of 1975 Cuban national fencing team, many of whom were just teenagers.
On October 6, 1976, two bombs exploded on the flight 455 headed from Barbados to Jamaica just 11 minutes after take-off. The bomb was disguised as Colgate toothpaste in a suitcase. nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2…
Oct 3, 2020 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
On this day in 2015, the US Air Force committed a serious war crime by "repeatedly and precisely" attacking a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, killing 42 patients and medical staff and injuring over 30 more.
The bombing took place despite the fact that MSF had provided the GPS coordinates of the hospital to the US Coalition just days before the attack. The attack also continued for 30 min. after MSF alerted US officials the hospital had come under attack.
Sep 23, 2020 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
On this day in 1980, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq invaded Iran (after getting approval from the US) launching one of 20th century's most deadly wars, killing over 1 million people and injuring over 100,000 with U.S.-supplied chemical weapons.
In 2015, the legendary journalist Robert Parry found secret congressional documents referring to Jimmy Carter’s “Green Light” for Saddam’s invasion. consortiumnews.com/2015/05/11/sad…
Sep 12, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
On this day in 1980, a right-wing military junta, trained by the US and led by General Kenan Evran, took power in a coup in Turkey, resulting in the arrests of 650,000, thousands more sentenced to death and hundreds tortured & killed.
The junta established martial law, abolished political parties, trade unions and democratic rights. Hundreds of thousands were tried for the "crime" of belonging to a political organization or had their citizenship revoked & were denied passports. 30,000 fled as refugees.
Sep 10, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
On Sept 11 1973, a CIA-backed coup overthrew Chile's democratic socialist president Salvador Allende & worked to install Gen. Pinochet's brutal dictatorship, who killed thousands, tortured tens of thousands & imprisoned over 130,000.
Upon Salvador Allende’s election victory in 1970, the CIA immediately began working to destabilize his government, viewing it as being too close to communists. The CIA spread propaganda through the press, facilitated economic destabilization and organized labor strikes/protests.
Aug 22, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
On this day in 2008, the US massacred 90 Afghan civilians (mostly women & children) gathering for a memorial service in the village of Azizabad. The US conducted continued air strikes on the village for 3 full hours; killing 60 children as they slept in their homes.
The US attack included a drone strike & a barrage of howitzer fire from an AC 130 gunship, which killed 60 children aged 3 months to 16 years old as they slept. “It was a heartbreaking scene,” said Mohammad Iqbal Safi, head of the Afghan parliamentary defense committee.