April Days of Action Against Drones: Protests at the CIA headquarters and the White House

The April Days of Action Against Drones continued this weekend with demonstrations targeting the agencies and policy-makers most directly responsible for drone assassinations: the CIA and the executive branch. 

  Pax Christi, a religious group devoted to peace, turned out to swell the ranks of those demonstrating in front of the CIA headquarters Saturday morning.

An image of a foreign victim of drone warfare stood as a stern
rebuke to those entering the headquarters on Saturday.

More photos from the CIA headquarters here. Join the demonstrators when they return Saturday, May 11th from 10 to 11:30 A.M.

The centerpiece of the day was a demonstration at the white house that began at noon, drawing massive crowds (see coverage on RT and PressTV plus more photos):

a simple equation: "DRONE STRIKES=WAR CRIMES"

A realistic Predator Drone model hovers ominously
over the seat of executive power.

"STOP KILLER DRONES"

A sea of yellow signs carrying
stark messages for President Obama.

"U.S. Drones Out of Africa, the Middle East, Asia & Everywhere."
An oft-repeated theme of the day emphasized the imperialistic
 overreach facilitated by drone warfare. 

"ISRAELI DRONES OUT OF PALESTINE (AND Everywhere)"

Police attempted to prevent demonstrators from exercising
 their constitutional rights. A heated exchange ensued.

Authorities were powerless to stop demonstrators from
breaching the barricade of yellow "caution" tape.

Veterans for Peace

"DRONES KILL KIDS" 

Rev. Graylan Hager of
Plymouth United Congregational Church of Christ

The march ended with a die-in, in which bloody-shrouded people
 lay in white masks to bring home the impact of civilian casualties
 from drone warfare.

The Saturday demonstration was covered on PressTV, RT, and Liveleak.com. Simultaneously, demonstrators were making the anti-drone message heard in Boston.

Click here to receive e-mails about future anti-drone actions all around the country, and here to see the schedule of April Anti-Drone events around the country.

Call for "No Drones" in Virginia Colleges, Universities, and Research Institutions

Friends,

A national call has been made for “April Days of Action” to focus on three key components of U.S. drone work: Drone Manufacturers, Drone Bases in the U.S., and Drone Research. (See the list about nationwide actions and post your own planned actions for April.)

Given the fact that drones are now the primary weapons of warfare used by the US, and for surveillance both domestic and abroad, the research and development of this warfare is growing rapidly at academic institutions, in our towns and neighborhoods. Drones are the perfect instrument for endless war that kills civilians, even as they target “militants” in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Afghanistan.

Academic institutions often receive large grants from the U.S. Department of Defense, enabling them to build labs within schools of engineering, for instance. We are well aware that without this research in robotics, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), and the accompanying accessories, these drone warfare projects would probably not take place. So there is an interdependent relationship between the universities and the U.S. government and or its Department of Defense and CIA. (CIA drones are used in countries with which the U.S. is not “at war”, ie Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, Mali, and others.)

While universities tend to publicize some information on their respective websites regarding the drone work, it is most often said to be for non-military purposes. And there are students working in the labs who are convinced that all the research is for humanitarian purposes. However, history has told us that non-military can quickly and easily become military. Moreover research has shown drones make mistakes on recognizing their targets.

We are therefore asking organizations and individuals, nationwide, to explore any drone research that might be going on at their local university. We are calling for local actions between April 16 and 18, 2013 (Suggested actions are listed below) Our limited research into University and Academic UAV programs indicates that at research centers are operating in Virginia:

Virginia Commonwealth University - Richmond
Virginia Tech - Blacksburg

Before those dates in April we will need to know what information you have acquired about the research and what actions and events your group is planning.This will be shared among groups in the Network. You can send this information to us at notodrone@gmail.com.

We will have a press committee that will receive your press release and any articles you are able to publish before or after the event.

This project will complement other outreach, education and action projects that will be launched in April, focusing on drone bases, April 27-28 and drone manufacturers , April 4-6.

Suggested actions:

1. Learn what research is being done by searching on a university website. Look especially at the Engineering Dept. 
2. Organize a forum, preferably on campus, with speakers and discussion. Be sure to publicize in campus newspapers, and possibly include a professor as one of the speakers. Also include local activists.
3. Plan a small meeting with the appropriate persons in the department working on drone research, both professors and students.
4. Hold vigils and leaflet on or close to the campus, as well as in town.
5. Let us know if you need further tools for your research.

Thanks in advance for your reply to notodrone@gmail.com.

With all good wishes,

Marge Van Cleef, WILPF, Philadelphia
Leila Zand, For USA
Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator, Voices for Creative Nonviolence

January 21: Protest Drones in DC on Inauguration Day

Spread the word and join us in the planning and participating!

“Let us realize the arc
of the moral universe is long,
but it bends toward justice”

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Friends,

We invite your organization to participate in the Arc of Justice Parade in Washington, DC, on Monday, January 21st, 2013.

Set to coincide with the Presidential Inauguration Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and the third anniversary of the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling, the Arc of Justice rally and parade will be a determined but hopeful expression of our concern and dissent against the wars, occupations, loss of civil liberties, overwhelming corporate and big money power over our lives, environmental degradation, and many other important issues mostly abused, ignored, or minimized by recent administrations and Congress.

It is a call to action to those in power and to those who would join us to create real change and to renew our drive to build a strong, cohesive peace and to build lasting justice and civil rights movements.

The parade route will begin at Meridian Hill Park (Malcolm X Park) with a rally from 9:00 to 10:00 AM. At 10:00 AM we will begin to proceed down 16th Street NW to K Street NW where we will disband, some to continue to the Inauguration area, the parade route, or back to the rally site.

We are inviting people and organizations working on issues around: 1. Human rights (here and abroad); 2. Truth justice, and accountability; 3. Military might, preemptive wars, and empire building; 4. The power of the corporations and the super wealthy; and 5.The degradation of our environment. If you are not already in a coalition with other people and organizations working in your general area, we see the weekend before Inauguration Day as an important time to meet and plan for the future. Please confer with your associates and let us know how we can help make your participation work.

Imagine if January 21st were a day where only the wealthy and elite, the bankers, the corporate profiteers, the war hawks, and the unquestioning supporters of those in office were the only people in sight, leaving the impression that the work is done and the decisions final.

We cannot stay home and hope and wait for change. With strong organizing, coalition building, and the creative drive of activists such as you, the vitally needed changes will become reality. This is why our voices and bodies are needed in the streets with the Arc of Justice Coalition on January 21, 2013, to recommit ourselves to creating a society based on justice for all.

Join us and let’s organize together! Please email us at arcofjustice2013@gmail.com and we will contact you with additional details. We welcome your assistance and support in outreach, media, logistical preparations, planning, and database building.

And SO important: Please forward this invitation to others people and organizations you know who may want to join us.

Let us work together to realize the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

Listen to our theme song at http://www.amycarolwebb.com/music-73.html . The lyrics begin “I will stand with you, will you stand with me? We will be the change that we hope to see” .

We hope that you will join us on January 21st in our continued effort to make Dr. King’s prophetic quote a reality.

Yours in peace,

Co-Chairs:

Malachy Kilbride
Peace & social justice activist affiliated with the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance, Northern Virginians for Peace & Justice, Witness Against Torture, and the Bradley Manning Support Network

Joan Stallard
CodePink DC Coordinator, MoveOn DC Coordinator, Move to Amend, Coalition on Corporate Power, Bradley Manning Support Network, WILPF

Our email: arcofjustice2013@gmail.com

Or follow us on Twitter: @arcofjustice13

Activists to CIA: Stop Your Drone Kilings!

On Saturday, December 8, 2013, many people from the DC area gathered outside the CIA headquarters in Northern Virginia to demand an end to immoral U.S. program of murder-by-drone in Pakistan and other countries.

People representing the following groups, together with others, expressed their opposition to the US drone program:

• Code Pink
• Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House
• Episcopal Peace Fellowship-DC
• Langley Hill Friends Meeting
• Northern Virginians for Peace & Justice
• Peace Action Montgomery (MD)
• Pax Christi (several DC area chapters)

Stop Killer Drones!
Code Pink and the drone replica from Know Drones

Workers arriving at CIA HQ encounter protesters

STOP! drone bombings in Pakistan

Pax Christi: War is the not the answer!

Drone Strikes: Illegal Immoral Counter-Productive

At the corner of CIA and Extrajudicial Execution

See the full portfolio of excellent photos of the December 8, 2013, drone protest outside CIA headquarters.

Join this historic resistance to U.S. program 

of murder-by-drone when the protests continue

on January 12, 2013, at 10 a.m. at CIA headquarters.

November 10 in McLean: Mobilization Against Drones

The US Military and the Central Intelligence Agency are killing innocent people, committing extrajudicial executions, and violating international law with the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, DRONES, that are destroying the lives of people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Iraq. The use of killer drones is increasing and spreading to other countries. We must hold our government accountable for these acts of terror. Come out and oppose these aerial death squads. Please make a banner so that all our citizens can begin to understand what is being wrought in our names.

Join us outside CIA HQ:

Where: 900 block, Dolly Madison Boulevard, McLean, Virginia
When: 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, November 10, 2012

Organized by: Pax Christi, Pentagon Area and Northern Virginians for Peace and Justice

Contact:
Jack McHale, Pax Christi
tel: 703 772 0635
email: jackmchale51@gmail.com

Discussing the Deep Issues of Drones in Charlottesville with Nick Mottern from Know Drones

The description below of a recent public education event in Charlottesville about drones is excerpted from Challenging Dronotopia, by Nick Mottern, director of the Know Drones project. (Download the full "Challenging Dronotopia" report.)

by Nick Mottern

On October 5, two weeks after we returned to New York from our trip to Ohio and Pennsylvania, George Guerci and I drove to Charlottesville, Virginia, to give presentations, that evening at Random Row Books and the next day at a gathering of the Southern Life Community, a congregation of members of Catholic Worker houses and friends living in Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee.

George Guerci with the drone replica
at an earlier stop on the tour.

We arrived in Charlottesville at about 5:30 pm and set up the drone replica in Random Row, a used books store situated in a large, high-ceilinged former garage in the downtown. The store had a central open, meeting space, with several rows of folding chairs set up for the speaking event. Around the walls and at the edges of the meeting space were shelves holding some choice books, many written in the decades of ferment and personal and political revelation extending from the 1960s to the present. When we arrived, the store was infused with evening light, and it had a familiarity and peacefulness that I found very welcoming and comforting. It spoke of taking time to read and reflect, of reflecting one’s history and human history. It had a calm that I don’t find in electronically generated words and images.

After having a small meal at Revolutionary Soup, a few blocks away, George and I returned to the bookstore and began to greet the audience arriving for our talk.

By 7:30, about 50 people had gathered, and I began my presentation, which lasted for about 20 minutes, leaving nearly an hour for Q & A.

This was a group that I assumed would have considerable information about drones, in part because of the work in Charlottesville on militarism by David Swanson, who manages www.WarIsACrime.org and is the author of War is a Lie and other books. Despite this, there were questions that demonstrated ignorance of basic facts about drones that had become familiar as we travelled.

I realized again, as I have over and over, how little information is commonly held about drones, even as their use and development soars. I also was struck, again, by how important it is to be able to talk to people face to face about a complex subject and to have the opportunity to respond to questions.

A commonly asked question that we got at Random Row is: How is a drone any different from a fighter plane killing someone? These are responses that we have given:

• Drones are able to follow individual movements of individuals and groups for hours on end. Because of this monitoring, drones are able to kill when a fighter plane might not because of the normal jets’ relatively limited time over the target area and its speed. The drone makes killing easier, too easy, leading to routine violations of the section of international law that requires judicial findings of guilt before sentences are imposed. Of course there is the question of whether the US has the right to impose any penalty in another nation.


• Attacks by piloted jet aircraft against individuals in sovereign nations are likely to be viewed as a type of armed aggression that is more politically and legally unacceptable objectionable than drone attacks. At this point, drones are flying in gray area of international law, which has not kept up with drone technology with respect to drone killing, terror generated by drone over-flights or violation of personal and group privacy.


• Drones enable killing without risk to the lives of pilots and at a somewhat less dollar cost than normal jet aircraft, thus giving the illusion of less political risk to politicians wishing to undertake sustained drone wars and drone intimidation. As drone wars develop, the risks it generates will be more and more apparent. I think perhaps that learning can best be done through questions and answers because the question lays out the pathway of a person’s thinking that one has walk back down to deliver new ideas. This of course helps those listening to follow the same paths. Maybe this is obvious, but it raises a question about our current heavy reliance on the internet for political communication.

One of those in the Random Row audience was a long-time friend and colleague of mine, Carroll Houle, a former Maryknoll priest who now lives in Charlottesville. He and I worked together at Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, and we travelled to Africa together several times between 1985 and 1990 as part of our work on the Africa Peace Tour, an ecumenical project to provide information to the US public on apartheid and US military involvement in Africa.

Carroll has done a lot of work to help young people, particularly in Kenya, where he lived many years for Maryknoll. In the Q&A Carroll suggested that we describe the drone war, as well as other current wars, as war on children. A recent report by the U.K.-based organization of health professionals, Medact, entitled "Drones: the physical and psychological implications of a global theatre of war", speaks to the impact of drones on women and children:

Women are disproportionately affected by drones. What little control they have over their lives is further eroded by a weapon they know could strike at any time. Their lives and those of the children they try to protect are under constant threat. While men can sublimate their grief and anger to some degree by becoming fighters – one of the terrible consequences of drone warfare – women have no such outlet. And if their menfolk are killed in a drone strike, they may have to endure the continuing presence of the drone just overhead.

"I am your sister, you are my brother"
Andrea Gallagher, Chicago, IL
from the AFSC Windows and Mirrors Exhibition

To read the rest of the report, download "Challenging Dronotopia: A report of the 2012 Know Drones Tour to Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia and suggestions for further action" from the Know Drones website.

Additional excerpts available at:
No Drones Ohio: Drone Jobs, Drone Bubble, Drone Distraction
No Drones Network: Challenging Dronotopia: Part One - What We Experienced On the Road

* * * * *

"I am your sister, you are my brother" by Andrea Gallagher, from Windows and Mirrors: Reflections on the War in Afghanistan

Charlottesville Op-Ed: Drone Users "Playing God"?

In an opinion piece published August 5, in the Charlottesville Daily Progress, U.S. Army veteran and peace activist Evan Knappenberger said, "it is obvious to me that the allure of drones is that of playing God: the promise of omniscience and the lust of being able to hurl thunderbolts at anything and everything."

Knappenberger emphasizes the trauma associated with attacks -- such as those carried out by drones -- and makes the connection to the 9/11 attacks. "Are U.S. drone attacks, most of which are carried out from offices in Nevada and Northern Virginia, not the very embodiment of the terror which was inflicted upon the New Yorkers in 2001?" he asks.

Knappenberger is an Iraq war veteran and board member of the Charlottesville Center for Peace & Justice, as well as acting president of Veterans for Peace Chapter 962, Charlottesville. In his article, Knappenberger refers to the "RQ-7 Shadow unmanned aerial vehicle [drone] that haunted a year of my life in Taji, Iraq." (Read more about DoD basing plans for RQ-7 Shadow at Fort Pickett and Fort AP Hill in Virginia.)

For full article, see "The ethical problem that drone warfare poses" in The Daily Progress.