Jennifer Rooke
@jenrooke.bsky.social
Former US Air Force intelligence officer. Surveillance practitioner turned critic. #AffirmativeEthics #AntiMilitarism #AntiRacism #BanWeaponizedAI #QuestionSuperiority
Pinned
Jennifer Rooke
@jenrooke.bsky.social
· May 19
“This book lays bare a chilling paradox: Autonomous Weapon Systems are products of the same technical rationality proposed for their control.” Tero Karppi, University of Toronto
Publishing #OpenAccess:
Publishing #OpenAccess:
buff.ly
Available now! A great collection of scholars, artists...and me. Grateful to the editors, Thomas Bächle and Jascha Bareis, for the invite to contribute as a former practitioner.
Reposted by Jennifer Rooke
Textbook war crime/extrajudicial killing
"Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ... ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions."
Report by @alexhorton.bsky.social @ellenwapo.bsky.social o.bsky.social
"Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ... ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions."
Report by @alexhorton.bsky.social @ellenwapo.bsky.social o.bsky.social
Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order to kill all crew members in the Sept. 2 strike on a suspected drug boat. Navy SEALs fired a second missile.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 28, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Textbook war crime/extrajudicial killing
"Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ... ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions."
Report by @alexhorton.bsky.social @ellenwapo.bsky.social o.bsky.social
"Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ... ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions."
Report by @alexhorton.bsky.social @ellenwapo.bsky.social o.bsky.social
Reposted by Jennifer Rooke
My latest for @972mag.com reveals how Palantir and Dataminr have been involved in hashing out the Trump-backed "peace plan" for Gaza.
It's a story of how US surveillance firms are poised to sediment a new paradigm of Israeli control over the strip
www.972mag.com/ai-surveilla...
It's a story of how US surveillance firms are poised to sediment a new paradigm of Israeli control over the strip
www.972mag.com/ai-surveilla...
AI-powered surveillance firms are gunning for a share of Gaza spoils
The presence of Palantir and Dataminr at the new U.S. military compound in Israel offers a glimpse of how tech companies are cashing in on the genocide.
www.972mag.com
November 28, 2025 at 1:39 PM
My latest for @972mag.com reveals how Palantir and Dataminr have been involved in hashing out the Trump-backed "peace plan" for Gaza.
It's a story of how US surveillance firms are poised to sediment a new paradigm of Israeli control over the strip
www.972mag.com/ai-surveilla...
It's a story of how US surveillance firms are poised to sediment a new paradigm of Israeli control over the strip
www.972mag.com/ai-surveilla...
Reposted by Jennifer Rooke
Jack Goldsmith was head of the Office of Legal Counsel under George W Bush.
November 29, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Jack Goldsmith was head of the Office of Legal Counsel under George W Bush.
Reposted by Jennifer Rooke
This is a lot of words to say, “Yikes! That Washington Post story about us illegally killing survivors on the open seas was 100% correct!”
November 29, 2025 at 12:46 AM
This is a lot of words to say, “Yikes! That Washington Post story about us illegally killing survivors on the open seas was 100% correct!”
Reposted by Jennifer Rooke
Exclusive: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave an order to “kill everybody” in the first strike on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean. After two men survived, the mission commander ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, according to two sources.
Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order to kill all crew members in the Sept. 2 strike on a suspected drug boat. Navy SEALs fired a second missile.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 28, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Exclusive: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave an order to “kill everybody” in the first strike on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean. After two men survived, the mission commander ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, according to two sources.
Reposted by Jennifer Rooke
Former US military lawyers speak out:
"The Former JAGs Working Group unanimously considers both the giving and the execution of these orders, if true, to constitute war crimes, murder, or both."
Statement on Media Reports of Pentagon “No Quarter” Orders in Caribbean Boat Strikes
1/2
"The Former JAGs Working Group unanimously considers both the giving and the execution of these orders, if true, to constitute war crimes, murder, or both."
Statement on Media Reports of Pentagon “No Quarter” Orders in Caribbean Boat Strikes
1/2
November 29, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Former US military lawyers speak out:
"The Former JAGs Working Group unanimously considers both the giving and the execution of these orders, if true, to constitute war crimes, murder, or both."
Statement on Media Reports of Pentagon “No Quarter” Orders in Caribbean Boat Strikes
1/2
"The Former JAGs Working Group unanimously considers both the giving and the execution of these orders, if true, to constitute war crimes, murder, or both."
Statement on Media Reports of Pentagon “No Quarter” Orders in Caribbean Boat Strikes
1/2
Reposted by Jennifer Rooke
Published today: my op-Ed for Sifted on why the dynamics of VC are too risky for defence. I’m grateful to the editors for letting me make this point in the ‘lion’s den’ sifted.eu/articles/def...
VC and defence tech — a recipe for disaster?
War should not be normalised as a financial opportunity, writes Elke Schwarz, a professor at the Queen Mary University of London.
sifted.eu
November 27, 2025 at 7:52 AM
Published today: my op-Ed for Sifted on why the dynamics of VC are too risky for defence. I’m grateful to the editors for letting me make this point in the ‘lion’s den’ sifted.eu/articles/def...
Reposted by Jennifer Rooke
Nicolas Malevé and Katrina Sluis review THE BIRTH OF COMPUTER VISION (Dobson), highlighting how the book reconstructs the early history of computer vision and its ties to military funding, computational methods, and changing ontologies of the image.
Link: read.dukeupress.edu/critical-ai/...
Link: read.dukeupress.edu/critical-ai/...
The Birth of Computer Vision | Critical AI | Duke University Press
read.dukeupress.edu
November 26, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Nicolas Malevé and Katrina Sluis review THE BIRTH OF COMPUTER VISION (Dobson), highlighting how the book reconstructs the early history of computer vision and its ties to military funding, computational methods, and changing ontologies of the image.
Link: read.dukeupress.edu/critical-ai/...
Link: read.dukeupress.edu/critical-ai/...
Reposted by Jennifer Rooke
U.S. Africa Command over the weekend carried out its 100th airstrike of the year in Somalia, showcasing how a campaign against Islamic militants in east Africa now represents one of its most aggressive operations worldwide
www.stripes.com/theaters/afr...
www.stripes.com/theaters/afr...
100th Somalia strike of year shows AFRICOM mission that outpaces even US action in Caribbean
U.S. Africa Command carried out its 100th airstrike of the year in Somalia.
www.stripes.com
November 25, 2025 at 8:01 PM
U.S. Africa Command over the weekend carried out its 100th airstrike of the year in Somalia, showcasing how a campaign against Islamic militants in east Africa now represents one of its most aggressive operations worldwide
www.stripes.com/theaters/afr...
www.stripes.com/theaters/afr...
Reposted by Jennifer Rooke
Gaza after the ceasefire is defined by the ‘yellow line’ — drawn by Israel, and dividing the strip in two.
Our evidence suggests that Israel seeks to make the line permanent, as ‘reconstruction’ plans normalise this new stage of Israel’s occupation: frames.forensic-architecture.org/gaza/ceasefire
Our evidence suggests that Israel seeks to make the line permanent, as ‘reconstruction’ plans normalise this new stage of Israel’s occupation: frames.forensic-architecture.org/gaza/ceasefire
November 25, 2025 at 11:20 AM
Gaza after the ceasefire is defined by the ‘yellow line’ — drawn by Israel, and dividing the strip in two.
Our evidence suggests that Israel seeks to make the line permanent, as ‘reconstruction’ plans normalise this new stage of Israel’s occupation: frames.forensic-architecture.org/gaza/ceasefire
Our evidence suggests that Israel seeks to make the line permanent, as ‘reconstruction’ plans normalise this new stage of Israel’s occupation: frames.forensic-architecture.org/gaza/ceasefire
Reposted by Jennifer Rooke
This is a very good essay from the @ACLU’s Brett Kaufman making the case that Trump’s boat strikes should be viewed as the logical end point of legal arguments normalized by OLC lawyers during the war on terror. Highly recommend. www.justsecurity.org/124776/secre...
November 21, 2025 at 5:00 PM
This is a very good essay from the @ACLU’s Brett Kaufman making the case that Trump’s boat strikes should be viewed as the logical end point of legal arguments normalized by OLC lawyers during the war on terror. Highly recommend. www.justsecurity.org/124776/secre...
Reposted by Jennifer Rooke
intriguing new special issue on weapons and unnecessary suffering - by Thomas Gregory, Maartje Abbenhuis & Jeremy Armstrong
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com
November 20, 2025 at 8:45 AM
intriguing new special issue on weapons and unnecessary suffering - by Thomas Gregory, Maartje Abbenhuis & Jeremy Armstrong
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Jennifer Rooke
In this Heliotrope piece, I use Virilio and Sekula to explain how Colin Powell's infamous WMD satellite images serve as a primary case study of the analogue and performative antecedents of GenAI imagery and what this means for how we define “evidence.”
www.heliotropejournal.net/helio/bythem...
www.heliotropejournal.net/helio/bythem...
By the Machine for the Machine: Virilio’s Logistics of Perception in the Age of Generative AI — HELIOTROPE
By Tracy Valcourt In War and Cinema , first published in 1984, Paul Virilio defined the notion of a “logistics of perception,” a circulating system which he considered essential to the development o...
www.heliotropejournal.net
November 14, 2025 at 1:33 PM
In this Heliotrope piece, I use Virilio and Sekula to explain how Colin Powell's infamous WMD satellite images serve as a primary case study of the analogue and performative antecedents of GenAI imagery and what this means for how we define “evidence.”
www.heliotropejournal.net/helio/bythem...
www.heliotropejournal.net/helio/bythem...
Reposted by Jennifer Rooke
'I still can't believe I'm alive': Sudanese civilians recount their flight from El Fasher – video
'I still can't believe I'm alive': Sudanese civilians recount their flight from El Fasher – video
Eyewitnesses describe the capture of El Fasher and ethnically targeted massacres in the immediate aftermath
www.theguardian.com
November 14, 2025 at 6:51 AM
'I still can't believe I'm alive': Sudanese civilians recount their flight from El Fasher – video
"I use haunting here as more than a convenient metaphor for race’s often underwritten presence within this technology. Race is an elusive, ghostly category, neither fact nor mere fiction, that nonetheless relentlessly haunts certain bodies and not others."
I have an image in the latest issue of Limn, a still from Human Movie, here illustrating an excellent article by Wendy Sung on "Digital misrecognition and the making of the 'Asian face.'" limn.press/article/iden...
Identification Error - Limn
Digital misrecognition and the making of the "Asian face"
limn.press
November 8, 2025 at 9:23 AM
"I use haunting here as more than a convenient metaphor for race’s often underwritten presence within this technology. Race is an elusive, ghostly category, neither fact nor mere fiction, that nonetheless relentlessly haunts certain bodies and not others."
Reposted by Jennifer Rooke
Further shocking but completely unsurprising revelations of how the Biden administration disregarded US law to continue virtually unconditional arms transfers to Israel for the slaughter in Gaza.
www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...
www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...
November 7, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Further shocking but completely unsurprising revelations of how the Biden administration disregarded US law to continue virtually unconditional arms transfers to Israel for the slaughter in Gaza.
www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...
www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...
Reposted by Jennifer Rooke
🧵NEW: Airwars has published an interactive tool tracking all publicly declared U.S. strikes targeting small boats in the Caribbean & Pacific.
This resource aims to aid public understanding & enhance transparency surrounding those killed in the campaign.
airwars.org/conflict/u-s...
This resource aims to aid public understanding & enhance transparency surrounding those killed in the campaign.
airwars.org/conflict/u-s...
November 4, 2025 at 1:29 PM
🧵NEW: Airwars has published an interactive tool tracking all publicly declared U.S. strikes targeting small boats in the Caribbean & Pacific.
This resource aims to aid public understanding & enhance transparency surrounding those killed in the campaign.
airwars.org/conflict/u-s...
This resource aims to aid public understanding & enhance transparency surrounding those killed in the campaign.
airwars.org/conflict/u-s...
Reposted by Jennifer Rooke
NEW: TRUMP’S YEMEN STRIKE KILLED 61 IMMIGRANTS AND NO COMBATANTS
The attack on Sa’ada detention center violated humanitarian law and should be investigated as a war crime, says Amnesty International.
theintercept.com/2025/10/28/t...
The attack on Sa’ada detention center violated humanitarian law and should be investigated as a war crime, says Amnesty International.
theintercept.com/2025/10/28/t...
Trump’s Yemen Strike Killed 61 Immigrants and No Combatants
The attack on Sa’ada detention center violated humanitarian law and should be investigated as a war crime, says Amnesty International.
theintercept.com
October 29, 2025 at 2:00 AM
NEW: TRUMP’S YEMEN STRIKE KILLED 61 IMMIGRANTS AND NO COMBATANTS
The attack on Sa’ada detention center violated humanitarian law and should be investigated as a war crime, says Amnesty International.
theintercept.com/2025/10/28/t...
The attack on Sa’ada detention center violated humanitarian law and should be investigated as a war crime, says Amnesty International.
theintercept.com/2025/10/28/t...
Reposted by Jennifer Rooke
"So to deal with the threat, officials created a secret warning system: the companies must send signals hidden in payments to the Israeli government, tipping it off when it has disclosed Israeli data to foreign courts or investigators."
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Revealed: Israel demanded Google and Amazon use secret ‘wink’ to sidestep legal orders
The tech giants agreed to extraordinary terms to clinch a lucrative contract with the Israeli government, documents show
www.theguardian.com
October 29, 2025 at 3:37 PM
"So to deal with the threat, officials created a secret warning system: the companies must send signals hidden in payments to the Israeli government, tipping it off when it has disclosed Israeli data to foreign courts or investigators."
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Reposted by Jennifer Rooke
“Narco-terrorist” isn’t a thing. This is just lawless killing.
October 28, 2025 at 2:19 PM
“Narco-terrorist” isn’t a thing. This is just lawless killing.
"The Trump admin is not the 1st to use an OLC opinion to clear away concerns that a controversial new form of warfare might violate the law. The Bush & Obama admins did likewise. Nonetheless, the OLC opinion on the boat strikes is—beyond its still-undisclosed substance—significant for 2 reasons..."
In case you missed it yesterday — Jack Goldsmith writes on the significance of the classified OLC opinion for the Trump administration's boat strikes in the Caribbean: execfunctions.org/p/the-venezu...
October 28, 2025 at 8:48 PM
"The Trump admin is not the 1st to use an OLC opinion to clear away concerns that a controversial new form of warfare might violate the law. The Bush & Obama admins did likewise. Nonetheless, the OLC opinion on the boat strikes is—beyond its still-undisclosed substance—significant for 2 reasons..."
Reposted by Jennifer Rooke
Travel data has historically been a correlative proxy. Early 2000s data mining used one way flights (*purchased third party) in terror algorithms. These apparent “errors” by HMRC illuminate machine learning logics: 1/ combine gov cloud data
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
HMRC cuts child benefit for 35,000 families based on incomplete travel data
UK tax agency apologises after flagging people as having emigrated, often when they return via different routes
www.theguardian.com
October 28, 2025 at 10:05 AM
Travel data has historically been a correlative proxy. Early 2000s data mining used one way flights (*purchased third party) in terror algorithms. These apparent “errors” by HMRC illuminate machine learning logics: 1/ combine gov cloud data
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Reposted by Jennifer Rooke
Fantastic article in which actual experts on AI and higher education cut through the nonsense surrounding the infinite garbage engines and expose a system captured by the techbro sales pitch. "A general ban is necessary, but nobody dares to say so."
Belgian AI scientists are advocating *against* the use of AI in academia. “If independent thinking is no longer encouraged at university, where would it?” apache.be/2025/10/24/b...
Belgian AI scientists resist the use of AI in academia
Several AI scientists have published an open letter calling for a ban on AI use by students.
apache.be
October 25, 2025 at 10:54 AM
Fantastic article in which actual experts on AI and higher education cut through the nonsense surrounding the infinite garbage engines and expose a system captured by the techbro sales pitch. "A general ban is necessary, but nobody dares to say so."
USAF soliciting private land lease proposals for AI data centers on 5 of its bases in Tennesse, Arizona, California, New Jersey, and Georgia. To be competetive, "a project must require more than 100 megawatts of new load and be worth at least $500 million ...".
US Air Force to lease base land for private AI data centers - https://www.defensenews.com/air/2025/10/23/us-air-force-to-lease-base-land-for-private-ai-data-centers/
US Air Force to lease base land for private AI data centers
Thousands of acres — mostly at Edwards Air Force Base in California — could be leased to private firms to build data centers for AI.
www.defensenews.com
October 25, 2025 at 4:51 PM
USAF soliciting private land lease proposals for AI data centers on 5 of its bases in Tennesse, Arizona, California, New Jersey, and Georgia. To be competetive, "a project must require more than 100 megawatts of new load and be worth at least $500 million ...".
Reposted by Jennifer Rooke
Trump: "I don't think we're necessarily going to ask for a declaration of war, I think we're just gonna kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. We're going to kill them. They're going to be, like dead."
October 23, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Trump: "I don't think we're necessarily going to ask for a declaration of war, I think we're just gonna kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. We're going to kill them. They're going to be, like dead."