Monday, April 14, 2014

Spring Days of Drone Action at Beale Air Force Base

For three years activists have been gathering monthly at Beale AFB, near Marysville to protest the use of Drones by our military!
Recent demonstration at Beale. Come support Shirley Osgood on 4/16
at her trial for civil disobedience at Beale 

This month, Veterans For Peace invites you to join the protest.
Monday, April 28, 3-5 PM and/or
Tuesday, April 29, 6-8 AM 

The wages of drone warfare: dozens killed and
 wounded in Yemen in December, 2013

Protest actions will take place at these gates:
Wheatland Gate: 3960 S. Beale Rd
Main Gate: 4875 N. Beale Road 
Doolitle Gate: Hammonton Smartville Rd at Doolittle Drive
"The Worst Part of Being Awake Is Hearing The Children Cry."


See Occupy Beale AFB for maps and directions, or contact:
Barry Binks: bbinks@comcast.net, (916)284-0944!
Toby Blomé:: ratherbenyckeling@comcast.net (510) 215-5974! Shirley Osgood: slogood481@hotmail.com (941)320-0291 




The nationwide Spring Days of
 Drone Action Continue!
 CLICK HERE to learn more!

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Children have no place in war

Bay Area activists say NO to "Monsters in the Sky."

Weekly vigils against remote killings of civilians continued in downtown San Francisco yesterday outside one busy entrance to the city's subway system (Montgomery Street BART station).  Inspired by photographer Noor Behran's documentation of brutal U.S. drone strikes on the people of Pakistan, demonstrators challenged passersby to confront the human cost of their government's targeted assassination policy.


Every picture tells a story.

On Valentine's Day 2009, just weeks after President Obama assumed office, a CIA drone attack struck a village in South Waziristan. Approximately 30 people died in the bombing, including
Noor Syed:

Untitled-27_142.jpg
Maezol Khan and his son were sleeping in the courtyard of their home when a missile from a drone struck a nearby car. As a result of the explosion, a missile part flew into the courtyard, killing Maezol's eight-year-old son.

At the funeral, the boy's mother was out of her mind with grief and began coloring the boy's face with her lipstick, perhaps to restore the color of life to his waxen features.




On August 21, 2009 Syed Wali Shah was killed in an air strike on Dande Darpa Khel (Pakistan):

Untitled-38_45.jpg
By the time photographer Noor Behram reached Bismullah Khan's mud house, partially destroyed in the strike, Khan's youngest son had already died. Behram watched as the boy's body was laid out on a prayer rug, a "very small" one, in preparation for his funeral. "The body was whole," Behram recalls. "He was found dead." The villagers wrapped a bandage around the boy's head, even though they had no chance to save his life. Behram doesn't know who the target of the Dande Darpa Khel attack was. ("You'd have to ask the CIA that," he says.) But he observed people's anger as they prepared bodies for burial and cleared the wreckage. "The people were extremely angry. They were talking and shouting against the U.S. for the attack," Behram says.

We can't begin to name all those murdered by your government's weapon of choice; the above represent a handful of hundreds identified. Death by these "monsters in the sky" continues to escalate under the Obama administration.

Our last photo identified Naeemullah, wounded at Datta Khel on October 18, 2010:

Untitled-30_119.jpg
Pakistan's Express Tribune reported a drone attacked "two suspected militant hideouts" near Mirin Shah. Photographer Noor Behram never saw the scene. He headed instead to a near-by hospital, where he heard residents had frantically driven one of the strike's victims, a boy of about 10 or 11. Naeemullah was said to be injured after a missile struck the house next door. Shrapnel and debris travelled into Naeemullah's house, wounding him in "various parts of his body," Behram says. "You can't see his back, but his back was wounded by missile pieces and burns." 

An hour after Behram took this picture, Naeemullah died of his injuries. 

Join CodePinkWorld Can't WaitKnow Drones,
 Occupy SF Action Council and others every week,
 same time (5:30 pm) and place (northwest
 corner of Montgomery and Market Streets) to
 say NO to the President's assassination program.


Reposted from FireJohnYoo.net

The Spring Days of Drone Action are just beginning. CLICK HERE to find events in your area!
Spring Days of Drone Action 2014!


Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Write or Call Your Member of Congress Today: Make the U.S. Come Clean on Drone Killings

[UPDATE: June 5, 2014 - Support for the "Come Clean on Drone Killings" bill is growing! There are now 9 co-sponsors, in addition to the original 2 sponsors -- for a total of four (4) sponsors from California alone.  See the list below - where does your representative stand?)


In the past, we've noted on this site that California's congressional delegation includes a lot of adherents to the drones caucus. (See California Congressional Delegation: Drones 'R' Us!)

But today, people protesting drones are contacting their representatives to encourage support for H.R.4372: the Targeted Lethal Force Transparency Act. If passed, the bill will require the Obama administration to come clean about the killings it has carried out using drones -- killings that, up until now, the administration has been able to pretend don't exist.

So now's the time: write or call your member of Congress today. 

To determine what district you live in, go to http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

To see an example of a constituent letter, see An Open Letter to Congressman Mike Quigley on H.R.4372: the Targeted Lethal Force Transparency Act


California Congressional Delegation

(Members of the Progressive Caucus are presumed to lean in favor of the bill and are marked Progressive Caucus; members of the Drones Caucus are presumed to lean against the bill and are marked Drones Caucus. As for those who are members of both . . . ?)

CA01 - Doug LaMalfa - 202-225-3076 email
CA02 - Jared Huffman - (202) 225-5161 email (Progressive Caucus)
CA03 - John Garamendi - (202) 225-1880 email
CA04 - Tom McClintock - (202) 225-2511 email
CA05 - Mike Thompson - (202) 225-3311 email
CA06 - Doris Matsui - (202) 225-7163 email
CA07 - Ami Bera - (202) 225-5716 email
CA08 - Paul Cook - 202.225.5861 email
CA09 - Jerry McNerney - (202) 225-1947 email
CA10 - Jeff Denham - (202) 225-4540 email
CA11 - George Miller - (202) 225-2095 email (Progressive Caucus)
CA12 - Nancy Pelosi - (202) 225-4965 email
 
CA13 - Barbara Lee - (202) 225-2661 email (Progressive Caucus) CO-SPONSOR - 5/7/2014
CA14 - Jackie Speier - (202) 225-3531 email CO-SPONSOR - 5/1/2014

CA15 - Eric Swalwell - (202) 225-5065 email
CA16 - Jim Costa - 202-225-3341 email
CA17 - Michael Honda - (202) 225-2631 email (Progressive Caucus)
CA18 - Anna Eshoo - (202) 225-8104 email
CA19 - Zoe Lofgren - (202) 225-3072 email
CA20 - Sam Farr - (202) 225-2861 email (Progressive Caucus)
CA21 - David Valadao - 202-225-4695 email
CA22 - Devin Nunes - (202) 225-2523 email (Drones Caucus)
CA23 - Kevin McCarthy - (202) 225-2915 email
CA24 - Lois Capps - (202) 225-3601 email (Drones Caucus)
CA25 - Howard McKeon - 202) 225-1956 email (Drones Caucus)
CA26 - Julia Brownley - 202-225-5811 email
CA27 - Judy Chu - (202) 225-5464 email (Progressive Caucus)

CA28 - Adam Schiff - (202) 225-4176 email ORIGINAL SPONSOR

CA29 - Tony Cárdenas - 202-225-6131 email
CA30 - Brad Sherman - (202) 225-5911 email
CA31 - Gary Miller - (202) 225-3201 email
CA32 - Grace Napolitano - (202) 225-5256 email
CA33 - Henry Waxman - (202) 225-3976 email
CA34 - Xavier Becerra - (202) 225-6235 email (Progressive Caucus)
CA35 - Gloria Negrete McLeod - 202-225-6161 email
CA36 - Raul Ruiz - (202) 225-5330 email
CA37 - Karen Bass - (202) 225-7084 email (Progressive Caucus)
CA38 - Linda Sánchez - (202) 225-6676 email
CA39 - Edward Royce - (202) 225-4111 email
CA40 - Lucille Roybal-Allard - (202) 225-1766 email (Progressive Caucus)
CA41 - Mark Takano - (202) 225-2305 email (Progressive Caucus) (Drones Caucus)
CA42 - Ken Calvert - (202) 225-1986 email
CA43 - Maxine Waters - (202) 225-2201 email (Progressive Caucus)
CA44 - Janice Hahn - (202) 225-8220 email (Progressive Caucus)
CA45 - John Campbell - (202) 225-5611 email (Drones Caucus)
CA46 - Loretta Sanchez - (202) 225-2965 email
 
CA47 - Alan Lowenthal - (202) 225-7924 email (Progressive Caucus) (Drones Caucus) CO-SPONSOR - 5/7/2014

CA48 - Dana Rohrabacher - (202) 225-2415 email (Drones Caucus)
CA49 - Darrell Issa - 202-225-3906 email (Drones Caucus)
CA50 - Duncan Hunter - (202) 225-5672 email
CA51 - Juan Vargas - 202-225-8045 email
CA52 - Scott Peters - 202-225-0508 email
CA53 - Susan Davis - (202) 225-2040 email

[SEE: hub page for all Resources to SUPPORT the "Come Clean on Drone Killings" Act (Schiff/Jones HR 4372: the Targeted Lethal Force Transparency Act)]

Related posts

First Reps. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ) and Keith Ellison (D-MN) called the U.S. on the carpet for dodging the call from the international community to come clean about its drone killings. Then Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Walter Jones (R-NC) submitted a bill calling for drone transparency. So ... are we finally going to get the truth?

(See REAL Progressives Demand that the U.S. Come Clean on Drone Killings)


A 2013 U.N. report makes it clear that the U.S. has to report fully on all its drone attacks.

(See 2014: The Year of Transparency (for U.S. Drone Use)?)









The reason the Administration is hiding truth about drones is that they don't have a satisfactory answer for how decisions about drone strikes are made.  As we have known all along, we need the public to think about how crummy the whole drone program is, and then they will be ready to be on our side. The best way to get them really thinking is to shine a spotlight on the secrecy, evasiveness, and deceit involved in the U.S. drone program.

(See Drone Killings: Come Clean )

Friday, April 4, 2014

Spring Days of Drone Action 2014:

Former National President of Veterans For Peace Arrested at Beale
 
Eliot Adams as he is handcuffed outside Beale AFB
As reported by local news outlets, Elliott Adams, past National President of Veterans For Peace and international peace activist, was arrested during a nonviolent anti-drone action at Beale Air Force Base on Tuesday, April 1.  Adams lives in New York and is currently on a nationwide tour, speaking out about the importance of banning drone attacks, stopping war, and building a culture of peace.  He has also been conducting Unarmed Peacekeeping Skills Training & Strategy Sessions around the country with the Meta Peace Team, whose goal is "pursuing peace through active nonviolence."
 
Eliot Adams, happy to be engaging in civil
 disobedience to protest drone terror.
Also arrested was Adam's friend and fellow
 Veteran for Peace member Richard Gilchrist.
  Gilchrist served in the army in Vietnam
 and has also travelled around the country speaking and taking action for peace. 


Adams and Gilchrist walked across a line onto base property and were detained for an hour.  Other demonstrators, including several other Veterans for Peace, stood in a downpour until the two were released.  Later that evening Adams spoke in Grass Valley about "International Law, Drone Warfare, and Strategies for Peace."
Beale is home of the Global Hawk Drone, a surveillance drone that demonstrators claim helps in the targeting of Predator and Reaper armed drones.  Increasing numbers of demonstrators have been arrested at Beale over the past several months.  On March 5, Ash Wednesday, arrests included several members of the clergy.  Other actions are scheduled for later this month. 

At this April Fool's day demonstration,
 a sign that seemed too good to be true...
Sadly was.

Find out more about Beale actions
 at
 OccupyBealeAir Force Base
The Spring Days of Drone Action are just gearing up nationwide! Click here to find out more!
Spring Days of Drone Action 2014