OMNI
DRONE/ASSASSINATION NEWSLETTER # 17, MAY 3, 2016.
Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace and
Justice.
OMNI Drone Watch Newsletter #17
Drone Information
Global Drone Bases, More Under Construction, More Planned
Facts About the MQ-9 Reaper
Normalizing Drones, Capitalism Will Commodify Everything
Moyers & Co., Drone Wars Documents Leaked
Film, Eye In the Sky: Step by
Step with Helen Mirren
Pentagon’s War Planning:
Increasing the Drones
Obama’s War
Dick: News Reporting as Editorial Writing
Resistance
3 types
VFP Drone Quilts at OMNI
Appeals to Drone “Pilots” to Walk Away
Protesters at Battle Creek Drone Center.
Civil Disobedience
12 Arrested at Hancock AFB Drone Command
Code Pink Members Arrested at Creech AFB
2 Arrested at Volk Field Air National Guard Base
Dick,
War of Terror
Dick,
Wars and Warming
Contents
Drone Newsletter #15 and #16 at end
DRONE INFORMATION
www.MuckRock.com, a free, online
data-base.
And OMNI’s 17 newsletters.
US DRONE BASES, Google Search, May 3, 2016
https://batchgeo.com/map/edd545ae9b6397f6cedd4fedadcd14a9
This map reveals the site of 64 current US military drone bases, as well as 22 future
bases, according to the
Department of Defense. ... Service Branch: Army, Special Operations
Command. Types of UAS: Shadow, Wasp, Raven.
www.worldcantwait.net › Covert Drone War
World Can't Wait
And that leaves at least 56 more such facilities to mention in
an expanding Americanempire of unmanned drone bases being set up worldwide. Despite frequent ...
www.usnews.com/.../air-force-to-strengthen-...
U.S. News & World Report
Dec 10, 2015 - The Heavy Toll of
a Drone War. The Air
Force is working on plans to double the number of squadrons for drones, and to establish
headquarters for them in places other than the main hub at Creech Air
Force Base in Nevada, to
include potentially overseas drone bases.
https://theintercept.com/.../stealth-expansion-of-secret-us-drone-base-in-a...
Oct 21, 2015 - VIEWED FROM HIGH
ABOVE, Chabelley Airfield is little more than a gray smudge in a tan wasteland.
Drop lower and its incongruous features ...
https://www.wired.com/2012/06/64-drone-bases-on-us-soil/
Wired
Jun 13, 2012 - We like to think of
the drone war as something
far away, fought in the deserts of Yemen or the mountains of Afghanistan. But
we now know it's ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creech_Air_Force_Base
Wikipedia
Creech Air Force Base ("Creech" colloq.) is a United States Air Force (USAF)
command and ... In addition to the airfield, the base includes the
"UAV-Logistic and Training
Facility", the Joint Unmanned Aerial Systems Center of Excellence,
Silver ...
https://www.google.com/mymaps/viewer?mid=zKgN_IU8...
Google
Bases where US conducts drone related activities. ... Drone
Bases. US Drone Bases in Middle. Drones. Bases drones. Drones. ZDFwebstory
Drohnen.
www.globalresearch.ca/americas-secret-drone-bases-in...the.../5456771
Jun 20, 2015 - New Satellite Images
Reveal A Secret US Drone Base In Nevada ... identified over 60 bases integral to U.S.
military and CIA drone operations.
ipsnorthamerica.net/news.php?idnews=3834
US Expanding
Network of Drone Bases To Hit Somalia, Yemen Jim Lobe* WASHINGTON, 21 Sep (IPS) -
As Somalia undergoes its worst famine in six decades ...
Searches related to US Drone bases
FACTS ABOUT THE “REAPER”
MQ-9
Reaper
Published August 18, 2010
1 of 5
MQ-9
Reaper
Published August 18, 2010
The Reaper is larger and more
heavily-armed than the MQ-1 Predator and attacks time-sensitive targets with
persistence and precision, to destroy or disable those targets. (Courtesy photo)
1 of 5DOWNLOAD HI-RES / PHOTO DETAILS
An MQ-9
Reaper sits on a ramp in Afghanistan Oct. 1. The Reaper is
launched, recovered and maintained at deployed locations, while being remotely
operated by pilots and sensor operators at Creech Air Force Base, Nev. (Courtesy photo)
A maintenance Airman inspects an MQ-9 Reaper in Afghanistan Oct. 1. Capable of
striking enemy targets with on-board weapons, the Reaper has conducted close
air support and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
(Courtesy photo) http://www.af.mil/AboutUs/FactSheets/Display/tabid/224/Article/104470/mq-9-reaper.aspx
4 of 5DOWNLOAD HI-RES / PHOTO DETAILS
An MQ-9 Reaper, armed with GBU-12
Paveway II laser guided munitions and AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, piloted by
Col. Lex Turner flies a combat mission over southern Afghanistan. (U.S. Air
Force Photo / Lt. Col. Leslie Pratt)
5 of 5DOWNLOAD HI-RES / PHOTO DETAILS
Mission
The MQ-9
Reaper is an armed, multi-mission, medium-altitude,
long-endurance remotely piloted aircraft that is employed primarily as an
intelligence-collection asset and secondarily against dynamic execution
targets. Given its significant loiter time, wide-range sensors, multi-mode
communications suite, and precision weapons -- it provides a unique capability
to perform strike, coordination, and reconnaissance against high-value,
fleeting, and time-sensitive targets.
Reapers can also perform the following
missions and tasks: intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, close air
support, combat search and rescue, precision strike, buddy-laser, convoy/raid
overwatch, route clearance, target development, and terminal air guidance. The
MQ-9's capabilities make it uniquely qualified to conduct irregular warfare
operations in support of combatant commander objectives.
Features
The Reaper is part of a remotely
piloted aircraft system. A fully operational system consists of several
sensor/weapon-equipped aircraft, ground control station, Predator Primary
Satellite Link, and spare equipment along with operations and maintenance crews
for deployed 24-hour missions.
The basic crew consists of a rated
pilot to control the aircraft and command the mission, and enlisted aircrew
member to operate sensors and weapons as well as a mission coordinator, when
required. To meet combatant commanders' requirements, the Reaper delivers
tailored capabilities using mission kits containing various weapons and sensor
payload combinations.
The MQ-9 baseline system carries the
Multi-Spectral Targeting System, which has a robust suite of visual sensors for
targeting. The MTS-B integrates an infrared sensor, color/monochrome daylight
TV camera, image-intensified TV camera, laser designator, and laser
illuminator. The full-motion video from each of the imaging sensors can be
viewed as separate video streams or fused.
The unit also incorporates a laser
range finder/designator, which precisely designates targets for employment of
laser-guided munitions, such as the Guided Bomb Unit-12 Paveway II. The Reaper
is also equipped with a synthetic aperture radar to enable future GBU-38 Joint
Direct Attack Munitions targeting. The MQ-9 can also employ four
laser-guided missiles, Air-to-Ground Missile-114 Hellfire, which possess highly
accurate, low-collateral damage, anti-armor and anti-personnel engagement
capabilities.
The remotely piloted aircraft can be
disassembled and loaded into a single container for deployment worldwide. The
entire system can be transported in the C-130
Hercules, or larger aircraft. The MQ-9 aircraft operates
from standard U.S. airfields with clear line-of-sight to the ground data
terminal antenna, which provides line-of-sight communications for takeoff and
landing. The PPSL provides over-the-horizon communications for the aircraft and
sensors.
The primary concept of operations, remote
split operations, employs a launch-and-recovery ground control station for
take-off and landing operations at the forward operating location, while the
crew based in continental United States executes command and control of the
remainder of the mission via beyond-line-of-sight links. Remote split
operations result in a smaller number of personnel deployed to a forward
location, consolidate control of the different flights in one location, and as
such, simplify command and control functions as well as the logistical supply
challenges for the weapons system.
Background
The U.S. Air Force proposed the MQ-9
Reaper system in response to the Department of Defense
directive to support initiatives of overseas contingency operations. It is
larger and more powerful than the MQ-1 Predator,
and is designed to execute time-sensitive targets with persistence and
precision, and destroy or disable those targets. The "M" is the
DOD designation for multi-role, and "Q" means remotely piloted
aircraft system. The "9" indicates it is the ninth in the series of
remotely piloted aircraft systems.
General Characteristics
Primary Function: Intelligence
collection in support of strike, coordination, and reconnaissance missions
Contractor: General Atomics Aeronautical
Systems, Inc.
Power Plant: Honeywell TPE331-10GD turboprop
engine
Thrust: 900 shaft horsepower maximum
Wingspan: 66 feet (20.1 meters)
Length: 36 feet (11 meters)
Height: 12.5 feet (3.8 meters)
Weight: 4,900 pounds (2,223 kilograms)
empty
Maximum takeoff weight: 10,500 pounds
(4,760 kilograms)
Fuel Capacity: 4,000 pounds (602
gallons)
Payload: 3,750 pounds (1,701
kilograms)
Speed: Cruise speed around 230 miles
per hour (200 knots)
Range: 1,150 miles (1,000 nautical
miles)
Ceiling: Up to 50,000 feet (15,240
meters)
Armament: Combination of AGM-114 Hellfire
missiles, GBU-12 Paveway II and GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munitions
Crew (remote): Two (pilot and sensor
operator)
Unit Cost: $56.5 million (includes four
aircraft with sensors, ground control station and Predator Primary satellite
link) (fiscal 2011 dollars)
Initial operating capability: October
2007
Inventory: Total force, 104
NORMALIZING DRONES
“America’s targeted killing program is illegal, immoral, and
unwise,” said Archbishop Desmond
Tutu. But the advertising arm of US
capitalism turns everything into a commodity for profit, including drones. Recently in Arkansas the First National Bank
saturated the state with the ad campaign “Awesome New Account Free Gifts” offering
a free drone with every new checking or savings account. Accompanying the text is a photo of a sleek,
spider-looking, white drone constructed with four-rotors attached to a body
with three red “eyes.” --Dick
DRONE DOCUMENTS LEAKED
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||||
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Fiction Film depicts the step-by-step process of drone strikes.
Gavin Hood's "Eye in the Sky" is a thrilling document
of modern warfare, an uneasy slice of life about a drone strike involving
various people across the globe who never see each other. Helen Mirren plays Colonel Katherine Powell, a UK
military official who wants to strike on a house in Kenya inhabited by
terrorists on her Most Wanted list; an immediate action that faces an endless
amount of complications. She has a POV inside the house, thanks to local spy
Jama Farah (Barkhad Abdi) and the cameras he has managed to get
inside. But along with needing clearance from various politicians in the
"kill chain" of command (as organized by Alan Rickman's Lt. General Frank Benson), the drone
strike (to be carried out by a Las Vegas-based pilot played by Aaron Paul) raises questions of acceptable collateral
damage, legal cause and propaganda, especially when a little girl sets up a
bread stand within explosion range. With many shifting pieces, "Eye in the
Sky" explores the step-by-step process of drone strikes, along with the
horror of deciding on life and death from only a satellite feed.
www.rogerebert.com/.../ethical-dilemma-from-above-gavin-...
Roger Ebert
Ethical Dilemma From Above:
Gavin Hood on "Eye in the Sky". by Nick Allen. March 9, 2016 |
Print Page. Gavin Hood's "Eye in the Sky" is a thrilling document
of ...
US Military Prepares Drastic Escalation
of Global Drone Program
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/08/17/us-military-prepares-drastic-escalation-global-drone-program New reporting reveals plans to expand drone
program by 50 percent, including broader use of mercenaries by
According to officials, the
Pentagon hopes to expand the use of lethal drone strikes in the years ahead.
(Photo: US Air Force)
The U.S.
Pentagon is poised to dramatically increase the deployment of surveillance
drones over "global hot spots" such as Ukraine, Iraq, Syria, the
South China Sea, and North Africa, as well as expand its capacity for lethal
drone strikes, the Wall Street Journal revealed on Monday.
Citing
exclusive interviews with senior U.S. officials, the WSJ's Gordon
Lubold reports that the number of daily flights by aircraft such as MQ-1
Predator and MQ-9 Reaper drones will surge an estimated 50 percent. Further,
the expanded drone program will "draw on the Army, as well as Special
Operations Command and government contractors," in addition to the U.S.
Air Force, which currently carries out most of the operations for the Pentagon
and Central Intelligence Agency.
Lobuld
reports: "The Pentagon envisions a combined effort that by 2019 would have
the Air Force continue flying 60 drone flights a day, the Army contributing as
many as 16 and the military’s Special Forces Command pitching in with as many
as four. Government contractors would be hired to fly older Predator drones on
as many as 10 flights a day, none of them strike missions."
A
detailed investigation published late July by the Bureau of
Investigative Journalism revealed the great extent to which the U.S. military has
already relied on corporate entities for much of its surveillance and analysis.
The probe raised the question as to whether a private contractor's "risk
assessment"—i.e. the determination whether an individual should become a
target— obeys an already "mushy" legal framework.
Monday's WSJ piece
notes that other officials are reportedly pushing for even-broader surveillance
capabilities, employing technologies known as "wide-area airborne
surveillance pods," which increases "by as much as tenfold the
quantity of surveillance feeds."
The news
follows reporting also by Lobuld, as well as
colleague Adam Entous, last week which revealed that the U.S. is currently
holding talks with a number of North African countries over the possibility of
erecting drone bases within their borders, expanding the military footprint in
order allegedly unmask so-called "blind spots" in Islamic State
strongholds such as Libya and Tunisia.
According
to the latest tally from the Bureau of
Investigative Journalism, since 2002 there have been as many as 620 total U.S.
drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Afghanistan, killing up to 5,460
people including as many as 1,106 civilians.
[All of these attacks against foreign territories violate the UN Charter
and are war crimes. Become aware,
sensitize yourself, of US international crimes and their perpetrators, and
speak up. –Dick]
IN THESE TIMES, WEB ONLY / FEATURES » JULY 9, 2015
Death from Above, Remotely Controlled:
Obama’s Drone Wars http://inthesetimes.com/article/18163/drones-andrew-cockburn-kill-chain-chris-woods-sudden-justice
History will view drone warfare as the Obama administration’s
signature approach to military engagement.
Why has
the Obama administration embraced a military strategy that has yielded so
little at such a high cost in prestige?
MORE http://inthesetimes.com/article/18163/drones-andrew-cockburn-kill-chain-chris-woods-sudden-justice
Just Give the Facts to Know the Truth
Staff. “U.S. Jets Pound
Somalia Militants.” AD-G (March 8, 2016), from TNYT,
AP, TNS, TWP. Rev. by Dick
The line between simple description and
criticism is sometimes difficult to define.
The final section of this article is a “Report on Drone Killings.” If the article had one named author (this one
cites four sources), I would be tempted to say he or she enjoyed revealing,
merely by giving the facts, how insincere the Obama “White House” can be.
It opens with
this claim: “…the White House announced
Monday that it will disclose how many people have been killed by American
drones and other counterterrorism strikes since 2009, when President Barack
Obama took office.” Then his spokesperson Lisa Monaco, Obama’s counterterrorism
and homeland security adviser, makes related claims throughout. She casts the
report as “part of a commitment to transparency for U.S. actions
overseas.” “’We know that not only is
greater transparency the right thing to do, it is the best way to maintain the
legitimacy of our counterterrorism actions and the broad support of our allies” And “the report will include both combatants
and civilians the U.S. believes have died in strikes.” But the report astonishingly shows the statements
to be false and the speakers liars. Let
me count the ways.
1. The report “won’t cover major warzones like
Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.”
2. It will focus only “on strikes against
extremist targets in other regions such as Pakistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and
other locations in North Africa.”
3. “The U.S. doesn’t publicly disclose all the
places its drones operate, so the report isn’t expected to detail specific
countries where people died.”
4. “Instead, it will offer an aggregate
assessment of casualties outside of areas of ‘active hostilities.’”
5. Where “Obama’s specific counterterrorism
policies apply, Iraq and Syria, where U.S. airstrikes are pummeling the Islamic
State group. . .won’t be in the report.”
6. White House spokesman Josh Earnest tries to
clarify: “There will obviously some
limitations on where we can be transparent, given a variety of
sensitivities—including diplomatic.’”
7. You would think readers were so deep in cant
by this point that the White House spokespersons would say “never mind” and go
home for the day. But there’s more to
the article as reported by the Staff of the AD-G. “Obama’s move to shed more light on the drone
wars comes as the U.S. struggles to contain extremist groups and violent
ideologies that are growing and spreading... and is spawning affiliates and
recruits around the world.”
Far more
than half of the report refutes the claims of transparency! Lisa Monaco, Josh Earnest, and the Staff of
the AD-G are secret agents of the
Islamic State seeking to make our White House look like world class
hypocrites?!
RESISTANCE TO DRONES
Drone
Quilts at OMNI
The
two quilts, each composed of 2 dozen individually made squares containing the
name of an innocent victim, hang in OMNI’s main room, accompanied by 3 large
explanatory posters. We have had them
two weeks. From here they will be
mailed to the next VFP chapter or peace center that requests. --Dick
Background
from Leah Bolger, VFP, 2016:
The Drones Quilt Project Needs Your Support 2016
The Drones Quilt Project (DQP) is looking for
VFP chapters to host the DQP exhibit in their towns. Several VFP chapters
have already done this, and they have been very worthwhile events. The DQP exhibit consists of
1-10 quilts which memorialize the victims of combat drones, and 4 posters which
explain the immorality and illegality of the weaponized drones program.
Please consider bringing the DQP exhibit to your town! Contact Leah
Bolger,leahbolger@comcast.net,
or 541-207-7761, to schedule the exhibit.
|
Hi Dick,
The quilts are 66" square
and weigh 2.5 lbs each (very light). There are four posters and they are
either 20" x 30" or 24" x 36". How many quilts do you
think you want to display? I will have 3 available starting 1
April.
Leah
Reminder: Marjorie, Cohn, Drones and Targeted Killing:
Legal, Moral and Geopolitical Issues. 2015. See
Newsletter #16.
The following are in
chronological order.
Former US military
personnel urge drone pilots to walk away from controls. 2015.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/17/former-us-military-personnel-letter-us-drone-pilots
Letter from 45 retired and former military members call on
pilots at Creech and Beale air force bases to refuse to carry out duties as
they ‘profoundly violate’ law.
A US-made Reaper drone. The effects of drone strikes on the
pilots at the remote controls are little understood. Photograph: Philippe
Desmazes/AFP/Getty Images
Forty-five former US
military personnel,
including a retired army colonel, have issued a joint appeal to the pilots of
aerial drones operating in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria and elsewhere, calling on them to refuse to carry out the
deadly missions.
In a joint letter, the retired and former military members call
on air force pilots based at Creech air force base in Nevada and Beale air
force base in California to refuse to carry out their duties.
They say the missions, which have become an increasingly dominant feature of US
military strategy in recent years, “profoundly violate domestic and
international laws”.
“At least 6,000 lives have been unjustly taken by US drone
attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, the Philippines, Libya
and Syria. These attacks are also undermining principles of international law
and human rights,” the authors write.
Among those who signed the letter are retired US army colonel Ann Wright [who has visited
Fayetteville 3 times at OMNI’s invitation], who resigned in 2003 over the
invasion of Iraq. She is joined by several anti-war veterans and former members
of diverse ranks from the air force, army, navy and marines.
The new protest comes as the US military is facing a crisis in
its armed drone program as a result of a steady decline in the numbers of
trained pilots available to fly the missions. The New York Times reported on Wednesday that the air force was planning to cut
the number of its daily drone flights from 65 to 60 as a result of the drain of
pilots.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) first sounded
the alarm in April
2014 when it said that more drone pilots were quitting the armed forces than
were being recruited and trained. Though the air force has set a target of 1,700 drone pilots to fly the desired 65 missions a day, overall numbers are now down to 1,200.
The pressures being faced by drone pilots are a
little-understood facet of modern remote-control warfare. Though they
experience none of the personal danger that is routine for pilots in the
cockpits of manned fighter jets, they nonetheless appear to suffer high levels
of stress.
As the GAO report noted, drone pilots spend hours in the day or
at night sitting in front of banks of computers controlling Predator and Reaper
drones. Though they are thousands of miles away from the war zone, they do have
to press the trigger that launches devastating and deadly bombing strikes.
At the end of their shifts they leave the secure mission control
centers and minutes later find themselves a short drive across base back in
their homes and with their families.
“The Air Force has not fully analyzed the effects on morale
related to being deployed-on-station, and thus it does not know whether it
needs to take actions in response,” the GAO said.
The letter of the 45 former military members is part of a
campaign dubbed “refuse to fly” coordinated by the website KnowDrones.com. The
campaign has also aired 15-second
TV commercials urging air force pilots to quit their desks at drone mission
control, which have been shown in the regions of Beale and Creech air force
bases and are currently airing near Hancock air national guard base and the air
guard base near Niagara Falls in upstate New York.
The graphic ads show
footage of the aftermath of drone attacks and say “no one has to obey an
immoral law”.
Experience
of Local Protesters at Battle Creek Drone Base
Drone
Warfare: Death Delivered From a Location Near You
Posted By Brandon Toy On March 29, 2015
On March 7th, my Family and 20
or so other people protested drone warfare in front of the main gate of the
Battle Creek Air National Guard base in Michigan. In 2013, the base was named
a Reaper Drone Operating Station and should be operational any day, if not
already. Weaponized drone operators are dropping bombs from my backyard.We stood in the mud on the side of the four-lane highway from Noon to 1pm. A few of us held signs with slogans like "Stop Drone Warfare" while others offered conversation to each other or waved at honking cars. One father and fellow protester brought fresh-popped popcorn, which he passed out in little blue bowls to the few children that were present. In between piling kernels in their mouths, the kids stomped in the water and slid on the ice behind us that had accumulated at the base of a mountain of plowed snow.
This wasn’t the type of protest that drew the media or police in riot gear. The only law enforcement present was a lone Sheriff’s deputy who was on hand to escort us across the highway from the muddy field we parked in to our assigned area. He stayed just long enough to see the bulk of us across and then drove off with a nod and a wave. The only pictures taken – outside of the ones the group took themselves – were by a pink haired woman who slowed down in the median to snap a few pictures with her camera phone.
"Who said we weren’t going to get any press," I said as she drove away.
I couldn’t help wondering what point or purpose our protest had. Obviously, we weren’t going to shut the drone program down or change the USG’s policies on drone warfare. It wasn’t immediately clear how the small group would make much of a difference at all. I could see how an outsider might consider the showing pathetic. I imagined soldiers and airmen trading snide comments at our expense, and commanders deriding us to their troops in formation. It all seemed a little futile and inconsequential. I’m sure there are a few people reading this that know that feeling.
Half way through the hour, soldiers and airmen started driving onto the base, probably returning from getting lunch in town. Each drive-by was exactly the same. The soldier(s) would approach and slow down to turn onto the base, avoid eye contact with us and then disappear through the gate. Each encounter lasted no more than 5 seconds and never was there any kind of interaction between us.
I wondered what they thought as they drove by. I thought back to my time in the service and remembered the early days of the Iraq war when I used to watch Fox News and listen to right wing talk radio. I had consumed media that had saturated me with the belief that the USA was the greatest country in the world and that it was our job to teach the people of the lost and misguided nations how to live. What would I have thought if I had seen an antiwar protest at the entrance to the base?
I didn’t know. I never had to pretend to ignore protesters, because the street sides were always bare when I drove to base. All I ever encountered were waving flags, yellow ribbons and well-wishers who thanked me for my service. It dawned on me that if we weren’t on this corner right now maybe these soldiers and airmen would have the same experience. Instead of smiling protesters and children playing, they would see only a dirty snow bank.
Perhaps,
this was the purpose. We were asserting an idea into their world counter to
those put forth by their bosses, colleagues and government. Perhaps some of
them had thought that there was a consensus around the righteousness of their
mission, and our presence had tainted that unbalanced picture. Perhaps we were
planting a seed of doubt that would one day blossom into curiosity and
eventually lead them to reject the precepts of war and embrace peace. Perhaps. MORE http://antiwar.com/blog/2015/03/29/drone-warfare-death-delivered-from-a-location-near-you-2/print/
CIVIL
DISOBEDIENCE
Disgusted
and exasperated with US military and civilian leaders spending our money on
militarism, imperialism, killing innocents, and refusing to listen to citizen reasons
for peace, good citizens put their bodies in the way of the war machine.
Twelve Drone Protestors Arrested at Hancock Air Force Base
On Thursday morning,
January 28, 2016, thirty life sized cutouts of Syracuse peacemaker Jerry
Berrigan blockaded the main entrance of Hancock Air National Guard Base outside
Syracuse, NY. The cutouts were accompanied by twelve nonviolent drone resisters,
who were arrested after blockading for an hour and a half. Former CIA
analyst Ray McGovern [who has visited Fayetteville twice as
guest of OMNI] was among those standing with the Memorial in the roadway.
Others were Beth Adams, Bev Rice,
Bill Ofenloch, Brian Hynes, Charley Bowman, Ed Kinane, James Ricks, Joan Pleune,
Joan Wages, Pete Perry and Steve Baggarly.
From VFP.
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CODEPINKers at the
Shut Down Creech mobilization in Nevada 2015-16
Dick -
Last
year nearly 150 activists from 20 states, including over 50 veterans, joined
CODEPINK for a week of resistance against drone killings at Creech Air Force Base. Creech, where the
killer drone program started, remains the primary air base in U.S. state-sponsored global terrorism. In a
very successful civil disobedience action last year, we were able to
interrupt “business as usual” for nearly an hour, with 34 activists
ultimately arrested. Join us to make SHUT DOWN
CREECH 2016 an even more powerful stance against illegal drone killing!
When: March 27- April 2, 2016
Where: Creech Air Force Base, Indian Springs, Nevada 89018
We
hope you can join us, and help spread the word! For more information visit our website and
be sure to register using this form. Join
our Facebook page for
updates and more info! Housing, transportation and other details are being
organized. Together we are PEACE!
“We came to the realization that the innocent civilians we
were killing only fueled the feelings of hatred that ignited terrorism and
groups like ISIS, while also serving as a fundamental recruitment tool
similar to Guantanamo Bay. This administration and its predecessors have
built a drone program that is one of the most devastating driving forces for
terrorism and destabilization around the world.”
-- Creech Air Force drone veterans/whistleblowers, November 2015, Democracy Now
For a more peaceful future, Toby, Martha, Eleanor
and the CODEPINK Team
|
Two Drone Protesters Arrested at Volk Field Air National Guard
Base This Week. Veterans
for Peace Weekly E-News, Feb. 26, 2016
Brian
Terrell and Kathy Kelly, appeared before Judge Curran from the Juneau County jail via
the jail’s video link. The two had been held overnight. They were
served documents charging them with trespassing at the “dwelling” of Volk
Field.
Pilots train at Volk Field
to operate Shadow Drones over other countries. <More>
DRONES OR SPECIAL OPS OR BOTH AND?
The Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette (May 4, 2015, 9B) published 1) an editorial cartoon of an
armed drone in flight followed by the word “or?” and 2) a drawing apparently of
three armed special operations soldiers (by Plante, Tulsa World, 4-24-15). The so-called war on terror (more accurately
a war of terror) is inflicted upon the world by both drones and special
ops (most famously the murder by Seals of unarmed Osama bin Laden). But they are merely the most dramatic violent
teeth of the global, permanent war. The
US National Security State (Ike called it the military-industrial complex—the
corporate, military, congressional, executive, corporate media, surveillance
complex—is the living Dragon. The urgent
question, if we are to return to our republican government, is: Who will slay this Dragon? We have no Saint George (as thrillingly
depicted by Carpaccio) able to defeat this power. Our two Parties are the one War Party. Even Ike would be defeated today. –Dick
THE CONTEXTS: WARS AND WARMING
Because our country continues to face
ever-widening economic disparity, color discrimination and violence, the
militarization of police, more CIA torture revelations, combat employment of
the huge B-52, and worse than all of them together—climate change--, US drone
war may seem insignificant. But drone warplanes cause major harm both to the US
and to the world, because they incite
global hatred against our country by the lawlessness of killing innocent people
by the president’s signature to extrajudicial executions.
Why do these drone attacks continue; why are they being prepared in
Arkansas? And why is our Guard, admired for its help during
floods and tornadoes, being tainted by operation of such lethal weapons for
such illegal purposes? Why would our
Guard want to continue bombing the children and families in Afghanistan,
Pakistan, Yemen, Niger, and other nations?
Does our Guard not know about the killings? Do the men and women of the Arkansas Guard
not understand the perpetual trauma of drone weapons and surveillance hovering
over communities and striking without warning?
And if our Guard men and women do know, have they no empathy for that
immense suffering?
How are we to raise these questions?
How discuss them?
Well, as the preceding Reaper public relations report reveals, to the
men and women of the 188th Arkansas Air Guard these questions are
not relevant. The Reapers are part of
the US empire of some eight-hundred to a thousand military bases around the
world, ten carrier attack groups controlling the sea lanes, the multiple-boxcar
C-130s (also in Arkansas at the Little Rock Air Force Base) heavy hauling
imperial weapons including the drone Reapers, the military Commands for every
part of the planet, and a military budget equal to all the other major
countries combined. Permanent world
control and wars perceived as “world order and stability” are their patriotic
world view. We must not only speak to
the people and to our representatives, which so far has failed to stop the
growth of militarism and empire, but we must employ direct action.
What might you and I do to actively oppose this militarism and
empire? Join the Conversion Campaign to
redirect the military budget to civilian needs.
Push our Guard to return to its true service for human beings, caring
and nurturing life, instead of frightening and destroying it.
We can learn how to advocate and produce these familiar peaceful goals
effectively. See OMNI’s many newsletters
on drones, anti-war, individual US wars, the military-industrial complex,
imperialism, the US security state (http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/
).
Join OMNI or one or more of the
anti-war, anti-empire organizations of your choice. Identify men and women in Congress who are
trying to contain and reverse the waste of our money and natural resources and
immeasurably increasing global violence by endless war (Council for a Livable
World, for example).
Our slogan should be: Resist Wars
and Warming. The growing militarism and
imperialism of this country since the beginning of WWII will only be increased
by the dire consequences of climate change, unless we stop their growth
now. Our adaptation to climate change
should be the conversion from causing more victims to caring for the victims.
DRONE Newsletters: #1, Dec. 29, 2010; #2 July 20,
2011; #3 Feb. 16, 2012; #4 May 3, 2012; #5 June 9, 2012; #6 Oct. 12, 2012; #7
Dec. 20, 2012; #8 Jan. 22, 2013; #9, Feb. 16, 2013; #10 May 11, 2013; #11 May
29, 2013; #12 Nov. 1, 2013; #13 Dec. 28, 2013; #14, June 3, 2014; #15, Feb. 20,
2015; #16 March 29, 2015.
See Newsletters on ACLU,
Afghanistan War, Air War, Assassinations, Bill of Rights, Children, CIA,
Civilians, Civil Liberties, Marjorie Cohn, Constitution and Drones, Criminal
Justice, Democracy and Drones, Extra-Judicial Killing, Geneva Conventions,
Human Rights, International Law, Iraq, Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, Islamic
Caliphate), Judicial System, Killing Civilians, Media and Drones, Murder and
Drones, Obama, Pakistan War, Pentagon, Privacy, Public Apathy, State Murder,
Surveillance, Terror, War Crimes, Yemen, and more.
For research purposes, specific subjects can be
located in the following alphabetized index, and searched on the blog using the
search box. The search box is located in the upper left corner of the
webpage.
Newsletter Index: http://omnicenter.org/dick-bennetts-peace-justice-and-ecology-newsletters/dicks-newsletter-index/
Newsletter Index: http://omnicenter.org/dick-bennetts-peace-justice-and-ecology-newsletters/dicks-newsletter-index/
Contents
Drone/Assassination/Extra-Judicial Murder Newsletter #15
US Drone Warfare http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2015/02/droneassassinationair-war-newsletter-15.html
PBS NOVA, “Rise of the Drones” a Pro-Drones History
Bureau of Investigative Journalism (UK), Tracking the Covert Drone War
Democracy Now!, US Drone Warfare Expanding to Niger
Can’t Find Enough “Pilots”
Campaign to End Drone Warfare
Kathy Kelly,
Arrested and Sentenced for Opposition
Google Search: Only a Part of Kelly’s International Presence for Mercy
and
Peace
Peace
Erica Brock, “An Opportunity to Rejoice,”
Story of Mark Colville’s Protests and
Arrest at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base
Arrest at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base
VFP Protest at Creech AFB
Compassion for Child Drone Victim in
Yemen
Jenna Krajeski’s Review of 5 Books
PBS NOVA, “Rise of the Drones” a Pro-Drones History
Bureau of Investigative Journalism (UK), Tracking the Covert Drone War
Democracy Now! US Drone Warfare Expanding to Niger
Can’t Find Enough “Pilots”
Contents
Drone Newsletter #16
The MQ-9 Reaper at Fort Smith, AR, Arkansas National Guard 188th
Wing, the
Flying Razorbacks
Flying Razorbacks
Dick, Fort Smith, AR, AFB Drones
Obama, Drone Warfare,
Extrajudicial Killing, Google Search
Common Dreams, Obama
Still Not Transparent
Dick, Review: Whittle, Predator
Marjorie Cohn, Drones and Targeted Killing
Chatterjee, Drone
Pilots are Quitting
Veterans for Peace
Protesting Drones at Creech AFB
END DRONE NEWSLETTER #17, May 3, 2016
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