Spring Days of Drone Action at BEALE AFB

APRIL 1ST- Join Veterans for Peace, CODEPINK, and "Nonviolent Warrior" Elliott Adams for a demonstration at Beale AFB followed by a speech by Adams in Grass Valley.

Elliott Adams served as a paratrooper in Vietnam, Japan, Korea, and Alaska.  He now utilizes international and domestic law as a means to end our war culture. He has served as a nonviolence and social movement trainer  for Fellowship of Reconciliation, School Of Americas Watch, Peacemakers of Schoharie, Student Environmental Action Coalition, Veterans For Peace, and War Resisters League. He currently works with the Meta Peace Team, and is co-chair of Creating a Culture of Peace. Adams now travels throughout the country and internationally in his peacemaking work. He has testified before the US Congressional Judiciary Committee and the Canadian Parliament, and has been arrested repeatedly for the cause of peace. In  2013 he engaged in an 80-day fast of 300 calories or less in solidarity with the Guantanamo Bay Prisoners and the Pelican Bay Hunger Strikes.  Most recently he was imprisoned for 8 days following a nonviolent anti-drone action at Hancock Air Force Base in New York. 

 Past National President of Veterans For Peace and international peace activist Elliott Adams will join locals for an anti-drone vigil at 2:30 PM at the Wheatland Gate of Beale Air Force Base at 3960 S. Beale Rd.  Adams is currently touring the country,  and will speak about the importance of banning drone attacks, stopping all war, and building a culture of peace. Some supporters are meeting Adams at the Brick coffeehouse at 1  p.m., then joining a car caravan out to the demonstration at Beale. For directions and to find out more click here.   

Later that evening, Elliott Adams will speak in Grass Valley on "International Law, Drone Warfare, and Strategies for Peace," following brief presentations by local anti-drone activists.  The program will take place at 7 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Community of the Mountains, 246 S. Church Street.  Find out event details here.

APRIL 18th-19th- International peace activist Kathy Kelly to join Good Friday Peace Vigil at Beale on April 18 and to speak in Grass Valley on the following day

Kathy Kelly is coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, a campaign to end U.S. military and economic warfare.  In 2011, Kathy Kelly was a passenger on "The Audacity of Hope," the U.S. boat in the international flotilla to break the illegal occupation of Gaza.  She has taken nine trips to Afghanistan. She has joined activists in the United States to protest drone warfare outside of military bases in Nevada, New York, and Missouri. She is author of Other Lands Have Dreams. Kathy has worked nonviolently on a range of peace and social justice issues.  Her arrests include draft board actions, opposition to U.S. support of the Contras and other Central American death squads, crossing the line at Fort Benning's military training school, and a number of anti-nuclear protests at various sites, including planting corn on nuclear missile sites. She was also a member of the Gulf Peace Team, an international encampment of peacemakers at the Iraq-Saudi border in 1990. In 1995 she served for three months as a member of Christian Peacemaker Teams in Haiti.  She was one of the founders of Voices in the Wilderness, which broke the sanctions against Iraq by bringing in relief supplies and medicines to children and families.  She and other members lived in Baghdad throughout the 2003 "shock and awe" bombing.  They have also lived alongside people in war zones in Gaza, Lebanon, Bosnia, and Nicaragua. She has been nominated more than once for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Good Friday, April 18, 3 to 5 p.m, Kathy Kelly at Beale:  Kathy Kelly, a world renowned peace activist, will join anti-drone demonstrators at Beale for a Good Friday prayer vigil that will include songs, prayers, Holy Communion, and words from Kathy. Several people will attempt to deliver a letter with "A Call from People of Faith to Stop Drone Killings." This will take place at the main (Schneider) gate of Beale, at 4875 N. Beale Road. 

Saturday, April 19, 1 to 2:30 p.m.  Kathy Kelly will speak in Grass Valley on "Seeing through the Smokescreen:  War and Peace in the 21st Century."   The program will be held at 1 p.m. at Sierra Mountain Coffee Roasters/Tomes at 671 Maltmann in Grass Valley.  This is being sponsored by Earth Justice Ministries, the Peace and Justice Center of Nevada County, Occupy Beale, and other local organizations.

MAY 17TH-27TH- Join CODEPINK for a 10 day Walk to Peace from San Francisco to Beale AFB. More details coming soon. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR PARTICIPATION ON ONE OR MORE DAYS.

Excellent article in the Sacramento Bee regarding the ongoing demonstrations at Beale.

The Spring Days of Drone Action Continue! CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION ABOUT EVENTS IN CALIFORNIA AND WORLDWIDE!

Spring Days of Drone Action 2014

Petraeus called out for war crimes on the Stanford campus

From Toby Blomé of Code Pink:

"We live in a very surreal world, where a 4 Star General, David Petraeus, who is responsible for some of the bloodiest and most brutal human rights violations against the people of Iraq and Afghanistan is invited to speak at one of our most prestigious universities.

David Petraeus, war criminal

  Gen. Petraeus helped train, orchestrate and protect the brutal paramilitary death squads that did America's worst crimes in those countries, including the torture and killing of thousands.  Oh, and he also helped expand President Obama's secret drone wars, including popularizing the "double tapping" tactic of sending secondary drone strikes into an area already hit, killing anyone that happens to be trying to give aid to the injured survivors of our murderous hellfire missiles.  Oh, and let us not forget that he was head of the CIA at the time when the bodies of 16 year old Tariq Aziz and his 12 year old cousin were turned to ash by a U.S. drone hellfire missile while they were driving on a highway by themselves on the way to play soccer.

16 year-old Tariq Aziz, killed by a drone in Pakistan.
 One of Gen. Petraeus's many innocent victims.

  Why were they targeted by the CIA?  Tariq had the courage to vow to use a camera to photograph the civilian victims of our drone war in Pakistan.  Mr. Petraeus was also in charge when Abdulrahman Al-awlaki, a 16 year old U.S. citizen and non-combatant was killed in Yemen by U.S. drone while sitting in a cafe with 5 or 6 other youth who were also killed in the attack that day.

Stanford anti-war students invited CodePink and World Can't Wait to a protest outside the event location.

"Activists brought great visual displays and signage to break the
 silence and deliver the truth to the public entering, reminding
 them of the real horrors and crimes that bloody the
 General's hands." -Toby Blomé 

"Dear Petraeus,  Funerals, weddings, parties, and tribal council meetings
 are NOT terrorists cells.  Stop Bombing Them!"

"Four CODEPINK activists, Diana, Charlotte, Fred and myself, participated.  I chose to cover up my "PINK" in order to indiscreetly get inside...We did ultimately get in, but were kept "isolated" in an upper tier balcony, with the very watchful eyes of the campus police officer nearby, yet still close enough to be heard by Petraeus on the stage below, if one chose to speak their mind. There was about 50 minutes of ...misinformation and lies... The most difficult moment was hearing the disingenuous general speak about "truth" and "integrity". At that point I needed to get my emesis basin nearby. (vomit bucket)  But it also helped me prepare for what I came for:  speaking truth to power."

"Petraeus is responsible for torture...PROSECUTE!"

"As I indiscreetly pulled off my green cover to expose my prideful pink,  the watchful gaze of the campus police looked over. I stood up tall, and spoke in the loudest voice I could muster, without screaming:

'General Petraeus,  You are a 4 Star War Criminal.

You should be arrested for the torture and killing of thousands of Iraqi and Afghan people.

Your drone machines are terror in the sky.

Your death squads and special forces are terror on the ground.

Stop killing so that the 1% can profit from stolen resources.

War Criminals stay off our campuses.

Stanford Students Wake Up and learn the truth.'

"Fortunately the campus police officer was very gentle, as he slowly escorted me out of the building.  There still remains a little bit of democracy in our country.  I wasn't manhandled and brutalized as our dear Medea was recently in Cairo, or worse, I wasn't killed on the streets as activists are in many of the countries we give military aid to.  Maybe, just maybe, the officer himself was pleased that a little bit of truth was told that afternoon."  

"Thank you Emma's Revolution and Laura Zweig for providing a joyful and inspiring evening of music and dance performance later that evening, that helped us to detoxify from the Petraeus propaganda machine. I feel very blessed to be surrounded by the love and commitment to peace exuded by my CODEPINK sisters and brothers!

Speaking of blessed, Petraeus said in a Meet the Press interview (THIS IS NO LIE):

Watch him in this 45 second video: 

'Afghanistan is blessed with the presence of what are trillions of dollars, with an 's' on the end, trillions of dollars of minerals, if and only if...to enable you to get it out of the country...'

Dear Petraeus:  I feel blessed to be standing on the side of peace and justice!

Always Marching Forward,  

Toby Blome

S.F. CODEPINK"

"Arrest Petraeus for war crimes."

Demonstrators were a highly visible presence on the Stanford
 quad, visible to those attending Petraeus's speech.

Photos by Curt Wechsler of World Can't Wait.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE NATIONWIDE SPRING DAYS OF DRONE ACTION, INCLUDING EVENTS IN YOUR STATE!

Spring Days of Drone Action 2014

Fly a kite, not a drone; at Beale AFB 3/24-3/25

Join OCCUPY BEALE AFB March 24-25 for their Monthly NO DRONES PEACE ENCAMPMENT. Present this month will be CodePink, Veterans for Peace, and activists from throughout Northern California.

Afghan Peace Volunteers on a cliff overlooking Kabul.One Afghan Peace Volunteer said:

"When I fly kites I feel so happy and free, I wish to fly

 in the sky like a kite without borders."

The Afghan Peace Volunteers are asking peace makers around the world to fly kites this month in Solidarity for Peace and a Drone Free World.  Join us at Occupy Beale AFB, as we color up the roadways into the drone base with beautiful colorful kites......modeling for the military the best alternatives to violence....PEACE!

Watch the Fly Kites Not Drones video recently made in Kabul

BRING:  

-A Colorful Kite with or without a message. 

Here's how to make a simple kite:  http://www.my-best-kite.com/diamond-kites.html

-COLORFUL CLOTHES to WEAR.......WE WANT COLOR  (Peace is Colorful & JOYFUL & FUN!)

-A Sky Blue Scarf:   www.TheBlueScarf.org

-Friends with colorful kites!

-Other beautiful colorful things to color up our "Occupy Beale for Peace Kite Day"

More info on kite flying and Afghanistan:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/14/world/asia/14iht-kites.4.8751433.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Video - Kite Runners Return in Afghanistan - WSJ.com

Schedule:

Mar. 24, Monday, 3pm-5pm,  Wheatland Gate, S. Beale Rd. and Ostrom Rd. Mon. Night Encampment, Main Gate, N. Beale Rd.

Mar. 25, Tuesday, 6-8am, Wheatland Gate

                                             

For more info./carpooling, 

Nevada/Yuba County:  Shirley  941-320-0291 slogood481@hotmail.com

Sacramento Area:  Barry  916-284-0944,  bbinks@comcast.net

Bay Area:  Toby  510-215-5974,  ratherbenyckeling@comcast.net

Directions To Wheatland Gate (PM & AM vigils),  

At intersection of So. Beale Rd. and Ostrom Rd.:

From the North  (Chico/Marysville):

Take Hwy. 70 south from Marysville, merge to left onto Hwy. 65.

Take Ostrom Rd. to left until it meets So. Beale Rd.  Turn left on So. Beale Rd. and park car to side of Rd.  If you miss the Ostrom Rd. turn off, continue south on Hwy 65, and turn left on So. Beale Rd. (marked with Beale AFB sign).

From the South (Sacramento/SF Bay Area)

Please check out these directions on pdf below, as getting onto Ostrom Rd. is a bit tricky from Hwy 70.

Directions to Main Gate (Mon. nite encampment area) :  

Take I-5 north of Sacramento, just north of I-80, take exit 525B to transfer to Hwy 99, continue  12.5. mi. and stay right to transfer onto Hwy 70, continue about 20 miles, exit at Feather River Blvd., just after the Erle Rd. exit. Do not take the 1st Feather River Blvd. which is about 10 miles earlier!  (note sign to Beale AFB)  Turn right at ramp, You’ll be facing Burger King, across the street, a good bathroom stop.  If you don’t cross the intersection, turn immediately right at the light (Lindhurst Ave.) and left at 2nd light to get on N. Beale Rd.   Continue on N. Beale Rd. for over 6 miles.  It dead ends at the Gate Entrance.  Plenty of parking on left side of Rd. near the gate.

Join us in uniting for Peace,

Shirley, Flora, Barry, Michael, Pamela, Janie, Fred, John, Catherine, MacGregor, Chris and Toby

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE NATIONWIDE SPRING DAYS OF ACTION AGAINST DRONE TERROR, CLICK HERE!

Clergy, Veterans Among Five Arrested Ash Wednesday at U.S. Killer Drone Protest at Beale Air Base; Ashes Spread Memorializing Children Killed by Drones

MARYSVILLE/BEALE AFB (3/5/14, 8:31 a.m.) – Five people – including three members of the clergy, and two veterans/one from World War II – were arrested during an Ash Wednesday service around 8 a.m. at the gates of  Beale Air Force Base, site of the surveillance drone Global Hawk.

CLICK HERE TO SEE VIDEO OF THE ARRESTS

Participants, who were charged with trespassing, said they were risked arrested to "memorialize" the children killed by the U.S. government's fleet of killer drones. Beale's drones perform reconnaissance work for U.S. Predator Drones.

The demonstrators spread ashes memorializing those of children killed by U.S. drones overseas.

The five arrested included: Rev. Sharon Delgado, Nevada City;
Rev. Elizabeth Griswold, Davis/Sacramento; Reverend Dr. Gerald O.
(Jerry) Pedersen, an 89-year-old WW II  U.S. Marine, retired Lutheran
 pastor, Sacramento; Flora Rogers, Marysville and
 Michael Kerr, a veteran, Bay Point.

Rev. Pedersen was on the Battleship USS Missouri that accepted the Japanese surrender Sept. 2, 1945.

It is the fourth arrest at Beale AFB in about a year. Nine people have been convicted in U.S. Federal Court, and another trial is set for next month.

Wednesday's Ash Wednesday service included a call to faithfulness and action, songs, prayers, scripture, Holy Communion (open to all), and the use of ashes to symbolize repentance and to acknowledge our mortality and interrelatedness with the whole web of life.

Some carried white crosses with drawings memorializing children killed by US drones.  

"We issued a call to repentance for: the harm done to the Indigenous people who used to live where Beale is now, the harm being done to Mother Earth by our building and deploying high-tech weapons and weapons of mass destruction, the harm done to families and communities who suffer cutbacks in public services while billions are spent for the military, the overall harm caused by the global reach of US military power," said Sharon Delgado, one of the clergy arrested. She was also arrested last year at a protest at Beale.

The arrests received coverage on several local news outlets including KCRA, a local news station, and YubaNet.

Click here to learn more about the upcoming nationwide Spring Days of Action against drone warfare and surveillance

We Will Show You Fear in a Handful of Dust | 2014

“From late Neolithic times in the Near East, right down to our own day, two technologies have recurrently existed side by side: one authoritarian, the other democratic, the first system-centered, immensely powerful, but inherently unstable, the other [hu]man-centered, relatively weak, but resourceful and durable.” - Lewis Mumford, Authoritarian and Democratic Technics

                              

"We Will Show You Fear in a Handful of Dust" is a public sculpture with related artwork and ephemera created by Finishing School, a Los Angeles-based artist collective in collaboration with artists Nadia Afghani and Matt Fisher. The sculpture is a full-scale model of a MQ-1 Predator Drone. The drone substrate will be fabricated with a subtractive 3d CAD process. The public is invited to the Occidental College campus in Los Angeles (March 14-16, 2014) to help FS and collaborators with the application of architectural-grade mud to the surface of the drone using age-old participatory construction methods and traditions. In the dichotomy between the drone's form and its surface, the sculpture opens a powerful discussion of technology and contemporary foreign policy while inviting multiple propositions about cultural legacies and possible resistances in the era of pervasive global surveillance and warfare.

March 14-16, 2014 // Drone Building Workshop // 10AM-Sunset
March 19, 2014 // Reception // 5-9PM

"We Will Show You Fear in a Handful of Dust" is made possible by the Wanlass Artist in Residence Program, which is supported by the Kathryn Caine Wanlass Foundation. 
Support for this project also provided by the Remsen Bird Fund. 


To learn more about the upcoming Spring Days of Action against drone kiling and surveillance, CLICK HERE!